Monday, April 28, 2008

Pop goes the weasel

I'm sitting here arguing with Josh on whether or not the sound coming from my hip is a click, snap or pop. It feels like a pop...almost like the femur is coming out of socket again. It sounds more like a click or a snap depending on what stupid maneuver I attempted at that moment. The left hip joins in from time to time with the noises and I figure if I gave Aidan (the dog) a tambourine I could start a family band. :) Similar to the Partridge family, we could tour the country side in a van and entertain the masses. In my case the family van would have to have extra cushions and hydraulics in order to accommodate my injury...but we would be entertaining none the less. Just ask my friends and family what an amazing voice I have to accompany the clicking. :)

The last time I went to the gym I stepped on the bike for the first time. Mostly because it was gorgeous weather the weekend before and I spent most of that Sunday cleaning my bikes and wishing I was ready to ride them. Josh got on the treadmill behind me to ensure that I didn't keep hiking up the power...he says I tend to overdue things...phooey. It's probably smart someone was looking out for me though because I did spend the next several hours wishing I hadn't pushed myself so hard. Back to the pool for me tomorrow morning...

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

10 Weeks Post-PAO

Tomorrow marks the 10th week since my PAO surgery and I am finally starting to believe I am making progress. I just left the gym tonight and was able to put in a little over a mile. Flip-turns are few and far between and usually leave me cursing under the water, but it is surprising how much faster I can swim when I add them in every now and then.
The pain in my right rear is still present, especially after longer walks or a rough nights sleep. I keep telling myself if it doesn't go away I will call Dr. Murphy, but I'm sure it's normal.

Last weekend I went to Phoenix to spend some time with my family and watch my brother compete in the Ironman. It was so great to see everyone and I was glad to finally see Craig in action. He is now being sponsored by Trisports, so I'm hoping there is some more free gear heading my way! :)


Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Pain in the butt...

After a couple good workouts I've developed a new pain. This one I have read about on blogs and forums and I honestly assumed I was in the clear...but no such luck.

It started feeling like a pulled muscle in my right bum (sorry coworkers for being explicit :) and now feels like a pinching feeling on a constant basis. Yesterday I swam 1200m and then walked several laps trying to concentrate on taking large steps with my right leg. When I lifted my left leg up to take a step the pinching sensation felt significantly worse. I'm going to try some new stretches to see if that helps, but otherwise I will be contacting Dr. Murphy to ensure this is normal.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

A nice day for a walk

When I was growing up my brother and I were members of a swim club. I was never that impressive of a swimmer but I always managed to have fun. Most of the time that fun was had at others expense...like grabbing the leg of a fellow swimmer as I was approaching behind them and yanking them backwards...propelling me forward and leaving them exacerbated. Don't think too little of me though...I had to learn that move somewhere! :)

One of my parents favorite stories of me on the swim team was my coach regularly catching me standing up during the middle of a lap and walking or quickly pushing off on the bottom of the pool. It wasn't so much I was tired or trying to keep up...but I got bored after endless laps and liked to look around. Anyway, my coach used to look up from his chair and yell out over the pool "Nice day for a walk isn't it Spreadbury?"

Something about my swim today reminded me of that story. I decided to walk several laps to get used to putting weight on my right leg. After that was over I decided to swim only 800m today but once I got there I realized I should do at least 1000...could have been the fact I really wanted to beat the girl in lane 3 who was starting to get tired! :)

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Doggy Paddle

This morning I woke up feeling quite nauseous and immediately told my stomach I would have to go to fisticuffs with it should it hinder me from jumping in the pool today. Luckily I still have some intimidation skills because after a couple hours I was feeling great and headed off to LA Fitness.

It’s the first time I had been in a bathing suit since the surgery and I have to say that seeing the scar exposed on my right leg was a little scary. I decided that I would strut (or as close to it as I could get with a crutch) out onto the pool deck with pride because as I’ve heard many times before…I earned this scar darn it. :)

The pool was only occupied by two swimmers and judging from their lack of water bottles they were just weight lifters and not the dreaded triathletes I wanted to avoid (they make me look bad). It only took me a couple minutes to figure out how to get in the water…I had to use a highly technical maneuver…cannonball. Just kidding…lowering myself into the water by the ladder proved to be quite easy.

I started out with the goal to do 400m (16 laps). I was a little worried as I haven’t swam in almost a year and my body feels quite weak right now. Turns out I had little to worry about as all the crutching had significantly strengthened my arms. The guys in the pool were a bit surprised when I started swimming past them and quickly picked up their pace. My competitive nature must have gotten to me because I instinctively did a flip turn at the wall without even thinking…not a good start. I was in the lead though! ;)

After the first 400m I decided…what’s another 16 laps…I mine as well do 800m today. At 32 laps I realized I still wasn’t getting tired so I started doing IM’s and that took me to 1200m. Of course once I hit that I decided that I was too close to a mile to stop so I just kept going. It helped that a ‘trisports’ waterbottle showed up in the lane next to me and I wasn’t going to let him get the best of me. ;)

So now that I have the first mile under my belt I’m excited to go back. I didn’t use my legs at all this time because I was a little nervous after my botched flip turn, but I’m hoping next time I will be able to at least start with a little flutter kick.