Wednesday 29 February 2012

Im finally back walking after having a pretty bad cold and just feeling terrible.  I did my usual 2 mile walk at lunch time on Monday and then again yesterday morning before meeting up with my friend Alison at night to do another 2 miles.  Its the first time we have walked together properly so trying to get the same rhythm going.  She is about 5"2 and I am 5"7 so there is a bit of a difference in our leg size!! 
I thought I would divert from McArdles tonight to tell you about Ali.  Ali and I have been friends for a long time, since high school so about 13-14 years.  A few years ago Ali decided to lose some weight, to be honest Ive never really noticed her size, obviously I knew she was a bit bigger but she was just Ali to me so I never really thought anything of it.  Anyway when she went to glasgow to uni she got a bit bigger and was at her biggest when she decided to make a change.  A couple of years later and she has lost 6 and a half stone!!!  Amazing.  I know this sounds really silly but to be honest I never noticed until we bumped into a school friends mum who didn't recognise her!!  In fact even my own dad who has known her a long time didn't recognise her.  Its not until I look back at photos of her that I see the difference she has always just been who she is.  So she has made this massive change in her life and looks amazing so its quite an achievement for her.  Whilst we have been asking for sponsorship ive been (slightly cheeky) and using my McArdles, I have been joking with her that she needs to say she is an ex fatty and should get an old pair of trousers and get into them in the classic Ive lost lots of weight pose then peoplpe will sponsor her more!!  Anyway I just thought I would share that with you as its going to be a big achievement for both of us to complete this walk.

We did fine on our walk, just need to learn not to talk so much!!

xxxx

Sunday 26 February 2012

Feeling mostly better after a week of stuffiness but still not 100%.  Had a couple of short walks this week which made me feel a lot better.  Thought I would do a longer 5-6 mile walk today, the weather is actually quite nice here for once! however I hurt my thigh kneeling down to talk to my niece so now have to rest it.  very frustrating.  Should be ok by tomorrow so need to get back to it. 
Walk the walk send you out a training programme to follow which if you follow should only take 3 months training in order to complete the walk.  Ive been following it to a certain degree but also listening to my own body.  As long as I get my stamina up I think I can complete it no bother. 
Thanks to Cheryl for the comment - 1 whole comment, come on people where is the support!!!  I probably have not said anything of interest so far to be fair but still!  Im just wondering if it is of any interest to people or helps or if there is something people want me to talk about.  I know I have not written to much about ho the actual walks are so maybe my next post should be about this.  Let me know folks.
Ok I also see I have forgotten to say that we are raising money for breast cancer, if you should feel inclined to sponsor me the link is www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/the_monkeys.  Its a great cause so if you can spare a couple of quid then great.  If not no problem just some encouraging words are good enough.

Thats it for now Scotland are beatign France in the rugby so off to flick between that and the football.  enjoy your Sunday everyone. xxx 

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Hi Everyone,

i have been taking a break from training as I have not been feeling well.  Just a cold and a very swollen neck and sore throat but its been making me feel very tired. 
Even though I have been avoiding walking I still had to go and do my monthly shop.  I dont know how everyone else does with this but I find it soooo tiring!!!  I guess I shouold get someone to help me with the trolley full but sometimes thats not practical and you have to go yourself.  I prefer it when the check outs are a bit busier as it gives me time to put everything on the belt and have a break before I have to pack it and put it back in the trolley.  Tonight was especially difficult as the supermarket was quiet so I got straight to a till.  this is one occasion where I dont speak up and say to the check out lady that I need help packing or that I'll just be a minute.  Then I feel bad as I'm taking so long and they are trying to put my stuff through but they are waiting on me getting to the other end and packing it.  Its the little things that can cometimes be the worst!!  Never mind I made it home in one piece just a slight shoulder strain but nothing serious.  Im now home having some lemsip, paracetamol, water and watching the football.  Im going to try adn get back to the walking tomorrow but my ears still feel like they are full of cotton wool and I cant stop coughing but I really need to pull it together, get a grip and start walking again.  There is not long to go and the longest walk Ive done so far is about 4 miles.  Sigh. 
xxx

Thursday 16 February 2012

Yo Yo Yo

So training has begun for the dreaded walk!! I have been trying to have a walk at lunch time, which has been slightly successful, for those of you who dont know I am a chocolatier for a small business called Coco Chocolate, we have shops in both Edinburgh and Australia.  As you can imagine this does not help keeping the weight off, which as you McArdle-ites all know, is very important.  Walking can also sometimes be the last thing you want to do, but it also can be exactly what you want when all you have done all day is look at chocolate. There is a nice walk up past the Edinburgh Dick Vet School and round Bush House.  I have done this walk lots of times, there is a bit of flat before a slight incline and then a fairly flat walk up the road, which is around 2 miles.  Some days I find I dont need to stop at all and some days I need one stop on the incline.  Yesterday and today were very difficult.  Yesterday I had to stop twice, once just before the hill and once on the hill.  I always walk with Mary who I work, she is great and understands if I need to stop and I never feel uncomfortable stopping, she noticed I was a lot more sluggish than usual and that I had to stop twice which is very unusual.   Once Im up the hill I find I can get into second wind very quickly and I can usually speed up and cover the distance in a short time.  Sometimes Mary can be the one who needs to slow down and I can pick up the pace.

I have said "Im having a bad McArdles day" lots of times and I know our McArdles is not thought to be different on different days but thats how it feels.  I know its because Im just generally feeling run down, I can feel Im coming down with a cold so I know that will be affecting me but sometimes you just want to scream and be pissed off that your McArdles is "stopping" you from doing something as basic as walking 100 yards without stopping.  In general though I find having this walk at lunch time very beneficial.  I find that as soon as I stop exercising I feel terrible.  I know that other people with McArdles feel the same.  Last year after I did the walking in Wales with the McArdle's group I felt great (If anyone is thinking of doing this I highly recommend it).  I came back thinking I would keep the fitness up and quickly fell back into not exercising and I can honestly say I have not felt so bad for a long time.  I felt run down, tired and just generally ill, I kept hurting my muscles and they were swelling up.  As soon as I started walking again I felt so much better.  TING the light has just come on - exercise is good for me!!!

Jen x


Tuesday 14 February 2012

Happy Valentines Day everyone!!

So having signed up for the walk I thought the best thing to do would be to invest in some comfy trainers.  On a very cold, windy and rainy day in Edinburgh I decided to go with a friend into town and go to a proper trainer shop.  Not one of these designer trainer shops but one that actually knows if a trainer fits and who can actually give you advice.  I went to a shop called 'Run For It' and spoke to a lovely man who informed me that I should walk on the treadmill whilst he filmed my bare feet to see how I actually walked.  Fine I thought, his next question was "do you have any injuries at the moment?"  Hmmmmm well now.....I kinda have this muscle thingy disease type thing I tell him, I see his eyes glaze over slightly and the thought process going on in his head.  In my mind it went something like this, "What the hell is she talking about!!  She is in here to get shoes because she is doing a marathon, she looks fine and I have no idea what this muscle thing is ....."  In reality he probably thought ok thats fine you just tell me how fast you can go on the treadmill and how far.  Luckily it was a slowish pace and for about 30-40 seconds so I was absolutely fine.  I do admit however that I was slightly panicked.  Even though I have now gotten to a stage where I (most of the time) have noe embarrassment about stoppping or telling people about McArdle's, there are times when that age old pushing yourself too far and not stopping in time come into play.  Why do we do that??????  Its funny I never thought something as simple as going to buy new trainers could be potentially troublesome.  My advice if anyone is doing something similar, just be honest with the person and speak up.  Years ago I might not have had the confidence to say I need to tell you how fast and how far on the treadmill.  I seemed to have lost my embarassment, I think its mainly from actually having a diagnosis, I would probably have told the guy that I was really unfit and thats why it was sore pre diagnosis but actually having a name for it makes it so much easier.

So after a few trainers and walks on the treadmill I purchased my trainers and made my way back out to the cold and off to look at my new purchase thinking I will put them on soon!!!  I must say I have had a walk in them now and it was like heaven!  I have never been so happy in a pair of trainers.

Jen x

Monday 13 February 2012

Hi everyone,

My name is Jen, I'm 27, I'm form Edinburgh and I have McArdle's.  I was diagnosed around 5 years ago.  I have decided to take on a 26mile marathon walk, the Edinburgh Moonwalk!!!  I thought I would write a blog to let people know how my training is going and hopefully help, encourage, motivate and generally just make people smile.
Ive always been a very fit and active person and could never understand what was going on with my body, a feeling Im sure all you McArdle-ites know about.  I played a lot of sports but my one goal was to run a Marathon.  Im pretty sure I cant run one but the next best thing for me is to walk it.  The Edinburgh Moonwalk is taking place on Saturday 9th June 2012 and myself and my friend Alison have signed up.


Im going to try and blog atleast once a week and let people know how the training is going.  I start from a position of having not done a lot of exercise for a while.  I do gentle walking but not regularly so I'm starting at a low fitness point and hopefully over the next few months I can build this up and complete the marathon walk.

This is my first post so I dont want to write too much but I will post again in a couple of days and more when the proper training kicks in!!  I will also be tweeting on the actual walk but I will post details of how you can follow me later.

Please feel free to comment or get in touch with any comments etc.  Apart from hopefully being of interest to others I am doing this for myself.  Im not a medical expert or anything so Im just writing this from personal experience so hopefully people will take it in the vain its meant to be in.  A bit of FUN!!!

Over and Out, Jen