Hi, so its March.
Hehe I know that you guys might figured out this information also without me, but for me March was the month with big "M".
I tell you why. Have you ever been injured? Maybe yes maybe no, but the point is: if you are injured and you can't do something that you love because of the injury, that is the worst feeling.
I love kayaking, I think I won't ever stop, even when I'm old, broke or what ever happens to me in the future. As you probably figured out before, I had some difficult injures in the past, like broken pac muscle 2 years ago, broken stomach muscle and last autumn I dislocated my shoulder badly. Since than I was fortunately able to train myself but not on whitewater. I was just watching all the other guys kayaking and I could not get into the whitewater. It was a very difficult time for me. The only thing which kept me up was the hope that after the MR the doc tells me that its ok, it just needs some more relax and I am good to go. Unfortunately it wasn't like that. He told me that the dislocation damaged some bones and the shoulder capsule has to be fixed or it might dislocate soon but than I won't be able to do sports anymore. So basically I didn't have any other choice, I just had to get this surgery done.
I was waiting another month for the surgery , so I did shorten my time with lots of trainings on kayak machines and gyms, running, biking and playing with my little son Peter.
The surgery... was not my favourite I can tell. When I woke up I had a lot of pain in my arm and could not get more drugs. Couldn't sleep and had fever. Than I figured out I was under the blades of my doc for long 7 hours. He was playing with my ripped biceps to get it back, so the arm is working normally later. This biceps was shorter so he had to put it back and that was the pain... Ok so few weeks later I was mostly focussed to heal fast. I was moving my arm at least one hour every day. Had a lot of pain but focussing on kayaking, on the thing I love so much, helped me to come over that. The doc said I have to keep it fixed for one month, no big movements. I believe that the psyche of the human being is the strongest and the body will follow. Although it was hard, I was super focussed, that once I will be back boating and doing everything like before. I do also believe that the injured part will heal much faster, when you train the rest of your body.
After that month I went to my doc and he was super happy with me. He couldn't believe that the movements are so good. He let me put down the orthosis and start with physio. If you guys think that until now it was the hard part, you are wrong! Imagine super painful movements, no muscles there, I lost like 3 cm on muscles. So I went to my physio and we started. She was helping me to get back and it worked.
After one week of physio every day, plus hours of training alone, I was starting to feel it's not enough, it's too slow and if I want to be on the water in March, I have to work harder. So the next one and a half month was like this: waking up at 6, then physio, then training, then working in the factory on my new prototype, afterwards physio and then training again. I came home at 21:00 every day. Many times I was so exhausted, that I was starting to think I would not make it and it's not getting better fast enough and and and.
Its really difficult to keep your mind up, to think straight and just focus for 101% on the recovery process.
Anyway, my plan was to finish the recovery process on the holiday with the family in Bad Gastein. The half of the day snowboarding and than nordics or the gym. Great week! The March was coming and the shoulder started to feel better and better. It was time to change the ski for the slalom kayak and start with endurance and slaloming the gates.
After this I thought I was ready for the first freestyle action after 6 months! Big time for me. We went to Plattling and I started slow with the easy moves. The shoulder works! I am feeling so excited! Stoked. Well, of cause I almost forgot how to do the proper freestyle, but after this long time not being able to kayak on my freestyle kayak it was great anyway. Now I am here for the second week, getting my shape back and enjoying the European spring in my new kayak.
PS: My doc gave me 6 months and I did it in 3, so the theory seems to work!
See you Peter
