Welcome to the Sloc

Week 3 of training & so far so good! There have definitely been nights which I have not wanted to train due to a long day at work or just being physically tired from previous fitness activities, but i’ve found that the hardest part is leaving the flat, once i’m at the gym / pitch etc I find it easier to put in as much effort as possible during the actual exercise.

In terms of exercise this week consisted of the same regime as the previous one, it is my hope to keep going with it, going a little bit further / completing everything a little quicker until the evenings start getting lighter & we go out & do more long distance road & hill walking.

It was the first week of the mixed hockey season on Saturday & I really enjoyed the game, especially the feeling of being able to run around more & recover quicker, another added benefit from all this training. I’m looking forward to a competitive & fun season as we have a great team which seemed to gel well & have fun. The only problem was that I managed to pull a muscle in my upper leg (OK, embarrassingly enough - in my bum), fortunately it wasn’t too serious & although I was in some discomfort I managed to play on for the rest of the game (what a hero I hear you saying), but I was a bit concerned due to the walk we planned for Sunday.

Not only did I have the embarrassing injury to contend with I also had a self inflicted hangover, having gone out for my first proper alcoholic drink since early December. The reason I would be so stupid was for a hockey club night out & Graham Brown’s Birthday celebrations, it was good fun & I was pleased that I managed to resist going to the hell hole known as Paramount & even more impressively than that, not buy a kebab! I also walked home from Havana to Farmhill, y’see even binge drinking can involve exercise.

We’d decided to try a different route for our weekly walk, the infamous Sloc! This section of the Parish Walk is renowned for being one of, if not the toughest sections to complete due to it’s continual incline & overall distance. Admittedly we didn’t walk the 20 or so miles that we’ll need to complete before reaching it on the actual day, but it wasn’t as tough as I’d expected.

Dodging the cars, black ice & dead animals added an extra twist to the journey along with taking in the beautiful scenery. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to dodge a large puddle in the road near Colby and even more regrettably neither did the car coming the other way! Needless to say it was a bit of a shock to get completely covered in water from head to foot, but look on the bright side, at least it meant I didn’t need to go for a shower afterwards...

Apologies for returning to essay writing, hopefully it’s not too long winded!

Roll on week 4!

Mark

Much better!

This weeks training consisted of much the same as the previous week:

• Monday – Spinning & weights session
• Tuesday – Squash with Claire J & Dave
• Wednesday – Squash with the Castletown Hockey Club guys
• Thursday – Hockey training
• Friday – Spinning & weights session
• Saturday – Hockey game
• Sunday – Walk over them thar hills of Fleshwick

The great thing this week was that the walk around fleshwick was much easier, I think my body had to respond to the barrage it was put under & I felt considerably stronger & able to keep pace with Dave.

Once we’d got back to the starting point I felt like I could also continue walking for a lot longer / further which I think is a good sign. Some of this may have been down to better preparation as I made sure I had some breakfast & plenty of water before I set off, along with some juice / sweets for the actual walk (i've decided that red & black fruit pastills are a walkers best friend!).

My whole body is sore, but it’s good to see that the hard work is paying off already, and hopefully i'll feel like i've improved this much each week!

Mark

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

Exciting but tough times ahead...

Myself & Dave first decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro approximately three years ago, but with one thing & another we never actually got round to arranging it, adding the idea to a never ending list of things that I wanted to do.


Thankfully, earlier this year we got together & decided to get it sorted once & for all, book a date, pay a deposit & most importantly start training.
But why stop at just climbing Mount Kilimanjaro? If a bunch of poncey celebrities could beat us to it then we had to go a step further & what better challenge than to aim to complete both the Kili climb & the Parish Walk in the same two week period.


For those of you who don’t know about the Parish Walk it’s an 85 mile road walking race that winds through every parish on the Isle of Man & once started has to be completed within a 24 hour period. It is considered to be extremely tough to complete due to its physical & mental demands & is not something to be entered lightly.


Along with the fact that we think this will be a challenge of a lifetime we also see it as a great opportunity to raise money & awareness for three great charities, Alzheimer's Society, Macmillan Cancer Support & Oskar's Dreams/Rebecca House (please see our website http://www.manxkili.com/ for all the information on these & a chance to donate if you want to).


Soooo, there’re some exciting but tough times ahead, especially after a long Christmas break with far too much food & alcohol.

I hope to update this blog weekly to keep anyone who’s interested with up-to-date information (probably more than you can possibly ever want to know!) & both myself & Dave will be updating the main http://www.manxkili.com/ website with pictures & news.

Thanks for taking the time to read about myself & Dave!


Mark