Not the strangest place I've ever talked about congenital heart disease...
But damn close...
Last week was "Training Week: Coniston" - a week in the Lake District with friends, and the hills... A group walk up the Old Man, and the pretty much whatever I needed to make myself feel ready for my end of year special - the Rivington Montane Trail 26...
The plan was to do a couple of long walks, one flatish and one with hills in... and a short run and a long run... Which gave me a day to do Coniston (after the short run) and a day off to pester one of my mates for a lift somewhere...
A walk to Ambleside and back took care of the flat long walk - just under 20 miles, with good food and excellent shops in the middle.
A 10k up and over Tarn Hows, just to get my eye into off roading around the Lakes - and boy do I not like tree routes! Not fast, but fun:-)
The weather then became more conducive to running, e.g. dank, with a hint of rain... A run around Consiton Water beckoned, the only problems being slight navigational hiccups - resulting in a barbed wire fence being jumped, and a bog being crossed... Then Grizedale decided to be grizzly, navigationally, never lost but always a fun decision making challenge to work out which of the myriad paths I needed to take... A drop to Water Yeat and then back up to Beacon Tarn and follow the Cumbria Way back to base...
A rest day up to Hadrian's Wall and then the sogginess of the long walk in the Hills...
The original plan had been to cut across Prison Band to get to Wetherlam, but with minimal visibility a safer route beckoned - down the sweeping ridge to Fell Foot and cut back to Coniston... It was dropping down to Fell Foot when one of the walkers heading up spotted the CHF logo attached to my balance pouch and asked if I was anything to do with the story she'd heard on the radio - about some simple test to check whether children have heart conditions... A discussion on pulse ox followed and me explaining why I do what I do to try and help...
Awareness raising works, especially when people have a specific thing to latch on to - and pulse ox is one of those no brainers; it's a cheap, simple test that can save lives and improve outcomes... It is a simple clip on a babies finger, so doesn't even hurt! So go on, have a listen... Woman's Hour - Chapter on testing
So, for me a confidence boosting 70 miles, 17,000 ft of ascent week (as ever the height gain is from putting the garmin routes on OS mapping, awareness raised and a fun week away from work had... Now where did I put my pass to get into the office tomorrow...
TTFN
Paul
Last week was "Training Week: Coniston" - a week in the Lake District with friends, and the hills... A group walk up the Old Man, and the pretty much whatever I needed to make myself feel ready for my end of year special - the Rivington Montane Trail 26...
The plan was to do a couple of long walks, one flatish and one with hills in... and a short run and a long run... Which gave me a day to do Coniston (after the short run) and a day off to pester one of my mates for a lift somewhere...
A walk to Ambleside and back took care of the flat long walk - just under 20 miles, with good food and excellent shops in the middle.
A 10k up and over Tarn Hows, just to get my eye into off roading around the Lakes - and boy do I not like tree routes! Not fast, but fun:-)
The weather then became more conducive to running, e.g. dank, with a hint of rain... A run around Consiton Water beckoned, the only problems being slight navigational hiccups - resulting in a barbed wire fence being jumped, and a bog being crossed... Then Grizedale decided to be grizzly, navigationally, never lost but always a fun decision making challenge to work out which of the myriad paths I needed to take... A drop to Water Yeat and then back up to Beacon Tarn and follow the Cumbria Way back to base...
A rest day up to Hadrian's Wall and then the sogginess of the long walk in the Hills...
The original plan had been to cut across Prison Band to get to Wetherlam, but with minimal visibility a safer route beckoned - down the sweeping ridge to Fell Foot and cut back to Coniston... It was dropping down to Fell Foot when one of the walkers heading up spotted the CHF logo attached to my balance pouch and asked if I was anything to do with the story she'd heard on the radio - about some simple test to check whether children have heart conditions... A discussion on pulse ox followed and me explaining why I do what I do to try and help...
Awareness raising works, especially when people have a specific thing to latch on to - and pulse ox is one of those no brainers; it's a cheap, simple test that can save lives and improve outcomes... It is a simple clip on a babies finger, so doesn't even hurt! So go on, have a listen... Woman's Hour - Chapter on testing
So, for me a confidence boosting 70 miles, 17,000 ft of ascent week (as ever the height gain is from putting the garmin routes on OS mapping, awareness raised and a fun week away from work had... Now where did I put my pass to get into the office tomorrow...
TTFN
Paul
Comments
Post a Comment