A distraction from the tiredness

Rubbish pictures but the best I could manage digiscoping using the wrong sort of camera! Still, it's good enough to tell that it's a Red Footed Falcon (1st Summer, male), usually found in Eastern Europe and Asia, which turned up this week at Wilstone Reservoir, Tring! The first time I've seen one of these beautiful birds and was very pleased to get any kind of record shot given the enormous distances involved. It later left its preening perch and hunted over the reservoir for insects, in the company of 2 Hobbies - fantastic.

So...this week has been another tough one. I'm still not getting much sleep after 6am and often awake from 5am (all triggered by the neighbours tumble drier consistently waking me up at that time). Not much else to say except I'm shattered and dealing with the usual aches/pains. Spent all day yesterday just resting, eating and watching the tennis. I'm too knackered to try to string any more sentences or reflection together so that's it for this week. Glad I forced myself out to bird watch this morning - enjoyed the Falcon and Hobbies.

Continued Tiredness but Improving

This stunning Sparrowhawk turned up in my garden on Wednesday morning at 8am. It swooped in, grabbed one of the juvenile House Sparrows, alighted on the fence for a moment and then was off into the woods behind. It absolutely made my day. It's the first time I've seen a wild Sparrowhawk up so close, with prey....and in my back garden!

It's been a week of not really knowing what my resource levels are or will be each day. The start of the week was characterised by exhaustion (not helped by the neighbour's tumble drier regularly waking me at 5:30am-ish). My body/mind seems to think now that 5:15am is 'morning' and it's been hard all week to stay in bed or get any more sleep after that time. I missed table tennis on Tuesday. I was just too drained and was dealing with various aches/pains and episodes of feeling faint. I was also feeling pretty depressed about everything.

The Sparrowhawk experience on Wednesday morning lifted my spirits and I then had a thoroughly enjoyable time at the pool. Missing table tennis on Tuesday evening paid off and, once I'd completed the usual exercise routine, I managed 10 lengths (of 25 m) - 5 breast stroke and 5 on my back using flutter kicks. It felt fantastic! There was some pain in the left shoulder tendon/bursa but overall, I was really pleased and encouraged. It's only taken 18 months to get to a point where I can manage to swim 125 metres of breast stroke but it's progress and that's all that matters!

On Wednesday I decided to buy some blueberries just because they were half price. The weird thing is that I've actually felt a lot more alert and 'well' since starting to eat them (80-100g per day). I've been getting rubbish sleep but I seem to be coping ok with it, which is very unnerving, lol. I guess time will tell if the blueberry hype (Link) is true.

The bike work today felt ok although my left shoulder/arm is a little tired and painful. There was the usual LHS mid/lower back and RHS front of hip/groin/quad tightness/pain but those problem areas do seem to be gradually improving. I'm hoping that I won't need to sleep this afternoon. I'd love to get to a point where I can manage 25 mins on the exercise bike without then needing the rest of the day to recover.

Tired Out

The first of this Spring's youngsters turned up in my garden this week. This is one of three juvenile House Sparrows badgering mum and dad for food at the moment. You can still see the yellow on the immature gape.

Last week was supposed to be a rest week but it didn't really work out like that. I ended up going to table tennis on Tuesday which did the job of completely fatiguing my right shoulder and legs. I then pushed hard at the pool on Wednesday and felt wiped out on Thursday. Over the weekend, I stuck the schedule - 50 mins walk on Saturday followed by some ab strengthening exercises; 25 mins on the exercise bike on Sunday. I crashed out yesterday. Slept in the afternoon and felt ill with exhaustion through the evening. Generally, I'm totally worn out.

Mentally, I've been struggling. Isolation, fatigue, worries about money, my neighbour's tumble drier going on at all hours of the day and night (waking me up at 5:30am too many mornings on the trot!) and the constant grind get on top me occasionally! Patience, patience and more patience....

Tired out so will leave it there for today.

A Weekend Off

Not the best of photos, but I liked the ruffled feathers of this little bathing Blue Tit.

After last weekend's 'work' on my legs/hip muscles, I kept up the momentum with the usual longer walk on Tuesday (45 mins) followed by table tennis in the evening. I played for longer and harder than normal and could definitely feel the stinging minor strains through the muscles around the right shoulder/scapular joint afterwards. The pool work was ok the following day but everything was feeling twingey and exhausted esp the right shoulder joint and my knees. I iced the worst areas on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday I was definitely tired out. My calves, backs of knees and arches of my feet were regularly cramping esp at night and my leg muscles generally were obviously fatigued.

On Friday, I still felt dog tired but enjoyed my pottery class in the afternoon. I decided that evening that I'd have this weekend off the rehab routine. And, I've needed it I think. Up until then, I'd stuck to the weekly schedule for the 8 weeks after I had my cold, averaging just under 40 mins daily exercise. I think it was time for a weekend off!

So, I did my shoulder physio yesterday, had a 20 minutes walk today, and that's been it for exercise. My calves, backs of knees, arches of feet still cramped last night but they're feeling less twingey today. I woke up with a bad 'crick in my neck' this morning, down the back RHS. I've applied heat etc but it's not budging. From experience, it takes a good few days to settle unfortunately. The cause?...who knows....it seems to be one of those things that happens as a result of the work on the shoulders.

Next week, I don't have table tennis, which is good - gives my right shoulder a chance to heal up and strengthen up. Hopefully, I'll be able to enjoy the pool work more on Wednesday because my muscles will be fresher.

Muscle development limited by tendon/ligament strength

Although I didn't realise it, I'd pushed things a bit far on the bike last Sunday and it's been a week of icing and taking care of strains to the sides and backs of my knees. I forget that although my quad and hamstring muscles might be strong enough to take a certain tension, the ligaments and tendons that anchor those muscles need time to catch up. I'm not sure why tendons/ligaments seem to take longer to strengthen than muscles but, for my body at least, that's the way it is. I have to be careful to consider the structures other than muscles when thinking of pushing the limits!

I played a little longer and harder at table tennis on Tuesday evening and definitely felt the effect through the scapular/shoulder muscles/tendons. Again, I've been icing and nursing stinging strains all week to, I guess, the latissimus muscle which connects round from the back/scapular to the ribs under my right arm and I've had the usual aches/refered pain from teres major and minor. The pool work on Wednesday was limited to the bare minimum - I couldn't realistically do any breast stroke because of exhaustion and aching through the shoulder/scapular muscles and the 'sides of knees' strains.

It's hard going and frustrating to have to still be so incredibly careful with pushing my limits. It's still so easy to strain a weak structure that I'm unaware of. The pockets of weakened muscles etc obviously remain and it really is going to take a long time to target and recondition them.

I stuck to the 25 mins bike time yesterday but didn't up the resistance for more than 5 minutes. I followed it up with 15 step-ups and 3 lunges carrying 1.5 kg dumbells for each. Of course, that was pushing things a bit (which I discovered later, lol) and so today my glutes, knees and right inner thigh/groin are twingey/mildly strained. It's hard to know how to add strength to quads and hamstrings without straining the associated ligaments/tendons....but then again, I suppose I should be thinking of the legs as a whole, and the weakest structures should be the baseline I work from.

Today will be a bit of a rest day. I've had a 20 mins walk and will do the shoulder physio exercises this afternoon.