During my senior year of high school I suffered a separated shoulder about halfway through my final wrestling season. I remember it hurt like crazy and I never did give it a decent chunk of time to heal until the two week layoff between Regionals and State. In the meantime, I struggled through practices and meets, packed on ice pack after ice pack, and injury defaulted out of each of my finals matches at Districts and Regionals.

Since the end of December I’ve started to make it a priority to keep/rebuild some of that leanness and healthiness of years prior (those post-wrestling-abuse years, not the freakish wrestling regimen). I’ve got a gym membership at the Kentwood Athletic Club and have been lifting, biking, and swimming on a regular basis. The diet also has been solid. Lots of fruit, whole grains, more veggies than usual, lean proteins, flax seed, etc. And I feel a little of the old pep coming back. A little more vibrancy of muscle and clearness of though (perspicacity, for those of you paying attention to one of my all-time favorite words).

Anyway, I was swimming at a pretty good clip (for me at least) yesterday afternoon, rushing to finish my laps right before work, when I felt that old wrestling shoulder twinge again. Nothing crazy, just a little bite somewhere under the right shoulder muscle. Same stab I used to feel during practice when trying to snap a quick sit-out and switch to the right side against some resistance. It’s funny to me how those old injuries never really go away.