Saturday 31 March 2012

This is my view of the Pentland hills on my walks at lunch time.  Check out the beautiful sunny sky.  Amazing!  Hope the Wakelins are both happy now....

Monday 26 March 2012

I have been walking but ive just not been blogging.  Ive not done another long walk as I have been pretty busy but I have been regularly walking 3 miles at lunch time.  Today was roasting hot, hard to believe about Scotland I know, but it was very hot.  Having had two big deliveries at work today all I wanted to do was sit in the sun for a while and then go back into an air conditioned kitchen!! 
As I have said before I work as a chocolatier which involves a lot of heavy lifting.  Today for example we had a chocolate delivery.  The chocolate comes in 20kg sacks and myself and Mary carry it off the pallet into the kitchen.  Today it would not fit through the door so it was left outside.  Not a good idea for chocolate so we really needed to get it into the kitchen. I know most people with McArdles will be quite worried about lifting that kind of weight.  I take my time and have a rest if I need to.  MAry and I always say we look like weight lifters when they are trying to carry a car or some other ridiculously heavy object down a runway or something!  I know some people would not agree with me lifting this weight but I have only ever hurt myself once and that was my own fault as the bag slipped and I tried to catch it instead of letting it drop.  I think it helps me to keep my upper body strength at a reasonable level as we mainly use our legs.  Anyway we went for a nice walk in the sunshine and were knackered by the end of it.  Im slightly relieved the walk is at night so atlest it wont be too warm.

I also went for a walk along the promenade at Portobello beach.  Its so nice to see the beach so busy.  I grew up and went to school in Portobello.  It used to be the ultimate beach destination and people used to come from all over to holiday there.  There were even a few outdoor swimming pools!!  So it was really nice to see it so busy.  Although the ice cream queue was so busy we never got one.

Im hoping to do a couple of longer walks this week.  My sister Kim is also doing the walk (she doesn't have McArdles) and she told me last night about her 9 mile walk so my competitive side has come out!

xx

Saturday 10 March 2012

Hi everyone I survived my walk!!

We started out going up hill as I live on a bit of an incline, it was ok and I didn't need to stop.  Got to the top of the road and the road is flat.  We started walking at a steady pace and kept that up for about the first 5 miles.  The walking itself was fine and we were both feeling good.  The weather was a bit chilly, luckily no rain but the roads we were on were very open so it was pretty windy.  We headed out towards a place called longniddry but decided going all the way out there was a bit much on our first long walk so cut down towards a little place called Cockenzie.  At this point a few niggles were started to raise their ugly heads.  Alison was having a bit of trouble with her foot and I was feeling it a bit in my left knee.  We powered on but it was also a very windy and open road and despite having thinsulate gloves on my hands were freezing.  Poor alison didn't even have gloves so her hands were white, turning to blue.

On the last two miles someone stopped to ask directions, aaarrggghh big mistake that tiny little stop did not help our legs and both of us could feel them seizing slightly.  Both of us were finding it tough going at this point but with only about a mile left we really tried to focus and not tell each other how badly we were feeling. Alison's calfs were cramping slightly and my hips were feeling it.  As we turned into my street I changed the way I was walking slightly and got a bit lazy - big mistake my calfs cramped up!  I stretched them a little, just a few seconds at a time and then carried on walking.  When we got into the house we both had to fight the urge to collapse on the sofa.  we did some stretching and some gentle walking round the livingroom. 

I am sore now but not through McArdles, just through general muscle stiffness.  Alison is feeling the same so I know its not just because of the McArdles.  We both enjoyed the walk but are feeling very tired now!  We completed 8.5 miles in 2 hours 35 minutes.  Thats about the 18 minute mile mark so we were a little disappointed as we want to be doing 15 minute miles to get a good time.  Hopefully that will come as we build up our stamina so we cant be too disappointed.  I think a nice hot bath is in order for me now!

xx
Im getting ready for a long walk this morning.  I had a bit to much to drink last night so I am feeling it this morning!!  Urrrggghhh why did I keep drinking!  Its going to be ok though ive had something to eat and feeling better already (lies).  I will blog after the walk, which will hopefully go ok!

xx

Wednesday 7 March 2012

I got home from work thinking I would go out for a walk today but its very cold and windy so I couldn't face it and went on the walking machine instead.  As if that wasn't punishment enough I couold smell my baked potato cooking in the oven, calling out my name!  I just did a quick 30 minutes but I can really feel the difference of regular walking.  I also managed to get into second wind a lot quicker today, usually it takes about 8 minutes but today it was around 6.  I also decided to keep an eye on what sort of time it was taking me to go at a faster pace.  I tend to up the pace a little bit and walk at that pace until I feel like Im in "second wind" at that pace before putting the pace up again and repeating that same process.  Planning on doing an 8 mile walk on Saturday.  Im slowly building up my stamina and hopefully I will be ok for the walk.  I already feel a lot better within myself. 

Also wanted to say thanks for the comments.  Im not on facebook but Andrew has passed on those comments to me so I am getting the encouragement.  Im no expert but I think that if you can do even a little bit of walking each day or every other day you will notice a difference.  Even if it takes 50 stops before you can finish a 5 minute walk the more you do it the more its going to help.  I have learnt to listen to my body and to stop or slow down if I need to.  I also know that I CAN do it.  I used to run around, play football, go horse riding, play any sport I could so I know that if I do it safely I will be ok.  When I was diagnosed I think I ended up using it as an excuse to be a bit lazy and I really regret that because it had made it all the harder to stay at some level of fitness.  I miss playing football so much but it used to take so much out of me and I always wondered why I could barely move the next day, so I do have to be a bit sensible and change to walking.  I used to jog a bit and I know that if I can carry on exercising I will be able to start jogging again, well I hope so anyway!!  I hope other people can maybe take a bit of hope from this, I know that everyone is in a different postion but I do have McArdles and we can exercise, we just have to be a bit more careful!

xxx

Sunday 4 March 2012

Hi,

So I had a good week of walking this week.  I did a couple of miles Mon, Tues and wed at work and also 2 miles on Tuesday night.  I had a day off on Thursday and then did a 5 mile walk on Friday.  Saturday was a day off and then 3 miles this morning.  Fridays walk was good as I walked with my friend Jenny and my other half Scott.  Jenny also had her baby Nathan with her so I did a bit of pram pushing as well.  We left our house and walked slightly up hill to turn off to a walk way which takes you down to the local town, Musselburgh.  I actually found the incline fine and I was pushing the pram all the way up.  It was the last few metres where I needed to give the pram to Jenny to push.  So I was very happy with that.  I have been trying to concentrate and time when I get into second wind.  Its very easy to do on the running machine but outside I always forget to check.  I didn't need to stop or slow down on my outside walk but I can definately feel a difference when im "warmed up".  I feel instantly different.  We ad a bit of rain (of course its Scotland)  but all in all it was a pretty good walk.  Again today when I was walking on the running machine I didn't feel the need to slow down or stop to get in to second wind and was able to walk at about 5kmh before upping it to 6.2kmh and then was able to stay at that pace for 40 minutes.  As soon as I start walking and exercising again I instantly feel a lot better.  the only problem I have had this week is ive still got a bit of the sniffles and I inhaled a crumb the other morning and went into a pretty hardcore cough.  when I eventually managed to stop I had hurt both sides of my torso!!  Very annoying!  i was ok a couple of days later but was in a bit of pain at work trying to lift sacks of chocolate etc.  Ive heard other people say that they would get their ck checked if they had hurt themselves but I never do.  I have only ever had it checked once, which then started the investigations into what was going on.  What do other people usually do?  I have McArdle aches every week or every other week, nothing major usually but swellings and soreness but I never attend the Dr. Not sure if I should be??!!!

xxx
p.s if you want to follow me on twitter i am @jen_forrest.  I am going to try and tweet during walkind and also on the big walk itself!