March 2017

My last Parkrun, indeed my last jog of any sort is now a month ago when I put in the usual lacklustre performance of 26:37 for the 5k distance, and I haven't missed the jogging one little bit. Following on from that I've managed a fairly regular 4 miles in the kayak on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. The first couple of outings at the start of the month were fairly slow affairs with lots of breaks in the paddling rhythm and an overall slow progression. But, it did give the opportunity to concentrate on the technique and getting the whole body, including hips, shoulders and legs involved in the stroke. Not an easy thing at all.

One of my many faults that I've never been able to eradicate, and may well have been the cause of my shoulder injury in the first place, is that I tend to extend the length of the stroke by pulling well past my waist when the paddle should be exiting level with it. This was brought home when l found I could feel the injury in the shoulder as I paddled and resulted in both shoulders getting sore for a day or so after each outing. I've kept the sessions to two a week to give everything a chance to recover but it soon became obvious that if I kept on pulling through I was going to recreate the injury again in fairly short order.

To try to improve the stroke I've employed a couple of elasticated elbow support sleeves to try to limit the amount of bend in the joint and keep my arms straighter. This is working somewhat as it's partly preventing me from bending my elbows to a full right-angle which facilitates the  paddle coming back past the waist. The supports are limiting the joint flexibility and I'm getting a shorter stroke as a result, although I'm trying to compensate for that with a better catch and harder initial pull at the front of the stroke. Having the sleeves on also serves as a 'reminder' that I've got to keep my arms straighter. The last couple of outings have gone particularly well as I'm starting to feel that the boat is moving a bit despite the limiting effect of the sleeves. Hopefully I'll be able to dispense with them once I've got the shorter stroke ingrained in the psyche. 

The physio's ministrations on the wrist problem seem to have worked well. A month of isometric compression exercises has resulted in an almost pain-free wrist. The paddling might have helped as well but the nett result has allowed a few weeks of use without the usual attendant shooting pain up the arm. We are now advanced onto rotational exercises on a sort of exercise ball while loading up the pressure I can put on the wrist. All the while with the admonishments to carry on 'as long as it doesn't hurt'. Actually, that's easier said than done as pressure on the wrist while rotating it does hurt if I get it wrong. 

The third Saturday of the month was the club's Hare & Hounds and I returned to the 4 mile session with the intention of getting some idea how my present performance stacks up against previous, prior accident times. which is now a year since. All things considered I didn't do too badly and was surprised to find that I staggered home inside the hour at 58:10. I was quite pleased with that as an unexpected result. Unfortunately I hadn't been able to catch the person that went off 2:30 ahead of me and I dropped another two minutes to end up 4:30 slower.