Anne Green
@ultrawimp
I used to run ultras and search for WIMPs. (personal account, personal opinions)
Freedom! I’m cleared to wean myself off the crutches, and drive. Not wearing the most stylish or flattering t-shirt. But was seeing a different physio than usual and wanted to demonstrate that I’m (in the words of another physio) ‘not an average 50-something woman’.
This (and many of the other posts on this substack) has me nodding my head vigorously:
Enjoying an interesting book (‘Inside the box’ by David Epstein) while enjoying the Sun. But it’s amazing how much the garden has returned to the wild in the last 2 months (and it’s taking a lot of self restraint not to try and sort it out).
This week has been a Week. And unfortunately I disposed of my unused morphine (joke), so instead I’m eating a very sickly dessert.
Happy to finally get my birthday present (a Grotta Sonora sound plate) set up so I can sort of play it (sat on the floor with my right leg locked flat and straight in front of me).
I’m partly back to work (emails and meetings at least) at home, but struggling with being stuck on the sofa. So very happy to have bum-shuffled and pistol-squatted my way out to the garden today, and also upstairs for some one-legged gong and singing bowl playing.
Passing time by watching the Western States livestream while sewing. (The OH is letting me hog the TV and watch all sorts of sports, but inflicting a 100 mile trail race on him felt a bit much).
The OH has had to take over laundry duties, and is being overly efficient:
2 weeks post op: Good news: knee mobility is 4 weeks ahead of schedule (the surgeon should probably get most of the credit for this). Bad news: I’ve already lost a lot of muscle. Just as I thought I’d got to grips with sleeping on my back in the brace, the heatwave has upped the difficulty level.
The OH has bought me a life-sized* cardboard cutout of Midorifuji (one of my favourite sumo wrestlers). * in reality he’s 10cm taller than me (which is very short for a rikishi).
Toaster moved to the kitchen table so I can make breakfast and lunch for myself.
Yoshinofuji i) showing off his football skills @PSGJapan, ii) puts his handbag down to do some bull fighting with Hakunofuji @sumokyokai, Kotosho & (an uncharacteristically smiley) Roga at the opera @kotoshoho_kashiwa IG, Abi visits a school (who did the risk assessment for that!) @france3paris IG
Rikishi in Paris highlights: Yokozunas Hoshoryu and Onosato having fun with baguettes @sumokyokai, Takanosho enjoying a croissant @sumokyokai, Mitakeumi is less impressed with French food @mitakeumi_kouenkai_official IG, Kirishima & Koseiryu went on a side quest to Chamonix @kirishima_f.a IG
But at least I no longer need to use the ‘decontamination wash’. My hair did not like that!
My next project: meniscus root tear recovery. Stage one: six weeks non weight bearing…
Wild camp site. My plan to read lots of books was foiled by wind and broken reading glasses. But I met lots of good sheep.
An eclectic mix of sights from this weekend’s ‘places to retire to’ scouting trip:
An industrial fused-quartz resonator, to complement my existing hand-worked hammered metal resonators (which have more complex inharmonic spectra). Or in non-Physics language, a ‘crystal’ singing bowl to complement my Himalayan metal bowls. #physicsofsound
Attempted to cheer myself up by (virtually) riding a kids bike dressed as a dinosaur (on top of the shitshow that is British academia, the knee injury that’s stopped me running for the past year is a meniscus tear which probably isn’t repairable…).
The Peak District isn’t the Arctic, but solitude can still be found if you know where to look.
While cleaning out a cupboard I found the results of the 1997 Taunton marathon. It had a 4h 30 cut off, 153 male finishers and 15 women. I was last woman in 4h 18 (which is still my PB…) with a dozen men behind me.
Reaching the finish line of the 500km Lapland Arctic Ultra, this time 2 weeks ago. Feels like a million years ago now, and I yearn for the simplicity of pulling my pulk through wilderness. (Photos courtesy of Callum Joliffe.)