When I joined masters in 2008, I promised myself that it was for fun, and healthy competition for those who choose to compete. In March I was diagnosed wth 4 severe herniated discs in my neck, and training came to a halt. In April, I got a cortisone shot , and a week later came down with a very bad case of shingles. I had entered Atlanta, and felt I could go and maybe watch. I had not been outof bed for about 5 weeks. The next thing I know, I am swimming at Nationals, and going slower than I thought was physically possible. I felt this strong obligation to my teammates, that If I did not swim, I would let them down , and that I was being a wimp. I was trained in the late 60's and early 70's, that you swam not matter what.Maybe that masochistic mentality set in. OUr team scored in the top ten, and may not have, if I did not swim. BUt I hated every single minute of the pain in my body, Does anyone else stuggle with the guilt of not being the team player, and thinking of what is best for them? And not withstanding my own horrible meet . Was Atlanta the worst meet possible? Too big, Too long. UGH
Mindy, this past April we had our Colonies Zones. I was put on 2 relays which were back to back and I had just gotten out of the 100 IM and had the 400 IM coming up. I also had ankle surgery in Nov and now have a ganglion cyst which causes me a lot of pain. I saw the relays I was entered in and wasn't pleased since I preferred to ice my ankle for my 400 IM rather than be in 2 relays. I spent 10 min hobbling around looking for a replacement with no luck. Then comes one of my relay mates who says that he made the 2 hour drive mostly for the relays. I had a choice, back out of the relay and disappoint him and the other 2 or swim and possibly mess up my ankle more. I swam.. in pain but it was well worth it. The 400 IM probably did suffer but the relays were fun and I didn't let my team down. Our team as a whole won the meet, too. But the guilt of letting my team down was huge while I was trying to decide what to do. But in the end, I wouldn't change what I did. If it had been a smaller meet and no one had traveled just for the relays, no I wouldn't have been in them. I would have been sitting down with ice.
Congrats for making it through the meet. I hope you can one day look back on the meet with a smile on your face.
Mindy, since I had cervical spine fusion in 2001...C3, C4 and C5...I have been able to swim pain free as far as the neck and back go...have had other problems along the way...but no more severe pain from that!!!
Sorry to hear this Mindy. I really do hate it for you.
I had an issue after my 200 Free on Friday. Our kids had some kind of bug and had it coming out both ends earlier in the week. So after my 200 Free I started feeling nauseous and got a bad headache. Still had the 200 Back and a relay to do so I stuck it out.....went 2 sec slower than my seed in the back and slow for me on the free leg of the relay. My wife also passed out at the pool from the same thing and she was just a spectator. We both slept 14 hours Friday night and I missed my 500, which was one of my main events. But I recovered enough to do decent in the 100 Free and put up a good 100 Back on Sunday.
Today I am STILL suffering from it and both my parents (who came to the meet) have it right now. Its some nasty, fast moving stuff.
I was just bummed on the 500 cause I've literally trained for 18 months to get to this point and missed it. Based on what I did in the 200 I would have easily been sub 5:00 in the 500, which was my ultimate goal.
Such is life, and now I have something to shoot for next SCY season.....in a non-tech suit!
I used to. But after a coach tried to infer that attending one of my kids "lesser meets" was not as important as me swimming at masters meet that same weekend, I realized that was not what masters swimming is to me or ever will be. And that is not who I want to be either.
It is all about fun and fitness. Your health is more important than a swim meet. I think most people would respect that. Don't worry about letting people down. I think they will understand.
I'm wondering how many people came down with some sort of intestinal crud as did I and several team mates. It definitely impacted some swims in a negative way. However, we all managed to swim all of our events and relays in spite of our malady.
thursday a week before themeet i picked up some sort of upper respiratory bug which would not go away and actually hit its worst friday-sunday of nationals. i didnt even swim sunday i felt so crappy. up all night coughing, congestion, the works.
