Training Restart & Fund Raising

With a week of taking things easy after my steriod injection training RESTART was initiated yesterday. Firstly I received a visit from my physio Anna Tilman who gave me some guidance on how I should rehab my shoulder. This includes undertaking regular exercises to strengthen the shoulder and a series of stretches to complete prior and following exercise and training sessions. Exercise sessions should be possible at home as well as at the gym. Anna also recommended that I should continue my rowing.

Last night following my visit from my physio I heading out in the racing chair. My escort for this session was my work colleague Geoff Rhodes. Geoff is a keen cyclist and came well equiped. This proved very handy as he had a good set of lights and due to our late departure we did not get home after training until after 6pm - it was pretty dark! Thanks Geoff, I look forward to your company on future training pushes.

Geoff Rhodes

Today I started my serious drive for fundraising towards CATWALK TRUST.  Already I have some donations but today I started my visit to local businesses to see if they would contribute. Along with my efforts my Rural Fire mates are also going to run a raffle to raise money.  So if YOU can help please track down a rural fire fighter and buy a ticket or donated directly to my website;

http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/TerryONeill/

Shoulder, Stunned & Steroids

Following the couple of pushes I had since our return from Australia the SHOULDER really started to niggle, no problems I thought as I have an appointment with my sports masseuse later that week. Friday's appointment ended up being my shortest ever. Jenny asked how my shoulder was following resting up in Oz. I was up front and told her it was worse than ever, short pause, then she said 'I think you have a muscle tear'. OK no worries I think, we will fix it. Then Jenny STUNS me when she says 'There is no way you are going to New York with a muscle tear'.  OH MY GOD!!! Next step was to check Jenny's diagnosis,  trip to the GP and an ultrasound.  With my trip to the GP not possible until Monday morning I have rather a glum weekend.

Come Monday morning I head to my doctor who has a different and better diagnosis,  an 'Impingement Injury' which is treatable by muscle strengthening and a shot of STEROIDS. Yee ha....I'll join Lance Armstrong and his drug cheating mates if I can get to the New York Marathon!  More good news is that I can get an appointment that afternoon following a scheduled trip to Burwood. At the ultrasound they confirm it is not a tear, they also do about a half dozen xrays to really check it out. The next morning my GP rings and confirms that it looks like an impingement injury and 'would you like an ultrasound guided STEROID injection?' You beat if it helps the healing process. 

A few days afterwards I am catching up with Mike Brown to check out his powered hand cycle and the trailer he tows with it. The trip is very fruitful as I get some great ideas for a trailer my new hand bike which was delivered a few days before. As you would expect I also grill Mike about his experience with the New York Maraton in 2014. Along with some info about the course including a heads up about how tough the bridges are to climb he also agrees with my GP's diagnosis for my shoulder telling me about another common symptom of having numb hands in bed. Also he reckons I need to get my masseuse to work on my peks. Picture of my new handbike below, good for some x-training.

This procedure was completed today, see picture below. I now need to go easy for about 10 days and then I can start building into my training again!!

Holiday....What Holiday??

The trip to Aus was thoroughly enjoyed although those 6 days disappeared rather quickly. No significant training happened while away with the exception of pushing around marbled shopping malls and some pushing along seaside paths on the Sunshine Coast and at Byron Bay. On arriving home we were duped into thinking winter back in NZ had finished, with a warm nor-wester in Christchurch it was 12 degrees at 1am....the same temperature as Coolangatta 4 hours earlier. But winter definitely came back with some vengance in a few days.

Since our return I have managed to get out for another couple of pushes including one with Michael O'Neill (Qld) tagging along. These couple of pushes included trialing a Sony Action Cam. I purchased this while in Oz to take in the sites of New York and record the event. The first trial I attached the camera to my helmet which did not work so well...lots of tarmac but not many sites. The second trial we mounted the camera on the chair which worked ok, see the results below.....well maybe not - it looks like my mirco SD card has failed :-(

Denise, Me, Neiko and Libby