Day 362

Last night at my hockey game, I had a little accident. I fell over backwards and thonked my head on the ice.

I would love to tell you a great story about how I was on a breakaway and my heroic glide to glory abruptly ended when I was steamrolled by a burly right defence who was about the size of a sumo wrestler and she plowed into me at the very moment that I was skilfully lifting the puck into the right corner of the net, past the goalie's glove, thus breaking the tie and winning the game for my team.

But that's not how it happened.

No, this is what happened: The game hadn't even started yet. I was skating up the ice to the net to join my team for our pregame 'cheer'. As I joined my teammates at the net, my feet mysteriously flew out from under me and I literally went airborne for an instant before crashing to the ice, on my back, with a resounding thud that was shortly followed by the sharp 'thwack' of my helmet hitting the ice with force. Then I sat up and said, “Well, that was stupid” while my teammates looked on in horror.

That's right, folks, I'm THAT talented.

Then I stood up and played a great game, got some terrific shots on net, even got an assist. I'm nothing if not resilient. But there was a price to pay. This morning, I woke up and I could feel Every. Single. Muscle. that had tensed up in order to break that fall.

Let's review them:
yikes-my-abs
argh-my-upper-back
ouch-my-neck.

I can't sit up or lay down without pain. Turn my head to look over my shoulder? Pain. Tuck my chin to my chest? Pain. Look up at my right hand in Utthita Trikonasana? Pain.

You get the idea. So, of course, this was the perfect day to hop right out of bed in the morning and do the Primary Series. The whole burrito. Seriously!

It was actually good - I surprised myself. I made it through the full series, with some modifications, but I did more than I've done in months. It was a pretty good practice, even with my various aches and pains. It was the best Primary Series I've done in a while.

I've retained more of my practice than I initially thought. Of course, I've totally lost the bind in Supta Kurmasana, but I can still do Garba Pindasana (I guess once you find those invisible holes in your legs, it's just like riding a bicycle - it doesn't go away). If my abs weren't on fire, I probably could have lifted up into Kukutasana too. Given the state of my neck, there were a few poses I didn't even try (Setu Bandhasana fell into that category), but overall, I was delighted.

I even did Urdhva Dhanurasana.

Obviously, I've built some strength back up because it didn't feel impossible. I kind of enjoyed it, acutally. I'm back on the wagon!

Just in time too: my Lady's Holiday starts tomorrow. Argh.