43 Days To Go...Gulp!

• Another week wrapped up and it's still full steam ahead. Before I write any more I would like to thank every one for all the emails with song suggestions. The first out of the hat tonight comes from Jude & Ean and in fairness I am surprised my fellow blogger being such an ardent reds fan himself, did not suggest this one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC2Yqp5KRNg&mode=related&search I think the fans sing it better!Last one this week, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ECyTGZjOJc , again these are only a bit of fun so if you have any more suggestions please email them through.

Only 6 weekends to go. Pressure seems to be slowly building all the time but the fact that my training is still on course and I have managed to still be injury free is pleasing. My week went like this;

• Monday 7th May. 24.5 miles From Lezayre Church following the Parish route all the way back into Douglas, finnishing at my house. I made a point of walking upto Lonan Church and St.Peters but missed out the Prom. I did this one in 4 hours and 53 mins averaging a nice and steady 5.0 mph. I was over the moon! After finding Maughold so hard last year I can actually say I enjoyed it. It is funny but it sort of reminds me when I think back to my childhood and remember the biggest hill around our old house, it was massive, in fact comparable to any mountain! Unfortunately when I went back to visit the old neighbourhood that mountain had "shrunk" into a moderate slope and didn't seem so fierce. I can now understand when Steve Partington et all mention how much they like this part of the course. Don't get me wrong I realise I have scaled it with fresh legs and come race day things will be a whole lot different, but I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders in terms of unnecessary worry. I just hope that at this point in the race, if I make it this far, my legs still have some sort of sensory perception left in them! I found the hardest part of this route was the climb through Ballajora (hope that is correct spelling), again not so bad on fresh legs but I will be mindful that it is still there. I would like to add just one more point here. I came home and my wife asked me how the walk had gone? I said fine but strangely had no recollection of doing any of it before! I remember Lezayre Church, a camera crew on a hill somewhere and the rock cliffs on the road side somewhere further on. Aside from this my memory is quite clear from Lonan to the finish line, from Lezayre to here mostly a complete blank, I know it was dark but at the same time that was a very hard part of the walk for me last year, I have to wonder if this has happened to many other walkers? I may take pictures this year to remind me!

As far as my original training plan went I have pretty much managed to accomplish all that I had set out to do from the start. My only part of the Parish walk not done is the Peel to Lezayre section. From memory I enjoyed the walk from Peel to Ballaugh but there after I can only remember long straight roads to Lezayre, so, for now I will just wait until race day to tackle those again.

• Tuesday 8th May.Now a funny thing happened walking today. A new 10k P.B.! I set of from Carrefour Gym and made my way to the anchor at the swing bridge in Douglas. My route was an easy pace "stretch the legs" out after Monday, walk along the Old Castletown Road, onto Marine Drive, back down onto the Quay and back to the anchor, 6.18 miles in total. As I started walking I felt no ill effects whatsoever from the Lezayre walk, in fact my legs felt very strong so I switched into race walking mode and set off. I know it is hilly so can't be taken as a true P.B. but I did walk the 10k in 55.30 and finnished the entire route 56.57. Back to the gym and finnish with a back and core workout. No leg work today!
• Wednesday 9th May. An easy tempo 16.07 miles. No specific route I just walked where I pleased at no real great pace. This one fact made a change for me. I have never just gone out walking, I have always planned my walks carefully being mindful of the time, so to do this and get back more or less on time was enjoyable.
• Thursday 10th Jan. Hill sessions in Saddlestone! This week 17 of them!!! I truly am close to madness through boredom doing this now, even so still effective and hard work. I started this week on my own as Alan Cowin was one of the officials in the Cowell Cup final (football). Started at the stop sign at the entrance and did 3 repeats on each hill from the far side upto Saddlestone Hill itself, this and the first hill I did 4 repeats on. Al joined me after the match with 6 hills to do. I looked down at my watch and had to show Al. I had done 10 miles in 1,35.35. I know again it was hilly so it doesn't count as any type of P.B. but I did think if only I had this pace on a flat route! This walk covered in total 12.10 miles and I did this in 1,56.47 with an average of 6.2 mph.
• Friday 11th May. To this point I had covered all the walking mileage I had wanted to cover this week so I did an easy run of 4.65 miles with a client and I did a cycle later on by myself. I didn't even record the time or distance, I just wanted to enjoy an easy session.

Total mileage last week walking is 58, running an additional 4.65 and add to that the cycling of which I have no idea of the distance. I feel good still physically but I am now counting down the days and just wish it was a little sooner. For me the next 2 weeks are the hardest in terms of walking distances but I am really looking forward to the tapering off stage of my program. I have a Sports Massage planned for tommorow evening and am really looking forward to that. As far as everything else goes it is all still on track. My self imposed alcohol ban is now 4 weeks in and is not really as hard as I thought it may be, I do now admit that if I do make it to the finish again, I will be crossing the line with a nice cold can of Stella! If I am in a bad way again, this may not happen!

So as far as next week goes it is pretty much the same as this week but with the addition of a few more miles. My main goal and priority now has to be to try and stay injury free. Any sign of any type of injury or problem developing, I will have no hesitation whatsoever to stop wherever I am and get a lift from a friend or catch a cab home. To be this close now with so much training done and ruin my chances of getting to the start line in one piece is a gamble too big to take. So for now it's fingers crossed and press on into next week.