Sources of Tiredness

As today's practice session went along, between the 30-minute mark and (ultimately) the 60-minute mark, stuff on my left arm started to get tired. First my wrist got tired, then my shoulder, then my elbow, then my left hand itself. Not sore, just tired. Aaaaargh! Am I back where I started?

I guess my fitness for violin playing, such as it is, is still tenuous. To recap, I started playing and taking lessons again last October (eight months ago) after not playing in a structured context for more than 18 years. I knew that getting back into physical shape for it would take a while, but I had thought I was pretty much there. Then I took two weeks off of playing in late May while on vacation. Then I played for a week. Then I slacked off for a week. Now I'm back on the wagon again. I'm glad about that, but it was a bit frustrating, after only the first 30 minutes of playing today, to feel as though I'd been playing more than twice that long.

But other factors surely played a role in today's tiredness, too. I only slept about 5.5 hours last night because I was spending time yesterday on (I admit it--superfluous and perfectionistic) finishing touches for a big work event today. For that event, I had to haul a couple of heavy things from Point A to Point B in hot weather, coordinate the timing of several sub-events, answer a couple of challenging questions, keep people calm under anxiety-inducing circumstances, and that sort of thing. Over the whole day, it added up. I got a little dehydrated and was completely wiped out by the end of the day.

Given all of that, it's probably no wonder that my ol' bod (not to mention my mind) was not fully prepared for an hour of Fleisch, Kreutzer, and Bach.