Will he, won't he....?

Couldn't resist a reference to Andy Murray this morning. I don't have any fingernails left after that highly stressful, edge-of-your-seat match yesterday against Ferrer. So, he had better pull out his A-game for tomorrow, lol. Annoyingly, Djokovic appears to be playing the best tennis of his life and will have had 2 days to recover. The odds are definitely in his favour but, well, you never know.... If Andy Murray won tomorrow it would certainly cheer up a very gloomy winter.

It's been a bit of different week in terms of rehab. I decided to do a long (for me) walk last Saturday (4.5 miles). There were a few of the usual twinges/pains and, by the end, my muscles had had enough but, overall, I was pleased with how my body coped. Unfortunately, I managed to pull a hamstring (right leg, outer muscle behind the knee) when stretching afterwards which then took the best part of 5 days to heal. That meant resting from the pool or gym work this week.

On Tuesday, I decided to check out the local gyms as I'll need to keep up the strengthening work now that the hospital gym thing has finished. There's a choice of 2: the public sports centre and one of those private health clubs. Of course, the private health club has superb facilities, loads of space and great personal training support. However, it costs £50+ a month and I'd only have the capacity to use it once a week. I figured it was better to start at the (far cheaper, pay-as-you-go) public gym. Maybe one day I'll have faster recovery times and be able to justify the cost of the alternative. For now, I've booked my 1-hr gym induction for this coming Tuesday.

I have to admit that the process of exploring the gyms was fab. I guess I never really believed that I'd actually one day be able to make use of a gym. And, in a way, it felt like I was taking another step towards 'rejoining society'. So much of 'normal life' has been outside of my capacities for so many years. It felt kinda radical to turn up as these places and genuinely know I could make use of its facilities for my good. I guess, too, gyms symbolise health and fitness and the idea that I can be a part of that 'health and fitness' is flipping fantastic!

The fly in the ointment to my growing optimism is this chronic problem with the LHS lower back pain. As usual, just as I think it's improving, it recurs. It doesn't restrict any movements; it doesn't hurt when I move in a particular way; it's just this gnawing, irritated-nerve type ache deep down on the LHS.

Generally, I've been pretty tired this week. Although I didn't realise it, the NHS physio/gym support had brought some relief from the grind of having to do it all on my own. The loss of that support, and the need for me to pick up the reigns again, has required a fair amount of emotional energy.

...anyway....enough of all that....back to tomorrow's match 'C'mon Andy'!

(the picture was copied from the Australian Open website)