Mountain leader training taught me a lot about my condition and my ability to sustain a period of walking. Each day consisted of 6km or less. We never walked a long day. These walks were done with long breaks conducive to restorative rest and repair. I expected to find this week easy because I had prepared my body for so much more than I was expected to engage in.
I was exceptionally surprised when early on my pain elevated to high levels making my body become weak and reducing my stamina. Slowly my fibro fog became more prominent. My rest each evening was never quite enough to improve upon my symptoms so each day I slowly became worse. I had done too much!
For the last few years I had used the feeling in my spinal cord as a marker for overdoing things. When my back felt like it was being squeezed I needed to stop. The problem I had on this trip is that I hadn’t listened to my pain. I couldn’t stop my training and sit some of the days out when the pain became apparent. I had no other option then to keep going knowing a rest wasn’t far off.
On further reflection, analysing this week, I can only see one difference in the way I had prepared and what I had experienced. Leading up to the training I had my focus on completing long walks on consecutive days. ML training didn’t expect long distances from me, this would have been easy, but they expected multiple short bursts of walking with intermittent rests. I have always seen a slight increase in my pain when I stop and this ML training really highlighted this.
On finishing ML training I have rested for 3 days solid. I had spent large quantities of my time reading in bed or sleeping. I was exhausted. 5 days after my training when I start to write this blog the pain in my spinal cord is really high and restrictive. I struggle to sit, stand , walk or move. I’m at my most comfortable lying down, when my spine can rest in a neutral position. I have had problems swallowing. Showers feel painful. It feels like I have burnt my face and eyelids. It’s crazy!!
We arrived home today and I went for my routine mirander around the river….. the problem is that this time felt almost impossible. I had a lot of pain and became really tired.
This greatly annoyed me. Before the Easter holidays I had done so well in improving my health and stamina. I had raised my base line of walking up to 8 miles on two or more consecutive days. I thought this training would have been well within limitations.
Previously my plan was to spend the time leading up to the summer holidays to strengthen my body ready to complete the Two Moors Way. After this last week I have discovered that trying to complete such a long walk over so few a days would be very stupid thing to try and do. We didn’t walk far this week, but I crashed.
After reflecting on my training course and the unexpected feedback I have made the very difficult decision to put a hold on completing the Two Moors Way. My reasoning for this is that although I am making improvements on my health, this is actually going to be a longer process than I first thought. We have decided to delay until April 2020.
The silver lining to this delay is that I can focus my trips in the summer on completing 20 quality mountain days so I can qualify as a mountain leader in October. I can practice multiple stops on the walk helping to build stamina into my walking. It is really important for me to not lose hope, but keep myself focussed of practicing distance, practicing short bursts of speed, keep to an anti inflammatory diet and keep up with my physio exercises. All these regimes have worked together to build strength and they will continue to do so I am fit and well to fulfil my desire to walk the Two Moors Way.
Walking to health; the challenge 