Winter is Here!

Well done to anyone who has been out training over the last week, the weather has certainly played its part it making for some of the coldest training walks I have done for a while. Tuesday was the normal evening route around Douglas. Richard, Dave and I were the only ones to turn up due to work commitments and the snotty, coughing, spewy bug thingy that is doing the rounds at the moment accounting for a few of the other regulars. Douglas promenade again was busy with walkers, runners and cyclists which is always good to see, as I have already mentioned I prefer to see people using the great free outdoors that we are lucky to have available to us on the Island rather than being cooked up in a gym.

Thursday evening there was only Dave W and myself out. The temperature was reading 3°C on the car dash and it certainly felt like that as I reluctantly exited the car to wait at Bikestyle for Dave to arrive. On the last two training sessions I have forgotten my watch so the average pace on both occasions I haven't known, however, both sessions had me back at the car before 19:00hrs so from that I know they have both been quite quick. If you have not bought a sports watch yet there are various good GPS options out there, Garmin, Polar and Suunto to name a few just make sure you check the battery life before purchasing as not many have the 24hrs battery life required to keep recording during the Parish.

A work colleague, Tom Cain, who has completed the 32.5 miles to Peel on a previous Parish Walk is taking part and hoping to complete the full distance this year for the first time in memory of his sister who unfortunately passed away towards the end of last year. He has asked me over the last week or so for some advice on clothing, footwear and food stuff to eat during the 2017 Manx Telecom Parish Walk, thankfully there are others at work who have also completed the full distance, Colin Gilbert being one who finished the full distance in 2015 but has walked past the 60 mile marker on a couple occasions and Adrian Beale who has completed the Parish 5 times, so having them to give their opinion also just goes to prove that not one person is the same. One thing that is certain is that all these things should start being experimented with now. My own experience on this subject comes from the advice that was given to me when I started to compete on the longer events but there really is no hard and fast rule, it really does come down to what is right for one person isn’t necessarily going to be right for the other so experimentation is the only way to find out what’s best for you. The upcoming Fireman’s Charity Walk, which is being held on the 23^rd April this year, is a great event to put all the experimenting with footwear, clothing and dietary requirements to test under race conditions using a support crew. The event is not catered for in the same brilliant way that the parish is where there are corporate and private feeding stations along the first part of the route, at least to Peel, where a wide variety of fruit, sweets, energy bars, chocolate and hot foods etc. are on offer there are however water stations positioned at various intervals. The event also gives the opportunity to recce the section from Peel to Ramsey if it is not already part of your training plan. The date for your diaries will be Sunday 23rd April 2017 starting at 08.30 at Peel Fire Station.



Myself, Stew, Andy, Dave W, Richard and Vinny Lynch, back for his first walk of 2017 after returning from Northern Island where he spent Christmas, met at the NSC at 08:00hrs for Saturdays stroll which took us over West and East Baldwin, up the Scollag Road and around the Little Mill back into Onchan where we dropped down Royal Avenue to finish along the Promenade. The rain, sleet and hail followed us most of the way round so we were well soaked by the time we got to The Caff for are usual reward. It was good to see so many participants in the first of the Prom Runs as we completed are walk towards the Bottle Neck car park, well done everybody who took part.