Off the Deck

Yesterday I swam for the first time in about a month.

To sum: January has not been kind to my body. I was sick, went into a secondary infection, had an allergic reaction to antibitoics, did a round of steroids to shake off lingering illness/newly acquired allergic reaction symptoms, and endured not one, but two early a.m. bouts of throwing up (I suspect that the frozen coconut dessert stuff I just discovered, the very treat which felt so cool and slippery on my ravaged throat, did not agree with the rest of me). Adding to the fun? Weekly allergy shots because I need to reach “maintenance level” again now that my elixir has been reformulated for another year.

All things considered, I wanted a mellow swim re-entry. So, I went to another local team’s practice because: 1) their pool is less than ten minutes from my house, 2) the water is warm (assuming I’d be very creaky, this deterrent might actually be a plus for once!) and 3) the team accent is always upbeat and fun.

Although they had a team stroke clinic scheduled, a few lanes were open for those who prefered to do a posted workout. Perfect! I was able to swim at my own pace and modify if need be. Even better, the workout included a longer than average warm up with multiple short sets. I couldn’t have asked for better first-day conditions.

And I needed all that I could help. Not only did I feel awkard and all gangly-arms-and-legs, but I felt like LEAD. Yep, my stamina/endurance seems to have drained out of me while sick.

I also had to duke it out with myself mentally for the first 30 minutes or so. Tallying meters and clock-watching were not helping, especially as I spent the entire 90-minutes feeling like I had already “hit the wall.”

But perhaps I am making some progress with all of my self-work over the past year as I was able to let that all go in about 20 minutes. I simply reminded myself that it was the first day back, and that it was enough to be in a pool. I started to enjoy just the sensation of swimming, and watching the sunlight play on the water.

I’ve come back from illness before; this time I’m going to allow my body do it’s own thing sans mental thashing.

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evanglist

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 11:59 am and is filed under Swimming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.