Exercise Journal Week 3

This is written 2 weeks later so things are a bit hazy. As on the previous week I increased my activity slightly each day but unlike the previous weeks, this week had a few things on that involved leaving the house and using energy that I rarely have but, over the last couple of weeks, I've gained a bit of confidence in my energy. Possibly unwisely.

The main change in the morning workout was changing the order of the big muscle stretches so that the calf stretch came first, this made all the others much less uncomfortable. I also added a little bit of a plank. My wrists and arms seem to struggle the most with it most, which isn't particularly surprising as that's where the injury I got in 2019 mostly manifests. I need to find a way to get good stretches in my forearms without also screwing over my nerves or tendons. No. Nerve flossing isn't the answer.

Anyway, throughout the week I worked on helping my mate who is having a bastard of a time getting her final university papers written, focus, stay calm and stay on task as she thunders head first through 2 of the 3 remaining papers. Unfortunately, this involves staying up late and maintaining a centered, calm and focused internal state. Something I was great at before COVID and am only better than average at now. It was hard work to maintain it for so long.

Tuesday contained a 1 hour training meeting for a interview I have in February in which a great deal of information was given very quickly. For some reason, that is very hard to describe beyond "I thought I could do it" I did some reading on a theoretical Mathematics book I've borrowed from the library. Work in the 1950s on modelling networks of neurons in the human brain was wild and it seemed somewhat... simplistic. But that's how the earlier models always look, simplify to see if you can model anything at all then add complexity a level at a time.

To give myself a break from all this thinking (something I never felt I needed before COVID) I have been Cleaning and Tidying the house. I'm now on top of washing clothes, towels and bedding as well as the pots and surfaces in the kitchen. I know that doesn't sound very exciting and, as the unemployed one in the house, like something I should already be doing, but anyone with chronic fatigue knows when getting out of bed is an achievement, a clean kitchen is a distant dream. The absolute madness for me was that I even felt energetic enough to dig through the jumpers and blankets chest (with a mask on, the dust mites are a menace) and clean everything.

Also this week I went to the dentist, sold my car and had a haircut, all of which involved not only being outside but also holding conversations and trying to convince people that I'm a normal, functional human being. My therapist calls it masking, I call it avoiding misunderstandings.

Towards the weekend my energy crashed, I was barely human at the hairdressers and couldn't even get to the Quaker Meeting on Sunday as my partner was using the only household car.

I managed to maintain my exercises in the mornings and I do think it helped me make it manageable. Don't worry, I've done even more foolishly energy consuming things in week 4!