Slogger. Bad luck, but it only serves as a reminder that none of us are getting any younger these days. Try to be positive and don't forget that when you are confined to an old folks home you will be one of the very few there with proper memories of the great outdoors, that's if your mind isn't also going by then.

LL,
Yes you are right of course, but I firmly believe that we should keep pushing at the limits, otherwise as we get older the faster we become limited.
Stottie,
I was using and have been using full lengh Sorbathane footbeds, which do the business on the longer trips and prevent bruising, their downside is their weight and the fact that they are shaped at the heel. I am going to try and MODIFY them. I am also going to go back to Lanolin, which has only let me down once before when wearing newish walking shoes.
Dave.

Yes, on Wednesday, three weeks from leaving hospital after suffering a stroke and not being able to walk for a while, I was pleased to be able to do a ten mile local walk without any difficulty. Gone now are my day walks of thirty or forty miles but that doesn't matter so long as I can get out and do a few miles. Those hospital patients with zimmer frames or in wheelchairs were a sobering sight.

LL,
Sorry to leanrn that. As we do get older and gradually find that the extreme things we once did with ease, we start to find more difficult and much harder work to keep up the same standard. It must be hard to take to suffer an illness that results in a quick cessation of being able to do what in your heart you still wants to do. I suppose there comes a time when the body simply cant keep up with the determination, but at least you and I and other like minded ones who have forced ourselves through the barriers of normal limitations and experienced that something extra, can rest assured that we really did get the maximum out of ourselves and that in itself has to be really satifying.
Good luck.
Dave.

Thanks. I had a strange sort of acceptance of my fate when I was struck down, then an incredible improvement over two days such that I wrongly thought I might be fully recovered after a week. Progress then was much, much slower and now, nearly four weeks on, I think that I might have progressed nearly as much as I can. Looking back I feel as if the stroke has aged me by several years, but i wasn't in bad shape for my age and even now am probably fitter than many of my contempories. Being off work for a while has made me realise what utter crap is on the TV all day long, and that I must have had a better life than all those moronic couch potatoes sat infront of the box all their waking hours - I literally would rather watch the grass grow.

DAVE.
sorry to read abt your non stopper & yes there will be another time I`m sure, until something physically stops you, because it`s obvious your not a quitter.
(posted an email to you for advice abt Inov8 shoes. did you get it?).

L.L.
Its having those memories that keep bringing us back to the hills and not making us coach potatoes. Some of those know no better. Friends say to me "Did you aught to be doing that at your tme of life?". You like me couldn`t sit & watch the grass grow.We know what they are missing.
Also mate, have you thought, because your so fit it has aidded your recovery. Some of those potatoes wouldn`t have made it.

Mike,
I think you're right, the happy memories can't keep you away, and "at your age" there's a risk but so too there's a risk with sitting at home all day long - after all life's one long risk.
And though I hadn't really thought of it I don't doubt that someone who's normally active can get active again much more easily than a couch potato.

Ah... sorry I missed this Dave.
This sounds very much like my forefoot trouble. I got some flat gel insoles from a shop in Cleveley - if I remember they were from the shoe shop opposite B&M Bargains but this was a few years back now - not sure if the shop is still there... (is/was called 'ShoeFayre' we think...)
Internet search gives: Head Office Leicester 0116-278 5264
I'm assuming you've got a good stride and your problems are caused on contact and the foot rolling fwd. Mine, I think, are caused on push off... Long strides for me tend to aggravate my big toe joint (as it flexes more) and I've noticed that a shorter stride seems to help. Trouble is with problems like this they only seem to show up when you're 'going for it' and it seems hard to duplicate in training.
17m/m pace is about same as my last C2C attempt and will certainly highlight any problems.
(Just found those insoles - they're just slightly deeper at the heel end but not contoured - 'AirPlus' - blue gel)
Don't know whether this will be of any help...
It's really annoying and frustrating when this happens esp. when we can'r seem to get a handle on the cause,
good luck mate,
lwm

- should read Cleveleys btw... up your neck of the woods!