I'm about a week late posting this but it's still pretty exciting news. Last Wednesday (March 4) I went swimming for the first time since my surgery and finally got a real workout. I don't think I have ever been excited about swimming, in fact I always dreaded heading to the pool, mostly because it was associated with me being injured. Funny how your perspective changes when you can't even walk for 6 weeks. Being able to swim suddenly feels a lot more liberating, even though, in my case, getting in and out of the pool is quite a process. Between switching from my street clothes to my swim truncks and back, I had to take off and put on my walking boot 3 times (which has a bunch of straps and flaps to remove). Making my way with crutches from the locker room into the pool must also look rather entertaining. I'm not complaining, though, and I've actually been feeling very motivated to work out these days. I went for a swim 5 times so far, going every day since I started except the weekend, when I didn't feel like driving up to Club O, and today when I got held up at work and didn't have the time to squeeze a swim in. Even on those days I worked out a bit at home, doing some strengthening and core stuff. So I no longer feel that I'm a lazy bum, like the first few weeks post-op.
Now on to the actual swimming part. I can't say that I've been pushing myself much but I think that I've been getting some decent workouts. I started with a 15 minute swim and progressed to about half an hour. I'm also gradually cutting my breaks shorter and increasing the actual swimming time. I know it doesn't seem like much but things are tougher when you suck at swimming and cannot even use your legs. Even in just a few days I've noticed some improvement so hopefully I'll be better and stronger soon and I'll be swimming more. I don't expect to become a competitive swimmer any time soon but what's important is that I'm doing something to stay reasonably fit.
