This question was asked at the Walk Talk back in March held in the Manx Museum to the assembled panel, and the difference in answers was quite distinctive.
Both Alan Callow and Jock said that for them it was probably 60% mental 40% physical. I think Maureen Moffatt said around 70% mental, but I think the most thought provoking answer of the night was from Steve Taylor who suggested that pretty much from Andreas it was 100% mental for him.
As the stock phrase associated with the Parish goes, what works for one may not work for someone else, and you can sort of apply this to the mental side of things. Depending on your mental strength, your preparation (both physical and mental), and your experience, everyone will differ.
A few weeks before I finished for the first time in 2010, I was out with some friends, and the topic of conversation round the table turned to the impending Parish Walk and how did I rate my chances. I responded by saying that I had trained well, and it was down to factors on the day. One of the guys piped up very confidently saying, 'you won't finish it!'. I asked him to explain to me why he was so sure, and his response was 'because you haven't finished it before'.
At this point I sat and contemplated what he said, and several things went through my head, but I kept coming to the same conclusion....what a complete tosser.
Because I hadn't finished, I didn't know what would be required or how I would finish, but let me tell you this........nobody ever would have achieved anything if they hadn't tried and if they had this guy's mentality they wouldn't ever bother trying, and the human race would have died off years ago.
I have blogged before about Positive Mental Attitude and a thing called Fortitude - these are some of the key ingredients to completing the walk, together with the right training and support. What has helped me in the past is my sheer bloody stubbornness, although this can lead to a fall out with your other half.
If you are attempting a first finish, then tips from experienced walkers are also useful as you can train your socks off physically, but how do you train your mind?
Simple answer - with difficulty.
Preparation is key. Make sure your support is well briefed, tell them what you expect from them. Below are some of the things I tell mine:
If I stop eating or drinking, bully me to do so
Ask me what I want for the next stop in plenty of time and have it ready when you get there
Never go too far ahead, especially later on. A mile is plenty
Make my clothing decisions for me (they feel the cold more than you do)
If I tell them I want to stop, just ignore me and move on
Do not stop by any churches. Drive on at least a mile.
Remember to stick by what I asked them to do
Later on in the walk is where you really need to dig deep mentally, and the best ever piece of advice I have ever received is when you are down, break the walk down into easy to manage sections. In 2010 I struggled like hell from Glen Mona, managed somehow to make it to Laxey with my sister chirping in my ear the whole way, and then I broke it down into mile sections, and took them one at a time.
Time permitting, when you make it into Onchan, everything goes out the window you know you are going to get there.
George Patton once said:
If you're going to win any battle, you must do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired, morning, noon and night. But the body is never tired if the mind isn't tired. When you were younger, the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired. You've got to make the mind take over and keep going.
After the gentle 4.5 miles on Thursday night, I decided that I wanted to go for longer this weekend and see how the foot handled it.
I had arranged with Lou, my sister to walk this weekend with her, Julian and 2 of my nieces. We agreed on 2 hours as it felt like the next logical step after an hour the other night. We started from their house in Birch Hill and headed towards Johnny Watterson's Lane. The plan was to head out towards Crosby on the back road via Strang and back which I anticipated would be around 10 miles and therefore 2 hours walking at a decent pace.
It was a cracking morning so I ditched my jacket and just went out in a t-shirt. We started off at a steady pace, and my foot felt good with not even the slightest twinge. I'd warmed it up properly before heading out which I think the lack of a few weeks ago probably contributed to the injury - that and borrowed footwear. Speaking of footwear, those regular followers will remember me toying with which trainers to wear for the big day. I have 2 pairs of Asics; one pair of Gel Nimbus 12's and a pair of Gel 1160's the latter becoming my preferred option. The Nimbus' were the ones that gave me the blister in the Sara Killey so they were relegated to second choice, however they have a more cushioned heel and therefore I am likely to go with these ones after all - I will just have to compeed the area that rubs for a bit of added protection.
My biggest concern with my heel is hills, both up and down, and the first real test was the drop down from the end of Ballanard Road to the dip and the hill that takes you to the junction for East Baldwin. The downhill was fine, and I decided to step it up a gear going up the hill to test the foot out. First tick in the box as there was no reaction. We continued on towards Strang and we soon were greeted by a familiar face running the other way - Rich Gerrard out for a run looking in fine form, we exchanged pleasantries and carried on our separate ways. The foot continued to feel good, and we carried on at a steady pace. The roads were quite busy still and there were lots of campers packing up as we went plast Glenlough. It was surprising though, I did expect to see a few more walkers out, but there weren't a great deal. Everyone is obviously well into their tapering phase. We headed up Strang Road, and I had to back off the pace a little as I felt a twinge in my heel but as soon as I got back on to the flat I could step it up again, no problems felt. We had all separated at certain points for comfort breaks etc, but the 5 of us headed past the test centre together. As we started the climb up Johnny Wattersons, Julian came motoring past, I probably should have let him go, but the competitive side of me showed itself and I chased him up the hill at pretty much full pace. Probably not a good idea seeing as though I had to slow down up Strang Road, but I felt no adverse reaction in my heel and pushed on. By the time we reached the roundabout I was blowing quite heavily, but was glad that I could turn up the pace if I needed to without any issues. We made it back to Lou's in just about 2hrs 35mins and had covered just under 12 miles.
On the whole, I am absolutely delighted to get that many miles, and that time on my feet under my belt now - chances are I won't put in another training effort like that before the big day now, and will generally work on shorter, faster stuff to try and recover some of the aerobic fitness I have clearly lost, but the miles are in my legs already.
I have another appointment at the Crosby Injury Clinic on Tuesday for more treatment on my heel to see if the tenderness can be relieved any more, but my confidence of being in A1 condition by 8am on the 23rd is improving daily.
So relatively injury free, although we did have a couple of mishaps today, as we turned past the Strang Stores to head out towards Crosby, I misjudged the corner, and nearly took myself out on the road name sign around the gentleman's region that would definitely have scuppered my attempt as it is likely I would be in hospital having something sticthed back on. Not so lucky was my niece Meggie who completely out of the blue whacked her left hand on a stone wall. I didn't know what had happened at first as she was bent double in agony. This was a bad start for her as she had also forgotten to take an allergy tablet before she came out, and she struggled with itchiness all the way round. Better today than the 23rd though Meg !!
Before I go, I had another look at a couple of long term weather forecasts before, and in typical fashion,not only do they both contradict each other, but they have completely changed from what I read the other day.
The other one I read forecasts no rain so I think you need to make your own mind up, plus not worry yet as there's still plenty of time for it to change.
One very last thing, I just want to say good luck to my niece Hattie who was walking with us today, she is venturing off to Kenya tomorrow to climb Mt Kilimanjaro and returns to the Island on Parish Walk day. Unfortunately too late for her to take part, but no doubt she will be out and about cheering everyone on later on.
So as Parish Walk tapering begins, my training regime is stepping up !!!
I managed a good session tonight covering just under 4.5 miles in about 57 minutes, so nowhere near the heady heights of what I have been used to this year, but considering where I was 3 weeks ago I am well pleased. In fact, my heel actually felt better afterwards than it did before ane I still have another 2 weeks for it to improve.
That's right, 2 weeks to go, I just hope that the weather improves otherwise we're going to end up witha re-run of 2008 and that was not much fun I can tell you. I think the only positive from that year was my socks worked like a wetsuit and trapped a layer of water round my feet and not only kept them warm but seemed to protect them as well. I got to Ballaugh that year, and ended up with one blister, smaller than a 5 pence piece on my right heel I'd take that this year!
I had a look at a long term forecast this morning and although the lead up week looks a bit grim, the forecast looks dry and bright. That said, it's likely to change daily until then so I'mnot getting carried away yet. That said, if it looks like rain with a week to go, I'll be in the market for a waterproof jacket just in case.
This weekend I am going to make my first test batch of soup for the big day. I found soup last year was a god send, so much easier to digest than the pasta stodge from the year before. When you get to a point when you really can't face anything to eat, simply tip your head back and down it goes (and hopefully down it stays) no chewing required.
Hopefully by now you will have tested food and drink that works for you, but if not, below is a list of grub that goes in my kit that I find that works. Remember though, what works for me may not necessarily work for you, but you still have time to try it out:
A good mix in there of simple and complex carbohydrates, and also protein in the form of the chicken in the butties and soup. It's a far cry from my first attempt in 2008 where I had things like pork pies and cocktail sausages. All very fatty and sat extremely heavy on my stomach making me feel decidedly ill.
As well as this I also carry energy bars and carb gels - but I really struggle to get the latter down especially later on. The best I have found however are the Hi 5 ones which come in a yellow packet, they are more liquidy than most are more like a drink. I'm not a fan of the SIS ones as they are too gloopy and there's loads in a sachet - eughhh!
Each to their own though.
This weeks motivational song is actually from a film soundtrack, and isn't the only song from this series of films I have in my Parish Walk playlist........
I've just been checking out the entry list and it would appear that the numbers published in the programme have changed slightly.
If you read Richard G's latest post,he mentioned that previous finisher Dave Mackey had been given number 808 despite the fact that he should have actually been given a seeded number because of his previous finish. I think the organisers have picked up on this as Dave is now number 44 according to the entry list. This means then that from number 44 up, everyone's number has increased by 1. I am therefore now number 138 as opposed to 137 as per the programme - bah!
More disappointingly Dave has now lost his nickname Bob which has had me chuckling since I read it!!!
I've not ventured out since Sunday, as I haven't had the opportunity, and the weather tonight is shocking. I was planning on trying 3 miles tonight, but think I'll give it a miss. This week's Wednesday night session has been postponed to Thursday due to prior commitments Steve has, so I'm looking forward to getting up to Baldhoon Road to see how the foot is getting on. It continues to improve on a daily basis, but it is still worryingly tender to the touch so I may make another appointment with John Barton to get the scar tissue broken down unless anyone has any tips????
Unless you have been hiding in a dark cupboard with no outside influence, then you'll be aware that the Olympic Flame graced these shores on Saturday. If you didn't get chance to see it then you missed a treat, the atmosphere was brilliant. I'm not sure of the number of people who actually carried the torch locally, but everyone who did was obviously nominated for various reasons. One of those people was 6 time Parish Walk finisher Angie Aire who I had the pleasure of working with between 2005 and 2008, and I can't think of anyone more deserving than her to be given the opportunity of carrying the torch. Here is a pic of Angie at the bottom of Summerhill. It doesn't look like she's enjoying herself at all does it.....?
Enough for now, the rain has subsided so I think I'll do that 3 miles after all.
For the rest of you, you should now be tapering. If you have done sufficient training it will now be in the bank, and all you will succeed in doing by continuing to push it will wear yoursefl out leaving you knackered for the big day. Short walks just to keep the legs turning are what it's all about now.
18 days ago, my dreams of finishing a third consecutive Parish Walk were hanging very much in the balance, hobbling round on crutches, unable to put any weight on my left heel and a general feeling of despair as I didn't know the extent of the damage I had caused.
With 20 days to go I am pleased to say that I am officially back in training - albeit very gently. It is nowhere near the finished article, but tonight my foot feels better than it has done at any point since inadvertently putting into a hole at Ballafletcher the other week.
I had an appointment with John Barton on Thursday as I was still experiencing pain when walking, and my heel was very tender to the touch. After a quick examination, he told me that the slowdown in recovery I was experiencing was due to the damaged heel fibres getting tangled, not moving freely and staying inflamed thus causing discomfort. He dived straight in with thumbs of steel and started to work the damaged fibres and within minutes the immediate pain had subsided. After working manually on it for 20 minutes, he pulled out a magic laser machine, and zapped a couple of areas for about another 10 minutes.
After he had finished he told me that it was unlikely that I would need to see him again for further treatment as the injury should now settle down within a few days. It has improved significantly, is still a little tender to the touch, but the improvement in mobility is significant. He suggested some stretching exercises, and to continue with using the bio-lamp that Michael George has very kindly lent me.....thanks Michael, it's working well, hope you don't mind if I hang on to it for a bit longer.
I therefore prolonged my absence from training for a bit longer, however, I decided that today was the day to get back on the horse. The advice I had been given was to start off steady on the flat, so I decided to take myself off to Baldhoon Road which is a slight incline but relatively flat for a good stretch. This is where we have trained for a good proportion of the time on Wednesday nights over the past few months, so I parked up and headed off towards Glen Roy at a steady pace. My head was telling me to take it steady, but my legs were so desperately wanting to go quicker. I would love to tell you the pace I was going, but because it has been a few weeks I forgot some of the basic essentials required for a training session, but most notably the Magic Watch. Anyway, back to the walking......I was taking it steady as the road started to climb and I could begin to feel a bit of a strain in my heel so I really backed off the pace as I didn't want to cause any more damage. I got to a point where I thought that I had pushed it far and hard enough and turned back towards the car a little downbeat. As I headed back, the road does slope downwards gradually and it was interesting how the strain eased almost immediately. By the time I got back to the car it felt good enough to do another loop, so I headed off towards Glen Roy once again. Roughly at the same place, the heel started to tug slightly so again I backed off the pace which did help. At the same turn point, I headed back to the car and it felt better again. I decided to go for one final loop and it felt good on both the outward and return leg, but decided when I got back to the car that enough was enough. I had walked for 17 minutes and measured the distance of a single loop in the car afterwards which worked out at 0.5 miles. So 17 mins for 1.5 miles I am extremely pleased with (I just hope Dave Walker and John Barton aren't reading this as it was probably far quicker than I should have gone), but as I write, apart from a little stiffness, the foot feels good, and is without doubt no worse that before walking.
As I mentioned before, it is by far nowhere near the finished article, and I am not ready for the Parish just yet, but on the strength of the improvement over the past 96 hours I look forward to lining up with you guys in 20 days time.
So the preparation resumes in earnest. I have started to stockpile things, and tomorrow I take delivery of my repaired laptop. For those long term followers, you may remember a previous blog where I mentioned that my laptop was broken and since then I have been using Caroline's MacBook. Although I have got used to using it, and it is a far better machine than my own, you (well I) can't do spreadsheets on it, and this is what I use to do a lot of my own analysis and targeting for the day.
Saved on my hard drive is an excel file which documents parish distances, official cut off times, my actual split times for the 2010 walk, and eta's at each point for a 20 hour and a 21 hour finish. I now need to adapt this for this year to include last year's actual times and eta's for my objectives.
I think I need to be practical however, and my objective which seemed extremely achievable 3 weeks ago may not be to realistic as I am going to have to take it quite easy to ensure that I protect my foot as much as possible.
My advice to anyone looking to finish for a first time is to go with a plan. It is very cliched but, if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. For the early Parishes, the whole event and carnival atmosphere will carry you along but once you leave Rushen after arriving at 4 different churches within a 2 hour timeframe, it will feel very peculiar that you may go best part of 3 hours til you reach the next. After Peel it may take you nearly 2 hours to get to the next. Kirk Michael, Ballaugh and Jurby are quite close together, but then you are getting to the business end of the day, the number of onlookers reduce significantly, darkness and tiredness is starting to creep in. It is at this point when your mind can (and oh yes it most certainly will) play tricks on you but if you have something constant to refer to you, you'll know exactly where you are up to, what kind of time you are on target for and whether you need to speed up or can afford to slow down.
Once I have my own laptop back up and running, I'll show you a mock up of last year's card to give you an idea.
To finish off, and to get back to a theme I have gone with over the last few blogs is motivational music. Some of my favourite music to listen to whilst walking is by Faithless, and as I have mentioned previously, some songs inspire and motivate me because of words and some purely because of the uplifting nature and beat. This one definitely falls into the latter categorically, and if you can get your steps in line with beat, it really drives you along..............
I've just realised that I haven't even mentioned anything about the Olympic Torch or Saturday's Superbike or Sidecar races yet, so I will blog early next week with my take on these things and a training/injury update.
After 4 and a half month's training, a couple of injury scares I'm afraid to say my number's up........and so's yours!!
That's right the 2012 Parish Walk Programme is now available and details every entrants number. This is one of the most hotly awaited publications, and all previous finishers will scramble through the pages to see what their number is for the forthcoming race.
I've had a quick flick through and there are a few numbers to look out for:
1 - usually donned by the defending champion, but in Jock's absence this year, Vinny Lynch will have the honour. Second placed last year, if he can repeat or beat his time, he will be there or there a bouts and retain the number for next year.
2 - Richard Gerrard, my co-blogger has been beaten into 2nd seed, but take nothing away from him. If you beat him, you win the Parish - simple!
21 - Maureen Moffatt is the 2011 ladies champion, can she repeat her performance again this year - why not?
78, 41 & 42 - David Collister - 28 finishes, Ray Hughes & Anthony Kneale - 22 finishes each. These stats speak for themselves. These guys are true Parish legends. For me to match David's number would take me until I am aged 62 which is completely incomprehensible.
85 - John Watterson, my other fellow blogger, aiming for his 5th 'lap'
17, 250 & 286 - Julian Thomas, Ciaran Broad & Nick Coole. Also known as the other 3 members of the illustrious team I am delighted to be a member of - See My Vest (v1.2). I'll give you the lowdown on each of these guys and the story behind the team name at a later date.
137 - Yours truly. My number is lower than last year's (170) so that tells me I'm improving.
I could go on, but I have to sign off with one last number otherwise I'll get in trouble for not mentioning it - number 83 which is my sister, Lou Thomas aiming for her 5th finish this year.
So, there you have it, if you want to take a look yourself, click on the information tab on the left hand side of the home page and it is in the downloads section right in front of you.
Quick fitness update - I have an appointment with John Barton at 10am tomorrow as I have felt like my recovery seems to have ground to a halt so I want to get every bit of help I can before lining up on the big day.
It's typical isn't it, as soon as I can't train, the weather turns fantastic, and I can't take advantage of it.
Instead, I put my body on the line for you first time Parishers just to demonstrate the do's and dont's for the forthcoming walk. A few weeks ago I trained with little water just so I could describe the effects of dehydration (honest), and whilst I have been laid up I have taken advantage of the glorious sunshine, and now the top of my head is resembling something fresh you would buy from the butchers!! But surely that can't be the case I hear you ask, as I must have applied high factor sun cream - oh no, why would I need to do that?
The moral to this story is make sure you pack plenty of high factor sun cream or sun block for the big day. Regardless of whether it will be a scorcher like the last few days or not, even through cloud cover you can burn, so I highly recommend taking preventative action otherwise you'll feel it later on!
A quick training update....well there still hasn't been any.
I went to the hospital for my appointment on Thursday morning, and was delighted to hear that I would be seen by Dave Walker who most of you will (or certainly should) know is an accomplished Parish Walk veteran. I was pleased because I knew that Dave knows exactly what taking part in the Parish means, and if my injury was bad enough meaning it would keep me out of this year's event, he would tell me straight as he knows what is required to get round.
After a bit of general chit chat, Dave examined my heel and achilles area, and spelt out to me that I need to take it very very easy for the next couple of weeks. Basically, I have torn a portion of the fibres in my heel that attach the achilles tendon to the heel bone, but this should settle down in time for the big day just as long as I respect it.
On that basis, Dave said that I can start training again, but need to take it literally mile by mile, and start by walking on the flat and not to push it anywhere near full pace.
I have borrowed a Bio-Lamp from Michael George and have been spending around 30 minutes a day with it concentrated on the heel area. Simply, the lamp emits heat directly to the affected area and encourages improved circulation, and assists with recovery. Dave has also recommended that I apply topical anti-inflammatory cream as the massage motion should help with breaking down the scar tissue.
As it stands therefore, I have full range of movement back in my foot now, and although I can still feel a niggle there, it is absolutely tons better, and I reckon another week should see it pretty much sorted. The only real issue I face is the heel is sensitive to the touch and therefore need to be really careful not to bang it as it is really painful when i do - I think I've done that twice just today.
I think I will probably leave any sort of training until maybe Wednesday or Thursday which leaves me just over 3 weeks to get back into the swing of things, but hopefully, as I have trained solidly for 4 and a half months the good work I have done will remain in there.
I am keeping everything crossed.
Adam Killip dropped me a line on Friday and gave me some of his favourite motivational songs. A couple of belters in there including this one (listen to the words), but not sure about Chris Rea's Auberge!?!
I'll update on injury progress in mid week, but one final note to say it so great to see so many people out and about training at the moment, the prom seems to be one mass of hi-viz jackets.
If you are attempting a first finish, then tips from experienced walkers are also useful as you can train your socks off physically, but how do you train your mind?
