Heart Attack to 10K (part 4.2) - Walking for heart & soul & finding parkrun
(Phase VI – sustaining a healthy life-style)
"Nothings going to happen unless you make it happen."
With the carrot of a £100.00 bonus hanging on my 2,500,000 step challenge [see part 4.1], at the half-way point 16 days before the Heart & Souls London Bridges sponsored walk I had completed 53.4% of the task, this was boosted by a hefty 25,326 steps running between to two Totteridge FC stalls at a highly successful Hazlemere Fete on glorious August bank holiday, trying to keep both their floats replenished with £1.00 coins.
This left a very doable 206,634 steps or an average of 12,914 per day to complete the challenge. I was again looking for ways to increase my step count and introduced walking around the school car park while waiting for my wife to finish her evening cleaning job, I worked out that one lap gave me about 250 steps and if I arrived early and she was late out I could do 8-10 laps, that could give me up to an extra 2500 steps when I would otherwise just be sitting in the car!
The donations were still trickling in at a steady rate and with just days to go another overwhelmingly generous and anonymous donation of £100.00 helped to boost the total to £652.00 on the eve of the walk when I also accomplished my personal SMART challenge and recorded 2,500,233 steps, the equivalent of walking some 1,250 miles since my heart assessment back on Jan. 30th to take the Totteridge FC bonus donation as well and smash through the £675.00 sponsorship target with £752.00 already in the bank [see part 4.1].
It wasn't until boarding the coach that we first met the rest of the 'walkers'. Unsurprisingly, comprising of mainly ex-heart patients and their spouses it was generally an older group but there were one or two who managed to bring the average age down a little and it was good to meet up again with Rob, a cardiac nurse who I first met back at my 2013 rehab and also Steve Wildman, the ex-patient who had inspired me to come on the walk in the first place [see part 3]. Katie, as she was quick to point out, was by far the youngest in the group.
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| Team photo |
And so the 32 of us set off for the Putney railway bridge, the first of 16 bridges and a walk of a little under 13 miles downstream along old father Thames crossing from one bank to the other all the way to Tower Bridge; well that's not strictly true as the second bridge was a slight detour 'upstream' to the Putney road bridge but this did give Matt from the cardiac rehab team a chance to catch up with us!
By the time we reached Wandsworth bridge the sun was high in a clear blue sky and we were getting to know some of the group as we swapped heart stories, what did come across was a genuine appreciation of the cardiac rehabilitation team and all they had done for each individual. Kaitlyn had soon befriended one couple and although I had brought her along to keep me company she spent most of the early walk with Douglas & Ruth, a lovely couple who it was an absolute pleasure to get to know as we walked towards central London with Douglas having suffered a heart attack shortly before me.
The thought of that bacon roll was reaching epidemic proportions by the time we reached Battersea Park, it had been so long since the last time I enjoyed such an indulgence, so you can imagine the utter and crushing disappointment to be told they were sold out and I had to make do with a piece of fruit flapjack and a cup of coffee for my special treat.
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| Katie off with her new friends |
[photo collection ... click here]
Again I was left looking for a new challenge. Cardiac rehab run phase IV sessions in the evenings but these were at inconvenient times as I couldn't fit them in around picking the wife up from her job, so had to look for other options. I started popping down the Rye on a Saturday morning, a local park in the centre of town, to the Totteridge FC training sessions doing short sprints with a football and found this a good form of exercise, as I had during the FFIT training. During these sessions there would be masses of runners who would pass by and then disappear, there were all-sorts .... young, old, mothers with pushchairs, old guys jogging with dogs, some running others walking. A little investigation soon found that this was a free 5km Wycombe Rye parkrun [link] that takes place every Saturday morning, you had to register and get a bar code but then all your results are then timed and recorded. I was doing alright at short sprints but jogging 5km would be a whole new level and I wasn't sure if I was quite ready for that.
My mind was made up for me when I read on the FFIT facebook group page that Alan Cecil had completed the run in just over 43 minutes, that spurred me on, if Alan who is older than me and 24 hours earlier had been in the cardiac unit for investigation can do it then so could I - I knew I could walk the 3.1 miles, so let's just throw some jogging in and see how it goes.
So on Oct 21st 2017, following a false start where I had to quickly run up & back down the steep bank before the pre-run briefing to retrieve the forgotten bar-code from my car (don't forget your barcode!), I took my plodding up to a whole new level by part jogging and walking when getting angina pain all around the Rye to finish in a respectable 404th out of 433 in 37:48 while proudly wearing my white FFIT shirt. I can't commend the organisation of this event highly enough, it is run by an enthusiastic volunteers who showed a truly genuine interest in my circumstances with Douglas even recognising the shirt from the FFIT session that I had missed when I was ungoing my 3rd angiogram [see part 4.1] . The level of care even extended to seeking me out after the run to see how I had coped, I couldn't have been made to feel more welcome which did much to encourage me to return. The parkrun motto is 'it's a run, not a race' which fit's the friendly and supportive nature of both the organisers and fellow runners so well, it gave me enormous satisfaction just being able to complete the course by whatever means with the last proper run I had entered being Wycombe half-marathon on 18th July 1993, when I was some 24 years & 3 months younger!
The shirt was out again the following week but I had to miss the parkrun as FFIT had arranged a visit to the Wycombe Wanderers training ground for both the first and second FFIT teams. Following a tour of the facility we all descended into the gym area where the WWFC head of sport science Dave Wates took us through a rigorous training circuit. It was great to meet up with the FFIT boys again and to put myself through a tough exercise routine, I proved to myself that I was capable and came out with no adverse effects, in fact judging by some of the comments on the FFIT facebook page I fared better than most as some moaned about their aches and pains.It was a full day with football in the afternoon at Adams Park where Cheltenham Town held the mighty Chairboys to a 3-3 draw before I met up after the game with BBC 3CR's match commentator Phil Catchpole who had requested to do a recorded interview with me, it was this which actually prompted me to start writing this blog as he was interested in 'my story'. He is doing a broadcasting course and needed to produce a short documentary which he was doing on FFIT, after some stuttery answers to his questions as to why I joined FFIT he then tells me the BBC 3CR are interested and might broadcast the documentary on air!
As we moved into November it was time to visit the Urologist again [see part 4.1]. This time my PSA has risen to a new high of 6.6 and as it is showing an upward trend the fear of prostate cancer returned. This really did feel like a kick in the you know where, after a year of working so hard to improve my health and fitness this was a little hard to take. But we were faced with the same problem as earlier in year, that no invasive examination could be performed due to my heart medication and so arrangements were made for an MRI scan.
It really was an emotional roller coaster for a couple of days, I'm still taking in the idea of the possibility of cancer when my company, Instron, inform me that they will donate £900.00 to my sponsored walk charity, effectively doubling the total collected to an astounding £1797.00 - I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!! - I really can't thank every-one who contributed enough, your generosity completely blew me away and the amount that was raised was way beyond anything I could have imagined in my wildest dreams (my original target was £250.00!!), please accept my most sincere gratitude.My JustGiving page will remain open for further donations until 31st March 2018 .... https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/peter-kaitlyn-jemmett
With the first anniversary of my heart attack fast approaching I wanted to mark the occasion with something that would prove the progress I had made over the year, so I set myself a new SMART challenge, to try and finish the parkrun in under 30 minutes by the 23rd Dec. (the nearest run before my anniversary), this gave me a possible 8 runs to try and finish 7 minutes and 49 seconds quicker than my maiden run. I entered the next few parkruns and progressively improved my finishing times - 36:27, 34:37 and then 33:31 but suffering from angina as I pushed myself over the line I forgot to scan my bar code so the result wasn't recorded, I'm still kicking myself! - No mistake the following week where on a freezing morning I pushed as hard as I had all year and with a renewed determination wanting to make up for the previous week missed record and achieved a new personal best time of 33:15As I write I still have 4 weeks to accomplish my SMART challenge but know this will be tougher than just increasing a step count, particularly with the colder weather about to set in. I am battling against angina on these runs and trying to learn how to control the amount of time I need to slow to a walk to recover by using the GTN spray at certain points in the run. So why do I bother?, I have found throughout the year that it is setting these challenges and goals that keep me going, having a target to aim for spurs me on to keep making improvements and has been key to my progress. If I was to just sit back now, I think that I could quickly lose the momentum and motivation and would easily fall back to a less active lifestyle.
I'm still looking for and ticking off those little milestones and on the 19th Nov. weighed myself at 88.3kg, which is 10kg under where I was at my heart assessment.
That just about brings this blog up to date (27th Nov. 2017), I'm now waiting on the results of the MRI scan and have another Cardiac and Urologist appointment within the next week and have no idea what they will bring. But I know that fitness and diet wise I am in a lot better place than I was this time last year.
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| Step by step, my year! |
In conclusion it has been a stimulating year where I have tried to maintain a positive attitude throughout, from slow beginnings to constantly seeking new ways, goals and targets to improve my physical well-being. My underlying motivation and drive has always been to try and prevent any further cardiac incidents.
Though I am no medical expert, I have written this blog in the hope that it might be informative and offer help, encouragement or inspiration to others who have suffered a heart attack or anything similar - there is always hope and with determination things can improve and life get better - it doesn't have to be the beginning of the end, but more the start of a new beginning! For me the cardiac rehab and then FFIT turned my year around, gave me the knowledge, confidence and encouragement to make changes and I am so grateful for those opportunities. It could be viewed that having a heart attack was a good thing for me as it kick-started my health & fitness mission but in truth I left it 3.5 years too late [see part 1]. I would say to others don't wait to be forced into action, improve your lifestyle before letting it get that far - to this end the guys on the FFIT courses are an excellent example.
My grateful thanks go to the many people mentioned or those involved with any of the organisations covered throughout this blog.
Who knows there maybe a part 4.3, just have to wait and see what happens next.
Heart attack to 10K pictorial record - click here
Thank-you
for reading and I would love to hear your thoughts on any subject I
have covered, please leave your comments below or email me at peterjemmett@aol.com
Previous:
Part 1 - That fateful day. (Phase I - heart attack) click here
Part 2 - Back home & drama at White Hart Lane. (Phase II - home recovery) click here
Part 3 - They tried to make me go to rehab, I said yes, yes, yes please. (Phase III - cardiac rehabilitation) click here
Part 4.1 - Getting FFITer and Harefield & Heartbreak hill revisited. (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Next:
Part 4.3 - End of year 1 round-up and assessment (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.4 - Falling heart rate: fitter or hibernation? (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.5 - Pain in the bum, going senile and sub 30! (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.6 - Sub 29, attack of the AKI and 1 year old (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.7 - Pushing the boundaries (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.8 - Bling, bling, bling, two 10K's and a 5K. (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.9 - 3 Years On, Ragged Radnage and Pete's bolus journey (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.10 - Coping with COVID-19 and what they say (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.11 - Living in the lock-down (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.12 - Plus and minus 3.5 years; heart attack to half marathon! (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.13 - Is it worth the risk? (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.14 - Mixed bag through Covid (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.15 - Getting back in the groove (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.16 - Reintegrating back into society (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.17 - Get that crazy rhythm (the low down on AFib) (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.18 - The 5 year itch, time to cut the CRAP! (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.19 - The last word (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.20 - Persisting with parkrun (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.21 - Stuck in reverse (recap of 2022) (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.22 - Starting all over again 6 years on (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.23 - God bless the NHS (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.24 - What I can, when I can (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
Part 4.25 - Life changes (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style) click here
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