Short version: I MADE IT! :D
Have stretched, and am drinking water and eating protein bars (I've developed a strange taste for them!).
More details to come later.
Big love to you all, and that's not just the endorphins talking!
:D
Showing posts with label Sport Relief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sport Relief. Show all posts
Sunday, 20 March 2016
#SR16 #asithappens Part 2
So I'm over halfway. With no offence intended to St. Ives, I figured I'd enjoy a picnic by the lake far more than in the bus station, so doubled back until I saw somewhere likely.
Nice, eh?
The trip has also seen its first bit of genuine jeopardy - the lakes have overflowed and the path is massively flooded.
Cue over-optimistic splashing, followed by humorous pushing, and very muddy lower legs:
I'm currently composing a shory poem along the lines of "As I was going to St. Ives/ I met with quite the crowd of flies."
Overheating totally worth it for being able to ignore them due to goggles and balacavaish thing.
Thanks for all your messages of encouragement so far, you little diamonds. <3
Right! Lunch is done! Let's go! :D
Nice, eh?
The trip has also seen its first bit of genuine jeopardy - the lakes have overflowed and the path is massively flooded.
Cue over-optimistic splashing, followed by humorous pushing, and very muddy lower legs:
Overheating totally worth it for being able to ignore them due to goggles and balacavaish thing.
Thanks for all your messages of encouragement so far, you little diamonds. <3
Right! Lunch is done! Let's go! :D
#SR16 #asithappens Part 1
Longstanton Busway station is just over 50% of the way to St. Ives, and has toilets. A fact for which I'm profoundly grateful.
The wind is northerly, but relatively mild. This is good news for the way back, if it persists.
After weeks of freezing on the bike, I am overheating. Oh well!
Back and hips doing well, only mild complaints from wrists.
Onwards! :D
Time is ticking
Well, I had a mostly-rest day yesterday, eating a frankly unfeasible quantity of food. In about ten minutes’ time I set off. I’m generally feeling pretty good, if tired from a peculiarly vivid series of dreams about running around a park which turned into a shopping mall while trying to get back to my bike; I woke up before I could get a satisfactory answer as to how far I’d run (all my gadgets would only show me how long I’d been running for rather than how far). Lady Gaga was involved somehow.
My hip joints are still a bit buggered*, which I think answers the “which route will I take?” question. The Ely-Cambridge one has a lot more hill, including a very steep one at the beginning, so - with regret, seeing as the weather is actually relatively pleasant! - I’m going to do my 25 miles via the Busway to St. Ives and back again route. I’m going to see a physio about the hips/ back issues and hopefully build up to doing the Ely-Cambridge run another time. It looks very pretty!
There’s still time to sponsor me, of course, for Sport Relief: http://my.sportrelief.com/fayroberts - to help support vulnerable people going through hardships here in the UK and in places around the world.
And if you’d like to physically join me for all/ part of this, just give me a shout.
* technical term
My hip joints are still a bit buggered*, which I think answers the “which route will I take?” question. The Ely-Cambridge one has a lot more hill, including a very steep one at the beginning, so - with regret, seeing as the weather is actually relatively pleasant! - I’m going to do my 25 miles via the Busway to St. Ives and back again route. I’m going to see a physio about the hips/ back issues and hopefully build up to doing the Ely-Cambridge run another time. It looks very pretty!
There’s still time to sponsor me, of course, for Sport Relief: http://my.sportrelief.com/fayroberts - to help support vulnerable people going through hardships here in the UK and in places around the world.
And if you’d like to physically join me for all/ part of this, just give me a shout.
* technical term
Monday, 14 March 2016
And then it all went a bit wrong...
What is it they say about having a crap dress rehearsal meaning that the real thing will be great?
I can only hope that it doesn't work for cycling like it does for singing, because I've been in some truly dire dress rehearsals that led to embarrassingly poor concerts.
So yesterday. Yesterday I decided that I was going to finally have a play along the near-home map of the route I'd mapped out from Ely to home (north Cambridge). I'd even painstakingly devised a route on Strava that was Home to Ely. Looks like this:
One small problem. If you "load route" on Strava, it in no way guides you. I didn't know that, so it went wrong quite quickly. Basically this happened:
Firstly everyone and their dog were on Stourbridge Common, and the paths are not the smooth, well-maintained, recent, metalled surface of the busway. No. They are bumpy with uppity tree roots and switchback like no-one's business. And then I ended up in Barnwell. I'm still not sure how. As you can see, I went the wrong way in Fen Ditton for a while, then found my route which was, unlike as it looked on the Strava route planner, totally on-road. On-fast-car-windy-hilly road.
I have in no way practised hills. The busway doesn't really do them. I haven't lived anywhere hilly for a while. I thought I missed hills. I still do, but my hips and knees were less sure, especially when being passed by fast cars.
And then I realised that I was trying to follow the "Ely to Home" route backwards, having smacked my thumb into the wrong one on my phone (the route for which I could barely see on the screen in bright sunshine as it was, as Strava denotes the route to come using orange against shades of yellow, and where you've been in bright blue), so I pulled over (again - I'd already lost a lot of momentum to this), stopped the recording, loaded the "right" route, and started the recording again.
Whereupon this happened:
As the youth say: I don't even. I just can't.
I was very pleased with myself, having gone wrong already a couple of times (long way around Stow-cum-Quy instead of through it? Okay!), to find the right road, and be ganging on through Lode (very pretty - nice, smooth roads, too). I stopped when I figured I'd gone far enough to turn around and still get my miles - as I recalled, the "correct" way back was longer.
There was a pretty bridge with sunsetty shades all over the landscape. I stopped there:
I can only hope that it doesn't work for cycling like it does for singing, because I've been in some truly dire dress rehearsals that led to embarrassingly poor concerts.
So yesterday. Yesterday I decided that I was going to finally have a play along the near-home map of the route I'd mapped out from Ely to home (north Cambridge). I'd even painstakingly devised a route on Strava that was Home to Ely. Looks like this:
One small problem. If you "load route" on Strava, it in no way guides you. I didn't know that, so it went wrong quite quickly. Basically this happened:
Firstly everyone and their dog were on Stourbridge Common, and the paths are not the smooth, well-maintained, recent, metalled surface of the busway. No. They are bumpy with uppity tree roots and switchback like no-one's business. And then I ended up in Barnwell. I'm still not sure how. As you can see, I went the wrong way in Fen Ditton for a while, then found my route which was, unlike as it looked on the Strava route planner, totally on-road. On-fast-car-windy-hilly road.
I have in no way practised hills. The busway doesn't really do them. I haven't lived anywhere hilly for a while. I thought I missed hills. I still do, but my hips and knees were less sure, especially when being passed by fast cars.
And then I realised that I was trying to follow the "Ely to Home" route backwards, having smacked my thumb into the wrong one on my phone (the route for which I could barely see on the screen in bright sunshine as it was, as Strava denotes the route to come using orange against shades of yellow, and where you've been in bright blue), so I pulled over (again - I'd already lost a lot of momentum to this), stopped the recording, loaded the "right" route, and started the recording again.
Whereupon this happened:
As the youth say: I don't even. I just can't.
I was very pleased with myself, having gone wrong already a couple of times (long way around Stow-cum-Quy instead of through it? Okay!), to find the right road, and be ganging on through Lode (very pretty - nice, smooth roads, too). I stopped when I figured I'd gone far enough to turn around and still get my miles - as I recalled, the "correct" way back was longer.
There was a pretty bridge with sunsetty shades all over the landscape. I stopped there:
 |
| Road Behind |
 |
| View Ahead
And then I ate, drank some water, and set off on the "proper route". By this point, I wasn't startled by going on the road with the whizzy cars, and I knew there was a hill coming up. I was warmed-up and fed, and it was all good. Right?
Turns out the other thing Strava route-planner doesn't make clear is when something is so off-route it's a dirt track, and that the only other options are private farm roads or turn back.
I stopped, swore, turned back, stopped again, and programmed in a cycling route on Google Maps, which soothing voice navigated me all the way home (via some confusion in Fen Ditton, but a lot less confusion than anything that had gone before).
So, what's the conclusion? The conclusion is that I have to make a conclusion - do I:
a) Stick to the boring-but-safe busway route, and just head on up to St. Ives (~12.5 miles away), then head home; or
b) Programme in a clever route on Google Maps and just do the crazy version anyway?
Both are tempting, for different reasons. a) is safer, and will achieve my 25 mile goal without too much stress. I will also get to see a different part of my training route that I haven't encountered yet. That's interesting, right? And I'd already said that I would do that route if the weather is rubbish on Sunday. b) is the original challenge, and a heck of a lot more interesting. There are also pubs on the way that will afford wee stops if necessary.
On the other hand, I've now done a trek that was 74.8% of my eventual goal, and didn't break myself (though I'm really feeling it today). I call that a near-win. I have also concluded that I'm not doing another big training ride on Wednesday - I'm resting these little legs (daily commute aside).
|
Friday, 11 March 2016
Progress and Technology
Hello!
Well, it's been a while, but I thought I'd give you an update. Preferably one nothing to do with slightly scary mental health stuff.
So today I'll be talking about:
1. Training for the Sport Relief 2016 Challenge (sponsor me here)
This has been less fun that it could be - partly because I got ill between Christmas and New Year, and could (fairly) directly attribute that to going out on a training ride late in the day, getting cold with an exercise-induced lowered immune system, and then, instead of going straight home, went to the shop for food (a move that seemed logical at the time) where clearly some infectious bastard breathed on me. Garh
So what with having funtimes with breathing, then injuring myself (minor standard neck/ shoulder stuff), then the winds being insanely strong, I somehow let training drift into a puddle of excuses. I was still cycling pretty much everywhere (work, social engagements in Cambridge, choir rehearsals, anything where I didn't need to tote much gear) else, but no particularly challenging distance.
And then I checked my magical spreadsheet, which showed me that I only had a few weeks to go, and that I'd spent nigh-on two months not training. Eeeep! Instead of a steady increase of ≤½ mile every session, I was going to have to jump up more emphatically each time, especially if I stepped back to a shorter distance to kick back off again (because, despite being foolish, I do learn - slowly - from my past mistakes with exercise).
Mon 28-Dec-15: 16.4 miles, 1:39:32 hours (64% of end goal)
Wed 24-Feb-16: 10.1 miles, 0:57:14 hours (39% of end goal)
Sun 28-Feb-16: 12.6 miles, 1:11:38 hours (49% of end goal)
Sun 6-Mar-16: 15.5 miles, 1:29:16 hours (60% of end goal)
Wed 9-Mar-16: 17.7 miles, 1:41:25 hours (69% of end goal)
I am still aching after this last one (cold, damp, mizzly, long; an exercise in self-discipline/ persuasive self-talk), and currently wondering two things:
a) How much of a percentage of the end goal should I aim for?
b) Should I do a training cycle on the Wednesday before the Sunday 20th ride, or am I better off having a rest (apart from work cycling) that week?
After agonising over gadgets, I found the one that was the best fit: a FitBit Charge HR. Of all the things that I wanted an activity tracker to do/ be, it only doesn't do one of them: GPS tracking. On the other hand, it (along with its concomitant app) does everything else, and things I didn't even know I wanted it to do (and some other things - like calorie counting - that I'm resolutely ignoring). It's good at working out when I've been cycling for short stretches, but the longer ones confuse it, so I have to manually record them, which isn't exactly taxing.
It's proving useful for helping me keep track of (and manage by increasing) my water intake, gamifying my fitness efforts, and it looks slinky on my wrist (it functions as an actual watch as well).
It's also proving useful during anxiety - it turns out that the thumping heart sensations are often misleading: my heart-rate will rise slightly, but not anything like as much as it feels. This is proving remarkably helpful in swift calming and fending off potential full-blown attacks.
And I've bought a fancy water bottle that's easy to carry around work (I saw someone else with one and desired it greatly), means I don't use up lots of plastic cups (yay environment), and measures much more precisely how much I've drunk during the day at work/ during cycle rides.
I am generally well. However, my hip joints (especially my right one) are not. I have been mostly ignoring this and trying to find comfortable positions, but the "it's reliably achey by 10pm" rule has shifted to "it's reliably achey all the damned time and difficult to bear by 10pm". And now the right one keeps going out of alignment when I get up from a chair and start walking. Unfun. So I need to go and see someone about this. Sadly, my former physiotherapist has now retired, so I will need to begin the Quest for a Local Physiotherapist Who Actually Understands HMS/ EDS all over again, though armed with more knowledge than last time I started.
My lower left-hand back aches reliably after about 6-7 miles of continuous cycling; less if hills are involved. I've been advised that I need to get my posture on the bike checked and the bike's setup amended by experts. As in all things requiring experts, this is not cheap. If it prevents some further physiotherapy sessions, mind, it'll be worth it.
I forgot to renew my gut medication prescription last week. This will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. I have come to rely on not being in constant abdominal agony - turns out I'm on PPIs for life. A small price to pay unless, of course, the NHS is dismantled. O_o
I'm beginning to see why people with my condition (especially those with more severe versions) get into a cycle of morphine use. I'm still avoiding even paracetamol unless my neck's particularly bad and I want to sleep (and nothing I've got touches migraines, so there's no point there either), so we'll see how long I can keep this straight-edge attitude to pain management up...
Thanks for reading so far! :D More updates to come, more frequently and smaller, especially in the run-up to the Sunday 20th challenge. Did I mention that you can sponsor me...?! :D
Well, it's been a while, but I thought I'd give you an update. Preferably one nothing to do with slightly scary mental health stuff.
So today I'll be talking about:
1. Training for the Sport Relief 2016 Challenge (sponsor me here)
2. Technology
3. General Health stuff
1. Training for the Sport Relief 2016 Challenge
This has been less fun that it could be - partly because I got ill between Christmas and New Year, and could (fairly) directly attribute that to going out on a training ride late in the day, getting cold with an exercise-induced lowered immune system, and then, instead of going straight home, went to the shop for food (a move that seemed logical at the time) where clearly some infectious bastard breathed on me. Garh
So what with having funtimes with breathing, then injuring myself (minor standard neck/ shoulder stuff), then the winds being insanely strong, I somehow let training drift into a puddle of excuses. I was still cycling pretty much everywhere (work, social engagements in Cambridge, choir rehearsals, anything where I didn't need to tote much gear) else, but no particularly challenging distance.
And then I checked my magical spreadsheet, which showed me that I only had a few weeks to go, and that I'd spent nigh-on two months not training. Eeeep! Instead of a steady increase of ≤½ mile every session, I was going to have to jump up more emphatically each time, especially if I stepped back to a shorter distance to kick back off again (because, despite being foolish, I do learn - slowly - from my past mistakes with exercise).
Mon 28-Dec-15: 16.4 miles, 1:39:32 hours (64% of end goal)
Wed 24-Feb-16: 10.1 miles, 0:57:14 hours (39% of end goal)
Sun 28-Feb-16: 12.6 miles, 1:11:38 hours (49% of end goal)
Sun 6-Mar-16: 15.5 miles, 1:29:16 hours (60% of end goal)
Wed 9-Mar-16: 17.7 miles, 1:41:25 hours (69% of end goal)
I am still aching after this last one (cold, damp, mizzly, long; an exercise in self-discipline/ persuasive self-talk), and currently wondering two things:
a) How much of a percentage of the end goal should I aim for?
b) Should I do a training cycle on the Wednesday before the Sunday 20th ride, or am I better off having a rest (apart from work cycling) that week?
2. Technology
After agonising over gadgets, I found the one that was the best fit: a FitBit Charge HR. Of all the things that I wanted an activity tracker to do/ be, it only doesn't do one of them: GPS tracking. On the other hand, it (along with its concomitant app) does everything else, and things I didn't even know I wanted it to do (and some other things - like calorie counting - that I'm resolutely ignoring). It's good at working out when I've been cycling for short stretches, but the longer ones confuse it, so I have to manually record them, which isn't exactly taxing.
It's proving useful for helping me keep track of (and manage by increasing) my water intake, gamifying my fitness efforts, and it looks slinky on my wrist (it functions as an actual watch as well).
It's also proving useful during anxiety - it turns out that the thumping heart sensations are often misleading: my heart-rate will rise slightly, but not anything like as much as it feels. This is proving remarkably helpful in swift calming and fending off potential full-blown attacks.
And I've bought a fancy water bottle that's easy to carry around work (I saw someone else with one and desired it greatly), means I don't use up lots of plastic cups (yay environment), and measures much more precisely how much I've drunk during the day at work/ during cycle rides.
3. General Health stuff
I am generally well. However, my hip joints (especially my right one) are not. I have been mostly ignoring this and trying to find comfortable positions, but the "it's reliably achey by 10pm" rule has shifted to "it's reliably achey all the damned time and difficult to bear by 10pm". And now the right one keeps going out of alignment when I get up from a chair and start walking. Unfun. So I need to go and see someone about this. Sadly, my former physiotherapist has now retired, so I will need to begin the Quest for a Local Physiotherapist Who Actually Understands HMS/ EDS all over again, though armed with more knowledge than last time I started.
My lower left-hand back aches reliably after about 6-7 miles of continuous cycling; less if hills are involved. I've been advised that I need to get my posture on the bike checked and the bike's setup amended by experts. As in all things requiring experts, this is not cheap. If it prevents some further physiotherapy sessions, mind, it'll be worth it.
I forgot to renew my gut medication prescription last week. This will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. I have come to rely on not being in constant abdominal agony - turns out I'm on PPIs for life. A small price to pay unless, of course, the NHS is dismantled. O_o
I'm beginning to see why people with my condition (especially those with more severe versions) get into a cycle of morphine use. I'm still avoiding even paracetamol unless my neck's particularly bad and I want to sleep (and nothing I've got touches migraines, so there's no point there either), so we'll see how long I can keep this straight-edge attitude to pain management up...
Thanks for reading so far! :D More updates to come, more frequently and smaller, especially in the run-up to the Sunday 20th challenge. Did I mention that you can sponsor me...?! :D
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
A proposal
So, about 21 months ago, I started this blog and the drive for better fitness that defined it. I had a single, simple goal to aim for, which encompassed a whole bunch of smaller, possibly more complex goals along the way:
Walk six miles in one go for Sport Relief 2014, the goals along the way being: increase cardiovascular fitness, increase striated muscle strength, improve stamina, get out of the habit of getting taxis and buses when I could be walking or cycling instead, improve joint stability.
The big one I did, and managed to raise a shit-ton of money (over £1000) in the process. I also lost weight, gained what feels like better lung capacity, and a better attitude to being mobile.
My joint stability, upper-body strength, and general fitness are probably more questionable at this stage, but at the time, and for a good while afterwards, there were some definite improvements to be felt and seen.
So I'm fitter than I was this time two years ago, and I'm keen to get back into that sense of achievement and incidental physical health improvement. So what's the word? Six miles again doesn't seem particularly worthwhile, and I'm enjoying the bike, so I'm thinking: a cycling challenge this year. And since I seem to cycle approximately three times faster than I walk, the challenge needs to be more than 18 miles. And Ely is 20-odd miles away from Cambridge, so...
Again: it's nothing set against those people who cycle all the way from London to Cambridge (50-odd miles), but most of them, I'm guessing, don't have the kind of physical health problems I have. So I'm going to do my challenge, building up bike hours and distances in the intervening 22 weeks, and see how I go.
Might be worthwhile learning some cycle maintenance skills while I'm at it...
Watch this space (and Strava, and anywhere else I can get stuck into) for progress reports. :)
Walk six miles in one go for Sport Relief 2014, the goals along the way being: increase cardiovascular fitness, increase striated muscle strength, improve stamina, get out of the habit of getting taxis and buses when I could be walking or cycling instead, improve joint stability.
The big one I did, and managed to raise a shit-ton of money (over £1000) in the process. I also lost weight, gained what feels like better lung capacity, and a better attitude to being mobile.
My joint stability, upper-body strength, and general fitness are probably more questionable at this stage, but at the time, and for a good while afterwards, there were some definite improvements to be felt and seen.
So I'm fitter than I was this time two years ago, and I'm keen to get back into that sense of achievement and incidental physical health improvement. So what's the word? Six miles again doesn't seem particularly worthwhile, and I'm enjoying the bike, so I'm thinking: a cycling challenge this year. And since I seem to cycle approximately three times faster than I walk, the challenge needs to be more than 18 miles. And Ely is 20-odd miles away from Cambridge, so...
Again: it's nothing set against those people who cycle all the way from London to Cambridge (50-odd miles), but most of them, I'm guessing, don't have the kind of physical health problems I have. So I'm going to do my challenge, building up bike hours and distances in the intervening 22 weeks, and see how I go.
Might be worthwhile learning some cycle maintenance skills while I'm at it...
Watch this space (and Strava, and anywhere else I can get stuck into) for progress reports. :)
Steps Forward and Back
So, I'm back on the bike again. What do you mean, you didn't know I was off it...?!
{Checks back catalogue; curses}
Okay, so, it looks like a) I've been somewhat quiet on this front, and b) history repeated itself a bit. Here's what happened over the intervening months since my last post:
1. Cycling every day (pretty much; certainly work days when I didn't have gig gear to carry, and Wednesdays when I had real life people meetings in places).
2. Physio every day (EVERY day; like a BOSS).
3. Mat exercises twice a week (come on!).
4. Eating a balanced diet.
And then August happened. And August has Edinburgh Fringe in it. So no cycling from 19th August onwards, but lots of walking, and a handy new wearable gadget that maps how much and where I walked (because my passive movement tracking app stopped working).
So I scaled Arthur's Seat (yay!) and even coached someone else up it (come on!). Didn't even injure myself, unless you count sunburn. I even kept up my physio and the strength-building mat exercises (despite some logistical difficulties - you try doing crunches on a mat on a polished wooden floor... without sliding across it and into a table).
And then I fell over on my face on a simple walk back down an urban hill, a couple of days later, and lots of health things cascaded, including my one filling jarring free and me getting a lot of pain and then a rubbish temporary filling which didn't let me chew so my nutrition was difficult to maintain and yeah - living off liquid food makes you lose more weight than you're comfortable with, if you're me.
Arse.
And then the trip back from Edinburgh with Too Much Luggage and bad lifting form and behold - buggered wrist.
So I was sensible - cycling hurt my wrist, so I paused on cycling and did some stretching and strengthening exercises for the wrist, and stayed off the press-ups, etc. Then I got back on the bike. Yay! Then I got back into the mat exercises. Now, bear in mind that I hadn't done any since August, because I didn't - I just charged on ahead regardless like someone who was intent on injuring myself. Which I did.
This was 30th September. 1st October I got on the bike, unaware of how much I'd buggered myself. By the time I was heading home, it was clear that what I needed to do was immobilise that joint as much as possible.
It's nice to find that I've learned something. I didn't prevent the injury this time, but I prevented it getting worse. I immobilised as much as possible, asking for help, reducing movement, adjusting everything I could to ensure that as little strain was put upon the joint as possible. (Except on Thursday 8th when I joined in a yoga conversation in work and decided to demonstrate that I shouldn't do a certain move by doing it. 24 hours of migraine-like pain later and I'd learned another lesson about hypermobile injuries.)
So apart from yoga foolishness, I am pretty much recovered (read: it still hurts a bit but I can use it and I was more stressed by not being active) and back on the bike, I cycled to Milton Country Park on Sunday with a friend to do some walking and wittering, then to and from work yesterday and today.
It was somewhat sobering to look back at the previous two blog entries and think: oh, so exactly like 3-4 months ago, huh? I left behind some good advice for myself, though, so that's a blessing.
In preparation for 20th March - Sport Relief again, baby - I'm going to be setting up a plan for increasing activity, strength, endurance, and general fitness. I'll keep you all posted as to what's next...
So, what's the current state of play (physical health-wise), all told? I am still a little hurty in the shoulder-neck joint and in my right wrist, and I'm finding it hard to put the weight back on. (And yes, I've tried eating all the biscuits - all that happened was I felt like crap. Presumably I need to eat a bunch of steaks and cheese. Who knows? All I know is that there are very, very few people out there who want to talk about the problems of losing too much weight and discussing how to put it back on.) So there it is.
{Checks back catalogue; curses}
Okay, so, it looks like a) I've been somewhat quiet on this front, and b) history repeated itself a bit. Here's what happened over the intervening months since my last post:
1. Cycling every day (pretty much; certainly work days when I didn't have gig gear to carry, and Wednesdays when I had real life people meetings in places).
2. Physio every day (EVERY day; like a BOSS).
3. Mat exercises twice a week (come on!).
4. Eating a balanced diet.
And then August happened. And August has Edinburgh Fringe in it. So no cycling from 19th August onwards, but lots of walking, and a handy new wearable gadget that maps how much and where I walked (because my passive movement tracking app stopped working).
So I scaled Arthur's Seat (yay!) and even coached someone else up it (come on!). Didn't even injure myself, unless you count sunburn. I even kept up my physio and the strength-building mat exercises (despite some logistical difficulties - you try doing crunches on a mat on a polished wooden floor... without sliding across it and into a table).
And then I fell over on my face on a simple walk back down an urban hill, a couple of days later, and lots of health things cascaded, including my one filling jarring free and me getting a lot of pain and then a rubbish temporary filling which didn't let me chew so my nutrition was difficult to maintain and yeah - living off liquid food makes you lose more weight than you're comfortable with, if you're me.
Arse.
And then the trip back from Edinburgh with Too Much Luggage and bad lifting form and behold - buggered wrist.
So I was sensible - cycling hurt my wrist, so I paused on cycling and did some stretching and strengthening exercises for the wrist, and stayed off the press-ups, etc. Then I got back on the bike. Yay! Then I got back into the mat exercises. Now, bear in mind that I hadn't done any since August, because I didn't - I just charged on ahead regardless like someone who was intent on injuring myself. Which I did.
This was 30th September. 1st October I got on the bike, unaware of how much I'd buggered myself. By the time I was heading home, it was clear that what I needed to do was immobilise that joint as much as possible.
It's nice to find that I've learned something. I didn't prevent the injury this time, but I prevented it getting worse. I immobilised as much as possible, asking for help, reducing movement, adjusting everything I could to ensure that as little strain was put upon the joint as possible. (Except on Thursday 8th when I joined in a yoga conversation in work and decided to demonstrate that I shouldn't do a certain move by doing it. 24 hours of migraine-like pain later and I'd learned another lesson about hypermobile injuries.)
So apart from yoga foolishness, I am pretty much recovered (read: it still hurts a bit but I can use it and I was more stressed by not being active) and back on the bike, I cycled to Milton Country Park on Sunday with a friend to do some walking and wittering, then to and from work yesterday and today.
It was somewhat sobering to look back at the previous two blog entries and think: oh, so exactly like 3-4 months ago, huh? I left behind some good advice for myself, though, so that's a blessing.
In preparation for 20th March - Sport Relief again, baby - I'm going to be setting up a plan for increasing activity, strength, endurance, and general fitness. I'll keep you all posted as to what's next...
So, what's the current state of play (physical health-wise), all told? I am still a little hurty in the shoulder-neck joint and in my right wrist, and I'm finding it hard to put the weight back on. (And yes, I've tried eating all the biscuits - all that happened was I felt like crap. Presumably I need to eat a bunch of steaks and cheese. Who knows? All I know is that there are very, very few people out there who want to talk about the problems of losing too much weight and discussing how to put it back on.) So there it is.
Monday, 24 March 2014
The Aftermath
This needs to be made clear - I am very happy right now. Okay, it's my birthday and the sun has been shining its arse off in crisp, blowy weather - exactly how I like it. Okay, I now have an actual window seat in work that overlooks anything other than a grimy roof. Okay, I've helped Sport Relief to raise nearly £1000...
But I'm knackered, and constantly hungry - like persistently starving hungry today. And there is no musculoskeletal part of my lower body that does not ache, that doesn't stiffen into vicious immobility if I sit a bit wrong for longer than a few breaths.
And yet.
And yet I can't stop smiling. And yet I'm not being a total sap either - if people come to me with unnecessarily annoying bullshit, I politely, smilingly, do not take it. And yet everything feels like something either small, or fun, or a challenge I am looking forward to spanking. And, despite feeling pretty fuzzy in the head, at the same time it's like I'm seeing people very clearly.
If I stop, I'll fall over. I'm quite sure of that and am looking forward to it immensely. The six hours' sleep I had this morning were some of the best I've had in a long time.
How did I do? Well, I got all the way around (and around) Milton Country Park just fine, ta. The track turned out to be 1.45 miles long, which made calculating difficult. (It also adds a new perspective to the "struggled 1 mile two years ago" thing, now I come to think of it; it was nearly 50% longer!) I had some company along the way after all (possibly because I'd said before that I probably wouldn't), which was particularly heroic on their part as both of them had done the 5km swim the day before. Ellie ducked out after 3 goes round (fair enough with an undisclosed chipped ankle!) and Emma trudged on with me for another revolution, a swift sit-down, and a sneaky wriggle up the middle of the circuit, so that we ended up doing 6.25 miles (according to Google Tracks) in total. It took just under 2 hours, what with the pausing to take photos, the pausing to let actual runners past (and cheer them on), the toilet break, and the aforementioned swift sit-down (long enough to do me good, not long enough to get stuck).
(And then I had to drive home, via Emma's house, wrestle the car seats back up (buggering my neck/ shoulder again - a shame), tidy and clean the house, pack the car, drive to the venue, take part in a poetry workshop, watch other people insist on setting up the space (:D), run a show, pack up, take crew and features home, chat a lot of interesting stuff about poetry and accents and poets and language and training and poets and accents and women and poets and PhDs and poets and accents and dear God 1am, hi there...
Long day.)
How'm I doing physically?
Well, my knees are surprisingly buoyant - certainly no worse than they've been in the past due to prolonged standing (which, if you remember, I did a fair amount of on Saturday), and do not appear to be swollen, which is nice. :) Similarly, the soles of my feet are uncomplaining. However, my ankles are surprisingly achey (this may well have been to do with the constantly-changing, bumpy, humpy, muddy, potholed terrain) and my lower back is disappointingly sore. The most surprising set of aches is in my abdominal muscles - kind of interesting... And I want to eat everything. All of it.
What went well?
The time spent on the walk was good - could have been shorter, but maybe it wouldn't have been if I'd pushed faster earlier... I didn't start to feel the walk badly in my legs until about 4-5 miles in, and then pushed through the remaining distance. I did rest when I really, really needed to. I didn't run out of puff. The distraction of friends helped even more than I would have thought possible. I hydrated well (knowing that I would have somewhere to go if I'd hydrated too well!), and fuelled myself with morning porridge. I did my physio beforehand, but had rested generally, doing no weight-bearing exercise, the whole week before. And I was assertive about not standing throughout the concert the evening before, and tried my best to eat and drink well (lots of (particularly raw) vegetables, high fibre, as little refined sugar as possible, loads of water) during the week.
Oh, and I raised a bundle of cash. If you've not sponsored, you can do so at http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/fayroberts :)
What could have been better?
Well, controversially, I think I could have done with some non-weight-bearing but vigorous exercise in the preceding week. If when I do this kind of thing again, I think I'll benefit from the rush of achievement of vigorous exercise in the run-up to something scary like this, as well as keeping up momentum on happy muscles and good bloodflow. While I stood up less than I could have done the night before, I still did a lot of standing, and my sleep levels were rubbish that week (another case for more aerobic exercise?!). Also: while I rallied towards the end of the week, my diet wasn't exactly stellar during the preceding few days.
What next? Well, firstly I need to see how the recovery actually goes (update 25-Mar-14 - my knees are actually starting to hurt quite badly now; bugger), and I want to know more about this next-day euphoria and confidence. Have you run a (half-)marathon or 10k? Climbed a massive hill? Cycled to France or something? Is it like this? Or should I be looking at some other factors? Like the sleep deprivation, for example. Because yesterday was brilliant, and I feel like I could do with more of that, if my knees can survive it. And I need another challenge - another milestone on this path of Being Fitter. Any suggestions gratefully received, and I'm going to get some instruction from the gym in a few weeks' time, once I'm back in the mode, asking for some extra goals...
So thanks for the props, everyone, and yes: this blog will go on (though perhaps less frequently until I have a new Big Goal) as I continue to chart my relationship with my body, fitness, pain, and recovery...
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Oh! #SR14 done!
I'm a bit dazed, to tell you the truth, but it's done, I'm still able to walk, but I can't stop because the rest of life continues.
Just under 2 hours, just over 6 miles. Very happy with that and had good company.
Now onto everything else.
F.x
Saturday, 22 March 2014
Less than 12 hours to go
Until my #SR14 challenge.
We'll find out if I've trained, rested, eaten, drunk, and psyched myself up properly and enough.
I'm trying to ignore the whinging of the gimpy Particularly Borked Knee (left), and the daft post-performance part of my brain that wants to stay up late and jump around.
All will be well, and all manner of things will be well. We may even hit £900 raised, which would make me very happy. There's still time if you want to donate:
I plan to be blogging and Tweeting as I go (partly because people who would have walked with me are ill or in different parts of the world, partly because why not?!), so you'll be able to follow my progress, if you like! :D
Right. Sleep. And cold remedy...
Wish me (and all the other runner, walkers, swimmers, climbers, and cyclists) luck.
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
Curveball
So, yeah. What little I know about this is drowned in what I don't know (why me, who all is going to be there, why me, why Downing Street, and why me), so feel free to ask, but you may have to wait until afterwards for the answers.
I'm stoked at the chance to meet other fundraisers, and to get to visit such a historically important building. I think that's probably the safest place to leave this, for the moment...
And yes: there's going to be a poem in this...
Sunday, 9 March 2014
Walk the Walk
One of my lovely sponsors (hello, Sue!) advised me that, after her experience of The Moon Walk, trying to walk a proportion of the distance of The Walk a couple of weeks beforehand would be wise. She said "see if you can do four." I agreed with her, and then managed to come up with a bunch of excuses.
To be fair, if I’d tried to do this last week, I’d have broken myself. My joints were all kinds of progesterone-overload floppy and hurt like the devil. For various reasons, I wasn’t able to go to the gym on Wednesday, and compromised by walking home. 2.1 miles of limping, bitching, spasming and misaligning later (it took me 50 minutes, though this included shopping for food) and I was entertaining my first serious doubts that I’d be able to do The Walk at all.
Well, thank goodness for the bit where the progesterone runs out, eh?
I’d run out of decent excuses, and today I decided that I was tired of the crappy ones and, after running a surprisingly successful (if somewhat truncated) poetry workshop, I came home, ate and drank a little, and put on my walking hat (it’s the same as my poetry hat, and my going to work hat, but ssshh). Okay, between the sandwich and the hat there was some gaming, but I did it.
Did what?
I set off to walk to Milton Country Park from my house, wander around it a little, then come home. I hoped to make it to as much of four miles as possible, without stopping.
And did you do it?
It would appear so. According to my Google tracking app, I walked 4.34 miles in 1:06 hours. This included pauses for: waiting to cross busy roads, getting a bit lost in the Park, taking photos, and buying some flavoured water for the journey home.
So it wasn’t exactly non-stop, then?
Piffle - mere details. :) I paused occasionally, but I stayed on my feet.
Speaking of which...?
Sore. The right foot is more sore than the left, possibly because it was taking more weight in order to deal with the Really Bad Knee (left one) complaining. By the time I was down to half a mile to go, I was limping somewhat. My right ankle is, similarly, not impressed with me. We shall see what else washes up tomorrow...
What else?
Well, I did get thirsty, but not as much as I would have anticipated (mind, it was dusk by the time I got to the Park, and I’d drunk a little water beforehand, as well as staying reasonably well hydrated through the day). I finished the 500ml fruity water bottle before I got home, though - so I was obviously some thirsty...! I was overheating in my various outdoor layers by the time I was limping, but again less than anticipated (see: dusk into night-time travelling), and it gives me some clues for how to dress on the day. It’ll be a 10:30am start. Yeesh.
What worked well?
Eating a light meal with a little water an hour before setting out. Wearing layers that could be opened to let the air circulate. Allowing myself a drink after 45 minutes. Listening to music for the first part, then listening to birdsong for the rest of it. Taking photos.
Photos? Really?
You’ve always got to ask, eh?
Well, far more confident, and less like I’ve tricked people into sponsoring me money. Cautiously optimistic about recovery from The Walk (all dependent on tomorrow’s news). Determined to do things right - basically, more of the good stuff I’ve been doing already, and less messing about and coming up with excuses. Also: stretch.
The other advice I’ve received, but which I’d already determined on anyway was: rest before The Walk itself. Do very little (though I will be doing physio) the week before the event. This sounds sound, I just need to persuade myself that I’m Doing The Right Thing and not slacking.
So that’s it, really. Hi, I’m back. And the exercise bike won’t know what’s hit it, the next time I lay legs on it.
And yeah: thanks for all the encouraging Tweets and Facebook "likes" when I said I was going to do today’s dry run. Y’all are lovely.
To be fair, if I’d tried to do this last week, I’d have broken myself. My joints were all kinds of progesterone-overload floppy and hurt like the devil. For various reasons, I wasn’t able to go to the gym on Wednesday, and compromised by walking home. 2.1 miles of limping, bitching, spasming and misaligning later (it took me 50 minutes, though this included shopping for food) and I was entertaining my first serious doubts that I’d be able to do The Walk at all.
Well, thank goodness for the bit where the progesterone runs out, eh?
I’d run out of decent excuses, and today I decided that I was tired of the crappy ones and, after running a surprisingly successful (if somewhat truncated) poetry workshop, I came home, ate and drank a little, and put on my walking hat (it’s the same as my poetry hat, and my going to work hat, but ssshh). Okay, between the sandwich and the hat there was some gaming, but I did it.
Did what?
I set off to walk to Milton Country Park from my house, wander around it a little, then come home. I hoped to make it to as much of four miles as possible, without stopping.
And did you do it?
It would appear so. According to my Google tracking app, I walked 4.34 miles in 1:06 hours. This included pauses for: waiting to cross busy roads, getting a bit lost in the Park, taking photos, and buying some flavoured water for the journey home.
So it wasn’t exactly non-stop, then?
Piffle - mere details. :) I paused occasionally, but I stayed on my feet.
Speaking of which...?
Sore. The right foot is more sore than the left, possibly because it was taking more weight in order to deal with the Really Bad Knee (left one) complaining. By the time I was down to half a mile to go, I was limping somewhat. My right ankle is, similarly, not impressed with me. We shall see what else washes up tomorrow...
What else?
Well, I did get thirsty, but not as much as I would have anticipated (mind, it was dusk by the time I got to the Park, and I’d drunk a little water beforehand, as well as staying reasonably well hydrated through the day). I finished the 500ml fruity water bottle before I got home, though - so I was obviously some thirsty...! I was overheating in my various outdoor layers by the time I was limping, but again less than anticipated (see: dusk into night-time travelling), and it gives me some clues for how to dress on the day. It’ll be a 10:30am start. Yeesh.
What worked well?
Eating a light meal with a little water an hour before setting out. Wearing layers that could be opened to let the air circulate. Allowing myself a drink after 45 minutes. Listening to music for the first part, then listening to birdsong for the rest of it. Taking photos.
Photos? Really?
Yup.
What was less awesome?
I’m still trying to make up my mind whether it was easier or harder doing this long walk by myself than with someone else. I don’t think there’ll be anyone physically with me on the day, by the sound of it, and, let’s face it, an old and not entirely groovy part of me is just fine with that. On the other hand, all you lovely valedictorian friends make this entire effort seem all that much more worthwhile with your kind and thoughtful words and praise. I am officially confused. Maybe I should eat more cheese.
I also forgot to stretch when I came back in, though I did sit my arse down in a comfy chair pretty much immediately, which was a good thing. And got given cheerleading, which is always nice. And then I did stretching later.
And how does this all make you feeel?
Well, far more confident, and less like I’ve tricked people into sponsoring me money. Cautiously optimistic about recovery from The Walk (all dependent on tomorrow’s news). Determined to do things right - basically, more of the good stuff I’ve been doing already, and less messing about and coming up with excuses. Also: stretch.
The other advice I’ve received, but which I’d already determined on anyway was: rest before The Walk itself. Do very little (though I will be doing physio) the week before the event. This sounds sound, I just need to persuade myself that I’m Doing The Right Thing and not slacking.
So that’s it, really. Hi, I’m back. And the exercise bike won’t know what’s hit it, the next time I lay legs on it.
And yeah: thanks for all the encouraging Tweets and Facebook "likes" when I said I was going to do today’s dry run. Y’all are lovely.
Friday, 28 February 2014
Reach for the Stars
I think it's fair to say that the sponsorship effort is going pretty well for The Walk. As you know, I beat my original target and raised it. And then I beat that and raised it again.
And now I'm close to beating that. Blimey. People are lovely.
Raising attention for this has meant stepping outside yet another comfort zone, one that came up in conversation last night as my mate and I stumbled home for 2½ hours from a gig in a London location so outer that it didn't even have a London postcode. She was being quite... insistent... on helping me with my (large, but not as large as usual, and on wheels, okay?) case. She was lovely and patient and helpful and non-patronising, but letting her carry my case was a bit of a mental struggle for me.
To say that asking for help doesn't come easily to me is a bit of an understatement. My first phrase, apparently, as a child was: "I do it myself". (My mother used to say that my first word was "No". Hard to say how accurate that is...) So it's been a fairly overwhelming characteristic of mine since, basically, early cognition. My ingrained dedication to self-reliance is not about to change with ease/ at all/ ever/ overnight, is what I'm trying to say.
I'm getting better at it. For example, I'll accept help with much more alacrity these days. Not quite the same as actively seeking assistance (and I've always been someone happy to go seek information, being more than willing to accept that there's always someone who knows more than you do about, e.g. where the condensed milk lives in this shop, how to open the car bonnet of the car I'm driving, ou est la gare, etc.) but, you know, a start. A big part of the last three years has been accepting what I physically just can't do and persuading myself that I'm worth getting it done well and not hurting myself in the process. At some level, Being Able To Do Stuff is enmeshed with my feeling of self-worth. And yet, as with my complicated perception of the desirability of dieting, I don't judge others by what they can't do...
This is echoed in my sometimes desultory attitude to publicising my own events/ merchandise, etc. The best way to persuade myself to request assistance is to remind myself who else suffers if I don't. So having a goal where others will benefit if I do well is über-motivational, and this has got me pushing mention of my sponsorship drive around the shop. And now that everyone and their monkey know that I'm doing it, I can't bottle out. And if I'm definitely going to walk six miles in a go, I'll need to get the tools to be able to do it without breaking myself and returning to the place where I need to ask for help.
Ta-da! Fay-logic circumlocuted! I win out over the apathy!waaah, and Sport Relief get a bag of cash to help people in need. Oh, and the people who give me the money get to feel good about themselves too... :)
Thanks! :D
And now I'm close to beating that. Blimey. People are lovely.
Raising attention for this has meant stepping outside yet another comfort zone, one that came up in conversation last night as my mate and I stumbled home for 2½ hours from a gig in a London location so outer that it didn't even have a London postcode. She was being quite... insistent... on helping me with my (large, but not as large as usual, and on wheels, okay?) case. She was lovely and patient and helpful and non-patronising, but letting her carry my case was a bit of a mental struggle for me.
To say that asking for help doesn't come easily to me is a bit of an understatement. My first phrase, apparently, as a child was: "I do it myself". (My mother used to say that my first word was "No". Hard to say how accurate that is...) So it's been a fairly overwhelming characteristic of mine since, basically, early cognition. My ingrained dedication to self-reliance is not about to change with ease/ at all/ ever/ overnight, is what I'm trying to say.
I'm getting better at it. For example, I'll accept help with much more alacrity these days. Not quite the same as actively seeking assistance (and I've always been someone happy to go seek information, being more than willing to accept that there's always someone who knows more than you do about, e.g. where the condensed milk lives in this shop, how to open the car bonnet of the car I'm driving, ou est la gare, etc.) but, you know, a start. A big part of the last three years has been accepting what I physically just can't do and persuading myself that I'm worth getting it done well and not hurting myself in the process. At some level, Being Able To Do Stuff is enmeshed with my feeling of self-worth. And yet, as with my complicated perception of the desirability of dieting, I don't judge others by what they can't do...
This is echoed in my sometimes desultory attitude to publicising my own events/ merchandise, etc. The best way to persuade myself to request assistance is to remind myself who else suffers if I don't. So having a goal where others will benefit if I do well is über-motivational, and this has got me pushing mention of my sponsorship drive around the shop. And now that everyone and their monkey know that I'm doing it, I can't bottle out. And if I'm definitely going to walk six miles in a go, I'll need to get the tools to be able to do it without breaking myself and returning to the place where I need to ask for help.
Ta-da! Fay-logic circumlocuted! I win out over the apathy!waaah, and Sport Relief get a bag of cash to help people in need. Oh, and the people who give me the money get to feel good about themselves too... :)
Thanks! :D
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Just Do It #3
Quick, throwaway "motivational" phrases can be helpful, especially when you're exhausted and your body's drenched in adrenalin, and the buffer zones of carefully-constructed cognition are crumbling in the face of your inner waaah that just wants to give up and go home and, incidentally, eat a large plate of biscuits, or possibly ALL THE CHEESE. So this tag series is for those small pre-fabricated tools that help me get the chuff on with it.
I ran into someone at work who's doing the Sport Relief Swim - very cool! :) Her partner's doing the Six Mile run (run!) and they've both been getting into getting fitter generally since the New Year.
They told me a brilliant phrase that the runner's spinning instructor calls to them when they're mithering:
"What's sweat?! It's just fat crying!"
I love it... :D
I ran into someone at work who's doing the Sport Relief Swim - very cool! :) Her partner's doing the Six Mile run (run!) and they've both been getting into getting fitter generally since the New Year.
They told me a brilliant phrase that the runner's spinning instructor calls to them when they're mithering:
"What's sweat?! It's just fat crying!"
I love it... :D
Monday, 17 February 2014
Bleh
Today is a Bad Joints Day. Not only the usual suspects: Borked Shoulder, Particularly Bad Knee, Grinchy Neck Section, Dodgy Wrist, and Whingey Lower Back, but pretty much everything else as well. The knees feel swollen, and everything is particularly clicky, achey, or twisted.
Yay. No gym for me tonight. This, combined with general increase in clumsiness and fine motor control near-absence today and yesterday leads me to conclude several things:
1. Sleep deprivation is a major key in pain perception/ management
Sleep has been very absent lately, especially over the last two nights.
2. I need to drink more on busy days
Like way more.
3. I have entered the "secretory" phase of my menstrual cycle
O hai progesterone, come to make a fuss, have you?
4. Standing around lots really does knacker my knees, especially when carrying heavy stuff
Seriously.
5. There may be some other factor that I'm not figuring in that is pulling everything else out of alignment
e.g. diet (sugar? acid? protein? calcium? something else?), the actual weight carried while walking/ standing, emotional stress, etc.
One of the things that worries me about, well, all of the above, is that the weekend of The Walk is a busy one, and that's got some real implications for stamina/ injury/ enjoyment on the day and recovery afterwards.
The day/ evening beforehand is a choir concert. Judging by last time, this means: lots of standing; not much fluid intake (you don't want to rush to the loo in the middle of the gig); and a late night finish, which includes eating late. Boo.
On the evening of the the day itself is a poetry gig that I run. Judging by, well, every time, this means: a fair amount of standing; lots of heavy lifting (including up and down stairs); not much fluid intake (as organiser, you find yourself forgetting); and a really late night finish, which includes eating late. Double-boo.
And both will involve a fair amount of emotional stress, of different types, as well as likely to be taking place during the same less-than-ideal phase of my menstrual cycle.
Oh dear.
The Big Day is five weeks away and I have, as yet, to do any of the long walks necessary to check my ability to walk the increasingly long distances on the graph on the way up to six whole miles. I just typed the phrase "Things keep getting in the way." and looked at it in disappointment and a measure of horror.
Oh deary me.
So the next five weeks are going to see:
1. A new sleep strategy (and set of tactics to match)
Don't ask me yet - I need to work this out.
2. A dry run of "drinking more and standing around less" for the next poetry event
Can't hurt...
3. More physio advice
She offered something I was tempted to take her up on. Now that looks like a Very Good Idea Indeed™
4. Cracking on with the nutritionist advice
Any suggestions for good ones in Cambridge?
5. A new mattress
Mine is completely scuppered; time to spend some money.
6. Actually doing a long walk
No excuses.
7. Reading up more on hypermobility
There must be more I could be doing that I haven't thought of yet...
So watch this space, basically.
Yay. No gym for me tonight. This, combined with general increase in clumsiness and fine motor control near-absence today and yesterday leads me to conclude several things:
1. Sleep deprivation is a major key in pain perception/ management
Sleep has been very absent lately, especially over the last two nights.
2. I need to drink more on busy days
Like way more.
3. I have entered the "secretory" phase of my menstrual cycle
O hai progesterone, come to make a fuss, have you?
4. Standing around lots really does knacker my knees, especially when carrying heavy stuff
Seriously.
5. There may be some other factor that I'm not figuring in that is pulling everything else out of alignment
e.g. diet (sugar? acid? protein? calcium? something else?), the actual weight carried while walking/ standing, emotional stress, etc.
One of the things that worries me about, well, all of the above, is that the weekend of The Walk is a busy one, and that's got some real implications for stamina/ injury/ enjoyment on the day and recovery afterwards.
The day/ evening beforehand is a choir concert. Judging by last time, this means: lots of standing; not much fluid intake (you don't want to rush to the loo in the middle of the gig); and a late night finish, which includes eating late. Boo.
On the evening of the the day itself is a poetry gig that I run. Judging by, well, every time, this means: a fair amount of standing; lots of heavy lifting (including up and down stairs); not much fluid intake (as organiser, you find yourself forgetting); and a really late night finish, which includes eating late. Double-boo.
And both will involve a fair amount of emotional stress, of different types, as well as likely to be taking place during the same less-than-ideal phase of my menstrual cycle.
Oh dear.
The Big Day is five weeks away and I have, as yet, to do any of the long walks necessary to check my ability to walk the increasingly long distances on the graph on the way up to six whole miles. I just typed the phrase "Things keep getting in the way." and looked at it in disappointment and a measure of horror.
Oh deary me.
So the next five weeks are going to see:
1. A new sleep strategy (and set of tactics to match)
Don't ask me yet - I need to work this out.
2. A dry run of "drinking more and standing around less" for the next poetry event
Can't hurt...
3. More physio advice
She offered something I was tempted to take her up on. Now that looks like a Very Good Idea Indeed™
4. Cracking on with the nutritionist advice
Any suggestions for good ones in Cambridge?
5. A new mattress
Mine is completely scuppered; time to spend some money.
6. Actually doing a long walk
No excuses.
7. Reading up more on hypermobility
There must be more I could be doing that I haven't thought of yet...
So watch this space, basically.
Friday, 14 February 2014
Extra
So, most of you probably know that I'm working up towards walking 6 miles in aid of Sport Relief on 23rd March. What you might not be aware of is that we recently smashed the original £300 donation goal. I'd frankly wondered if it was too ambitious at the time. Now I'm seeing what happens when you set your goals high and keep pushing towards them...
Obviously, what I've done now is set a new target of £500. And if we hit that in the next three weeks (we're less than £100 away from it now), I'll raise it to £750. And so on. (Well, sensibly enough so that I'm not setting myself up for failure...)
Yesterday's wall was (probably) as a result of a lot of emotionally-wearing stuff happening in quick succession to a body and brain that are already being deliberately challenged, pushed, changed, and demanded-of. Pretty sure I can't spreadsheet that, but I can keep track of, e.g., quality as well as quantity of sleep.
Obviously, what I've done now is set a new target of £500. And if we hit that in the next three weeks (we're less than £100 away from it now), I'll raise it to £750. And so on. (Well, sensibly enough so that I'm not setting myself up for failure...)
Yesterday's wall was (probably) as a result of a lot of emotionally-wearing stuff happening in quick succession to a body and brain that are already being deliberately challenged, pushed, changed, and demanded-of. Pretty sure I can't spreadsheet that, but I can keep track of, e.g., quality as well as quantity of sleep.
Sunday, 9 February 2014
Challengers
It’s time to talk motivation. Okay, again, but this time I’m not talking about goals, but some of the things that got me started on this path, and one of the means by which I keep myself going...
The first time I did Sport Relief (March 2012) was because of a friend I wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for The Stick and Twitter. I struck up a conversation on a bus with someone using a crutch, after I got involved (I can’t not get involved - can’t decide if it’s a Welsh thing, a my family thing, or just a me thing) to clarify to her that yes, this bus would get her reasonably close to where she needed to go. We talked only a little before getting off at the same stop, but - on alighting - she dropped the spoons shibboleth and we nattered rapidly before getting to my house and exchanging Twitter handles.
I then took her up, via Twitter, on an invitation to meet up with a bunch of people at a wheelchair-accessible pub after work. At this point I had no idea whether I’d ever ditch the stick and, while used to the vicissitudes of invisible disability, was resigning myself to the fun bits of more visible disability. Years before, the person who’d brought me to England had conceded to a wheelchair, so I was used to a lot of a crap surrounding that second-hand. Being the direct object of horrified pity/ confusion/ penetrating curiosity/ terrified revulsion was yet another brick to carry around in the growing arsenal of This Sucks, never mind the practical considerations, weird shame, and increased expense on top of physically feeling like crap. Meeting some people who could help me shape/ share/ laugh about this was an alluring concept.
I met a bunch of lovely people through a series of nights out, and have roughly stayed in social media contact with many of them. However, one of them was more persistent, and I got to know him better.
Nearly two years ago, he mentioned that he was going to help out with his school’s Sport Relief Mile (he’s a TA), but that doing a mile in an electric wheelchair capable of 8mph felt underwhelming, somehow. He then got a brainwave - he would do it backwards. Suddenly, when taking a heavy machine backwards over grass when you have limited neck movement, a mile feels a lot longer.
I’d been feeling low and sorry for myself. It was coming up to my first birthday with The Stick, and - while I was making a little progress with physio - I wasn’t convinced that this wasn’t as good as it would get, and all these images of sporty and otherwise celebrities doing things like dancing and cycling - two things I dearly loved - when I couldn’t was bringing on butthurt in large quantities. I was getting emails about sport (I support Comic Relief, so was getting the SR emails), seeing posters about sport, TV programmes about sport, the Olympics were freaking everywhere in 2012, and I was filled with waaah.
And here’s my mate, who doesn’t feel like life is challenging enough, so he goes - literally - the extra mile to raise some money and support his students.
What could I do? I signed up for Sport Relief a few days before the event, got some sponsors, had a birthday party, and set off - horribly hungover (my birthday is one of the three times of the year I drink alcohol) - into the muddy sunshine of Milton Country Park to hurple a pained and shaking mile (with an even more heroically hungover partner by my side).
So there’s one of my motivations - the idea that, despite the many challenges life might hand you, there’s little more satisfying than fulfilling one of your own, despite/ because of them. Pretty much all of my personal heroes are friends who haven’t let the terrible crap life has dealt them stop them pushing themselves to new horizons - often ones that are of direct benefit to lots of other people. When I’m feeling particularly butthurt, thinking of him, or any of those other many generous, striving souls I know puts me back on track.
This post was going to go to some other places, but I think we’re good here for now...
The first time I did Sport Relief (March 2012) was because of a friend I wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for The Stick and Twitter. I struck up a conversation on a bus with someone using a crutch, after I got involved (I can’t not get involved - can’t decide if it’s a Welsh thing, a my family thing, or just a me thing) to clarify to her that yes, this bus would get her reasonably close to where she needed to go. We talked only a little before getting off at the same stop, but - on alighting - she dropped the spoons shibboleth and we nattered rapidly before getting to my house and exchanging Twitter handles.
I then took her up, via Twitter, on an invitation to meet up with a bunch of people at a wheelchair-accessible pub after work. At this point I had no idea whether I’d ever ditch the stick and, while used to the vicissitudes of invisible disability, was resigning myself to the fun bits of more visible disability. Years before, the person who’d brought me to England had conceded to a wheelchair, so I was used to a lot of a crap surrounding that second-hand. Being the direct object of horrified pity/ confusion/ penetrating curiosity/ terrified revulsion was yet another brick to carry around in the growing arsenal of This Sucks, never mind the practical considerations, weird shame, and increased expense on top of physically feeling like crap. Meeting some people who could help me shape/ share/ laugh about this was an alluring concept.
I met a bunch of lovely people through a series of nights out, and have roughly stayed in social media contact with many of them. However, one of them was more persistent, and I got to know him better.
Nearly two years ago, he mentioned that he was going to help out with his school’s Sport Relief Mile (he’s a TA), but that doing a mile in an electric wheelchair capable of 8mph felt underwhelming, somehow. He then got a brainwave - he would do it backwards. Suddenly, when taking a heavy machine backwards over grass when you have limited neck movement, a mile feels a lot longer.
I’d been feeling low and sorry for myself. It was coming up to my first birthday with The Stick, and - while I was making a little progress with physio - I wasn’t convinced that this wasn’t as good as it would get, and all these images of sporty and otherwise celebrities doing things like dancing and cycling - two things I dearly loved - when I couldn’t was bringing on butthurt in large quantities. I was getting emails about sport (I support Comic Relief, so was getting the SR emails), seeing posters about sport, TV programmes about sport, the Olympics were freaking everywhere in 2012, and I was filled with waaah.
And here’s my mate, who doesn’t feel like life is challenging enough, so he goes - literally - the extra mile to raise some money and support his students.
What could I do? I signed up for Sport Relief a few days before the event, got some sponsors, had a birthday party, and set off - horribly hungover (my birthday is one of the three times of the year I drink alcohol) - into the muddy sunshine of Milton Country Park to hurple a pained and shaking mile (with an even more heroically hungover partner by my side).
So there’s one of my motivations - the idea that, despite the many challenges life might hand you, there’s little more satisfying than fulfilling one of your own, despite/ because of them. Pretty much all of my personal heroes are friends who haven’t let the terrible crap life has dealt them stop them pushing themselves to new horizons - often ones that are of direct benefit to lots of other people. When I’m feeling particularly butthurt, thinking of him, or any of those other many generous, striving souls I know puts me back on track.
This post was going to go to some other places, but I think we’re good here for now...
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