Back in the water

A very nice Good Friday spent riding bikes, catching up with friends and just generally relaxing.

I started the day off on the bike for a nice spin with some of the guys from the club. It wasn't a ride that was on the program, however, it is probably going to be raining in town tomorrow so I thought I would take the chance to ride outside while I had it. If it is raining in the morning I might still jump on the Kickr, but at least this way I have spent some time out and about. Good time catching up with some friends too so generally a pleasant way to spend the morning.

The more critical activity of the day came around lunch time when I ventured back into the water for my first proper swim in nearly 4 months.

I would have liked my first swim to be in the controlled environment of a pool, but given it is Good Friday today, no pool is open. As a result my first swim back was in the River.

Calling it a swim is possibly a little generous, really it was more about testing my range of motion and strength. I did do a few laps, mostly with fins, but the session wasn't really about that. The laps were fairly pain free, I had some soreness particularly around the AC joint area, but it wasn't much, more of an ache than anything. Muscle soreness too, but that is to be expected. The biggest issue I found with the swimming was one of confidence. I just found it hard to trust my right shoulder, particularly as it loaded up at the catch. I am not sure if there really was a lack of strength or I just felt like there could be, but I found it hard to exert much pressure with my right arm. I am fairly sure that will pass with time though as I spend a bit more time in the pool.

What was good was that the water didn't feel foreign. My time off hasn't seem to have resulted in any loss of water feel or anything like that, the technique and everything felt good, it was just a struggle to have enough strength to execute it. That will come obviously, it will just take a bit of work.

For now it feels like short swim done often will be the key. My shoulder simply doesn't feel like it is up for a long swim session, but it feels like it could cope with several short ones. I think that is something that I will be looking to focus on in the coming weeks.