The Walker With Heart

Its not often I'll positively recommend a company but the placed the GUCH Walking Club stayed this weekend was so good I'll make an exception! http://www.closetotheedgepeakdistrictaccommodation.co.uk/accommodation.aspx Centrally located, very nicely equipped, warm (almost too warm for some GUCHs !) and not outrageously priced. Anyway on to the walking - this was the end of my 2 weeks recovery from my marathon distance exploits - so the last 2 weeks have been 2 night time 5 kms and a 5 mile stroll. The Peak District is where the GWC started, and going back is always an absolute joy - getting there with one a day early also means that as well as a long walk to a couple of my favourite walking shops (14km) I could tailor a walk just for them... ok , slightly extended by the stepping stones over the Derwent being underwater, but still tailored to their wants. Then it was off to another GWC favourite - Chatsworth House - a good solid 7km around the woods (no cabinet ministers ...

A better week - I'm now 38... and got 3 decent runs in - 3 runs that I was able to smile through and enjoy... The first 5 km, was in the dark - work got in the way of a lunchtime jog, so around the the local part did I take my partner in crime - nice and gentle, avoiding the pot holes and dog mess by the force (or the smell!). The second was a case of "charge the bl** dy GPS watch if you want to know how fast you've been" - the route is 5 miles, and on Thursday it was a very very wet 5 miles - probably took just over an hour. Friday was Xmas shopping - almost all done:-) Saturday was the dreaded day itself, and with an eye to what I did today (actually with no eye to it at all) I had a fry up, burritos and then sausage and mash - well its your birthday only once a year! So an evening at the Liverpool Catholic Cathedral - don't worry, no sudden conversion! Carmen Barina ... No, I had no idea whatever until a more classically minded friend said it was the full ve...

Or so I've been told... The running is slowly, and hopefully surely, picking up - to test (probably to destruction) my base fitness next weekend I'll be walking 40km - the walk I did a little while ago, so flat and fast, but this time turning around at one end and coming back. Just to add to the commitment levels needed to do this, it'll be the day after my 38 th birthday. So limited alcohol (1 pint and a short) and healthy eating on my birthday - oh well I'll make up for it before hand. I was always told by my Mother that I had surgery on my birthday (not quite true, but close enough!) so its a time I always sit back and reflect on things... Doubly so this year as it would seem that this challenge, and the awareness raising, isn't being loved by all. Recently its been suggested that I'm doing this for publicity for me, and that hurts. It also prompts me to sit in the gym, and wonder if its true... I don't think it is, if it was the people who've com...