Week 31

Week 31.

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
29th Jul	Rest Day
30th Jul	18.40	29.61	03:30:33	11:25	5.2	612	679	1,661	2	143
31st Jul	Rest Day
1st Aug	Rest Day
2nd Aug	7.70	12.39	01:02:47	10:29	5.7	288	278	932	3	152
3rd Aug	Rest Day
4th Aug	Rest Day
Week 31	26.10	42.00	04:51:20			900	957	2,593
Week 30	34.00	54.72	06:18:57			1234	1166	3,771
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	937.67	1509.00	7 days 10:55:29			23,322	23,100	103,951
To go	315.02	507.00

Just managed 2 sessions last week.

On the Saturday I again joined Richard, James, Ray and Vinny for what turned out to be a longer walk than we originally planned.  We started at the NSC and headed up towards the Strang and out over Eyreton road which drops down into Crosby, before crossing the A1 and going up Old Church Road (passed the school).

The start of Old Church Road (often called School Hill) is incredibly steep and it was easy to see why Richard is a multiple Parish Walk winner as he glided to the top with ease while I was left some way behind. 

After reaching the top we continued all the way through to St Marks where we carried on straight through towards Ballasalla.  However, shortly after St Marks we turned left up a road I had never been before, and after checking Google Maps I found it was Mullinaraghar Road which takes you up towards Santon and comes out on the A5 Douglas to Castletown road.

As we hit the A5 we turned right to follow the Parish walk route for about a mile but turned left when we joined the old Castletown road (rather than the Parish route which turns right towards the church).

Up until this point my left foot had been okay with just an odd twinge, but during the steep descent down towards Crogga Mill it flared up again so I just had to ease off a bit over the final 6 miles through Port Soderick and over Marine Drive to our well earned reward at The Caff.

My foot wasn't too bad on the flat and up hill, but it certainly isn't something I would like to carry for 100 miles in New York. 

I gave my foot a couple of days rest and went out for a quicker paced session on Tuesday.  It was one of my regular loops from Onchan down to Port Jack, back out towards Groudle and then left at the Liverpool Arms back to Onchan. 

My foot was great for the first 6 miles but as I descended Whitebridge coming into Onchan it flared up again.  I know it's worse downhill and I should have eased off but I wanted to keep a strong pace for the entire session so just tried to ignore it.

I decided to give it another 2 days rest rather than go out again on the Thursday which is why I only managed 2 sessions.

Of course I know the only way to really get over this is to rest my foot for a lot longer but with New York now only 7 weeks away I'm worried about taking more than a few days off, plus I still have my 2016 challenge target to hit.

Next Sunday I will be walking the Isle of Man Marathon up at Ramsey which consists of 2 large laps that are pretty flat.  There are a couple of short climbs around mile 4 (and again at mile 17) near Bride but there are no steep down hill sections so I'm confident my foot will be okay.

If it can get through these 26.2 "flat" miles with no problems it will give me a lot of confidence that it will be okay for New York which will then just be 6 weeks later! 

Finally, I meant to point out in last weeks blog that I had just passed 100,000 calories burned!  Of course this is just an estimate from my Garmin, but is slightly more accurate than other methods of estimating calorie burn due to me also wearing a HR monitor for nearly every mile.

Apparently you need to burn 3,500 calories to burn 1 pound of fat so 100,000 calories is 28.5 pounds, or 2 stone!  Of course not all 'exercise calories' come from burning fat, especially the faster paced training sessions where most of the energy comes from glycogen stores, but a good percentage will come from fat over the longer and slower sessions.

I weigh myself every week and I am just over 1 stone lighter than I was in January which suggests around 50% of my 'exercise calories' have been from fat burning. 

I have no idea how accurate any of this is, but it's certainly good motivation to keep on walking rather than keep on sitting.  

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.