6th Trailwalker Training Walk - the 2nd half!

Well this was meant to be the "2nd half" of our attempt at completing 100km within a 30 hour time period - whilst still taking an 11 hour break in the middle.

The aim of the plan, was largely to give us a psychological boost for the "Challenge" itself, on the basis that if we could complete 100km on the flat(ish) Downs Link within a 30 hour period, AND having a normal night's sleep within that time also, then when we had to do it for real on the South Downs, we would be more mentally prepared for it.

That was the plan...but the plan, well us actually, didn't succeed!

Given that we had decided to time our walk so that we could sleep normally meant that our planned available walking time, within the 30 hours available, was reduced to 20.

The plan was for us to walk for 10 hours, rest for 10 hours, and then walk for a further 10 hours. Therefore to achieve out target walking time of 100km in 20 hours, we had to achieve an average speed of 5km, or 3.1 miles, an hour!

As it turned out, speed wasn't actually the problem, injuries were. Even with the injuries whilst we were walking we managed to achieve the desired speed, we just couldn't keep going long enough.

As reported yesterday, we had to stop at 9pm, (rather than the planned 10pm) as thunder and lightning approached, after we had completed 28 miles of our planned 31. So we finished an hour early. We were also suffering with blisters, some of which were large and painful.

8:30am 30 April 2011 - Still looking happy(ish)

The plan this morning was to start at 8am, if we were able. As it turned out we were slightly late, but still managed to get away by 8.30.

Today's walk was from Southwater to Shoreham and (theoretically) back. A distance of 31 miles.

Progress was relatively good, albeit painful. I for one, was not wearing appropriate footwear, wearing training shoes instead of walking boots (as I still haven't broken my boots in) and thought that trainers would be fine on the flat Downs Link.

However, the soles were inadequate. Too worn, or too thin in parts, making the walk increasing painful on the walk to Shoreham.

"Our soles!", I occasionally shouted, (or something that sounded like that) "...are not good enough for this walk!"

8:56am - Copsale

9:08am

9:25am - West Grinstead

9:25am - West Grinstead - 4.7km

                                      

 

10:31am - 10.5km (Still on over 5km per hour pace)

                                    

                                    

Shoreham in Sight

The End (although it should only have been three quarters of the way through!)

Whilst walking, we managed to get used to walking through the pain, but whenever we stopped, to start walking again felt for the first 20 paces or so like walking on broken glass, until once again we got used to the pain. (Watch out for future post entitled "Pain doesn't actually exist"!)

Despite the above, we managed to get to Shoreham, where again met up with Teresa & Charlotte who had brought us lunch again.

Whilst we wanted to complete our "plan" and walk back to Southwater it would not have been sensible, especially as this was only a training walk, and it would have been stupid to risk damaging our feet more seriously.

So our sixth training walk ended at 1:50pm today, Sunday 30th April 2011. Almost 26 hours after we had started, having walked for 44 miles in that time. Theoretically we had a further four and a quarter hours left of our challenge, in which we would have had to have walked a further 18 miles, which even at 3.5 miles per hour wouldn't have been quite enough.

However, we obviously learnt a lot (see future post for lessons learnt) and we had also taken an 11 and a half hour break, within the overall 30 hour period.

So we are not undaunted, we were just not as prepared as we should have been with our equipment, specifically in the amount of fluid carried/drunk, or some of our footwear.

However, as long as we have recovered fully, we will try the challenge again at the end of May, hopefully with more positive results.

6th Trailwalker Training Walk - A walk of two halves

And so, having watched the majority of the Royal nuptials, at 12:05pm we set off on the first half of our 6th Training walk. Once again we were seemingly playing the role of the "Righteous Brothers", in as much as the sun supposedly always shines on the "righteous", and we haven't yet encountered rain on any of our training walks.

At the start, we were positive about the task ahead of us, and after the obligatory (3/4) team photo we set off.

12:06 - Friday 29th April 2011 - Ready (ish) for the off

Our initial pace was good, possibly too good...which ultimately possibly meant that it was too bad! (see later for further explanation)!

14:06 - 2 hrs & 12km in - Rudgwick

14:27

14:36 - 2hrs 30mins & 14km in - Baynards

16:45 & 26.5 km in - Bramley

From Southwater, through Christs Hospital, onto Slinfold, Rudgwick, Cranleigh and then to our first stop at, where we met up with Teresa & Charlotte who had brought us a picnic lunch.

It had taken us four hours 40 minutes to walk 17 miles, so just over 3.5 miles per hour.

After a half hour stop, we set off back towards Southwater. 

This was not so easy. We had stiffened up, but after a while got back into the swing again, but more slowly than on the way there.

However, the Downs Link is very stony and, sadly, once you get blisters, (and once those blisters "pop"), a stony surface is not at all pleasant.

The walk back to Slinfold - where we decided to stop due to thunder and lighting approaching - was slower and increasingly more painful. 

By 9pm we had managed 28 miles and called it a night.

The plan, is still to get up early tomorrow, and walk a further 30+ miles...but will we, will we really? 

More tomorrow...

Outfit for the Royal Wedding day exposed!!

Much is being written about what a "certain person" will be wearing on the 'Big Day' & whether or not the weather will remain fine and unseasonably sunny.

It appears as though little is known about the former, although the odds on the latter are getting longer and longer as the day approaches.

Sorry! this picture has nothing to do with this post whatsoever!

Well, I can now put everyone out of there misery and announce details of what a certain person will be wearing on the 'Big Day'.

I will be wearing "white" - just in case there was any doubt as to whether or not I would - probably in the form of a "wicking" - as opposed to a "wicked" - t-shirt.

As for length, I will keep my options open with grey lightweight walking trousers (a strange description, as on their own they don't walk anywhere under their own steam!), which have the option of being converted, via zips above the knees, into shorts.

(Presumably, if you are a hiking 'Mason', you also have the option of unzipping one leg only, which would come in handy if you ever had to walk to your own initiation ceremony!)

Footwear, will be in the form of well worn, but comfortable Asics trainers - as I have not yet "broken in", or in fact worn at all - either of the two pairs of boots that I have specifically bought for  both the training and for the "Event" itself.

Blisters will be avoided again (hopefully) by the use of double layer walking socks, and unlike a certain amusingly named Trailwalker team from (quite aptly) "down under", I will not be "Chafing for charity"!

The whole "ensemble" will be topped off with a grey fleece, if cold, plus waterproofs, if very wet.

So there you have it - after months of speculation - my "right royal outfit" is announced!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Big Event - Friday 29th April 2011

After many months of planning, the 'Big Day' is almost upon us. In fact, it is only 3 days away.

Friday 29th April 2011 will be the day when all of the anxiety and trepidation of the previous 7 months will be replaced by an event that will be watched by...well it won't be "watched" by anyone at all...because everyone (OK, not everyone, but loads and loads of "ones") will be watching the Royal Wedding!

Our "Big Day" will start at about the same time as the Royal event, as we plan to leave at noon on the first leg of our 100km walk.

How achievable our "plan" is, we don't really know. I am still carrying a small niggling injury, in my left knee, so the prospect of walking 62 miles on it, is somewhat concerning, but...nothing ventured, nothing gained!

So the plan is for Matt, Rob & I (Pete can't make this weekend's walk with us, although he will be walking on his own somewhere in Somerset) to:-

1. Leave Southwater at noon and walk to Bramley, where we will meet up with some of the support team for a short meal break, before turning round and walking back to Southwater. A distance of just over 30 miles which we hope to complete, even allowing for our meal break, in under 10 hours, i.e. Before 10pm!

2. We will then have a break of no more than 10 hours, but will eat, drink, bathe and sleep before the third element of the challenge.

3. This will be the real test of the "event". We will get up and leave Southwater no later than 8am and walk to Shoreham. Whether we will actually be able to get up, or walk, after having "rested" for so long is the big "unknown", but I'd rather try it before the event, than find out on the day. Clearly, on the day we don't intend to "rest up" for 10 hours but....the intention is to walk to Shoreham...and back, with another meal stop along the way, and return to Southwater before 6pm.

If, and it is a very big "if", we achieve our goal, we will have walked 100km in a total of 30 hours, although will have rested for a third of that time. If, we don't do it, we will have gained a greater understanding of the challenge, and what might stop us from being successful in July.

Psychologically, it will be either very, very good for us or...it won't!

If we survive, and can walk (at all!) after this weekend, Matt & I get to try the same event again at the end of May with Pete, but without Rob (who will be working).

If we don't survive...isn't worth thinking about!

More soon....

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Walking to - not on - the Moon!

As mentioned in my blog of April 15th, our recent training efforts had left my left knee with a certain degree* of pain.

Therefore, I paid a visit to Terry Hallett, a podiatrist in Worthing, to see if he could work his wonders. Whilst it is early days, the initial signs are encouraging but as I was leaving he said, "...Someone once told me that in an average lifetime a person walks the equivalent of the distance to the moon!"

Now, when 100km seems like such a long way, could it really be possible to walk what seems to be an unimaginably long way?

So I decided to see whether this so called "fact", was, in fact, TRUE.

If you Google the question "Does an average human walk the equivalent of the distance to the moon in a lifetime?", there are 28.7m answers.

The first answer shown, states "...During a lifetime the average person will walk more than 250,000 miles. That's the distance from the Earth to the moon!"

250,000 miles, is clearly a long way, and whilst we may (hopefully) on average, live for say 85 years, that is only just over 35,000 days. Or to put it another way - on average - person would have to walk over 7 miles each and every day that they live.

Therefore it appears that I am not average, but to be honest I'm not sure that - if these statistics are true - anybody else is either!






* A 2:1 in 21st Century Painology

Is there anybody out there?

Given that it is now less than 100 days until the great event, we have finished planning our longer training walks...albeit slighter shorter walks may well be  undertaken between the longer ones, if only to keep the "older" (Pete & I) pair's joints from seizing up altogether.

And so "...the schedule" is....

This is a drum roll (and no Rob, you can't eat a drum roll!)

• 29th & 30th April - 100km in 30 hours (hopefully!) along the Downs Link
• 28th & 29th May - 100km in 30 hours (if we've managed to get up after the last one!) - route to be decided
• 12th June - Support Team Day - Map-reading, Cheer-leading (& First Aid) practice sessions along the official South Downs route
• 2nd July - Night Walk along the South Downs

This leaves plenty of time for additional fund-raising events, visits to psychiatrists, podiatrists, A&E etc etc before the BIG EVENT!!

And so if there is anybody out there*...particularly if you are out training on any of the above dates, and you think you recognize us from our photo on the Oxfam fundraising page, please, please say "hello" & stop (although not too long) for a chat.

* Clearly there are loads of you out there (wherever "there" is) and if we don't see you in training we hope to meet up with many of you on the day itself!

Special mentions to 'Dad's Army' team & 'Funda-mental As Anything' teams for great fund-raising efforts - Let's all keep it going!!  Also special mentions to the 'Brixham Badgers' and 'Haslemere Normans' teams for great blogs & for being proud members of the Hiking Twitterati!!

TUNES don't make you walk more easily!

Unfortunately the team suffered from a case of "TUNES" today...

Rob, had a sore Throat, and complained that it felt as though he had swallowed a handful of needles! For those of us that know Rob, this is actually not totally implausible, as has been documented previously he will eat almost anything. So he couldn't walk.

Pete, was Unavailable, but has most probably put in more training than any of us to date.

So, that just left Matt & I to walk. My kNee was playing up a bit, but I decided to walk anyway, and then Matt had to pull out as he'd woken up with an Ear infection and kept falling over (although personally it think it was the drink!).

Tempting as it would have been to go back to bed, I decided to walk alone, and did a "quick'ish" 21km along the Downs Link in just under 3 hours. This time was achievable mainly because: -

1. The Downs Link is flat, and 
2. Even I got bored with my own company, so couldn't wait to finish & decided to jog part of the route!*

* Note to self - "Don't jog!" - Podiatrist appointment is now booked for this Friday!

Well...it doesn't look THAT far from here!

The South Downs from Leith Hill Tower

As I think I may have said before, the whole Trailwalker UK Challenge is simply a matter of perspective. It's not that it is so long with hills that are so high...it's just that we're too close to it.

From the top of the Leith Hill tower you can virtually see the full extent of the South Downs route, and it looks quite small and insignificant - although it is 27 miles away!

Trailwalker UK is "...a walk in the Park" - Official!

So it was that on Friday, April 1st 2011, the South Downs officially became a 'National Park'. Therefore, despite all previous claims that our participation in the 2011 Trailwalker UK Challenge, was going to be just that - a challenge - people will now be able to respond, quite literally, that it is no more than "...a walk in the park"!

Sayings such as this often get mis-used over time, however, when you look up the meaning of the phrase - anywhere - it is consistently used to mean something that is deemed to be "EASY"!

However, when you look at the picture above, whether it is easy or not it is quite stunning, and is worthy of its new found status.

Whether it was wise to confer this status on the Downs on the 1st of April is another matter. April Fools Day is obviously notorious for spoof news items, however I would like to state on the record - especially to certain members of my family that I did NOT find either of the following "stories" funny!

First there was IKEA's move into 'pet furniture'.....

The second related to Facebook's changes to their 'Filter' options...

Facebook to add baby and wedding filter option

April 1, 2011 9:45 AM

Recognising the fact that many people are bored by their friends continually talking about certain topics on Facebook, bosses will today introduce a 'baby and wedding filter'.

A recent survey of 10,000 Facebook users found that it was updates about newly born babies and upcoming weddings which most irked users and put them off logging in more.

As a result, engineers set about creating a system which automatically scans all status updates and uses an algorithm to identify the offending ones talking about babies and wedding.

While users previous had the option of blocking a user from appearing in on their page altogether, this option (which will appear in Account Settings) will only block those status updates relating to weddings or babies.

The option is due to go live at midday today. A later update to the baby and wedding filter will see Facebook automatically identify people who upload an image of their child as a profile images and instantly block them for you.

A spokesperson for Facebook said: "It became apparent that many users were getting annoyed by logging into Facebook only to see a page full of updates about babies making cute faces or wedding day dilemmas.

"While things like having a baby or getting married are big events for people, many find it hard to recognise that not all of their friends will be as bothered about whether little Johnny just rolled over or the style of seating covers as they are.

"However, at the same time these friends can be otherwise interesting people, so you may not want to block them entirely from appearing in your stream, just when they go on about certain things.

"As for people who upload a picture of their child as a profile picture, well there is no helping them."

Not at all funny...!