Still not much to say

except that I am now doing a 300-yard warmup and a mile swim. Figured if my shoulder is always going to bother me, I might as well get a good workout anyway.

What's to say?

I sense it may be time to decommission this blog. I have nothing of interest to report: Swimming is fine, my shoulder is not. I am just going to play through...

mostly irrelevant post

OK, swimming is fine. My shoulder hurts every day, but what can you do? I don't have nose problems any mo.

Here is a cute non-sock sock monkey, too:



I know, it is a teeny picture, but that's just the way it goes, sucka foo.

Silence is golden

Which is to say, swimming is going well. I've been doing about a mile a day five days a week, with only off and on twinges in my shoulder. No big deal. I've dropped the five pounds or so I gained over the summer, too.

I remain invisible to other swimmers.

Whatever.

It works! (?)

I think the nose clip, while dorky and giving me the general appearance of Michael Jackson, works.

Not breathing out through my nose threw my rhythm off (some would argue I don't have much of a sense of rhythm to throw off), and I only did 1,400 yards or so, but that was a couple of hours ago and I can still breathe easily.

Freaky. I hope it lasts.

Worth a try

Well, it appears necessary to at least give nose clips a try. I've practiced breathing out through my mouth (I usually use my nose), and I'm sure I can figure it out. This wretched congestion won't give up, and is barely affected by decongestants. I'd much rather use a dippy device than have to keep buying and taking unneeded drugs, if they are indeed unneeded.

We'll see. I've read enough to be somewhat optimistic that this might help, and nobody pays attention to me when I'm at the pool anyway, so it's not like all the pretty girls will stop talking to me. I am invisible to them, which truth be told is kind of nice. I just want to work out, not chat. Perhaps they feel the same way.

time off? bah.

Well, apparently, I have not forgotten how to swim. After last weekend, I made sure to get in a midweek swim (or two. Like lap counting, I've forgotten), and Saturday was just fine. I'm still down in the cardiovascular conditioning, but it's only been a week. It will be nice to a) keep swimming; b) push the yardage up a tad, but not too much; and c) drop five pounds.

Sunday swim - happy!

After a measly 700 yards or so Saturday, I wasn't too optimistic, but nor was I too sore Sunday, so I thought I'd shoot for a mile and see how it went. No big deal - 500-yard warmup, then 1,200 yards, then a cooldown lap - 1,750 yards, which by my count is a lot more like a mile than the 1,650 some swimmers suggest.

Ahh, yes, but there is that one little detail: time. Well, I was slow, but oh well. I think the 35 laps, plus two breaks, ate up about 45 minutes. That, my friend, is not too quick. Methinks I will never have a mile under 20 minutes. Drat.

woo-hoo!

Did a fabulous 700 yards today, a whopping 250-yard warmup and then 450 more. I guess I should be happy I made it that far after such a long layoff.

No big deal; back at it tomorrow.

The road back?

A visit to an ortho doc yesterday turned up no obvious problems, except for the whole pain-in-shoulder thing. He gave me a six- to eight-week shoulder workout plan to try to strengthen some parts of my shoulder(s), which he thinks might be all I need to get into a pain-free environment.

Oh, that and better posture.

ortho fun

Although I've been out of the water for the summer, I'm still enjoying all the benefits of a defective left shoulder. My kind doctor lady is hooking me up with an ortho guy, though, an apparent hotshot at arthroscopic surgery, but hopefully also someone who can concoct a non-surgical solution.

The massage lady, excellent and dear to me though she is, has only kept me above water. At first, her work was a huge improvement. Now it is keeping me a little bit ahead of the chronic pain. So that is big progress, but I'm certainly at a plateau. I just want to be able to swim and weave without all this god damn discomfort.

missing the pool

Just got a picture dropped on my desk of the annual full-ride scholarship winnner at the alma mater. She's a swimmer, which reminds me that I'd like to be down at the pool. Now!

so-so Monday

just a regular day. I'm feeling pretty good as far as shoulders and fitness go, but I'm trying to come to grips with a three-month layoff. not sure what to do.

boo, hiss

So, the pool will be closed for three months, starting quite soon. I guess this will be a summer of tennis (and healing?). Curses!

Not quite so quick, but all's well

Another 2,500 uninterrupted Monday was a good chance to check my work. I was off a little from Sunday, but only by a few minutes. So instead of 2,500 yards in 47 minutes, I think it was more like 2,500 in 50. Hey, that's still not bad by my somewhat clunky standards. I think that as time has gone by, I've got a goal forming, which is to get my 50 splits down to 45 seconds. That means slashing a quarter of my time, though, so we'll see how that pans out. I'm thinking that's a good goal to try to reach in 2008 or 2009. If I get there sooner, well, maybe I'll shoot for more.

Yeah, sure.

yardage increase

I liked the experiment with swimming the whole workout straight through, and I wanted to raise my yardage a little, so I did a 2,500 straight through Sunday. I'm pretty sure I counted correctly, and it looked like I came in around 45-48 minutes. Without glasses, it is hard to tell for sure.

I realize this still isn't fast, but I think my 50-yard time has gone from 75 seconds to, obviously, less than 60, in the past year or so. Not bad, I think :)

Thursday swim

Well, what's to say? I changed my mode of operation. My used-to was to do a 500-yard warmup, take a minute-or-two break, then do 1,800 yards for the "workout."

On Thursday, I decided the break was just a way to get less of a workout, so I ditched it and did a straight 2,300. I think I still took it easy on the first 500 and sprinted the last 200, so I don't think that part made much of a difference. Now I really am facing the big question, which is whether to go for a yardage increase.

I can do the whole workout in - I estimate (and I have to, because I'm never sure how many more laps than 46 I'm doing) about 50 minutes, give or take a few. Yes, I know, that's not very fast. Odd thing: When I do the warmup I rarely lose track of laps, and 500 yards (10 laps) always takes a little less than 10 minutes. I know I'm fresh then, but I don't think I slow down much if at all in the workout portion, so I'm thinking I'm really swimming more, consistently, than 46 laps.

WTF. I need to learn to count, maybe. :)

Vanquishing the shoulder woes

Well, I've put the needles business off until further notice because I haven't had any pain to speak of while swimming (or after, either). So much the better; I'm sick of complaining.

good swim, but lotso congestion

Another painless day in the pool - I think I might bail out of needles this month...

happy & jolly and etc., by golly

Buzzed through an easy 2,300 Sunday (after a not-totally-easy 1,900 on Saturday), although I did the last 300 after a break (so, 500, 1500, 300).

I think I gained a couple of pounds, too, with all these catawampus weeks of swimming & not. Curse that! But hey, easily remedied.

On a side note, one (count it) martini Sunday evening (happy Easter!) was too much in the congestion game. Completely stuffed up for hours afterward. This only seems to happen on swimming days. Que curioso.

tired but effective

Didn't get quite so far as I would have liked Sunday, but that's all right. Esp. b/c I did some weaving first; a good day of exercise all around. Hoping today is smooth, too.

Enough damn whimpering

Monday: 2,250 yards, an acupuncture appointment (complete with some kind of adjustment) and the usual ills.

Fuck it. I'm in pretty good shape, finally. My body looks the way I want it to, mostly. The pain factor is static - off and on with no rhyme or reason.

So, I think it is back to the grind: Three mile-plus swims a week seems to do no extra damage to anything, and it is good exercise, so I'm sticking with it. I've been doing a 500 yard warmup and then 1,750 yards (90 feet short of a mile, unless you do swimmer math, in which case that is 100 yards more than a mile - go figure).

I think maybe a yardage increase is in the cards.

Back in the saddle again

Couple of decent swims so far this week... nothing special, but nothing too painful, either. I sense a pattern here. Oddly, even when I get some discomfort, it doesn't last long. I guess I just have to be careful. I'm still trying to come up with a revised plan. I guess 2,250 yards, three times a week, is what I'm looking at.

That seems to be enough to pull off my fitness/weight goals for now. If I ever become more efficient, I guess I'll have to push the yardage back up. That, I think, would be nice.

spring break

for crying out loud, I need to build my own pool.

Feeling good, but not gr8

No problems with the shoulder in the water, and no problem with velocity, but of course there had to be a glitch, which is that I'm not having very long swims. Not terrible, but three-quarters of a mile doesn't cut it for me. ugh.

teetering on the brink of the DL/IR

Shoulder discomfort has kept me from really whole-hogging a swim for a while. I'm not amused.

I think I'm in a weird sort of holding pattern. I'm obviously injured, but it isn't getting worse, so I'm just trying to hold the line. For Christ's sake.

OK swims

Wednesday and Thursday both turned out OK. I am not so quick to get back in the swing of things since the butterfly lady's been laid up, but I appear to have kept the conditioning and didn't have any trouble. But nothing to write home about, either.

Harder than it looks

Lengthen that stroke... no problem, right? Ha, well.

At least Monday was a swimming day, but I'm not so sure about how easy it will be to fix whatever is broken with my stroke :)

oh brother

So here I am, swimming my arms (OK, really just the shoulder) off, going slow. Trying to figure out why I'm soooo slow, but also pretty fit, I checked out U.S. Masters Swimming, which has some coaching articles (I'm a little too shy to just go up and ask the lifeguards what the hell I'm doing wrong).

Anyway, one of the articles said if you're taking more than 20 strokes per 25-yard length, you're pretty much broken. The same source pointed out that if you're being efficient and you're about my size, you should take 12 strokes (or so) to get down the pool. Uh, I take way more.

Now I have a much more interesting goal, to cut down the number of strokes I take!

Monday swim

Just another day in the pool - 2,250 yards or so (but I still! can't count without losing track once in a while, so it was probably a bit longer) with a speedy ending. All's well in shouldersville, but my pool-water allergy has been a mess. I've had trouble since Friday, when I had to wait until a few hours after swimming to take a Claritin. By that time I was already congested, and it seems that this is like how migraine sufferers report their ailment - if you take a pill early you're fine, if not you're screwed. With luck, I'll be back in good shape congestion-wise next time I swim, and I won't forget to take the damn pill on time.

Another good swim

Thursday went well. I've settled for the time being on a fairly hard 2,250 - 500 warmup and 1,750 afterward, with the last 450 somewhat speedy and the final 200 a sprint. As I say, I'm not sure that an outside viewer would call what I'm doing sprinting, but that's sure how it feels.

My shoulder still makes strange sounds if I move it around (like shrugging) and it warns me every now and again (when I was fixing the molding around the door and had my arm elevated for a while), but it doesn't complain when I swim, so now that just leaves the allergy-to-pool-water problem, which may be unsolvable.

Whatever. Swimming works, which makes me happy :)

New world order

In an attempt to stay in shape but not have my left arm fall off, I have altered my swimming schedule. We'll see how this goes. Today I did a fairly easy 500 followed by a fairly hard 1,750, including a hard 400 at the end (the second 200 of which I "sprinted").

I'm thinking this is what I'll be up to until I get a fix on whether my shoulder is going to be OK. It still makes nasty noises when I move it around, but it does not hurt. We shall see.

Friday swim

Acting on instructions by the acupuncturist, I pushed a bit on Friday. I did a half-mile warmup and then a mile, including a 200-yard sprint at the end. No problems, thank goodness.

I've had some subsequent discomfort, but nothing too big...

Better, but still sketchy

One of the snazzy features of the alma mater's new pool is that it has a moveable barrier that divvies the 30-meter pool into two pieces, a long portion and a short portion in which people swim crosswise. I assume the crosswise is about 20 yards (very annoyingly short), while the long portion can be whatever length the authorities desire. Usually that length is 25 yards, but Wednesday and Thursday it was more like 30 yards. Or, more likely, 25 meters.

Having done about 20 laps Wednesday, I was shooting for 45 on Thursday but called it good at 38 on account of a minor twinge in my shoulder. At least I hope it is minor!

Hooray, with a postscript

Back in the pool Wednesday (and soon to be today, too), and I did a pretty easy 1,000 to 1,200 with no pain during the swim. My shoulder felt a little twinge-y afterward, though.

But the needles guy is Friday and the massage lady is Saturday, so I'm still cautiously optimistic. :)

Almost back in business

After a month that has felt like at least 30 days, the pool is open once again and I aim to reacquaint myself with the water, and soon! I hope I haven't forgotten how to swim, and that the month off has done some good for my shoulder.

Upcoming events: A visit to an acupuncturist and the massage lady, in that order, later this week.