More about exercise

I have bought myself a new pair of exercise sandals. Apparently, they're designed by sports scientists and exercise a lot of muscles that aren't normally encouraged by other shoes. Yes, I know - a lot of rubbish! That's what I thought, too, but they are very comfortable and I did need a new pair of sandals. The labelling on them said not to wear them for long periods at first in order to avoid muscle stiffness. I ignored it; I do a lot of walking and am sure that my trainers exercise my muscles fairly effectively. So, for the last three days, I've been rushing around in my new sandals.

At the end of the first day, I was tired (the dogs got me up at 04:30), but thought nothing of this or the fact that my legs were definitely stiff. Yesterday, I noticed that if I didn't move around I was seizing up. Today, as I walked up the hill with my shopping, I became very aware of the muscles in my calves - and I was definitely walking faster than normal, arriving home marginally out of breath, which is supposed to be good for you. Maybe, then, the sandals are making a difference.

As I hurried home from the village, I recalled that two years ago, I was counting the paces between lampposts to encourage me to get home because I was so feeble and ill. I decided to count the paces again today, mainly to check whether my increased speed meant that I was taking bigger strides (the number of paces between lampposts is indelibly stamped on my memory because I had to use that strategy to get home so often!) The answer is that it seems that despite being hugely healthy now, my stride length hasn't increased, though my speed of walking has. It is nice to be able to move so much faster, though!