Ellen is a good friend and fellow freelance journalist. She plans to take part in the 26.2 Edinburgh Moonwalk this year. Last week she blogged about her whys. This week a cow gets in the way of her first training “marches”.

Ellen writes:

My Moonwalk training hasn’t really begun properly, but I have upped the general exercise level and managed a couple of marches around the roads here.

I had a lovely walk on Saturday on a still winter’s day on a route that took me on lanes through farm land. The most hazardous thing I met was a stray bullock. It had escaped the field and was standing stupidly in the middle of the lane huffing down its nose at the world.

The animal and I looked at each other for quite a long time. I tried “shooo” but he just huffed. Eventually, after considering and rejecting turning back, I told the beast what was what: “I’m going to walk past you and you are going to let me.”

And it work, he obviously liked my tone of voice… in fact he liked my tone of voice so much that he started to follow me.

In a comedy sketch moment I walked and he trotted after me, I stopped and he stopped. Just when I was wondering how I’d explain our new pet to The Panther (my husband) he was distracted by the next lot of walkers wanting to pass.

However, after the hour-and- a-half outing I was starting to feel a familiar stiffness in my hips. The niggle reminded me of my real concern about covering such a long distance on foot.

I’ve had three children and each pregnancy has brought more pelvic discomfort. The last two saw me diagnosed with some degree of pelvic joint pain, or pubic symphysis dysfunction in old money.

It meant sore hip joints, tail bone and referred leg pain variously brought on by sitting, standing, walking and lying. I didn’t try running but I’m fairly sure that would have hurt too.

Not all of the symptoms went with the birth of Boy Three 20 months ago. I still get discomfort – some chairs, some beds, some activity and some shoes bring it on. Mostly it doesn’t get in the way and I try to maintain good posture and practise yoga.

I’ve tried a visit to the osteopath and the chiropractor, both improved matters for a while, but not permanently.

Now, I’d really like to find a way of improving the stability of my pelvis so it’s quite happy to accommodate the top of my legs while they walk the whole distance of the Moonwalk on June 11.

Should I walk through the niggles or are there any exercises that might help? In exchange for any advice I could offer my services as livestock charmer!

* You can find out more about Ellen’s Moonwalk training and read her fab blog at InABunDance.