Good start to the New Year

I can't believe January 2012 has come and gone.  It was a great month, I took it for what it was, the beginning of a new year!  

Slide back slightly to Dec 2011, when I finally got back in the water, just to test my shoulder; thankful the water hid my tears, the test was not good.  It was very painful!  There was what I'd call a glitch in the recovery part of my left stroke. It felt like my shoulder came out, it really felt like there was no way to extend my arm any further up (like trying to bend your knee the other way, unless you are double jointed, you know not to do it)...so full stroke was out of the question.  There was a lesser pain in both shoulders/arms pulling through the stroke and basically I resorted to a bit of finishing skulling and kicking and went home with a heavy heart.  Billy was there to give me a shoulder to lean on (get the pun lol)  Out of our talk that evening came the pointed question: was the Lake swim worth it if I'll never be able to swim again?  Easily I answered NO.  And can't even think any more about that!

So I have to make sure it isn't the case.  Even though I suffer some white coat syndrome, I'm going to have to be more aggressive, ask more questions, seek more advice and even alternative treatments...So in January I started seeing Nancy Spence for some osteopath treatments.  I also got an appointment with Dr Levy and even though needles scare me, I got me a cortisone shot in my left shoulder last Monday (yes I fainted)... 

In January, I started to get in the water on Wednesday evenings with the lap group I sometimes swam with training for the Lake.  Even though I did all kicking, I was so over the moon to be doing sets, to be in the water, to be with other swimmers! Such a difference from the tears in December when it felt like a lost cause being in the water, somehow the new year changed that.  

And last night (Feb 1) I actually managed a few lengths of full stroke freestyle!!!  No cursing & no crying!!  Now it was very minimal and very slow turnover (especially for me) but coach Dave, I can tell you, there was lots of roll!  I had said to myself that when I was able to get back swimming I wanted to re-learn with better technique, so this was the beginning...  Although I know there is still a ways to go with the shoulder and that it will probably still be slow  (there is still obvious impingement in my range of motions...), swimming a few strokes is such an exciting step for me!!!  

And don't worry, I did not push it, I'm in no hurry.  The kicking is good for me too! Quite the abs workout with all the fly kick I did... my stomach may look good again one day, since I am also starting to loose some of the weight I put on after the swim too.  (At xmas I saw 140 on the scale and by the end of Jan I was down to 130lbs!; so nice to see this too going in the right direction)  

Anyways, the real new part of the new year was the new challenge I gave myself, starting on Jan 2nd (it's not a resolution, so it didn't have to start on the 1st - that day is best spent with the fam in one's pjs)   The challenge is 100 runs in 100 days.  A run has to be 30 minutes or 20 minutes if right off the bike to count.  At the end of the month, 30 days into the challenge, I'm even one up, at 31 runs.

In January 2012, I managed to log:

5.7k of swimming (well really kicking);

165k of running; and

287k of cycling

Since I started logging workouts in January 2008, this is the most I have ran or cycled in the month of January.  All good base training stuff!  

In summary:  The new year has given me a new fun little challenge, new hope for my shoulders and renewed training bliss...  

I think it will be another good year :)

Great weather in January also made it nice for doing more than usual outdoor training this month.  And the 10C we got on January 31st also saw Dahlia outside on the new bike she got for Christmas.  Big smiles on both our faces, mine was with a bit of a giggle as I listened to her vocalize her own encouragement to push hard and pedal up the hill on our street...  Wonder where she gets that kind of determination from...