A weekly update

I finally have my PC back - it went in for a DVD/CD-drive repair over a week ago. It has been very strange to be offline and I'm glad to be back in the world of cyberspace. On Sunday, I took a trip to a local nature reserve and finally saw and photographed my first Reed Warbler. I've stood by the reedbeds there many times listening to the screeching and chattering from the pairs of Warblers which breed there. But, over and over again, they've stayed out of sight, in spite of my many attempts to see them. Anyways, I cut a lucky break, and the above bird flew to the trees with a beakful of insects for young (I presume). The picture isn't great but I was pleased to get anything that was vaguely in focus and not just a dot in the distance.

As for the rehab....it was an 'ok' week last week. The extreme tiredness wasn't so pronounced but the RHS inner thigh/front of hip/groin tightness and pain was a lot worse. It seemed to be aggravated by table tennis last Tuesday - lots of lunges for the ball I suppose. Anyway, I've been nursing that quite intensely - regular icepacks to the groin and thigh - but it's still just as bad. As I've said before, I don't think it's an injury as such, more likely some kind of tendonitis.

The other niggles last week were stinging minor strains to my abdominal muscles (again!) and to the pecs muscles. I've essentially taken this week to allow them to heal up. No table tennis and no longer walk yesterday (to rest my groin/thigh problem). I skipped the pool this morning simply because I'm off to visit family again at the end of the week and can't afford to be wiped out. My left glutes/hip are twingey/achy at the moment and my left calf muscle is slightly strained so, all in all, the week's reduced exercise regime is a good thing!

I had a positive session on the bike on Sunday though. I did the usual 25 mins but upped the resistance from point 2 to 3 between 10 and 17 mins and also increased my speed/intensity for 2.5 mins and 1 minute during the time. It felt good to push myself and, as ever, I thoroughly enjoyed the exertion (even if I am paying for it a bit this week!). The other plus point was that last week, the LHS lower back tightness/pain was barely evident. It's flared up again today but I had a run of 7 days when it didn't bother me at all, which is encouraging.