What a very strange week it has been so far. This week I’ve had, for the first time in many years, a recurrence of a very old injury that once plagued me. I woke up on Monday morning with a dull ache on the left-hand side of my neck going down into my shoulder blade. This was once a common occurrence and I have a history of neck problems culminating in surgery and a spinal fusion at the C6/C7 vertebrae in 1998. I haven’t had any trouble with it for many years but there it was. It might have been from all the swimming or something I accidentally did in the gym or maybe I was just tired. Monday I managed to swim over to Shelly Beach and back as normal but Tuesday I had to confront the squad training in the evening. I was in so much pain I deliberated whether to do it or not. Finally went along but had to pull out after only about six laps. It was humiliating and frustrating as Narelle Simpson, the coach, doesn’t know me all that well and probably presumes either that I’m not fit or I’m just a bit lazy. It was really sore at the end.

This morning, Wednesday I wanted to do the swim with the gang at Manly so I used a snorkel. This helps as I didn’t have to roll my neck. The downside is you are head down and can’t see where you are going. There are no black lines on the bottom of the ocean. I ended up swimming around in circles which everyone found very comical. I got through my gym session okay at lunchtime with the help of some painkillers, although my neck was aching. I also achieved something of a milestone, as I leg pressed 60 kg for the first time. I don’t know why this is a milestone but it’s getting up towards my body weight. This wasn’t a goal when I first started, but Belinda seems to have made it one. She is now right into the strengthening phase and still seems keen to find out where my boundaries are. I did the whole session, including leg extensions, leg curls, various squats, including one leg of squats and stretching without any pain. This neck thing is just another setback but I hope it passes soon.