The Christmas tree is in the garden, the decorations are boxed up ready to be returned to their place in the attic, the kids (and wife) are back at school, and life has almost returned to normal.
It is always the same at this time of year, I get that feeling in the pit of my stomach that I wish Christmas and New Year hadn’t gone so quickly, but 2012 is now well under way.
A quick update, the wagon is gathering good momentum as it is now 4 days and 21 hours since my last sip of alcohol and until it just took me a few minutes to calculate, it hasn’t crossed my mind since I last worked out how long it had been. Whilst briefly covering this topic, I must say thanks to my co-blogger Richard for the honourable mention in his latest post. I shuddered when he mentioned the dinner we were at, at the Hilton/Palace (call it what you will). I think my passion for the Parish Walk was hyper-accelerated due to the amount of free wine I had consumed. I doubt Richard has been referred to as a legend as many times as I did that night and it's probably a good idea to abstain for a while. That said, what Richard has achieved in walking is nothing short of phenomenal and I take my hat off to him!!
I have managed to squeeze a couple of good sessions in since the turn of the year, and I am aiming to try and do a bit of exercise every day just to help me a long the way.
After the dip on New year’s Day, we went for a walk up to Conrhenny Plantation (I really hope I’ve spelt this right) to check out the trees planted by many of the Island’s Primary Schools, in particular, Scarlett’s tree that she planted. Unfortunately, the rain since planting has washed all the names off the plastic supports, so we weren’t exactly sure which was hers, so in good parenting fashion, I allowed her to tell me which was hers, and we have now clearly marked it. Whether it is actually hers or not, we have now adopted it, so we don’t have to spend hours looking for it next time we go up there. Me and Archie then went for a jog around the perimeter so when I got home I felt very satisfied with myself.
I followed this up with a 5 mile walk on Monday which I did in just about 56 minutes which I was pleased with. I’ve managed to stay relatively active during the winter months thus far. Since I did the End to End, I took part in the Julie Brew memorial walk, the One-Hour Challenge, the Syd Quirk, the Winter Walking League (only one round unfortunately), and also the Medis Cross Country League. I also do a regular Wednesday night session with Steve Partington which originally started off in Ramsey, but has now migrated to Laxey, so is perfect for me.
This Wednesday I jogged down to Laxey Prom, did a good hour with Steve and two new recruits Alex and Andy and then jogged home again. How I wish it was downhill on the home leg as I was absolutely exhausted by the time I got in, but again, felt very pleased with myself. I mentioned the other day about hills and how there are plenty to train on in Laxey, well I suppose this may as well be my first tip for training – make sure you include plenty of them in your routines as on the big day there are also a significant number right from the off.
I haven’t actually done anything today, but tomorrow I think I will either do my 3 mile Laxey loop or my 5 mile Baldrine loop before I sit and watch the mighty Reds try and regain face against Oldham in the FA Cup after the awful result against Man Citeh on Tuesday. I find that as long as I am getting out regularly and spending time on my feet then every little helps and it’s a good base to start from and it also helps fix the mindset. A course I went on few years back highlighted that if you do something regularly for 28 days it becomes a habit, so the more I do now the easier it should be to motivate myself in forthcoming weeks.
Hmm, I’ve just been advised by Caroline that the kids are expecting a movie night tomorrow so my football watching may be restricted to following the live text on BBC – bah !
In my next blog I will share with you how I actually got into this walking lark, and what keeps me motivated.
Have a great weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment