Getting Back in the Pool

Today at PT I was pretty sure Brenda and/or Dave were going to kill me when they heard I hadn't gotten in the pool again. They've been telling me for probably two weeks now to get in and walk in the water. They think it will help my confidence walking and allow me to slowly start doing exercises like standing on my toes to build my muscles up so I can do the exercises on land. I don't even know why I couldn't get myself to get in. I had all these excuses... It was cold. Snickers got sick. Then I got sick. Then last night someone threw up in the pool and my swimmers didn't even get to have practice. I realized I was making excuses because I was afraid and decided I just needed to go for it.

Tonight after coaching my high school swimmers I stayed and got in the pool. It wasn't too bad! But it was hard work! As a swimmer it's always really frustrating to me when I have to start slowly and build up to things and I can't just get right in and start where I left off. The work to get back to that point is hard, frustrating, and it really sucks! I started tonight by walking back and forth in the pool. That wasn't too bad, but it did feel a little weird to use the correct muscles and walk correctly for a change. Then I basically did some calf raises and tried to go up on my toes. It's a lot easier in the water than on land (I can't do it on land at all) but it's still really hard for me to do in the water, and was a bit painful. I tried speeding up my walking to a bouncy skip. That really hurt! I could just barely do a lap of that. I won't be running or skipping anytime soon! Then I tried to swim. It was tiring, but not too bad. I mostly pulled, but was able to do free, back, and breast with a butterfly kick and with a gentle breast kick. It feels like I have a whole new foot that is stiff and doesn't know the motions. Probably because that is basically the case. It amazes me that the rest of my body has such muscle memory and can go right back into swimming easily. Oh I love the feeling of the water when I'm swimming!! My new ankle/foot is going to need some time to learn and catch up. I finished up with a little more swimming and some sculling. My arms are already SO sore! It's the first time in over 10 months I've been able to do a real workout of any kind and feel sore afterwards. It feels GREAT and I am so happy!!