Another week (plus a few days), another blog post. This time, I’m writing from an apartment in San Francisco that looks straight out of Apartment Therapy while visiting my family for the weekend. So yes, let’s blame the tardiness of this post on jetlag and lamenting my lack of decorating skills.

But enough with the apologies. Time to start recapping!

Swim: Two big things. One, Holli from Rose PT confirmed that my shoulder was indeed quite a mess. Muscles were out of balance and pulling on each other, resulting in a shoulder pulled up and forward, as well as a very distressed “chokepoint” where several muscles meet under the armpit. No wonder my shoulder hurt and hand went numb while swimming! But within the hour (yes, appointments are a full hour!), she was able to put it back in its place. And unlike many doctors, who take the “stop working out for 6 weeks and see how it feels” approach, she asked me to swim that day and see if there was a difference. Good thing I’ve started keeping extra swim gear in the car! The swim felt pretty good; my shoulder was tired but not in pain. As I swam (mostly with fins, to reduce the pressure on the shoulders), I thought about when the pain started and what else may have changed. I examined each aspect of my stroke. Are you different? Are you? And, sure enough, my pull was waaaaaay bigger than it needed to be. In my enthusiasm to add more hip rotation to my stroke, I had moved from a shallow, early vertical forearm pull to a deeper, nearly straight arm pull. It sure felt stronger but wow, was it stressing out my shoulders (and messing with the tempo). I then focused on a proper pull while keeping the body roll, and immediately my shoulders felt better. Hooray! I have some underwater taping scheduled for this coming week, so let’s see if I’m on the right track.

Bike: Still chugging along. I did a big bike block in the early part of the week in anticipation of bike-less travel (plus recovering from the shoulder and hip injuries) and managed to come out of it feeling strong, not sick of the bike, and without saddle sores. Hooray!

Run: I’ve graduated from 5 minute runs to 10 minute runs. Fancy! And the last few have been totally pain-free. Thank you, balls.

Hike: San Francisco is a fun city but the real thrill (for me, and, thankfully, my family) is exploring the parks nearby. This trip, we spent a day at Point Reyes National Seashore. This day also happened to be the lone break in the rainstorms. The trails were muddy but the landscape was green and sky was blue. Stellar.