Building miles

Three weeks has passed since I last blogged, but I have been training.

Week after my last entry I was struck down with a crippling and debilitating disorder which indiscriminately strikes down male members of the species.  This illness is often referred to pejoratively by females, who are in fact immune from the illness, as "man flu".  Anyway, I couldn't train for a whole week, and I know at least half of you will have considerable sympathy.

Then I headed off to the UK for a solid block of training.  Last Saturday I did a solid 20k with the UK racewalk team in Leeds.  A comfortable 59mins for the first 10k and a quicker 55mins for the second 10k.  A cruised 1:54 in training is okay for this time of year.

On the Saturday I did the indoor 3km in Birmingham.  It was a brilliant day out, nearly 30 walkers of all ages and abilities as well as a large team from the Isle of Man in the other athletic disciplines - so loads of noisy support.

I was told I has set a Manx record for my age, which sent me a bit giddy until I found out I was the first manx M40 to do an indoor 3k.  I did it in 15:10 which I was content with, given the heavy legs from the 20k 20hours earlier.  Not quite the same as the senior men's lung busting Manx record of 11:47 by Steve Partington though!!

Training this week has been quite good, again geared towards endurance rather than speed.

Today's walk was a steady 30km (19miles).  The conditions were challenging, it was more like a steeplechase, having to walk through floods.  The average windspeed was 40mph gusting 55+.  I was tag-teamed for company with Michelle joining me for the first 20k and a runner friend Phil joining me for the last 10k.

I did it in 03:01:20 which given the conditions I am happy with.  That is 6:03/km or 9:40/mile in old money.

Hopefully I will start picking up the distance now and get in some good back to back walks on the weekend.  Next weekend looks quite brutal, but I am looking forward to it and will blog about it if I survive.  The weekend after than is the Manx Open 20km race - which will be a chance to open up the throttle and see what kind of form I am in.  I can't wait.