Sidelined

Whether it's because of injury, illness or just life in general, when you have been metaphorically benched from the activities that you love, for any period of time, it can be really frustrating.  Think Sidney Crosby and his suspiciously long absence from the Penguins line up.  Maybe he really is THAT concussed, maybe it is just his GM trying to make a statement to the NHL, either way it can't be easy for arguably, the best player, in the league to sit on the sideline and watch.  All athletes, whatever the sport, elite or not, can relate to the feelings that come with not being able to get in on the action. Feelings of being unproductive, useless, frustrated, angry, worried, anxious swirl in your head. Not being able to work towards a goal you have set for yourself because of circumstances you couldn't avoid can be hard on the psyche. 

Over the remembrance day weekend I went home with one intention, to meet my two new beautiful nieces, but I did so much more.  I gorged like a biggest loser during temptation week, ingested sugar like I was a Dr. Shepard on Private Practice getting her next fix and drank like a recovering alcoholic falling off the wagon on Celebrity Rehab.  The negligence to my health wouldn't have been so bad but mix that with seven kids all fighting seasonal colds, late and/or sleepless nights, lots of running around, driving for a total of 18 hours and absolutely no working out and Voila you have yourself a recipe for germ filled disaster.   I am border line mad at myself and definitely not proud of my choices and now I am paying.  Shortly after starting the trek home I realized that I was coming down with all the classic symptoms of a common head cold.  Sinus congestion, chest rattling cough, splitting migraines and achy muscles.  And just like that my short weekend hiatus from my "plan to pull up" has been unexpectedly extended. 

I can't beat my self up about getting sick, people are bound to get sick, it happens all the time.   You wake up one morning and you feel like you have been hit by a truck.  There are those days when just the idea of getting out of bed  makes grab a family size NyQuil from your medicine cabinet and jump back under the covers.   I have been sick before and continued to do what I always do; go to work, take care of my kids, run errands, do chores around the house, I have even gone to the gym to run on the treadmill (BC of course) and made it through the day.  There are ideas out there that working out through your sickness can boost your immune system but there is something about trying to CrossFit while sick that makes me question this school of thought.   The idea of doing a burpee while fighting the flu, hanging upside down to do a handstand push up while dealing with a case of sinus congestion or trying to carry around a box of Kleenex while doing your WOD because your nose won't stop running makes me wonder how good of a workout would you really be getting anyways?

So I sit idle, taking some time to let my body rest and get better but I worry that I might have done quite a number on my progress and am concerned that I have derailed to the point where a pull up is much farther off than just the end of November.  Argh!