Chakae D'ellencourt

Instead of Easter Eggs...

The Easter Sponsors, both too familiar with cancer,  have moved me up a fundraising tier, and so i'm dedicating my Starting Again walk to Anonymous, because even when you've vanquish the Big C years ago there's other battles to plod through because life is just one thing after another.  

Look at my badge collection! I've got more badges than anyone!  That's because I'm compensating for something.  Indeed I did the Charge to feel there was one part of the world I could contribute to making better when even people desperate to be  Nobel Peace medal owners are  better at conflict.  Its been good for my mental health and feelings of helplessness.  And playing with the badge issue has been interesting. The dopamine from them is quite real, and I would urge those badge-bereft to go badge-bootleg or at least substitute an Easter Egg for your efforts if a system fault didn't light some. 

Happy Easter!

My blog is not turned off, and apparently I can still add the km from my last Aerial. As I completely ripped myself off by calculating by my fastest treadmill time in the previous week, my 1.5 hours of struggle amounted to 2.1 km. I've bought an ice vest so I could wear the spiral skins without overheating. My Exercise Physiologist already calls me Captain Velcro. I added a bodybraid as its the upper arm strength I really need for silks and I'd like to update to persona to Captain Elastic. 

Snail Ticker Clocks off; Reformer Pilates Clock on via Conversion Chart

I shall miss my little snail icon. Aerial icon I didn't grow attached to as  that wasn't daily use. And I'm not doing a retrospective ticker for Pilates Reformer Movement Therapy.  I've changed my mind and I want the milege so I can donated it and earn another bootleg badge I don't feel I've done enough for. . 

Like my  "Final Call Out" Bootleg Badge? That one wasn't even my idea. I've created anarchy in the  March Chargers group! Although that anyone could encourage anyone was already established practice. 

Final Call Out

Its not too late to donate to Cancer Council. Its not too little at five dollars. I collected small donations from friends and made a collective one of over fifty! We can do that again.  I actually see myself as 80c over target, but I donated  some elsewhere, and more than double my real activity goal but I "donated some" elsewhere.  My efforts are small in comparison to others, but I'm counted, and so are 22 of my friends Can  I count you in too?

Weekend Challenge

My challenge was administrative. I donated my pledge email to someone else to see if they could light their badge that way. It apparently worked. My badge lit too, but its hard to know if that is because I emailed that I didn't recieve the email for the weekend last time. 
 
I rang this smorning and said they could de-light it if they wanted. My pledge to myself was to not chase badges at the expense of my health. Physio confirmed I'm going into crash but Im fine with that. We'll see how far I've drifted from baseline when I do my usual pilates reformer movement therapy tomorrow that I don't record here. 

Thankyou to sponsors, both those visible on my dash  and ithe ten I "donated to a worthy cause"  in what became the Tracey Morrison Challenge,which lit a more important badge today.  Also today I donated 5 km to a TRIPLE DIAMOND who is currently a carer and is sad she didn't make her Km goal. She made a top fundraising goal and I'm sure her sponsors would rather she look after her sick husband than achieve the km she promised them. But we feel like we've broken our word when we don't hit our  "marks".  Having a fluctuatong disability means I've had a lot of experience in what it means to  say "I can't do it all". We don't though. Funding  the elimination of cancer was always a collective misson, and this Charge in March was  just another step forward. I hope those involved in any capcity had a morale boost that there really are things we can do  something about, even if it feels as ephemeral as a rainbow. 

Rest Day still Stressed Day

So treadmilled almost a hundred metres. Four minutes but slower than usual. Breathless fast and I wasn't going to push if I was, but meh. I've been lying in bed almost all day nibbling a pastry. Not much to stress about as canceled appointments. I did a bit of maths. I was a bit frustrated at delays inconveniencing my carer picking up an ice vest, but I'm really happy with it.  I do groan on every movement of my torso, so maybe its just painstress.  But my legs are actually OK. I was able to align myself in walking, since I didn't care about time or distance, in a way I know from professional feedback is functionally good, but always feels horrible. Which is actually a major win for me. Must remember to tell physio it was the left side, because he likes it when it changes up, and someone should get joy out of it. Sometimes its hard to remember we participants also benefit from this process.  I suppose it would be much harder to get someone to sponsor me to stay in bed and nibble pastry for a good cause. 

Last flight for March - recorded as 10.6 accumulated km

Treadmill is 6.12 accumulated km. Officially its showing 15km. 

Good enough. 

This is the first day in March I haven't used the treadmill.  Today was hot and Aerial was hard, and frankly I needed to push to put the metres into getting to the PC to do an update. 

I've got five out of seven official  activity badges, and two I made up to substitue for the two challenges I can't meet in Km because my daily measures are in metres. 

If I was really silly and started walking after Friday Midnight  i could possibly earn a Weekend badge. I should get someone to donate to stop me doing that. 

I've got five out of ten offical activity badges, and two I made up  that are more meaningful to me.  I did pledge to redo a badge I already have this week, but I could take my chances on another. 

My plan is to sleep until noon and then decide what the rest of March will look like. My Charge is pretty spent now. :)

Another donation, another walk

Garmin actually bullied me to move, so I got out of bed again, when I lay down, I had a new donation, so I got up and thanked them and logged this 100 metres properly. 

4th Personal Best Yesterday.

Today I asked a cousin to give me money to get out of bed. 

She did.  She even read my blog! I'm now over the five hundred dollars line on this site and also over the 6km line on my own treadmill graph. Garmin actually congratulated me for resting today. 

I have to be careful to not get into a push/crash cycle.  Advice cancer warriors should probably take too, even if its not technically an energy deficit disease. 

I still think yesterday was probably my personal best because I didn't have pronounced effects straight after. I was slower but my form was better. I pushed more than I should have on Challenge Weekend becasue I'm stupid and succumbed to parapeer pressure.  Wednesday and Thursday are always hard to get out of bed becasue I do Movement Therapy Tuesday. I actually have a push/crash cycle already. I'm actually hoping the Challenge will lower how hard I go Tuesdays, and I'll get a more sensible energy budget. You kind of need to read the  "Spoon Theory" essay by Christine Miserando on the web if that doesn't make sense. 

My treadmill work doesn't look that bad on the second graph. Neuro-adaptation, then fairly steady accumulation overall.  My official kms include big Thursday leaps from Aerial. I don't include my hour of Tuesday Reformer pilates because I do that anyway.  Not that there is anything stopping you including all your weekly activity on the Challenge. It depends how you planned your goal. I'm really dreaming about getting that stupid weekend badge and then crashing on the 30th and 31st.  Taking the Friday off before, too. Considering a reasonable projection of my current effort lands me at 6844.4m, pausing treadmill, doing circus, than pushing 2km into the weekend is obviously stupid. Hmmm.....

Second wind today, and I'm going to double my target tomrrow!

So I twisted my ankle AGAIN today. It turns out to be great for my proprioception AFTERWARDS. My walk went quite well this morning on only a couple of hours sleep before I went to pilates movement therapy, which I don't count, but have noted Vision Australia has a conversion table that calls floor pilates for 45 minute the equivalent of three Km. As I'm a Sensory Room client, its a bit difficult to spot form errors in the dark. Luckily a twisted ankle gives very clear feedback. We improved alignment, and ended up with the inevitable seizure activity when I make progress, so I came home and slept like a log for a while.  I really felt like treadmilling when I got up. Its cool after the rain, and I wanted to see if this crop controlling my ribflare actually makes a significant different or if its the expensive spiralform pants I wear Tuesdays. Well, I did a personal best. No gasping for breath. While I still wobbled enough to hit the rails, I was really marching and working on form. Singing a cadence in my head helps as well. Singing a cadence out loud would probably help my movement therapy. Its a very accomodating pilates studio; I might try it.  

Dressed to inbreath

I expected to be fairly rubbish this morening but I think controlling my rib flare kept me going longer. I've been focussing on footstrike mostly. This pic is a brand that no longer exists and its more a note to myself that there is various ways to "corset hypermobility. I also have spiralskins on today because its pilates day. 

13 12 20 is to counsel ANYONE affected by cancer

My latest donor was very appreciative of that detail in the thankyou letter. And the site makes clear, if anyone in your life has a diagnosis, and you concerned you don't don't know how to support them, its ok to ring the support line and ask. 

I'm trying to dial back but not stop treadmill. I struggled more with a short session after physio than with the one before it. but I also had seisure activity and an exhausted nap in between. We had some good changes but my system doesn't like any changes; recalibration is still effort, and energy deficit conditions don't care whether is positive or fun stress - it thinks every kind of activity is a thief stealing the family cutlery.  I might try walking backwards again. I did it in the first week once just to cut down on pain, but I've just seen it used as an ADHD exercise in a facebook reel.  That would be because its atypical movement.  Just need to find a way to keep going. I'm not increasing my activity goal. But I need to find more rest in activity. 

Less is better

Definitely overdid it. I obeyed the Garmin's summons to move whereas I normally tell it where to go. I figured I'd try two short sessions, morning and evening.  Getting a "Stressful Day" notification is not that unusual for me, I have an easily stressed body. But this is the first time its also congratulated the  exercise. Garmin, that was the stress. That and March Charge related post design is all I've really done today, apart from online chats which aren't stressful. 

The Cieling's the Limit

View from flat on my back on the treadmill. The safety strap didn't fail, I chose to be here and am quite comfortable. 

Officially lowering what you can do isn't so comfortable, but sometimes its necessary. I awarded myself my Weakend Day Warrior badge midweek, becasue attempting consistently pushing duration for seven days with a cautiously ambitious distance was more important than achieving it for me. I've pushed a little harder for five days, and now that's got to stop. I'm not sure what tomorrow will look like. I'll wait until I get there.  Anyway with my bogus Activity Badges I have eight out of seven, and I have two glorious mythical Fundraising Badges to bring my total there to seven out of ten. Won't appear in either repeat challenge badges , and won't be a Diamond as I'm unlikely to double fundraising.   But I'm content. I've just got a bit of work to do yet. 

'Chakae, You've collected 9 badges!'

That's the email header I recieved today from March Charge, an extract of which is on the right. I actually got my tenth badge before it arrived, Reaching Activity Target. 

 On the left, is my carer's track of today's shenanigans, as I got back on the treadmill twice because he mentioned I could easily get to 5km, and then mentioned he'd made a math error. That means I consistantly kept a goal level activity this weekday, albeit below a kilometre and therefore ineligible for the Weekday Warrior badge, but achieved by treadmill, half the unobtainable minimum goal, that I'd already lit up by adding Flying to my strategy.  So yeah, of the seven Activity Goals, I'm counting that one twice, and substituting Weakened Warrior for Weekday Warrior, and Long Weekend Challenge for Weekend Challenge. So yeah, eight of seven possible Activity Badges!  Really I deserve the 50 percent three times because I should have claimed it when I got halfway to the goal I originally thought possible, but I will graciously accept eight Activity Badges although the record will only show a maximum of five.  Unless I'm idiotic enough to actually try to walk 2km the next time the Weekend Challenge is on. 

The email is  probably going to be a bit demotivating to those that officially should have "Weekend Challenge" or "Random Donation" and tech issues mean they haven't lit. They are working on fixing it manually but that is a big job. 

I was planning on gaming the Random Donation by entering my cash donations into the "assign this donation to someone else" if noone needed a reciept. I was collecting under ten buck donations particularly for this purpose, partly because many of my friends are on disaility pensions too, or have not enough work. There is still dignity in gold coin donations, but the processing fee makes them a bit unviable except as a collection.  I was going to send them an image of our collectively won badge, though.  But I've decided once again to reject the system and substitute my own. Muahahhaa! I have founded/forged the Rainbow Donation! 

I officially have four of the ten fundraising badges.  I'm not eligible for  "Past Participant". One that isn't shown here has an arrow in the other direction,  and as I  won't know my capacity next year,  I can't earn  that "Pre-register" entirely honestly.  Although I applaud the strategy. Also the motivaton to "Refer a Friend" for a badge is clever.  I'm the referred friend this year. I asked to be referred and therefore could argue I lit this badge. This is silly to claim though, as it doesn't further the Cancer Council's interests and did result in a badge lit elsewhere. Its a bit late to refer someone else to start.   What I really wanted to do instead was convince friends to walk some of the metres for me, and be a team making a composite person that could do the minimum 10km. Notice how much thought I've given this issue. I set my goal knowing I had no hope of achieving it, and five of the seven  activity badges are predicated on being able to count activity achievements in kilometres.  To show successful participaton as a disabled person I had to get creative. The system is not discriminatory. I could have used OTHER to roll ten km in my wheelchair around a park.  It just didn't satisfy me personally as a meaningful goal, although it would be valid in many other personal circumstances. I did just buy a treadmill for rehab; may as well go in the deep end. 

There's been several injured people participating that have given themselves a hard time over their fixation on their goal. And one that got VERY creative and made a video of a superhero rescuing her and pushing her on a moving trolley. THAT deserves its own badge.  There's a lot of people with cancer that give themselves a hard time about letting others down too. Hopefully the counselling line has a few constructive thing to say about internalising failure from events outside control. But I also hope some of the people with ankle injuries or similar give themselves grace. 

Achieved Activity Target

Aerial activity takes hours of recovery even doing it blindfold so I don't trigger seisure activity. I think its mostly that I overheat. This is hanging by the weaker foot , which doesn't weightbear in a way that bothers the ankle, but still doesn't wind into a good anchor as well as the other side. Its improving, though. I'm planning on mastering it next week. Did my treadmilling as usual  as well as I still wanted a consistant effort over these five days, badge eligible or not. The gap in my March Charger tracker where I messed up my garmin reading is annoying, so I've hopefully fixed it by manual entry. tickerfactory is the more accurate measure of what I've achieved, based on my carer's daily treadmill observaton record below it in black. But its the photographic evidence that I actually get in the air that satisfies my need to overcompensate for my disability. This is not a healthy trait. Its not the only reason I added it to the activity challenge, luckily. Being able to say I once worked with Vulcana is a big deal to me, even if its only four aerial lessons. I have a diagnosis of Vertigious Migraine I happen to dispute in what I feel is a healthy way, backed by a second opinion. I was once so nauseous on the way to a wedding we stopped to try and buy something with ginger at a servo. They'd run out but the lady of the counter was a cancer warrior and let me have one of her antinausea tablets. I'll never forget that kindness as it made a big day bearable, and made me less of a problem to others, even though the bride had organised a dark room and couch for me to retreat to as well. So this day is dedicated to that lady. Lots of kinds of pain you can put a brave face on, but nausea I personally find really hard to not show when I'd rather not draw focus to my own issues. I hope you are fully recovered and doing well, Anonymous Servo Lady. 

Hump Day

Blah. Ankle management going well. At this rate  I could get to ten kilometres on April 19th. That I even want to work that out bears some self examination. The goal isn't really a ten kilometre minimum. The goal is solidarity with my cousin. Who will be slogging on with her cancer journey long after April 19th. The 10k is admin decision because there needs to be a figure in the system.  And while its not running smoothly this year and does need a bit of a redesign, its a pretty good Charity Run system. I'm going to game it tomorrow with my hour and a half of circus training. Even converting my slower top speed this week over activity time will give me an adequate number of steps to level the playing field.  I guess I just wish an arbitrary 10km minumum that I can't actually do didn't live rent free in my head. Still, I'm getting more personal value from this process than if I'd tried doing the 15 minutes of pilates a day I'd love to be able to do for their latest fundraising initiative which is way beyond my capacity. External yardsticks are a bit fraught. This whole project is the "more" I wished to be doing. 

Guess who twisted their ankle? Spotlight on the Wounded Warriors.

Realistically it doesn't make me much slower. The calvalry always bring up the rear anyway.  But I was kind of worried about getting through my usual hour of movement therapy today and then doing my sometimes excruciating five minutes of low support treadmill which I want to continue doing with hip support but not arm support. It turned out to be a thoughtful constraint in clinical pilates and I actually improved my form in some moves.  

A knee scooter is the one piece of mobility equipment I don't own but it was the best Alternate Charger image.  I don't actually need to change supports except maybe drag out the brace yet again, my right ankle being my Achilles Heel, so to speak. 

I've been aiming to do a certain time. 5 continuous minutes. We've swapped to distance by "Drives" (approx a metre or four steps, related to marks on the roll of tread).  I did an extra one out of spite.  But somehow a distance countdown is gentler than a time countdown to ending and its easier to go a little further. 

Every Dollar Counts

And so does every metre.  A Weekday Warrior Badge is beyond my capacity. But hey, I have animal stampers instead. Or possibly will award myself a badge for going back to Aerial.  I'm getting a consistant pace of two kilometres an hour which might dip more as my energy erodes or if my slightly puffy foot is still annoyed tomorrow from a mild sprain today. I'm impressed I'm able to work through all normal athletic injuries in five minutes.  

Another treadkilometre down!

I'm not doing that well, and looking forward to physio tomorrow, but was curious to see how far I could get. Some days a continuous five minutes handsfree is more of a push than others.As befits my venerable status I have found last millenium merit stampers. I'm very pleased to see that koala again although I probably won't tattoo it on the back of my hand like I once thought was very cool when I was very young. 

Walking with Rainbow Unicorns

Today I virtually  walked with a fellow March Charger to mark his dedication to his rainbow-loving niece whose bad news came in the midst of his Charging for other family members, so he has pivoted.  This unofficial challenge is much harder, and brings home why we are here doing this.  

I was in the midst of my own private set challenge:  ask  twenty people I can think of that are doing it tough. People with disabilities, chronic illnesses, housing stress, depression,   long term barriers to employment, or are long term carers.  Because every dollar counts and Science says giving helps mental health, so I want to make that accessible by collecting loose change and making it the Random Donation, one of the Official Badges.  But the Rainbow Donation became more real to me as an emergent situation no one was expecting and my unofficial badge for this weekend will mean more to me, even though it was just a request for symbolic acknowlegement and photo, although there were also March Charge donations. 

I need to express gratitude for the Rainbow Unicorns in my life. You don't always have to say yes to me, a "neigh" and toss of the head is fine too, whatever is more authentic and  enthusiastic. Sometimes you don't have the capacity to  sponsor Another Thing. I've done a lot of Amateur Charity Mugging in my time, starting in Junior Red Cross as a primary school. This one is a bit different. There are more stories and longer conversations than when I shaved my head for the Leukemia foundation or unbraided for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.  Maybe in these times every dollar is more meaningful.  But maybe its our memories of people that are.  Maybe we move between the light and heavy hearted more easily, as the world gives us more practice. 

No kitchen/lounge anymore; its a kitchen gym

Treadmill and recovery chair take up pretty much all the kitchen lounge now, and I was a bit worried about never having visitors again, but a friend who came over to sponsor happily joined my pit crew and afterwards if we just put a table that was adapted for the slant and could hold some drinks and a tray of peanuts, the guys would feel totally comfortable being social in the space. Being engineering types its a good place for a discussion anyway.  I actually did a good speed on a low energy day that I credit to having a cheerleader, even if he actually was calling the "drive" count so we could work out how many metres of tread had wound through the mill.  I've got a witness that 5 minutes is really a significant challenge for me.  Most of my friends would already figure that, though. 

Activity Type: Walk Run Swim Ride..... Fly!

For Other, I did Aerial for an hour and a half today. I didn't recover until late afternoon so perhaps my cunning plan to get to the mandated 10kms without legwork past my capacity wasn't really taking into account the capacity of my vestibular system. I still got in my five minute treadplod, eventually. I'm using my best time trial of the preceding week's treadmilling to convert circus acrobatics to steps. This site rounds up. I won't complain. I now have a system official 50 percent goal achieved badge, and have told my cousin I have Nausea Solidarity.  There was a lot of spinning. 

Slowly inclined

I've spent most of the day in bed, but I've been busy. I set myself the goal to contact 20 of my least "charged up" friends. There's a lot of people that would support more  causes if they could but they don't have a lot of resources  spare. I was actively expecting to hear mainly no. But you know what, some said yes. So I'll be catching up with them over the next week, but also hopefully some that can't help. Sometimes when you have chronic conditions, you also don't have much news to share, so even a request for sponsorship is an excuse to contact someone you've not seen around for a while. And it can lead to some very real conversations. I actually reached my very very modest goal raise, and now I'm going next tier. Because I've also got a cunning plan to level up my kilometres, even though as expected, going back to exercise therapy yesterday will make me sore for a couple of days. Snail ticker is limited to what can be done in 5 minutes a day. But its still pushed past the three kms which I thought was what I'd manage over the whole month. Official mileage is only 2. Garmin is weird.  

Loose Change

Deliberately pulling back this week, as there was too much push. In the Spoonie Community its ideally "pacing". 
I have other activities this week to concentrate on. I had a small seisure in today's Movement Therapy Pilates session. But the treadmill is clearly helping my foot alignment.  The goal this week is not go over five minutes total, not to get breathless, and to encourage a stable ankle. 

It was a Long Weekend, and I Forged to the End.

Obviously I had help to get these badges. Neither are possible through the system. One actually doesn't exist.  It IS a long weekend in Adelaide. But I'm in Brisbane. Personally, getting through 2km in three days isn't something I calculated as possible when I signed up for this. I really thought I'd need all month to get 3km. 

Actually getting to Goal Distance was ignominous. I had a coughing fit, collapsed in the chair and whined about not making it. My loyal pit crew assured me I did. Could not have done this without my carer.  Couldn't have done this without the encouragement of my sponsors.  Couldn't do it all again next week, that's for sure. But I've reset my funding goal and am aiming to slowly build up another 2km, which will give me a 50 percent badge in the official system, which has a minimum of 10km.  Lets call it the Half-Charged. Small, sustainable change. persisting in quietly telling cancer where to go. 

Actual Weekend Km.

I gave it a red hot go, and pushed to my personal best session. But no way was I going to get a real 2km.  I actually did 8 minutes on the first Monday holding the sledding bars and that was absolutely unsustainable, and I haven't counted it.  But I'm impressed it only took me a week to get to 8 minutes hands free. It was getting pretty ugly form and I really shouldn't push like that.  What would be good is a sustainable six minute session. My leg was starting to seize  rather than my breath at the one before last I'm going to complete my goal tomorrow. I've done a lot of neuroadapting this week which is normal gains with a new  exercise. Tuesday will be my first Exercise Physiology session since I started this. Thursday I'm starting a brand new activity. I won't be able to hyperfocus on this project, but I hope I can intergrate it into the rest of March. 

I survived over 2kms

I have a lighted up badge! Someone else earned it and I copied it. But I've learnt from the international stage that doesn't mean I can't say its mine.  I've made up my own award and recieved it, so the problem with the Friday Email doesn't affect me. You are all warriors, lit badge or not. 

Particularly if you are out in horrible weather. Brisbane is steamy rain and I'm glad I'm using a treadmill, so I could immediately celebrate with a shower and a mock pina colada. 

I slept eleven hours after yesterdays effort and need a bandaid on my heel today before pushing through to the 2km. I feel like a Real Athlete TM. Not that today's numbers look it.  Between 4:43pm and 5:17pm my carer entered: 

Forging Ahead

I have literally had help to forge a lit fifty percent badge, for my quite authentic halfway point to my set goal of 3km that can't enter in the system. 

I have alarmed one of my sponsors, who thought I was sobbing down the phoneline. Nope, just trying to catch my breath. I did this four times over  an hour. The fittest I ever was in my life I attained average VO2Max, so its not unusual for me to sound like a steamtrain if I exert myself. I'm the Little Engine that Could Just Sit Down for a Spell. 

I underestimated my capacity for this challenge as I didn't expect to adapt much further to this new treadmill.  And it didn't occur to me I could adapt my precarious walking style so quickly with the feedback from this machine. Going uphill is helping considerably which is ironic because that time I was forced to walk up a hill with my rollator, I sustained an inguinal hernia.  But there's not really a way to learn to walk up hills safely without a tame one to practice with. 

I improved by applying things I learnt with my exercise physiologist about alignment and recovery. And taking smaller steps, which unintuitively got me further, faster.  I missed a session with her this week so I figure I've got "spoons" to spare on this project.  Might be sobbing for real tomorrow, but I do think I kept within my energy envelope. 

Tomorrow I'll either take the day off or do enough to forge a  Weekend Warrior badge. :)

'Badges? We ain't got no badges.'

Titled with an oft-misquoted lines from Gold Hat, in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"(1948) which amuses me as many people can't do the weekend challenge badge.  But we really don't NEED badges. 

I was going to commit to 2km anyway with a support team and a rollator, but it was too hot and muggy, so I drank mock pina coladas without being caught in the rain, then did three sessions interspised with couch collapses

I get to celebrate getting to 1km all over again becasue the manual clicker mileage is finally over that, whereas the garmin gave me that days ago.  

I did discuss getting more headachey with my physio, on Friday. I'm actively working to smooth my right footstrike and we'll see how that goes, although its my upper thoracic she pointed out was getting stiffer. I think I'm just trying too hard.  I keep improving my times so what I calculated as a just-possible goal has turned definite by the end of the month.  By the end of the weekend, in the constraints I've set? Am I motivated by a designer badge? Hmmm. 

Garmin 1km achieved, but its at odds with treadmill count.

The garmin's the official one, right? Even though its not accurate for microwalks, if its never been calibrated. You need to walk 1.5 miles on the treadmill  for that, and well, not in the forseeable future will that happen. 

2km using a rollator outside might, but I don't think its transferable on the watch. 

Things moved fast

I moved comparatively faster this morning, but fundraising moved faster still. I'd barely basked in my status of a Super Strider when I became a Trail Blazer. Well, I owe peeps a lot of metres now.  

I feel different muscles activating on the treadmill and attempted to use them on a brief saunter around the local shopping centre. I think I've been there once this year; mostly I delegate my errands.  I've been walking taller with the rollator since my new physio team, But this "protracted HIIT method" of Charging  may be more globally consolidating of Movement Therapy gains. Its a little soon know. 

The Cancer Council has sent me a congratulatory letter suggesting I raise my goal to a thousand. As most of my circle is underemployed or involved heavily in other causes,  that seems a stretch. But I've got most of the month to stretch. Right now all the unaccustomed excitement and activity means I'm going down for a nap. But I'm hoping to do a third MicroCharge this evening. 

The Average Participant Has Done 16kms Now.

I, however, am an exceptional participant. 

Roger Bannister ran a mile in less than 4 minutes in 1954; I kept going for a whole four minutes today. One day I may move as fast as that annoying little walk icon on Maps. 

I"m using a snail to track my epic achievements seeing  this website doesn't have the capacity to embrace my pace. I'm fairly likely to be able to call myself Super Strider in an average sort of time, thanks to my supporters. I think some of you are being overgenerous really. I'm very happy with five or ten bucks donation. I think a lot of us get embarrassed we can't do enough and discount what we can do. Realistically we are only ever going to solve the big problems collectively, and every little bit helps.  I'm actually already a team, because my carer is standing right next to the treadmill and helping me navigate this site. You are literally part of the team if you contribute a dollar. Or you can still sign up an walk part of the 10km that I'm not actually going to be able to, if you like. Or you can tackle a completely unrelated problem in March and that's fine too. 

Hey, I've found the Blog Site! (under 'Edit My Profile')

A rare picture you can see eyes. Ok they are Mini Mouse's eyes. I don't particually like Disney but a friend gave me some nylon nighties that are very comfortable to move in. I have disabling levels of light sensitivity and chronic fatigue, but hey, I don't have cancer, like my cousin. She's doing the hard yards at the moment, so  I'm doing this handsfree, uphill, using fall prevention but not  the support a rollator normally gives me. I'm pretty used to my condition, but I'm aware when you get cancer, you are in freefall. You try to do things "normally". Me doing it this way which is more normal looking  is like you (if you are able bodied) doing it hopping,  because I'm used to my hands for support. Cancer patients can be embarrassed to use a rollator even when its probably the best way to extend their energy. Watch me underperform the given parameters of this challenge and maybe give yourselves grace!

I'm taking on The March Charge...

The standard description is "...a month-long fitness challenge to raise funds for world-class cancer research.