The Not So Bad Good News

As I have for the last 4 months, I started my week at my spin class. As usual, I am half asleep when I enter through the gym doors. Struggling my way through the gym to the spin room I could feel the soreness in my legs. The weekend training was great but today I could feel the extra workout. I usually take Sunday off but decided to go for the recovery run. The class started out pretty slow but once you get the legs warmed up and the instructor yelling encouragement you get into a zone and it feels great.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I scheduled my doctor appointment for my shoulder. In a triathlon there are 3 separate sports combined into one event. Well the most technical aspect of triathlons is the swimming portion. The time spent during each race in the water is relatively a small fraction of your total race time, yet as a triathlete you will spend the most time working on your swim stroke to become as efficient as possible. I have only been triathlon swimming for the last couple of years, and every time I get in the pool or listen to another triathlete I learn something new.

Well, I can truly say I need a lot of work on my swim stroke. Throughout my life in sports I have been relatively lucky to stay injure free. After talking with the doctor his simple analysis is that I have developed a case of swimmer's shoulder. The injury is relatively common for someone who does not fully understand the correct swim stroke, if there really is such a thing, since you are always working to improve your stroke. A not so long story short, I need to do rotator cuff strength exercises. These are relatively easy exercises and if the condition doesn't improve he said my next option would be complete arm replacement. To say the least I think I am going to give the exercises all I got.

Since I really hadn't experienced an injury like this I felt it was the best thing to take the break I did and now get going again. I am looking forward to getting to the gym and start building the muscles that help support my rotator cuff. I am also going to get back in the pool and continue working to strengthen the shoulder and working on my technique.