Well Done Julie!

I will start this week’s Blog by congratulating Julie Barlow on winning the 2016 / 17 Winter walking league. Julie has shown consistent improvement and was overall victor in the 10km league with a clear margin over Stewart Jones and last year’s winner Tony Edwards. Although not racing last weekend Dale Farquhar has set some massively impressive times this series along with Gianni Epifani who went just under 49 minutes last Sunday.


Compared to last week the miles have been quite low. I didn't walk on Monday due to being on an evening shift at work but managed to swap Tuesdays evening to a day shift so I could get out that evening. Wednesday again was an evening shift so again work got in the way of training. Being on evenings does mean I have the mornings free so there really is no excuse other than Christine is home most mornings as she does not need to be at work till after lunch, so spending time with her either shopping, carrying out D.I.Y duties or just nipping down to the local café for coffee is the best excuse I can come up with.


 Thursday night was spent with a few work colleagues at the Hooded Ram in Douglas for a curry and drinks so my usual Thursday evening blast around Douglas was moved over to Friday morning, Dave had asked the question on Thursday evening if anyone fancied walking Friday a.m. so it made the decision a lot easier to leave the pub when I was offered a lift back to Peel, at a rather early time of 21.30, knowing I had planned to walk the next morning.


 I started my set of nights on Friday / Saturday morning for the next 7 days so the usual arrangement of leaving work and meeting up with the group at the NSC was arranged. The route in the end saw us back in Douglas after covering 16 miles , so that and the 13 miles covered the morning before, have ended the week well with the possibility of a few more miles on Sunday being gained.


 The weeks already since New Year seem to be flying past with the last round of the winter league now gone and the Open Meeting at the NSC only a week away. Interest in the Firefighters Memorial Walk seems to be building rapidly with the first 39 entries already in. The inclusion of the 20 mile event, finishing at Bride church, for those 17 years and over, will hopefully tempt more people to take part in what is a great event.


 Before work on Friday I watched a program on ITV filmed on the Isle of Man called Britain's Best Walks it took in three routes, Dhoon Glen, Laxey and Snaefell if you did not catch it its really worth a watch, if only like me, you need reminding every so often just how lucky we are to live on this fantastic Island. The Race the Sun event gives the opportunity to see what the Island has to offer whilst running along the coastal paths of the island starting and finishing in Peel  I have chosen to do the first leg across Peel headland to White Strand before taking in a short section of road and turning on to the old railway line at Knocksharry Stop, Glen Mooar, Glen Wyllin and finishing at Ballaugh beach car park where I will hand the timing chip over to are second team member Dale Farquhar who will carry on over the beach and dunes via Blue Point and Smeale as far as the most Northern point at the Point of Ayre. I will need to plan between now and May some familiarisation walks / runs of the route before setting off on the day. I’m fairly confident but there is a section just after Bishops Court, following the old railway line, where you turn to head down onto the beach so I really need to be sure where this is so as not to run past. Luckily Christine works at Penny Bridge equestrian centre in Kirk Michael and hacks out along the old line most weeks so has a fairly good idea where I need to turn off, but more importantly, she can collect me from Ballaugh beach to save me having to walk back or try logistically to leave a car there so I have my own transport back home. I am hopeful the Achilles issue will be resolved by then, it was pain free racing last Sunday but has niggled a bit this week when training just enough to remind me it’s still there. I have another session of friction massage planned for next week, although painful I really do feel the effort both Bronwyn and Jorel are putting in is starting to pay off, I am also going to order some ankle supports next week to try.


 If you have not entered next weekend’s Open Meeting at the NSC but you could spare a couple of hours on Saturday I know Bridget Kaneen and the rest of the organisation team would appreciate any help with lap counting, marshalling or even tea making on the day. Bridget can be contacted on 497594 if you can help out.

A Good Week

The idea this week was to train each evening, however, Monday was really poor weather wise so I decided not to bother. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were better weather although bloody cold but I managed to get the normal 7 or 8 miles in each evening. Pete Miller joined us on Thursday and is starting to show how capable he is of securing a massive PB on this years Manx Telecom Parish Walk. Michael George also made it out for a stroll this week and seemingly does not loose any speed at all. I'm quite sure he could just kick on and leave the rest of us if he so desired, the same could be said for Richard Gerrard and Dave Walker.

I popped into The Creek on Friday to see a mate regarding some building work, it was only supposed to be a quick visit but ended up being a slightly elongated affair ending in The Royal 3 or 4 hours later. I had taken the day off on Saturday so I could make the Saturday morning walk so I was mindful of having to drive first thing otherwise I may of stayed out for the night. unfortunately going home early meant I missed Little Miss Dynamite in the creek later on. Michael George and his wife Irene, herself a Parish Walk finisher in a time of 22hrs 05mins 32secs, had made the Journey through from Douglas for the evening so I advised them not to miss out on the chance to see 'The Dynamite' in action. I have a video somewhere of Dale Farquhar and Ed Walter enjoying 'The Dynamite' after the Race the Sun last year, ill dig it out and add at some point if I can find it. Dave, Ray and I headed off at the usual time of 0800hrs for a planned 15 mile or so. The morning, although cold, was bright and suggested that maybe we can start to leave a little earlier in the coming weeks so to get to The Caff a little earlier. The sausage and egg bap felt more like lunch yesterday than breakfast as it was close to noon by the time we got there.

Christine and I had planned to meet friends on Saturday afternoon so made are way to The Whitehouse to start an afternoon of food and drink. The food never materialised but the drink made up for it and we stopped on the way home some time later and picked up some chilled Pasty and a box of Fruit and Fibre for supper, not really the best preparation for the following morning.

This morning (Sunday) was the last round of the Manx Harriers Winter League held at the NSC. Conditions again were ideal for what is always a well supported and organised event. Two of the leading Female walkers, Erika Kelly and Hannah Hunter, were missing as was another leading Male walker Tom Partington as they were all competing at the Sheffield Indoor 3000 Meter event. Most of the usual training group were competing on the 10k event, however Richard Gerrard and Dave walker were missing due to work commitments and Richard Wild was stuck on the other side of the water due to a late kick off last night in the Tottenham Liverpool game. I'm happy to say the Mighty Liverpool won the game so Rich will feel missing the last round was worthwhile. Stew Jones walked strongly to finish in the mid 57's and Pete Miller knocked almost a minute of his current 10k PB to finish around 61mins. Ray walked well considering he is still coming of the back of the Flu bug and has also spent the week fitting training in around building a new wall (in Ramsey not on the America / Mexico border) I managed to PB finishing in a time of 56mins 06secs so it really was A Good Week!

A Cracking Event

Repetitive I know,

Entries have opened for the Fire Fighters Charity Walk. The event is a chance to try out clothing, eating, drinking and gives an opportunity for your support crew to practice what will be expected of them on the big day.

It is also a recce of the Peel to Ramsey section of the Parish route

www.firefightersmemorialwalk.com

April 23rd 2017

See you there!

A Sticky Subject!

I was asked this week what I thought a good distance to train would be for this time of year. This for me is a tricky question to answer because I never started walking to compete on the Parish Walk. I would think there are a lot of different opinions on this but would say that as long as you’re out training you will know when you’re ready to increase the mileage. The 31 mile Fire Fighters Charity Walk in April should be part of that training though and what you are steadily building the mileage up to.


I had my first round of friction massage on Monday as part of the recommendations I was given to try and resolve the achilles issue. A half hour of someone sticking fingers and thumbs into an already sore tendon wasn't pleasant, but admittedly, it did feel a little better for it on Tuesday evening, although heavily swollen again, from the experience.


I never managed to get out training on Thursday due to work commitments, but as it happens the weather was dreadful so I feel I dodged a bullet. I did manage to get out with Ray on Wednesday evening for a stroll from the NSC to the old White City and back which surprisingly was just under 8 miles so missing Thursday was not too bad.


Saturday morning was a lot dryer than the evening before when it rained constantly. Dave, Ray, Stew, Andy and I met at the NSC as usual and went for a lap of Baldwin before heading up to Onchan and the White Bridge before dropping back down through Groudle to finish in Douglas. The watch bleeped as we got to the Bottle Neck car park to record 17 Miles, my arse had already alerted me to the fact, through chafing, we had done a few miles coming down Port Jack! Thankfully Stew had parked his car at his work in Athol Street so a lift was offered and accepted back to the NSC car park, after are usual halt at The Caff. Sitting at work again this evening isn't making the chaffing feel much better. I will ask Christine whether she has changed the laundry powder as I don't normally suffer over a short distance and hadn’t prepared myself with Vaseline!!


The use of Vaseline, or other similar product, was something I will mention again closer to the Fireman's and Parish Walks, however, seen I have brought the subject up early during this post I will continue. I suffered terribly with chaffing during one of my early End to End walks. I had smothered my feet in the stuff, this had been the advice I had been given from someone else as a sure fire way to prevent blisters, but I stopped there. Now I find before a walk I apply it under my armpits, where the seam of my T shirt sleeves rub, around the area my bottle belt sits and of course in other more personal areas including my groin and backside, some people smear it over their nipples, however, I use medical dressing tape, I no longer spread it on my feet. If you have been walking for a while now and have not experienced chafing don't think you're not susceptible to it. The Parish, will maybe not end in tears because of chafage, but will be one hell of an uncomfortable walk with it. Remember to re-apply the stuff often also, even more so after toilet stops. One last thing to mention regarding Vaseline is to bring plenty. The camaraderie on the day or even during the Fire Fighters charity walk in April will be something that you may not have witnessed if this is your first year of competing on such events. Through my own experience of walking I have been offered not only encouragement but food, water, sweets, medical supplies etc. etc. from my close competitors support crews as you see them as often as you see your own. The one thing I have never been offered mind, and would hope Christine never offers, is the use of someone else's Vaseline......... The sportsmanship and good nature on these events has to stop short of 'Double Dipping'

Massage

For those that have just started walking with the intension of completing some or all of the Manx Telecom 2017 Parish Walk I hope you are enjoying your training so far. If you started at the beginning of the year you will now be almost finished your first month of training. As a gift to yourself for the effort you have put into training why not book yourself a Sports Massage.

My first experience of sports massage was after suffering a groin issue during training on a Saturday morning with Bridget in Peel. On returning home I rang a therapist and was seen that afternoon. During the appointment I was asked how often I have a sports massage, my answer to this was "this was the first time I had been injured so had not bothered until now". The appointment also included a Bio Mechanical assessment, basically the therapist had me do some stretching and exercises to see how mobile and flexible my muscles and joints were. At the end of the massage I was offered a repeat appointment which I took up but there after did not have another massage for sometime. I now have a sports massage on average once a week I am not saying this is the norm, or should it be what everyone is doing, but it works for me.

There are four types of sports massages:

• Pre-event sports massage - a short, stimulating massage 15 - 45 minutes before the event. It is directed toward the parts of the body that will be involved in the exertion.
• Post-event sports massage - given within an hour or two of the event, to normalize the body's tissues.
• Restorative sports massage - given during training to allow the athlete to train harder and with less injury.
• Rehabilitative sports massage - aimed at alleviating pain due to injury and returning the body to health.

In one of my first posts I talked about feeling dreadful after taking part in the 2014 Ramsey Bakery End to End Walk. At the end of this event I simply carried on walking over the finish line and to my wife's car who was waiting near by and hopped in for the journey back to Peel. This quickly seen me cramp up, and on returning home to Peel, feeling like I just wanted to be shot due to the pain I was experiencing in my legs, arms in fact my entire body. Fast forward a year and at the finish at the Sound I climbed onto a massage table that Enid Watson had kindly commandeered for me and after around 15 minutes of therapy I was able to sit in the car home and felt as good as could be expected after racing for 40 miles and setting a PB. I was certainly in better shape than that of 12 months before.

Tuesdays and Thursdays training was at a good average pace, this could be put down to the cold weather making it worth while getting it over and done with and back to the shelter, if not the heat, of the car.

on Friday I met Andrew Stanley from the Rebound Clinic in Yorkshire. As said before Andrew had agreed to give me an assessment on my Achilles issue whilst he was visiting family on the Island. I'm happy to say that his opinion was that an Orthotic, an individually designed corrective footwear insert, is not required. The issue I have, if treated with an orthotic, would more likely cause a knock on issue with my knee so it was decided that some Gym work and Pilates Exercises followed up with Physio and possibly a change in footwear will hopefully see a positive outcome to what has now been a long term injury. The change in footwear is something I will not rush into as my current choice has served me well, like anything that you have built confidence in, its very hard to give up.

Yesterday was the usual Saturday morning training walk from the NSC. Dave, Richard, Ray and Stew turned up for what was a wet start to the walk. I was struggling with my Achilles early on which is the norm when starting early, thankfully this eased off later on into the walk. We still managed to cover a good distance of 15 miles in a good average speed / time, we decided to give the Caff a miss on this occasion due to being soaked from the wet start earlier.

Saturday evening was spent at the Woodbourne Pub at a gathering of Isle of Man based Centurions organised by Graham Young. It was interesting to hear that a few are planning to travel to South Africa later in the year to compete on the Centurion event that myself and others from the Island took part in last year (see earlier Blog) A recent Facebook post has confirmed the event will be going ahead with an announcement to be made shortly to confirm the date. Early suggestions from Mrs Quirk are that we will be heading that way also, if not only to Holiday in Cape Town and support the event on the day............... lets get the Parish out of the way first!

  

Nights.................. Done!!

I have been working a block of nights since last weekend which I finished on Friday at 0700hrs. The good thing about nights, for me anyway, is it allows me to train with the group on the Tuesday and Thursday evenings, something I can’t do when I am on evening shifts as they start at 1500hrs, finishing at 2300hrs. the Saturday training after my first night shift is always quite hard as I finish at Pulrose Power Station and make my way straight to the NSC for an 0800hrs start, at least until the clocks go forward. My plan was to try and at least do some mileage each day this week but that ended up not being the case. The good thing about finishing my block of nights is I am now off for 9 days, not returning to work until Monday 30th. It is definitely the plan to put some good training miles in next week additional to the Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday sessions already planned, hopefully trips to ShopShite and Cu Plas for new bathroom cabinets won’t get in the way next week as they have this, Christine also takes advantage of me being home during the day when I’m on nights and being tired I very rarely have a quick enough excuse to get out of such tasks!

 I have an appointment next weekend with Andrew Stanley from the Rebound Clinic in Yorkshire. On this week’s training walks I have been using a heel lift which takes some of the tension out of the tendon, it is basically a gel wedge that sits beneath the heel helping not only the tendon but also adds a little more cushioning to the heel strike. I am never comfortable self-prescribing anything so can’t wait for the consultation so at least then I can take some comfort in the knowledge that if I continue to use the heel lift or any other podiatry aid it will have been on the say so of an expert. The Rebound Clinic has been kind enough to answer my questions via email over the last couple of weeks so the wedge is not entirely self-prescribed.

Michael George joined Dave, Richard W, Ray and I on Thursday and suggested some stretching exercises that have helped him in the past with an Achilles issues. I must admit to not being the most diligent when it comes to warming up and stretching before and after walks. I know when I train with Bridget the first 20 minutes or so are taken up with various exercises to warm the muscles and joints up before putting them under the stresses of exercise so I really should know better. I have Google'd the stretches suggested by Mike and will endeavour to spend at least some part of next week trying them out.

Jock Waddington sent an email in the week looking for volunteers once again for the Race the Sun held in May. For those that don’t know this is a relay race with up to ten persons in a team racing from Sunrise to Sunset on The Raad ny Foillan coastal path which is divided into ten sections, again this year heading clockwise, around the Isle of Man. Although in May I remember how quickly it came around last year, after first being discussed in January, the 2017 Parish Walk is then only 5 weeks after! I have put my name forward to be included in the final team selection if not only for the food and drink that is the reward for taking part at the presentation held immediately after the last competitor crosses the Start / Finish line in Peel.

Saturdays training walk took in the first part of the Parish route from the NSC out to Santon but turning early to head back into Douglas via the old Castletown road. We had planned to stay out a little longer than the eventual 13 miles by taking in the loop around Marine Drive but myself and Stew Jones struggled with tightness in are legs, possibly due to the cold weather and Andy Dawson and Ray were only just back training again after recovering from Flu.

On the 12^th February the final round of the winter walking league is taking place around the NSC perimeter road way. Although this is the last round everybody is still welcome to enter on the day and compete over distances of 5 or 10k. There is a wealth of experience at these events be it from coaches, judges or fellow walkers, most of whom have completed a parish or two or three or four or fi…………….. I think you get the picture!!

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.