Summer Review

 

Well. Where to start?

It's been a rough year so far. For a number of reasons work has been very stressful. At the start of this year I became a union rep for my workplace. It's been a steep learning curve and I've made mistakes, but I've also been able to make things a bit better for some people. In my non-work life things have also been really tough, and still are. A lot of people need me, expect my support, everything I do has to fit around other people and I just can't give what everyone wants. Never mind what I might need and want. My time is not my own.

Back at the start of May I acquired a nasty injury- what I thought were tight and tired lower legs turned into chronic exertional compartment syndrome. It got so painful that I thought I had a stress fracture. For about a week my leg was swollen enough to make even walking agony. I started a return to running rehab programme once the swelling and pain had subsided and am still plugging away at that. For once being so busy with work and my children has been an advantage as I've only had time to do the short 3 time a week 'runs' in the rehab schedule. Today I went up to a 30 minute run so it does feel like I'm almost back to proper running again.

The injury has been an interesting experience. I haven't missed running at all and I've not had any of the frustration that runners usually express when they see everyone else banging out miles and races. I just don't care much about running at the moment. In my own limited way I do CrossFit  most days- I follow the  WOD and add in some cardio and general mobility. It's nice not to have to devise my own workouts and it's good feeling I don't have to grind out miles and miles each week. Getting up early at the weekends to get in long runs was feeling like a chore and burden especially as I'm up around 5am in the working week already. Fitness-wise obviously I'm not running fit, but I think my general fitness and functional strength is much improved. Running is all well and good but in itself it's not a great way to keep your body in good shape as you approach the wrong side of 50.

A bit of knitting has happened, mostly for gifts. There are so many things I want to make but when I get the time I'm too tired to be able to concentrate on following a pattern. It's so frustrating thinking I've made some progress with a project only to have to unravel it all because it went wrong and I couldn't figure out where or why! Just as well I don't make garments really or I don't think I'd ever finish anything. Next projects in the pipeline are some geeky knits but you'll have to wait for those.