Steps & Blisters – by Sheila

I have been offered lots of advice from all sorts of people when I have told them about the plan to climb Kili. Everyone seems to want to put in their tuppence worth – even the taxi driver on the way home from the airport after the recent trip to the Amalfi coast had advice to give me. He admitted that he had been sitting behind the wheel of a car for the last ten years and had rarely even walked a few yards. However, his doctor has told him to lose weight and he now runs up and down the stairs in the airport car park, while waiting for people to arrive from their planes. I hope that doesn’t result in a heart attack: his pot belly is monumental! He recommended stairs to me, as did my friend Maureen at Catching Lives: she has offered to let me into the very tall block of flats where she lives, so I can run up and down her stairs – but after Amalfi, I feel I have seen enough steps to last me quite a while. One of the other people on the holiday said their next trip would be to the Netherlands: it is all pretty much level there!

Sheila on the steps at Amalfi's cathedral
Sheila on the steps at Amalfi’s cathedral

Maureen’s other suggestion was that I should always stand during adverts, titles and credits, while watching TV. Standing seems to be a highly recommended activity at present, with people ordering standing desks for their offices and studies. However, I am usually on my laptop and/or iPhone or knitting, sewing or crocheting while watching TV – sometimes two or three of these together, so the resulting tangle of cables and yarn might be fatal, if I keep getting up and down. Actually Stew and I did try it one evening, and ended up bopping about and giggling at the same time, which can’t be at all bad.

I have been told that standing on one leg is good for me: it is supposed to strengthen bones and improve balance. I usually try to practice that at bus stops, if I have a while to wait – along with a few pelvic floor exercises, which yoga and Pilates teachers always seem to recommend for bus stop waits. I try to keep my facial contortions within normal bounds on such occasions!

One of the staff at Catching Lives has actually been up Kili, and his recommendation was to try to put your foot down flat when climbing up, rather than heel first and rolling the foot. His philosophy is that this technique lulls the mind and body into thinking you are in fact walking on the flat – not up a mountain. Hmm – the jury is out on that one, but I will try anything!

I developed blisters during the recent training exercise (aka holiday) on the underside of both my big toes. One of the best moments of the week was having Paul, our leader, tenderly apply patches and bandages to my toes to enable me to keep going. I have been offered lots of advice from others as to how to stop this happening again, including having Footbalance insoles made – a very clever machine views your feet and how you walk from every angle and purpose builds them for you – to encasing each toe in a tube to protect it. I feel a need for a lot of shopping coming on!

So thanks, everyone, for all your advice. I am thoroughly enjoying every bit of it and I know some of it will be useful: keep it coming, please.

Walking blisters