Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Wake-up call

I've been coming undone in the last six weeks, and it's all on my left side (oddly). First came the shoulder pull, not an unusual gym injury, but one that requires some careful handling to heal. Then on a sumo deadlift, I felt something pull, almost tear, from my collarbone area. The whole upper middle part of my chest has been sore, but again, healing. My left knee acts up now and again; that's the one I fell on at the Brush Mountain Breakdown. And on the time trial on the bike last week, it was the left quad that screamed the loudest.

So, naturally, I've been dancing around these issues, but unwilling to back down too much for fear of losing ground training-wise. Well, today I think I pushed my luck and I'm not so sure I dodged the bullet this time. That chest thing is back with a vengeance. It happened on a set of incline smith machine presses and I heard an audible POP. Scary.

This is my wake-up call that I'd better pay attention and take care because the LAST thing I need is something big to get in the way of all the things I enjoy doing. There is no race, no bench press meet, no nothing more important than being healthy to have fun swimming, running, biking, and lifting. It's time to back off and heal up.