Swimming with the Black Dog

Actually, I don’t suffer from depression. Not real depression - just the regular kind where sometimes things get on top of me, and I end up a little down.

But Thursday’s swim with the NE31 Tri club wasn’t much fun at all. I’d almost ducked out of it on the way there - my shoulder and neck were still sore while I was driving, and at one point I even turned around.

As I’m now out of the Learners’ Lane, things have got a whole lot tougher. And Thursday was no exception. 300m warm up, followed by FIVE sets of 400m. Within the sets, the first 25 as a sprint, and then alternate hundreds with hand-paddles / fists clenched.

Even during the warm up, I was getting left behind by the other guys in the lane. And once we started the main sets, I was just no-where. Although my shoulder didn’t seem painful, I was just so tense, protecting it, that I wasn’t extending fully on the left, or putting any real power into my stroke. By the end of the first set, I’d decided to drop out, and just swim some lengths in the Learner’s Lane.

I felt pretty rubbish about this - one of the guys in the lane I had been in was doing his first swim session after two months off . . . having been sideswiped by a White Van when out on his bike, and ending up with a steel plate as a new permanent feature of his shoulder. So compared with him, I felt a complete wimp.

So I did some lengths in the Learners’ Lane, and tried a couple with the kickboard - that was pretty bad, as my shoulder was then extended & in the painful position the whole time. But finally, I just called it a night - it just wasn’t in me. But my worry was that I was using my shoulder as a convenient excuse to duck out of the increased demands of the main swimming lanes. So as I changed alone in the locker room, I felt like a real fraud.

I will be back there for Monday’s session though - I now have something to prove to myself. I visited the physio again yesterday, and I’m doing my exercises, so my shoulder is improving all the time. I am scared about how tough it is out of the Learners’ Lane . . . but the only way to deal with that is to face it down.

Workout:

  • Type: Swim
  • Date: 08/16/2007
  • Total Time: 00:30:00.00
  • Distance: 500 m
  • Average Pace: 6:00.8/100m

Filed under: Flexibility, Injury, Motivation, Swim

2 Responses to “ Swimming with the Black Dog ”

  1. Bill on August 18, 2007 at 5:43 pm

    Karl,

    We all have our days, up and down, good and bad. And I certainly do know how frustrating an injury can be.

    Those are the perfect times to slow down a bit, relax and reflect on why you are doing this - to have a healthy, active lifestyle, which is nothing but a great thing.

    -bill

  2. Darth Triathlete on August 18, 2007 at 6:54 pm

    Yep - it just needed putting into perspective.

    I’m a bit tense about next Sunday’s race - my first open water event. While I was out running today though, I realised that it’s actually nothing to fret about. My goal for next Sunday has nothing to do with speed - it’s just to cross the finish line, and avoid a DNF.

    It’s not in the bag yet, but put in those terms, I’m reasonably confident.