Pasta was great, I ate it with some lovingly made bolognese sauce (medium onion, giant glove of garlic, herbs, crushed tomatoes and finely chopped sirloin steak all cooked together for over an hour).
My fears about ache&pain were became reality, but the pain was bearable and is now present only when I move. If you don't hear from me for the whole of next week it's only because I cannot lift my hands to the keyboard. But the things I did yesterday seem to be targeted to the right regions, so I live in hope that a) the pain will make me better person, b) this sends my body the message it's supposed to and c) the pain will either cease or I get used to it in no more than a week. From next Monday that is.
The funny thing is, my weight seems to be creeping 0.1 kgs down every morning instead of up with all this added food. I've must've been eating OVER my maintenance for two full days now. I stopped counting other than carbs on Wednesday, since the numbers in my chart were depressing even though they were exactly what I was aiming for. Right now I'm happier not knowing, but on Sunday I go back to counting again.
Tomorrow is the walk and I'm really looking forward to that. The weather is going to be possibly rainy, very certainly cloudy, about 17 C. Fortunately I have rain-proof gear and at least there's no fear of sun burn. There's going to be a bit of a party in the evening and about 20 of my esteemed colleagues are going to take part in the walk, so it'll be fun.
Juliette

im glad im not the only one with a low resting heart rate lol. At first i thought there was something wrong with me.
And it doesnt really affect the top end of your range much, it just means you live longer.
I often cycle with my heart about 180ish (on the hills) but it takes a while to get it that high

Great! As my grandparents died at the age of over 85, maybe I can add few years to that..

The trainer yesterday was a bit embarrassed for the test heart rates. I'm thinking she thought more of how I look than my recent exercise log when she chose the initial levels for the test.. And on easy levels in just 12 minutes my heart just couldn't be bothered.
I have to confess, I'm too frightened to cycle as fast as I could on the roads. On a stationary bike however there's no limit. No cars, no pedestrians, no bumps on the road. If I want to reach a higher heart rate outdoors running is my best bet. This thing is getting so interesting, that I may have to do some experiments next week..

you have lots of fun at that party girl and you're in such a great shape. i hope i'll be at some similar level this time next year. there are people here on this forum that really inspire me with their walking and you're definitely one of them. this is why i look forward to budapest...i will be able to walk (since it really doesn't have hills lol)

Have a great time on your walk - I'll be thinking of you for sure...

Yea, what Mal said.

Enjoy yourself.

In my mind I'm taking the whole of WLF to the walk with me!
I'm thinking of Lena the first 15 km, she's such a warm human being.
When the boredom of continuous steps is getting to me, I'll just picture Steves butt, sorry, eh, mind in front of me and go happily the next 15 km.
When the going gets tough I'll concentrate on Mal and her determination. The curse words will help too. So, Mal, if you feel kinda aggressionless and serene tomorrow about this time, I'm just using all of your energy to do the last 11 km.
And I'll be sure to party for all of you, if I have any life left in me in the evening!

focus on the butt - seee the butt -- feel the butt..

I have this unusual sense of pride that you have been corrupted so thoroughly I am just so impressed

awwww this is so sweet of you to say i am really touched. thank you so much

OMG. OMG! I'll finish in 6 hours, if I just keep that in mind.

Your corruption found fertile ground here, I am a musician, you know...

I'm back from my walk, just a short post to tell you all I'm ok.
My exercise enthusiasm was rewarded today as I managed to walk 25 miles with (to me) unbelievable ease. I was expecting some problems, maybe blisters or pain in my knees or hips or other things this kind of repetitive thing can cause. And had no problems whatsoever. Tomorrow I might feel differently, you never know. I'm sure the two little blisters I found under my toes after I came home will heal quickly. I'm going to do good amount of stretching before I go to bed, but I don't think walking is going to be very high on my to do list tomorrow.
It's difficult to even describe how I feel, since I don't quite get it yet that I actually walked all that way and am still alive, although extremely tired.
Now first stretching then bed and hopefully
More tomorrow..
Julie

you are completely awesome and should be so proud of yourself for completing it All your hard work to date has rewarded you I wish you an evening free from muscle cramps and aches tomorrow and maybe a hot guy named sven to give yuo a bonus massage

you are too awesome for words!!

so... how much butt visualizing did you have to do?

Aaaaah, butt visualizing would have carried me the NEXT 25 miles. Unfortunately my colleagues were not so enthusiastic to walk more.. However, there are these 50 mile walks arranged worldwide. Maybe one day...
I have a couple of tips to those who are going to do similar things in the future. First of all, if there's any chance of rain, and even if there wasn't, bring an extra pair of socks, and do NOT walk in wet socks. I might not have even those two blisters had I remembered to take a second pair of socks. Take the repetitive strain on your feet, add two spoonfuls of water and you've got a problem. We got two bad rainshowers on the way and I walked 20 miles in wet shoes and socks.
Secondly, train also on the pace you're going to do the long walk. It seems the slower pace uses slightly different set of muscles, and as I mostly trained in faster pace although I knew I couldn't use it on the actual walk, I felt a bit of the shopping/museum/snail syndrome when the slow pace hit some unused muscles at about 15 miles. (You know the feeling when you've seen two museums or 1/50 of Louvre just going really slow from painting to painting and your feet feel super tired.) I just had to go a bit faster for a while to feel better. Fortunately I had company of this 73-year-old retired colleague who, among other things, does tour skating, canoeing and whichever long distance thing exists. He wanted to go faster as well...
Third tip has to do with food and drink. I got that one right, I think, since I felt no tiredness or muscle pains during the walk. Lots of carbs (whole grains, fruit, whatever you WANT to eat) and a lot of water three days before the walk. Make also sure that you're not magnesium deficient already before you walk. Try to get at least 0.5 litres (even more if it's hot) of liquid per 5 miles, water, mineral water, sports drink. And eat something from the beginning, not only when you start feeling hungry/bad/nauseous. Many people had protein/energy bars. I had something a bit different, with oatmeal&berries, containing 10% prot 60% carbs. Bananas were popular, as was whole grain rye bread for some slow energy.
I got a wonderful restful sleep last night. No dreams, no tossing and turning, just deep quality sleep for almost 10 hours. Today's a beautiful sunny day, which I'm going to spend on my balcony in a bikini getting a nice suntan and maybe reading a book.
My weight this morning was a number I don't care to write here. I'm putting it down to excess water in my system and tomorrow I'm going to start worrying about that again. I've got some planning to do in that respect, so maybe I need to take my lap top to the balcony as well.
Have a great day!
Juliette
PS. Sven&massage would be nice, but I doubt anyone called that or anything else will ring my doorbell today. There's an old saying here that if you don't have a boyfriend on Whit Sunday (which is today), you won't have one the whole summer. The modern women have more or less rephrased that one to "If you don't have a boyfriend on Whit Sunday, there's a queue by Midsummer" (21st June). I'll have to go with that one, since I'm Not Going Anywhere Today!!!

Yeah, well, I wasn't supposed to go anywhere today, so I just did a little 12 mile bike ride. I was thinking of doing a little ride around where I live, but I kept choosing to go "just a little further"...
Still no bad side effects from yesterdays walk, so I'm extremely happy about the whole thing. Definitely going to do it again next year, if we don't come up with something similar already earlier.
Tomorrow I start my personal summer challenge. I'll post my weight and some measurements tomorrow morning and we'll see what I can do about them before August 15th.
Stats for today (since it's evening here already)
exercise
bike 67 minutes 335 cals
eaten
cal 1750
prot 147
carb 128
fat 71
fibre 36
Everything went as planned. After stuffing myself with carbs the last four days it was really easy to concentrate on protein for a change.
Julie