Dementia UK October Dog Walk Challenge - Progress Report

 Well there is no point in having a plan (and a spreadsheet !) if you don't measure and report progress.

The challenge started on 1st October, which was a Saturday. Statement of the obvious - there are 31 days in October

While I have good control over the resources (me, Bella), I don't have control over the Scottish weather or the decreasing day length at this time of year ! And there is a risk that either myself or Bella get injured or ill.

We hit 50km on the second Friday
We hit 75km on the third Friday

So we're on (actually slightly ahead of) target, and have built up some contingency for things going wrong in the remaining 9 days.

But this wasn't just about the challenge and the walking.... it was also about raising awareness and funds.

I've posted on social media about the challenge and about Dementia, both from a work and non-work point of view.

We've raised some sponsorship - it's always hard to ask, so I've just been including the link in posts. And while every little helps, it would be nice to get some more.

So we have more to do, on every front, in the remaining time.

New member of the team and a new challenge

 Well I probably need to rename this ....

In late August Bella came to join my household. Bella is a 7yr old Llhaso Apso from a local rescue (due to ill health of previous owner). (Not to be confused with Belle the horse !)

Years ago when I left home to go to Uni, I had every expectation that as soon as I was in a stable job/house, I would get my own dog. It's taken rather longer due to decades of commuting while living alone. But I'd been lurking on various dog rescues since about middle of lockdown, including my local rescue. And then along came Bella. 😁

Just after she arrived I spotted a Dog Walking Challenge for Dementia UK in October. It seemed like a nice way to get her and me into the swing of dog walking. So I signed up.

(the bit below this was first posted on LinkedIn and I've adapted it for here)

The October Dementia UK Dog Walk challenge is about raising awareness and funds.... and it's ended up being more personal than I had realised when I signed up because it seemed like a nice bonding (team building) thing to do with my new/rescue 4 legged companion, and relevant as my father was recently diagnosed (which makes me a carer). I'll maybe come back to that in another post.

But there are a bunch of work related things also.

Let's start with things like requirements, plans and measurement.

The definition from the charity is quite broad - the "vision" is 100km in October, but we have people doing more, less, starting early or late because of their personal situation. As long as the key stakeholders (the people sponsoring us) know - that variation is ok.

Which takes us to goals - I used September as a "benchmark". We hit around 70km over the month. So 100km for us is a genuine challenge. Where do I get the extra km from ? longer walks ? more frequent walks ?

For other people, 100km is a doddle - well, given the flexibility, set a stretch goal and just let your sponsors know.

There are also people for whom 100km is just not feasible, and some people have younger dogs where there is advice about limiting their exercise. So there the goal will be less than 100km.

All of these people are still part of the challenge, even with their different goals.

Prior preparation: (prevents p!ss poor performance). I know from the last month and a bit that I can't just do longer walks; my 4 legged companion has her limits. So the plan is for 3 shorter walks a day, and just looking to edge those up by a small amount - a few hundred metres - to increase our average. And if we have the opportunity (Scottish weather allowing) - push the distance on one walk a day at the weekend. (Tactics - measure right from the door and back. With the app security set so that I'm not exposing personal data I don't want to. Those extra metres count !)

Measurement: lots of discussion on the facebook group about this. And again lots of options. Apps for some (a number to choose from), pedometers & step counters for others. I'm using a well known app set to measure in km.

And I know what my daily and weekly average need to be.
I need to account for things like
- office days, when there won't be a lunchtime walk
- Scottish weather (one day this week had high winds that made it risky to go out, with trees down on roads, flooding etc )

and of course, the plan needs a spreadsheet 🤣

(and actuals will be tracked there too)

Where is "there" ?

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to "running horse", at least temporarily !

The previous post on definition of done started heading in to goal setting territory.... let's follow that train of thought a bit further down the road.

Yesterday I got a notification on social media that an event had been updated... lo and behold it was the Supernova event changing it's date from November this year, to March next year. 🤔

Not really a surprise with local covid spikes and lockdowns, plus the "6 household rule" - even if that doesn't apply to "organised sports", bringing a few hundred people together to exercise is probably not the best thing to be doing !

My stated aim in the last post was "to get back to pre-lockdown level of running fitness"  which is measurable as I was tracking my runs then and have that history available (adding a bit of qualitative judgement on the "feel"). Implicitly I was targeting the supernova run, on the basis that parkrun wouldn't be active again by then. In England they (parkrun HQ) have since stated an intention to restart by the end of October, but there is no date for Scotland yet. 

(Edit to add: .... and preferably reach the goal without incurring any injuries)

But I could still either go and run my local parkrun as a (not) parkrun, or I could run a local route. I just need to set a date.

Which means my original goal is still valid, with some tweaks to the how, when and where.

I had already realised that I have some interim goals en route - for example to run my shorter (2.6km) local loop at 5:1 intervals with a sensible level of comfort (lungs, legs).

And my stretch goal would be to use the C25 programme to maybe even improve on this, as the weeks 7-9 have longer runs in them, plus there are some 5+ podcasts if/when I make it past the OneYou programme week 9.

In the meantime I was out today repeating the OneYou week 6 run 2 (warm up walk, two 10 mins runs with a 3 min recovery walk in between, cool down walk). It definitely felt better than first iteration of this run. Not good yet, but better.

If I'm aiming for end October, then I have time to repeat a few weeks before moving on.

And as I plodded along, I realised I'd actually already met one goal. I started the OneYou programme because I was getting ankle and foot pain. It may seem counter intuitive that exercise is the solution for this, not the problem - but a process of elimination has confirmed it. I'm just not active enough working from home (despite having horses to tend to daily). Even if I haven't yet got to the fitness level where running makes me feel good, it does already stop me feeling bad. 

[Updated to add: the aim of the OneYou programme is "To run 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes (approx. 5K)"

There has been a fair amount of discussion on social media that running for 30mins is not the same as running 5k. In the past 14 years, I have never run anywhere close to a 30min 5k.]

Are we there yet ?

 #definitionofdone

I'm trying to get back to pre-lockdown level of running fitness via a C25K programme (OneYou). A week ago I hit the first longer run (week 5, run 3) at 20mins. I planned a fairly forgiving (aka not too hilly) out and back route, but got to 14 mins with the wind in my face and a slight incline..... and just ran out of breath. I paused the app, walked to recover, then ran the remaining time. (and yes I had completed all the previous runs up to this one)

The app says "smashed it" when you complete the run. It doesn't have an option to say “nearly there” or "could do better".

Now I know project managers that would take something live at that point ..... I mean the run wasn’t continuous, but there was 20 minutes of it ? and maybe the customer doesn’t need the last 6 minutes until we’ve managed to do a continuous 20min run at a later date. I mean it’s good enough isn’t it ?

But the next long run isn’t 20 minutes, it’s 25 minutes. And the week after consists of 3 more runs of 25mins.

Not done then.

This week I planned a similarly forgiving route, but in the opposite direction so I’d have the wind at my back on the homeward leg. And this time.... I managed the full 20minutes. Just.

Done yet ? If I am picking my route so carefully ? And dreading the uphill slopes ?

Well it depends... what does “done” mean in this case ?

My personal view (as it’s my goal and done-ness):

It does not mean I can run 20minutes cumulatively (14+6)

My MVP on the programme is a continuous 20min run

But the true programme “done” is to complete that run with enough quality and comfort that I can happily move on to the week 6 and 7 runs. (I've done the week 6 interval runs already)

And actually the goal isn’t to complete the C25k programme, that is the “means whereby”. The goal is to get back to my pre-lockdown running, which was running intervals. I’m adding that test into my running.... over a shorter distance than 5k initially, and over 5k later.

Not quite done yet then 😉 (post script to add: yes there is a time element to this goal. In theory I have a Supernova 5k run in November. Which means I have time to repeat weeks in the programme and don't need to settle for MVP. When I asked, they said they would make a go/no-go decision about 8 weeks beforehand..... so I'll know some time in the next few weeks.)

|Pause|

So after all that resolution/goal setting, I have ended up with an unplanned pause. Goals around exercise, work, eating etc somewhat go out of the window if you are in a hospital bed and not in control of anything.

Home now and on Day 11 since surgery, and I'm doing my best to be mindful but, to be honest, it has been more "zombie" (mindless) than mindful.

Now I am staple-free, I can at least start moving more like a normal person rather than hunched to reduce the pressure or friction on my wound site.

Unplanned or not, I have some time to take a breath, to catch up on some small tasks (nothing that involves major lifting or driving !), do some reflecting.

One thing I've realised is that I currently seem to have 2 modes - flat out (when at work), or full stop (like now, when I have no option). Very monochrome and something I need to work on.

Resolutions

From Collins Dictionary:
resolution
noun
1. the act or an instance of resolving
2. the condition or quality of being resolute; firmness or determination
3. something resolved or determined; decision
4. a formal expression of opinion by a meeting, esp one agreed by a vote
5. a judicial decision on some matter; verdict; judgment
6. the act or process of separating something into its constituent parts or elements

Let's ignore the last 3, given I am not a judge, the UN or separating myself into my constituent parts...

It's that time of year when people resolve, commit, and decide what they might work on in the next 12 months. Often people form their New Year Resolutions like goals at work, with the whole "SMART" thing. Last year I decided not to do that, and instead to adopt "themes". I can't quite remember how I set this up (which is the reason for putting it in writing this year !) but the idea was to have something that was ongoing for the whole year.

The downside of "SMART" resolutions is that they tend to be black and white (met, not met) and with a distinct date. Finding tasks to work on that balance across the whole year, and keep you motivated, is quite a challenge.

Whereas an ongoing theme fits with continuous improvement and iteration, and allows the theme to react to a changing situation.

For example, to work on decluttering by getting something sorted every weekend. I think last year I had said it could be either house/garden or horse/field. Later in the year I happened to have time to take a look in my dad's polytunnel (which is where the horses live). It was like a time capsule, as if someone had walked out of it mid-season a few years back and just never gone back. So it was easy to flex my "theme" to include bringing something back from the polytunnel up to the cottage to get disposed of or for my dad to sort out.

I suspect my themes for this year are not that different to last year (if only I could find where I wrote them down !)

- the declutter theme continues, although I'd like to try and hit a couple of areas every weekend i.e. something in the house AND something in the garden. Late in the year I also managed to finally make some progress with a couple of house-related projects (one of which will be done in January).

- looking after myself better. For a whole load of reasons I didn't get much time out on horses in 2017, but also didn't manage to substitute with other things to keep me fit and healthy. I did two charity 5km events (one at a walk due to ice and injury). I need to make the time to exercise on a regular basis (and as part of that, "reclaim" lunchtimes at work !)

- finishing more things than I start. That may sound a logical impossibility or slightly sinister. The reality is that I have a backlog, so by adopting this principle I will reduce the backlog (as well as reduce the clutter). This is also about not taking on more than I can do.

Of course if I was a "proper blogger" then I would relate all of above back to project management, continuous improvement (or development), agile, etc etc ;)

Consent required (a.k.a. "Look but don't touch")

I've lost count of how many times I have read an interview of a well-known rider and how they got started, and at some point it involves illicit rides on a pony in a field. No one ever seem to comment on this or tell it from the side of the owner of that illicitly-used pony.

Just recently I've been thinking about the whole "stealing a ride" phenomena from their point of view.

Over the summer, a person who had very rarely helped groom ponies some years before turned up on my father's doorstep asking if they could take a non-UK visitor of theirs to "look at" the ponies. No problem - though my father was in the middle of something so didn't go down to the field with them.

Not long after, it was feed time for the ponies anyway, so he went down to the field. At which point he discovered that not only had these folk got a head collar out of the store to catch the pony (Rosie) who lives in the school, but the young visitor was *sitting* on the pony (without a hat). And they proceeded to ask if they could ride her around the school ! The answer, of course, was no.

I only found out about this when I got home from work. I have problems with it on so many levels(*), but they all lead back to one major issue - they did this without any kind of consent from us. They had permission to look. Not to catch, sit, ride, or anything else.

[*Did they not even stop to think why that pony was living in the sand arena rather than out in the field with the others ? Did they rummage around until they found a head collar which they just assumed would do ? The girl had no hat. The person "in charge" is in a profession which regularly has to fill out risk assessments - did it not even occur to her to think about what might go wrong ? and so on and so forth]

Don't get me wrong, I can still remember the pre-horse owning hope that someone would let me sit on their pony. And not only were there some very kind people who said yes, but I have paid that forward and let Rosie be ridden by a number of other people. So to repeat - this is not about protecting Rosie or being territorial, it is about consent.

Why is it that people think it is ok to wander into a field and get on a pony they don't own, without the permission of the owner/keeper ?

We don't think it is ok to walk into someone else's home, snap a lead on their dog and take it for a walk ?

Or pick up their keys and take their car for a drive ?

Or use their kitchen to cook a meal ? 

Or take their children off without a word ?

Why any ponies fair game when so no one would consider "borrowing" these other things ?

There are so many practical reasons why the borrowing without permission is wrong, including safety. But what makes it unacceptable rather than merely foolish and unsafe is that these horses are our equine partners; we spend time building trust and partnership with them. 

Would you wander into Carl Hester's yard and just hop on to Valegro ? Is my pony any less precious to me ?

What gives them the *right* to use something that belongs to someone else without that person's consent ? Why do these people think they have a "right" to take with no associated responsibility ?