After promising myself that I would go for a longer walk, I finally managed to get out on Friday and went for a 25 mile walk. I headed out on the Parish route to Rushen and the original plan was to head over the Sloc to Peel. I had some encouragement shouted at me on the Peel road by passing motorist Michael Shipsides (4 times P.W finisher and P.B. 17 hours 4mins 21s). However, after 17 miles at a fast pace, I was feeling extremely fatigued and I decided to miss out Ballakillowey and the Sloc and headed to Port St Mary and then back towards Douglas at a steadier pace. I think there were 2 lessons learnt from this. The first was that I was probably going too fast initially and the second was that although I had food with me, I didn't eat anything till I got to the point that I was feeling really tired after 17 miles. About 15 minutes after eating something and walking at a steadier pace, I felt much better and walked another 8 miles before deciding to stop for the day.
The other positive that I can take is that I seem to be able to recover much quicker than I ever could in the past. My muscles felt a little achy on Friday night and yesterday morning but I had planned to enter the Glen Mona fell race yesterday. So off I went to Glen Mona and after a short jog to warm up, the tightness seemed to have settled in my legs. It was a seven mile route and there were two starts, an early start for anyone expecting to take longer than 90 minutes or a later start for the quicker runners. I thought that I was going to be right on the 90 minute margin so to set myself a challenge (and because I was running late as usual!), I decided to set off with the elite athletes. I was quite please to come in 1 hour 27 mins. especially as I lost the path for the last mile or so and ended up being slowed by the dense heather.
I think I will need to get out on a few longer walks over the next few weeks in order to get my legs stronger and a little more practice with eating. I think little and often is the rule.
The other positive that I can take is that I seem to be able to recover much quicker than I ever could in the past. My muscles felt a little achy on Friday night and yesterday morning but I had planned to enter the Glen Mona fell race yesterday. So off I went to Glen Mona and after a short jog to warm up, the tightness seemed to have settled in my legs. It was a seven mile route and there were two starts, an early start for anyone expecting to take longer than 90 minutes or a later start for the quicker runners. I thought that I was going to be right on the 90 minute margin so to set myself a challenge (and because I was running late as usual!), I decided to set off with the elite athletes. I was quite please to come in 1 hour 27 mins. especially as I lost the path for the last mile or so and ended up being slowed by the dense heather.
I think I will need to get out on a few longer walks over the next few weeks in order to get my legs stronger and a little more practice with eating. I think little and often is the rule.
Hi Dave how's it going. Where were you tonight, not many turned up at NSC. Have you entered in the walk on the 6th march yet. I've entered the 20km but have now just emailed the organisers to see if they could change me to ghe 10km walk instead (decided I've not done enough walking to take on the 20km, though I might have to if they won't change me to 10km). Good to see your still keeping up your training. I've not done anything since before Xmas really, though I have been away for a couple of weeks to Florida, oh and got married whilst I was out there, so that's my excuse for lack of training. My tip to everyone is try not to stop training as the moment you do it's hard to get motivated to get going again. After going to the NSC tonight I'm hoping that will kick start me again. Bye for now John.
ReplyDeleteHi John. Congratulations!! Hope you had a fantastic time away. I had a commitment at my daughters school on Tuesday night so couldn't make it down to the NSC. Should be there next Tuesday. I am working on the 6 March so I will miss the event. That is a top tip, the more you don't train, the easier it is to make excuses and get out of the habit as you will see from my next blog entry in a few minutes!
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