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| Entry for June 06, 2009 |
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| (Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. Yahoo was playing up last night) Today's walk was excellent, although hard work. I did more than a marathon at 43.5km. But what made it excellent was that everything just worked so smoothly. The gear all worked well, the process all went well, my body handled it well. I reckon I'm able to tick of most of the boxes on the checklist now .... but not all. Having most things working so well at this stage is good, because it puts me in a situation where I can concentrate on the things that still require work. And they include: - managing my sugar and energy levels in the time following the end of a section - maintaining clear thinking over the whole 6 days of the event - getting the distances longer and longer so I can train my body, particularly my feet, to just keep going The first 2 of those points were re-iterated last week after leaving Wilsons Prom. I gave myself a scare with how I felt during that period, and I need to get it right so it doesn't happen again. I've created a checklist which I've made pocket sized and will be getting laminated. It is a step-by-step list of things to do so the sugar doesn't drop like it did last week. Because most of the boxes are ticked now, I'm down into the nitty gritty micro-management stuff. Like yesterday I though of a way to stop my water tubes dripping all over my shirt front. Yeah I know, it's earth shattering. But don't you worry; I've thought of a way to stop it happening. :-)) Training - 8 hours 45 minutes - 43.5km Medication - increased normal dosage by 9 units in the morning |
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| Entry for June 13, 2009 |
| Today's was a "short" walk; just 20km (12 miles). This distance now is so very easy. Today it was so straight forward that I did it in 15 minutes less time than normal, so it was almost a sprint. For this distance, everything has been fine tuned now. The food is easy, the medication is easy, the gear is well under control. And, and this is the most important at the moment, there is no after walk concerns with this distance. So now, after walk considerations only begin after 30km +. It even took me only 30 minutes from scratch to get everything packed ready to go. Training - 3 hours 45 minutes - 20km Medication - increased normal dosage by 5 units in the morning |
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| Entry for June 20, 2009 |
| Today's was another "short" walk; just 22.5km (14 miles). Everything went exceedingly smoothly, sadly. My learnings from shortish walks now are very limited, today's being limited to playing with the various straps and adjustments on the pack. I knew one of the straps was too tight when my hands went blue. Oops. I'm getting quite excited about next week's Wilsons Prom trip. It'll be the same walk as last time (60km), but leaving 2 hours earlier. My intention is to get through the whole distance in one hit. Training - 4 hours 20 minutes - 22.5km Medication - increased normal dosage by 5 units in the morning |
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| Entry for June 23, 2009 |
| I'm focussing on next Saturday, when I'll be doing the next walk at Wilsons Prom. Taking the learning from the last walk, this one is just the 58km loop and I'll be leaving 2 hours earlier. See my plan for the walk here. Next week I'll post a link to how it really went. :-) |
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| Entry for June 27, 2009 |
| Hello all. I'm back, I'm alive and I'm sore. The Wilsons Prom walk is really, really tough. I won't be writing a story this time, because it went pretty much the same as last time. I didn't get back to the car until midday on Sunday, but for a different reason this time. I learned from last time how better to manage the cold and avoid hypothermia, so I can tick that one off. No, this time what stopped me was the tide at Sealers Cove. Can you believe that? Something I hadn't even considered too much was enough to stop me from finishing the walk as planned. Now to be fair I need to explain a little further. I got to Sealers Cove at 8:30 on Saturday night, so I was pretty much on track at that point. As far as the original plan goes, I was about an hour behind, but the original timing is NEVER going to happen. It's too tough. I got to Sealers and decided to have a short rest. I set the alarm for 1/2 an hour and went to sleep. When I woke at 9pm I thought "Oh, just another 10 minutes". Well of course that was that. I went to slepp without setting the alarm, so didn't wake until 2:30am. I got my stuff together and set off but alas, the tide had come in. 3 o'clock was high tide, so by then it was waist deep. That was out of the question, especially in the dark. That would have been plain stupid to try. The walk from Sealers back to the car is possibly the toughest part of the whole walk, so next time I'm going to do it in reverse. I think that will make quite a big difference. Also I might have a friend from work with me. Robin is an avid bush walker, so hopefully he will come along as well. A funny thing happened between Refuge Cove and Sealers Cove. I was approaching exhaustion, it was dark and the track was rough. Suddenly, I don't know what happened, but I fell flat on my face. I mean I really fell flat on my face. I cut my hand a little and scraped my knee, but apart from that I was fine. I must have stumbled over a tree root or a rock or something. These walks are tough. I'm hoping they are the equal of the long stretch in the Sahara. Only time will tell. At least in Morocco I'll have other people around providing support. At The Prom I'm entirely on my own. You can see how the walk went here. |
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| Entry for July 05, 2009 |
| Today was an excellent long training walk, but I'm definitely sore now. My mistake was that I was too blase with how tight I had the waist support of my backpack, and now my hips are really quite sore. The big thing from today is that, for the first time in about 9 months, I had a brief experience with low sugar, starting at the 30km mark. It took me a little while before I realised what was happening, thinking that it was just exhaustion overwhelming me at a dramatic rate. I was beginning to stagger a little and lose my rythm. Once I realised what was happening, I had an extra fruit strip. So instead of 20 minutes apart, I had 2 only 10 minutes apart. That's all it took to fix it up. But here's the thing - why on earth did it happen today? I have standardised everything so much over the past 12 months that it came as a surprise to suddenly find the sugar going low. I mean, I can tell you to within less than one unit how much insulin I need to walk 43km. I can tell you to within a single fruit strip how much food I'll be eating. And I can tell you to within 10 minutes how long it is going to take me to walk 43km. So WHY did the sugar go low today? That, by the way, is a rhetorical question. The frustration of living with type 1 diabetes. Finally, I'm changing my approach to the Wilsons Prom walks. Driving down there before hand, doing the walk then driving back is, how can I say this ..... NUTS. I've always known it but it took my wife and my brother to finally get me to realise that it's just not sensible. So instead I'm going to buy a small tent and start driving down there on the Friday night and coming back on the Sunday morning. Yes it's more time out of my weekend, but it's a whole lot safer. And the Prom walks are worth the effort. It is these walks that will get me across the Sahara. Training - 8 hours 50 minutes - 43.5km Medication - increased normal dosage by 9 units in the morning |
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| Entry for July 07, 2009 |
| I'm planning the next big walk at Wilsons Prom, which is on the 25th of July. After talking about these walks with Donna and my brother, as well as some of the questions I've had myself, I'm introducing some changes to The Prom walks. Firstly, I'll be buying a tent and driving down the night before. It's a 2.5 hour drive to The Prom, so driving there then immediately setting out for a 60km walk has always been silly. I knew that. ;-) Instead, I'll drive down on Friday night, get some sleep, then leave fresh in the morning. The next change is the direction that I walk. So far I've been walking in an anti-clockwise direction, which means the eastern side of The Prom has been the 2nd half of the walk. As the eastern side is far more rugged than the west, this has been a factor in me not being able to finish in one hit. Keep in mind that the purpose of me doing these walks is to complete the distance, not to sleep along the way. By reversing the direction I believe I stand a better chance of getting around. Also, the way the walks have been going so far has been putting me very much in danger of having a bad hypo. The Prom, particularly the east coast, is a very rugged and remote place, so slipping dramatically into a hypo at 3 o'clock in the morning while 20kms from the closest human has been a real danger and doesn't fill me with joy. The next change is that I will use the tent to get some sleep before setting out on the 2.5 hour drive back. That's a "duh" moment and requires no further explanation. I mean for goodness sake; I've just walked 60km over 18 hours. I think I deserve a rest. The final change is that I have bought a new mobile phone. This should improve the ability to stay in contact. It will still be severely limited, but hopefully will be a bit better than I had with the old one. You can see the new plan here. ( Don't you just love these groovy maps? :-)) ) |
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| Entry for July 12, 2009 |
| 25km poses no problem at all any more, so the food, medication, weight, backpack were all fine. The learning today was to do with my feet. I discovered today that I have become complacent about looking after my feet, and today suffered the consequences. It wasn't bad mind you, just a gentle reminder that looking after my feet is a serious task and one that I mustn't ever down play. I had two small problems with my feet today. The first was to do with the taping of my left foot. I've been trying to speed up the process of taping my foot, so have been cutting some corners. Last week I felt the effect and today confirmed it. I can feel the pain in my heel which is related to the injury I suffered 45 years ago. By not taking the time and effort to tape my foot as best I can, the old injury is flareing up. So 5 minutes more of care and proper taping is required to bring this back under control. The second foot problem today was my right foot. The massive blister that I suffered a few months ago after walking to my mum's came back to haunt me today. It didn't becomea full-on blister, but it was certainly on it's way. So, always tape my right foot to avoid this big, and potentially event ending, blister. Other than that, there's nothing to report from today's walk. I am getting excited about the next Wilson's Prom walk, which is 2 weeks away. I'm also heavily into the planning for my walk later this year in one of the arid regions of Victoria. I've decided to take my brother's advice and go to the Little Desert near Dimboola. This is a far-flung part of the state that has a huge area of arid wilderness. I'm planning this for late November / early December. I'll keep you informed. Training - 5 hours - 25km Medication - increased normal dosage by 6 units in the morning |
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| Entry for July 19, 2009 |
| It was an easy 23kms today. Like last week, this is no problem at all now. As a matter of fact, I did the whole walk without stopping once, it is all so easy now. Mind you, my feet were still a bit sore at the end, so the learning from today is to be aware of toe nails before setting out. I'm getting all revved up for the Wilsons Prom walk next weekend. This time I'm taking a camera and will load some of the photos up here. I've got a detailed tide chart, so now know to within a minute when to expect high tide at each of the places that I need to know. I'm also starting the planning for a week of desert walks later this year in northern Victoria. It's early days yet. Oh and I'm paying the first installment for the entry fee this week. Once that's done there's no turning back, because it is a substantial amount of money and therefore a serious commitment. Training - 4 hours 25 minutes - 23km Medication - increased normal dosage by 5 units in the morning |
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| Entry for July 25, 2009 |
| The Wilson's Prom walk was different this time. First, I had a walking companion in the form of Robin, who was great company. He can't come on the next walk, but should be there for the one after. The second very important change was that I did the walk in the reverse direction. This may not seem important, but when I told the park ranger lady that it made a huge difference she said "Well, duh". We didn't make it all the way around in one go unfortunately. Robin was reaching exhaustion, but I hit the wall. I learned something very important from that episode though, and that is to do with the rehydration. Even though I have been drinking electrolyte solution, I haven't been having enough. 2km before we had to stop I started wobbling and waving all over the track. I felt like the lady in the marathon a number of years ago in the olympics, when she was close to death. I felt like she looked. So my learning from that is that I need to drink the electrolyte solution regularly throughout the day. We stopped at Halfway Hut at about 9:30 Saturday night and lying down on a bare, cold, wooden floor was sheer bliss. It was fantastic because of how bad I felt from not having enough of the magic juice (rehydration drink). It was severely cold, but we rested well and were ready to go by 8 o'clock. The rest of the walk back, which was about 15km, went very well without any great dramas. But there was a learning from this section as well, and this was building on experiences from the first 2 Prom walks. This learning was to do with the sugar. In each of the 3 walks, in each of which, if you remember, I have been caught out in the wilderness over night, an hour after starting off in the morning my sugar has dropped quite dramatically. This last walk and the one before have been the worst for this. The learning is that I need to have more to eat during the first hour than my normal walking amount. This may seem obvious reading it here, but it's not so obvious when you're in the middle of nowhere and you've just woken from a night under the stars. It is a very important lesson that will apply during the 80km section in Morocco. You can see how the walk went here. This was a tough but great walk, and I'm looking forward to doing it again in 4 weeks. |
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| Entry for July 30, 2009 |
| We've gone to the next level of readiness for the event. This is one of those "benchmark" points in the whole process. Firstly - The official dates for the event next year are: Start - 2nd of April, 2010 End - 12th of April, 2010 The actual event is 6 days in the middle of that period. This won't become absolutely clear until just before the start of the event. Secondly, the first monetary installment has been paid. There are 2 payments required, totally up to US$3950. I had to pay the first installment 2 days ago, so I'm now financially committed to making this happen. Finally, Donna and I are now doing the planning of the schedule for the trip. We need to buy the tickets ASAP as they will sell out pretty quickly. I'll let you know as it starts to take shape. Now I need to update the sliding time scale at the top of the page. Oh, the next Wilsons Prom walk is in 3 weeks and I'll be doing a 25 or 30km walk this weekend. |
| Jun / Jul 2009 |
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| Bridget McNulty - Type 1 and travelling the world |