Worn Out

I've not really had the energy, weather or opportunity for birding photos this week so it's just a Pied Wagtail on a grey day last week.

It's been a mixed week in terms of energy and how I've felt. As I mentioned in my previous post, it felt fantastic to start the week without the residual tiredness from the Friday gym/pool session. Tuesday, I had a quiet day and then went to pottery in the evening. I think that's the first week I've actually been productive and enjoyed it since I started the evening class in September. On all previous occasions, I've been too tired and/or worn out to function well enough to do anything constructive. Wednesday morning, I was up early and out birding, which was fun. However, by the afternoon, I felt surprisingly drained. I wasn't quite sure what had happened. It was like a switch had been flicked and I suddenly felt 'hungover' with exhaustion (like I used to feel when my iron levels were low).

Anyway, Thursday, I felt tired and drained still. Didn't feel like doing anything. I woke up on Friday morning and could feel I was still running on empty. However, I didn't want to miss another gym session so went ahead. I could feel, even as I was doing my sets of weights etc, that my body had nothing to give. There was no adrenaline and no 'umph'. I came home drained and felt absolutely wiped out through the afternoon/evening. I went to bed at 9:30pm and slept like the dead, nearly 11 hours. I was expecting to feel really awful today. I've been tired and I couldn't have done anything or gone anywhere, but I've not felt ill. I shall need a few quiet days to recover properly, I suspect.

Took painkillers last night for my right upper thigh/groin/right lower ab/right hip soft tissue pain. There's a bit of stiffness today through my thighs and mild pain through my glutes but nothing too bad.

The only explanation I can come up with for the 'crash' through Wednesday/Thursday/Friday is that my stress levels got pretty high on Wednesday morning when I was out birding. I'd been concerned about getting a sighting out as quickly as possible and had found it difficult to regulate the stress through my body. I guess that could have had a knock-on effect. I'd also run a few 100 metres to get to the birds and maybe that had gone beyond what I could recover quickly from....who knows? Either explanation felt rather depressing but there we go. Hopefully, it was just a blip.

I've taken an Iron, Zinc and Vitamin C tablet today in the hope that one or all of them might help....ever the optimist.