Encouraging Shift

Today's photo is a male Reed Bunting with a mouthful of seed from the reeds. I had a magical morning's birding on Thursday and got some photographs I was very happy with, this being one, I guess, lol.

It's been an encouraging week. I feel like something has shifted for the better and I'm learning how to cope with being more active. I've been staying out birding for longer (pushing it from 1 hr to 2 and to 3 hrs). It seems to be taking a special kind of mindset. I'm having to concentrate pretty hard on monitoring what's happening in my body (i.e. controlling breathing, heart-rate, panic etc) and regulating my stress levels but I'm hoping that in time, and with practice, this will become an unconscious process (as it should be). I guess that the extreme stress I experienced as a child and young adult has kinda blown all the circuits for regulation and I'm having to consciously reinstate them.

Anyway, I've had an active week. After pottery on Wednesday afternoon, I went to table tennis in the evening (staying for just the 1 hr cos I didn't want to have to miss Friday's gym session). I was careful to keep stretching out my right upper/inner thigh and that seemed to help prevent the usual pain afterwards. Thursday, I had a wonderful morning's birding. The light was perfect and I saw all manner of pretty birds, achieving photographs I've been after for ages.

Friday, I was very happy to discover I was ok to head to the gym. The session went well and I hadn't lost any significant strength during the 3.5 weeks that I'd not been. Of course, during those 3 weeks I had been careful to keep my muscles active and I think that helped. Again, I was careful to stretch out the right inner thigh to prevent the usual post-workout pain for which I normally take painkillers. Amazingly it worked. I went to bed last night and, for the first time, ever, I think, I didn't have to take paracetmol in order to sleep with the pain.

The main niggle this week has been the inside, rear of my knees. All the walking from the birding appears to be causing soreness through the tendons there, making it painful to walk. Both knees are affected. I've been icing them all week and will take it easy today to give them a chance to heal up. Thankfully, it didn't effect the gym work yesterday. I guess it's more of a repetitive injury, as I say, from all the walking.

In terms of recovering from being active, I think the time it takes is decreasing. I was pretty tired/sleepy yesterday afternoon, after the gym, but today, I don't feel nearly as drained/worn out/'rough' as I have in the past after a gym day. I really do hope that this is another solid step in the right direction. It's amazing how I can keep doing the same thing week after week, month after month and nothing seems to change. Then, suddenly, I can sense the shift and I realise that all the hard work was worth it and, although I didn't realise it, things were changing.

Edit: I should note that I'm consistently waking up very early (sometimes 4am) and it's difficult to get any more sleep past 6am. I think it's related to the very light mornings (and happened last year). I seem to be coping ok with it though, which is good.