So That Worked

After the battering I inflicted on my bod up at Tahoe Donner last weekend, I took several days off from exerting myself, and hadn't really done much with the upper body all week. So when I got an early start to the day today, after miraculously waking up at 7:09 all by myself, I knew I was going to try and do a longish swim this afternoon.

I had tweaked my left shoulder a bit falling down the steps (snow steps, not actual steps) to the lodge at the end of the day. A bruise on the knee and one on the elbow, and the shoulder that ached all the way home. But then it calmed down and I thought no more about it. Until I got in the pool. Huh! I couldn't place it at the time, but after a little googling, I think it was the teres minor that was tight. See pic for details. Not a bad tightness, but noticeable. I relaxed my shoulders, arms, neck, upper back, and everything else I could think of to relax, and tried not to push the pace at all. And after a while I wasn't really aware of it anymore. Just kind of kept swimming and swimming and before ya know it, I was at 1600 yards. And then I did a couple hundred more, just for kicks, trying to see how few times I could breathe with each length of the pool. (Four, in case you were wondering.) So, cool! 1800 yards, longest swim of the Big Fat Fitness Comeback.

I think I'm about six months into the BFFC now, and here's a few things I notice:

• My arms are stronger and more toned, especially the triceps
• My calves have some definition
• My quads are kind of gettin' there
• I recover a lot quicker from workouts, especially swimming. When I first started up again, I couldn't raise my arms after a swim session.
• Estimate that my resting heart rate is down about 5 bpm (need some kind of accurate timepiece to confirm this)

So that's working.