Another bonus blog - Walking my AS into remission, training, decompressing, and clearing the fog.
- jeddison54
- Feb 4, 2022
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 15, 2022
As this is a blog series about My AS journey and walking, these bonus blogs give an insight into how I use walking to manage all aspects of my Axial Spondyloarthritis (AS) from the physical to the mental.
It is going to cover the walking I have done over the past couple of months, where I have taken advantage of not working to get my distances up, train for my next big challenge and clear my head; whilst also enjoying my family time and then job hunting.
The first bonus blog documented my long canal walk. This was the first big walk I did during this period of downtime so I will continue from that point to touch on my day-to-day walking, big training walks and using virtual challenges as motivation.
The day to day walking routine, pounding the streets around home with Polly.
For the last 8 or so years dog walks around our home have been a massive part of my routine. Before Eve arrived Polly and I would do a quick 20 minute walk each morning, on WFH days and weekends a lunchtime wander and another quick evening post work trot would be commonplace.
Polly and I still explore all the local area and through lockdown in last two year’s uncovered lots of new routes. A quick walk around the block is commonplace but more rewarding is going to some of our local parks or woods. Polly gets a scamper about chasing squirrels (although she has still never got one!) and I get to explore the peace and quiet of the trails, good practice for bigger walking events.
We are so lucky where we live with 15 minutes away is the vast grounds of Roundhay park, with something for us all, woods, lakes, and a playground for Eve. The woods have been boggy over the last couple of months, but Polly and I always find a way, for an hour or hour and a half’s circular back home. The other favourite for Polly is a local wood that runs along a stream which again lets us do a one hour plus loop back home. Watching Polly run around gives me pleasure while I trek along.
Other times I am often found just pounding the streets around North Leeds, from Roundhay, Alwoodley, Chapel Allerton, Adel, Meanwood and Shadwell. Over the last few years, I have developed several routes that I know to the minute how long they will take, so if I have a lunch hour, I know which I can do, if I have a couple of hours free, I can calculate the two I could combine. The last couple of months I have been doing all my routes regularly and expanding them where possible.
Throughout December and January with me not working I have supplemented some bigger walks with these regular routes.
Building up stamina through back-to-back 25-mile days, revisiting the areas of my past.
With Eve being at nursery three days a week and me being between jobs I had a real opportunity to build up my stamina. To do this on nursery dates I would drop Eve off and set off on longer walks, lots of them coordinated around my new peaceful place of the canal towpath. Rather than just one big day of a four to six hour walk each of the three days I would back up 25mile plus days with another. This has built up my stamina as the usual next day stiffness has stopped making an appearance.
This has allowed me to revisit lots of places that meant things in my both positive and negative. Whilst also taking in places with memories of my dad and then visiting him at the cemetery to tell him. I took in all my childhood and teenage haunts from where we used to play Tour de France on bikes; to my primary school; first cricket club; pubs I regularly visited; Dad’s childhood house; pass old friends houses; our park drinking spot and lots more. Some of these are shown in the photos below.
I also uncovered different and new areas of Leeds that I never realised were there or even existed. One such place was shown to me when my brother and I met up for a canal walk and he showed me the ruins of an old quarry and bomb shelter built into the hills of a park wood close to the canal (photo below). Others included an old hidden graveyard, a pony shelter (Eve will like it), new house estates and a cricket ground I never knew existed.
The combination of all these walks to put into context how much ground I covered during them, my stats for January were:
64 hours walking that’s 2.7 days physically moving at about 4.5 miles an hour.
257 miles covered in month that’s more than walking to London.
32,000 calories burnt!
Completed the Wales Coast Path 870-mile virtual challenge in just 10 weeks.
Training walks two an Otley circular, spectacular views, muddy woods, and the airport.
Like my big canal walk I went through in a previous bonus blog; I had decided to do a big walk close to the distance of 50km I will be covering in June. I planned a loop from home to the market town of Otley through the Chevin Country park, past the Leeds Bradford Airport and back through to home.
It was a lovely morning bright, crisp, and cold, the type that makes a brisk walk so good. The clear blue skies give great viewing, the low temperature means the mud isn’t boggy and you get the heart rate up to keep you warm. I travelled from dropping Eve at nursery up to the back of Golden Acre Park through Alwoodley and Adel. Arriving at the top of Pool bank to see out across the hills and crags out to Harrogate.
I arrived in the old market town of Otley late morning and strolled through the picturesque streets. From there I headed up the hills of Otley Chevin (a long hard slow climb) and through the Chevin Country Park. It was a picturesque winding route from natural waterfalls to rolling rocks and craggy formations flowing from the hills.
As I emerged from the country park I could see the back of the airport, with planes sat waiting for their next flights, full car parks, logistical vehicles working away moving things. From the back of the airport, I dropped down to the back of Cookridge, where my dad grew up. I would pass a lovely little independent farm we often take Eve to see the animals at, a couple of old cricket grounds I played at, my old high school, Dad’s childhood house and then followed the ring road home.
What struck me on the walk was how quiet it was, obviously not everyone is as keen to walk on a cold January day as me. I am sure if it had been a spring Monday, I would have seen more others out and about. I must have miscalculated the distance as it was about 25 miles so short of the 50 km, and my Apple Watch missed some bits so had it closer to 22 miles.
Pain means having to take it easy, is it shin splints or a stress fracture?
In the third week of January, I was about 10 miles into my Tuesday morning walk when I noticed pain and puffiness at the top front of my left ankle. I hadn‘t gone over on it or tripped or slipped it just suddenly was stiff. The stiffness disappeared during the day. The afternoon saw me with a dentist’s appointment and as the pain had subsided, I thought no more of it and walked there and back.
The next morning the ankle was ok and as I needed to get some bits from town I planned a walk to town, then down the canal and a loop back home via my old high school. Between 15 and 20 miles, again it was about 10 miles in I noticed pain in the same place and that increased as, more slowly than normal I made the way back home. As usual after a big walk I jumped into a hot bath and when I got out the pain was worse and there was significant swelling.
A bit of research and self-diagnosis suggested shin splints. The next day I had to wait in for our Wi-Fi upgrade and managed a hobble to the post box only and it was agony. The next few days I took it easy and plenty of ice and ibuprofen. No real improvement and the swelling continued. A GP call on Sunday suggested shin splints but needed confirmation with a face to face to rule out a stress fracture, by Tuesday it was confirmed shin splints.
So, what are shin splints and why were they so discomforting?
The NHS defines shin splints as a non-serious shin injury usually caused by exercise. While not serious it can be painful and take a while to heal fully. Shin splints usually happen due to over exercise like running or suddenly increasing your workload. For me it is likely the pace I walk, about 5 miles an hour and the consecutive long-distance walks. The tips to help improve them are ice, painkillers, rest, or switch to low impact exercise, stretching, avoiding hard ground and get the right footwear.
It is important though to rule out a stress fracture of the shin. The symptoms are similar for both issues, but the recovery needs to be different. For example, with shin splints the advice is to keep exercising but at lower levels (intensity and distance) and gradually build up again. For a stress fracture it is complete rest for weeks and probably a boot to relieve any pressure.
Shin splints are inflammation in the bones, muscles, and tendons round the shin whereas a stress fracture is tiny cracks in the bone. They are both driven by the same problem, exercise overload.
In general, you can tell the difference because shin splints will have a wider general pain where fractures will be intense in a smaller area. Also shin splints pain doesn’t get worse as you exercise but stress fractures would.
It is now two weeks since the initial pain and I have been reducing my load, max 1.5 hour walk at a time and generally a couple of smaller walks a day. This combined with three times a day icing and applying Ibuprofen gel and some gentle stretches, as advised by a physio, have had positive results. It is now not tender to touch, nowhere near as swollen and little aches. Now I can gradually try and build back up over next few weeks with caution it could take 6 weeks to be back to normal.
Click here to give to my next walking challenge, a 50km hike around the Lake District to raise funds for NASS.
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