A long stretch (ed calf muscle)

So just before the dreadful weather from the east set in we had a lovely sunny day.  So a keen walker I work with and I decided to walk from his house (on the canal) to the Harborough Basin.

 It was a cold day despite the sun, the canal was frozen solid in places.
















And the paths were extremely muddy and slippery in many places too often on a steep camber .

My friend ended up on his hands and I had my walking pole out trying to stay upright.

We set out at a fine place and reached the lunchtime stop long before it opened, so we sat outside with a sandwich and thermos.

There was a guy on a boat going through a few locks as we walked by, so we got to open and close a few lock gates to help him.

Some of this walk was in my regular stomping ground, and very close to my home, one boater was breaking the ice with a hooked pole ahead of taking his boat through it so as not to damage the boat.

I didn't take many photos because of the cold, taking my gloves off was not fun!

We should have stopped, at about 12 miles all was well with the world but we shrugged and carried on.  Me still with walking pole in hand and on the camber which I think meant I was not walking  'correctly'.

By the time we got to Foxton I knew I had a problem with my calf muscle.  We had a cup of tea and then shrugged and carried on.


And we walked and walked, until I was limping and hoping the end was around the next bend, or the next bend, or....please...the next bend.

The sun slowly started to set, what little warmth there was disappeared with it.

It was a lovely walk, and worth the effort but by the end of the 21.5 miles I was starting to hold my breath with each step of pain.

It's taken 5 days of resting it to come back to good, but being as that has been through all the horrid snow storms it hasn't been so bad, an enforced rest I needed. What it has shown me is I am not as fit as I was last summer when I did 27 miles without issue.  Oh well, challenge accepted, time to get fit again. Although I have cancelled my hill walking jaunt due in 2 days time, this calf is not going up any hills in the snow quite so soon!!