Girls can jump, y'all

After the injury, Mireille was surfing all over the net trying to find out as much as possible about knee injuries and recovery.

She found a DVD called Girls Can Jump, which is a program designed specifically for ACL injury prevention in women. However, it's good for anyone -- we're just more vulnerable, of course.

http://www.girlscanjump.com/

We started the program last week and it's going well. All that jumping is good for the confidence.

Warning: it wasn't filmed yesterday (if you know what I mean) and can come off a bit cheesy. But whatever. The exercises are timeless.

I recommend it to anyone who wants to prevent a knee injury.

Run, Mireille, run

It seemend the stars just weren't aligning for us tonight.

We drove all the way to spinning only to find out there were no bikes left... the class was full.

Then -- plan B -- we went to the gym. But the front door wasn't working and we would have had to go all the way around the building to get in. Too much frustration was setting in at that point.

We went home but couldn't just go in and sit on the couch. Not after being told yesterday we had a lot of work left to do in the strength department.

So we laced up our sneakers and went for a run. Just under 5 kms of consecutive running.

At first, the limp was bad. But, after a while, we got the hang of it and the confidence kicked in.

No pain, no swelling. Soreness where we want it: in the quads and hammies.

C'mon, bear. Bring it on.

Tortured by the torture device

Today was our 8 month post-op follow up with the surgeon. And what a disappointment.

The green light for sports rested on a strength test on the Orthotron. Yes, that dreaded machine I wrote about a while back ("Almost 6 months" post).

The machine obviously hates me as much as I hate it.

Why couldn't we test me with some leg presses and hamstring curls? We rock at those.

So, we gotta keep working at it. Will probably revise my gym workout to be even more aggressive.

On the bright side, I am doing fine. The problem is Mr. Quad and Mrs. Hammie. They're just not strong enough, it seems. They're also still a bit smaller than on the other leg. But not that much. I'm really surprised by our results.

Oh well. Gotta listen to the expert.

No news, good news.

Ugh... sorry.

There's just really nothing to report.

Doing the same old strength training exercises and activities. Slowly getting better, as usual.

• I still crack and feel crunchy
• Get stiff when sitting too long
• Am smaller than my right-sided twin
• Not running
• Still numb and sometimes painful when kneeling

It's annoying but doesn't interfere with life or any of the sports I currently do.

Meeting with the surgeon Tuesday. Looking forward to hearing what he has to say...

Because what if I get chased by a bear?

Mireille has been very disciplined throughout this whole process but lagging in one specific area: running.

Running is pretty much the only thing holding us back from being a normal person again.

Sure, we tried a few times but never fully succeeded. What's the point? We don't plan on going back to any running sports until next summer. But, Mireille is starting to think she needs to put more effort into this...

On our last day of physiotherapy, Mireille told her physio she still couldn't quite run. He said: "Do you really need to run? Do you like running?"

I wasn't sure if he was joking or not. I waited. He wasn't joking.

"Of course I need to run!" Mireille exclaimed.

"What if I get chased by a bear?"

True story.

Exercise Update

So what the heck are we doing these days?

Here's how we're getting strong, back in shape and normal again:

• Spinning 2 - 3 times per week. This is really getting the circulation going in the leg and building muscle. Highly recommended and addictive.
• Swimming once per week. This loosens me up quite a bit. I still get stiff from sitting at a desk all work week.
• Gym workout 2 - 3 times per week. For the legs, we do lunges with weights, one or two-legged hamstring curls on exercise ball, deadlifts on Bosu ball with weights, mountain climbers on Bosu ball and step ups with weights.
• Yoga. Every day, usually twice. Highly recommended for body and mind.

With the surgeon's ok, we hope to start subbing on volley-ball teams and taking dance classes in the new year.

Busy, busy!

High heel hiatus

Is being short really that bad?

We went to yet another wedding this past weekend and Mireille faced the oh so important question: What shoes do I wear?

The previous wedding we went to, Mireille sported the heels (I'm talking four inches, here) for the ceremony and then flats for the rest of the evening.

The wedding prior to that one, we wore one-inch heels the whole night.

So what to make of that? At first, it seemed Mireille was anxious to get back in heels and started slow with the one-inch kind. Then, we went all the way with the four inches but they came off pretty quickly. This weekend, we stuck with flats.

This whole injury business has got Mireille embrassing her shortness. Looks like the high heels are going to stay in the closet for a while still.

After all, what's better than a cute ballet flat?