Day 14 - Stats Day

 

                                                        From the top of Cheddar Gorge

After yesterday's shenanigans, I'm pleased to report today was a much quieter affair altogether. Phil utilised his mindfulness skills last night to calm my beating heart - well, he made me a curry and took me to the pub - - so we slept well in the van. Unfortunately, fellow walker Chris had a more uncomfortable night in his tent: it was a particularly cold one and, chatting to him this morning, he had to scrape the frost off before he could pack it! Hope you made it safely to Easton, Chris, keep in touch.

The first mile took me up Cheddar Gorge and past a couple of goat herds. I was out early, the sun was shining and there were very few people around. I skirted round the edge of the Mendips, largely walking on grazing land and through the odd wood. I stood by a frisbee golf centre for few minutes and tried to work out what on earth was occuring.

Phil and I had arranged to meet for lunch at Cadbury Garden Centre near Yatton (massive car park, easy to hide the van) and, to reach him, I had a 3 or 4 mile walk down another disused railway track, the Strawberry Line - dead straight, very boring. Switching to Apple Maps via Find my Phone to locate him, I turned left instead of right for over a mile, through something resembling the Somme, and then had to turn round and walk back when I realised my error. Lesson learned.

I reached my destination in Tickenham around 4.50pm, listening to Wolves glorious 3 points against Chelsea. Withy my extra couple of miles, that was 23.6 miles in total.

I'm 14 days in now, so a few statistics, whether you want them or not:

• Miles Walked -  274.70 (Avg per day - 19.62)
• Miles Still to Walk - 928 (Avg per day - 20.17)
• Steps on route - 570,470 (Avg per day - 40,747)
• Avg Blood Sugar Reading over last 7 days - 7.2mmol/l (36 tests)
• Avg Blood Sugar Reading over last 14 days - 6.7mmol/l (74 tests)
  

Comparing against last weeks stats, everything has risen a little, including my blood sugar readings. I don't get too worried about that, whether I'm on a an exercise kick or not. The numbers help me think about what I'm doing differently: in this case, I have definitely being eating more, as the mileage has built up and perhaps I've left my insulin levels at the previous week's lows. I'm planing to just slightly increase my nightime levemir insulin to address this, Typically, someone with diabetes will inject novorapid, a fast-acting insulin, before each meal and then levemir, a slower acting one, before bed each night. Novorapid will do its work inside 4 hours, levemir will take 24 hours. At least, that's my understanding but I'm not a doctor. I haven't even got a white coat.

As I said at the outset of the walk, one of my aims is to raise awareness of how someone with diabetes manages the condition. I think it best that I point out that what works for one person may not affect another in the same way and each individual needs to reflect how food, exercise and insulin affects them personally.

To round off a particularly successful day, managed to see 12 man Warrington defeat Catalans. I can't remember the last time both my teams won on the same weekend!

Back to the walk - a big day tomorrow: I cross the Severn Bridge and we're into Chepstow and Wales, ready for Offa's Dyke on Monday, when a special guest will be joining me...

The land on the horizon is Exmoor, where I was walking on Wednesday

Non-violent goats