The HORROR!!!!

It has been a good 24 hours of progress on a training front. Not all good news though.

This morning I broke a thong (or flip flop or jandal depending on where you live)!!!! A total flip flop blowout. The horror!!!

No thongs heading into an Australian Summer Christmas. I don't think so.

The broken thong incident has necessitated one of those most dreaded of experiences, a pre-Christmas trip to the shops. Compelled by the knowledge that the alternative of having no thongs was unconscionable and that if I didn't go today I would be forced into the terrible experience of Christmas Eve shopping, I braced myself and headed out.

The shopping experience was surprisingly non-fatal. In fact not only did I replace my shoes, but I also managed to snag a bargain on a new pair of shoes for the lovely Mrs Cross (in this case my wife, rather than my Mum or my Sister in Law, both of whom are are doubtlessly lovely, but don't fall under my shoe buying jurisdiction).

Besides shoe buying excitements today has also contained the aforementioned training. This morning's training success story was that I finally made it to the pool for my first 'swim' since my injury. In fact whilst I am doing air quotes while I typing 'swim' I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I could swim. Yes the set did include about 1000m of kick, and the swimming I did involved a strange sort of three quarter stroke but I am counting it as success. The problem with the swimming comes because I currently don't have enough movement in my shoulder to recover my right arm above the water. Or reach out in front of my head. In fact the only part of the stroke I can do with my right arm is the end of pull phase. So my stroke involves a full stroke with my left arm and then the last bit of the stroke on the right side followed by an underwater recovery. It sounds awkward and it certainly is. But it gives me a chance to do something other than kick and one armed drills, I had not been looking forward to spending all my time doing just those two things. Knowing that I can head to the pool and actually swim (well sort of) makes it much easier to get myself there. This means I will be able to maintain some swim fitness and some water feel, which is a big win. Plus as my injury heals my range of motion will get better, which means the swim sessions will only get more effective.

This morning's swim was on top of my last night's run which is my first since my injury. Like the swim, the run wasn't a true run session, being done on the Alter-G treadmill (with my weight reduced to 70%), but it was still a big step in the right direction. As I mentioned yesterday, I really wasn't sure how the run session would go, but it seems like it went okay. The run was a bit like my Kickr sessions in that I couldn't run freely the whole time, having to spend some time supporting my arm to give the shoulder a break. On top of that the pace was very slow, although that was deliberate. However, the main thing is that I got through 40 minutes of running with no adverse side effects today. This session was important because it gives me a base to build my return to running on. The next steps will be very slow, another run tomorrow, similar to yesterday's, then gradual increases in body weight over the next two weeks. Hopefully the new year I may be ready to run on the road.

These gains in training, on top of a reduction in shoulder pain since Monday, means things are looking up for the first time in weeks. Just in time for Christmas.