Week 29

Week 29.

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
15th Jul	Rest Day
16th Jul	12.10	19.47	02:03:47	10:14	5.9	503	509	1,403	3	160
17th Jul	Rest Day
18th Jul	14.25	22.93	02:45:59	11:39	5.2	605	538	1,359	1	140
19th Jul	10.15	16.33	01:55:53	11:25	5.3	264	191	1247	3	154
20th Jul	Rest Day
21st Jul	10.00	16.09	01:55:21	11:32	5.2	384	387	942	2	145
Week 29	46.50	74.83	08:41:00			1756	1625	4,951
Week 28	37.81	60.86	06:59:57			902	809	4,705
Week 27	8.00	12.87	01:30:27			301	302	1,020
Week 26	0.00	0.00	00:00:00			0	0	0
Week 25	85.00	136.79	17:49:35			1671	1629	10,643
Week 24	19.20	30.90	03:43:53			584	559	2,085
Week 23	30.70	49.41	05:54:07			1453	1574	3,199
Week 22	24.10	38.79	04:44:25			804	813	2,544
Week 21	28.00	45.06	05:20:25			947	966	3,305
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	877.57	1412.28	6 days 23:45:12			21,188	20,977	97,587
To go	375.12	603.72

Another great week of training, and as you can see I have just past 20,000 metres of vertical ascent so far this year.  12.4 miles straight up!

On Saturday 16th I joined Mike Bonney, Andrew Dawson, KC and Robert Currey for what I was hoping would be a steady paced walk, but I hadn't been out with Mike for a while and forgot he doesn't really ease into a long walk. 

We started at Port Soderick car park and headed along Marine Drive so the first few miles were uphill.  As soon as we started our watches we were straight into a quick pace and covered the first 5k in 31 minutes and had it not been quite so hilly I'm sure it would have been under 30, a pace I would have been happy with in a 5k race let alone the start of a 12 mile training walk!

It was a roasting hot morning too, and with the same pace continuing pretty much for the full 2 hours I can safely say we were all pretty much 'Bonney'd' at the end.  It was a great session though, and I wouldn't push myself that hard for that long on my own.

I was off work on Monday and after dropping my car down for it's annual service I took the opportunity to walk back home the long way round.  The direct walk home would have been about 3 miles back into Onchan so I should probably say 'very' long way around as I covered just over 14 miles instead.

I headed out from Douglas and up Richmond Hill towards Santon where I briefly joined the Parish Walk route onto the old Castletown road but took a left back towards Marine Drive rather than a right towards Santon church.

This was meant to be an 'easy' zone 1 heart rate session using my new, higher, zones after discovering my max was 187 a few weeks ago, with my average of 140 being at the top of my zone 1 range. 

One I thing I can say is it was far from easy!  I really didn't enjoy the session at all.  My legs were tight and heavy, my foot was giving me grief and it was just unenjoyable all round.  I tend to give any training session at least 2-3 miles before throwing the towel in, however by this time I was half way up Richmond Hill so I just pushed on thinking it might get easier when it flattened out a bit, but it didn't and my only option was to suck it up and walk home.

I don't think I was fully over being Bonney'd on Saturday!

On Tuesday I met up with Richard Gerrard, James Quirk, Ray Beattie and Vinny Lynch on what was probably one of the hottest evenings we have had so far this year.  In the morning I was running a little late while I was packing my stuff together (we meet straight from work) and I was convinced I had forgotten something but I wasn't sure what. 

It was only around 4pm when I realised it was my water belt and bottle.  Not the best of days to forget it!  Despite the hot conditions and the tough 14 miles the previous day I just about managed to hang onto the back of them.

As with the session on Saturday I wouldn't have pushed myself that hard in the heat and with my legs heavy and sluggish so it was a really good walk.

On Thursday I headed out on my own so I could maintain a steady zone 2 heart rate, and once again I was using my higher range of 140-155.  The 10 mile loop took me out towards Baldrine hill which is where I recorded the 187 max heart rate a few weeks ago so I decided I would push it hard again to see where my heart rate went.

I'm really not sure what happened because despite giving it everything and breathing exceptionally heavy I only managed to hit 174, still 5 below what I thought my previous max was anyway!

I thought my legs must be too tired after a long week of training and I must be going up the hill slower than last time so I was very surprised to see I knocked another 30 seconds off that mile and climbed it in 11:30.  I didn't get pins and needles in my hands this time, but I did get some little black dots/floaters in my eyes so I really was trying hard!

Anyway I reached the conclusion that I should stick with my max of 179 as it brings my easy/endurance zones back down a little which is fine with me!

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.