Different training schedules.

I have been catching up (as in talking to and not overtaking!) with a few Parish walk finishers in the past few days. On Tuesday, I went to the NSC and did a few laps with Richard Gerrard. Looking through the Parish Walk stats, 2009 was his second finish in a time of 17 hours, 12 mins 20s and an improvement of 4hours and 18 s on his first finish! That made him the second most improved walker in the 2009 parish - could have been the most improved finisher if only he'd taken his time the year before!! He is training quite a bit already and looking to improve on his 11th place last year.

On the other end of the training spectrum, I bumped into Keith Wilkinson the other day. He has finished the Parish 5 times and also walked the course in reverse one year when he failed to get his entry in on time! (As Murray says, no late entries - No exceptions. Although I believe Keith still entered on the morning of the closing date last year). I think Keith started his training about 6 weeks before the Parish last year when we went out together for a 10 mile walk and he managed to get a blister. I don't think he did many more training sessions but he still got round the course in 21 hours 38 mins 55 s some way behind his P.B. 19 hours 24 mins 34 s. These people must have amazing levels of fitness or determination or both to walk the 85 miles with minimal training. Despite finishing the Parish at around 6am on the Sunday morning, he did walk to the pub on the Sunday evening! I didn't get chance to ask him how his training was going but I can't imagine that he has planned that far ahead yet.

I was also talking to Will Moffatt a couple of weeks ago. He is support driver and husband (not necessarily in that order) to Maureen Moffatt. We were talking about training and Maureen is one of these people who produces a good time without training constantly. Will was telling me that she gradually builds up her training for about 3 months prior to the Parish. She was third female in 2009 with a time of 17 hours 43 mins 52 s on her 4th Parish walk finish.

I'm not quite sure what all this means. Some people train all year round, some people train for a few months before and others get around the Parish with just sheer determination. I think I'm going to need both the training and the determination!