Sunday, August 10, 2008

Feeling Sore

This past week, I barely got to the gym, owing to work and another mitigating circumstance (a good circumstance, but mitigating none the less).

Tuesday, I worked out with Brian. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to play with him on Thursday. I swam on Friday, though my swim didn't go quite according to plan. I had intended to leave work at noon and swim about 2,000 yards, but I ended up leaving work a little after 2 and swimming only about 1500 yards, as I didn't want to be late for picking up my friend from the airport.

Maybe it was just that I didn't workout as much this week, or maybe it's owing to the swim workout I did, I felt sore for the first time after swimming. Or, maybe I can attribute the soreness to a late night on Friday without much sleep. Either way, Saturday afternoon I started feeling a bit sore.

Aside from Advil, are there any things I can do to ease muscle soreness after tough workouts? I know one of my friends in college swore by eating lots of high-protein meals after hard workouts, but I don't know if that's got any scientific merit. I think soaking in the whirlpool at the gym after hard workouts and gentle stretching will help, but is there anything else I can do?

I guess some research is in order. Despite having a little residual soreness this morning, I decided to go swimming again this morning, knocking out about 2,100 yards. Today's workout:
50 free with paddles
rest enough to start my watch
450 free with paddles
rest 1 minute
300 free with paddles
100 kick
100 pull free with paddles and buoy
rest 1 minute
300 backstroke
100 kick
100 pull free with paddles and buoy
rest 1 minute
300 free with paddles
100 kick
100 pull free with paddles and buoy
rest 1 minute
100 breast

My backstroke and breaststroke are quite weak, but I was quite happy that I was able to do 300 back and 100 breast. I'm thinking of finding a swim lesson for adults that know the jist of the strokes, but really want to improve their skills. I don't think I'm a good enough swimmer for Master's swimming yet (once I get to a continuous mile consistently, I'll think about it), but I'd like to improve my strokes and ensure that what I'm doing won't hurt my shoulders.

I guess that was a lot of randomness for a Sunday, but hey, what can you do.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Kristin, I came upon your ankle history by chance. I too have had triple arthrodeses, the left by Dr. Myerson in 1995 and the right by Dr. Cooper in 2006. So far so good for them both but of course you trade absence of the awful pain for seriously reduced range of motion. Good luck with it all for you and try to remember why you had it done in the first place. I tend to forget the pain as time passes without it.