Posts (page 2)

Another week down and another week closer. So far so good as far as training goes, physically everything is starting to gel really well although I still feel all over the place as far as my thoughts go with regards to the actual race itself. Last weeks training totalled 55 miles walking, 10 miles cycling and 4 miles running for a grand total of 69 miles. The run and cycle was an unplanned and unexpected bonus so they were both done with enthusiasm!

• Monday was my well advertised Sloc walk. Alan dipped into work in the morning and got stuck there, Dave and Mathew both had niggles and wisely opted to rest up. Dipsy here ventured around on his lonesome. Left Rushen church, up the Sloc, right at the Round Table into Colby, back to Rushen Church and repeat the entire route. I planned 23 miles and as this was just shy I made sure of the distance by nipping into Port Erin to make a total of 23.03 miles. Monday was hard going. Armed with a total sun block already on I started in cloudless skies with the sun pounding down on me whilst fighting every step of the way into a gusting headwind all the way to the Round Table. My time was 4h and 58 with an average pace of 4.6 mph which I was pleased with considering the climb and winds. I also found myself cursing the fact I laughed at Steve Partington and his exploits dodging sheep in the firemans walk, I had a herd of cows to negotiate through, of which I took a picture on my mobile and sent it to my wife! I must admit I feel glad all my hill work to date has been of quality because my legs did ache for a few hours after. PS. will find another sun block because I got wind burn, I can recommend any after sun with aloe vera works well!
• Tuesday was a weights day in the gym. No walking.
• Wednesday I combined 2 routes over a distance of 15.5 miles again hard going dew to the hot sun. The main problem I am having is that carrying 2 to 3 litres in a Kamelback is still carrying excess weight and sometimes the straps do have a habit of rubbing. Nonetheless will be glad when walking in the Parish because will not be wearing this.
• Thursday saw Alan and myself pounding the streets of Douglas. We combined speed and hills. Start point was the NSC to, Crellins Hill, Broadway, The Arches and Blackberry Lane and back. Hard work and didn't stop this one until 1030pm. Again legs achey tired but not too bad.
• Friday was a walk into work. Run with a client and walk home again. Once arrived home a big sigh of relief, time off for good behaviour and no more walking over the weekend.
• The cycles I got in were 5 miles on Monday and 5 miles on Wednesday. No speeds involved it was just nice to spin the legs and go easy doing some light training for a change.

As you can see no real problems at all here. The mileage is still progressing nicely, no real injury worries and physically feeling great. Now the problem. I am considering one or 2 race day options here. Plan 1. Start of nice and slow, keep with a pace and stay at it to the end. Resulting in hopefully bettering my time from last year and avoiding the majority of the pain I so vividly remember. Plan 2. Dare I say it...race it!!! Now I am split into 2 here. I quite clearly remember one of the main reasons for saying never again before, mainly due to the training workloads that were involved with this. This year has been no different, in fact this year to date has been twice as bad because the training has been planned and followed to the letter with very few exceptions. I have not really missed a planned training session at all and it is now at a point where I can quite happily say I am cheesed of with the mammoth effort that is involved with the walking sessions. I can now appreciate the effort it takes to prepare for any sport discipline or sporting event. The only reason I feel like I could race it, walk it fast as opposed to slow, is the fact I know I have put the hard work in with the training sessions and have given myself every chance of having a go at a good time. I do feel so much stronger than this point last year and I now know what it is like to complete the course. If I do the Parish again I am sure of one thing, I will not be putting in the time that I am now with regards to the hours walking I am currently doing. No way. It has taken over my life and I must admit I didn't see it coming but it has and I can't do anything about it. With regards to what I will do I feel my decision has to be made nearer to, or, on the day itself. I have to see how the rest of the training goes, whether or not an injury comes into play, how I feel on the day and most importantly if it is going to be a hot day or not. In a weird way writing out my thoughts sort of helps with the decision making so from now on in- minimal moaning and let my feet do the talking!

As far as next week goes I am really looking forward to Monday. Alan is picking me up in the morning and we are driving to Lezayre and walking back to my house for my 24.5 mile session. As you are aware I, unlike many others, do not like this stretch of the course, especially the run out of Maughold so I will hopefully be putting a few demons to rest that are associated with this particular part of the course. Again, I must say that I am looking forward to this as part of my training plan was to walk more of the course. This part is the last important part for me so I am keeping fingers crossed that it all goes well. As far as the rest of the week goes it will be similar again to last week with the addition of another spin session on my Trixter bike and building on my mileage from last week. I am hoping to get to walk appx. 56.5 miles with some weight work in the gym, another outdoor cycle and maybe another easy run. It sounds a lot but this is now done with 2 days rest in a week and it seems like I have the right balance with the workloads and the rest periods, so for the moment I will plough on. Am still apprehensive but it is now tinged more with a certain element of excitement and dare I say it,  with only 48 days to go I can't wait. 

Another pleasing week with a grand total of 54 miles under the belt. My week went like this;

• Monday 21.5 miles my house to Peel and back. Out on a very muddy and slippery Heritage Trail and back via the main roads in a continual downpour all afternoon! A weird walk this one, whatever could go wrong did. Laces undone, stones in both shoes, dropping glucose tablets, radio and energy bar. Good old Garmin also gave up the ghost it appears it doesn't like cloudy skies very much. I could cope with all of this quite easily but my main concern was as I stood on my doorstep dying to get in and spend a penny, it was at that moment I realised my fingers had swollen and were numb with the cold and I couldn't hold a key to put it in the keyhole - I wasn't going anywhere fast! I hope for sun on the next long walk!
• Tuesday was a little better. I went to the gym and did an all over workout. I finished my session with a workout on a Power Plate. Basically it is a big plate that vibrates and you work with or without weights whilst standing on it. I have trained many of my clients on this piece of equipment but it was the first time I have used it in one of my own workouts. It can be used for all sorts of things including rehab, treating disorders like MS, claims from the makers also state that it can help with other things like Osteoporosis, I have not read enough case studies on this claim to say if it does or not. My session was to work core and legs to help increase with my strength, boy did it ever. I shall be using this again.
• Wednesday was the first time since embarking on this training regime that I have had to split a walk into 2 due to time constraints. Walk one was an old route of mine over some undulating terrain, 1 hour and 6 miles. Walk 2 saw me walking with my old walking partner Janet Allen in the evening. We walked 10.53 miles and it was Janets first walk since last years End To End so she did great. Janet is walking to Peel this year and wont be persuaded to go any further because she is backing up her husband Gary in his attempt to do the course... we will see young lady! ;-)
• Thursday was back to Saddlestone for my weekly hill drills. Alan couldn't walk with me this week so I managed to keep with the grind of doing it on my own and clocked up 16 hill repeats for 12 miles in 1h 55 mins. I got home and collapsed in the front room. Weird but I was pleased with that one!
• Friday I looked at my mileage and it read 49.9. I was .9 up on last week and was tired so I felt I could miss this session, did I? NO..... is the answer to that one! What I did though was go on my first walk at the pace that I have set myself to do on the day. I did 4 miles (and no time disclosed because then you will guess what pace I am trying to do). I all but managed it and boy did it feel slow compared to how I am going now in general training sessions! This is where I now have to be very careful. I am still of the opinion that I could make a very real attempt at dare I say it, racing the Parish this year. I feel a totally different person in terms of experience and training than at the same point last year. I have completed the Parish and have some local races now under my belt. Do I dare try???............................................. No, no, and no! I will be honest again and point out the main reason I will not. Pain. The word pain has taken on a new meaning for me. Pain in my books is a coded word for Parish. It is why I have taken this so seriously this year and why I am determined to stick with my original plan. I truly hope that if I can survive past Ramsey without passing out and manage the climb out of Maughold without tripping on any sheep or into a dtich, then I would consider going faster and if my hips still work maybe race walking to the end. This all said and done if it is sunny then plan B, plan B is more about survival and 24 hours then comes into play!

As you can guess even at this stage my mind is all over the place with regards my best approach. I will hopefully stick with the above plan. If I can get in under 20 hours then objective achieved. If this happens then I may give the Parish a miss next year and concentrate on the End To End and the WWLeague to work on racewalking etc and come back in 2 years time for maybe a sub 18 hour attempt. Who knows how things will turn out?

Finally, my training next week will be progressions from this week. Upping the mileage and trying to stay injury free are my main aims now. I feel slightly un easy knowing that in the next 8 weeks I have set myself my longest walks to date, 6 of them in the 20 mile plus bracket with 5 of them being marathon distance and some! It is now on this note that I go and take a well earned rest on a sun lounger that is screaming my name in the back garden, or is that the kids ;-)..........

Week complete, 49 miles in the bag and no problems. Dare I say it but with only 9 weekends or 64 days to go I am now getting a lot more excited about this whole experience. At the start of this year my main aim and driving force was the pressure of trying to produce a more effective training regime than last years. Obvious goals include to avoid early leg tiredness, blisters (never a guarantee for this one), chaffing, nappy rash, passing out, throwing up and last but not least, but always a possibility - getting lost! Once this was established and put into action I then had to look back at everything else I had done whether right or wrong and see what improvements I could make this year. I found one, quite a big one, completely over looked until now. If I cast my mind back to the weekend before the Parish last year, I seem to remember a Friday night out celebrating no more training which involved some beer, some wine and then some more!!! Saturday I am pretty sure a BBQ or such like was on the cards so out came the beer again. I think you can guess where this is going. Yup, as from last weekend I have made the decision to completely stop the alcohol until, all being well, the finish line! It sounds a lot more grandeur than it is. I normally only have the odd glass or 2 on a Friday and/or a Saturday night and nothing during the week. I am looking to do everything by the book, the last thing I want to do is have any doubts on the day about things I could have done. I need my confidence to be as high as it was last year, this year, even knowing about all the problems I had in the race.

It is now that I am starting to put the final bits and pieces altogether. My medical box, clothes, shoes, sun cream, drinks and food etc. I will write more about food and drinks later on once I have made up my mind what is working best for me. I have a pretty good idea what I will be doing but with 7 long walks coming up I am going to continue trying different drinks and foods to see what I can and cannot stomach. Again, I cannot emphasise enough the importance of doing this on training walks and not waiting to try things new come race day. Race day has to be tried and tested and something you should be happy to go with, after all, the less you worry about things the higher the confidence.

Training next week will continue more or less the same. Monday 21.5 miles, Tuesday full body specific/ core and back, Wednesday appx. 2.5 hours, Thursday Hill and Friday 1.5 hours speed work. Friday night I have a Sports Massage booked in so Saturday and Sunday I can rest, as far as you can with 2 young children! The week after next don't forget if anyone can walk with us we are leaving Rushen Church at appx. 10.30 am to do 2 climbs of the Sloc to the round table and into Colby and back on Monday 30th April. There is 4 so far so if you can join us email me mh@manx.net just to let me know you will join us. Happy walking. 

I again have to say sorry for not posting or updating this blog but I was away again last week. I came back last Tuesday, did my one and only walk last Wednesday, a nice 18.5 miles, then Thursday evening flew over to Birmingham to go to Loughborough University for the annual 3 day Fitpro Convention. I am glad to say that Monday I did my normal long walk, this week I am up to 20 miles so I walked to Castletown Square and back. I took it nice and easy to begin with but then picked up the pace. When I arrived at Castletown I was met by another Personal Trainer, a girl called Jody Stevens who did the Parish to Peel last year but is not entering this year. She was going to jog back while I walked. Jody has just come back from a nasty horse riding accident and is "easing" back into exercise so this suited us nicely. For me it was good fun, I certainly felt the increase in speed, so much so that my final time was a new PB. 20 miles in 3h 39 mins. I remember when I did the Starlight Stroll back in September I was around the 3h 48 min. mark so I was very pleased (especially with more or less 10 days away from any real walking training, so I must assume the rest did me good). Tuesday was legs and core as normal but I did include some upper body specific exercises and did enjoy the slight change to that routine. Today was good also, out in the sunshine and did a nice steady 2 hour route taking in Marine Drive and a few hills in Saddlestone to finish with. All in all I managed just over 11 miles so I am feeling happy again.

It is funny, 2 weeks ago it was all doom and gloom, a couple of really awkward injuries and no end in sight. A sensible approach to the treatment of them and now back in full swing. I will be very honest here and say that I have judged each walk and subsequent walk on how I feel after training. If I feel a niggle I will grade it say 1-10. 1 little pain, 10 agony call Nobles type of thing. As a rule if anything ever touches a "6" then I will rest and reduce the training load. I have found for me this is the best way to gauge pain and to hopefully not train on anything that would escalate in pain and therefore cause a worse problem. So far, no sign of any problems from the last 2 weeks but I must report a new problem!!! Last Wednesdays walk my drink belt gave up the ghost and snapped on me! Great 7 miles in and carrying bottles, gel packs and dextrose tablets with only 11.5 to go... So, at the weekend I dug out my Camel Bak (a ruck sack designed for carrying a drink sack with a tube for easy drinking), I put it on and left to do my 20 miles. The upshot of it was I now have friction burns on both biceps, both under arms and across my chest. I had neglected to adjust the straps properly. They are now done but the aforementioned burns are pretty sore still. So me being me thought about the best way to dry these up... well everyone I did find a way, if you think you are tough try this- Boots Surgical Spirit neat dabbed on with cotton wool oh my ############ ### ##### #### ## ing ###! I will not be repeating that any time soon!

So that is me more or less up to speed. I have a 15 hill repeat session in Saddlestone planned with Alan Cowin tommorrow night and an hours speed walking for fri. I hope to get my mileage to about 46 miles this week. I plan to do nothing at the weekend but my wife is hinting she may like to buy some woodstain that seems to be the same colour as our outside woodwork !!! I will try to add some more to this at the weekend, I guess I am looking for wet weather now! I hope that now I get a good run in to the big day. Only 9 weekends or 66 days to go and I can only hope that everything will continue to come together now.

I would like to wish all those doing the Firemans walk on Sunday the very best of luck, especially if you are doing it as a warm up for the Parish. I have chosen not to walk it this time. I would love to but I didn't plan to do it in my training so I will hopefully get to see some of it as a spectator so good luck. Finally, I couldn't help but laugh today at the latest picture in this weeks Examiner from last years Parish. This is the one with the title "Hello", "Have We Got Your Entry" with the picture of yours truly and 3 others with mobiles stuck to our ears! I will be more careful this year I promise. 

Apologies from me also, have not updated blog as just got back from the direct flight from here to Portugal. I must admit after my hair-brain idea of 12 repeats on the gaswork steps back fired with me picking up an injury, the rest has fortunately allowed it to all heal. We left last Tuesday and all I have done in the last week was the cycle with Neil last Monday. I didn't mind it at least gave me 44 odd miles under my belt of non impact work so I didn't feel too guilty about resting the injured leg. The only other things I did exercise wise was 1x 1hour cycle on a hotel lend me mountain bike, half hour interval session on a stationary bike, some abs and some swimming. Fortunately for me I managed to squeeze in 3 sports massages. So all things considered I was very happy to start my regime rolling again with an 18.5 mile walk yesterday. I miss judged the distance by some margin and finished it doing some 10 laps of the NSC, not great fun but I am glad to report no problems today and I am looking forward to the challenge now.

As a precaution I am going to take the rest of the week a little easier in preparation for next week. I plan to do some more leg/core work- one session, then, an easy walk of about 2 hours. Monday I have the next long walk planned as per my programme of 20 miles. If any one is able to go I am leaving Kirby Park garden centre at about 1100 am and will be walking to Castletown Square and back. If you would like to come along email mh@manx.net and I am hoping to do it in around 3 hours 50 ish give or take. I am not too fussed about the time but I do have to work later on!

I think an important lesson has been learnt from this latest injury. I am now going to stick with the basic elements of my training programme, making any adjustments as needed with regards to injuries etc. I am not going to be introducing new things to do at this late stage. Had I of done a few shuttles then maybe it would have been ok. I am not going to chance this again and as a result I am really hoping that I can continue to progress and stay injury free. Only 10 Weekends or 72 Days to go. Not long now.

In one of my last posts I wrote that I would be doing the Sloc twice starting from Rushen Church appx. 23 miles in total. So far I have 3 people who are doing the walk with me. Alan Cowin, Dave Mackey and Matthew Haddock (injuries permitting). If anyone else would like to join us then email me using the above email address.

All in all I am pleased so far with the way things are going, but I can't help all the negative feelings and doubts that keep creeping in whilst going out on the longer walks. Things are starting to haunt me from last years event and I can remember the pain quite vividly. I can't do anything about all that now. The only thing I can do is try my best to make sure it doesn't happen again. This is one of the reasons I have become a lot more focused with my planning and training. I for one do not want to go through all that I did before. Here is hoping that things carry on positively, the road miles start to build gradually and injuries become a thing of the past. Happy "Parishing".

Ok, ok, it's NOT TRUE. It's my vain attempt to sensationalise a blog heading, I feel it works well. On the other hand I would like to say a big thanks to Neil for cycling with me today on my Parish Walk training. I would like to say at this point Neil is a client of mine but also a friend. I text Neil last thing and got a reply saying that he would love to go for an easy cycle. Now, I took my road bike, an out an out tri. bike, all singing job, Neil took his mountain bike! For those of you who don't know much about cycling the main differences are the tyres and that the gearing is set up differently, so a mountain bike unless changed is better off road and not set up for speed on the road. We figured that this way Neil would get a little more out of the cycle. I am not trying to put myself down but Neil spends so much of his time cycling and aside from all of his racing accolades is becoming quite an accomplished cyclist so for me to even stay with him would be an accomplishment in itself.

We met up in Onchan and made our way to signpost corner. The plan was today to do the T.T. course in reverse- apparently it's easier!!! We made good progress on an ever increasingly sunny morning. Neil led the way up the hills and I tried to lead on the downhills- I was even taught how to slip stream properly... not sure when I will use this in the Parish though! I was pleased so far with a little head wind most the way up the mountain I felt pretty good at the top, seems all this walking and leg strength work in the gym is starting to come together. The only hiccup came when I got a puncture just after Ballaugh. It was my fault really by saying something daft like " The next time I will be walking through here!"- wrong- in 2 miles you'll be changing a flat! No sooner had we set away again Neil must of felt sorry for me so he decided to get a puncture!

In all I covered 41.76 miles. I am not going to put averages up because anyhing I do put on will be slower due to our unscheduled pit stops. I will say though that our best guess was we took about 2.30 hours to do the lap. I was over the moon because my last effort for the same cycle was over the 3 hour mark!

I couldn't help myself and asked Neil if he knew about the Parish walk and would ever consider doing it himself ,I have asked Neil if he wouldn't mind if I wrote about this and he said it was ok. He replied that he knew his physical limitations and thought that it was not for him. He also said that he has the greatest respect for anyone who attempts it and those who manage to finish it. On this note I would like to say that Neil did say that if he is on the island when the race is on, he would like to walk an hour or so with me on one of the latter stages of the race, so keep an eye out, you never know.

Finally, I was pleased to find that my leg felt no ill effects from the cycle at all. I am sticking to my program that I posted in the last blog and keeping my fingers crossed that next week it's business as usual with the walking. In fact the leg on a scale of 1-10 (10 being agony) was about a 9 is a now more subtle 4 on walking, so progress. It is hard to digest the fact that I have a niggle and I want to be out there walking but, in this instance I am lucky enough that I can maintain some momentum by switching my training to low/no impact work. Not ideal but I have no choice- if I continue to walk now then there will be no Parish Walk. Be sensible, get the right treatment and do the right things and I still have a fighting chance. I think I am running out of fingers to cross now!

Another week in and here is how I went;

• Monday...Zip!!! Had been invited to a friends house for a meal on Sunday and was not in the best condition to walk, my first missed session (I can here the sigh of relief from here, see I am human after all!)
• Tuesday, legs and core as normal. No problems here.
• Wednesday. 15.52 miles. Nice day good pace and felt good. This would have been my Monday session.
• Thursday Al and I try to kill ourselves! It started ok. We left Als' house in Onchan and made our way onto the prom. We also saw and spoke to Sue Biggart and Ray Pitts who were training very hard. It's funny but a nice feeling knowing that you are not the only ones walking the streets at heavens knows what hours. As we got to the end of the Prom. we made our way to the bottom of the old gas works steps. We sprinted, single steps to the top, walked down to the corner at the bottom to recover, race walked as fast as we could to the bottom of the steps and repeated the lot another 11 times!!! We were doing this for nearly an hour- it was gruelling but in an insane way we really enjoyed it. We then made our way to the Prom. and to Crellins Hill. Crellins Hill to the traffic light at the top and back down to the Prom. and the bottom of Broadway. Broadway to the traffic lights at St.Ninians back onto the Prom. and back to Als' house. In all 11 miles in a little over 2 hours. A very tough session.
• Friday, a fast 10.5 miles on an old route of mine. I will be honest here and say that the front of my right shin became painful with about 20 mins. to go so I slowed right off the pace and cruised home. My intention was to go for a walk on Saturday to make up for missing Mondays' session but my leg has been very sore. Out came the cold gel pack and anti inflams. and painkillers again.

Today is Sunday and I have rested yesterday and today and it does feel a lot better. I guess I over did it on the steps and am suffering what I hope to be the DOMS. I have a Sports Massage with some heavy duty ultrasound booked in for tommorow night so fingers crossed. This Monday was meant to be a 17 mile walk but in view of this injury I am going to be sensible and re-adjust my training schedule for this week. This is now my plan.

• Monday. An easy cycle around the T.T. Course. Followed by some Sport Massage.
• Tuesday. No training.
• Wednesday, one hour swim am. with 1 hour in the gym pm.
• Thursday. No training.
• Friday. An hour swim am. with an hour in the gym pm.
• Saturday. See how the leg is maybe an easy jog with a swim.
• Sunday. No training.

I will pick up on the walking again next week but I feel this injury needs more than a couple of days rest. Although I am not putting the mileage in next week I am going to be doing a good 37 miles cycling tomorrow so mentally I don't feel like I am neglecting my training, but, more importantly I am doing non impact training and keeping my C.V. fitness up. Although I miss one 17 mile walk I know my next long one, all being well, will be 18.5 miles hopefully next week sometime, so with the amount I have put in so far I am hoping I will not be losing too much in the way of training/ stamina and fitness etc. It is tough but even today driving around I noticed a lot of walkers out and about... I couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of the fact that they were out walking and I wasn't!!! Oh my... can I believe I just said that!

Lastly, so far 2 people have confirmed (injuries all round permitting!) they would like to join me for the route around the sloc on Monday 30th April. If anyone else would like to walk with us then please let me know.

P.S. Name and shame time. Thusrday evening as we were doing our Gaswork steps routine our attention was drawn to 3 cars racing at high speed over the swing bridge. As they approached the roundabout to turn right, the first car a silver peugeot 307 or similar was followed by another car that took the correct line around the roundabout albeit at high speed! The car I am warning everyone about here was a gold type coloured Corsa, reg number began FMN (didn't get the rest) and it had an R plate on the top right of the rear window. This baffoon took an immediate right straight into the 2 oncoming lanes and proceeded to "drag" race his friends SIDE BY SIDE to the next roundabout in the wrong lane. I do believe the Police were told about this incident.

This by the way was not the only bad driving we witnessed that night, but it was by far the worst example of it we saw. I am just thankful on this occasion we were on the other side of the road. Again it begs the question about road safety. I just hope with the evenings getting longer and the extra numbers of people out training etc. that we keep our wits about us and be safe. 

This point in my training once a week I am going on a long walk. Today I had to do my 15.5 miles seeing as Monday I had too many work commitments to fit in 1 long walk. While I was walking my mind was doing that nonchalent type of wondering again at a total opposite tangent to where it was supposed to be! In other words I was day dreaming! Next week my long walk will be + 1.5 miles to make a total of 17 miles. At the moment I am doing a lot of this on my own and thought a lot of people may be in the same boat. Every now and again I will put in my blog a day, place, time (appx) and distance where I will be walking. If anyone would like to join me please feel free. If no one fancies the routes or distances thats fine to, each to their own. If you would like to have a go and feel the pace will suit you then please e-mail at mh@manx.net (if I get 200 e-mails then I may have to re-think this through!)  This is only an idea to try and break the monotony and boredom that has a tendancy to creep in from time to time, think of it as more a walk and talk!!! So for my first one I will put the time up in a few weeks but I am hoping to start sometime mid morning and do 2 laps from Rushen church, up the Sloc, right at the top into Colby, back to Rushen Church and repeat the lot! I am hoping to cover 23 miles and aim at appx 2 hour 11 mins laps, thus coming finishing in about 4 hours and 20 mins. I am looking to do this on Monday 30 April. So if you can get the time away from work and that sort of distance and time suits then hope to see some down there, if the 2 laps seems too much then you could always try to do the one loop.

If this idea works great, but what people could do is post up their own plans and routes on the www.parishwalk.com forum and if they get any training partners even better. I have a feeling this may not work as I am sure most people are into their own routines etc by now but you never know...

On a seperate note I must again thank my family for putting up with me. I am having troubles now trying to balance a family life, work life and walking life all in the same day. I almost did not make my long walk today and it dawned on me that this is going to get even harder to do as the walks start to increase in distance. so with that I must thank 2 of my clients (you know who you are) who so kindly moved their slots so I could do my walk. I know a lot are reading this thinking lucky he could do that, yes I was, but had they of not moved I would of had to of done the walk in 2 parts, the first at 0500 and then the second tonight at 20.00h. Not ideal but I am sure that at some point this will be my only option if I am to get the walks in. In one respect it is quite a good training ploy to try, considering we start at 0800h and those who will attempt the entire distance should/may be still going 12 hours later, so splitting walks into 2 could be the answer to those of us who find getting the time to do this difficult.

What a week this has been for me, what a week. Total mileage covered was 45 and no injuries. Greatest high light was on Friday when I met Robbie Callister at Rushen Church and we walked together up the Sloc and back down into Colby returning to Rushen Church. We covered a total of 11.23 miles on a fantastic clear spring day. I must say that if any one gets a chance to walk with someone like Robbie then take it. I feel like I have learnt so much. Robbie was so full of info. and encouragement that he instantly made me feel at ease and I really did enjoy the walk. I wont write about pace, speed or times because that would be unfair of me. Robbies' own race preps. and strategies are his own and I will respect that, I must remember that Robbie is one of the 3 or 4 people in with a very good chance of winning the Parish and I am sure he wounldn't want me to give any of his competitors any inside info. As I know Robbie does read these blogs from time to time I must again thank him for allowing me to go on a training session with him, you can probably note I am still buzzing about it!

One thing that Robbie did say that I can pass on was this. Train smart and be prepared. By training smart he means make the most out of your workouts and training. It is far better to have good quality training than lots of "empty" sessions. My training last year is comparable to that statement. I was one of those that just went out walking 5 days a week for an hour or 2, sometimes doing a well trodden loop repeatedly. Yes road mileage is important, but so is the strength and endurance side of things. Mileage must be gradually increased as fitness improves and injuries are not a problem. I hope on a personal level I have addressed my short falls in last years preparations and training and that this year I achieve my objectives. Everyones training is totally individual, there is no Parish Walk training Programme as such, everyone must work on their own strength and weaknesses. Obviously there are quite sport specific training techniques and guidelines to follow for certain things, an example of which would be a marathon. Compare this to the Parish walk and it is like comparing black and white. I must add that I do feel that the Parish walk is one of those events that you learn the lessons from doing it yourself and asking those people who have done it before, I feel the keys to successful Parish walking lies here.

One of my goals in this years training was to start to walk parts of the course. I am so pleased I am now making progress this way also. I am rather anxious that I haven't yet walked Maughold and out, but I hope that is to come in the coming weeks. So here is how this week went for me.

• Monday 14 miles. Average pace 5.3 mph and it took appx 2 hours and 37 mins.
• Tuesday leg and core in the gym nothing else.
• Wednesday an easy pace 12 miler no race walking.
• Thursday Hill repeats with Alan Cowin. We did the roads again in Saddlestone. I had planned to do 12 but we ended up doing 13 hills!!! Stats. were - 8.83 miles. 1 hour and 34 mins. Avg pace 5.6mph. Very pleased with this considering the length of the hills!

Now for those who have noticed my error well spotted. For those who haven't check this out... If you plan to walk with someone as good as Robbie do not do hill repeats the day before you walk up the Sloc with them!!! ;-) Fortunately it didn't come into play but it was playing on my mind the evening before. The only thing I can say is that I do not find the Sloc hard to climb. If you were to do the Parish in reverse and have it to look forward to at the end of the race then thats another story!

So Friday I have already covered. Am looking forward as normal to the weekend with NO training, allowing my body to recover and spending some time with my family. Next weeks training will be similar again but Mondays walk will have the addition of 1.5 miles so I will be starting the week with a 15.5 miler... bring it on!

Another week banked and feeling better all the time. This week was, as I wrote I would do last week, the added bonus was the great weather we had that made the walking even more enjoyable. Here is how I went;

• Monday walked from my house to the Cooil roundabout and the back roads to Foxdale. In total exactly 12.50 miles covered. I saw some comments on the Manx athletics forum about some car drivers posing a danger to runners, walkers, cyclists and horses etc... well it was the first time I have ventured away from main roads and footpaths and wow did I know it. I was walking at all times against the flow of traffic, I was looked at in ways suggesting that I was an alien and shouldn't even be on planet earth let alone "their" bit of road. It was terrible and dangerous, granted not the ideal thing to do walk along country lanes but, I have as much right to walk as they do to travel in a car. The most apparent danger is  when I approached  right handers and was met by a would be Formula 1 driver apexing the corner as fast as he is able, I spent the vast time of the walk with my left arm out in an attempt to give a warning that I was on the other side of the bend. I have another suggestion to this problem. How about a name and shame board. We remember the car type, make or model, its colour and a brief description of the driver, even better the reg number, hell whatever we can remember. When we get home we open the thread on the forum with the name and shame details and just post what we can. The moderator is the only person able to remove anyone and unless he gets a letter of apology from aforementioned road nut, they will stay there forever! This way we get to be able to recognize and maybe take avoiding dives into the roadside ditches before we are launched un-voluntarilly by "road-nut" I here the big negative from here..."you can't do that, that's in breach of their civil liberties and data protection", yes I know but it would be fun though!
• Wow, sorry I was in danger of ranting then. Anyway, tuesday went very well. Legs and core with weights in the gym. No more niggles so very happy.
• Wednesday went out with Dave M! We actually set out to do about 2 hours but ended up doing a really good 14 mile stint. I have to be honest here and point out something worrying. This is a warning to anyone who walks behind or around Dave M., this was the second longer walk we did and this has now happened twice (Dave may read this and be terrified at this point!) DAVE has a habit of slashing himself open on bramble bushes!!! First he almost severed his finger off on the old castletown rd., then at whoever knows where on wednesdays walk decides to have a go at his leg! So, lesson here make sure you have at least 2 plasters, one for yourselves and one for Dave. I predict he will be bleeding from some point on his person on the day!
• Thursdays session was great fun also. I walked with Alan C from his house in onchan. We did one of Alans 8.5 mile routes around Doolish, taking in Port Jack, Prom., Gas Work steps, Kewague, QB, Bray Hill and back into Onchan. With the mileage I had done this week it took appx. 2 miles before my legs had warmed up and we were flying. The 6 mile mark after doing the Gaswork steps and Kewague Hill were done in exactly 58 mins. We finished in 1 hour 23mins with an average pace of 6.1 mph. We both felt great and felt good enough to go faster and carry on... we didn't though!
• Today (Friday) I have just got in from my first run in a long time. I found it hard going at first but soon warmed into it. I did an easy mile warm up and then managed a 43 min 10k doing the Fun Run course. I cooled down and clocked exactly 7 miles. It is funny but my running has got slower but I was still pleased to put in a 10k time like that with no running training and so many miles under my belt this week.

So that was that. 42 miles in total, 35 walking, the majority of it race walking and 7 miles running. I have to admit I am tired now and am looking forward to 2 days of doing family things with no training. I am quietly pleased with how this week has gone. I have done more miles than I had intended but I only did them because I felt that I could. I am sure that next week may not be so good in view of the fact all the weather reports are saying snow and cold returning which I am not looking forward to, for a daft minute this week I thought Spring was well and truly here!

Next weeks training will be the same more or less as this weeks but I may increase the miles a touch. Again, I will only progress as long as an injury doesn't occur so fingers crossed.