The next challenge...

Well decision made...

Time to get off my sorry fat ass and start aiming for a target, the running will underpin it but what the marathon has taught me is having the big target, the ultimate goal, focuses me more than I thought possible.

So, the target - 190 miles in 2 weeks, straight across England, from St Bee's to Robin Hood's Bay, crossing the Lake District, Pennines, Yorkshire dales and some of the best walking country the world has to offer.

When, well that'll be May next year... A long time away, but long enough to get my road fitness (which is still about as good as its ever been) enhanced and hill fitness added in. It also gives me time to start saving for the replacement kit I'll need (new ultra-lightweight tent, lightweight sleepingbag and camping mat) and to book the time from work.

So where to start doing things... getting my ass back into the running gear and stop being wishy washy about the Great North Run, start block booking some weekends for hard and fast walks with a full load (even if I don't use the gear, walking 13 miles with it will be good training). I'm also going to have to get back to the gym and start using the stepping machine to build the thigh strength up... Oh joy the gym!

It's too soon to hit my friends for sponsorship again, but as ever I'll try to raise awareness as I go... Looks like Perkin's will be going for a long walk, and I'll carry a flag saying what I'm doing and more importantly why...

TTFN

Paul

Comments

  1. CalmDownDear14 August 2010 at 22:30

    Oh - I'm so jealous Paul. My husband and I (I sound like the Queen!) would really like to do the Coast to Coast. We will do it but it will probably be in two halves as my knee and his achilles don't hold up too well with constant use. TBH we don't have a good leg between us :-D And you're going to camp too? Now that really is a step too far!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous19 August 2010 at 14:31

    Looking forward for more running post in your blog. Keep running!!!

    keens

    ReplyDelete
  3. PaulWillgoss20 August 2010 at 21:37

    Amy,

    the running will be back...

    This week was a good one - I set a new PB for 5k, 32:24:-D That means in 5th months I've PB'd - 5k, 5miles, 10k, 10miles, Half Marathon and Marathon:-D

    The Great North Run is just around the corner so more miles to do:-)

    P

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something a little bit political...

Well the legs still don't want to run, walk and climb is fine, run makes them feel a bit leary ... Probably the two most contentious words in the congenital heart world (UK branch) are "safe and sustainable", a quick trawl of the support websites or facebook will show many a group being set up to save a hospital or a ward. I won't be joining any of them. Not because I don't care, but because I care too much. The origins of Safe and Sustainable go back to the Bristol Hospital Enquiry, and quite simply this is designed to ensure that the surgery that heart kids get is the the most appropriate, done by well trained and supported surgeons who are used to doing the operations and are in a surgical setting which are designed around the needs of the child going through the surgery and their family. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. I want every heart kid to get the best surgery available to them, I want their parents to be given the best advice, support...
Read more

12% of a plan…

  It’s been a month.     A month since the new heart valve was inserted… the chaffing has died down, I’ve been sensible and built my walking up, restarted my apple fitness plus bits and bobs (boy has it been a long time since I bent like that, or cycled/spun like that) and I’ve been for two runs – a gentle 3k which worked as a prelude to my return to my local parkrun… I finished, my tally went up 1, and I remembered just how tough it is to run the first mile on so soft, dry sand… In hindsight I would’ve been better to walk the first third and conserve my energy (and pool of fitness) to the prom and the grass thirds…   Relive 'Return to Parkrun!' Yes, it does look the first bit is out to sea…  Monday was a random day off work to get out and do something, so with a bit of head scratch and some nifty plotting on the OS Mapping app I wandered along the canal, and then down the Transpennine Trail & “loop line”… Almost pancake flat, I know...
Read more

It’s a kind of magic (the science kind)…

  Well, operation done – I have a funky new valve and a bit of a sore groin.     I was in hospital for 28, sleepless, hot, hours and unconscious for about 4 of them.     While the insertion points for the three catheters I had in me in at the same time heal it’s a case of taking it easy, let my body get over the various manipulations (sore throat, the impact of the still there frozen shoulder) and the simple lack of sleep from stress and some noisy neighbours on the day ward I was on.  There’s really not a lot else to say… I went in, did the usual pre-op checks, had a chat with the interventionist, had a chat with the anaesthetist, signed the all-important consent forms (kids – that’s when you know you’re an adult; parents, that’s when you know your kid is in charge), was wheeled across to a hybrid cath lab… laid down, bit of banter with the team and the next thing I knew I was waking up, sore and not actually knowing whether the funky valve had fitted me…...
Read more