The brighter side

No training in the end today. Heading to bed last night I was forced to admit that my shoulder was really quite sore. Whilst I am not sure what has caused my shoulder to be sore (I have been very careful), there was no denying that it was. Last time I was at the surgeon he told me in no uncertain terms that if my shoulder was sore it was body telling me that I was overdoing it. I may not know what I have done to my shoulder to make it sore, but I am forced to assume that it is because I have overdone it in someway. That in turn made me realise that I had to rest today. If I am being honest with myself about my shoulder pain, then I don't really think I had a choice.

I am at a frustrating point in this injury. I am close enough to the end to feel like I can see it (about a month from having the plate out), but I still have a ways to go and with the current levels of discomfort it is making the time drag.

However, thinking about this injury has led me to think about other injuries I have had in the past and the impacts those injuries have had on my training and racing. Almost without fail I think of these injuries as having been good things in the long run. From stress fractures I worked on lower leg strength a lot and my running improved a lot (believe or not it used to be even worse). From bulging discs came improved core strength and stability.

For a long time I have had a philosophy that things always work out in the end. This has been backed up with what I have seen from my various injuries in the past.

Having had things work out for the best a few times has bought up questions about things like fate. Do things happen for a reason? What it meant to be? I am not entirely comfortable with that idea and more recently it has occurred to me that the fact that things always seem to work out for the best might be more due to attitude than luck.

I suspect things working out for the best after my previous injuries has come from a decision to not give up and dwell on what has gone wrong, not focus on what could have been done better or if somebody is at fault. Instead my focus has always been on getting on with things, improving the areas that have been lacking. I suspect taking that approach with a lot of life's little hiccoughs has meant that improvements have come from them, things have worked out for the best in the long run.

I am yet to see how this particular injury is going to work out for the best, sitting here in the middle of it, it is hard to see how good things can come of it. However, while I may be uncertain now, I am confident benefits will come. After all, it always has before.