Gone but not forgotten

Its been a couple of weeks now since i last went out on my walks, Not been a good time for me these last couple of weeks if im honest.

firstly i started to get a pain in my foot, although im not putting that down to walking, walking is a very safe thing to do as far as strain on your joints. But never the less i developed this pain in my foot after doing Zumba. i just put it down to aches and pains with me really giving it some, so thought nothing of it.

The next day i woke up with a lump on my foot and it was very painful, so painful i was walking with a limp for the first few days.

Anyway i went to the doctors with it and he told me it was a ganglion cyst and that i might have to have an operation to remove it.

A ganglion cyst is caused by over stressing the joints, runners get it if they suddenly up their millage and do a bit too much, so i surmised that i had done too much and strained my foot joints while doing Zumba.

Luckily though with rest this past few weeks it has gone away all by itself and i dont have the pain anymore, the pain is caused by the lump pressing against the tendon or nerve of the foot. so the upshot of that is i will have to take it steady just yet, but i will be getting back into it all very soon. Hopefully the weather will turn good which will make it all that bit more pleasant

Snow Walk

Well the snow did eventually come this week. It was actually very heavy here in the night but did thaw a bit the following day,

This Video is my usual walk to Tesco's and my 11,000 steps but in the snow.....

At last....

Finaly got to go out for my usual walking session today. Although the weather forecast has been saying we are in for a really snowy week with subzero temps, its not really been like that. Sure its been cold but nothing special, so today after a few days doing the Zumba, i went out for my usual 5 mile walk.

I enjoyed my 13,000 steps today, and the biggest thing i noticed and probably thanks to my three days of dancing with Zumba, is how light i felt on my feet.

This is hard to explain what i mean, but one thing i noticed when i had been walking for a few weeks and my fitness levels were up, i still couldn't spontaneously skip up steps or skip up on the kerb.. I still felt heavy in my legs even though they were now strong enough.

I seem to think over time that your body either forgets how to leap into action, or becomes stuck in a rut so it doesnt want to.

To cut a long story short, today i was deliberately skipping up the kerb, then back down again as i was walking along, you know, a bit like a kid does as he/she is playing in the street.. (flash back to singing in the rain)



People must have thought i was loopy, but i dont much care.....

How many Steps

I did an experiment today with me not going out for my walks these last few days with it being really wintery weather.

The experiment was to wear my step counter while i was doing my 45 minutes Zumba routine.

The results were 45 mins of Zumba resulted in 8,000 steps.

Now i know this isn't as many as i was doing with 13,000 and 14,000 steps on my walk, but these 8,000 steps are'nt steady walking, these 8,000 steps are like this and got to count for something......
Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.........

Lets Zumba

just a snippet of what i was doing this morning instead of going on my walk......

Winter is here.. AGAIN!

Oh dear, what a morning i had when i went out for my usual session. Never known it so cold as it was this morning. It was -1 according to the clock thermometer outside and so icy and slippery under foot..

Non the less i managed to get out but soon realized that i would have to cut the session short because of the ice, so i only managed 11,400 and was only out an hour and a half....

The good news to all of this is... Because i felt i had missed out on my session today, i started with a session or two of that Zumba which i enjoyed immensely and i really got a sweat on too, more so than i did with the walking...


I think im actually going to concentrate on that now instead of the walking and other fitness things specially with this very cold wintery weather thats here at the moment..

Im still going to want to go out for my walking sessions simply because it gets me out of the house, but i think for a while at least, im going to concentrate on more intense stuff to really get my fitness levels up.


Then who knows, by the time the weather sorts itself out, i will be even fitter and might be able to run most of the walking session...

Come walk with me.

I thought i would do something a bit different today on my early morning walk, so what i did was take my camera with me to record the first leg of my walk in completion.



It was dark and a bit wobbly on the camera work, but its good to see the actual walk in progress.

Oh, and today i knocked up 13,400




Join me for the first 6,000

The first flowers of spring.

Yep that was my highlight today, i saw the first flowers of springs poking its head up from out the cold dirt this morning as i was doing my 5 mile session at 4am.. I thought yeah, soon be spring and then summer..


I had a nice session today, i didn't wear my weights though because i wanted to do some interval training.

Interval training for those that dont know, is when you take it easy, or rather do what you are doing, which in my case is doing a brisk walk, then every so often you up the pace.

So in my case it was walking briskly then every ten minutes or so i would break out into 5 minutes of jogging, then back to walking again to get your breath back, active recovery... Then off jogging again for 5 minutes. repeat this pattern for as long as you are able.

Of course if you arent able to jog or simply dont want to, then you can still do interval training by walking as usual, then every 10 minutes pretend that you are rushing for a bus and put a spurt on in your walking for 5 minutes, really give it 100% effort.. Then bring it back to your normal walking pace for ten minutes to get your breath back (active recovery), then do a mad rush again for 5 minutes.

Might not seem like much but this sort of interval training does you more good than just keeping a steady pace all the time and of course is a good marker of how your fitness improves because you will be able to keep the intervals going for longer through the whole session.....


This is interval training and really works well for fitness and fat burning while minimizing the potential for injury...

So today i did 13,400 but of course some of this was jogging in the interval training......

Could have been Sardines

Felt strange last night being in bed for 10:30pm, doesn't come easy for a night owl like me, but needs must and all that..

Body Clock

Up again this morning at 3am and out for 4:30am. It was lovely i must admit to be out so early again, in fact i was out an hour earlier than i was yesterday so it was really quiet for the first hour or so.

Ideally though i would like to not get up while say 5am and go out at 6am, but while im still getting my body clock sorted i will have to make do with what i can manage. At least its the right side of the day for a change.

So today i managed 14,800, which is almost 15, but  not quite. I was out over two hours though and i would have done the extra but i was really shattered by the time i got back. Carrying shopping again i had decided to get while that way on at Tesco's. Even picked up a family bundle of 5 tins of Tuna on offer, so they did weigh a bit.
Its ok though, it could have been worse, it could have been Sardines, i used to have a thing about sardines, but now i hate them with a vengeance, but thats another story..

All in all a good session today, with that bit of extra weight on my back too. Coming back i worked hard so that all goes towards progress in your base fitness.

Makes sense though carrying that bit of extra weight while walking, you can even get weight vests to wear while you are out, not seen any of those knocking about on my travels. Saying that though, they are silly money for what they are, so i guess i will have to stick to my rucksack  full of shopping...

weighted vests cost silly money

Up with the lark

After yesterdays little mini disaster where i almost didnt get out after not sleeping the night before and having been in bed all day to catch up, i actually managed to get a few hours sleep last night from around 12ish to around 3:30am this morning.

So up with the lark and off out.. I went around 5am on my usual session.  With weights on my ankles this time, and actually giving it full welly, managed 14,300 in just under 2 hours and back in time for breakfast as they used to say in the war....


Now all i have to do is stay awake all day now, and hope the insomnia doesn't strike again so i can go to bed at a reasonable time.

Hopefully now after a few days of gradually not sleeping too well, i can get my days back again, I do love these early morning, but then i always did. There is something just so clean and peaceful about getting up before the rest of the world gets up. Before the buses and cars start polluting the atmosphere as people potter off to work.

I really did enjoy my early morning walk today, hopefully the start of many morning walks now..

Ups and Downs

Well i almost didnt make it today, Been a bit of a rough night to be honest, feeling a bit weird in myself and not being able to sleep at all last night, in the end i had to take a tablet that i know knocks me drowsy. Finally got off about 9:30am and stayed in bed while gone 6pm..

So today i thought i had better have a break from the routine and also treat myself to the chippy or at least  something other than brown bread and salad sandwiches or steamed rice and vegetables. So that's what i did, went down to the chippy...

I really dont enjoy the chippy anymore, dont get me wrong i love my fish and chips and curry sauce or peas, but i don't like what they do to me afterwards, for a start i cant eat more than a few chips and i only eat half the fish they give you, so i always feel its wasted. Then on top of that i feel bloated and my belly swells up and so uncomfortable for hours and then i wished id not even bothered. But i thought "what the hell " go for it...

So i did, i got my usual fish special which is fish, half a ton of chips and curry sauce and a bread cake. So i got it home and put it all on a plate with a cup of tea, and before i knew it, i had eaten most of the chips and all the fish and had half the bread cake, then it hit me, i must have been so starving, i don't mean normal hungry like you get when you haven't eaten in a few hours, but the sort of hungry you get when you haven't eaten in days and runs deep and you could eat a dead horse.

Thing is i didn't even realize i felt like that, yes i was sort of peckish all the time but didn't realize how hungry i really was, given all the miles im walking now.

I Suppose 5 miles a day 2 hours a time is a lot for a body that normally sits in front of the PC all day. So tonight in the end  I did  12,904 steps, although i didnt put my ankle weights on and i guess it took me a little bit longer as i wasn't really pushing it, this was a sort of active rest... And the most important thing is my fish and chips went down well and i could almost hear my body letting out a big sigh of relief that it finally got fed.......

Start of a new week

Blimey my legs are aching today, of course it was the first time i had gone out yesterday with those weights on my ankles, so that defo did make a difference,and obviously worked me a lot harder. So im going to put them on again tonight.

Its another cold January day, or rather night as it is now,thats the only trouble with this weather, you need to wrap up from the cold but when you get going with any pace, you find that you become too hot and sweaty, losing valuable water and salt from your system.

So its important to keep hydrated even in this cold weather. the trick is to try and warm up first before you go out and then try to get a good pace going as soon as you can so you dont feel the cold and dont have to put too many overly warm clothes on for your walk so that you dont become too over heated while you are out.

Easier said than done though sat here shivering.....

So off i go again, start of a new week and a whole new set of goals, hopefully. 

Update----  

Well that was hard slog coming back. i was out 1 hour 55 minutes but only did 13,200 steps, bit dissapointed but then it was my own fault.

Got my ankle weights on, so i was carrying that extra 2kg, then when i got to tesco i decided to do a bit of shopping.

Coming back i had a rucksack full of shopping which felt like another 5kg on my back, which of course slowed me down and by the time i had walked another 2 miles i was getting really shattered..

So in the end i didnt face the final hill i always go up, i cut it short and so only managed 13,000... Oh well, i least i got my tea bags, and bread and things........

Oh No! Not again...

This weather is really disheartening, its so windy out there that its blowing the fence down, but still i have to go for my usual 5 miles tonight.
Its been like this now for a couple of days, yesterday was bad too and i found it very difficult to make any real progress with the wind in my face for the first 2 miles, then on my way back i was being blown about like a rag doll, and it looks like its even windier today than yesterday..

When will this spring start showing its head, its nearly February. Sometimes dont you just long for some sunshine.

This weather is miserable at the best of times without having to go out in it every day.. But then you have to remember that its all worth it, and this weather wont last forever..

 So new developments, what have i noticed?

Well i suppose the main thing is that im starving all the time, i can eat, then an hour later im starving again. At first i thought i was coming down with a cold. You know how getting a cold can make you hungry sometimes, but then i thought, or rather i worked out how long i had been doing this, and it turns out its been 10 days non stop now, plus im dabbling with the weights again too and other things like press ups and sit ups.

So i got working it out how far i had walked in these past ten days and it works out about  50 miles. which is also roughly 5000 extra calories ive used up that i normally wouldn't have.

Im not a big eater, haven't been for a while now, so perhaps this accounts for my hunger all the time. I wonder if my base metabolic rate has rises too, this might account for what im eating not being enough to last me for more than an hour before im hungry again....

Best get some chocolate in i think....Purely medicinal you understand.........


Well its that time again, time for me to set off into this windy night... so as per i will update you when i get back. I really fancy breaking my steps record tonight, dont know if the weather will allow me to do that or not though, have to wait and see......

Update-----

 Im back, just having a well deserved bottle of water and a dry cream cracker for the salt..Was really sweating like a navvy this time, and luckily, for all it blowing my fence down and the outside loo door off its hinges, the wind actually died down for my little session so i gave it some tonight...

Time 1 hour 55 minutes and 14,500 steps  with ankle weights on too, burning 710.cals

Thats almost half the course longer than when i first started and in less time too, so im pleased with that tonight, helped of course because the wind had dropped right down and it was cool but not freezing...

Really felt the benefit too from these ankle weights, like i said before they arent too heavy but you will be surprised the extra effort you have to put in over the miles even though they are only about 1kg each (2lb bag of sugar for us who hate this metric nonsense)

had to laugh when i got back and took them off, i was walking about like id got springs in my shoes because they felt so light. Amazing how much difference these small weights makes and would probably do you good wearing them for an hour in the house or garden just pottering about just to strengthen your legs up a bit ..

All in all a very good session tonight, and its amazing how addictive this walking thing can get, although it does take more dedication in this weather than it would do in summer.

Roll on summer then........

Chafing and Blisters

well this is a new development and shows how much extra effort ive been putting into the walking last few days. Ive started to develop chafing on my legs from the rubbing of my trouser seam which is caused by sweating. So shorts on tonight then, under my clothes of course, its much too cold and windy and raining today to go out there bare legged..

Thing is what am i going to do about it... Well there are a few things i could do, i could put a bit of talc on just to keep things smooth on my skin. i also have to take a good look at what im wearing on these longish walks.
Obviously what im wearing now is wrong for the effort i am putting in, probably got raised seams and the fitting is a bit loose so that is the main cause of the friction..

If all else fails then out comes the lubricant.........

Think we might have a bottle somewhere.......ha haha

Right then, time to hydrate with a cuppa, try the talc to see if i can sort this redness out a bit, then off again. Hopefully this bad weather will ease a bit before i set off, although im not holding out much hope.

Update,,,,,

Well thats me back, the lubricant worked a treat but blimey that was a hard 11,312 steps, the wind was horrible, really gale force in my face for the first half of the journey and blowing me into the road coming back. Needless to say i didnt do a good time today or stay out longer than i needed to.

On the positive side though, i did wear my wrist weights, so that made the walk a bit more effort than usual, and of course the fat burning potential a lot better, because people dont always know that the best sort of aerobics is done when there is resistance involved, like pumping weights while you jog, or wearing wrist or ankle weights, this burns fat more efficiently than just aerobics on its own.

They dont have to be all that heavy either for this, my ones are just 1kg about a 2lb bag of sugar on each wrist which give just that bit more efficient workout over the miles...

Rain Rain Rain.....

Guess what? Its raining, not just raining a bit, but lashing it down and doesn't look like its going to stop anytime soon and im all but ready to go for my walking session. 

Now you would just think given the weather that i would just leave it for today, but the thing is i cant, i dont want to, i feel a compulsion to go. Which is a good thing. 

This is what you want really, to build any exercise program into such a routine that it becomes important to you. This is whats called a lifestyle change rather than just a fad, and its those life style changes that give you the most benefit and do you the most good simply because they remain long term and part of your life....

So it looks like im going to get wet then tonight so i best go and get ready.. 


Update......... Well im back, took me just under two hours to do 13,122 this time. which is good... That relates to 560cals burnt, 40.7g of body fat used in just that one walk. Now work that out over the week (3920cal), or the month (15,680cals) or the year(188,160) and all that soon adds up to a slimmer more fitter you.... 


So did i get wet? No not really, luckily it did stop after id been out about 5 minutes. Trouble is id got kitted up for the rain, two coats one being a plastic kagool type thing to keep me dry, so you can only imagine the state i got into when the rain stopped and it became very mild. 

Talk about sweating, thats full body sweating losing  pints and pints of fluid which is not good when you are exercising like that because with the fluid loss goes the salt too which your body needs and you can get quite funny headed if you lose too much salt like that.


So i got to tesco's, grabbed myself a bottle of water and grabbed a carry bag and stripped off, well my rain coat, hat and gloves anyway.  

Now you see the sense in aiming for something like Tesco's as a midway point. it can become very usefull for emergency supplies, like water or the toilet.

So Thats all Good tonight, went further than usual which is easy to do, you just take a detour which takes you a longer way around to the same destination, which is why tonight i did over 3,000 more steps than i need to, and the best thing is, because im kicking up the pace now with my fitness improving, i actually did it in the same time as i did the 10,000 when i first started. My aim is to eventually fit in 15,000 steps in a 2 hour period, when i can do that on a constant basis it will be time to put something else into the routine which will probably be the bike riding again, or jogging, although im not a big fan of jogging because of the joint damage it can cause specially if you are a bit older than 20.... or like me, a lot older than 20....................................

The End of the Beginning

Well looking at this now, Ive actually been on this walking thing for a week, a week today as it happens. This first week was good, ive really enjoyed it and when i think about it now, i have seen some improvements over these few short days.

I remember the first day, i actually didn't get very far, only half way on the 5 mile course i had picked out for myself.  The sticking point was a bit of a hill going towards a bridge and i remember feeling a bit anxious  as i was getting out of breath, probably pushing myself too hard for the first time out, my heart banging in my ears. This made me stop at the top of the hill, turn round and go back.
 This was a week ago today, how different it is from last nights outing. last night i walked at a brisk pace for ten minutes then i jogged  for a minute, then walked again. Yes i was actually jogging for the first time in years and it felt good. Although i wont be over doing that until i get a bit of weight off me as jogging is  "high impact" and can cause knee and ankle strain if you don't take it easy. It was nice though to feel that burst of energy again and i actually knocked 30 mins of my course time.

For those who are interested in my actual course, i made a video not related to this, this was related to a stopping smoking attempt, but the video follows the course exactly all the way to tesco's and back. which is my course at the moment..

So off i go again tonight, for the first time it is actually raining really hard so im going to get wet tonight by the looks of it.. Saying that though at least its warmer now. Last week was going into the -1 icy fog conditions, so if i can carry on in those horrible conditions, a bit of rain wont hurt.....

Update... 
                 Well that's another one under my belt. 10,415 tonight but what a walk that was, for a start i was determined to up the pace a bit with it being my second week at this, its always good to keep giving yourself a challenge i find with something like this or it just gets stale and boring and that's when you tend to lose interest.
tonight though i had to contend with really high winds, gusting and blowing me back, then there was the rain which at some point was lashing, so all in all not the most pleasant of walks tonight, but i did stick to my plan and did up the pace, so im pleased with my progress as i knew i was kicking it tonight but i didn't feel it, so that shows that my fitness levels are up already.
Oh and a bonus to all this is that im saving a fortune on  petrol going to tesco's.. i still go to Tesco's, but now i walk, so good for my health and good for my pocket too....

The first steps

They always say that even the longest journey starts with the first single step, but they never tell you that taking that first step is always the hardest. This is where i found myself on new years eve 2012. Taking that first step.

Years of smoking and neglect has made me at the age of 50, not exactly the peak of fitness and health and always dreading the future, not really believing i had much of a future left if i carried on the way i was doing. So yep, on that fateful, and as the midnight chimes went to bring in yet another miserable year, I, yes I, decided it was time to try and drag this one foot i had in the grave, out again and get on with my life, in fitness and in health, or should that be Kill or Cure.

So yes the smoking stopped, its been three weeks now and all is well on that score, course i still get the urge, not sure why to be honest, they do say we all have a monkey on our backs eating away at our confidence and positive thinking, and i know that to be true.  My monkey you see if a very active one but still on i go, counting the days, which to be honest, go by quickly now, not like the first week. God did the days drag on then, counting the hours, 12, 24, 36,the cravings seemed so hard then, but that doesn't last too long if you can get past the first few days, then all you have to do is quietly get on with it, and hope the monkey doesn't shout too loud.

So stage one was complete, or at least as complete as you can have it for something that seems always on going, at least at this three weeks stage it does anyway. This is where stage two came in though, the stage where the F word rears its ugly head.

Now we all know lots of unsavory F words, flatulence, fornication, Fifty, but non is as terrible as this F word which  has driven fear in the hearts of many men before me.. and the words is... Fitness, yes thats the one. Urgggggggg... Why is it we always imagine we have done with that particular F word in our school days and PE lessons, never imagining that we would one day want to inflict it on our self  purposely in later life. 


Fitness of course means there will be some sweating involved, and not good sweating like with sex, but bad sweating like with running and heart pounding and the feeling you are about to die, you know, its that sort of "F" word, the F word i hated at school and ever since.even more so when i became the double F word.. "Flabby Fifty"..

 Ambition is a strange thing though isnt it, you remember yourself  being young, or at least younger than you are now, you remember the energy and the very slim waistline and (in my case) the absence of man boobs, which as we speak are coming on very nicely thank you. 
so you look at yourself in the mirror, and really dont like what you see and want to do something about it, but you just dont know what. 
Your fear is after years away from any sort of exercise, all you will have to do is put on a trainer shoe. step outside, attempt to jog 100 yards and  keel over with a heart attack, which will probably happen if you try to do too much. but thats the nature of ambition, you want to be slim again, you want to have the energy you once had as you feel the graveyard getting closer with every passing year, trouble is, you want it now, and its the NOW that causes the trouble, luckily im too much of a coward to risk the kill or cure approach, so decided on a safe course of action, Well 10,000 actions if im being accurate about it. 10,000 steps each and everyday. 

This is the recommended daily steps you should do if you want to get fit and remain healthy with a strong heart, low blood pressure and best of all a small waistline. this i have to see to believe though but hopefully time will tell..


This is going to be a long journey, 10,000 steps a day, thats roughly 5 miles, or 35 miles a week. This blog will be the story of that journey.