Recovering from an injury

It's said that the first objective of a long distance athlete is to get to the start line uninjured.  The second to be fit, the third to complete it and the forth to do it in a time you are happy with.  Until you injure yourself you don't tend to think about the first one too much.  Since injuring my hamstring 3 weeks ago, I have struggled with my inactivity but if I step just a fraction too far my hamstring sends me a sore message.  I'll wait and see what the physio says tomorrow but hopefully I am on the mend.
But I can't hang about.  I have a 10km river swim in September so on Tuesday I went back to the swimming training.  I hid in the slow lane and with the exception of 10 lengths, I swam with a pool buoy to take the pressure off the hamstring.  It was mentally tough watch people you would normally pass in the pool, passing me but I hadn't swam in about 6 weeks so what else should I expect.  I know that I have a month of hard work to get back to where I was so I'll shut the chimp in my head up and get on with it.
This morning I went to Tollcross where the Commonwealth Games will be taking place.  A 50m pool is completely different and I swan 1,500m trying to work on my technique but protecting the hamstring again.  If anyone saw me they wouldn't be wrong to say it was ugly swimming but I know I am going to get there over the coming months.  On Monday night I may even go for my first open water swim which in some ways fills me with dread but in others is exciting because you aren't constrained as you are in a pool - and no chlorine!
I am on the road to recovery and will use swimming as the main way of recovering my fitness while my hamstring gets better.  But I am also looking out for a new desert race in 2015 as the one I had scheduled has moved the date back a year.  So back to the drawing board.  As someone said today if you put in all those miles training you are always going to pick up an injury.  It's how you react to it that will make the difference to your season.  Take it easy out there folks!