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Regular moderate exercise log


Build up gradually. I’m just over Achilles tendinitis/plantar fasciitis (illness just before and lockdown have helped) and got severe shin splints when I first started out. Still get some aches and pains, but now know when it’s pain and I need to stop rather than just an ache/grumble. Remind me of that in the morning!

Serioulsy, just take things slowly. My usual method - when public transport is an option - is to make sure there are a number of bail out points and in London you’re never far from transport. Proving more tricky now that’s not allowed.

Do you have a tennis ball or another small ball? Rolling your foot over the top of it helps - and stretching before and after the walk. @Japes may have some suggestions too.
 
Goonergal said:
Still get some aches and pains, but now know when it’s pain and I need to stop rather than just an ache/grumble.
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this is so hard...am i being a baby or is this a message? In your experience am i better going to four/five miles in an outing or doing 2x3 miles in the same day?
 
copilost said:
this is so hard...am i being a baby or is this a message? In your experience am i better going to four/five miles in an outing or doing 2x3 miles in the same day?
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Sorry, no message intended, was just reflecting on my own experience. Always stop if you’re in pain or worried about a twinge - better safe than sorry.

Your call on distance - guess it depends what you’re trying to achieve. At the moment a couple of shorter walks might be better - breaks up the day, but if you’re trying to go further, I’d find a way to build up gradually - if 3 miles is comfortable, is there a way for you to go 3.5 on a few occasions until that’s comfortable, and then add a bit more on again?

That’s really what I did - when first diagnosed I simply went a bit faster on my regular walks (they were very short as part of my commute). Then I started going a bit further - went the long way round; then started getting off the train early; then as got fitter and stronger, went more often and just pushed the distance. Too quickly as I really did my shins in....but ended up obsessed with walking. Just love it!
 
Goonergal said:
Sorry, no message intended, was just reflecting on my own experience. Always stop if you’re in pain or worried about a twinge - better safe than sorry.
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Sorry that's what i meant - it's hard to decide if it's a pain you should work through or a pain you should respect! I'm pretty sure I can do 3 miles rinse and repeat so I think maybe try to 4 miles and see how I get on. I love walking too, it fixes my anxiety which is definitely a thing!
 
Hello @copilost .

In more usual times, whilst commuting to and from work, I was getting my walking in 2 or 3 walks a day. Usually, I would walk the 3 miles (about an hour) to work, walk home depending on time, what I was doing in the evening, blood sugar levels - I learned the hard way that I preferred to get home and eat a decent meal if under 7 when I left work then walk after I'd eaten and adjusted the insulin to allow for a walk. That 2/3 walks a day also worked better when I was going through a nasty patch of tendonitis which has been improved by this enforced stay at home and I've been building back up to my usual amounts this week. I've never been into working through pain, working on the theory pain needs to heal, but I didn't let pain stop me walking completely - just made sure I had good boots, good socks, followed advice about different exercises, and adjusted my expectations of myself.

I built up like that to regular longer walk days. It's rare for me to go for longer than 4 miles without some break to check bloods, adjust as need be, let the feet have a break, then carry on.

It's fair to say what holds me back from doing more than an hour at a time at the moment is the lack of toilets! I'm used to nipping into whichever supermarket or shopping centre I pass for the facilities, as almost all of my walking is urban, and am really not wanting to queue to go into the supermarkets just for a toilet break! (Even my nearest one where I am well known for doing that, buying a small drink or snack, then shooting off out again.). I am also a public transport user, and my walking regular routes all have planned bailout points. I do use public transport still when I have shopping to transport home, having walked to the shops so it's an essential trip, but don't use it if I'm just out for exercise.

It's also fair to point out I only do this because I enjoy it and it all has an excellent effect on my blood sugars/mental health/general physical health. If I stop enjoying walking more than moderate amounts a day at a moderate pace, or become obsessed with meeting the annual targets I set myself, (2020 - well, I'm just glad if I hit 10,000 steps a day at the moment rather than my usual more than double that!) then I take a break and do something else instead for a bit.
 
Thanks @Japes and @Goonergal for the encouraging words and guidance. Yesterday doing my usual walk my foot went "ping" right at the end, less than 1/4 mile to go. Your posts were in my mind so I stopped, rested, then set off slowly. This morning I wibbled about resting or walking, settled on a slower than usual walk. Foot was fine. So I started out asking about increasing distance and ended up slowing down over my usual distance It was a really helpful experience to make me focus on overall aim and not speed/distance/achievement. Thank you.
 
Great stuff @copilost - very easy to overdo things (I could do with taking my own advice at times). Had a very short walk this morning and a bit of a longer one tonight, part of which was with a friend - walked to meet her in a park, did a bit of walking with her and then wandered back home.
 
Yes!! After all these weeks of just an hour or so's walking a day, I'm edging back up to my normal amounts and will re-adjust the spreadsheet to pre-lockdown numbers soon. (Whilst making a note of what worked in an OK-ish kind of way during that time, just in case I need to remember what I did for another possible lockdown!)

Feet aching a bit but not too outrageously!! Insulin needs which have been hideously high during the lockdown time, no matter how active I tried to be, are edging back to pre-lockdown amounts as well.
 
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That’s great. I’ve been going further in lockdown - partly due to river crossings being closed and partly due to wanting to spend as much time outside as possible (small flat, no garden). According to the health app on my phone (which doesn’t always come out with me) my daily average in May was 9.8 miles. Longest walk was 23 miles. Thoroughly enjoying it and the illness I had in March enforced enough rest to nurse the Achilles back to health.
 
In week 3 of marathon training. run fairly regularly out with marathon training. Any other runners with tips or stories on their experiences of running with type 1
 
Morning all. It’s gone a bit quiet in here so bumping the thread up a bit. Have maintained long weekend walks throughout lockdown, but my initial burst of pre-work walks trailed off until recently as work got beyond crazy. All too easy to slip into being sedentaryness when one’s desk is a couple of meters away. Trying to put that right the past couple of weeks.

Yesterday had a lovely almost 7 mile walk in the early morning sunshine. Reserving today’s walk for what is promised to be very warm late afternoon/evening sunshine.

 
@Goonergal niiiice! Does your app tell you you went up 145' and came down 95? Mine is always doing that.... I used to do a short up-down the same hill walk at night, and somehow I always climbed higher than I descended!

45 minute live stream barre class today. I do not know how the instructor does it. She's a not-too-long retired ballerina, so, a performing artist. She needs her audience. Zoom audiences just don't give the same energy! Plus which, instead of teaching 2-3 classes a day by demonstrating first then wandering around the classroom helping folks, she has to take every one of her classes beginning to end! I had a little talk with her and she breaks form more often, but even though she's only 40 I do not know how she does it AND holds down an administrative/creative day job with her former employer!
 
@zauberflote I’d forgotten about barre and it still sounds exhausting! I’m using the free version of the Strava app so don’t get a whole lot of data. They’re heavily pushing the paid version but I use it mainly to track distances and sometimes time if I’m walking for fitness rather than to take photos.

Couple of longer ones at the weekend while I was staying out of town. For the Walsall one I forgot to press start at the start of the walk so the section from the rail station, the town arm of the canal and the start of the main canal is missing

 
Nice walking routes! @Goonergal but I am a touch biased. I've still to do the West Bromwich to Walsall section of the canals, but I've been avoiding the canals until such time as life is more "normal". But, that's partly because I've just not gone further from home than 4 miles - but I know my immediate local area for walking so much better than I did! And the consensus amongst those who know me locally is I know the locality for walking better than they do. Partly from what I've heard from a colleague who lives on a narrowboat - and who has moved self and boat out of the West Midlands for the duration after several too many incidents of poor behaviour around distancing.
 
@Goonergal I use iRunner, the free version. Gives me map, distance, splits, elevation change, and ads

My brother has an android phone, and an altitude app for it which is meant for flying-- very cool and very accurate!

@LaoDan what are those beasts? They look pretty complacent?
 

I’ve also got to know my local area - and other bits of London a lot better. I’m now an expert at joining up parks/green spaces and water, whether that be the Thames, canals or local rivers/streams.

The canals in Brum and surrounds are far less busy than those in London and I’ve found large sections of them almost deserted. It’s the bits closer to the city centre with a few more people.
 

The bit I probably walk the most regularly is the section from the City Centre to University which can be scarily busy. As can the section between University/Selly Oak and then down past the back of Cadbury World. And that's the parts where I've heard the most horror stories about since lockdown began. I will get back to them all at some point...
 
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