Progress...

The poles arrive and look as though they're going to be up to the task in hand.Too busy even for a walk to the shops though...a walk around the supermarket is about all I can fit in till last Friday when once again the leg-powered shopping trip makes it onto the agenda.

My brother Steve has found us a circular walk for Sunday morning. It's 3.5 miles, I think he says - so a step up from what we've done so far, but still less than half what we have to do on the big day!

Saturday, there's heavy rain for several hours, so I'm expecting the going underfoot to be a bit soft - OK, I'm thinking it might be a mudbath! But come Sunday morning which is fairly bright, but also fairly cold and breezy - but overall comfortable walking weather - though the puddles on the canal towpath where the walk starts are like a miniature Lake District, there's actually not much mud.

So the two poles get their first outing - the extra length makes them much more comfortable on the wrists and I also think they support me better, so that my knees and back both benefit. They've done such sterling work that it seems rude and heartless to keep referring to them as "the two poles" so I've decided to name them Pawel and Kamil after two Polish students who worked in our office a while back.

At one point in the walk Steve tells me we have a choice of routes, one of which is a kilometre longer - I opt for the longer one, thinking I don't want to do less than the 3.5 miles planned, but when we've passed through woodland, park, nature reserve and residential street and reached the final leg of the walk which brings us once again to the canal towpath, he tells me the walk I've done is over four miles, and with the two 'detours' - okay, we got lost twice! - we've probably done over 5 miles. I'm glad to be finished, but pleased with what we've accomplished.

Afterwards, once we've rested a while, I don't feel excessively fatigued, sore or achy, and today, I think my knees feel better than at any time since I started this walking malarkey. Glad that I bought those knee supports (which were comfortable) and recruited Pawel and Kamil to my team!