Day 17 - Practising What I Preach

Yeah, I reused the Day 11 sign - I'm trying to be eco-friendly, here.

A couple of days ago I made the very happy discovery that I can now move my left arm in an almost-full range of motion with almost no pain!

This is a big deal.

I have had pretty good range of motion for a few months now, but it has been painful and movement beyond about 70 degrees has been effortful. When I discovered how much my arm has improved since starting the challenge, I was pretty much ready to throw a party. What a lovely little bonus to daily physical activity.

This challenge just feels so damned good right now.

Fittingly, Katelyn and I went swimming today and completed a workout left at the pool by our coach, Renee (okay, Renee, we did make some modifications, as there was too much sprinting and too much fly in this particular workout...I miss being able to do butterfly).

Beautiful Form Girl looked like this.

I thought I was feeling so wonderful that I would have no trouble swimming, but instead I got a chance to practice what I preached on Day 14.

When we got to the pool, there was a lane free, so Katelyn and I grabbed it. The lane next to us was occupied by a Toronto Swim Club swimmer (I'd recognise that cap anywhere - they practice at the U of T pool, where I used to practice almost every day) with beautifully efficient form. I felt so self-conscious; I know my form isn't what it used to be due to my shoulder injuries, and if I was slow before, I pretty much move at a glacial pace these days. Of course, as soon as I hopped in, my right shoulder started to click on every right stroke, and I noticed that I had a twinge of pain at the front of my left shoulder at the start of the power phase of every left stroke. When I rolled onto my back, I was reminded that my shoulder doesn't smoothly rotate backward anymore, but veers out to the side. I felt hobbled and embarrassed and afraid of pushing too hard lest I hurt myself.

I looked like this.

But I could hardly give up after preaching persistence and self-confidence, could I?

So I warmed up a bit more - and the pain in my shoulder completely went away! It must have just been a little kink, and continuing to swim sorted it out. I wish I had discovered this earlier in the varsity season, because I would have pushed a bit harder in freestyle instead of switching to kicking whenever I felt a twinge. Though I still would have switched things up if the pain had persisted, remembering not to be afraid of the pain helped this time. 

I still felt embarrassed about my form, but you know what? The girl in the lane next to us probably couldn't do the ballet legs, front walkovers, and unders we did at the end, (it's really hard to find good video of synchro figures - maybe I'll need to make my own next time!).

And here's a little plug completely unrelated to the challenge: Yesterday, when I was donating blood, I noticed a sign saying that donors were needed between Christmas and New Year's. Apparently Canadian Blood Services runs low on donations during that time. If you haven't donated before, or it's been a while, please consider donating. 

Especially if you have O negative blood. 

That shit is liquid gold.

 

Blood. It's in you to give. Then it goes and sits in a fridge somewhere, which is kind of effing weird. But then it goes into someone else's body and saves their life, and that's pretty cool.