Floods and Fitness

The Forest of Dean lies beside two great rivers – the Severn and the Wye. Having the Severn in flood is not especially unusual, but (with a few notable exceptions) the Wye has generally behaved itself in recent times. Not this time, though. At one point it rose to more than 7 metres above its normal level, causing widespread flooding all the way downriver from the Welsh hills.

Brockweir

My heart goes out to those whose homes have been deluged by muddy water and stinking, overflowing sewers; not least to the ones who felt confident that flood waters would never rise that far.

We didn't venture out much during the worst of the storm, content to stay warm, dry and safe in our little home. I was able, though, to snap the first of these photos during a visit to friends in Brockweir.

The next two photos appeared in a local paper and a Facebook group. They're of Bibblins Bridge, near Symonds Yat and illustrate, better than any words of mine, what 7 metres of floodwater looks like.

It seems churlish to bemoan the rain and mud, when people's homes have been flooded only a few miles from where I live.  But it's the unremitting rain and the state of my favourite footpaths that have curtailed my walking and left this blog devoid of recent posts.

Wondering what effect this inactivity may be having on my fitness, I interrogated my super-clever smartwatch. The bad news was all too easy to see; over the past two weeks I had averaged just 6355 steps a day, or (to put it another way) about 25,000 steps a week below what the experts say I should be achieving.

In consequence, am I in danger of growing decrepit before my time? No... that's silly; two years of inactivity perhaps, but not two weeks. What I wasn't ready for, though, was the discovery that my health has actually improved very slightly!

Two weeks ago my fitness level was 36-40. This Cardio Fitness level is unique to FitBit and intended to show how fit I am for my age and gender. Quoting from the app...

This level is determined by your Cardio Fitness Score, which is an estimate of your VO2 Max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise).  Your score is based on your resting heart rate and user profile.

Crikey! I've double-checked my user profile and it's correct. I know that my Body Mass Index (BMI) is high at 27, whereas it's supposed to be no more than 25. However, I've lost 9lb since rejoining Slimming World, so it's heading in the right direction.  What will my Fitness Level be like when I hit my target weight (hopefully some time in May-June) and when I get back to a normal walking routine?  Is it in danger of going off the chart, I wonder?

What I do know is that I meet far too many people in their 70s who seem incapable of brisk or long-distance walking without getting breathless.  Perhaps I'm just lucky, though I believe there's more to it than that. Maintaining a healthy heart really is important.

Castle Combe

The day before Storm Ciara struck was dry, sunny and not too cold; in fact a perfect winter's day for a ramble. Flipping through the pages of our little book The Cotswolds: 40 Town and Country Walks, we alighted on walk No.4 – Woods and Valleys by Castle Combe. Neither us had ever been to Castle Combe, so the choice was made.

This is the view for which Castle Combe is probably best known – a row of picturesque cottages beside a bridge over the By Brook.  What a gem of a place it is, and only 40 minutes' drive from our home.

From the same bridge, this is the view up the brook, with St Andrew's Church in the distance. That was to be our next destination, though photographing it proved to be a challenge.

The churchyard is quite small, so I couldn't get far enough away from the church to get a good picture. Consequently, the tower appears to be leaning away from the camera – a effect known as keystoning (posh name, 'perspective distortion').

My PhotoPlus program offers a couple of ways to correct this effect. The first (left) simply reverses the keystoning, resulting in a keystone-shaped photo.  Not ideal, but the tower does look better.  The second way is more clever, in that it adjusts (distorts?) the whole photo.  That's impressive, though unfortunately I've lost the church porch in the process.

Inside the church, this is the final resting place of Sir Walter deDunstanville (d.1270).  He has his feet on a lion and a hand on his drawn sword, indicating that he died in battle. He also has his legs crossed, which shows that he went on a couple of crusades.

I photographed him because I wondered whether there might be a Cornish connexion. Reginald deDunstanville (c.1110-1175) was the 1st Earl of Cornwall and an illegitimate son of King Henry I.  He wisely backed Matilda during The Anarchy, was rewarded with his earldom and is famous for addressing a meeting in Truro with the words "All men, both Cornish and English...", affirming Cornwall as a separate country (Hurrah!).  Sadly, though, I couldn't find a Sir Walter in his family tree.

Outside the church stands the Market Cross.  Clearly someone had decided that it wouldn't stand much longer without some care and attention, and had surrounded it with a corrugated iron barrier.

That was a great pity as it's rather an attractive structure. I did, however, manage to snap this photo through a gap in the barrier. We shall have to return one day to admire the renovators' handiwork.

All of which reminds me that we were actually here to do a walk!  It turned out to be a pleasant one, albeit extremely muddy in places.  So rather than bore you with nondescript photos of fields with muddy paths, I offer these two... (OK, I admit it. In truth, I got so engrossed in the walk that I forgot to take many photos.  Silly me.)

This very smart bridge over By Brook is in the middle of a golf course. A notice advised us to look out for flying golf balls from the right. In the opposite direction there's a bell to ring, to advise golfers of ones approach. I'm pleased to report that we passed through unscathed.

Finally, here I am relaxing, part way though my exertions, washing my muddy boots in the stream.

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