10 and a half weeks on.....

Last Tuesday I had my first swimming lesson since the age of five. Luckily they did not give me arm bands and allowed me to go in the deep end. Due to my pelvis swimming has become my main form of fitness training. As a swimmer I put a lot of effort in but don't seem to move very fast plus feeling deflated with doing lap after lap with no aim I needed something active to focus my attention so decided to have some lessons to see where I am going wrong and to give me some direction.. First thing brought up was how my legs are over active kicking extremely fast up and down but with very little benefit. Other pointers were to relax more to help me stay afloat, that my wrists need to be stronger and straighter to stop my hands flopping down to the water, to really stretch the arm out in front plus other tips to improve my stroke. I found it really beneficial and it gave me swimming focus for the rest of the week.

Yesterday was my second lesson and it was brilliant. I started with a warm up followed by a few drills that focus on different aspects of your stroke, then the fun began with lengths at 50% building up to 75% and 100% effort dropping back down to 75% and a last lap of 100%. It was brilliant to push hard and to get my heart rate racing again, what a buzz.

A bit more research on the internet and I downloaded some swimming sessions and have found a couple of local swimming groups for adults with a chance to swim with these groups every night of the week. Hopefully the swimming will keep me aerobically fit so that when strong enough to start riding it won't take as long to build fitness back up.

The pelvis is a lot stronger now but still very limiting for an active person. I can walk around fine but anything that puts force and impact through the pelvis causes pain. So cycling at a reasonable intensity and for a reasonable time is still out of the question and sessions on the turbo have been limited to 30 minutes to an hour depending on how pelvis feels. I put on two pairs of cycling shorts yesterday for cushioning and went for my first extremely gentle road ride. I was really nervous about it, didn't want to be disappointed and find out it was still too early to be on a moving bike plus fear of being knocked off and making my fracture worse. I was fairly comfortable sat on the saddle for the hour which is good. A bit wobbly to start with having to retrain both legs to work smoothly and not just the strong right side. Short climbs were the main noticeable difference to a turbo and put strain on the pelvis so I think for my next ride I will take the Superfly out (I know such a waste of a beautiful bike) giving me more gear options and extra cushioning.

Other exercises have included Swiss ball core exercises and arm bike, plus on Monday ten minutes on the rowing machine and cross trainer which although boring, especially when not able to put the power down, are an alternative to the turbo. I have woken up a bit sore today which I put down to climbing on the bike and kicking with a leg float yesterday, a bit annoying but I am still learning how much I can push it.

It made me smile to be out riding again plus the exhilarating swimming lessons. It has been a ridiculously long and upsetting ten and a half weeks and I know more time is needed before I can put pressure through my pelvis but I am definitely feeling more on the upside of the recovery now. Roll on the next few weeks.

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