The swim that almost wasn't

SWIM: 2000 y in 60 mins.

It was almost a 200y swim in 5 mins!

Last night I reset my alarm for 4:05, hoping that the extra 5 mins would mean I'd get to swim earlier. Nope, arrived at the same time as usual. Seems my problem is not getting up but is rather leaving on time.

I wasn't taped initially for this swim. I had an 830am appt to get taped and thought I'd just see what happened without it. After just 50y I was up and out of the pool putting on the last of the tape I had with me--only enough for to stirrup wraps that crossed over the instep. It was just enough to lock the foot in place and keep me from pointing my toe too much.

The pool was crowded today, 7 swimmers in many of the lanes! Knowing I'd be slower than usual between the fatigue and injury I seeded myself into lane 8. Another 50y in and I wanted to quit. The motivation just wasn't there. I was cold, tired, sore, and just not into it.

I had an easy out. Everyone knew of the injury and it would have been so easy to say 'yeah the foot is not feeling good today so I'm bugging out'. So easy. Too easy. I could swim later at the Y. Ha! Like that would happen! Swim dammit!

I chided myself and pushed out another 100y. Another 100y. Ugh.

Analyse this. What's going on? I'm just tired. So what happens when I'm tired for Triple T? Am I going to get out of the water like a little pansy and say "ugh I'm too tired"? Hell no.

HTFU!

So I did. Another 100, 100, 100, etc, finally getting to 1000y in 30 mins. The crowded lane was slowing me down a little but in the end this was good. It forced me to focus on the technique. Focus. Find the pressure of the water on my hand.

I was still sloppy, being off balanced with a bent foot behind me, but I just kept going. At one point I shoved my lanemates off the wall to discourage them from doing the "who wants to go first" delay. MOVE IT!  In the end, I'm glad I did this.

830 appt--I was late for this too BTW-- I was taped again with 3 pieces of tape. Red color this time! One for stability (the twist like I had last week), one rehabilitative (up the left side of the leg), and one to prevent too much motion (a stirrup). All 3 covered the distal fibula with the goal of keeping it in place, encouraging the muscles to strengthen, and to keep me from rolling it out again while it heals, respectively.

Can I run again? Good question. When asked at the beginning when I was running again, I answered "hopefully today" although he meant when is the next race. In the end, when asked directly when I could start running it wasn't a terribly clear answer. Granted, Dr H is probably not the final word on this like Dr M is. Right now I need to practice my own taping (with my new roll of red tape), gradually try running on a treadmill, and pay close attention to what's going on.

I have the option of having Dr H tape me for the upcoming races, that's not a bad idea. The plan seems to be going back in to two weeks for him to watch me tape myself and to get a progress check.

So there might be a 2nd post for today reporting in on a brief treadmill run :)