Wednesday 22 January 2020

Walk this way ...

There was a time, which now feels like another lifetime, when walking 5 km/3.1 miles was really no problem for me. Before I had a car, I used to walk a lot more, because there was never a bus going where I needed one to go to, when I needed one. Walking was free, even if I did tend to arrive a little sweaty. But as life and the demands of household, work and leisure got busier, using a car was the only solution. I would have had to take leave from work to deal with solicitors, estate agents and banks when I bought my first house in 1991, if I hadn't had a car. But with a car, I got lots more done, and walks were more scheduled events.

Even then, I had started getting pain in my feet from arthritis, although it wasn't formally diagnosed. My GP at the time told me it was gout and if I didn't agree with his diagnosis, we had nothing more to talk about. He also said I had to lose weight and should join WeightWatchers. I explained that all the WW classes clashed with my dance classes and rehearsals, I preferred to dance. He said I should stop the classes because of my gout. It was clearly not gout (he didn't even look at my feet!) Sorry, I digress. It's one of those things which still rankles after all these years.

So back to the present day, 5k feels impossible to me now. My right knee is still painful, waking me at night, giving me stabs of pain when I'm just sitting. The trouble is, I've started to feel my lack of exercise and I know I need to move. Just standing for 20 minutes to do things like cook and wash up leaves me ready to sit down again. My legs shake, my knee gives way, my feet hurt. I'm even starting to feel it in my hips. Bloody arthritis!

But managing osteoarthritis includes strengthening the muscles around the joints and keeping them strong, and pain does not necessarily mean more damage. I have to move or seize up entirely. Use it or lose it! I used to enjoy walking, if I could go at my own pace, in good weather, with birds, trees, water and preferably without many people.

It's the time of year when everyone is signing up for walks and runs, exercise programmes, diets, going vegan or teetotal for a month. I had previously investigated 'Couch to 5k' plans before, but there seems to be an assumption that it will be for a run and that you can already walk for an hour.  Then I found a 'beginners' couch to 5k walk plan and it sounded just about right. If I can stand for 20 minutes then I should manage the five 15 minute walks in the first week. It's about 10-13 weeks long, but although it would be great to be able to do it sooner rather than later, I'm not going to pressure myself into that timescale. I've been lucky this week, with high pressure giving lovely weather instead of the high winds and rain, some of it frozen, we've been having for what seems like weeks. Months, even.

Because the idea glimmered in my brain a couple of months ago, I bought myself some new walking shoes, and a running (walking!) belt which will  hold my (now new!) mobile, house key and hanky. It has an elasticated belt, so it fits comfortably and I can tuck the sleeves of my fleece in when I get hot. I took advantage of this week's lovely weather and did 3 walks, overdoing it on the second one because I got a bit carried away; the weather was so gorgeous and there were birds to look at and dogs and their walkers to greet.

Brunel Trail: The tantalising onward view at my 1 km turn-round point

I'm tracking my walks on Strava, which shows me little maps and motivates me to do more.

My knees and feet aren't really feeling any the worse for the exercise, but the other muscles in my legs, which haven't had much use since November, really ache. I was ready for a rest day today. Then I need to do two walks and have another rest day, and see if next week I can do five 20 minute walks. I expect I will plateau for a couple of weeks, but that doesn't matter.

I'm not looking forward to the next one as much - the weather is due to change, but hopefully so too will I!

2 comments:

Ginge in Germany said...

Fantastic article. You have a very crisp, readable writing style.

Bestest wishes,
Ginge

Dancing Moth said...

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.