The Re-opening of the Etobicoke Olympium

On Sunday I checked out the newly re-opened and renovated Etobicoke Olympium during Day 2 of the Hall of Fame meet.

With ESWIM just returning to the Olympium Tuesday morning the water was fresh and ready for racing. Swimmers results show the 20 million dollars in improvements made to the facility were worth wild. Here is just a sample of swimmers making waves.

Swimmer A 5 swims over the 2 days and 4 best times (Including nearly a 1 second drop in the 50 free)

Swimmer B 5 swims over the 2 days and 5 best times (Including the 100 fly just shy of a 7 second drop)

Swimmer C 8 swims over the 2 days and 6 best times (Including a 2 1/2 second drop in the 50 breast)

Now of course this is just a sample of 3 swimmers swimming different events and some of the events may not be the swimmers best events. As well we have to take into consideration this was for most if not all the first opportunity to race for the 2014-2015 season. Some of the results won't be because of the newly renovated pool but I'm sure being in an environment that is comfortable and easy to breath in makes some difference. I was in the stands (which is totally different for me) and I was wearing jeans and a heavier sweater and didn't sweat as well was comfortable.

The things I was hearing from swimmers was...
a) The pool is fast and even better to race in now that the renovations have been complete
b) You can breath now (Swimmers recalling AGI June 2013 when roof renovations began and chunks of insulation was falling from the ceiling making it hard to breath)
c) You can see where your swimming (Improved lighting below the water and on the ceiling has made the pool much brighter and making it feel larger)
d) This was money well spent for aquatics (This renovation took place because of the Pan Am games, the Olympium will host as a warm up facility during the 2015 games and continue to serve ESWIM, central region, and Ontario for many years to come)

June 2013 seems like such a long time ago when the Olympium shutdown for just over a year of much needed improvements but it was all worth wild. Most of the renovations that have been completed won't be scene by swimmers, coaches, and spectators but somethings you will notice.

• Note not a lot was done outside other than the roof
• New welcome desk as soon as you walk in
• New title and paint making it bright and welcoming 
• New bleachers for swimmers 
• New timing booth in the shallow end 
• New bulkheads 
• New lighting on the pool deck and under water 
• New Myrtha pool 
• New sound system 
• It looks like new timing clocks will be installed (shallow end score board was missing) 
• Updates to the patio pool

Overall a lot of work went into this much needed renovation and the Olympium is now in line with the best pools in Ontario (Pan Am Pool Scarborough,Windsor International Aquatic and Training Center, Pan Am Pool Markham, and the Canada Games Aquatic Center in London which is set to re-open November after a 6 million dollar renovation) Personally I'm looking forward to racing in the Olympium when the time comes for me. Below I have attached a couple pictures from inside the pool. 

Panorama view of the newly renovated and re-opened Etobicoke Olympium 

A view of the competition pool (deep end being used in the AM session) with the shallow end open for warm up/warm down. 

Shoulder Update

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving long weekend. It's been over a month since I've posted a new #TmacsBlog time flies when your busy with school, swimming, dryland, university information sessions, therapy for my shoulder, and more. Aside from that I'm back and providing an update on the current status of my shoulder. I hope this blog does post properly as I'm writing on my iPhone away from the office.

Today I had two doctors review the MRI results from a few weeks ago. I could tell something didn't look right and the doctor was closely looking at the images provided. After a few minutes of reviewing the images I was told the rotator cuff is healthy. Great news to hear that and the rotator cuff had been healthy for sometime now, however a problem has come up that needs further investigating.

I'll do my best to explain this injury I have. It is a bit complicated to put into words but I'll do my best, bare with me. 

The shoulder has a ball in the front (if you place your hand you can feel it move around if you move your shoulder back and forth). This ball provides movement for the shoulder and allows it to swing and in swimming pull. Where my ball attaches to other bone structures like the rotator cuff there is some tissue type martial that has worn down and is beginning to come apart from the bone structure.

How to fix this new problem? 3 options. 

1. Continue with therapy and just leave it. There is a 90% chance of the injury healing on its own. However I may have to limit most of my overhead activity AND OR modify the activity (as I'm doing now) to ensure no pain, tearing, or clicking occurs.

2. In 8-12 weeks have another MRI done. This time dye would be injected to the shoulder and attach itself to torn areas and show clearly on MRI pictures. The dye injection MRI wasn't conducted because it wasn't nesesary for a rotator cuff injury. The assumption was nothing else was wrong with the shoulder. Now we know there is a different area to target.

3. A very unlikely option surgey. This would require a lot of thought and time. Normally patients don't see recovery results for 8-12 weeks at a minimum. Surgery at this point is a last resort and not on my radar. I'm confident that the therapy will be enough for a full recovery.

Where to go from here? 

I don't go back to Brampton to see the therapist till Friday. After Friday I'll have a better idea of where things stand. At this point I'm not sure when I'll be back in the pool to race. Late November early December. Maybe... At this point I'll be taking training one day at a time and doing a lot of kicking as I have been for the past 4 weeks. Limiting swimming will continue and any sign of pain will have me stopping and going onto kicking.

I know and understand this won't healed tomorrow. I have the best team on my side helping me recover as quickly and healthy as possible. They have the best interest in me which is awesome. The situation at self still makes me bitter and is tough to deal with some days. I'm not pointing the figure or putting the blame on anyone because that is childish. This experience is a true test of patience, working with others, learning about the body, and knowing limits. The road is long but I'm beginning to see the light in the distance. I have every confidence when I'm back this whole process will have been worth it. It's a bump in the road but a learning curve but I'll be the bigger person coming out of this!

As always follow me on Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram for the latest. I'm going to try a bit better to jump back on the blog wagon. Until next time always remember to face your challenges head on.