A Comedy of Errors

The last couple of weeks...  not so good.

Started off okay with a visit to the Physio who pronounced everything proceeding according to plan with a good range of movement and a small but significant improvement in shoulder muscle strength. All good enough to put off the next visit until after the three month check by the specialist in September. I went for a jog to celebrate. It was supposed to be a non-stop trip of the Parkrun course. At the two mile mark the pain in the right calf muscle re-ocurred bringing me to a stop. Although it was painful, this time I pulled up before doing any major damage but I still had to limp back to the car get back home and apply ice and elevation. What was probably the most dispiriting thing about it was that I have, since the last leg episode in July, religiously worn full length compression socks which were supposed to prevent just this sort of thing. Obviously it's back to the drawing board with that.

The following weekend I took granddaughter Ellie down to the club to let her have her first try at the club's Hare & Hounds event. She has just completed her Paddlepower badge with the club and is keen to go racing. She was booked into the two mile option and I took the opportunity to jog along behind to keep an eye on her and get her to turn in the right place. She had a fine old time and came home in second place. Her dad was in the four mile event and also came home in second place. Both very creditable achievements.

In the meanwhile my leg tightened up again as we neared the finish and I called it a day. I had planned to do the following weekend's ParkRun but I've now had to put jogging on the back burner until I can do a couple of miles without seizing up or breaking down. Instead I've volunteered my help to the ParkRun and for the last two Saturdays spent time marshalling on the course and handing out the place Barcode tags at the end of the run.

After the layoff I tried a short walk/jog again which went quite well as I was back to walking the first half mile of each mile and jogging the second half for three miles. So next week I hope to get back to a couple more runs and even next Saturday's Parkrun. I'll have to see if I can complete that without any further damage.

Okay so far, but during the week I'd had to carry out some maintenance on the garden pond to pull out the overgrown plant baskets that sit in the water on a shelf, and cut back the excess foliage and root balls that are starting to clog about half the pond's width. These plants now weigh a ton and pulling them out with only one fully functioning shoulder/arm/hand is quite a feat. (No pun intended). Anyway, in doing so I've managed to sprain my wrist and now have it strapped up. If it wasn't so pathetic it would almost be funny.