My Couch to 5K walking plan last year bit the dust after a patchy several weeks, when increasing knee pain coincided with lockdown. I did a few walks which went unrecorded in Strava because I forgot to press the start button (facepalm). A few more were rather inaccurate because of interference with the phone's GPS (high buildings, bridges, having the phone in a pocket, can apparently all interfere). I trudged through hail showers trying to convince myself that this was good, while the cold increased my pain levels. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Stop whining, JFDI, don't be so lazy, where's your self-discipline? There's nothing special about you, stop making excuses, try harder! etc. A friend commented that I might have some internalised ableism. I had to look it up and found she was right - I'm generally happy to accommodate others' disabilities and differences, but struggle to do the same for myself. It's the way I was brought up; to strive, work hard, be strong and independent (and with all the above thrown at me when I fell short of expectations). Although the judgemental comments could be reworded to be more encouraging, (my ballet and dance teachers never used that sort of language!) I don't see anything wrong with that, except that it goes hand-in-hand with being hard on yourself. I still find it impossible to find the line between enough and too much, to navigate a fair path and forgive myself when I fail.
I also lost my dance mojo (still haven't really found that, although I do find myself boogying slightly to supermarket music). I transferred my energies to gardening, which remains a battle with brambles, pendulous sedge and bindweed, but it now feels as though I am making progress. I can't control the weather, but I can take a pickaxe to those roots and I feel the stronger for it!
This year, with lockdown easing, and friends posting beautiful photos and stories of miles walked in the sunshine, I started to feel totally pathetic about my inability to comfortably walk even a mile. See? Ableist! Others who struggle to walk a mile have my sympathy and understanding, but I can't accept that I can't walk a mile, or three, or five. It's time to dust off the plan and get out there again. The bonus is that at the moment, my knee pain is not as bad as it was when I was doing this last year; it feels as though the gardening work has improved things.
However much I tell myself not to overdo things, it seems I don't notice while I'm gardening/walking/ dancing until I've overdone it. I blame those endorphins. I had a lovely day in the garden a week ago and couldn't move the following day. As soon as it eased off the day after, I did only a little more and spent the next two days in agony. Also, while I want to walk, I need to leave enough energy to garden or whatever else in the day. I need a new plan.
Last year's plan involved starting with 15 minutes a day, increasing to 20 minutes in week 2, walking for five days and having two rest days in a week. That was too much and it didn't help that I got totally carried away one day when I was feeling good and did 2 kilometres (1.25 miles) in 45 minutes. Oops. I also turned a blind eye to the comment that this was for beginners 'without significant health complaints'.
I've looked around for walking plans this year, and find that most are for people who are aiming to walk 5K for charity, and need to train (that is, push themselves), with 10 week plans involving daily walks, interval training (changing the pace), a speed of 3 mph or faster and significant step-ups after week 4 or 6. Obviously, a generic training plan takes no account of how you are personally on a daily basis.
So, here are some self-imposed rules:
- Aim for 5 walks/2 rests a week, weather allowing, starting with 10 minute walks
- Walk for time, not for distance
- Walk at an easy pace, no interval training. The easy pace should get faster as you get fitter.
- Walk mindfully, think about your posture and gait, take in details of your surroundings.
- Review progress every 4 weeks
- Stay at or go down a level if it starts to feel too much, add in a little more if it feels too easy.
My first 4 weeks look like this:
- Week 1: 5 x 10 mins
- Week 2: 3 x 10 mins, 2 x 15 mins
- Week 3: 2 x 10 mins, 3 x 15 mins
- Week 4: 1 x 10 mins, 4 x 15 mins
- Review: is 5 x 15 minutes in week 5 okay?
This pattern has me walking 5 x 30 minutes in week 13 (that's 3 months) which feels like quite a time commitment. From there, I envisage staying at that with a day's longer walk each week and see how I am doing. I would like to be able to walk a mile (approx. 1.6K) by midsummer, (I used to be able to walk at 3 mph quite comfortably).
I announced my intention on my Facebook timeline late last night and found such an outpouring of support from my friends this morning, I feel loved. 💖
Time to get my walking shoes on!
