Upping the Ante

I have started to increase mileage over the past week and have been on five walks of at least 8 miles in that period. I do not have any trouble at all in motivating myself to hit the road whatever the weather - however I am grateful to Mark H and Mike G who joined me on 3 occasions and were willing to go at my much slower pace !It does make horizontal rain more bearable with someone else to bounce off. In fact my claim to fame is that I managed to keep on the tail of Mike on the climb up Summerhill and Blackberry Lane - trouble is, Mike was dying of a cough at the time !

After an 8 miler plus today though, I am feeling a few niggles so am going to listen to my body and back off for a couple of days.I did try to take a cold bath afterwards Paula Radcliffe style to help but wimped out and only lasted about 40 seconds ! It's not an easy thing for me back off especially when you realise there are only 16 weeks to go to the race, I am on holiday for 2 of them and don't plan to do much in the final week. Plus I am going to be flat out with work over the TT fortnight so that's 5 weeks lost in total. Panic ...Ive only 11 weeks left to prepare !!

Anticipation is building up with each passing week and it was good to see the current list of entrants on the Parish Walk site. However, a few of the top guys are still not listed as entered so come on Sean, Robbie, Ray,Sue, Steve hurry up and get your entries in - this race needs you ! It is going to be a truly great race this year and I know from speaking to a few of the guys that most of the top 20 walkers from last year have high expectations of themselves and are aiming to lower their Parish PB's again. I almost wish I was watching !