A few weeks back I said I was going to have to get back on the fitness horse and try to get back in shape after an injury.
Well, I've mostly done it. It wasn't easy for the first couple of weeks, it was still cold, windy and dark. I kept on wondering if I was trying to regain some sense of youth long since gone, and if on balance I'd be far better off taking things a bit easier and slowing down? I can't. Is the simple response. I think I have a crossed wire or some sort of shortcircuit that overrides this fantasy of sitting back and ageing gracefully. I simply can't and even if I try, I just end up anxious like a wasp trapped in a jar. All jokes aside, I rather suspect that there is some underlying syndrome that pushes me, sometimes, even when I shouldn't be pushing. However, I would also strongly suspect that there is a genetic component to this syndrome because my dad was the same as is my younger brother.
I started with little steps, I had a week of back and forth with my surgery trying to get them to see things from my perspective and was fortunate enough to speak to a doctor, who could see from my bloodwork that the diet that supports my `general' lifestyle strongly suggested that I do usually keep myself in a reasonable state of fitness. He suggested a month-long course of Naproxen to settle my tennis elbow, assist the lumbar spine in settling down and to dull of the injury to the intercostal muscles. It's one of those daft situations that you look at retrospectively and think `idiot'. I had no idea you could take a month-long course of Naproxen, if I had, I think I would have requested it, never mind.
I let the medication do its work for a few days, and then did some test walks. Over the course of maybe a fortnight I extended my range from three-hundred-and-sixty odd PACES (maybe 400mtrs) out to 800mtrs and then in a few more days to just over 4k. This said, it was in only one direction and Amanda picked me up a couple of times, as the walks back home would have resulted in too much the disk-compression and subsequent sciatica.
As soon as I had the walking legs back, I decided a few short test cycles would be sensible. The first time back on the bike was an eye-opener. By the time I had pedalled from our house to the main road I was breathless, my legs were ruined and I thought I'd have to go home... but, that isn't the way I'm made, so I pushed on. Through the lens of hindsight, it wasn't one of my best ideas. I cycled into town, 2.4k thinking the wind would be behind me on the way home, not realising because I'd been far too deep in thought and apprehension at the start, to notice the wind was at my back on the way into town, and therefore in my face all the way home. By the time I'd realised my mistake I was committed to the route home which is 3.4k, and is very exposed, and with the wind in my face for at least two-thirds of the distance. That cycle ride became a test of endurance in spite of the relatively short distance. The important thing is I made it home and my back didn't complain, but I did have secondary neuropathy and spasmodic cramps in the left leg.
A couple of days later I could barely move, I felt fluey and exhausted, but also very satisfied. since that day and throughout I've kept up a fairly regular routine of walks and cycles, and for those two activities, I can say with reasonable certainty I have my cardio-vascular fitness back. I'm basing my current workouts around the principles of HIT (High-Intensity Training) to maximise impacts in a short amount of time, but also because cycling fifty miles in a day is practically impossible for me nowadays. The short cycles, lunges and squats are enough for maintenance. There is a but coming... swimming pools reopen on the 12th of April 2021. I suspect that while the underlying cardio-vascular fitness will help. The actual swim fitness will be a problem. I don't think it will be insurmountable, but I do think it's going to take some effort because the truth is that while I had the Naproxen to settle my various aches and pains down. I took the opportunity that the medication provided to crack on down in the shed, finishing my work benchs, and starting a bed renovation project. The upshot is that I had to make a choice between, manual work or weights and upper-body work. I plumbed for manual work so I could have somewhere to work as the summer waxes. The downside is that for the first time in, I don't know how long? Maybe ten years, I have moobs where previously I had pecks, and it's a similar story for biceps and triceps; they have all faded. So in terms of the main swimming engines -things could be better- but we'll see. I do have some very useful working space, and as I said a couple of months back. I enjoy the rebuild process in some slightly masochistic way.
Final note, on Easter Monday Amanda and I went off to Holford Coombe for a low-level walk (I'd estimate 200mtrs max elevation... nothing really, but with decent views, and lots of spring bird-song). We were out for four hours, it was easy enough on the legs, the breathing was a bit raggedy, but overall I was chuffed. That little goal of walking on the Quantcks being achieved and before summer has given me quite a boost.
