That’s elvish for ‘beginning’ apparently, so it seems apt to start a Lord of the Rings themed fitness/gaming blog with that word. A little background to why I’m writing this – well, firstly, I’m too old for tiktokking and I’ve definitely got a face for radio so a blog it is (how retro).
I had a near-fatal accident in 2014 and it’s been a pretty rough journey since to be honest. I’ve adapted to being an amputee OK but I am in constant phantom pain that’s exacerbated by, well, everything – but especially physical activity. As a result I’ve found myself becoming a bit of a recluse and totally sedentary. My hobbies pre-accident were all active and required a full set of limbs, and while I’ve found things to occupy my free time with since they are all of a necessity pretty low impact, physically speaking.
It’s difficult to motivate myself to exercise when it guarantees a day of increased phantom pain. Rationally and intellectually I know I should just suck it up and accept the extra pain but that’s easy to type and harder to action. I don’t want this blog to be about my injuries but I have ben prompted to at least try and get more active by finally getting on the waiting list for a surgery that might help my pain.
I have no idea when said surgery will be because the NHS is on its knees and it’s a specialist neurosurgery department a 4 hour drive away but I need to be physically fit because it’s a major spinal surgery that often causes weakness on the affected side. I figure the fitter I am the easier the rehab will be.
To that end I’ve signed up for an online fitness challenge based on the Lord of the Rings – one doesn’t simply walk into Mordor but one can march there, apparently. To make it a bit more fun I’ve also made a hobbit burglar in Lord of the Rings Online, the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) with the intention of following in the virtual footsteps of the Fellowship with the caveat that I can’t progress further in the game than I have in the Conqueror app – so I can’t leave the Shire in game til I’ve racked up enough miles to leave it on foot.
I am only going to count ‘exercise miles’, i.e. not counting any distance accrued doing day to day things, not that I do many steps on an average day. Between the walking pad (a treadmill for indoor use that’s just for walking not running on) and joining the local gym to get access to recumbent exercise bikes I think I should be able to make decent progress, if I can get the momentum to push through the pain consistently.
I’ve already begun my journey to Mordor, you can see in these pics what the Conqueror app looks like – and I think I might have been a little over-optimistic on the pacing but let’s see if I can claw it back in the coming weeks.
My hobbit is currently level 18 and finishing up everything in the Shire waiting for me to catch up and head out to Bree. I do have several alts (I used to play LotRO a long time ago) so I have been noodling around on my High Elf Captain and River Hobbit Minstrel in the meantime.
Right, this is long enough already so I’ll leave it there – see you in the Shire!
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