Out of the blue

Random Internet Woman sent an email at the weekend, though I only picked it up today. I will probably reply, though I am conscious of starting another conversation. I did feel guilty about effectively ghosting her last time out, so this at least gives me an opportunity to close it out without being a dick (my own description because I feel there a only a few times ghosting is a legitimate option).

Scrub up.

Visits to the dentist are not the greatest way to start your week, but I took advantage of the decent-ish weather and walked there. It's just short of a mile and a half. And, y'know, women in scrubs.

My recent plan has been to try and get a short walk in before work in the morning. Nothing huge - whatever distance I can cover in about 15 - 20 minutes. From what I recall from my challenge with Random Internet Woman in November, and my own time this morning, that's roughly a mile.

The idea is to leave the house for a bit plus get some exercise in.

The suspected plantar fasciitis has eased a lot recently but, as I discovered as I reached the dentist, not totally gone. But the fact that it is easing is a huge positive.

Heel and oh!

It's a nice day here, weather-wise. I'd love to be out for a walk. I want to get into a routine of going out before and after work and doing a short 20-minute or so walk. It's not just the exercise (though when I was doing Random Internet Woman's challenge back in November, I really did feel better once I'd gotten a few lunchtime walks under my belt), but just the act of getting outdoors.

So, yeah, I want to get into that routine.

But I can't shift this plantar fasciitis. I've had it about a month now and it's showing no signs of going away. I did do a 2-mile walk on it with Nerdy Girl, but I'm reluctant to do something more regular. I have, over the past few days, started massaging it (I had completely forgotten I'd ordered a massage gun from Amazon in October). hopefully that speeds up my recovery.

I've got my eye on a new fitness tracker too, once this PF goes away.

What to say.

Two semi-random thoughts popped into my head today. The first is that I still haven't messaged Random Internet Woman since she shared that email wasn't a good medium for her. I have been meaning to reply, but a combination of illness that hung around too long (Covid, I think) and family stuff meant that I have been super-distracted.

While I have no real plans, at the moment, to continue conversing with her, I don't want to ghost her in this way. I should, at least, just drop her a message and explain.

The other was a memory of F from, I think, around 2004. She was ill, though she never shared what that illness was. Serious enough that it would involve a hospital visit and, I think, surgery. She had gone to a lot of trouble to write a load of letters to various friends and family, and that included me. She never shared what was in the letters though suggested that she might eventually, one day, share it, just to amuse herself. She never did, but every now and again, when the memory pops into my head, I wonder what was in it.

Cutting contact.

Random Internet Woman's latest email (from a week ago) has upped the ante in trying to move to phone calls. While I don't think it's a threat per se, it has brought to a head a few things. I don't do phone calls. Pretty much the only person that I do have phone calls with is KfW2. RIW has said that if we continue via email, she feels she won't be able to provide the same quality of "conversation" that we've had so far.

But if we move to phone calls, I see this fizzing out almost immediately. And I don't want to force her to continue communicating via email.

I'm also really low energy at the moment. A combination of the past four months of family stuff plus a recent illness that has still not fully gone after three weeks has floored me, mentally. The family stuff is ongoing, too.

I'm really tempted to cut contact. It already kinda felt like work, like I was, or am, obliged to reply, and I'm just not in the headspace for that. I probably should have replied before now, but as I said, illness and headspace have had a huge impact recently. But I think it's for the best.

What just happened?

So Random Internet Woman threw out a comment about coming over to visit (the country, not me), and I appear to have agreed to meet her. Hmmm.

Chat, no talk.

KfW2 has sent further WhatsApp messages, but I'm still waiting for the phone call. But in other communication-related news, I've reached out to Random Internet Woman again. I'm not going to be messaging at the same frequency that we did late last year, but I just wanted to check in with her and see how she was doing.

Walk it off.

Maybe just a little bit later than planned, but I did get a walk done at lunchtime, and at just under 1.7 miles, it's not a bad start. Bear in mind that my typical daily walk when doing the challenge from Random Internet Woman was about 1.2 miles.

Hopefully, I can keep this up for a couple of weeks, and then see where we are about moving on to Yoga or the CG workouts I've mentioned previously.

And the point of the walk was to post something for KfW2. It made me realise that I don't get enough personal stuff through the mail any more. It's all bills and junk mail. I did get the odd bit of mail from USHW and I got a postcard from Foreign Girl, which were greatly appreciated. It genuinely meant a lot that someone took the time to scribble some words and post them to me.

Let's get going.

Right, that false first week of January is over, so I need to get started on whatever goals I have for this year. I've asked Nerdy Girl for a walk this evening, but not heard anything back. I think I'll try and do something similar to the challenge set down by Random Internet Woman, but maybe for like 2 weeks, just to start building an exercise habit. Then move on to yoga for a few weeks, to stretch out muscles that haven't really been tested in years. And then I might stick with the yoga 100%, or move to some of Caroline Girvan's workouts or combine them both.

Social-wise, I think G's coming home before the end of the month. I also think a cousin is coming home this month and he suggested at our last family gathering that we might hit the pub. And I want to try an arrange something with KfW2, too.

That's a start, right?

2024

Despite the trials and tribulations of the past year and my current fatigue, I have some goals for this year, something to perhaps look forward to. I've tended not to set any goals over the past few years, but this year is different, and I have some things I'd like to work on and achieve.

1. Get some work done to the house.
   
   There's building work, upgrades (heating and kitchen) and decorating that I want to get done. The kitchen work will be extremely expensive, but I have no idea how much. So while the ultimate goal is to have a new kitchen by the end of the year, the first step is to get a quote for the building work that I need done first. Then I can think about the finer details of the kitchen itself. CC also suggested that she'd help out/project manage the work. While I don't expect her to fully take charge, I'd really appreciate her help.
   
   
2. Be more social.
   
   As recently as this morning, I bemoaned not seeing KfW2 as often as I'd like. That goes for The Crowd, too. So, I'd like to see more of my friends this year. Sadly, I'm already the one making all of the effort, but I'll have to be more insistent and persuasive. Making some new friends might also be called for.
   
   
3. Exercise more.
   
   I really enjoyed the challenge that Random Internet Woman set down in November, and I was going to build upon that in December until the family stuff happened. So, I think I'll try a minor reset. I'm thinking about a two-week walking challenge, then move on to stretching and ultimately back into Yoga or maybe those Caroline Girvan workouts on YouTube.
   
   
4. Travel.
   
   This one's not likely to happen seeing as I'm likely to be spending a lot on some home improvements this year, but I'd like to travel again. I've blogged before about some of the places on my list, and New York is still really at the top of the list.

Additionally, E is coming home over the summer, and I'm really looking forward to seeing her again. I've not swapped any messages with RIW since the end of November. I did tell her I needed space to deal with stuff and I do mean to restart our conversation, but not for a little bit.

And there it is.

And with that, the challenge set down by Random Internet Woman is done. 30 days, 30 walks. I hit two out of my three goals which were walking every day, walking more than 30 miles over the month and a stretch goal of doing over 40 miles.

I fell just short of the 40 miles by clocking in around 38 miles. The cancelled walk with Nerdy Girl would have seen me easily cross that, but it would have put at risk the daily part of the challenge. All in all, I'm satisfied with how things went.

While it doesn't seem like an awful lot (we're talking roughly 20 minutes per day), it hasn't been easy. Motivation to leave the house has been, at times, tough. There was the leg pain/possible shin splints that seemed like it might be getting a little better. Is the walking just building up the strength in the leg meaning that while the pain does come, it feels like it's getting later into the walk? But, I did all 30 days, and I'm quietly proud of that.

I've been sleeping better and I might have lost some weight (I've not been tracking it, but it feels like it). my back pain has eased, though it is not totally gone. It's more difficult to quantify the mental health aspects. I'm not sure I'm in a better headspace as a direct result of the exercise, and things have been tough this month with work deadlines and family issues to contend with.

I don't know what I'm going to do next. I want to get back into yoga to get some stretching done to address the back pain. I guess, it'll be a combination of walking and yoga. If I walk, I won't do yoga, and vice versa and unless I get a real burst of energy, I'm unlikely to do both on the same day. But I want to continue doing something.

Countdown.

Nerdy Girl sent a few text messages asking to reschedule our walk, then again, then again. I had no issue with that, but it appeared she had a clash with someone who didn't have a clue what was going on. She explained later that she was doing something with her mum and her mum had gotten confused about dates, hence the rearrangements.

We're back to meeting tomorrow evening, our original plan. I'm both apprehensive and excited. It'll be great to see Nerdy Girl, but it's more about the walk.  This is the first I've done since starting the challenge with Random Internet Woman. And while I've been walking more frequently, I've not done anything over a mile and a half. Will that help me out with the blisters and pain that I usually get after doing six miles with Nerdy Girl? I hope so.

If not, it'll likely be the end of the challenge. I'll be disappointed if that's the case because it'd mean not completing the core goal, which is to get out every day. But I think, if I get today and tomorrow done, I might actually achieve my secondary goals even if Tuesday is the end of the challenge for me.

Forward thinking.

I was thinking about seeing if Nerdy Girl fancied a walk this week, but then I remembered that I have a habit of finishing our walks in a little pain and with blisters. And I wouldn't want that to put an end to my challenge with Randon Internet Woman seeing as that's currently going quite well, and there's just over a week to go.

I did send her a message to see if she wants a walk early next week. She suggested Tuesday which is pretty much ideal. And even if my feet do hurt and get blisters, I'll have more than done enough to achieve the secondary goal, which is to average more than a mile per day.

Now that I'm getting near the end of the challenge, it's time to think about what my next steps might be (no pun intended). My thoughts from earlier in the month were to try and keep up the walking. It's not a huge distance though it has been difficult at times to motivate myself into going out. But my back pain has eased and my sleep is better. And to build on what I have achieved, I thought maybe about getting back into my yoga. 

USHW, who sent an email just as I started typing this post, suggested easing into that with some stretching first. That's a good idea because while the yoga that I like does involve stretching, I have felt some tightness in my legs as well as some actual pain (shin splints I think) when I try to walk at my normal, natural pace. So maybe that's the plan for December, to start stretching with a view to progressing into my old yoga programme by the end of that month.

Funk

Swapping messages with Random Internet Woman is becoming too fiddly on Reddit. She's been desperate to chat with me... to have an actual phone call with me. But I've been reluctant to make that change.

I can't put my finger on one specific reason. I've tended to keep my online life and real life separate, for the most part. There's also this nagging doubt at the back of my mind about how... keen? Is that the right word? About how keen RIW is to maintain contact on a daily basis, despite us only messaging for a few weeks and barely knowing anything about each other.

We've moved to email. My suggestion. But one that she seemed very bemused or frustrated by. I like the conversation with RIW, don't get me wrong, but I've always had reservations. Maybe it's her drive to move the conversation forward, to suggest we have phone calls, to suggest we swap real-life names (I know hers) and a few suggestions that I travel to England... not specifically to see her, though she has suggested (quite seriously I think) that she'd act as a tour guide if I were in her neighborhood.

This evening, I'm in a real funk and it's messing with my head a little. The funk, I think, is just a lot of real-life stuff catching up with me. But... I dunno. It feels different this time, and my mood is all over the place.

Well I never.

I have to say that it's been quite the eye-opener about how much better I feel after "only" walking a mile a day. For the record, that's about 20 minutes of very light exercise. I'm sleeping better and my back, which has been problematic for the past month or so, is giving me less grief.

I know that articles often say you don't need to be doing much, but it's different seeing it in action.

Phew!

I wasn't planning on giving a daily update on the challenge with RIW, but the leg pain on the first day was a huge cause for concern.

Luckily, today, I could do the distance without too many worries. It was, admittedly, a different route with different footwear, but I did the distance in roughly the same timeframe.

I'll be back to my regular route tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to see if it's route-related (hills) or something else or a one-off.

WTF?

Hang on... for the past few weeks I've been doing the odd walk. From my parents' house to mine. It's just short of about a mile and a half. And I've been doing it with no issues. I've done 6-mile walks with Nerdy Girl with no issues apart from blisters.

However, today, on the first day of my November challenge with Random Internet Woman I developed sharp pains in my right leg. It might be shin splints. I had something similar many years ago and the physiotherapist I was seeing at the time for something else suggested it was shin splints.

Sigh.

Challenge Accepted!

Tomorrow is meant to be the start of my "challenge" with Random Internet Woman. At least a mile a day, every day, for the entire month. That's a total of 30 miles. I think she's planning on running it, though I am only planning on walking it as I've been sedentary for so long, that I don't want to rush back into anything.

So my overall goal is to complete the challenge - walk a mile per day.

But that is extremely achievable, so I do want to add some bonuses to that:

• I want to do a lot more than the 30 miles, but I don't want to put a figure on it. I'll start off doing the mile per day, then if I feel up to it, I'll up the distance.
• If I do fall off the wagon or life gets in the way, I still want to do the distance, so if I have to do extra on some days to make up for what I miss, then I'll do that.

And if I get through that, I'll be happy, especially if the bonus kicks in. I hope that the small effort of the exercise, plus getting out of the house will motivate me to stay with it and possibly break out the yoga equipment to add to my exercise.

Something to ponder.

The random stranger on Reddit has proposed a challenge of sorts... to walk at least a mile per day in November. Apparently, she used to do something in October every year but has been a bit under the weather this month and hasn't gotten into the challenge this year.

So, I'm thinking that this might not be a bad idea. Gets me out of the house, fresh air and exercise. A mile's not a big thing. A 20-minute walk. Quicker if I push myself.

Out of the blue

For the past few days, I've been having a slow and anonymous conversation with someone who claims to be a woman. It was all due to a comment that I'd made answering the question of the state of my mental health.

I don't think my answer was that bad - I've come out of a tough couple of months but had also been wrestling with something long-term that I've never really properly been able to put my finger on, but on the whole, I was doing OK. So nothing hugely alarming, from my own perspective.

And I got a message from someone asking how I was. And from there, we've had a brief conversation. I think it's fizzled out, but it was fun and interesting while it lasted.