This is my blog & my hope, writing daily will help me see my progress and log supporters. |
These last two days that I have been working in my garden have taken a physical toll on my body. I'm reasonably fit. I've been riding my bike every day for about a month (except the last two days) and doing weights every second day for around three weeks. I must confess that for the past six months, my garden has taken a back seat because of my Mom's declining health and knowing that her time was coming to an end. I prioritised her above everything else and my garden was looking like it. As a result of this lack of priority towards the garden, I am feeling the result of that decision in my glutes, hamstrings, quads, delts and pretty much every muscle in my body. Most athletes will, in general, struggle with a discipline not their own. A bodybuilder will struggle with swimming, a swimmer with running (which is why I have so much respect for triathletes) and someone like me with anything that involves being on my feet all day and working a moderately physical job (edging, mowing, using a chainsaw to cut overgrown trees and bundling the branches), even at a steady pace. It comes down to if we are willing to push past the boundaries of our physical and mental limitations and take things at a pace we can endure. At one point late this afternoon, I thought I couldn't go on. My legs and arms were burning and so to were my lungs, and I began to think I would have to complete the job in the morning. This didn't work in with tomorrow's plans of doing some much-needed housework, pulling pictures off the walls, washing sheets and all the other things I can't think of now, but I know will require my attention in the morning. Then my sister will arrive on Saturday morning with a trailer to take the rubbish to the tip and collect photos and mementoes of my mother and father. Checking things off my list of things to do has become the priority now...and after a cold drink and a ten-minute break, I got back out there and finished the job. Thoughts of doing exercise disappeared with the daylight and by the time I had a shower, cooked dinner and considered what to write in today's blog post, I'm calling it a day. |