Did my dog save my life?

Early evening Friday, I'd been for a run and met Sue after work. We
were in the kitchen talking and she commented that I was slurring and
was I ok? I said I was fine and we went into the garden. I sat in a
chair and was quiet. Sue went into the house and I fell asleep or
maybe passed out.

I was woken what I think was maybe 10 minutes later by my dog,
Frankie, licking my hand and arm. I woke up, realised that I wasn't
feeling great and so went and tested my blood where I was hypo with a
blood sugar of 3.2mmol. Some sugar and three fig rolls sorted that
pretty quickly.

Looking back I was probably hypo when told I was slurring my words, or
certainly on the way to being so. I rejected this. It's hard to
explain this, I'm not stupid and yet when someone comments that you
may be hypo and even if you agree you don't. I don't know how to
explain this. It's not unique and certainly not personal but it is
really hard to accept from someone else, even from the person closest
to you.

More interesting to me is Frankie and what she did. She never licks
me, she never has. I don't like it and she must sense it. That she
came and licked my hand and arm when I was out of it woke me up and I
then realised for myself that something wasn't right. I don't know if
it was coincidence and she licked me because my hand was hanging down
by my side or whether she sensed something wasn't right. The former
becomes more likely when you consider that even if she comes into the
bedroom in the morning when I am sleeping she might lie against me but
never licks me.

So did she sense something and wake me up? Just thinking that brings
tears to my eyes.

Core exercises

This week I went to the Physio drop in at Cheltenham General Hospital to get a look at my hip/quad. Interestingly the physio did not think that the quad was the issue but that it was a biomechanics issue. Essentially a problem elsewhere manifesting in my quad as the weakest point in the chain.

This is more than likely to be weak glutes and core which, I know, are really poor. 

The exercises I am doing are 

> clams http://youtu.be/y-s7nasg18o

> quad stretch http://youtu.be/CZBKSOtyssM

> warrior one http://youtu.be/k4qaVoAbeHM

> bridge pose http://youtu.be/6HYNo1YQsUk

There has been some improvement already as yesterday I ran 3.4 miles without issue. Sure it was slow but it was great to be running properly. 

I have some ambitions for my running but right now they do not go beyond being able to run a little when I am on holiday later this month. 

Swimming, yoga and a little bit of running

I've been swimming a lot lately. Swimming mainly because my running
injury continues to keep me from doing what I really want which is
racking up miles on my feet. In the absence of that swimming has come
to fill a void. That the weather has improved and sunny afternoons in
the lido are far from unpleasant.

I don't swim with any structure, I pretty much turn up and swim. 1km
minimum and so far, 2 mile maximum. My normal swim is a kilometre as
it's less than 20 minutes and so easier to absorb into the day.

I've also been Doing yoga with 'Rosieglo Yoga'. This is something I
have been keen to do as the benefits for running and sport are
obvious. A solid core, improved stability and flexibility all help to
reduce the risk of injury and, I hope, help recovery from injury.

What I didn't expect was these two relatively new pursuits in my life
to complement each other so obviously.

My swim times for the 1km have come down steadily over the last month.
My first swim was around 19:30'ish for a kilometre. That has come down
gradually and prior to yesterday my season pb (I have no idea what my
all time pb is) was 18:13.

So how come I did 17:34 yesterday?

This was in no small part due to Wednesday nights yoga session. The
session felt harder, we held positions for longer and worked our
shoulders more. After the session I felt quite used up. I did not ache
specifically but knew I had worked my muscles, if not all of them or
at least a lot of them. I slept like a log and when I got up in the
morning felt really loose and agile through the shoulders and back.

When I got into the pool I felt that going for it rather than just
doing the swim was on the cards. I went through 500m in 8:30, the
first time under 9 minutes this year and then the kilometre 9 minutes
and a few seconds later.

I have been aiming for sub 18 for a few days and wanting to achieve
that goal. To achieve it by some margin was incredible. It really did
feel great.

This week has seen a shift to in that I have been running a little
bit. Conservative in both pace and distance going from 1.3 to 2.5
miles over the course of this week. My leg still hurts a bit but is
improving as previously I could not manage even 10 seconds before
having to stop.

Here's to improving swim times, more running and the new foundation of
it all, yoga.


Sent from my iPad