A DAY I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!

After the race Saturday, I thought I was really too tired to do anything, but I had brought my gym bag with the thought of swimming after. I decided to give it a try anyway, figuring 10 min. would be good.

As I mentioned earlier, my shoulder had been so sore all week, I was a little skeptical about even attempting 10 min., but I wanted to see what would happen. I could always stop.

I couldn't believe how excited I was to get in that pool--excited yet apprehensive. Get in, start to stroke. Ow, okay it hurts some. Not where I would have expected either--my shoulder wasn't bad after the first few laps, I got a slight sidestich in the rib area at first, but what surprised me was my foot! The whole top of my foot hurt on kicking. One thing I have is a good kick, and my feet are part of that kick, like fins or paddles. Nothing wild or anything, just a flutter kick. And yet, my left foot hurt the whole time. This is the foot with the broken toe, but I didn't remember the bruising my foot had until now. The entire top of my foot for at least 2 weeks after the accident was black and blue, but I never had much trouble because of it. Well, its not going to break, so just keep going.

I stopped after a quarter mile and checked my time. Almost 10 min. But I'm feeling good. Another 5 won't hurt. As I swam, I realized how easy it was for me to get back to swimming, almost like I hadn't been out of the water for over 2 months. Nothing hard or fast, just easy swimming. So 5 minutes turned into another quarter mile. I decided then it probably was a good idea to stop. One-half mile, not so shabby here! And my time? Under 20 minutes. Whoa! Much better than I figured I would do. And I felt pretty good.

I did decide to soak in the hot tub for 5 min. and after that felt great! One hurdle down. Now I know I can add that back into my routine. I'm excited about that!

The day turned out much better than I had expected!