This entry is about what makes me tick. Or, put in a slightly less glib way, this is about motivation and meaning. The process for me goes like this: I come across half an idea or less. Something about it captures my imagination; it sticks in my head, somewhere in the region of peripheral vision, so that even when I’m looking at my lab notebook I can see it.

The idea rolls around inside, gathers details until it becomes a goal. Once I have goals I’m a much happier person. My new restrictions made all my old goals obsolete. I’ve added new ones, recently. The best sources of what is possible are other similarly-able individuals.

The SCI patients I met through Greg make rehab their full-time job.  I know I’m compromising recovery by going back to school right away. When I’m in lab I’m not standing or exercising, and I’m often in pain. I don’t have a choice about working. But I’m used to being a weekend warrior and getting all my training in after lab. So that will be my approach to serious rehab.

By talking to Arash and Theo, I reset my expectations for how much therapy I need and started plotting the supplemental treatment. I got inspired. The No Limits Collaborative, a nonprofit started by Arash, is putting on a swim in Donner Lake. My goal is to swim three miles. This is the perfect carrot to make all my pool laps more interesting and more meaningful. I can’t wait to take swimming outside and to be part of an event. Right now it takes me slightly more than an hour to swim a mile on my front. I can swim about twice as fast using backstroke. I’ll be ready by September, for sure. I can’t wait to see how fast I’ll be by then.

I’ll need to get a wetsuit to make swimming outside possible (SCI messes up thermoregulation — and I got cold easily even before the accident). A wetsuit will also help with flotation, which is important for me in water rougher than a pool’s.

My second goal is to do a triathalon. I won’t be running (I’ll be pushing myself in the wheelchair) but I plan on swimming and using a recumbent leg bike. I’ll need to swim for half a mile (easy!) bike for 12 miles (ok, that’s going to be the crux) and then wheel (wheelchair? roll? what is the correct verb here?) for 3 miles (also easy). I particularly like this goal because I would have never chosen to do a tri before my injury. I was a very weak swimmer and I would have been too embarrassed by my slow swim time. Now, I just don’t care. Plus, I feel much more confident in the water.