I ran

Ever since I can remember I have preferred to run. I get irritated when, in a crowded street, other folk walk oh so slowly and I want to get past and live my life! My sentiments are aptly described in a dream I had and a paper my daughter in law wrote, and here where I wish I were Mowgli. 

Are my running days over?

It started with tightness across my chest when running up a mild incline. My GP sent me to a consultant who interpreted a CT-scan as indicating arterial “plaque, most severe in the mid LAD vessel where there is between 50-69% stenosis” (blockage). Google tells me that LAD is short for a "major coronary artery that supplies blood to the front and left side of the heart. It's considered the largest of the three main coronary arteries and is often referred to as the "widowmaker" due to its significance in fatal heart attacks... usually a blockage of the LAD artery has to be more than 70% to cause significant problems" above which a stent may be advised.

All this is rather scary. They are telling me to "take it easy” and to stop any activity that brings on the tightness (angina). A hard imposition on someone who is used to running everywhere.

I'm now taking a prescribed blood thinner and self-imposed minerals and vitamins. In a few weeks I have an appointment with the consultant who doubtless will impose further drugs which I hate. I'm trying to eat more healthily "no sugar" (well, almost none), reduced carbs, salad and beetroot (can you believe it?). 

Looks like this is going to be a journey. I must cheer up and be more positive. If running (~10km/h) is out, I can still jog slowly (~7km/h) even if not "uphill". And so far walking (~5km/h) seems to be OK, even with a backpack, providing the path is not steep. I'm encouraged by testimonies like that of Mark. 

Church mountain and Celandines

Every year and about this time of the year I find it necessary to disprove that I will never again run there and back and climb Church Mountain (bare foot). And so, the weather being clement, yesterday I headed that way. It's not much of a climb but when you add getting there and getting back... So as not to be late for dinner I had to push myself - didn't even stop at the summit - and once home I was pretty tired and aching and thirsty.  But I did it! I'm not totally decrepit yet!

Stats: 14.5 miles, average speed moving 4.0mph, maximum altitude 538m.

Our lake in the distance

Other People on the ruins

Me

Wayside Celandines

Celandines always remind me of my mother.  We were having a picnic or perhaps just a snack on the triangle of land in the centre of the map below. I must have been very young and I guess my older sister was there too. Very proud of my horticultural knowledge I pointed out the buttercups only to be told by my mother that they were celandines. From that moment on I have always loved celandines for the memory but regarded them inferior to buttercups.

 

I climbed Keadeen

My track: 36.4 miles cycling

and 4.4 miles hiking

A new mountain peak for me: Keadeen at the south west limit of the Wicklow Mountains and standing somewhat separate connected only by the Ballinabarny Gap.  It was Sunday and I met several other groups tackling the peak, though none without shoes and mostly with those hiking sticks which I abhor (at least for easy hiking like this). There was even a parking place, which I biked to from home, and the trail was well used though boggy in places.

Overall stats: 40.8 miles, elevation gain 1394m, maximum 658m though, interestingly, other sites report varying heights e.g. 653m, 635m, and OpenTopoMap, which is the best open sourced map ever, reports a spot height of 705.3m though its contours do not bear this up.

Here is a pile of my photos, the last one being of mist rising from our lake the early morning after. Click on the images to view full-screen.

Devon and Somerset Gliding Club

Yesterday we drove great-grandma to Blackborough on the edge of the Blackdown hills, and that reminded me of a previous run and spurred me to do something similar again.

Blackdown Hills part of my track

This time I left early in the morning on this our last day in Willand, and I clocked up exactly 16 miles with elevation gain 817m. The footpaths around my furthest point in Broadhembury did not disappoint. You'll see that (in the unlikely event that you are interested enough to look) from my photos. All barefoot of course. Click on the images to enlarge.

Sunrise over the Culm valley

Footpath #1 through the middle of a field of long grass

Footpath #2 - a wide swathe through corn

The picturesque village of Broadhembury

Footpath #3 with horse

More of footpath #3, so wonderful

Last stretch of footpath #3 showing well maintained style

Ascending the scarp face of the Blackdown Hills

Stony underfoot but not bad

A glider-club airfield at the top

Sadly no airplanes though

Majestic Blackdown woods

View of Culm valley from Blackborough

Garnsey's Tower

I don't know anything about this chap Garnsey except that he built a tower on the brow of a hill. This site suggests it is "a decaying tower in Blackborough woods that served as shelter for whetstone miners" which is not ever so revealing. Whetstones are used for sharpening tools and can be a variety of rocks, and I didn't see any evidence of mining. But the tower served as a focal point for the run-cum-hike barefoot which included several major footpath segments.

15.2 miles, 657m height gain, 4.2 mph

Detail showing some footpaths...

The work of an enterprising houseowner in Kentisbeare

It was a simple circuit in Gauge 1 and working too

Checkerboard church tower, Kentisbeare

Thatch is picturesque but that's about all

The ascent to Blackborough Common

My first footpath got dicy here - it was not well kept

But it resolved into a much better path

The roof of the ruin of Blackborough House

And finally, Garnsey's Tower, ruin thereof

From this angle, clearly a tower that once was

The views looking north from this part of Blackborough Common were spectacular. You can of course enlarge the pictures by clicking on them, after which you can scroll through them.

Large toadstool I noticed on my descent

The second major segment of footpath was also poorly maintained. According to my GPS enabled maps (I use UK OS and OpenTopoMap via MOBAC on OruxMaps) the footpath led me through the middle of an oil-seed rape field and then...

...through the middle of a wheat field (or some such grain) - I followed a line made by a tractor to minimise any additional damage to the crop, but in any case going barefoot does a good deal less damage than when shod because one feels one's way through the stalks.  And then...

...through a grassy meadow where I could actually run...

... and through hard to identify gates or styles to the next field or, in this case to...

... a very muddy and dark lane that finally opened up into the village of Ashill where there was a helpful sign telling me the lane was "not surfaced", and thence to...

... Culmstock and my much traversed water-meadow footpath to Uffculme and home. And (sadly) one tick so far.