Aye, there's the rub

The high point of last week was a moment of absolute, shimmering brilliance where I decided to do my four-mile speed walk in socks with holes in the soles. I knew this was a silly idea, but my feet have always been as tough as old boots... The trouble with that is that it makes you a bit more inclined to take stupid risks. The blisters started to form about halfway through, but there was no point going slowly and I wasn't going to stop, so I just pressed on and somehow hit my highest ever average speed - 4.2mph, or 13:51 to the mile. It was not exactly a joyful experience, but everything except my feet felt fine, so that bodes well.

I've thrown the socks out, by the way.

I was a bit concerned about doing twelve miles only two days after that, but the combination of the fantastic Compeed plasters and an extra pair of socks did the job. No problems from my feet at all. I did have a bit of pain in my hips and legs in the last few miles - all part of the same overworked-back problem, I think. I need to keep on at the stretches and it should keep getting better. I've missed a few days, for which I've got no reasonable excuse. It's amazing how many things an otherwise sensible person can find to prioritise above ten minutes' worth of exercises.

I'm currently halfway through the first four-walk week - both short, slow walks are done, so just the speed walk and the long walk to go. I'll report on all that next week, from the other side of the fourteen- or fifteen-miler I've got planned for this weekend.

Meanwhile, fundraising is going really well. I've had a number of contributions and am now a third of the way to my target, which is fantastic. Many thanks to everybody who's donated, and may the madness continue to inspire.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rich-vs-parish

Raindrops on roses

49 miles walked since I last posted. I need to do this more regularly.

The last two weeks’ training has been really good. No dropped sessions - a slight hamstring pull picked up while lugging some bits of tree around last week meant that Friday’s speed walk turned into a second slow walk, but otherwise everything’s on track.

I saw the physio again on the 1st and things are looking good. My calves are pretty tight, so she did a bit of work on those with a device I can only describe as the vibrating mushroom of doom - painful, but productive - and I obviously need to put some work into stretching them over the next few weeks. She said my back movement was better, so those stretches seem to be working, and I’ve actually had almost no pain from it on the last few walks. We may be winning that battle.

As always, the long walks are getting longer - 11 miles on one Wednesday night, which was quite a nice way to spend the evening after a day cooped up in a training room, and then 15 miles the following week. The latter was done in two legs, with a two-hour break in between while I pottered around one of the High Peak villages, so I thought I’d give it some welly on the way back and did the second leg at an average 3.75mph. With a target race pace of 4mph, I’m pretty happy with that. It’s the pace that scares me at this point - the distance is fine, because I’m enough of a stubborn little bugger to keep putting one foot in front of the other for as long as it takes, but the tempo is what’s going to take the real effort - so something like that provides a much-needed confidence boost.

It occurred to me yesterday that the short walk I did last night was the same length as the long walk I did eight weeks ago. Because I’m not pushing myself like hell I don’t feel like I’m getting fitter - maybe that’s a runner’s perspective, or maybe it’s just my state of mind - but progress is clearly being made.

Another slightly more compressed week this week, because I’m losing half the weekend to other activities, so the speed walk will be done tomorrow morning and the long walk, probably a twelve-miler, on Saturday. After this weekend, training goes up a notch, with four walks per week instead of three. The short walks will go down by a couple of miles in order to stop my overall weekly mileage from increasing too rapidly: a three-miler and a four-miler next week. I might chuck in a bit more speed work as well, maybe doing the long walk as a sort of extended interval session.

In other news, I’ve finally got round to adding all the necessary information to my fundraising page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rich-vs-parish. I’ve set a target of £420 - ten quid per mile - which is ambitious, but if aiming low was in my nature then I wouldn’t be doing this. I plan to give everything I’ve got to the physical and psychological side of the challenge, so I hope that inspires others to help with the financial side.