Monday 16 January 2012

How did I get myself into this....?

So, last blog I promised that I would enlighten you as to how I managed to get myself involved in walking. Well.....thinking back to a very sunny day in July 2006, me and a group of mates and our respective other halves were at a one of my best mates weddings. It was the day England got knocked out of the World Cup courtesy of Cristiano Ronaldo - what a winker !

Anyway, it was a warm day and therefore we had had quite a few refreshments to keep us cool, and during late evening conversation, talk turned to the previous week's Parish Walk. I had supported my brother-in-law Julian to his 6th consecutive finish and the question was posed would I ever have a go myself.

'Don't be ridiculous' I think were probably the words, 'you wouldn't catch me mincing round like that lot' I went on. I may have mentioned before that amongst my group of friends, I am known as the guy who never knows when he's beaten and to cut a long story short after much cajoling, me and my mate Dan (you'll hear a lot more about him as my blogs progress) agreed to do the End to End in September after all, how hard could it be, and of course we could do it.

Waking with a hangover on Sunday morning, I suddenly remembered the conversation and the agreement we had come to. Training commenced the following week, and as we were completely new to this lark, we hadn't got the faintest idea what we were capable of. Dan being the statto he is said that to complete the required distance we needed to average 4mph, so that was our starting goal. We managed to walk quite comfortably at this pace and were soon pushing the echelons of 4.25mph. We trained well, but neither of us really knew what really was required to be able to complete the course. 2006 was the year that the Isle of Man hosted the 100 mile challenge, and to give the serious walkers a bit of a boost and extra company, the organisers put on a 20 mile walk on the same circuit called the Starlight Stroll. This was our first taste of competitive action over a decent distance. What an eye opener. I promised never to walk without applying vaseline first ever again. I made reference to this in my best man's speech at Dan's wedding in September, and on my photo slideshow, I showed a picture of the Japanese flag - hopefully you get the idea !! The race kicked off at 10pm, and it took us a little over 4 hours to complete. At the time, I was living on Ballakermeen Drive, so normally only a couple of minutes walk from the NSC. If anyone had seen us limping along Peel Road at about 2.30am, they would have wondered what the hell we had been up to, but more than likely had wished they'd been at the same party as we had, or maybe not !!!

I think now is therefore the perfect time for tip number 2 - Make sure you lubricate all areas of skin that are likely to rub, this includes, inner thighs, bum cheeks,  armpits, and certain other 'ladies areas' (some of the more portly male entrants may need to address this place too).

I'm rambling again......

To end this tale, 2006 was the year that the End to End was brought to an early finish at Eairy Cushlin due to bad weather. Thank God it was, because had I been going any slower walking past the Ballacallin, I'd probably have started going backwards. Having subsequently completed the full course, I think it's highly unlikely I'd have even made it to the Round Table that day, so the weather definitely did me a favour. So I made it to the 'end', and ever since then I have never been under the illusion of how hard endurance walking is. Unfortunately, Dan only made it to Peel and had to quit as his hips were grinding, and causing him a whole world of agony.

So, to this week, I am quite pleased with the training I have put in. To add to the 10k I did round the NSC last Monday night, I did my usual Wednesday session which really consisted mainly of drills to try and improve my technique (will someone please tell Steve Taylor I really am trying, and in future can he please keep his cards to himself). I invested in a skipping rope last week, and did a 15 minute skipping session on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I didn't realise quite how difficult it was, but hopefully it will help with stamina and cardio as I get more proficient.

Sunday was round 4 of the Winter Walking League, and I managed to complete the course in 64 mins 28 secs which I think is my competitive PB. Although still over 2 minutes off my target, I was pleased with the performance (except what now seems to be the mandatory yellow card) and Rome wasn't built in a day I keep telling myself.

Tonight I took another trip down to the NSC, but this time took one of my work colleagues with me as he is trying to get in shape. We did a good 12 laps in the time we had, but unfortunately I forgot to charge the magic watch after yesterday so don't know the precise time.

Right, I've really rambled on tonight so think I'll leave it there. Oh, one last thing......16 days!!

1 comment:

  1. Good blog Ed. Well done for the PB even if it does sound ever so slightly dodgy ;)

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