19 July

"Well, I had no side effects from Monday’s hike and the rest of the week has been taken up with routine stuff – mowing the lawn, walking the dogs, supervising the builder who is working on our garage roof (and providing frequent cups of tea), that sort of thing.

I usually go to ‘Walking Rugby’ (rugby for old folks!) on Wednesdays but avoided that. Despite how it sounds, it can be remarkably athletic (think speed walking with a rugby ball) and I really didn’t want to ‘tweak’ a hamstring so close to my first trek. I did go to a Pilates session – my last for a while - but that’s a bit more subdued.

Otherwise, my spare time has been taken up preparing for setting off on Sunday and the actual trek. I remain somewhat nervous, especially after I plotted what I think will be the route; there are some days with quite a bit of ascent!

Luckily I found out that railway line works on the west coast mean the train I was planning to take down to London (and for which I have a reserved seat) is now unlikely to get me to the Eurostar connection in time; so I will have to get an earlier train. Thankfully, I saw this small, but vital piece of information on social media, or I would only have known once I found myself running late!"