Two days later and I’m now Nordic Walking qualified! Never has walking been so critiqued and analysed! I did find it all highly amusing on day one. Got a fit of the giggles several times and thought I might get told off for being naughty. I managed to get away with that embarrassment, even though the sentence ‘take your paws off’ sent me into a ridiculous contortion with tears running down my face.
(paws are the little shoes you put on the end of your poles when you are walking on concrete ground)Ā
I did enjoy myself though. For once on a course I was outside. I loved it! I love being out and getting some weather thrown at me. And I found it strangely addictive. Everytime we were sent off to practice ‘planting’ or ‘releasing’ or just walking. I was either in much discussion with fellow walker Russell from Essex discussing how, when, where ….if (!) we’d use this new skill. Or getting some good head space to sort my thoughts out for all that has gone on this past month in terms of the new stuff I’ve learned.
I met some very nice people too, Eleni from Cyrpus and Itzsik from Israel who both kept me from losing the plot completely as I kept thinking how far they had traveled to do this course and didn’t want to ruin it for them with me being disruptive.
Nordic Walking may look a little odd at first. Walking with poles that is. But it really did make a difference to how you walked, how much effort you put in and how much ground you traveled. I will be running a few small, free trial sessions over the next few weeks if you are interested in giving it a go. Drop me a line if you are!
All courses are now over for a while! I have a weekend of my own this week coming. Will probably be writing my first ION assignment!