Walk Hard!

I sit typing this post wearing a big woolly jumper and legwarmers – flushed with the success of World War Z, Glasgow now seems to be vying for films like Ice Station Zebra or The Day After Tomorrow. In short, it’s fucking freezing – our wee thermometer currently reads 1C, which is small improvement on the –3C it was this morning.
I’m also sore for the first time in ages – my back is aching and I have Fibro flare-ups all over my wee fat body. And this is allthanks to my bloody “Health Walk” yesterday.
As you may know if you follow this blog closely, as part of my new fitness regime I had started going to organised walks around my local park in addition to my twice-daily walking of our dog. I went along yesterday as usual with Roxie dog in tow (my fitness instructor Kevin said it was fine to take her along and she has come with me the two times before). I should have suspected something was up when I arrived there and no one was waiting at our meet-up point. I discovered that they were inside the office of the children’s farm having a meeting with the walks co-ordinator – they smuggled Rox and I in but the meeting was over and we headed out. There wasn’t the usual dividing up of us into 3 groups – Slow, Moderate and Faster - and folk just seemed to head off. I had wanted to ask about joining the Faster group this week as I had been with the Moderate one the two times before and found it a bit slow, plus I had been walking further and more quickly on my own so wanted to push myself. I shouted to the group leader if it was OK to join them and got a yes. I need to say here that with the agreement of the walk leaders I have been walking with Rox off of the lead – she normally walks round with me quite the thing like that – and they were OK with it.
However, I soon realised my mistake – the main faster walkers sped off at a helluva pace along with the group leader and Rox and I were soon left behind. I hadn’t any inkling that this was almost a race standard group – these walks are advertised as being for older or disabled/ recovering people like me to get their fitness back. Even the 2 older women in their wool coats were speeding on. By the time I had huffed and puffed trying to keep up even with them, the front pack were over the other side of the hill and out of sight. The group leader must at some point realised I was away back and stopped to let me catch up. We saw the moderate group coming towards us and I said I would join them as they passed. However, for some reason Rox had run on ahead and joined the super-fast walkers. When I realised this, I stopped as I always do and called on her to come back to me but she was too far ahead. I called and called, even offering her biscuits, which always worked before but to no avail (“Fenton, Fenton” went through my mind!). I eventually caught up with her on the other far side of the park. By this time I was exhausted and in pain. She knew she was in trouble as she sat down as I approached and wouldn’t come to me. I got her on the lead, told the group leader I was going home and left. As I limped home, I was raging with anger, not just at the dog (who in 4 years has never behaved like this) but also at the group leader and the other walkers.
When I did get in, I admit I shouted at and smacked the dog – I don’t feel good about that but I was red misting. Fortunately Gee stepped in before I lost it. I phoned the walk co-ordinator (who was at the meeting before the walk). I expressed my anger and frustration that the pace was miles faster than the moderate group and that the group leader had not kept an eye out for me. I also told her that I would not be returning. She took on board my comments – I did agree that the dog should strictly speaking have been on a lead but it hadn't been a problem before.
The questions I still have –
· Surely the group leader should have walked at the pace of the slowest walker? That happened in the slower groups.
· Surely he should at least have noticed I was keeping up well before he did?
· What are competitive-standard walkers doing walking in this group at all? There are other groups for that.
· Why did my dog run off with them? Did they entice her?
· When it was clear my dog was ahead of me why didn’t someone stop or send her back to me? They must have heard me calling and calling her.

I know you can never expect for other people to think as you do but in my experience if a dog is separated from its owner, folk usually stop and try to reunite you. It took another dog-walker to alert me to where she was.
I am feeling really, really scunnered. I was feeling so buoyant yesterday morning, glad that I seemed to be losing weight and gaining more stamina. I went to my writing class last night with a knee support on my right leg. Fortunately that was a good class so I was glad I went but today I am a lot of pain. Rox is in the doghouse – I was all for taking her back to the rescue centre yesterday. I have lost confidence in my pal and she is wary of me. I did go on a walk with Gee and her this morning – he had her on the training lead we had when we first got her (she was on the lead for the whole walk) and we are taking steps to re-integrate her back into the pack by taking her back to basics so hopefully that will work. I was seriously discouraged but am determined to keep up with my attempts to lose weight and become fitter. I will walk as I have done and when my fitness coach as why I dropped out of the walks, be sure I will tell him! I am hoping I am fit for my theatre group tomorrow night _ I don’t want to miss that. I’m going to take it easy over the weekend and I had planned anyway to switch to the Thursday circuits class anyway next week as I also have another dance rehearsal then. I want to bounce back from it but right now I don’t feel very bouncy. Damn xxx

PS – My tutor wanted to workshop a film premise last night and I was the only one who volunteered. So my wee idea of a film based on Orcadian legends got quite a good reception and I have been working on that today so at least something good came out of yesterday!