Logo
My Journal
Blog

Timeline

Blog

Three Peaks Training – Day 75

Steep PathI completed my first walk – up, along and down the Otley Chevin.

And…

It was ok.

I experienced some barely noticeable stiffness two days later that disappeared after about an hour but otherwise, no problems at all.

Yes, I know, the Chevin isn’t exactly a mountain, but the initial climb is easily as steep as anything I expect to face. I was breathing hard for the first few minutes but once I got past that I felt fine and, by the time the path leveled off, I felt nicely warmed up and I could happily have climbed for longer.

I’m hoping to tackle something more challenging in the next couple of weeks. No mountains yet, but something with a longer climb would be good.

My other exercise is going well, aside from a brief panic when my cross-trainer broke down. It turns out £120 doesn’t buy you equipment that can stand up to regular use (I have a sneaking suspicion that some of these manufacturers rely on the fact that people rarely use their new exercise equipment for more than a few weeks).

I got a good deal from www.powerhouse-fitness.co.uk in Batley and I now have a much smoother and infinitely more stable machine.

Overall, I’m feeling pretty good about the direction in which my fitness levels going. My stamina is better, not just when I’m exercising, but also in my ability to work and concentrate for longer periods of time.

I’m also happy with the changes in my diet. I don’t feel like I’m deprived of anything, which gives me confidence that I’m less likely to slip back into bad habits. Basically, I still eat junk occasionally, just with far less frequency and in far less quantity.

I’ve now lost around 16lbs in weight which has allowed me to dip into my stash of “clothes that used to fit me”!

An interesting side effect of the change in diet is that I appear to be allergic to bread, or at least something in the bread. Because I’m eating far less bread, when I do have some, I quickly become queasy and sluggish.

I recognise this effect from when I discovered I was allergic to milk.

When you regularly eat something to which you’re intolerant you built up a base level of resistance. But when you completely cut it out of your diet and it leaves your system, it only takes a very small amount to trigger a reaction.

So reducing my bread intake to almost zero has resulted in a faster, more noticeable reaction when I do consume it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that it could be gluten to which I’m allergic because I have similar reactions to pasta, couscous, breakfast cereals and biscuits. But then I don’t seem to react to crisps or oats (although the gluten content of the latter is less clear Are oats gluten-free?).

So, it could just be wheat.

For now I’m going to completely remove bread and bread-related products from my diet and see what happens.
I’ll post details of my next walk when it happens. In the meanwhile, I’m still open to suggestions of challenging walks to attempt. Post below if you have any ideas.

Leave A Comment