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| Entry for October 04, 2009 |
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| Sorry this entry is a day late. I had a very busy weekend. I did a simple 25km today. I started in the dark because we had a very busy day and I had to finish early, so that gave me a chance to practise further with the headlamp. Everything went well with the walk with nothing out of the ordinary. And I have finally clarified something that has been bothering me for a while. Two weekends ago when I did the Wilsons Prom walk followed 2 days later by the marathon, my feet were fine after the 62km Wilsons Prom, but quite painful after the marathon. I have finally figured out that walking on roads of any kind, be they bitumen or gravel, is hell on the feet. I suppose it is the eveness of the road surface that does it. Walking on the rough tracks at The Prom provides variation for the feet which keeps them feeling good. After 25km of road surfaces, my feet were quite painful. Thank goodness the Sahara is rougher than a road. Training - 4 hours 55 minutes - 25km Medication - increased normal dosage by 6 units in the morning |
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| Oct / Nov 2009 |
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| Entry for October 11, 2009 |
| I did another 25km today, similar to last week, because I'm still on call.. Again I started in the dark to get another chance to practise further with the headlamp. Again everything went well. As a matter of fact, the pace I was walking at for most of the walk was closer to 6kph rather than the normal 5kph. My focus now is on the Wilsons Prom walk next weekend. All is set. Training - 4 hours 50 minutes - 25km Medication - increased normal dosage by 6 units in the morning |
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| Entry for October 17, 2009 |
| Well, what a wonderful Wilsons Prom adventure. The focus for this episode was to finish without stopping for a sleep, as always, but specifically to still be a functioning human at the end. And not only did I achieve that, we finished the walk in 2 hours less than last time. ASTOUNDING !! What was different this time? The only change I made to the process was this time I heated up a freeze-dried meal while at the lighthouse. That can't explain the whole improvement, but it certainly helped. So I am now committed to including a stove and freeze-dried meals to my food kit in Morocco. Everything else about this walk was similar to the last, except we didn't see any whales this time. :-( Plus we didn't get the torrential downpour that we had last time. But we still had two high tides we had to strip off to cross, one of them in the dead of night. Those crossings are always interesting. So, with the addition of the cooked meal I feel great. Chalk that up as another very important learning. I took a little video while doing this walk, which you may find interesting. The focus of the video is on the diabetes, but there's other scenery and interesting stuff as well. But before clicking on the link, I need to tell you that the download is 55meg. So if you have a slow connection, I recommend you don't click on it. Plus if you are a little squeamish, there is a bit towards the end of the 5 minute video where I show myself having an injection. It's not too graphic but some may find it a little irksome. This is the link. The next Wilsons Prom walk is 4 weeks away and I'm really looking forward to it. |
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| Entry for October 24, 2009 |
| There was nothing big deal or special about today's training walk, which was 23km and completed in 4 hours and 20 minutes. That in itself is good, because 12 months ago this walk would have been arduous and have taken me an extra 20 minutes. But here's the thing - and I was expecting this to happen: the standard training walks around where I live have become rather mundane and, dare I say it ..... boring. This is actually a good thing, because it means that they have become routine. I have learned heaps from the training walks about food, medication, eating routine, feet, backpack, equipment, how to pack it, recovery after the walk, clothes, boots - the list goes on and on. And this is all stuff that I have learned over the past 18 months walking around and around where I live. Now add to that mental picture the Wilsons Prom walks, of which I have now done 6. These walks are a whole different thing compared to the standard training walks. They are in the wilderness, long, fantastic scenery, pushing the boundaries, adventurous (crossing high tide in the middle of the night) etc. The Wilsons Prom walks unfortunately make the standard walks just that, standard. Sigh. Oh well, I have 5 more months to keep it up. I simply must not lose the benefits I have gained from all of this training, so doing the same walks over and over will continue to happen. Finally, I have just learned that other web sites are starting to link to this training blog. This is a good thing. I found a diabetes related web site in France that has linked to the blog. This is excellent news because it means that other type 1's are getting a chance to learn that they too can live a healthy and adventurous life. Training - 4 hours 20 minutes - 23km Medication - increased normal dosage by 6 units in the morning |
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| Entry for October 31, 2009 |
| Today was a great walk. The weather was perfect and I finished the 25km in 15 minutes less than my normal time, without any effort at all. The difference came simply from walking consistently without having any stops at all. So all of the techniques, processes and tricks that I have been practising are now paying off. Apart from the actual walking, things have started to hot up considerably. We now have a detailed itinery for the event and the days before and after. So now I have to book flights to ensure I am in Ouarzazate the day before the first day of the event. We need to be ready to depart for the desert in buses at 8am on the Friday, so we need to be in Ouarzazate by the day before. That means getting from London to Marrakesh and then somehow on to Ouarzazate. Hopefully my sister-in-law in London, Tina, will be able to organise the flights. Then of course I need a hotel room for the Thursday night. Sigh. It's all hard work ..... but exciting. Training - 4 hours 45 minutes - 25km Medication - increased normal dosage by 6 units in the morning |
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| Entry for November 7, 2009 |
| Today I did the same walk as last week, only in the opposite direction. The weather was great and the walk was good. There's not a lot more for me to learn now, so these weekly walks have become a bit humdrum. I still have to keep them up in order to stay primed for the main event, but there's not a lot more to learn from these shorter walks. Or so I thought. No sooner had I written in a forum that I don't suffer from blisters than I got one on the ball of my foot. I though I may have been careless with the taping of my foot, allowing a blister to form. But on checking, the taping is fine. So now I have to consider that these one's on the ball of the foot can spring up at any time, and I need to work out how to prevent them or manage them. My first thoughts are a double layer of taping, but I'll have to experiment. I am REEEEALLY looking forward to the next Wilsons Prom walk, but that's not for another 6 weeks. :-( Training - 5 hours 0 minutes - 25km Medication - increased normal dosage by 6 units in the morning |
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| Entry for November 10, 2009 |
| Lot's of stuff is happening now for getting things organised. We've booked hotel rooms in Ouarzazate for the night before the event and the night after. We're now looking at buying a flight for me from London to Marrakesh. Plus there is a good chance that I'll be interviewed by a local radio station here in Melbourne sometime soon, although I only believe these things after they've actually occurred. It's still a shame that businesses don't seem to be able to see that they'll get great exposure if they get on board with me. Maybe a radio interview will start that snowball rolling. |
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| Entry for November 14, 2009 |
| It was a big walk today in good weather of around 31C. The only blemish on an otherwise smooth walk was a patch of skin in the small of my back that is rubbed red and sore by the backpack. So now I have to work out a way to handle this when it happens in the Sahara. A large Elastoplast will probably fix it, but how to apply to myself? I'll work it out. This past week has been interesting because lots of entries are being made to the competitor's online forum. Now, after training for 18 months, I am finally getting information about the ultra-light gear that is used on events such as this. I wish I knew about this before I bought my sleeping bag and packpack. I've decided that the sleeping bag I've got is a good one and will do me well. It is heavier than the "ultra-light" versions, but at a grand total of 987 grams, it'll be OK. Now I'm looking at the backpack. With the new knowledge that I've gained, I now know that ultra-light backpacks weigh around 800 grams. Can you believe that!! As my backpack is about 2.4kg, I've decided that it is a good pack for training, but I need to buy a new ultra-light pack for the event. The reason is simple. Because we have a total allowable weight of 15kg, the new pack will give me an extra 1.5kg for more food. I hope to buy the new pack next week. I wish I knew about all this stuff a long time ago. It's been like trying to learn to ride a bicycle, but not being told that the bike needs to have wheels on it. Very frustrating. Training - 8 hours 30 minutes - 43km Medication - increased normal dosage by 9 units in the morning |
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| Bridget McNulty - Type 1 and travelling the world |
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| Entry for November 21, 2009 |
| Things have become very hectic in my house, so it simply wasn't possible to do a training walk this weekend. I did manage to get some organising and planning for the trip done, but no training walk. :-( |
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| Entry for November 29, 2009 |
| Today was a simple walk of 25km, which I've done many times now. There was nothing special, except I am now shaving minutes of each walk. Today I finished 15 minutes before I would have finished this distance 6 months ago. It's not of great importance, but it is interesting and shows that the training is working. I should have my new pack during the week and will start playing with it. I need it to be ready for Wilsons Prom, which is 2 weeks away. Training - 4 hours 40 minutes - 25km Medication - increased normal dosage by 6 units in the morning |