Wednesday 5 August 2009

A new approach

Well, I'm still a porkster. And as well as the running was going, when I ran over six miles, the grind started in my knee again, which was a bit upsetting.

So I changed the plan. I haven't run for a while, and I'm looking into a different style of running as an experiment. It's very, very different, and may or may not solve the knee trouble. But that's in the future.

Right now, I'm walking 6-10 miles every day, thanks to our beautiful new dog Milly. We go for a long walk in the morning, while everyone else sleeps, then we go for another longish walk in the evening. Some days, she gets another walk in the middle of the day too, but not usually by me.

So I'm putting the miles in, in a non-stressful way. And I've started swimming again, which is tough and I'm enjoying. The plan is to walk the dog early, work, make dinner, walk the hound again, then swim lengths late evening. It's a very relaxed way for me to take exercise, and it's working for me.

I'm tiring easily at the moment, and I doubt I could handle a workout or a game of tennis – I had flu last week, and with the number of cases of swine flu in the town, I'd be amazed if it wasn't the porcine variety. It sucked, and it's left me a little weak and easily tired, but I'm getting there. And it came at the shittest time – the day before I was due to go on holiday with WonderWife and crazy stepdaughter, in fact. So they got a week away, and I managed to join them for just a couple of days at the end of it.

Enough of my burble. I'm also easing back into work with the whole tiring easily thing, and should really have a go at getting something done today...

2 comments:

Z said...

Sorry to hear about the knee - but more about Milly, please. What sort is she, did you have her from a puppy, is she a rescued dog or has she a fine and impressive (if intimidating) pedigree?

badgerdaddy said...

The knee is tres annoying, but at least I'm still able to get out and about with no problems. And once I shake the tiredness of flu recovery, I can't wait to get back in the pool.

Milly is an absolute diamond. Her papers say she is a cross breed, but we don't know what. The charity we got her from say she has some doberman in her, and she may well do. But we had a look online as someone in Borth suggested she might be a Kelpie, an Aussie sheepdog, and one pic we saw could be a picture of Milly herself. And she does have the herding instinct - in playing with other dogs, she chases them down and it makes her very happy.

She's five years old, and is wonderfully calm. She obeys pretty much everything you ask of her, always comes when called and could even, after only three weeks with us, be walked off the lead. Well, she is as soon as we're away from roads, but I'm fairly certain she could always be off the lead.

When she walked in the house for the first time, I laid my neck across hers to see how she might react (you know how dogs do that dominance thing), and she flopped on the floor and rolled over.

She's totally wonderful.

The cat was hit by a car a few months ago and we were all devastated. She was the perfect animal, and we all loved her completely. So attempting to replace her was not really an option, hence we opted for a dog. She's so good, it might start a whole new blog.