Session 1: A great flock of people of wildly different fitness, age and outlook guided with care and empathy by the enthusiastic physio team. Blood pressure & heart rates taken during the checking. Name badge pinned to my chest with Heart Rate limits; probably to help me remember to moderate my effort, but probably also to remind me of my own name should I push too hard.

40 minutes of circuits followed by relaxation, learning about the difference between Heart Attack and Cardiac Arrest, more Heart Rate measurements to prove I was relaxed and then release back into the wild, like a Gazelle that suddenly finds itself in Norway and takes shelter from the cold inside a car instead of bounding into the fields to freedom.

Session 2: Now I know what to expect, I dressed more sensibly so that I didn’t overheat. I wore my Garmin Chest strap and displayed my heart rate on my phone so that I could monitor my heart rate with my eyes and monitor how I was feeling with my other senses.

I got more out of this session and was continually bumping up against my prescribed heart rate of 120 whilst feeling like I was working at a very light keep going all day without building fatigue level. Heart rates measured, learning done and back to the car to shelter from the rain.

Session 3: “You want to be exercising harder than that?” said the physio. She phrased it as a question, but in reality is was more a recognition that 40 minutes of all-day pace was frustrating. I was soooo grateful when she looked at a huge chart of age vs heart rate vs fitness and said “We’ll give you a peak of 140bpm. Please stay below that number”. It doesn’t sound like much, but 140bpm is my usual 3-6 hour heart rate level and it means I can actually get a bit out of breath and stay warm in the freezing February weather.

Thank you, thank you Haslemere CResT team - I’m looking forward to this week.

Session 4: Getting used to the new max of 140 has been educational. Breathing hard (cardio) actually puts my heart rate at a higher number for a lower power than breathing more slowly and performing anaerobic exercise.

“Look at your right knee” said the physio as I did my weighted squats. It was wiggling around like a bit of government policy before a vote. “You need to control that pronation. Keep the knee in line with your foot”.

Thank you CResT team again. That little tip has massively improved my Yoga balance poses.

Session 6: I managed to fix my electric bike and cycle to the session. The motor allows me to manage my heart rate on the steep punishing hills around Haslemere. The sun coming out was an added bonus. The air temperature of 3ºC was not.

Raynauds condition is one where the blood doesn’t flow properly in your extremities. Today, it took nearly 15 minutes for all my fingers to turn from yellow to pink and allow me to grip the weights properly. Stroll on summer.