Carmen's Plodathon by SuperCaz

During my break from training I spent a lot of time getting to know people who were on the fringe of my social network.  In particular I have been more involved with the Outdoor Swimming Society and have been along to several of their social events and watched a lot of swimming, even if I couldn't join in.  I have also rediscovered my tri club and have been going along to help with some of their sessions from the beach.

But in particular I want to mention a very special friend of mine, Ash.  Ash has more than her fair share of problems for someone so young, but she inspires me with her positive outlook (even if it is only a mask), and can-do attitude.  It would be so easy for her to give up, but although she wobbles occassionally, her determination pulls her through every time.

Despite all of her own problems Ash has been a rock to me these last couple of months.  It was her that got me running again last week.  We might have only covered 2 miles, but without her I would never have made it out of the door.  She also got me out of the house yesterday when the weather was not at it's best.  We were lucky that we missed the rain, and the wind had calmed down a lot, as we struggled around our 3 miles loop.  But the sense of achievement of getting out there was wonderful, and it has reawakened my love of running.

As for swimming, last Wednesday the physio gave me the go ahead to do a short 5 min swim as long as I didn't lift my arms out of the water.  So that's breaststroke then.  I hate breaststroke.  But I stuck to it and did 300m breaststroke and then spent the next hour in the spa and steam room.

The following day my tri club were doing a social swim and run followed by breakfast cooked by one of the members and his lovely wife.  I was intending to stand on the beach and watch, but there was only one swimmer going in and I felt sorry for him being on his own, so I ended up going in too.  It was my first time in the sea for a few weeks so I was expecting to suffer, but I bravely held on for 12.5 minutes before racing out and getting changed as quickly as possible.

The same evening I was going back in the sea again.  I've started organising Full Moon swims - basically dips in the sea on the nights of full moons, when the waves come alive with the twinkle of moon light.  If you have never been in the sea after dark I strongly recommend it as it is so peaceful and beautiful - although maybe you would want to wait until the summer when it is a bit warmer.

As I had dipped in the morning I was secretly hoping that nobody would turn up so that I didn't have to go in, and when Pam turned up looking unenthusiastic we convinced each other to give it a miss.  But just as we had decided to go for a walk instead and then finish off in the pub, two more swimmers turned up and suddenly I found myself stripping off on the beach, and back in for another 13.5 minutes.  It didn't feel any warmer for being the second time around, but I am glad that I did it.

Just for the record, although I was in the water for a little over 10 min each time, it took me at least 5 min to get my arms and face under the water, so I was actually only swimming for around 5 min, so was not going against what the physio had told me. *polishes halo*

I've also been going down the gym to do the exercises that the physio has set me.  I'm only allowed to use 1kg weights which is really demoralising when not that long ago I was doing the same exercises with 8kg weights, but to be honest my arm doesn't feel up to much more than that anyway.  I am taking this recovery period slowly and making sure I come back stronger.  I'm back at the physio again later today, so hopefully she will allow me to start increasing the weights and doing some proper swimming.