Pain makes you feel alive. That sudden hot poker sensation in your muscles, or that feeling of your muscles completely giving out while struggling during a high intensity set, gives you that sense that you're alive, that your body and brain are firing on all cylinders.
Over the last three weeks, I've been amping up my workout intensity and frequency, and it's been paying off. All things considered, I'm feeling great out of the water and also feeling great in the water. I've got more energy and feel more alert during the day (well, except for days when I don't get enough sleep). That being said, I've got a long litany of ailments that I've been living with for the last month or so, since I started to up my workout intensity:
- Both Achilles tendons--I pulled them about two weeks ago, and they are still very tight and prone to excruciating cramps at rather inopportune times in the pool. In addition, they are fairly sore. I've been popping ibuprofen lately, which has mitigated the inflammation, but hasn't taken care of all of the cramping. Popping pills and started adding bananas to my diet today, so hopefully that will help the cramping.
- Left ankle/top of the foot--I injured it at some point back in November, and up until this week, it was extremely painful to kick when I'd first get in the water. The past week, though, it's only been painful once, and that wasn't for very long at all. I'm cautiously optimistic that it's not an issue anymore.
- Calves--I've had a LOT of calf cramping the past few weeks. Ibuprofen, tons of water, lots of stretching, and now bananas has helped a lot, but a few cramps still sneak in every now and then, like the Achilles tendon cramps, at the most inopportune times.
- Both knees--Both of my knees are wonky in breaststroke, although my left knee is decidedly the more wonky of the two. Based on its symptoms, I believe I'm missing a large amount of the cartilage behind the kneecap. It will flare up from time to time when swimming breast and make the kick rather painful.
- Hips--Quite tight during the day until I get my first practice in, then they're usually fine till the next morning. Several days this past week, they've been horribly cramping when I get out of bed, so I hobble around like an octogenarian for a while before they loosen up enough for me to walk upright.
- Left elbow--Pulled a tendon in it a week and a half ago. Practice that night was terrible, as it hurt like the dickens to apply any pressure on the elbow through its range of movement, so I had to forego swimming breast and had to do left arm straight arm fly/free/back. Lots of ibuprofen has mostly taken care of it, but if I do more than a 50-100 of breast without popping ibuprofen beforehand, it starts to twinge again.
- Lats--These have been tight for quite a while now. Yesterday I did a 3600 mostly IM practice before the scheduled evening practice, since I missed the morning practice. Given my luck, I should have guessed that the coach would then have us do a practice with a heavy IM focus. Due to the approximately 1000 fly I did over the two practices, my lats are currently extremely tight and sore. While they've never been painful, per se, I can definitely feel them any time I extend my arms to initiate the pull in all four strokes and when I'm in streamline.
- Shoulders--I'm putting a lot of stress on them, and they are holding up admirably so far. No pain, just a heaping helping of tightness.
- Triceps--See what I said about my lats.
Given that I can remember aching all over in highschool after a really hard workout, I'm pretty happy that I'm so sore and tight, although I could do without the leg cramps. I'm heading down to Charleston next weekend for a mini vacation, and I'm hoping to get a massage with my old masseuse, since I haven't gotten one in a good six months and could certainly use one!
No comments:
Post a Comment