Heart Attack to 10K (part 4.13) - Is it worth the risk?

Part 4.16 - Reintegrating back into society 

(Phase VI - sustaining a healthy life-style)

"Nothings going to happen unless you make it happen."

So, it's now been 36 weeks since the start of the first lock-down and I have continued to work at home and stay away from the general population the best I can throughout this period - as far as I'm concerned, I'm still in the lock-down 1!

With news breaking that limited crowds of 2,000 or 4,000 (depending which COVID-19 tier the local town finds itself), can return to football at the end of lock-down next week, this raises its own concerns as to whether it really is safe straight after a national lock-down which was brought in because of an increase in the number of cases. I can understand that non-essential businesses including the hospitality and lower end football industry are really struggling and are in desperate need to get back to some normality, but should that be at the risk of the general population before this virus is brought under complete control?

We are hearing news that we are on the verge of an effective vaccine so do we really want to risk another spike just before it is rolled out? but I guess as it is, it is down to each individual if they feel safe within certain environments.

Wycombe Wanderers intend to run a test match where 1,000 supporters can attend, subject to approval from the local safety advisory group. These places will be offered in order season tickets were purchased and as a season ticket holder I will be in the running, though I doubt I was in the first 1,000 but imagine I will qualify when the crowd limit is increased to 2,000 for the next match. I shall have to judge what precautions have been put in place by WWFC before making my final decision, but I might need some convincing.
 
Personally, I was quite happy not having a choice, this will just result in personal turmoil for me between a strong urge to attend games and concern about exposing myself to an additional risk level, however low that risk maybe. I will hate to miss out watching the team I seen rise from the Isthmian League to being able to watch Championship football here in High Wycombe for the first time EVER, this is a massive thing, Christ, I was there when we beat Leytonstone 3-0 to lift the Isthmian League championship and thought we had reached the pinnacle of what we could hope to achieve. But even if I do qualify, I think I still need to look at the bigger picture.

Both I and my wife fall under the vulnerable group at a moderate risk level and have taken every reasonable care to keep our risk of exposure to a minimum. I really have no idea how this virus could affect us so my underlining approach throughout this pandemic has been 'I don't want to find out how bad it could be' having read and heard of some disturbing horror stories, even from people close to me.

This caution really stemmed right back when the pandemic first took hold in March when I was arranging a special birthday run around the 'Attack the Attack' course (walk that led to my heart attack) with a couple of fellow runners from YPOM (Your pace or mine running group) [see part 4.10]. As we made these arrangements, taking precautions to protect me, a nurse within the group 'strongly' recommended not doing this especially taking into account my heart condition. We discussed this amongst ourselves and agreed it best to postpone the run. Even though we took her advice, I think mainly because of our delay the nurse took exception and withdrew herself from the group. Her reaction left a profound effect on me which has stayed with me throughout the pandemic and led to me being very cautious in all my personal contact. This nurse was seeing things first-hand at the early stages and could see just how serious things were before it had become more generally known and I have fully taken onboard her concerns and reaction.

Running has become an incredibly important part of my life and the support I have received through this community right from when I restarted running following my heart attack has been fundamental in my improved health & fitness, but even here with a few exceptions, I have avoided meeting up with others. Likewise, with my own family where contact has been kept to an absolute minimum, the only exception here being a socially distanced family picnic in a local park for my grand-daughters 7th birthday back in May.

We go shopping for our weekly groceries, my wife has tried the home delivery service but finds it difficult to get time slots and besides she is not happy with the substitutes and would rather pick her own fresh food. I am sure this a far higher risk than probably attending a controlled football stadium with limited attendance and I'm not keen on having to go shopping at the best of times, but it is a matter of weighing up what is essential against the added risk just for my own entertainment.

Even though we do our best to keep our 'bubble' as small as possible you just can't keep it completely safe, another higher risk to us is both our son and daughter who live at home work in retail, having direct contact with the general public. I sure that they and their business take every care, but it is another exposure we can't control, so do I really want to add up to another 2,000 bubbles?

Parkrun is another quandary I might have to face should it restart; I consider this to be a far higher risk than attending football so it is unlikely I shall re-join again until there is a proven vaccine. Wycombe Rye Parkrun was key to increasing my running and improving my fitness levels and I didn't want to lose that momentum when it got cancelled. I substituted it by going for a longer lone runs in quiet areas on a Saturday morning and over the pandemic have slowly increased the distance while discovering new paths and areas I not run or even walked before, it has been a great adventure finding new routes while exploring our wonderful countryside. It is quite interesting to see how my running has increased since I first restarted through parkrun in late 2017, then with longer group runs in 2019 when I joined YPOM but it is noticeable just how much more I have run in isolation this year with a renewed determination not to let slip what I had gained over the previous years.

2018 total runs (52 weeks, 326.9km)

2019 total runs (52 weeks, 670.8km)

2020 total runs (44 weeks, 872.5km to date)



Step count:
2017 (year 1) - 4,046,492 (full year - target 4,000,000)
2018 (year 2) - 5,270,911 (full year - target 5,000,000)
2019 (year 3) - 5,776,020 (full year - target to exceed previous year)
2020 (year 4) - 4,774,094 (44 weeks so far - target to match last year)



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
 
 

My full story - from heart attack to half marathon:
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
Part 4.2 - Walking for heart & soul & finding parkrun (Phase IV - sustaining a healthy life-style)  click here
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
 
Next:
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
 

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The rest of the story

Heart Attack to 10K (part 4.1) - Getting FFITer and Harefield & Heartbreak hill revisited

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GETTING FFITer. (Phase VI – sustaining a healthy life-style ) "Nothings going to happen unless you make it happen." I already knew I had an enlarged prostate, but during early April 2017 that I noticed that I was having to visit the little chairboys room a bit more frequently and it was becoming more difficult to pass water. I thought this might be due to a change in medication so mentioned it to my GP on one of my many visits. This prompted the doctor to get a little more intimate with me than I was comfortable with as he gave my prostate a little tickle (you'll probably have to pay extra for that in a house of ill repute!) and he then referred me to the Urologist. A blood test showed my PSA ( Prostate-specific antigen, a protein released from the prostate gland into the blood stream) to be 6.2, this was cause for concern as anything over 4.0 could indicate the presence of cancer cells. Normally, I believe the next stage would be to go for a biopsy, thi
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Heart Attack to 10K (part 1) - That fateful day.

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THAT FATEFUL DAY. (Phase I – heart attack) Being at a bit of a loose end and with nothing better to do during that dull period between Christmas and New Year (or the Plymouth Argyle & Cheltenham Town matches as my fellow Chairboys & girls would remember it), I decided to go for a walk in the local countryside around the rolling Chiltern hills. Overnight it had frozen, but the bright winter sunshine turned the early frost into a mist persuading me that it might make for some good atmospheric photographs. So, on Wednesday 28 th December 2016 (a date now etched into my brain) I drove out to Bledlow Ridge, parked the car in a side road just after mid-day and set out with my camera on a 6.8 mile walk that by the time I returned to the car would become an adventure I wouldn't forget in a hurry and ultimately have a dramatic change on my priorities and the way I live my life. I had been meaning to walk the Radnage area for some time and with the afternoon bright sunl
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Heart Attack to 10K (part 4.17) - Get that crazy rhythm (the low down on AFib)

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Part 4.17 - Get that crazy rhythm (the low down on AFib) (Phase VI - sustaining a healthy life-style) "Nothings going to happ en unless you ma ke it happen." I'm not sure who is actually reading this blog or even if you find it interesting or not, with little feedback it can be difficult to know how well it is received.    I'm certainly no expert and just write from my own experiences and what I have learnt by facing or overcoming certain problems as they occur, I hope by writing this blog to raise awareness on matters of the heart so others might consider their own health and fitness needs and seek medical attention, if needed, before letting things get out of hand ..... at the very least writing this stuff helps me to recall my recent medical history & achievements 😉. My biggest concern of late has without doubt been Atrial Fibrillation (also known as AFib or AF) and its quite noticeable from my conversations that many 'non-hearties' have no idea what t
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Heart Attack to 10K (part 3) - They tried to make me go to rehab, I said yes, yes, yes please

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THEY TRIED TO MAKE ME GO TO REHAB. I SAID YES, YES, YES PLEASE! (Phase III – cardiac rehabilitation) the cardiac rehab team 21 st Feb 2017 and I start phase III of my cardiac event when attending the first of 6 weeks of cardiac rehabilitation classes, but this part of the story really began back at my heart assessment 3 weeks earlier. Besides receiving my pedometer and starting an obsession in counting steps [see part 2], a series of measurements were taken which have since become the base point for tracking my subsequent progress.  My heart rate was 59, blood pressure 153/96, weight 98.2 kg, height 177cm, BMI 31.34 and waist 107cm. The Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation Team set long term targets against these measurements – blood pressure <140/90, weight 58-78.3kg, BMI 18.5-25 and waist <94cm. [Care4Today Cardiac Rehab video, this features the actual team I was with ..... click here ] Part of the assessment is to do a ‘shuttle walk test’ during which you wear
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RUNNING THE RIDGE FOR HEARTS & SOULS: LOCAL CHARITY APPEAL

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RUNNING THE RIDGE FOR HEARTS & SOULS: APPEAL PLEASE DONATE HERE :    https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/runtheridge-heartsandsouls    I’m again raising money in aid of HEARTS & SOULS having previously completed the London Bridges walk in 2017 and the Thames Valley Summer walk last summer, this time I will be running my first ever 10K race at the age of 61 ..... 25 years, 10 months and 1 day after my last race! Hearts & Souls are a local voluntary run charity based in Wycombe hospital that fund the excellent cardiac rehabilitation classes which help around a 1,000 patients to recover from cardiac events each year in South Bucks.    This part of the rehabilitation programme is not funded by the NHS and relies entirely on charitable and legacy donations to keep it free at the point of use at a cost of about £25,000 per year. This is not some high profile national organisation but a small local charity who rely mainly on a small pool of those who have been th
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Heart Attack to 10K (part 4.23) - God bless the NHS

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Part 4.23 - GOD BLESS THE NHS (Phase VI - sustaining a healthy life-style) "Nothings going to happ en unless you ma ke it happen." Just occasionally I like to write something other than about my heart condition, highlighting my appreciation, experiences or support received over the past 6 and a bit years, to this end I have already written special blogs covering Cardiac Rehab , FITT , AFib awareness and Parkrun . Today I would like to show my admiration and gratitude for the tremendous work & service given to me by the NHS , not just for my heart problems but for other aliments I suffered over the same period. Recently I have been reading a 'question & answer' social media platform where the question of health care in the USA gets heavily debated when compared to the UK and elsewhere with 'socialised healthcare' and I admit knowing very little what happens over the pond other than it being 'private' and driven by insurance with terminology su
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Heart Attack to 10K (part 4.20) - Persisting with parkrun

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  Part 4.20 - PERSISTING WITH PARKRUN (Phase VI - sustaining a healthy life-style) "Nothings going to happ en unless you ma ke it happen." I only intended to write another blog if there was something special or significant to write about; well, since the last blog in May my AFib (Atrial Fibrillation) has moved up a level to from paroxysmal to persistent which is a fairly significant change in lifestyle for me and as a result I would like to write my own tribute to just how important parkrun has been, especially through this period of relative inactivity as it has been the only bright spot during a period where I have become concerned about my of lack of exercise, but as crucially how it gave me the opportunity to progress my health and fitness drive soon after I completed both cardiac rehab and the Wycombe Wanderers FITT lifestyle programme in 2017, months after suffering a heart attack. Parkrun has become a constant feature throughout these blogs for nearly 5 years now. I
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Heart Attack to 10K (part 2) - Back home & drama at White Hart Lane

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BACK HOME & DRAMA AT WHITE HART LANE (Phase II – home recovery) Not the New Year's Eve I had planned but I was home!! 4 to 6 weeks off work, no driving for a month, lots of rest, no lifting – welcome to phase II of a cardiac event. Sounds good but it soon becomes tedious, never mind at last I get to see those photos that had led to all this excitement in the first place [see part 1] and that was about it for the first week or so, sitting in front either the TV or computer or reading a jolly good book I got for Christmas about a tale of a Chairboy who missed that famous FA Cup run* with the odd excursion past a few neighbours houses and back mummified with my WWFC scarf wrapped tightly around my head to keep the cold air at bay. The instructions were simple enough, plenty of rest and start slowly with gentle short walks, a little light dusting etc. and gradually build up the pace and length of the walks and resume normal daily activities over the next 4 weeks. * 
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Heart Attack to 10K (part 4.4) - Falling heart rate: fitter or hibernation?

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PART 4.4 - FALLING HEART RATE: FITTER OR HIBERNATION? (Phase VI - sustaining a healthy life-style) "Nothings going to happen unless you make it happen." I didn’t really have any intention to continue with this blog beyond the first year but like in real life, my fitness campaign keeps rolling on so must the chronicles (or so I’ve been told by my blog fan).   Picking up from where we left off, my next parkrun on 3rd Feb. became a bit of a ground breaking occasion. It all started like any previous – a combination of jogging and walking when feeling the onset of angina but suddenly at about 3km I picked up a fairly comfortable stride and managed to keep going for the next 1km without pulling up when a fellow runner saw how I was pushing myself and offered to help me to the finish line. We jogged the last 1km together and finished in 33:09, just 18 seconds behind my best time. At about 2km this was the longest distance I had ran non-stop since starting parkrun and having
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