Super Kara

I have officially started the next phase of the progression of me turning from master shuffler and compensator to "Good Kara" as Jon kept calling it today. In my mind, though, I will call the new me "Super Kara", and I will be able to recover faster, run more miles, run faster than ever before, and maybe even fly! While all that may happen (well probably not the flying part but everything else) I am going to have to work hard to get there first. And the worst part is while working hard I am going to have to endure the giggles of the professionals around me as my body tries to forget old habits and learn new, proper ones. Today, I started doing a few drills and while some my body will never forget from the college days (like the good old grapevine) the others I looked foolish and had to listen to the laughter of Jon and his wife, Kim, while I attempted to do the drills. Jon and Kim both had to show me how they were done and I am sure neither has done any of these drills in years, yet they were both models of perfection. They would search for ways to describe what they were wanting to see in an effort to trigger some spontaneous reflex where I would immediately start doing them correctly. Unfortunately that didn't happen and I have a lot of work ahead of me to get it figured out (shocking, I know). I also made a trip to my physical therapist today to let him know what I had observed in the morning, what Jon observed and some revelations I had after looking at some photos of me running. So, I again endured laughter and sarcasm as I attempted the progression of exercises that we will use to help reinforce proper mechanics. I was sarcastically offered a helmet due to my propensity of losing my balance and was also laughed at by the PT and the person shadowing him. We did discover that the lack of balance and control with my left leg and my core is astounding but I feel like I can only get better from here.

On a side note some major life changes have happened for me: I officially finished up my master's degree--I got my diploma in the mail yesterday!!, I was offered a job (contingent on my passing my board exam), I turned 30 (back in April but I am just coming to grips with it), and I can do pull ups and chin ups again!!!!! Well, that last one might not be a major life change, but I felt I had to share. I am so proud of myself. I haven't been able to do them since college but thanks to rock climbing my upper body is actually semi-strong now. Although I am sure no one can tell that I have any strength at all since I don't really build muscle (see attached picture).

That is all for now, hopefully in the next blog post I will have some more news about my transformation into a super hero.