Heart attack to 10K (or maybe that should be half marathon) - 'my story'

Part 4.25 - LIFE CHANGES (Phase VI - sustaining a healthy life-style) "Nothings going to happ en unless you ma ke it happen." I last published a blog way back in June 2023 and fair bit has changed within my life both 'on-field' and 'off-field' since then, and as my blog is regularly mentioned to me and I'm always being asked 'how you doing now?', which is not a answer you can easily wrap up in few words while chatting, so I thought an update to this series might be a little overdue. When I left off I had just been diagnosed with ' Chronotropic Incompetence ' (CI), an exercise intolerance. I'm still not totally sure what this really means or how it will impact my life, but what is very apparent is that my parkrun times have suffered a lot since then. Since returning back to parkrun post Covid, during which time my (intermittent) paroxysmal AFib episodes had become more regular and longer causing some worry and concern, I could never ma

  JUST PUTTING IT OUT THERE – THE NEXT BIG CHALLENGE. As you may be aware, after 50 long years of constantly getting up at some unearthly hour, I am due to retire in March 2024 (hooray!!) . As I'll no longer have to drag myself out of bed on a Monday morning and will be able to rest and recover, I'd like to mark the occasion by setting myself (another) challenge, raising more dosh for a charity close to my heart (pun intended). Since the onset of Persistent Atrial Fibrillation and now Chrontropic Incompetence (exercise intolerance), 10K or half marathon runs might prove a little too difficult, so I thought about a longish walk – but one that would mean something special to me. Following my heart attack in Dec 2016, I was treated at Harefield hospital before attending my 2 nd round of cardiac rehab classes, again held at Wycombe hospital. Everything I have achieved since can be traced back to these two events. So, my idea is to walk the 22.8km (14.2 miles) between

Part 4.24 - WHAT I CAN, WHEN I CAN (Phase VI - sustaining a healthy life-style) "Nothings going to happ en unless you ma ke it happen." As covered over my last few blogs, since returning from the Covid I have never really got back to where was hoping to be, becoming less active, slower and as of result together with my diet slipping, a bit more podgy. Before Boris separated and isolated all of us I was enjoying some excellent support on group runs of varying distances with many of the 'Your Pace or Mine (YPOM)' ( photos ) members which kept me progressing and pushing further with my fitness plan, achieving beyond anything I could have dreamt or hope to achieve when I first started out in 2017, improving my weight loss and generally feeling better than I had in years. Your Pace or Mine and me at Parkrun The YPOM group sessions was of a great benefit to me pre-Covid at a time when post heart attack I was still re-building my fitness, stamina & increasing my runnin