Night shifts and shenanigans!

I always knew there were going to be peaks and troughs with my level of motivation and dedication to my rehab, but twenty weeks in, (oh my word, twenty weeks!) I’m forgiving myself for focussing on fun!  My Birthday celebrations were the perfect time to really let my hair down and behave like a loon! At thirty something, I wanted nothing more than for us all to swing about like monkeys in the forest, so to Go Ape we went! It was as good as a gym and agility session and besides which, the most fun I’d had in a very long time!

By the following weekend I was back ‘on it’ with a spin class on Saturday morning and a good swim – obviously followed by Jacuzzi, sauna and steam, don’t be silly, I know my muscles need soothing! But it wasn’t long before the righteous peak in my efforts was followed the long trough. A fortnight of night shifts and generally feeling like a zombie wasn’t conducive to regular attendance at the work gym, nor any physical activity other than eating and sleeping really! It’s all too easy to get grumpy about all your prior efforts feeling like they’re wasted, but they’re not. It just takes a little longer sometimes and hitting the gym when my mind and body are exhausted is pretty much a waste of time. So, I once again put my efforts into doing what makes me happy and catching up with friends and family before the wakeboarding takes over again.

The funny thing is, that now I’m able to physically join in with pretty much any bonkers activity my friends invite me to, I’m doing exercise without realising it! My friend Ria’s Hen Do incorporated surfing, pole dancing, running about and a lot of dancing! Heels are strengthening my knee, not that they’re a physio endorsed means of rehab, but using muscles in a different way certainly feels like a workout. I’ve just realised that the copious amounts of alcohol involved might explain that sense of effortless workout!

Dooms Day

A month had passed since Tom Williams did his benchmark strength tests with me so I was hoping that provided I showed enough strength development, then he’d be booking me in for my brace fitting and getting my ‘back to the water’ timetable planned out. As much as I hadn’t been doing anything like as much formal strengthening in the last fortnight as ideally I’d like, I was pretty confident that things would go well and I’d be heading out for that water and getting my buzz back. I’d been looking forward to this for so so long, I was on the verge of bursting. All was going well, my quads were up 25% and my hamstrings up 10%. He said I was on target and doing really well. Then my summer disintegrated before me. He said I was on target to get on a skate in 4-6 weeks! It was like the rug was pulled from underneath me. The Worlds were out, the Nationals were out, Pro Tour was out. Pretty much my entire season was washed away in one sentence. I lost a season back in 2006 when I broke my leg, the thought of it happening again just made me feel like lead. I was gutted. I missed the Worlds back in 2008, it felt like it just wasn’t to be. What I would give to ride for my country at the Worlds, but not this time. Maybe not ever.

Depression kicked in. The news should have kicked me abruptly up the bum, but instead, I wallowing worse than when I had the accident. The season’s started now, everyone’s out on the water and I’m still not back. So I did the very stupid thing of retail therapy! I took myself off to Westfields to meet a mate and spent silly amounts of money I don’t have on stuff I don’t really need. But for a few hours I felt better. Usually I’d go and take out my frustrations on the cable or crank the fat sacks on the boat, but this was all the release I could manage.

Snapping out of it

So until I got my training mojo back, I just jumped feet first into coaching. Although it’s not the same as riding myself, I can’t deny the buzz I get from helping the girls make that next step and leave a session with a Cheshire cat grin. LDB Sessions, JB Ladies Mornings and Quays Ladies Night put my head back together. I fully snapped out of my silly ‘Kevin the Teenager’ sulk. I realised that as frustrating as it was not being able to ride, sharing in the celebrations of nailing a new trick, was a good second. Sitting on that boat and dock was everything Wide-a-Wake is all about. The community of the female wakeboarders and the atmosphere and fun that it generates is what it’s really all about. I’ll just have to be a little more patient to get back right into the centre of it all again.