Recovering from shoulder surgery; feeling crummy...
Former Member
and actually considering giving up swimming. I am so discouraged these days....
I fell and hurt my shoulder about 9 years ago. I didn't have surgery at the time (was told I didn't need it) and thought I healed correctly. Fast forward to today...after swimming 6 years I start to feel an ache in my "bad" shoulder when I swim longer than a mile. So off to the sports med doc I go....I get an MRI which looks like I might have torn cartilage, which is causing the pain. Surgery is scheduled....they find nothing. Nothing is torn; nothing to fix. So now I will have to swim with the pain....
I know that some of the tension is a result of an imbalance in my freestyle...I always breath to my left, which means I pull harder with my strong (right) side. When I try to breath to the right it all falls apart. I don't feel balanced in the water; I am sure there are a million things wrong with my stroke...I should kick more...blah blah blah.
I just started swimming again...been in the water for the last few days and I am very discouraged. I'd love to hear from folks out there who have taught themselves to breath to their uncomfortable side.... and how you did it, how long it took, etc.
Anyone else out there going through a discouraging time...or if you have in the past, how'd you get over it?
Ande - what are your thoughts?
I used to box...maybe I should just go back to the ring and stay out of the water....:(
Kari,
Replace that negativity, with what that old little blue engine has always said, "I think I can, I think I can..." you know the rest :p
I've learned, the hard way, with lots of self-doubt, that I do have control over myself and my swimming. I know that I cannot go back and do the times I was doing at this VERY moment. But I also know that I have the ability to look at my current situation, make some goals, work really really hard, and I bet I'll achieve those goals.
Peter,
I didn't realize how much of my self-confidence revolved around swimming. I used to go under 3:00 min for the 200m *** regularly and win my heat by a lot. I really took that easy stroke for granted. The day someone told me about USMS Top 10 Times I took a look and had quite a few, now I barely make it. I continued to do best times into my late 20's. I had Patrick when I was 29, a few months short of 30. Suddenly, no surprise, I couldn't work out as hard or as often, etc... Today, I am working on getting to swim at least 4 days a week (instead of my 2 day/week average for the summer).
I still have some pretty lofty goals (I think) for times I'd like to achieve. I haven't been doing many meets, which doesn't help a lot, and my times at these meets isn't entirely inspirational for me either. But, they are coming down again, and I think with a lot of hard work, waking up at 4:30 to get in that stretching and weight training will help. I told Kerry the other day that if I don't have "it" back together by Worlds that I'm taking up Ping-Pong!
Thank you for your support- I hope you'll see a lot faster times come next May and August :)
Kari,
Replace that negativity, with what that old little blue engine has always said, "I think I can, I think I can..." you know the rest :p
I've learned, the hard way, with lots of self-doubt, that I do have control over myself and my swimming. I know that I cannot go back and do the times I was doing at this VERY moment. But I also know that I have the ability to look at my current situation, make some goals, work really really hard, and I bet I'll achieve those goals.
Peter,
I didn't realize how much of my self-confidence revolved around swimming. I used to go under 3:00 min for the 200m *** regularly and win my heat by a lot. I really took that easy stroke for granted. The day someone told me about USMS Top 10 Times I took a look and had quite a few, now I barely make it. I continued to do best times into my late 20's. I had Patrick when I was 29, a few months short of 30. Suddenly, no surprise, I couldn't work out as hard or as often, etc... Today, I am working on getting to swim at least 4 days a week (instead of my 2 day/week average for the summer).
I still have some pretty lofty goals (I think) for times I'd like to achieve. I haven't been doing many meets, which doesn't help a lot, and my times at these meets isn't entirely inspirational for me either. But, they are coming down again, and I think with a lot of hard work, waking up at 4:30 to get in that stretching and weight training will help. I told Kerry the other day that if I don't have "it" back together by Worlds that I'm taking up Ping-Pong!
Thank you for your support- I hope you'll see a lot faster times come next May and August :)
