No Pain. No Gain.

 As a classical musician, locking myself in a practice room to get things right over and over again is something I am familiar with. After all, "Practice makes perfect." Most people would lose their minds having to repeat a task over and over again. 

Now try that same task, but instead of a cramped practice room with a piano, you're in a pool starting at a black line. Swimming requires effort and a the only way to become better and faster is to truly train, and that's where my focus has been the past few months. I've seen tremendous improvement as my Coach Kelly and I say "dropping weight, dropping time!"  But I admit I am my worst enemy  - I push myself HARD and at times, maybe a little too much, just because I'm just THAT determined! 

Tuesday night, I found my right calf muscle cramping at the end of practice, my last 200 IM set. I was close to touching the wall swimming the 50 fly when my calf started cramping and throbbing. I got out of the pool in tremendous pain, tears streaming down my eyes and trying to stretch it out. I hobbled home and the calf seemed okay when I got up the next day. 

Wednesday night practice it happened again. I kept stretching in between sets and tried to just keep going. But it wouldn't let up - so I hopped out of the pool and went to get a massage. The massage worked wonders and I started hydrating more too - drinking plenty of coconut water and water loaded with electrolytes. 

I stuck with the hydration routine on Thursday, and also mindfully stretched out both calves... A few downward dogs and I felt great about jumping into the pool for my favorite practice night of the week! As we started my favorite kick-set my left calf cramped up and I literally could not move. I got out of the pool, stretched it out and added pressure... I honestly thought it was another cramp, so I jumped back in and pushed myself to complete the kick-set and fast swims. 

I cooled down and did an easy 200, and I could feel the calf hurt, but I got through the set and thought maybe I'm okay. Hanging at the warm pool, after practice, I could tell some thing was not right and I was clearly hobbling home worse than the past two nights. 

Well, this morning the calf is completely swollen and I can't put any weight on it without hurting. I hobbled back to the gym, to have my trainer Joe take a look at it. Lo and behold, I pulled the darn thing! Tape, ice, a few advil, elevation and rest - that's the job for today...

I write about my pool injuries often. Some days it is someone else who inflicts the pain - say when I get hit, others it's just my adrenalin and determination that make me end up with bumps, bruises and pulled muscles. I definitely have a ton of battle scars, but my legs seem to say it all today - bruises from trying to get in and out of the pool with muscle cramps, and my taped calf for today.

Not really sure what the happy medium is... Yogi's would say "listen to your body" but the fierce competitor in me says "Push beyond your limits." To be honest, when the adrenalin is pumping I don't feel the pain... Who knows? For now, I'm focusing on active recovery and getting myself in shape for the meet!

Swim injury of this week!