Walkers' thread (those training for a moonwalk or those just wanting to get a bit fitter... sign in here)

[EllbellTheBluestocking]

OK... following on from another thread, I thought I'd start this for those of us who are not really that into exercise but who are struggling to get a bit fitter.

I am working towards doing the Edinburgh moonwalk in June (and would prefer it if no-one mentioned just exactly how blardy far it's going to be just yet [panic emoticon]), and am struggling to find the time and the inclination to train.

Anyone else in a similar position? Hippipotami? Quint? Don't leave me walking all on my own...

Will come back and post again when I've got off my bum and done some exercise!

Evening - I had an amazing night and loved every minute of it even though at one point I was really cold and my feet really hurt.

Next year I'm going to crew again and my group of friends have also decided that we're going to do the Edinburgh half as well.

Well done to all the walkers, my hands are a bit sore from clapping you all.

Well done MsB and Mimsmum
Those bottlenecks were pretty frustrating weren't they?

And a huge well done to the volunteers. It must've been bloody freezing for you! You don't know (or maybe you do) what a difference it makes, esp near the end, to have the shouts of encouragement. And when you cross the line to them all cheering, what an amazing feeling.

My sister enjoyed it so much she said she'd like to do the fullmoon next year. I am in awe of her doing the half after the year she's had - major surgery twice, chemo, drugs which bring on the menopause...all while living on a building site (they'd just bought a renovation project!), working part time and caring for a 4 year old. Amazing.

Yes, well said, Posey,; the volunteers were fantastic so special thanks to mrspnut and chocolatespiders and all others. Tried to always muster a smile for them! And yes, it really did help.

Can't see an awed/impressed smiley for your sister, but if there was one I'd insert it, as that is truly an achievement! Have a smile instead .

I was cold at about 4 or 5 this morning but I do know how much the encouragement spurs you on so I was glad to provide it for the walkers.

I've slept for most of the day 12 till 7 and I'm ready to go back to bed now - and to think I used to stay up all night almost every weekend when I was much younger. ;)

Well done everyone!

I've been away for the weekend and have just got back. I did start a 'good luck' thread before I left, but I wasn't here to bump it, so not many people saw it. Never mind, though. You didn't need me. You all did brilliantly.

I'm a bit worried by the bottlenecks. I wonder if there are fewer people in Edinburgh? I have also put down the slowest time, but my training is/was going OK, and I now feel that I could have put 6-7 hours as my goal. Oh well. My friend, afaik, is still not really training, so we may collectively be slow anyway. And if I don't get my feet sorted out... (No training since I got the blister, but did a lot of general walking about this weekend, and my feet were quite achey. Am considering going back to size 7s and risking squashed toes...) Oh well. It'll be OK.

Posey your sister is an inspiration.

Hippi - I was thinking of you. Next year, eh?

I will keep on keeping on till 14/15 June and Edinburgh. I've got my fundraising site up and running and have raised over £200 already, so am very happy.

Congratulations again to all of you (helpers and walkers).

very well done to the walkers- amazing you were.....

I left at about 8am, as my dad had to return my kids at 11- that was hard work looking after them yesterday when i just wanted to sleep....
I slept well last night, and will prob be in bed in a min......as i am still shattered....

Well done all in was worth the painful hands from the clapping if it helped you .... next time i will take a flask as we didnt get a hot drink- like it suggested we might in the booklet...?

Ellbell - thanks for the other thread which I just searched and found!

And be warned, just because we've done ours, doesn't mean we won't be here chivvying you along
Get those feet and shoes sorted and then we'll start cracking the whip again.
Seriously, we aren't going to dessert you now. You've got a couple of weeks til your big training walk haven't you? Keep posting and let us know how you're doing.

Thank you Posey. I appreciate that. I am going walking next Tuesday with the friend who's walking with me and the aim is to do somewhere between 15 and 20 miles. It depends how that goes, really, how much I do on my own thereafter. I'm hoping that it'll all be OK. She's basically fitter than me (though walking is kind of my 'thing'... can't run, can't do any sort of team sport, but I can walk!) and did the Great North Run in September, so I'm hoping we'll be at a similar standard. I just need to sort the shoe situation out. Aaargh!

I'll keep posting, don't worry. DH is fed up of hearing me counting miles!

hello everyone, and thanks posey and mimsum. I've been reading some of your thread. Kudos to the major walkers! I am minor league in comparison, can I join you for the motivation to keep going?

I found a book called Walking Fit in the library last weekend and have chosen this as my only realistic path - see what I did there [cheesy emoticon] - to getting fit with a toddler, a BF baby and wanting to maximise my chances of doing something fit-related long term.

This week (Sat to Sat for me) I have to do 4x25 minute walks at a decent rate. Done 2 so far, another tonight. Didn't warm up for the weekend ones, paid in aches on Monday. Will warm up tonight! It's a 6 week plan, walks getting longer with a few exercises in between as the weeks go by.

I am 40, about 3-4 stone overweight and live in north-central London, so its an interesting variety of walking around here. Hoping to tone up and lose some weight, though appetite large, due I suppose to BF. WHich is needed now by sound of it. Speak to you soon I hope.

Merryberry - we may well be neighbours. I'm in N1, where are you?

And welcome to the thread!

n7, posey, close to but obviously for a walking thread, not in holloway ladies' nick. you?

I'm nearer the men's prison but still not far from the women's

LOL @ you two, comparing prisons! I have a good friend in NW1. I stay there when I'm in London (sadly not that often).

Welcome merryberry. I didn't manage to walk today and won't tomorrow either, as dh on late shift and won't get home till 9.30. We try to eat together even when he gets in late, as otherwise we don't actually speak to one another much in a typical day, but that means no walking unless I go out at midnight... and I'm saving that for the Big Night! Will get out again on Thursday, I hope.

Well done ladies. I had a client in labour that night but I thought of you all.

I did do a walk yesterday, my first evening one. Very noticeable how much less pizazz i had for it compared to the weekend mornings. Still, it was done and it was good.

My friends and I have decided that next year we're going to do the edinburgh half moon and still crew at the London one as well.

I don't think I could find the time to train for the full any time soon because of having a toddler. I did walk to and from school yesterday though to collect DD1 which is a 5 mile round trip and it felt good to stretch my legs.

Just found my photos on ActionPhoto. Have a very cheesy grin

Just found mine. Have a very greasy chin!

lol MsB

So how is everyone? I recovered physically very quickly, but felt sleep deprived for longer. Also have had an absolute stinker of a cold...

Am now contemplating my next challenge as I know if I haven't got something to work toewards all the good work will go to pot.

Ellbell - how're you? Is it your big walk this weekend or next?

Hi all

Well, I've just been out with the friend I'm going to walk with on the night and we've walked for about 5.5 hours, which must mean we've done somewhere around 20 miles. The Big Walk was meant to be this weekend, but this was the only day we could get together. We walked rather more slowly than I've been doing of late, but it was lovely to have company. She had worked out a route for us that involved mostly cycle paths and greenways, so I haven't been able to check it on the Gmap site, sadly. (I did try to remember the route and guess where the paths went, but it came out at about 16 miles, which can't be right, surely? I must have either missed a bit ormessed up my guesswork on the paths!) I normally average just over 4 mph, and this was a bit slower, but not significantly so, except when she got a bit lost and took us up a footpath alongside the river instead of the (properly surfaced) cycle path... and after a bit it got really overgrown (with sodding bloody nettles) and narrow and wet and slippy. That slowed us down a bit!

The ongoing saga of my feet continues. I got blisters under both my big toes. This was wearing my original, smaller, trainers. They weren't painful enough to be a real problem while walking, but I'm annoyed, as I so wanted to do it with non-painful feet. But I think it's too late now to try to get new shoes, so I will persevere with these. Getting soaking wet feet on the footpath by the river can't have helped. At least in Edinburgh we'll be walking on pavements, not 'off-roading it'!

All in all, I am happy with today's walk, despite the blisters and the fact that I can't find out exactly how far we went. But I reckon we'll be OK for the 'real thing'. At least now I feel confident of finishing... even if I do do it with painful toes.

Right... off to bed now. Will post again soon... meanwhile any good remedies for blisters/nettle rash?

Bumping for blister advice. What do I do? Walk on the night, knowing shoes are basically OK, but will give me toe-blisters? Or try to get some new shoes at this late stage? Friend I walked with last night had new shoes on that she'd bought yesterday morning (from a posh running shop, though) and her feet were fine. But I'd be a bit scared of setting out on a 20-mile walk in new shoes.

Anyway, I am stiff today (exacerbated by the fact that I've been chained to the desk doing marking) but not in any kind of pain. Even the blisters aren't painful because they are all hidden away under my toes.

Well done on the walk Ellbell
No advice on the blisters at all I'm afraid as I've been exceptionally fortunate in that in 4 years of power walking, I've never had any.
However I did get new trainers 3 weeks before my 2nd Moonwalk. Basically I'd been getting knee pain which I never had and wondered if my trainers were worn out. I went to a great shop where they said my trainers were shot to pieces and giving no shock absorbtion. So I said I wanted as near the same as they could manage as they had been brill (just overused!)
So maybe if your shoes are basically okay in every other way, take them with you to a specialist running shop, tell them you're power walking, and get them to look at the way you walk etc. If they're doing their job properly, they should be able to fit you up with the right shoes.

Good luck! Have a good sleep tonight

Right... Have got new trainers (some nice Puma ones, fitted by a woman in a proper running shop). They feel good, although I just walked in them for an hour or so (chasing the dds on their bikes down the greenway!) and my little toe on my right foot has gone a bit numb. However, I am still walking a bit funny due to the (now quite painful) blisters under both big toes, so that might be the reason. I am going to wear the shoes as much as possible between now and 14th June and try to do one more longer walk (not another 20 miles, but more than 10, perhaps) before then, just to be sure. These do feel better, though, so keep your fingers and blisterless toes crossed.

Hello everyone

Have been in Paris this week, striding from sight to sight. where my blisters were is now particularly unattractive kind of folds of hard yellow skin! Am going to book the chiropodist this week and get them sorted.

Ellbell, don't know what you've tried already (and don't have time to read whole thread), but assume you have done the posh squidgy blister plaster things? Also the vaseline everywhere which I wish i had done on the night.

Well done on the big walk. it took me nearly 6 hours to do my 20 miler and i don't average as fast as you so i reckon you must have done the distance.

OMG OMG OMG... My feet are a disaster! I have just been for a walk in my posh new fitted-by-the-lady-in-the-running-shop trainers. Got numb toes within half an hour. And I have a small blister on the inside of my left heel (near but not on top on the humumgous blister I got from the last new pair I tried). Aaargh! I now have four pairs of trainers, none of which I have faith in; I have spent a fortune, and it's 10 days to go. Heeeeeeelllllpppp!

What to do? I am going to try a longer walk in the new trainers at the weekend. If they are not comfortable or if the small blister turns into a big blister I am going to go back to the original trainers for the actual walk and wear them with half a ton of vaseline between my toes (doesn't that feel horrible, though?) and posh blister plasters under my toes. Apart from the toes, the rest of my feet were great when I did the long walk, so I think I can survive that.

Meanwhile, anyone want some hardly-worn size 7.5-8 trainers? Lots of pairs available!