Well I did say after my last post that it might be a tricky weekend to do much training over the then following weekend (23-24)... Well I managed to get the game of golf in I mentioned. First one of the year and I was rubbish!!! Too much focus on the walking over the last year is my excuse but it is running a bit thin!!! Anyway carrying the clubs and walking quickly round the course made me feel a bit better!!!! The other excuse was that it was really foggy mist just clearing half way round - the phone photos don't really do it justice but it was a pretty spectacular...
(cant post images on iPad for some reason - pic to follow....)
Managed to get out on Sunday for a good walk round Baldwin again despite a late night at the wish upon a dream function (which was a great night - thanks Steve M for the invite).
one walk on Tuesday night was all I could manage as I was very busy with work last week and off to Paris last weekend with work (separate photo post to follow as managed to get one walk whilst away)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
An alternative Saturday Night
It has taken me a while to right this one up as I have been very busy this week (and as a consequence the weekday training has gone out of the window).
The story starts with trying to fit some training in whilst maintaining a work/social/life balance. Gemma came up with a great plan to invite some friends round for a bite to eat but then require them to come for a walk before they could eat! Despite the wet weather we manage to persuade everyone to walk. Although I think they all thought we were mad we all felt great after the walk and no guilt eating the desert.
Managed a quick 9 mile hilly walk on Sunday which was good but that is it. I have started the New Year health food kick and believe it or not we are all eating from a great app called Good Food Healthy Eating which has lots of tasty but healthy recipes - even all the kids like it so must be a great sign.
Weekend i need to have a major workout but first golf of year planned and the wish upon a dream do on Saturday night is going to make that tricky too.... Let's see what happens...
The story starts with trying to fit some training in whilst maintaining a work/social/life balance. Gemma came up with a great plan to invite some friends round for a bite to eat but then require them to come for a walk before they could eat! Despite the wet weather we manage to persuade everyone to walk. Although I think they all thought we were mad we all felt great after the walk and no guilt eating the desert.
Managed a quick 9 mile hilly walk on Sunday which was good but that is it. I have started the New Year health food kick and believe it or not we are all eating from a great app called Good Food Healthy Eating which has lots of tasty but healthy recipes - even all the kids like it so must be a great sign.
Weekend i need to have a major workout but first golf of year planned and the wish upon a dream do on Saturday night is going to make that tricky too.... Let's see what happens...
Friday, January 14, 2011
A Prom Night
Managed to drag myself out just for a quick blast up and down the prom. Took kids and dog but tried to run between them and speed walk too to get a bit of extra exercise. Good to see a lot of walkers out there already; bumped into Mark W power walking with his dog (and he made Tuesday too) so expect to see his entry pop up on Murray's Parish blog soon.
I have been gently trying to encourage my kids to walk but I think they find it a little boring! Managed to get them out tonight - here is the proof - Cath and her friend Georgie were apparently also doing there revision on their ipods but I am not too sure how much they got through! Georgie tells me she follows the site - I guess I will find out if she sees the picture....
BTW Feel like the flu has completely cleared up so no more excuses!
I have been gently trying to encourage my kids to walk but I think they find it a little boring! Managed to get them out tonight - here is the proof - Cath and her friend Georgie were apparently also doing there revision on their ipods but I am not too sure how much they got through! Georgie tells me she follows the site - I guess I will find out if she sees the picture....
BTW Feel like the flu has completely cleared up so no more excuses!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Man Flu Gone - 2011 training starts!
Flu gone, so managed to keep to my plan in the last blog to go out for the first proper walk of the year. In fact managed to go out on Saturday and Sunday. Took the dog out round Sollag Rd/East/West Baldwin route on Saturday which is about 9 miles and pretty hilly - I think it is over 2k climb according to the Garmin so my hope is that this will help especially for the Sloc and Maughold.
Unfortunately Oscar (my dog) is getting pretty old (over 10 now) so after about 5miles he begins to slow down so it is good for slower training walks but it is difficult to go full pelt especially with him on a lead.
On Sunday Nick was playing football at Ramsey so I dropped him off and tried to do a quicker walk round a 6.5mile loop. My energy levels are not quite back to pre Christmas though, as I ran out of steam about half way round and decided to slow down a bit to make sure I could get out this week.
Unfortunately missed the Tuesday training tonight as I was still working, but my wife Gemma and her friend Lorraine went down for their first session and really enjoyed it - so I may have to start getting her to do some of this blogging!!
Just been reading Richard's recent blog about rehydration/water intake sounds like a good idea - think I will add this to my list of tips if he doesn't mind!
At the end of this eclectic blog here is a picture of our fantastic Island - for no particular reason other than it looks great and it is probably a view that you would get from the E2E.
Unfortunately Oscar (my dog) is getting pretty old (over 10 now) so after about 5miles he begins to slow down so it is good for slower training walks but it is difficult to go full pelt especially with him on a lead.
On Sunday Nick was playing football at Ramsey so I dropped him off and tried to do a quicker walk round a 6.5mile loop. My energy levels are not quite back to pre Christmas though, as I ran out of steam about half way round and decided to slow down a bit to make sure I could get out this week.
Unfortunately missed the Tuesday training tonight as I was still working, but my wife Gemma and her friend Lorraine went down for their first session and really enjoyed it - so I may have to start getting her to do some of this blogging!!
Just been reading Richard's recent blog about rehydration/water intake sounds like a good idea - think I will add this to my list of tips if he doesn't mind!
At the end of this eclectic blog here is a picture of our fantastic Island - for no particular reason other than it looks great and it is probably a view that you would get from the E2E.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Earthquakes and Man Flu & HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Well, it has been a while since my last blog - lingering snow and then an unhealthy bout of the lhergy that everyone seems to have had has wiped me out over the New Year. Unfortunately I am still struggling to shake it off so training has come to a complete stop despite wanting to train (even without the threat of a New Years resolution!)and going slightly stir crazy!
BTW I cannot really blame the earthquake but I thought the heading might catch the eye and it did excite the kids as we all felt it and realised it must have been a small quake!
I hope to be back to fighting fit by the weekend so I can go on my first walk of the year on Sunday - I will let you know how it goes.
Thanks to Sue for her comment on the other page of this blog. I hope that others will join in and we can add to the tips page to produce a central list as the tips definitely helped me for both my Parish efforts.
I will blog again once I have done something other than drink lemsip (albeit I am now on honey lemon and whisky which is a good excuse!).
J
BTW I cannot really blame the earthquake but I thought the heading might catch the eye and it did excite the kids as we all felt it and realised it must have been a small quake!
I hope to be back to fighting fit by the weekend so I can go on my first walk of the year on Sunday - I will let you know how it goes.
Thanks to Sue for her comment on the other page of this blog. I hope that others will join in and we can add to the tips page to produce a central list as the tips definitely helped me for both my Parish efforts.
I will blog again once I have done something other than drink lemsip (albeit I am now on honey lemon and whisky which is a good excuse!).
J
Monday, December 20, 2010
More Snow!
Well my weekly blog does not seem to have too much to do with walking at the moment as it is pretty difficult to get out there and tick over the miles. I managed to go for a walk on Saturday up towards the Creg but the going was pretty treacherous. Took the dogs and enjoyed the views and atmosphere.
Yes that is the mountain road with my wife Gemma leaving me behind!
Here are the dogs mine is on the right Oscar
The one on the left is Indie who is our regular visitor Rhiannon's guide dog - but enjoying some well earned R & R!
I then made it home for serious sledging with my son Nick - go for it boy!
I then made it home for serious sledging with my son Nick - go for it boy!
The girls then made a huge snowman with my help - the Saturday workout was complete trying to lift the head onto the body - which was definitely Dad's job
Sunday I went for the treadmill session and a quick set of exercises before a large Sunday roast - another excellent day!
Busy week ahead, so staying realistic, decided that proper training should start on 4th January - lets see what happens!
Monday, December 13, 2010
My First Parish - 2009 Vol 1
My last post was this time last week, I had great intentions of a week of varied training - some speed work and may be one longer walk. I need to be a bit more realistic this week! Like many of you, spare time is at a bit of a premium especially at this time of year, so between Christmas parties, kids activities and work the time available in the evenings evaporated and the only chance I had for a walk was on Sunday morning. Dropped my son Nick off at at Ramsey for a football match and went for a quick 6.75 mile walk so that I could get back for the 2nd half to cover my family duties too! Although not ideal training, as long as you make sure you try to get out when you can, I think that will be ok for now,I don't want to beat myself up at this early stage as there will be plenty of time for that next year!
Anyway as I do not have too much to write about (at least that involves walking or training!)I thought I would make a start on a run through my first 2 efforts on the Parish. I am not saying this was the best way to prepare but I think you probably need to be realistic about how much you plan to do for say your first try. Until you truly get bitten by the event (as the inspirational blogger Richard clearly has) you may not have the focus, time or even desire to devote the time and effort required to go for a finish in one of the higher places.
For most mortals, if like me you have not had much involvement with the event but think that 85 miles sounds like a long long way, then I would suggest that a realistic goal for the first time is to train and plan to finish but not get too hung up about a time. Another alternative is to set a goal such a Peel and go for that on your first Parish to get a feel for the event.
My own view however is that if you want to finish and have time to train from now on, you should only focus on reaching Douglas before 8am. It is a real challenge without putting doubts in your mind before you start - set yourself a goal and go for it - if it doesn't work out then so be it but set your goal now and go for it.
If you are keen enough to read "blogger 2" at this early stage then for the rest of this blog
I will assume you want to finish and you haven't before.
For my first Parish in 2009 I basically committed to finishing it when I decided to enter the Parish to support the law society's charity people in need and as part of last year's 150th anniversary. I decided to do this in January 2009. The first question was how and who was I going to train with? I had completed the 3 peaks a couple of years before to raise money for oscars dreams charity (if you are interested see my blog from 2007 on the charities page http://www.oskarsdreams.org/3peaks/3_peaks_story.html) and decided to try to resurrect the same team. I largely failed but eventually managed to persuade my good friend Colin Garvey to do the Parish although I think it is fair to say he was less persuaded by my insistence that we were going to do the whole thing at the first effort. Training got off to a patchy start as with 7 kids between us (2 good catholic families I guess) 2 wives who thought we were mad and 2 pretty time consuming jobs we really only managed 2 walks a week at most and generally only 1. We did about 5 miles a session (which at the time seemed like a lot but now seems amazing light - we thought this would get us through.)
Apart from a light training regime we also decided to walk together for the event. The received wisdom seemed to be that this was a bad idea but we decided that the musketeers approach would see us through.... I have rambled on enough for this post v2 will continue the story.....
Anyway as I do not have too much to write about (at least that involves walking or training!)I thought I would make a start on a run through my first 2 efforts on the Parish. I am not saying this was the best way to prepare but I think you probably need to be realistic about how much you plan to do for say your first try. Until you truly get bitten by the event (as the inspirational blogger Richard clearly has) you may not have the focus, time or even desire to devote the time and effort required to go for a finish in one of the higher places.
For most mortals, if like me you have not had much involvement with the event but think that 85 miles sounds like a long long way, then I would suggest that a realistic goal for the first time is to train and plan to finish but not get too hung up about a time. Another alternative is to set a goal such a Peel and go for that on your first Parish to get a feel for the event.
My own view however is that if you want to finish and have time to train from now on, you should only focus on reaching Douglas before 8am. It is a real challenge without putting doubts in your mind before you start - set yourself a goal and go for it - if it doesn't work out then so be it but set your goal now and go for it.
If you are keen enough to read "blogger 2" at this early stage then for the rest of this blog
I will assume you want to finish and you haven't before.
For my first Parish in 2009 I basically committed to finishing it when I decided to enter the Parish to support the law society's charity people in need and as part of last year's 150th anniversary. I decided to do this in January 2009. The first question was how and who was I going to train with? I had completed the 3 peaks a couple of years before to raise money for oscars dreams charity (if you are interested see my blog from 2007 on the charities page http://www.oskarsdreams.org/3peaks/3_peaks_story.html) and decided to try to resurrect the same team. I largely failed but eventually managed to persuade my good friend Colin Garvey to do the Parish although I think it is fair to say he was less persuaded by my insistence that we were going to do the whole thing at the first effort. Training got off to a patchy start as with 7 kids between us (2 good catholic families I guess) 2 wives who thought we were mad and 2 pretty time consuming jobs we really only managed 2 walks a week at most and generally only 1. We did about 5 miles a session (which at the time seemed like a lot but now seems amazing light - we thought this would get us through.)
Apart from a light training regime we also decided to walk together for the event. The received wisdom seemed to be that this was a bad idea but we decided that the musketeers approach would see us through.... I have rambled on enough for this post v2 will continue the story.....
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