Thursday, January 3, 2013

Gonna miss the view...



My room.
Single room with balcony and bay window onto the ocean.
Sunset at 5-ish just when I finished my classes.
Seriously, would shower with the door open to admire the view!



...and the atmosphere
...and the people
...and the working like mad
...and the food






That third rehab stay went in a flash.
  1. It was shorter than the two previous stays, being only 3 weeks (not 4)
  2. I had two leaves: one on the first weekend to go and run a freestyle slalom judge training at the French Federation, and another one for Christmas, from 5PM after class to 10PM the morrow. No matter how quick the two breaks were, they made the stay feel shorter.

The entrance test was already very positive: I had gained in strength and self confidence since last June. I trained both legs because I had not much difference left, concentrated on running basics, juking, squat training and cardiotraining. I blew off my record at the exit test: while I was panting and sweating above 175 pulses per min at the entrance test, I was hardly over 130 when I left one month later!

FIRST RESOLUTION for 2013:
Keeping on with cardio training!


Blue k-tape!
I had quite a fright two days after my arrival because I started to have pain at the shins, like last time. Hopefully, it was only a contracture. I avoided periosistis because it was immediately taken care of. After a few days of massages and K-tape, it was a faraway memory.

It is mainly due to the fact that I am not used to do intensive training without skates. Sneakers training is not natural to my body. Moreover, as a skater, I am used to stay very close to the ground to instinctively lower my center of gravity, which does not help for the general stance. I caught my physical trainer explaining that to his assistant...

The pain I had had for weeks at the patellar ligament (under the knee cap) almost disappeared too. It only took 10 min of ultrasonic sound treatment. Despite my scepticism, I must say that it seems to have been efficient!

During the last week, I did some more specific work on one-foot squats to make my knee used to being in tension (without pain!) in that position, and gain centimeters. I still need to work on that to get over 90°, which is the transition point. I am close. I am missing sitting tricks.


SECOND RESOLUTION for 2013:
Squatting on left leg without apprehension.



FINAL VERDICT 
I have the green light of the doctor.
It will not give away.
I am in the clear.
Let's ROLL.


The social side... Various facts.

I met quite a lot of faces I knew from my previous stays. Most of them were post-surgery patients in June who were back for their reathletisation stay. There were quite a lot of Parisians compared to the other times!

I did a presentation on skating, and more specifically on derby and freestyle, which had lots of positive feedbacks. Video projector, powerpoint, video and photo selections... I tried to show the spirit of skating.

Evening activities are frequent. Sometimes there are sports presentations by the patients. Lots of card games are organized, poker and belote tournaments, board games are at our disposal... We even did a karaoke "Yeah, let's do NTM!" "Alright, so here we go for 'Le Sud'"... Damn!

We also had the bad luck to attend the speech of an eminent mental coach. The concept was interesting and I was quite curious about it before he seized the opportunity of forcing himself on us at dinner time. We were stuck at our tables and could not leave without being impolite. He was nicknamed 'Captain Obvious' in no time. On the whole, we were ok with the content of his speech but it was very commonsense and we had already gone through all that. Dude, we would not be slaving away in a rehab center if we lacked motivation! Obvious. On top of that, the Captain severely lacked tact and modesty.
We escaped and went partying at the Quicksilver shop: there are concerts on Thursday evenings!

He said Captain
I said wot?
He said Captain
I said wot d'ya want?

Why is it that you always make friends when you are about to leave? The last few days were particularly great. You are always very serious at the begining, they you get stuck in the routine, and when you feel that you are reaching the end, that time is running out, you spread your wings.

Unfortunately I did not have the same physio as last times but she treated me to an epic farewell song, a free interpretation medley of Celine Dion which I should remember for a VERY long time!


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