McDonald's on a recent road trip to Tampa Bay aside, reporter Paul Tenorio has avoided fast food -- though he has more freedom in his diet than when he first started swimming this summer. (Photo by Jennifer Ritz)
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Well, that was an anticlimactic doctor’s visit.
I pretty much knew what would happen today. I’d sit across from the doctor or nurse practitioner, tell them what was wrong and have a referral written for an orthopedist. That’s exactly what happened.
I was told that it sounds like I could possibly have a sprained shoulder, some fraying of the ligament, etc., but that it probably isn’t a tear. I was told that the orthopedist will likely order an MRI and that I’ll probably have physical therapy coming in the near future.
Most importantly, I was told that I should be able to keep swimming as I am right now.
Good.
I’m ready for all of this shoulder drama to be over and done with. I guess most importantly I’m ready to swim without feeling tight/sore/weak.
Today’s set (which started about 30 minutes late for me because I forgot to re-set my alarm to 3:40 a.m. before I went to sleep. I woke up at 4:30 by some miracle and sped to practice) was the first time I really swam fast in a while. Or attempted to. Boy did I feel slow.
As much as the shoulder has been an issue — there was some soreness today — it was the large break from sprinting that was hitting me hard today. It didn’t take long for the triceps and shoulders to tighten up. The breath control factor has returned and I’m still just trying to get into better cardiovascular shape.
Still, it felt good to at least attempt sprinting today. (Yet,it was depressing to be a slowpoke to the three guys swimming next to me — Zack Wise, Pat Sullivan and Sean Spata.)
By the way, I continue to be awestruck at how slow I am at kicking. Wise was killling me in the kick portion of the set today. I mean, by a lot. It is never fun to lose, but to look like you’re not even trying is worse. The sad part of it all was that I really was kicking hard. I wasn’t coasting. I am just slowwwww.
I’ll keep you all updated on my status once I schedule the orthopedic appointment and hopefully get the MRI. (I have to wait until tomorrow to get my referral).
I got a comment asking about my diet recently, so I’ll delve into that a bit.
It’s funny because if you remember when I first started this project I cut out all carbs and actually lost a ton of water weight and dropped something like nine pounds right off the bat in the first two weeks. After a while, that number started to hover and I was gaining a pound, losing a pound, etc., etc., and not making a ton of progress.
Turns out, that was coinciding with Jeff upping my workouts in yardage and intensity.
I started to feel really low in energy during the day and was having more trouble waking up and staying lively so I figured I needed to re-introduce the carbs. I did, and I almost immediately dropped more weight.
Now, with my workouts back up in yardage, I’m pretty much free to eat carbs — though I have been way better about not over-indulging as I did before. I definitely can eat more freely than when I wasn’t working out at all, but I’m not staring at bread longingly either.
The major thing is just to try to limit how often I eat out and make sure I’m not eating a bunch of unhealthy food. Let’s say there are FAR fewer visits to drive-thrus (though the trip to Tampa was AWFUL food-wise).
The wonderful thing about swimming for an hour and a half every day and getting some work in later in the day is that my metabolism is functioning like it used to — to an extent. I still get chastised here and there by my girlfriend for certain choices at certain meals on the weekend.
The positive, though, is that I am not eating 1,000 salads a week…which I’m happy about. And I’m still fluctuating in weight right around the 176-178 mark, a drastic difference from the 193 of many moons ago.
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