Highs and Lows

....firstly I'm bored with the format of this blog so have decided to add my birding photos to the entries. Above are a couple of Starlings from today in the garden, perched on the 10 inches of snow! The caption: "You duck, I'll stand!"...or....it's the "Highs and Lows"....lol

....secondly, it's been a mixed couple of weeks. The first was going along swimmingly. Got out bird watching on the Tuesday and Thursday for 1.5-2 hours on both days. Didn't feel too exhausted at all and I hadn't aggravated any pains/strains etc. I'd managed more 'exercise' in that week than I had in any other week during the past year and I felt optimistic!

But....Sunday came and I was out bird watching with the RSPB group. It was bitterly cold and although I'd put on 2 fleeces and a down jacket, I stood and shivered for 3 hours. At the time, I felt fine. I was cold but I was happy/alert/energised etc. Once I got home, I warmed up, had some lunch and was then overwhelmed with extreme exhaustion. I couldn't do anything else except sleep. I had a splitting headache as well. Through the rest of the afternoon/evening I felt awful - drained, headachy, frazzled! I slept for 12 hours that night.

The rest of last week was spent recovering from Sunday. Until yesterday, I'd not done any exercise at all. Had to miss hydro on Wednesday cos I felt so lousy. The odd thing is that I wasn't aware of any fatigue in my muscles as such. The exhaustion seemed to be experienced in my head, like it was extreme mental exhaustion. I felt like my brain had been fried. The headache persisted until yesterday evening. I started taking my iron tablets again on the 18th Dec to see if that made any difference. To be fair, I have been improving since then but who knows if the iron is responsible or not. If it hadn't been so close to Christmas I would have gotten a blood test done to check my levels.

So...yesterday I managed 15 minutes on the bike and did my physio exercises for my hips/back and shoulders. The bike work aggravated the LHS lower back tightness/pain and I spent the rest of the day with a hot water bottle on it to try to ease it off. The tightness and pain is still present today but I've done another 5 mins on the bike in the hope that little & often will somehow enable the muscles (hip flexors?) to regain elasticity.....who knows.

Last week really knocked me for six. I had no warning whatsoever that those 3 hours in the cold would have such a drastic effect on me. I still don't really understand how/why it happened and I don't know how to guard against it happening again. I don't know if it was my brain/nervous system reacting badly to the stress of the cold or my muscles being exhausted.....

....well, we're nearly up to Christmas. I'll post a summary of the year's progress in a week or so. It's a shame that it's ended on such a low. I will have done as much exercise this week as I did in the first week that I started the log in January 2009! Mmmm....need to keep an eye on the big picture I guess.