Week 21

Week 21.

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
20th May	Rest Day
21st May	10.00	16.09	01:56:35	11:39	5.1	379	386	1277	3	153
22nd May	Rest Day
23rd May	11.00	17.70	02:00:12	10:56	5.5	329	309	1324	3	158
24th May	Rest Day
25th May	Rest Day
26th May	7.00	11.27	01:23:38	11:57	5.0	239	271	704	1	133
Week 21	28.00	45.06	05:20:25			-	-	-
Week 20	50.00	80.47	09:47:18			947	966	3,305
Week 19	19.50	31.38	03:45:04			528	655	2,220
Week 18	28.44	45.77	05:26:59			858	901	3,306
Week 17	48.10	77.36	09:05:52			1023	1082	5,723
Week 16	32.00	51.50	05:43:26			800	837	3,850
Week 15	18.00	28.97	03:24:26			571	582	2,333
Week 14	0.00	0.00	00:00:00			0	0	0
Week 13	21.72	34.95	04:03:13			229	249	2,505
Week 12	21.21	34.14	03:40:53			578	481	2,499
Week 11	53.27	85.72	09:59:05			1501	1296	6,240
Week 10	41.50	66.79	07:46:54			882	773	4,872
Week 9	21.00	33.80	03:53:34			547	545	2,631
Week 8	27.43	44.14	05:02:31			421	416	3,176
Week 7	35.87	57.73	06:41:54			829	927	4,444
Week 6	24.82	39.94	04:36:11			395	443	2,830
Week 5	27.70	44.58	05:24:26			671	656	3,235
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	626.26	1007.83	4 days 22:21:48			13,717	13,666	68,440
To go	626.43	1,008.17

Bit of a mixed bag last week, and pretty much exactly half way through the challenge now. 

Saturday was my first walk since the 50 miles in Rotterdam and was meant to be a slower paced HR zone 2 walk.  I would have liked to have tackled a longer route but my wife was away for the weekend so I didn't have a lot of time.  As it happens, 10 miles was more than enough!

It's a nice 10 mile route from Onchan down to Port Jack, all the way out towards Baldrine on the coast road but then turning left just after coming into Baldrine.  This takes you up a long 1 mile climb onto the Creg Ny Baa backroad, and then take a left back down towards Whitebridge and back into Onchan.

The first 2 miles were okay as they are mainly downhill all the way from Signpost corner to the bottom of Blackberry lane before going along Strathallan Road towards Port Jack.  The 2 mile mark is the entrance to Skandia/Poker Stars, and up to this point I was comfortably in HRZ 2. 

Mile 3 is a long steady climb, not too taxing, rising about 50 metres over 1 mile but my heart rate was quickly up into zone 4 and didn't want to come down even when I eased off.  Normally I would blame the monitor and just keep pushing but I knew it was pretty accurate because it really did feel hard work.

At this point I decided that because I was only doing 10 miles I would push a little harder and made it a Zone 3 session instead.

Just after I passed the old Groudle pub I got a stitch.  I seem to get this more frequently now, always in exactly the same place, lower left side, and it always seems to be when I pre-load with peanut butter and toast so I'm going to avoid that from now on and see how it goes.

The toughest part of that route is mile 7, the long steep climb up Baldrine Hill, climbing 115 metres over 1 mile.  This is where I realised that in addition to still being pretty tired after the 50 miler I still wasn't fully over this chest infection as I was breathing out of both ends just to get enough oxygen into the system!

As I clocked over the 7 mile mark and started the nice long 2 mile descent towards Whitebridge I got another stitch but this time under my ribcage on the right side.  I took advantage of the downhill to ease off and get my breathing back under control but it didn't improve so I had to stop and take a 5 minute break at the little picnic area (Garmin paused of course). 

I wasn't worried about it being anything more serious due to it being on the right side, but when it did ease off I just took it steady back into Onchan.

The lesson I learnt from that walk was that it takes much longer to recover from a long/hard session than you may realise.  You may feel pretty good after just a few days but all of those muscle cells are still busily repairing themselves at a micro level and aren't too happy about being pushed again.

The heavy breathing up Baldrine Hill followed by the chest pain/stitch put me on a bit of a downer for the rest of the weekend because I thought I was finally over this chest infection which started some 8 weeks earlier! 

It didn't bother me at all in Holland, but at the time I was on antibiotics (placebo effect?) and the course being virtually flat obviously helped.

On Monday I did one of my 11 mile Baldwin loops and right from the off I decided to ignore the heart rate and just push 'comfortably hard' to see how it would go.  It's a good hilly route and there are virtually no flat parts, with 330 metres of elevation gain/loss over the distance. 

It was a great session.  My breathing didn't give me any problems, I had no stitches and I felt pretty strong throughout.  It was the 4th time I have completed that route this year, and it was a PB (02:00:12) by almost 5 minutes.  And yes, I did get annoyed with those 12 seconds at the end!

This was actually the very first route I walked when my challenge started on 2nd January which I completed in 2:11:28, although that was following the HR zones which averaged 149.  On Monday I averaged 158 which is still pretty good considering it resulted in an 11 minute improvement.

My final walk of the week was the 7 mile Groudle/Liverpool Arms/Onchan loop and since I had walked 2 'hard' sessions this week I was determined to keep this as a Zone 1 recovery walk.  The good news is I did do it, but the bad news is it was my slowest time around that course (for a Z1 session), and in fact it was almost 3 minutes slower than my best time from January when I had only just started the challenge.

This really just confirmed to me that I need more recovery time.

We are now into the last 3 weeks before the Parish Walk so there really isn't much training time left. 

Hopefully I'll get some good miles in this week and then it really is into tapering over the final 2 weeks. 

One good thing about the extra traffic over TT fortnight is it means some of the longer 'out of town' routes are no longer really suitable so this really helps keep the walking distances down. 

The hardest  part about TT being so close to the Parish is trying not to add too many extra pounds due to the increased consumption of beer and burgers, although you can never start carb loading too early!

That's all for me for now. 

And don't forget, the second part of my challenge is to try and raise £2,016 for Finley's Tracks and all donations are welcome here.  A big thank you to everyone who has already sponsored me online or offline, and to those who have pledged to donate later.

Week 20 + 50 Mile

Week 20.

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
13th May	Rest Day
14th May	50.00	80.47	09:47:18	11:44	5.1	-	-	-	-	-
15th May	Rest Day
16th May	Rest Day
17th May	Rest Day
18th May	Rest Day
19th May	Rest Day
Week 20	50.00	80.47	09:47:18			-	-	-
Week 19	19.50	31.38	03:45:04			528	655	2,220
Week 18	28.44	45.77	05:26:59			858	901	3,306
Week 17	48.10	77.36	09:05:52			1023	1082	5,723
Week 16	32.00	51.50	05:43:26			800	837	3,850
Week 15	18.00	28.97	03:24:26			571	582	2,333
Week 14	0.00	0.00	00:00:00			0	0	0
Week 13	21.72	34.95	04:03:13			229	249	2,505
Week 12	21.21	34.14	03:40:53			578	481	2,499
Week 11	53.27	85.72	09:59:05			1501	1296	6,240
Week 10	41.50	66.79	07:46:54			882	773	4,872
Week 9	21.00	33.80	03:53:34			547	545	2,631
Week 8	27.43	44.14	05:02:31			421	416	3,176
Week 7	35.87	57.73	06:41:54			829	927	4,444
Week 6	24.82	39.94	04:36:11			395	443	2,830
Week 5	27.70	44.58	05:24:26			671	656	3,235
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	598.26	962.76	4 days 17:01:23			12,770	12,700	65,135
To go	651.74	1,053.24

Just 1 session this week, but it was my first ever win in a non handicap race!

Over the weekend of 14/15 May I joined 13 other walkers from the Isle of Man in Schiedam, South Holland, to take part in the 'Wandelweekend' organised by RWV.

I have already provided a high level report of the weekend which can be found on the Parish Walk facebook page so this blog entry just covers how my own race went in a bit more detail.

The main event of the weekend was of course the 100 mile/ 24 hour walk, however there were also 50k, 100k and 50 mile races taking place at the same time, and I had already pre-registered for the 50 mile.

I mentioned in my last post that the most difficult decision I would make on the day wasn't my race pace but whether or not I should switch to the 100 mile race instead.

Luckily the decision was easy. For those who pre-registered online the race numbers included your name.  This was the first time I have ever had my name on a race number (except for emergency contact details on the reverse!) so there was no way I was switching events now !

My next decision was race pace.

Plan A was to average 11:30 per mile pace which would give me a finish time of 9 hours 35 minutes. I had already calculated that 11:23 would give me a time of 9:30 so that was my secret plan A+ but only if things were going well.

Plan B was to average 11:59 per mile pace to finish in under 10 hours, and finally plan C was just to finish regardless of time.

I was the only British entrant in the race and was seriously outnumbered 40 to 1 by the Dutch, although there was 1 Belgian in the race so I wasn't the only outsider.

The most important piece of equipment I needed to bring with me for the day was my Garmin, so you can probably guess what's coming.

When I packed my watch I was paranoid I would accidentally switch it on while it was in the bag and the battery would be flat so I had the genius idea of putting my watch inside my empty water bottle, along with my lights for the night, as this should stop them getting switched on by mistake.

About 10 minutes before the start of my race I turned on the watch and the first message I got wasn't the usual 'locating satellites' but 'Low Bat', which pretty much means it's about to turn itself off.

Luckily Matthew Haddock has exactly the same watch and, even luckier, it was still in our support tent following the 50k so I ran back from the start line to get it.  Unfortunately it hadn't been switched off since the 50k so had been running for nearly 8 hours now, but I just hoped there would be enough battery for a good few hours to stop me setting off too fast.

Even luckier was the fact when Matt came around on his first lap of the 50k the watch had frozen on start up so he had no idea of pace either.  He gave me the watch and I couldn't get it to start either so I text my wife asking her to Google how to do a hard reset on a Garmin 310. 

I wasn't firing up the internet on my phone having just had a text from Manx Telecom advising me that I had just used £50 in roaming data by uploading a tiny 1 minute video of the 100mile start to facebook!

My wife replied in a matter of minutes and when Matt came around on his next lap the watch was up and running.  Even when she is a few hundred miles away she still provides great support ;-)

I was wearing my heart rate monitor but it hadn't been synched to Matt's watch, and I didn't have time to do that now, so I took it off and ran back up to the start line with a few minutes to spare.

The 50 mile race consisted of 20 long laps, each 2.45 miles, around the scenic Princes Beatrix Park, plus a shorter lap at the start of about 1 mile to give the required distance.

After the first 100 metres or so I was in second place and the chap in front was slowly pulling away.  Since I had no idea who he was or what he was capable of I stuck to the plan and tried to go no quicker than 11:30, but as it happens it ended up being close to 11:00.

As the one mile lap ended to join the main loop I emerged just a few metres behind Vinny Lynch who by now had lapped all 100 mile walkers at least once.  Since I had no idea exactly where the big loop was going to go I stuck with Vin so he could show me the way around.  By now the 50 mile leader was long gone.

About half way around the first big lap I got passed by another 50 mile walker.   We walked together for a few minutes and he told me he was from Holland and this was the first long walk he had done, but he hadn’t done a lot of training due to work.  I kept glancing at my pace and, conscious that I was going too quick and there was still a long way to go, I wished him good luck and dropped back a little.

I was in third now, but that was okay, we were only 30 minutes in.
As the miles ticked by I could see second place pulling further and further away and then as it turned to dusk I lost sight of him completely.

As I came to the end of lap 3 (about 8.5 miles) I found myself walking with Vinny again as he had just stopped at the support station.  We walked lap 4 together and he mentioned that he had seen the 2^nd place walker up ahead and I should have no problem catching him, but he doubted I would catch 1^st place as he was flying.

Vinny stopped again at the end of lap 4 to get some warm clothes (it was just after 10pm now) and I didn’t see him again all night.  By now it was fully dark so I just settled into a relaxed pace in the hope I would eventually catch second place.  

There were no large timing screens like the 100 mile walk in Castletown so I had absolutely no idea how far ahead he was (or 1^st place for that matter), and likewise I had no idea how far behind 4^th was.

Around 11pm / 15-16 miles I started to slow down.  My legs just started to feel sluggish and heavy and I was finding it hard work to get close to 11:30 pace.   I was convinced I hadn’t gone off too quick so just blamed it on a natural slow down due to the dark.  With over 30 miles still to go I knew Plan A was unlikely so I just eased off slightly to around 11:45 pace and my legs started to loosen up a bit.

I managed to maintain more or less 11:45 pace until mile 28 when the Garmin battery eventually gave up and died.  It goes off so quickly after flashing the low battery warning that I didn’t have chance to check what my overall average pace was, but I knew it was definitely under 12:00.  

There was a large timing clock on the start/finish line so I knew if I could complete each 2.45 mile lap in under 30 minutes I would be still under 12:00 pace.

Once I got over the initial panic of not having a watch something interesting happened.  I started to get quicker, or at least that’s how it felt.  Everything felt relaxed, nothing ached and I felt good. 

I’m confident that, sometimes, racing by watch pace does hold you back and is not always the best thing to do.  If you take away that visual confirmation of pace then it just removes a whole load of stress which can be redirected to the legs instead.

It’s definitely something I’m going to try more often on the long events.  Maybe start with the watch for a few hours to make sure you aren’t going too quick and then switch it off or, if you really want the stats, leave it running but put it somewhere out of sight.

A few miles later I passed a couple of Dutch walkers in the 100 mile race (they both took part in the Castletown 100 in 2015) and one of them mentioned that if I kept going at this pace I would catch their friend so that spurred me on too.  I had no idea if their friend was in 1^st or 2^nd at this point.

I have just checked my official lap times and the last 4 laps before the watch died were between 29.13 to 29:51, and then suddenly they are 28:40, 27:58, 28:24, so I definitely went quicker without the watch.

When I saw Vinny some 20 miles earlier he commented that I should have no problem catching 2^nd place but there had been no sign of him so I assumed I was still in 3^rd.  I was therefore very surprised when, on lap 16 (around 38 miles), I turned a corner and only a few metres in front of me was 1^st place!  

To be honest I think he was more surprised to see me when he looked down and saw I had a 50 mile race number.  We exchanged a quick hello and he immediately tucked right in behind me. 

4.5 laps to go.....

I was still a little surprised I had caught him quite so quickly so I increased the pace a little hoping to pull out a bit of a gap, but after about half a mile I realised it wasn’t working so eased back down again as I didn’t want to burn myself out.

The last mile(ish) of each lap basically consists of 2 very long straights.  The first is a long cycle path, maybe half a mile or more,  that runs parallel to the motorway (it meanders left and right a little but you can see the entire length of the ‘straight’ and can take advantage of ‘the racing line’).  

At the end of the cycle path there is a 90degree left turn onto a pavement which is around 300 metres straight to the finish line, passing all of the support tents.

At the end of lap 16, about 50 metres before the left turn onto the final straight, I could hear his pace increase and he came past me, pulling out a lead of about 20 metres just before turning the corner and glancing over to his left to see how far behind I was.

My first thought was that he had recovered a little by being in my slip stream and was ready to extend his lead again, and that was fair enough.  There were still 4 laps/10 miles to go so I didn’t want to risk my own Plan B target (sub 10 hours) and just remained at my constant pace.  

Just after crossing the line and starting lap 17 he slowed down so I quickly caught him, and once again he just tucked in behind me.  I really didn’t think much about this either, I just thought maybe he regretted increasing the pace and just wanted to stick with me.

As we walked around lap 17 I was just hoping I could maintain this pace to the end, hoping I wouldn’t get a cramp and hoping I wouldn’t need the loo!  I thought I would happily go for a joint finish if we stuck together all the way around.

At the end of lap 17 exactly the same thing happened.  Now it was getting interesting.   What was his game plan?

It was at this point that I concluded I must have passed 3^rd and not realised.  He must have known we were in positions 1/2 otherwise surely he would have been trying to chase P1 down? 

After getting the final result sheet it confirmed I had moved into 2nd place on lap 7, and in fact 3rd place eventually finished over half an hour after me so I had also lapped him without realising.

As we walked around lap 18 I was trying to work out why he kept speeding up and then slowing down.  Maybe he was just trying to test me, seeing what I had in the legs for the final lap.  Maybe he just wanted to be seen as clear leader going past the support teams and P1 across the lap line, maybe both?

End of lap 18, exactly the same.  This time I made a mental note of a mark on the ground where he made his move.

I did think about slowing the pace down a bit to conserve some energy for a possible sprint finish but I had no watch and didn’t want to slow down too much and risk not going under 10 hours.  

As we started lap 19 I could tell from the clock that I had well over an hour to complete the last 2 laps, but I still didn’t want to take any chances.

End of lap 19, right on queue, he made the move at exactly the same mark on the ground.

This was it now, the last 2.5 miles.  I kept thinking ‘What would Mike (Bonney) do?’  

We must have only been 100 metres into the final lap when he tucked in behind me for the last time.  As we passed Peter Miller, who was on his way to becoming a Continental Centurion, he shouted “he’s right on your heels Stew”.  “Yeah, tell me about it!” I shouted back.

About half way around the lap I tried to subtly increase the pace just to see if I could put any distance between us.  Nope.  

As we started on that second to last long straight (where he would make his move at the end) we passed Andrew Titley who asked if I was leading.  “Yes, by about 1 second!” I replied.  

We were closing in fast on the mark on the ground where I knew he would make his move, and sure enough I heard his footsteps quicken and he pulled past me.  I didn’t want to let him pull 20 metres this time as I really didn’t know how long I would be able to hold a sprint finish, so as he moved past I slightly increased my pace without trying to make it obvious.  

When he was about 10 metres in front, just before he made the final left turn, my right hamstring cramped up!  I very quickly gave it a 2 second stretch and was going again when he turned the corner and glanced to his left, so I was still roughly the same 20 metres behind as previous laps.

I didn’t want him to see me in full race walk mode from the corner of his eye so I waited until I had also made the 90 degree turn before I switched to full technique to chase him down, praying that my hamstring would hold up.  

Luckily my hamstring was absolutely fine, and in fact it felt really good to push hard in race walk technique rather than the ‘power walk’ technique I had been using for the past 9 hours.  I can only assume it was the sudden change to fast twitch muscles that had barely been used up until now, which does make we wonder if I could have made a move much earlier...
Due to the noise of the support teams and generators down this final straight he didn’t hear me coming until I was about 5 metres behind when he looked over his shoulder and suddenly saw me closing in at a rate of knots.  He was pretty surprised.
He immediately started walking quicker but it wasn’t enough.  As I pulled alongside his technique completely changed to what I can only describe as long, low strides.  Even though this was a category B race where straight knees are not required this technique meant his knees were not even close to straight, but it also meant there was clear loss of contact too.  
A few people started shouting and pointing, I’m not sure who started it, possibly me as I could tell he was losing contact even while I was alongside him, and we quickly drew the attention of one of the judges who was already sat on his bike so quickly pulled alongside and started shouting.
I’m not sure what he was saying but because it was in Dutch I was pretty sure it wasn’t aimed at me!
Sure enough he did slow down slightly, but as I inched ahead he went back into the strides and we both crossed the line together.
Luckily for me Matthew was down at the finish line to take a photo of me finishing (which unfortunately in all the excitement he didn’t get), as was Maureen Cox who was checking with the time keepers how her husband, Simon, was doing in the 100 miles.  
With all the noise Maureen had turned around to see the 2 of us charging towards the finish line and was immediately onto the time keepers and the judges while I caught my breath.
I have to say the judges were very good and immediately acknowledged what had happened before going away for a minute to discuss with their colleagues.  They decided that he clearly broke the rules and was therefore disqualified.  
Apparently I was ‘on the limit’, but legal.
I regularly take part in the winter walking league and I used to think sometimes the judges were a little harsh on new walkers (and old ones like me!) but then I remember Steve Taylor saying they have to be otherwise they develop a technique that they think is legal when it isn’t, and if they ever compete in any events off island they suddenly find themselves being shouted at and possibly disqualified.  
I totally get that now so I just want to say thanks to all of the Isle of Man race walking judges for helping me keep my technique honest, even if I do still get the occasional telling off......  
After nearly 10 hours walking I really didn’t want him to get a DQ so I asked the judges to reconsider and maybe apply a time penalty instead.  I started to feel guilty for pushing the race so hard at the end and felt like it was my fault he had been DQ’d.
They went away to discuss and decided to apply a 1 minute penalty so I felt much better after that.  It wouldn't affect 3rd place who came in some 30+ minutes later. 
What they actually said was they had decided to ‘Neutralise the last kilometre’.  I’m not quite sure what that meant, but it didn’t matter anyway.  I thought it probably meant whoever was in the lead 1km ago would be the winner, and that was me.
After they had reversed the DQ decision we did shake hands and congratulate each other on a good race and he was clearly upset that he had broken the rules.  
The thing is I’m quite sure he could have won the race outright.  When he did make the same move on each lap he looked strong and I’m sure he could have pulled out a few hundred metres and just managed the gap from there.  I certainly would have thought twice about trying to pull back that kind of distance in a sprint finish!
For completing the 50 mile walk in under 12 hours you are awarded a 'Kennedy Vrienden' (friend) badge and number, so I am now KV.434 which sits alongside my UK C.1123 badge.

Oh, and a trophy for winning ;-)

 It was a fantastic and well organised event and I certainly hope to be back there in 2018 but this time I will attempt to qualify for my Continental Centurion badge.
A massive congratulations to everyone who took part, especially to the 9 new Centurions.
And don't forget, the second part of my challenge is to try and raise £2,016 for Finley's Tracks and all donations are welcome here.  A big thank you to everyone who has already sponsored me online or offline, and to those who have pledged to donate later.

Week 19

Week 19.

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
6th May	Rest Day
7th May	12.50	20.12	02:24:59	11:36	5.2	282	376	1377	2	144
8th May	Rest Day
9th May	Rest Day
10th May	7.00	11.27	01:20:05	11:26	5.2	246	279	843	2	144
11th May	Rest Day
12th May	Rest Day
Week 19	19.50	31.38	03:45:04			528	655	2,220
Week 18	28.44	45.77	05:26:59			858	901	3,306
Week 17	48.10	77.36	09:05:52			1023	1082	5,723
Week 16	32.00	51.50	05:43:26			800	837	3,850
Week 15	18.00	28.97	03:24:26			571	582	2,333
Week 14	0.00	0.00	00:00:00			0	0	0
Week 13	21.72	34.95	04:03:13			229	249	2,505
Week 12	21.21	34.14	03:40:53			578	481	2,499
Week 11	53.27	85.72	09:59:05			1501	1296	6,240
Week 10	41.50	66.79	07:46:54			882	773	4,872
Week 9	21.00	33.80	03:53:34			547	545	2,631
Week 8	27.43	44.14	05:02:31			421	416	3,176
Week 7	35.87	57.73	06:41:54			829	927	4,444
Week 6	24.82	39.94	04:36:11			395	443	2,830
Week 5	27.70	44.58	05:24:26			671	656	3,235
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	548.26	882.30	4 days 07:14:05			12,770	12,700	65,135
To go	701.74	1,133.70

Just 2 sessions again this week.

On Saturday my plan was to head down the NSC and walk 20 miles / 40 laps at my planned race pace for this weekend 50 miles in Rotterdam.  Walking lap after lap of the NSC certainly isn't my idea of fun but I just wanted that consistent flat terrain to simulate this weekends event as much as possible.

I could have chosen to go up and down Douglas prom several times, or even headed to Ramsey for 2 laps of the Northern 10 route, but I do like the consistency the NSC brings.

The idea behind the session was that if I felt 'ok' after 20 miles then I knew I could start the 50 mile at, or slightly under, that pace and try and maintain it for as long as possible.  However, if I was struggling at the end of the 20 miles than I knew I would have to start the 50 quite a bit slower.

I went out for a few drinks on the Friday night to celebrate my daughters 21st birthday so I had left my car down in Douglas.  This meant I would have to walk down from Onchan to the NSC, do my laps and then walk back into the town centre to get my car. 

As I was getting ready on Saturday morning I realised my plan of simulating a flat course was now flawed due to those first 2.5 miles down to the NSC.  To be fair they are flat and downhill anyway but I think I was just looking for any excuse not to spend 4 hours walking around the NSC.

My new plan was to head out of Onchan towards Liverpool arms, take a right towards Groudle and around the Onchan coast road, down onto Douglas prom, along the quay, out past Kewaigue school and then a right at the roundabout back down to Pulrose and the NSC.  I would then do however many laps I needed to bring it up to 19 miles and then the 20th mile would take me back into Douglas town centre for my car.

As you can see above I only managed 12.5 miles, and they were some of the worst I had ever walked.  Less than 100 yards from leaving the house my foot started hurting.  About a mile later my knee was giving me jip.  The first hill of the day was the climb just after Whitebridge towards Liverpool arms and it felt like Mount Everest.

Once I got past the Liverpool arms and turned onto the Groudle road my knee and foot were okay but my legs were like concrete.  Had my car not been in Douglas I would have probably taken a short route straight home.  When I was down on Douglas Quay it would have been oh so easy to walk a few hundred yards to get my car and go home but I decided to man up and pushed out past Kewaigue.

When I eventually arrived at the NSC around noon I had covered 10 miles.  All I had to do now was 18 laps of the NSC.  I managed 3 before I left and walked back to town to get my car.

As it happens it was the Manx Youth Games on Saturday morning and the NSC was one of the venues which meant I couldn't have walked my laps anyway due to the cycling.  It was deserted when I arrived at noon.

I honestly don't know why Saturday was such hard work.  I only had a "couple" of beers the night before so it wasn't that, and we had been to La Piazza so I was fully carb loaded.

Mount 'Whitebridge' was understandable due to this chest infection, which I'll stop talking about soon, but apart from that the route was reasonably flat.  I think it was more mental than physical to be honest.  It didn't start off to plan which then made me panic that the 50 mile the following Saturday was going to be a disaster so mentally I just shut down.  Maybe my brain was just trying to tell my legs to stop, save it for next weekend.

On Tuesday I finally went back to the GP for my blood test and X-Ray results.  The good news is I'm all clear.  Blood tests all fine, clean bill of health. 

The even better news is I'm not pregnant, although my blood had a higher than average readings of iron so now would be a good time! 

He was showing me the results on his computer screen, calling out the various levels of this and that and sure enough there was a section for pregnancy testing.  After we had a bit of a chuckle he told me the test was something to do with testicular cancer releasing the same hormones as being pregnant, so the good news is I don't have any signs of that either.

Given everything looks fine I asked for some antibiotics to help try and shift whatever is lingering in the chest (which the X-Ray wouldn't detect anyway), so I have been on these now for 3 days. 

I'm not convinced if they are working but that could just be me thinking the worst, worrying about Rotterdam.  If the infection is viral rather than bacterial the antibiotics won't work anyway.

On Tuesday I just did my usual 7 mile Liverpool arms loop at a nice steady pace and then decided that was enough until Rotterdam.  I need to give my body chance to work with the antibiotics and do their thing.

So, Rotterdam is finally here! 

I'm off to Liverpool tomorrow morning and then flying to Amsterdam around lunchtime.  I am travelling down with Mike Bonney and Matt Haddock who have hired a car to drive down from the airport to Schiedam. 

I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts that it's always good to have several targets to aim for so if you miss one you can always refocus on the next. 

Given the way my training has been for the past few weeks I'm now having a bit of a dilemma on whether or not I should start at my 'Plan A'  pace or if I should start a little slower and aim for my 'Plan B' pace right from the off.  Not being able to do the 20 mile simulation last Saturday means I really don't know how it's going to go.

The trouble is, if I start off at 'Plan B' pace and find after about 10-20 miles I'm feeling good it will likely be too late to speed up and get back to 'Plan A' pace.

By the way I'm not trying to be secretive about my race plans, I just haven't decided exactly what those paces are yet, although I have a good idea.  All I will say is 'Plan C' is to finish no matter what the time is.

Anyway that's something I'm going to be thinking about for a while.  It's only when the gun goes off at 8pm on Saturday that I'll make the final decision.  The adrenalin will be pumping and the atmosphere will be buzzing with the other 100 milers already spread out around the course so I'm pretty sure I know what it will be.  After all, I never start a race too quick!

I think the hardest challenge will be trying not to change my entry from 50 to 100 on Saturday morning.

And don't forget, the second part of my challenge is to try and raise £2,016 for Finley's Tracks and all donations are welcome here.  A big thank you to everyone who has already sponsored me online or offline, and to those who have pledged to donate later.

Week 18

Week 18.

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
29th Apr	Rest Day
30th Apr	21.44	34.50	04:10:59	11:42	5.1	628	630	2395	3	149
1st May	Rest Day
2nd May	Rest Day
3rd May	Rest Day
4th May	7.00	11.27	01:16:00	10:51	5.5	230	271	911	3	157
5th May	Rest Day
Week 18	28.44	45.77	05:26:59			858	901	3,306
Week 17	48.10	77.36	09:05:52			1023	1082	5,723
Week 16	32.00	51.50	05:43:26			800	837	3,850
Week 15	18.00	28.97	03:24:26			571	582	2,333
Week 14	0.00	0.00	00:00:00			0	0	0
Week 13	21.72	34.95	04:03:13			229	249	2,505
Week 12	21.21	34.14	03:40:53			578	481	2,499
Week 11	53.27	85.72	09:59:05			1501	1296	6,240
Week 10	41.50	66.79	07:46:54			882	773	4,872
Week 9	21.00	33.80	03:53:34			547	545	2,631
Week 8	27.43	44.14	05:02:31			421	416	3,176
Week 7	35.87	57.73	06:41:54			829	927	4,444
Week 6	24.82	39.94	04:36:11			395	443	2,830
Week 5	27.70	44.58	05:24:26			671	656	3,235
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	528.76	850.92	4 days 03:29:01			12,242	12,045	62,915
To go	721.24	1,165.08

Just 2 sessions this week.

On Saturday 30th I finally got around to walking the final quarter of the Parish Walk route from Ramsey to the War Memorial, a total distance of 21.44 miles (starting in Parliament Square).

I enjoyed the first few miles to Maughold church as it's not often I walk that section in daylight so it's good to get some reference points for the day.

Exactly 2 miles from Parliament Square there is a house with a large anchor in the garden (I think the house is called Anchorage house if I remember rightly).  Not only is it the 2 mile mark but it's also the start of quite a long climb, about 1 mile, before it evens off and leads you to the church giving a total distance from the square to the church of 3.5 miles.

Shortly before the church is my favourite road sign in the Isle of Man.

The reason I like this sign is because it's the first one of the day that is actually telling the truth about how far is left to the finish, 17 miles.  Any other road sign you have seen up until now will be taking the shortest route to Douglas.

The actual distance is just under 18 miles once you allow for the extra up and downs at Lonan and Onchan church, but it is 17 miles until you are walking along Douglas promenade and can see the finish.

As I mentioned in my previous post I like numbers and I am constantly analysing things while I am walking.  To see the number 17 in black and white is a huge relief.  Even though you know it's 17 miles from Maughold there is just something reassuring about actually seeing it written down.

Another thing I like about this small piece of road is that, on a clear night, if you look to the right you get a good long view along the coast towards Laxey.  Since it's dark you can't actually see the coast line but what you can see is the flashing hazard lights of support vehicles for other walkers stretched out for about 6 or 7 miles, snaked out all the way up Ballajora, along the A3 through the top of Glen Mona and towards Bulgham rocks.

The reason I like to see those cars is because after passing through Peel I often go for several hours without seeing another walker and start to feel like I am the only person out here doing this.   Seeing the flashing amber lights reassures you that the walk is real, you aren't dreaming and you aren't out here all alone.

Combined with visual confirmation that there are 17 miles left to go you really do feel like the end is in sight now.

After checking in at Maughold church there is a nice long downhill stretch, about 0.6 miles, before you start the long climb up Ballajora to rejoin the main A3 road.

One advantage of the dark is you can't see how steep that first section is!

Bearing in mind you have walked nearly 70 miles by now I think it's probably best not to be able to see this!

After reaching the very top of Ballajora last Saturday (for info the top is 3.5 miles from the Maughold church) I was really starting to struggle.

When I eventually finished at the War Memorial I was exhausted.  My total walking distance over the past 7 days was 70 miles which is far too much for me, and not the kind of distance to be doing with a chest infection.

I knew Saturday was the only time I would get to walk that final stretch before the big day so I had to do it. 

I took 3 rest days after that, and completed week 18 with my regular Liverpool arms 7 mile loop.  I totally ignored my heart rate for this walk and just power walked (not race walked) as hard as my lungs would let me.  I was pleased with the pace, but not with how I felt.

I will stop whining about this chest infection soon I promise!  I have had a chest X-Ray and Blood tests now and will be back at my GP next week for the results.  I'm sure it will all be fine and with a few antibiotics I will be good as new in no time.

This time next week I will be in Rotterdam with about 15 other Manx walkers.  I feel like a lightweight only going for the 50 miles when they are all doing the 100 but I know it's the right thing for me. 

My big focus this year is the USA 100 in September so I'm treating the 50 as part of the training.  

While I will be a little disappointed not to be doing the 100 at least I will get a PB in the 50 (providing I finish!) as it's my first race at that distance.

My race doesn't start until 8pm by which time the 100 milers will have been going for 8 hours.  

I haven't started a race this late before so it will feel a little strange.  If it's a hot day then at least it should be a little cooler by the evening so that's one plus point.

If you haven't yet entered the Parish Walk don't forget that entries close tomorrow night!

And don't forget, the second part of my challenge is to try and raise £2,016 for Finley's Tracks and all donations are welcome here.  A big thank you to everyone who has already sponsored me online or offline, and to those who have pledged to donate later.

Week 17 + Fireman's 50k

Week 17.

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
22nd Apr	Rest Day
23rd Apr	Rest Day
24th Apr	31.10	50.00	05:46:35	11:01	5.4	418	431	3885	3	160
25th Apr	Rest Day
26th Apr	7.00	11.27	01:23:18	11:54	5.0	229	263	700	1	135
27th Apr	Rest Day
28th Apr	10.00	16.09	01:55:59	11:36	5.2	376	388	1138	2	144
Week 17	48.10	77.36	09:05:52			1023	1082	5,723
Week 16	32.00	51.50	05:43:26			800	837	3,850
Week 15	18.00	28.97	03:24:26			571	582	2,333
Week 14	0.00	0.00	00:00:00			0	0	0
Week 13	21.72	34.95	04:03:13			229	249	2,505
Week 12	21.21	34.14	03:40:53			578	481	2,499
Week 11	53.27	85.72	09:59:05			1501	1296	6,240
Week 10	41.50	66.79	07:46:54			882	773	4,872
Week 9	21.00	33.80	03:53:34			547	545	2,631
Week 8	27.43	44.14	05:02:31			421	416	3,176
Week 7	35.87	57.73	06:41:54			829	927	4,444
Week 6	24.82	39.94	04:36:11			395	443	2,830
Week 5	27.70	44.58	05:24:26			671	656	3,235
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	500.32	805.15	3 days 22:02:02			11,384	11,144	59,609
To go	749.68	1,210.85

Week 17 mileage started with the Fireman's 50k walk on Sunday 24th.

I wasn't really sure how the race was going to go as my training for the previous 4 weeks has been disrupted by this chest infection which I still can't shift.

I had many targets in mind, with my first being to try for a PB (5hr 41min).  If I felt like a PB was slipping out of reach my next target was to finish in under 6 hours, and if that wasn't going to happen my final target was to just hang in there and finish.

On longer events I like to have several targets to aim for.  Not only does this give the brain something to do by continually assessing the situation and recalculating the strategy but it also means if you end up missing the first target you can keep motivated by refocussing on the next and so on.

If your only target at the start of the race is a particular time (which may or may not be a PB time) and things don't go according to plan then it can be all too easy to just throw the towel in and quit.   It opens the doors to too many negative thoughts and you need to keep those doors shut for as long as possible.

Chances are you are already battling one, or all, of the following: fatigue, blisters, chaffing, upset stomach, cramps etc, so your brain has already got enough to do helping you push through these physical symptoms so the last thing it needs are extra negative thoughts.

Rather than thinking "What's the point, I have missed my target time now, my feet hurt so I may as well quit." it's much better to think "Okay, it looks like my target time X is out of reach so what do I need to do to hit my next target time Y."

People often ask me what I think about when I'm walking and whether or not I get bored.  The simple answer is no, I don't get bored.  I'm constantly assessing how I'm feeling, how many more miles can I maintain this pace, if I slow down a little now (before it's too late) will I end up with a better average pace over a longer distance and so on.

So, back to the 50k race.  You may have gathered from this, and previous, posts that I like numbers. 

Well, because I had no real idea how the race was going to go I decided to make a note of all my mile splits from my 5:41 PB in 2014.  These were printed in a table on a small piece of paper about 3" by 1" which I then sellotaped to the back of my race number so all I had to do was quickly glance down to see how quick I needed to do each mile to be on track for my first target. 

This was the first time I have tried to pace myself by individual miles as I usually just aim for an overall average pace which can be tricky to judge when hills are involved.

In 2014 my pace dropped considerably in the last 7 miles so I thought if I could just repeat 2014 mile for mile to Andreas then as long as the big drop off doesn't repeat itself a PB is possible.

As usual, I started off to quick.  I never learn.  Mile 1 was meant to be 11:26 but it ended up 10:51.  Mile 2 was meant to be 10:37 but it ended up 10:19. 

By Kirk Michael I was 3 minutes up which may not seem like a lot, but over an undulating 7 miles and with my lungs at only 80% I knew it was unsustainable for another 24 miles.

I walked from the start with Andrew Dawson who has had man flu on and off for the last few months too, and as we left Kirk Michael I told him I had to ease off slightly.  Whereas my first 7 miles had been approx. 30s per mile quicker they were now nearly 30s per mile slower than 2014. 

I stayed with Andrew for another 6 miles, or rather he kindly stayed with me, but just after Jurby I had to ease off a bit more so lost touch with him.  Despite this being a relatively flat section my HR was near the max and I was breathing as if I had just ran up and down the gas works steps 6 times. 

My time to Jurby was more or less the same as 2014 but my pace was slowing and it wasn't even the half way mark yet.  So, knowing that my first target had slipped out of reach I just refocused on my second target, sub 6 hours. 

I relaxed a little, accepted the slightly slower pace and just took it mile by mile. 

Just before St Jude's cross roads is the 26.2 mile Marathon mark and with the London Marathon being the same day I couldn't resist a cheeky glance at my Garmin which showed 4:48.  Given the up and down terrain from Peel to Kirk Michael and of course the hills at Lhen and Bride I was pleased with that.

The good news is my pace drop off this year wasn't as much as 2014 so I did claw back a few extra minutes over the last section from Andreas, finishing in a time of 5:46.  Very pleased to be just 5 minutes off a PB over that distance.

A big well done to everyone who took part, especially to joint winners Dave Walker and Sam Fletcher, and thanks to all the marshall's and timekeepers.  

The rest of my training last week was just one of my usual Onchan/Groudle/Liverpool arms 7 milers and Onchan/Groudle/Baldrine 10 milers but at a slower recovery pace.

Oh, I finally admitted defeat with this chest infection and saw the doctor on Wednesday. 

After describing my symptoms and listening to my chest (which he said sounded clear) he was a bit reluctant to give me antibiotics (which was fine with me) and instead sent me off for a chest X-Ray and a range of blood tests for all sorts.  I managed to get the X-Ray same day but it will be this Wednesday before I can have the blood tests, and then it will be into next week before I go back and get all the results.... so just a few days before the 50 miles in Rotterdam!

Part of me wishes I had just asked for antibiotics on Wednesday now as I'm sure that's all I need, but I guess the doctor is just being sure there is nothing else going on first which is fair enough.

The good news is he didn't tell me to stop walking, but then again I didn't specifically ask him that question........

And don't forget, the second part of my challenge is to try and raise £2,016 for Finley's Tracks and all donations are welcome here.  A big thank you to everyone who has already sponsored me online or offline, and to those who have pledged to donate later.