The Walker With Heart

I don't like New Year, I normally hate it - and tend to spend the evening with friends of similar views having a few too many and eating too much (so not that different from the traditional!)... Last year was the exception, and I imagine that around the country there are plenty who are almost exploding with not being able to tell anyone that they're going to the Palace... What I do is look forward and plan my exercising year in some detail... Partly cos I have to, and partly because I am driven by targets (and as a good friend would say by the pat on the head I get occasionally for doing things)... So... Jan - Begin to learn how to lead climb, pick up the running again, do section 4 of the Leeds to Liverpool Canal Feb - Southport Mad Dog 10k, GUCH PA Awareness Walk in Leeds, Section 3 of the L2L Mar - Liverpool Half Marathon, start the resistance training for the big walk - inc a weighted (that's a full backpack inc tent, clothing and food and water) Section 4 L2L, start...

A apple a day keeps the doctor away, but means you spend a day at the dental hospital... Its been a crap week... No, that's not fair... The course was useful, Change Management has lots of facets and being reminded of them is useful, newer techniques can be assimilated into projects and insights can be woven in the matrix that is my slightly odd way of looking at life:-) However, a heavy cold meant I didn't spend too long chatting with the others and when that mutated into a migraine... so I headed home early, grabbing a couple of apples as I went for the train. So far so good... However, just outside Stafford I bit into the apple and screamed as part of my 1st lower molar right side disintegrated... Getting an NHS dentist in Liverpool for the last 5 or 6 years has been almost impossible, and private dentists normally listened as far as "congenital heart defect" and said thanks but no thanks... Being awkward is not always a good thing. So to the dental hospital I we...

Ah, the scent of my sweat in my nasal passages, the scrawled on spreadsheet of a training plan, the desperate search of a matching pair of running socks (or at least a left and right one)... Phase 1 of the training has begun... As its icy out I'm in the gym (see posts from last winter for how much I hate the bloody gym)... But I'm pounding through the miles, yes I've lost a bit of fitness but not as much as I feared. However, I've now run a fair bit, and walked many many miles so I now know what I need for next years exploits... I'm also a champion bargain hunter, so I hunt down cheaper stuff... I say cheaper, as the tent and jacket between them are north of £300. Ultralight tent - bought:-) @38% off - Laser Competition Light (my dream tent for many a year) Fell Running Association compliant smock - just won on Ebay :-) @40% off Paramo Velez Adventure New hydration sack - spotted the probable one, an Osprey talon 11 want to try one more (North Face Boa Enduro ) bef...