Not this weekend but next weekend I will be participating in my first ever triathlon. I'm a little bit excited.
And scared.
But mostly excited.
I was unfortunate to sustain an injury last week to my left shoulder. Half an hour after my morning boot camp session it started to feel a bit niggly, and by the end of the day I was nearly in tears trying to take my own t-shirt off. I had barely any movement, and it hurt.
Three days later I had seen my chiro, physio and a masseuse. The masseuse was able to release a bit of the knot in my shoulder, the chiro confirmed my shoulder was out of position (typical of people with scoliosis, they'll have one shoulder a bit more out of position), and the physio was able to give me exercises to stretch and release it. Each one is worth their weight in gold.
Today it's just shy of a week since the original injury, and thankfully I'm nearly over it. I've got full movement back and I'm still working on my stretches to release it every day. It still feels like I have a knot in my shoulder, but I have a massage booked in for tomorrow for 2 hours solid that should hopefully clear up any last muscle strain.
My main concern was about suffering this injury close to my first triathlon. It's hampered my ability to swim so I will have to try and make up a few more sessions next week closer to the time. I'm just glad that I'm a bit of a water baby and have no problems swimming, it's just a matter of ensuring I don't try to push too hard and wear myself out within the first 50m. Thankfully I've still been able to run and bike in the meantime without too much pain. Riding my bike was a bit weird, and I found I was leaning forward so as to not stretch out my bad shoulder too much. Running this morning it was barely noticeable.
I've had to pull out of a running race before due to my bad knee flaring up, and that sucked. I am not pulling out of this triathlon. It's been a distant dream for many years to do one.
There is a pen already hovering above my bucket list. I want to cross this one off.
February 2nd will be that day.