Here we go – LEJOG 1

So, this is it – the bigun. 1,278 miles up the length of the country. It’s a really exciting prospect to face a real challenge, especially with the handicap of tendinitis to manage; the fact that the odds are against me completing it at the age of 65 makes me all the more determined.

Having completed my long training walks of 24 and 26 miles successfully, the question was whether or not my Achilles tendinitis would withstand walks on consecutive days. I’m extremely grateful to Boris, the sports masseur, for giving me a set of exercises which really worked; not only have I felt fitter at the end of long walks than ever before, but I feel more agile and energetic in everyday activities too. The benefits I reaped from the exercises made me sure I could complete walks on consecutive days, but I wasn’t sure how painful the tendon would be. In the event, I did complete the second day’s walk without recourse to any anti-inflammatories, although I did hobble painfully for a few yards when setting off after each break, during which it would seize up. It was pretty sore the morning after the second walk too, but improved after my stretching exercises and could have been completely sorted either by Voltarol or Ibuprofen.

The second pair of walks were different; the 15.5 mile one was fine, but I was in some pain for most of the 19-miler the next day. This was dispiriting, because I even took Ibuprofen and used Voltarol, yet the discomfort persisted over the next couple of days as well. I began to have doubts. I took Ibuprofen for three days, rested the heel and used an ice-pack. I also ordered some kinesiology tape, which had been recommended to me, but which I hadn’t thought necessary – anything’s worth a try.

Otherwise, things are looking good: the feet are holding up, perhaps thanks to their daily soaking in meths for weeks, and my all-round fitness seems fine.

Perhaps I should divulge what these exercises are that I’m finding so beneficial. They’re actually a mix of the ones Susie, the podiatrist, gave me initially, together with those prescribed by Boris. Bear in mind that I’ve been doing these for several weeks so, if you’re inclined to emulate, you might want to start off with shorter spells or fewer repetitions.

1. Step stretch. With the balls of your feet balanced on a step, stretch the heels down as far as they’ll go and hold for a minute.

2. Standing calf stretch. With hands flat against the wall, place one foot about a foot from the wall and the other two feet behind that foot, pushing your bum in towards the wall in order to stretch the calf. A minute for each leg.

3. Standing soleus stretch. Similar to the previous one, but with the back leg only a foot behind the other and with both legs bent at the knee. A minute each leg.

4. Step ups. With one foot on a raised step, lift the other foot off the ground to be level with the raised foot. A dozen times each foot, 3 reps.

5. Eccentric calf strengthening. This is basically standing on tiptoe repeatedly, first going up and down on both feet 12 times, then up on both feet, down on one foot, lifting the other foot off the floor – 12 times for each foot. 3 reps. Having started with no added weight, I now do these wearing a packed rucksack – around 7-8 kilos.

6. Towel stretch. This is a misnomer, since I use a stretchy band in place of a towel. Sit with your back tight against the wall, stretch the band around the ball of a foot and pull the foot towards you. Flex the foot, pushing the toes as far forward as possible – 12 times for each foot, 3 reps.

7. The remaining ‘glute activator’ exercises use a resistance band of varying strength. I eventually snapped the two weaker ones of a set of three, forcing me to progress to the strongest one. Starting with the crab walk, with the band around the ankles, crouch down with the feet shoulder-width apart and ‘walk’ sideways maintaining the crouched position, stretching the band as far as possible. 10-12 steps, 4 reps.

8. Squats, or monkey squats. With the band just above the knees and feet shoulder-width apart, stretch the arms to horizontal as you crouch down, pushing your bum out. 10 times, 4 reps.

9. The bridge. With the band just above the knees, lie with your back on the floor, knees raised, feet shoulder width apart with soles flat on the floor and hands at your sides. Raise your bum as high as you can and hold it there for 3 seconds, with your shoulders remaining on the floor. 20 times, 3 reps.

10. Side leg lifts. Lie on your side with the band around your ankles. Raise one foot as far as you can. 20 times for each leg, 3 reps.

11. Clams. Still on your side but with the bands just above the knees, keeping your feet together and without moving your lower hip, lift the upper knee as high as possible. 20 times for each leg, 3 reps.

12. One-legged bridge. Same as for the bridge, but with one foot lifted off the floor and the leg stretched out straight. Raise the bum 10 times for each leg.

So that little lot, together with the press-ups and sit-ups I do anyway, takes about an hour. Oh yes, and I use a cross-trainer as well. In the past I’ve sworn by the cross-trainer, because it’s what I used to remedy dodgy knees when I first started doing training walks, prior to walking the Pennine Way in 2015. Regular use resulted in strengthened thigh muscles, which has permanently fixed my knee issues, and was far preferable, to me at least, to using walking poles. Boris’s exercises, however, demonstrated to me that there’s a lot more to fitness for walking than just the thighs and knees, not least the glutes. I suppose it’s all a bit like pilates or yoga, but when you hear someone like Ryan Giggs, who had such a long, successful career at the top of football, advocating the regular practice of yoga, well, I can now see how that works. For example, I’d resigned myself to experiencing hip pain, having first figured that I might fix it by simply walking more, but found that simply wasn’t working; these exercises have made that a thing of the past. I can now stoop down to take things from the bottom shelf in the supermarket and get up without groaning, and confess that I do so sometimes just to show that I can! If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

Is it a hare? Is it a helicopter??

So anyway, fit or otherwise, it was time to go. Having had everything so well planned and organised for ages, the big day came hurtling around like a fairground ride in the end, leaving me in a dazed stupor, wondering at the enormity of what I was taking on. This wasn’t theory any more, it wasn’t just on paper or a screen, and the time for talking was over – I was going to have to walk the walk! Liz and Calum joined me for the journey to Land’s End, inauspicious in view of the hill fog on the A30 over Dartmoor and Bodmin. There was even a little mizzle mixed in with the mist at Dr Syntax’s Head but, by the time I was ready to set off just before 3.30, it was dry.

Amusing to start a journey of 1,278 miles with a simple 5-miler, but that’s what I did, just to the youth hostel at Letcha Vean. I was soon back into the spirit of the SWCP, with the roaring sea in my ears and the rocky path making me pay careful attention at every step. The iron grey waves transformed themselves into a startling, irridescent turqoise as they surged over the rocks below me, topped by a blaze of lacey spume fit for a Sultan.

Next comes the hard part: saying goodbye to Liz in the morning!

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The Last Post – before setting off

Five more training walks, then off to Land’s End. I’m still working on my fitness levels and learning to manage the Achilles tendinitis, trying to build my confidence to a point where I can actually believe that I stand a chance of being able to walk all 1,278 miles.

Yesterday, Saturday 11 May, brought superb walking weather, with blue skies, a few fluffy clouds and a cooling north-westerly breeze. This was to be my longest training walk – over 25 miles, with 2,500 feet of ascent. I call it my ‘Cerne Abbas Squarea’, because it’s not circular. Liz dropped me off just before 8.30 at Cerne, below the brazen Giant, on her way to a meeting in Poole. I set Viewranger going and headed for Minterne Parva and Up Cerne. Disconcertingly, the heel was decidedly uncomfortable so, when I stopped for a break just before 11, I popped a couple of Ibuprofen tabs. I’d always scoffed at people who insist on including painkillers in their packing list for walks, but now I have to do precisely that, solely for the anti-inflammatory effect. Almost immediately I was walking without pain, although it didn’t alter my pace – I was up around 3½mph all along this easier half of the walk. The serious ascents are all in the last few miles.

Conveniently, around the half-way point, on the Ridgeway just before Gaddy’s Lane, there are two small iron benches set beside the path, with a small tree between them and flowering plants on either side, overlooking Ridge Farm below and a fine view beyond. It’s as if it’s been provided as a memorial, but I’ve never found a plaque there. This time, though, the cold wind was blowing directly at me as I sat there, so I stepped back onto the path and sat on the verge, sheltered by the hedge, to eat lunch. A mile or so farther on, I was very tempted to take off my boots and join the cows:

Soaking hooves in the Piddle

As the day wore on, I was expecting the grey mist of fatigue to descend as it always has before on this marathon walk. It never did. I can only assume that the daily stretching and strengthening exercises are having a beneficial effect, demonstrating that it’s not all simply about thigh and calf strength. I also carried more water with me this time and drank around 2.6 litres, which may have helped. At any rate, I reached the Royal Oak just before 5.30, so it had taken me nine hours altogether, just under 8½ hours walking at a rate marginally over 3mph on average. I’d taken a third Ibuprofen at 3pm, and finished the walk pain-free and with some energy left in the tank. By the the time Liz joined me for a meal at the pub, I was on my third pint of Bass (such a rarity these day, a real nostalgia slurp!) and feeling quite pleased, both with my fitness level and with my management of the heel. My pleasure was unbounded the following morning, when I had little fatigue, no stiffness and no heel pain. This is starting to look do-able!

Looking down on Cerne gratefully after 24 miles

I definitely feel over the crest now in my training. I’ll do consecutive walks of 13 and 15 miles next weekend, followed by 15 and 18 miles on the final weekend. Having woken up pain-free this morning, those are starting to look much less daunting. I can think back to my experience of doing the Pennine Way, when I found that my level of fitness, not too shabby at the outset, actually improved markedly as I went along.

Meanwhile Liz has a new pair of boots and has gone with Alex to give them a test walk up White Hill from Abbotsbury, so they’re both starting their preparations in earnest. She’s opted for Oboz Sawtooth for its robust, grippy sole, hoping it’ll give her greater confidence on steep descents.

On Wednesday 29 May I’ll drive down to Cornwall with Liz and Calum, Alex being busy with his GCSEs. I’m loving the prospect of arriving at Land’s End and casually setting off for a short amble, carrying the lightest of day packs, to the youth hostel at Letcha Vean. A journey of 1,278 miles begins with a single 5-miler! Calum has yet to decide whether to join me for that first, brief stretch, while Liz drives down the narrow lanes to the hostel. The next day it’ll be fond farewells for three weeks, until I reach Monmouth, where they’ll join me for the weekend. The walk begins in earnest with me donning my 9Kg backpack, complete with one YHA packed lunch, and covering 11½ miles to Boswednack. Ok, 2,300 feet of ascent within that distance means there’ll be some good climbs, but that’s precisely what I’ve been training for. On Friday it’ll be 14 miles to Hayle with just 2,000 feet of uphill, so that’s a couple of quite moderate days to ease me into the swing of LEJOG. The weekend will bring the first real tests, with two 17-milers, each with around 3,000 feet of ascent, taking me to Newquay. By then I should have a pretty good idea of how my Achilles tendinitis is going to cope with the sheer day-after-dayness of the challenge.

Coping with separation will be another matter. After setting off, I won’t see Liz and Calum for three weeks, after which they’ll meet me near Monmouth. We’ll then be nearly two weeks apart before they join me for the weekend in Derbyshire/Sheffield, when we stay with my son Barnaby and his family. It’ll then be 23 days until they and Alex join me for the West Highland Way, after which they’ll hang around to take in the ‘Hogwarts Express’ to Mallaig – and another day for our wedding anniversary! Another 12 days and Liz will again bring Calum to meet me in Wick, before waiting for me at John o’Groats and, finally, flying south. With so much meticulous planning, all I need to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other. Simple!

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When the going gets tough…

Good news! The total distance of my walk from Land’s End to John o’Groats has been reduced by a mile to 1,278! I found a shortcut to the accommodation in Monmouth across a park.

Looking back down over Lulworth Cove towards Portland

In other news, I really struggled with the training walk from Lulworth to Swanage. This is the walk that, for the last few years, I’ve saved to be the last of my pre-trail training walks. It’s 19½ miles, with over 3,800 feet of ascent, so a good test by most standards. Before doing the Pennine Way, I made it the second of two consecutive walks, the first being Lulworth to Weymouth. This year I’ve included it earlier in the programme, as a test and to up my game. Well, it certainly was a test. I postponed it from Saturday to Sunday last week in view of the 70mph winds forecast along the coast, and booked a table at the Black Swan in Swanage for the evening, when Liz would drive to pick me up. I can now use my wonderful bus pass to get to Lulworth, although the service makes for a late start, not getting there until 10.43am. I calculated that I should finish around 6pm, and had reserved a table for 7.30, simply because the pub was fully booked for 7pm.

It all started well enough, although I always find the trudge over loose stones and shingle around Lulworth Cove a tedious way to start. Bindon Hill is the first major test, surmounted with relative ease. I spoke to two ladies there who were in the process of completing their staged South West Coast Path Challenge, on which achievement I congratulated them. Then there’s the slog up to Flower’s Barrow, and another climb after Worbarrow Bay, but the one that fills you with dread is Houns Tout Cliff, just before Chapman’s Pool; all the others are just pimples in comparison. Then you have the switchback just prior to St Aldhelm’s Head which, on its own, is a worthy challenge but, when you’re still reeling from Houns Tout, threatens to spoil your day.

As I stopped to remove a layer after Houns Tout, I was passed by two women walking at a pretty good pace. Wanting motivation to up my pace to reach Swanage at close to my predicted ETA, I set after them in determined fashion. They told me they too were walking from Lulworth to Swanage, training for a challenge they’d signed up for – a 52 km (32 mile) walk from Swanage to Weymouth with over 1500 metres (5,000 feet) of ascent. I’m familiar with it because there’s an event called the ‘Dorset Doddle’ covering the same route, one which certainly commands respect. Now the snag was that, having chatted with them for a few moments, I didn’t want to intrude any longer on their conversation, so felt compelled to accelerate away, at a point when all I really wanted to do was plod on like an exhausted zombie. I managed to get down and half way up the switchback before they loomed into view again behind me, regaining on me a little as I had to stop for breath four times – more than ever before on that climb. On I went, past Winspit and Seacombe, the feet now starting to blister. After Dancing Ledge I sat down to give them an airing and eat the last of my peanut rations, only to see the two ladies loom up again, so off I went. At Durlston I changed out of my boots and into my Inov8 Parkclaws, which provided some relief. I made it to meet Liz by 6.25pm and, by 6.30, had supped my first pint!

Mobile shed near Hooke. You never know when one might come in handy.

The next walk was a 24 miler from Weymouth to Corscombe. I’ve done this each year since mum died in 2013, because that’s where she’s buried. Once past Nottington and the local dog walkers, it takes me through some of the most peaceful, unpopulated parts of Dorset, and therefore of the country. On this particular day, though, it happened to be the inaugural Hell Stone run, with dozens of marathon runners passing in the opposite direction all the way between Smitten Corner and Little Bredy.

I’m usually absolutely shattered by the time I get to Corscombe because, although the first 10 or 11 miles are pretty straightforward, the going north of the A35 is altogether tougher and slows you down. Reassuringly, I still felt able to move with relative ease at the end this time, possible because of the strengthening due to the Lulworth-Swanage walk. I managed to average 3mph for the walk as a whole, although did use up over an hour in stops. Something that really helps with recovery are the ‘warm-down’ exercises recommended by Boris, the sports masseur:

Liz and I have done these together after our walks and shared much hilarity at our attempts to reach the toes in the hamstring stretch. They really do help, though, making stiffness on the day after a thing of the past. Yes, there’s still a certain amount of muscle fatigue, but not such that you’re edging up and dowstairs, crab-like, one step at a time.

My Achilles tendon still isn’t right. After the Lulworth-Swanage walk I had pain during the night that kept me awake, and soreness for a couple of days after too. This was demoralising, making me wonder how on earth I’ll cope with the walks like that I’m due to do on consecutive days in June, on the north Devon coast. After the Corscombe walk I still had pain during the night, but less than before, and, after a few stretching exercises the next morning, I could definitely envisage doing another day’s walk. So, onwards and upwards – bring on my final training walks – 171 miles done, 80 or so to go.

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