Gyming again

This morning marked my return to the gym. I have been looking forward to it for months. It’ll be the first time since my knee prevented me from doing much of anything.

Following the advice of my therapist, I spent half an hour on the bike and ignored the cloud machine (cross trainer). My thighs felt it but there was no comment from the knee. At all.

I was a bit worried that the walk to the gym followed by half an hour pedalling up dale and down dell would leave me incapable of any movement. So I stepped off the bike somewhat gingerly, testing the weight bearing capabilities of my right knee. And it was fine. In fact, it was better than fine. It felt better than it has for ages.

I then spent some time pushing myself up and down a slope, adjusting the weight as my knee happily accepted the strain. I also did some upper body stuff but, this time, didn’t go too mad for my first time, remembering what happened last time with the next day aches and pain.

I needed a few breaks through the day, resting my knee, but, basically it was great all day.

I even managed to walk the dogs to the castle and back rather than stop on the nearest bench and flick Emma’s ball for her. It was with a great feeling of freedom that I snapped a photo of the Avenue of Trees, even though it looked a bit bleak.

I met neighbour Dave on the way back from our walk and he told me a horrible story about Rodney and Caster. I’ve spoken about Caster before. He’s an Alsation that lives in our street. His owner knows Sue very well and they often meet and walk together in the park with our two. Freya is great friends with Caster and they often play…which is hard to imagine when you consider that Freya is the same size as Caster’s head. Still, they get on very well.

While we were away, Dave was either taking Rodney for a walk or returning from one when he, as usual, plonked himself in front of our door. (Rodney always does this hoping for food or cocker poo) Suddenly, out of nowhere, Caster bailed him up, pinning him to the ground with lots of growling and jaw snapping.

Dave acted instinctively and strode between them, forcing them apart with his legs. Meanwhile, the guy who was walking Caster stood, mouth agape, in shock.

As it turned out, all was well and Rodney was left unscathed. The funny thing is that the two of them used to play together a lot in the park when they were younger. Also, Dave told me, Caster attacked the golden retriever owned by another family down the street. While it’s clearly not very good, I’m hoping this drastic change in Caster’s behaviour is only towards golden retrievers and not all dogs. Either way, I’m going to have to mention it to Sue on Friday when I drop the girls off.

Other than that, it was a lovely, good news day. I even swept the terrace of leaves.

Autumn trees in Farnham Park