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...

Part 4.16 - Reintegrating back into society   (Phase VI - sustaining a healthy life-style) "Nothings going to happ en unless you ma ke it happen." Following on from my last blog where I might have come across feeling a bit sorry for myself, having had both Covid vaccinations, it is now time to come up with a plan to re-integrate back into society and regain some of what I have lost in terms of fitness and drive throughout the whole pandemic. Over the pandemic I have concentrated more on my stamina by running lone long-distance trail runs though these have fallen by the wayside a little of late as my motivation wains, on these I have not worried about time and resorted to a fair bit of walking but have consistently achieved between 15-20km with typical elevations gains of around 300-500km which give the heart a helluva good workout.   Recently I have been finding it particularly difficult to keep up a regular steady pace over any distance especially when running on my own, wit...

Part 4.12 - PLUS & MINUS 3.5 YEARS; HEART ATTACK TO HALF MARATHON !: (Phase VI - sustaining a healthy life-style) "Nothings going to happen unless you make it happen." This blog is being written the day after running my first half marathon in 27 years, the culmination of 3.5 years of exercising, semi-controlled dieting and a fair bit of self discipline while nursing plenty aches and pains from the day before! Going back about 3 weeks to Tuesday 8th Sept. 2020 this was not just another 'working from home' day for me but a far more significant landmark which came about because of a heart attack I had on the 28th Dec 2016, 3.5 years ago (or 3 years, 8 months and 11 days ago to be precise). As I lay in the Harefield hospital bed days after Christmas the realisation that I had gone from having my first angiogram and stents (when I was diagnosed with unstable angina) to a heart attack in a little the over previous 3.5 years  (or 3 yea...