Oh dear...

This week I decided I should actually put my money where my mouth is & get round to doing some exercise & devise a training plan for January & February, so apologies for the length of this blog post as I thought i'd let you all know exactly what's ahead.

Earlier in the previous week Dave had told me that he’d decided to join the same gym as me (Mount Murray), which I was really pleased about as not only would it give me a training partner, it would also help us to plan & prepare for the upcoming challenge & potentially not have one person considerably fitter than the other.

So, we decided to start off the week with a spinning class on Monday evening followed immediately by a weight training session. Now for those of you who were unaware (like I was the first time I attended), spinning involves sitting on a static bike & increasing/decreasing the resistance in time to music & the instructors commands. I had heard that these sessions were pretty tough & realised approximately 1:23 seconds into the first song that this was an understatement & that I was severely unfit.

Straight after the spinning session we went to do weights & work the guns. I’d been going to the gym religiously twice a week to do a weight training program from August 09 up until I picked up an injury at the beginning of December, which prevented me from doing my routine & induced a severe case of laziness. It’s a real disappointment to go back & not be able to do/lift as many sets of weights & feel so tired afterwards but we managed to get through it, feeling very sore for the next couple of days.

On Tuesday I played squash against one of my friends Claire J which was good fun, it’s good to break up the week with something which is a relatively new sport to me & is challenging not only physically but also mentally. Knowing where to play the shots but being unable to make them 50% of the time & working out why, although this training is not really relevant to long distance walking I thought it’d all help!

On Wednesday I attend a Cisco CCNA college course straight after work at the Isle of Man College (I won’t bore you with the details but just tell you it’s about computers & it’s to help me improve my geekiness), but after that I went to play squash again against some of the Castletown Hockey club guys & girls, got thoroughly spanked, getting back to my flat around 10ish.

Thursday was hockey training, it can be a mixed bag fitness wise for me as I am usually coaching & this means that unfortunately I am more inclined to stand around shouting at people to do more exercise than actually do any myself. Depending on the session i've got planned I can get involved, but still, shouting's got to be good training for the lungs right?

Friday consisted of going to the gym for another spinning session followed by a weights session, this time working the man boobs, shoulders & back, again this was extremely tough.

Saturday was the last mens hockey game of the season which didn’t really go to plan but was a good run about & thankfully I didn’t pick up any injuries. It’s in the back of my mind that there is a potential to get a serious nock which prevents training properly for the walk, which may be something I need to consider closer to the time, but for now i’m enjoying it & looking forward to the up-coming mixed season.

Sunday was the pièce de résistance, i’d agreed to go for my first walk with Dave, but hadn’t actually discussed with him where / what we would be doing. So I woke up at ten to ten & headed straight down to his without any breakfast, drinks or preparing in any way other than putting on plenty of layers, thinking that we would just have a stroll around Port Erin & i’d best wrap up warm.

This turned out not to be the case when we arrived at the bottom of an extremely steep hill at Fleshwick & then to my horror proceed to walk up it at a fairly quick pace! I struggled to keep up with Dave & had to stop near the top to get my breath back & strip off 2 of the four layers i’d stupidly decided I’d need before setting out. We continued up over the hills to the top of Milners tower, then through Port Erin, up part of the sloc, turning left & going back round the hills to the bottom of Fleshwick. I felt extremely sore & tired after the walk & the weeks training.

Perhaps going from very little to full pelt may not have been the best plan but I am glad I did as it’s shocked me into realising how unfit I am & how much work is ahead of me!

Don’t worry, I promise not to write as much on the next blog post!

Thanks for reading.

Mark