It's been a week since I crashed on my bike and injured my right shoulder. A tough and painful week. A week of doubt. My wife has skilfully tended to my road rash, making sure it didn't get infected. It has, in fact, healed quite nicely. Not so the rest of my shoulder, however. I didn't see a doctor, confident that I didn't fracture, break or dislocate anything. Instead, I opted for icing, arnica gel and tablets, Biofreeze, and .... a sling. I figured I'd be sore for a few days and then get back to swimming in about a week. However, by the weekend, I was still very sore and felt a lot of pain when lifting my arm above my shoulder. I had a hard time getting to sleep at night, too. Nevertheless, I forced myself to keep trying to train, somehow. I continued to ride my trainer with some discomfort, and run on the treadmill with my right arm in a sling and clinging to my waist. Unable to really run at race pace, I opted for tempo/endurace runs to maintain some fitness. I could still do some lactate threshold work on the bike, but with only 60% range of motion in my right shoulder, I couldn't swim. I just wasn't healing fast enough, and with each day, I felt my shot at a USAT national title slipping away. I started reshaping my goals: Maybe I could swim one arm and then ride and run fast enough to make the team for Worlds....one way or another, I fretted to find a way to be "great" in "my mind". On Monday, I went to a massage therapist who gave me a 30-minute trigger point session. If you have never had trigger point therapy, its just like it sounds. Trigger- Think gun, think getting shot, think pain. Point - think of someone pressing the most painful point of a sore or injured muscle. Ouch! O-U-CH-H-H!!!!! "Breathe through it," she said. "I'm really sorry," she said. I huffed. I panted. I sucked in air. I gritted my teeth. I didn't cry . . . . At first, she said that it felt like the joint was slightly out of place, and if so, I would need to go to the doc. But after working it for twenty minutes, she realized that all my muscles in my shoulder were super tense like "guitar strings". At about 25 minutes, she succeeded in getting some release and my shoulder has felt better since then, giving me some hope. No need to see the doc, since there's no dislocation. Phew. So this morning, I got on a plane to Minneapolis, MN for the National Truck Driving Championships, arm in a sling. I'm suppposed to be doing fitness workshops for the drivers! LOL Such are my adventures while training in a sling!