To start off this post I'll write about my meet I had last night. It was a home meet... and now that I look back at it, a kind of funny meet. My team (at least the boys) got second place. Auburn beat us, but then again, their boys team was bigger than our entire team. The first funny thing that happened to me was that the girls 4x100 team did their race, then walked off while my team talked to the 'clerk'. They had my baton. So I had a friend of mine run down grab me a baton. I could run faster, so I met him half way. And then ran back and got in my blocks. I got there and only had a few seconds to catch my breath and the race began. It was only a 100 meter so being out of breath didn't matter much. I handed off my baton, but our B team (I'm on the A team) dropped it, thus becoming disqualified to continue. Now, the really funny thing was that the girl handing out stickers for the relay teams didn't really know what she was doing. She actually gave us (the A team) the B team's sticker! So now online it looks like my team was DQed, and that our B team ran an amazing time for them.
My next event was kind of funny, but more frustrating. I was running the 800. That's a brutal race, so you have to conserve your energy the first lap. I planned on doing that and following the front two or three guys. That didn't happen. Within the first 5 to 10 meters I was, shouldered, spiked, and cut off. This made me mad... and made me want to get out of the group. That's what I did, I sprinted ahead to get out of the mob. Boom. There goes my end kick. I wasted the energy I needed to finish strong. I was now in the lead. That's good in most sprints, but not the 800. Second is usually the best. That way you trail the first place guy and beat him at in the last 200 meters with your kick. I slowed down a tad on the turns to try and tempt them to pass me on the turn. That way someone would be in front of me and they would have wasted energy passing me on the turn. One guy fell for it. The other guys that passed me didn't. Three guys from Auburn and one guy from Mt. Blue. The Auburn guys beat me, but the Mt. Blue guy was the one who passed me on the turn. My weak kick in the end helped me beat him. So I ended in forth.
My last run was the 4x400. That one was just fun. I started it, I was behind the Auburn guy by a few feet when I finished. The rest of my team did well, but one guy forgot to cut in. So he ran an extra 5-15 meters. Which actually was how close we were behind Auburn! But it was a fun race!
Ok. Now on to the injury part. You may have known that I had an injured shoulder. I injured (kind of) it durning soccer. Sleeping on that shoulder and stressing it with overhead presses and a Smith Machine. I took off around a month. It healed up, but was weak. I lifted for a bit, then recently I lifted heavy dumbbells from the floor with no spotter. Bad idea. I pressed a little to high and my left shoulder gave out, straining the previously injured tendon quite badly. This time the pain is more sharpe and isolated... which makes me think it is a rotator cuff injury. I won't be lifting upper body for a long time because of this. If it doesn't feel much better this weekend I'll probably go to the doctor. If I'm right, I'll probably have to take 2-6 months off of upper body. That would really stink, because pull ups are probably my favorite exercise. That's the sad truth though.
So what should I do? Train around it. My sophomore year I was it great shape. I ran a 10:35 two mile and a 5:05 mile by the end of the summer. Granted, I couldn't sprint as fast, jump as high, do as many pull ups, or lift as heavy weights. Those come with strength and some fitness. I've lifted a lot more these past years, and ran less. My mile and two mile suffered from that. I prefer lifting, but if I can't work on my upper body much, I'll be forced to build my endurance and lower body strength a lot.
I'll train my forearms, so that when I get back into pull ups, my grip won't be slowing down me.
I'll probably work on my abs as well. I just couldn't go as hard core with them because I wouldn't be able to do hanging leg raises or L-sits.
I may have a pretty wimpy upper body, but I'll probably have little to no fat and strong legs if I don't lift. I'll need to find a way to train my back though. Pull ups, rows, and dead lifts are the way I've been doing that. Those all require the shoulder joint. Who knows, maybe because I hurt my shoulder pressing, I could still do pulling workout!
Moral of the story? Don't lift heavy without a spotter, and if you're injured, don't give up. Train around it.
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