Aqua Adventures

So after I made fun of my sore finger last week it turns out I had actually sustained an injury...to my back. Not just a little strain but the weakening of my six year old disc issue. Oh, it's been fine now for about three and a half years...just long enough to forget that heavy duty gardening followed by a long strenuous hilly run doesn't mix well. It did just protest...it protruded slightly to remind me of my frailty.

So when my physio said no running - just walking, lying and more walking...on flat ground, I did a little groan. Maybe it wasn't out loud but she saw the expression on my face and said I could do some gentle core strengthening exercises. I groaned again. She relented...and said I could do some running in water with a floatation belt on. What am I... 90?! I dont think I said that out loud but I think she saw the expression on my face.

I spent the next day making fun of it and strenuously denying the notion of aqua therapy. I had decided to call it therapy in order to qualify it as something not so absurd. It was was on par with being told six years ago that I would henceforth have to wear flat - otherwise known as gimp - shoes. Oh the horror.

And then tonight I donned the belt and climbed in the pool...in public...with music pounding out of a box on wheels while an instructor paced up and down with a sunny smile on her mic'ed up face. But when I got in the water a bizarre thing happened. That weird foamy belt kept me upright the water like a cork spinning round a pond. I put my arms out as I spun out of control and it was like being on a cloud. Then the hard work began...

Okay, so I actually enjoyed it and it was as strenuous as my physio said it would be. And it didn't hurt my back at all. In fact it feels great. maybe it wasn't so absurd after all...

And the good news is, my finger is better too.