The Walker With Heart

It's been a week... It would've been a longish week anyway I cut it, 4 days in the office and 1 doing the charity thing in London on Tuesday... An early start, an important meeting, an afternoon at the CHF offices followed by popping to the British Museum to see the Benin Bronzes and then a bit of shopping before coming back... And on Oxford Street the phone goes... My cardiologist, he's had the numbers from my MRI they don't match the numbers from my echo a couple of months before hand, can I pop in and see him on Friday afternoon, we need to chat through them... SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT There is no other way of putting it. All the running, the PB's and the climbing, and races to come disappeared from my head... Worst case scenario - pulmonary valve has gone out of commission (a possibility for all fallots) and needs an urgent op.  Best case scenario... at that point there wa...

We all have them, those little things which we do... and if we don't do we feel off, odd or just not right! For me its the strapping on of the Garmin watch, seeing the satellites lock on, and the heart rate drop (its the relaxation I do as I get ready for a run) and then going... Which is a right pain at the moment... My 310XT watch is back at Garmin.  For reasons best known to itself it has decided its 2007, and probably unrelated one of the buttons has stopped working.  Garmin customer services, are as good as ever, and a new one should be heading my way for the weekend.  Fortunately, the duffness of the watch has coincided with a cold, so following the entirely sensible advice I've ratcheted down the exercise... Which is beginning to get on my wick... However, the cold seems to be dying down, the walk and the clambering today didn't have a negative impact.  So a gentle gym session in the morning, and probably a climb in the evening... Tuesday is a long day...

I have a cold... my nose is a mucus stream I'm tired - Long week at work... I'm tired - Meeting about a pet project or two at the CHF offices on Friday, Friday night the requisite relaxation and discussion time (yes, that does mean a bottle or so of wine... Each) Trustees meeting in London on Saturday.. I have a cold - the rule books says take it easy... I have a congenital heart defect - sometimes it has a moment... The Mad Dog has been voted the best 10k in the country - and its bloody good, its one of my favourites (the Bug Runs midweek madness is v v close to perfection as well). So, by the km... 1st - 6:06 - Too fast, swept along in the moment... Heart rate up, but not too far 2nd - 7:18 - first 700m far to fast, legs won't reset down... Heart rate higher than I like... Do the right thing, walk 300m reset the system 3rd - 6.59 - solid, PB territory, feels good, HR back to normal for running 4th - 6.58 - solid, wave at mate whose comment was I was lo...

I'm 40... According to the books I should be slowing down... Bugger that! I'm not entirely sure where my sudden spurt of pace has come from, but its kept coming... I've, in 10 days, taken over 2 and a half minutes out of a PB for 5 miles that has stood for 2 years... That would be enough to make my running this year a success! In one run I slayed a 5km pm that again has stood for 2 years, taking almost 2 and a half minutes out of it... That's dream land territory If it was all the short stuff I'd be worried as I'm not in this for the sprint, I'm in this for the marathons... A truism and a reality for me... But I also took 6 minutes out of my 25km PB, not a distance I run often but still a massive improvement over the previous run which was in the build up to the Liverpool Marathon. So what? Running for me is a lot, an awful lot, about confidence... The demons of school telling me I'm slow, I shouldn't run, are still on my shoulders ...