For several weeks, actually months, I have been lamenting my shoulder injury and the effects it has had on my training.  For the first time in 2 years I stopped making progress with my upper body strength gains.  Backing off of and even eliminating aspects of my training that I enjoy has been challenging to say the least.  I would never have thought that it is harder to NOT do pull-ups than it is to actually do them!  The point of this post is not to whine or complain.  Enough of that!  This is not debilitating.  It is not life-threatening.  It’s not tragic, nor terrible, nor crushing, nor any other adjective one might use to describe a terrible life event.  I still possess physical abilities beyond what many people in this world have.  I am thankful for that every single day and I make a point to take notice as I pass people in the hallways, walk by them in the grocery store, and interact with them at social events.  False modesty in my own head does me no good. As much as I want to be more physically fit, I have to realize that there are many who would be thrilled to be in my position.  It’s worth repeating that I am thankful for that, extremely thankful.  I was never going to be an Olympic athlete.  I was never going to win a Spartan Race, Warrior Dash, or any other obstacle race outright.  My biggest challenge in these races is my own standard of excellence.  Can I meet or beat the expectations that I have set?  Fortunately or unfortunately, I control how I continue to deal with my injury.  This is what I have chosen.

I have accepted that I am losing strength, that I am losing some of my edge with upper body challenges.  I have accepted that I will go through a period (quite possibly a long one) of time in which I have to pull back on the reins.  I have accepted that I will not enter the 2012 racing season in peak physical condition and will likely struggle throughout it.  I have accepted that I will not be as good as I can be…………FOR NOW.

I have NOT accepted that this is lifelong.  I have NOT accepted that I should permanently scale back.  I have not and will not let one injury ruin my goals.  I will come back.  I will be stronger.  I will be faster.  I WILL!!!

As the saying goes “that which does not kill me had better start running!”  I now have my own little personal motivational poster and I plan on looking at it every single day until I am healed.  If any one of you are currently struggling with some type of physical limitation, I hope that you can find your own piece of motivation.  If not, feel free to borrow mine.