My fractured right collar bone is healed! Ish… Or, as of last Tuesday, May 28th, it has healed enough according to my orthopedist to “resume normal activities.”
Obviously, I felt relieved and ecstatic after receiving such positive news, but curing my knobby right shoulder (seen above, screen left) was less than half the battle. The truth is that it wasn’t my broken bone that had sidelined me for a big chunk of this year (it’s been fairly functional since mid-February), rather the real stinker that has kept me static and annoyed is a mystery ailment that invaded my left leg.
I am not sure what set it off? It could’ve been an overzealous stack of strides that strained my hamstring during my first sanctioned run after the crash in early January. It certainly hadn’t been strained, or used much at all for the six weeks prior whilst I was sitting, laying, and slinged up strolling calmly during daily jaunts around my neighborhood. Or, the pain could’ve sprouted unconsciously from mounting life stress? Showbiz…#VFXLife
Whatever the cause, the effect was an acute, traveling, and reverberating pain stabbing throughout my left psoas, piriformis, hamstring (high and low), glute, groin, lower back region that hijacked my leg’s ability to run, ride, and sit pain-free for months. It was an endurance athlete's horror version of “Groundhog’s Day.”
Honestly, I was unaware of what pain points to take seriously.
I have been pushing against pain thresholds for decades, daily, so I wasn’t sure which pain was good, “Persevere!” and which pain was not-so-good? “Ouch.”
For instance, I had plopped in the pool on a handful of occasions starting in mid-January, but I would soon be thwarted by pain-induced headaches that I figured might be normal due to my shoulder’s organic recovery schedule (I opted against surgery), but during my first physical therapy appointment in early February I shared the headache experiences with my PT, and he assured me (with suddenly wide eyeballs) that I was pushing my pain threshold too far if the effort induced a headache. Good to know.
Next, I opted to remain dry the rest of Winter, and most of Spring.
I enjoyed the break from swimming.
Since jumping into Ironman triathlon in my late twenties, and over-excitedly inviting swimming into my life, I felt like it played the role of the cool, older popular kid in high school that gave me a wave in the hallway at the start of the semester, but then ignored me in front of their friends the rest of the school year. And over the nearly twenty years I have been a triathlete, I have yet to be let in on the swimming secret handshake, so I didn’t mind giving us space. I was beyond being played by its refreshing, yet slippery personality, and all I wanted to do was run anyway…
But I couldn’t do that, either.
At least not without the onslaught of crushing, unrelenting pain.
However, running is my first, and true endurance love; it was not going to shake me easily, or at all. I was willing to be patient, to slow down our courtship, attend therapy (deep massage, Physical Therapy, MAT Therapy), dig for the root cause of the injury (x-rays, ultrasounds) plus, I adopted Marion’s sciatica prescribed exercises to floss my nerves, strengthen my back, loosen my ligaments, etc., I vowed to do, and keep doing whatever it took to heal my leg, and reconcile my relationship with running. Although it felt like eight lifetimes, day by day, inch by inch, the pain started to recede, and then…
My first pain-free run of the year, April 30th, 2024.
We were together again.
Painlessly moving in sync.
**Plot twist, swimming is what keeps us in sync.
Post first swim back after the *greenlight* from my Orthopedist. May 30th, 2024.
Whatever kinked up my left leg needs constant care (most likely for the rest of my life), and the most consistent and comforting method to keep it stretched and smoothed out, ready to run, and recovered from running, is swimming.
I suppose the cool kid (Swimming) leaning on the lockers wasn’t looking passed me after all, but instead looking out for me. I wonder if it acted calm and confident because it believed we could be stronger as a team, and simply waited out my stubborn nature until I believed, too. Naturally, like many valuable and painful lessons, I didn’t learn it until I was forced to fix the problem that made me face it.
Post first half-marathon training run since breaking and healing from my bike crash. June 2nd, 2024.
T, what about the bike?
Post super-duper fun bike ride. May 30th, 2024.
There is more to tell, holes to fill in, and a story I’d like to continue to share, so…
Stay tuned.:)
The song and video pick this week is a treasured anthem I was reminded of recently by one of the greatest bands of all-time.