This is my last monthly training summary for 2016.  My year is almost over.

For the last nine months my training has been focused on the biggest race of my life, the 6 jours de France which is a 6 day race starting in just three week’s time, in Privas, France.

My goal is to walk a minimum of 622km (387 miles) which is the current New Zealand record, set by Gerald Manderson during the 1999 edition of the famous Colac 6 day race in Australia.  Gerald held the NZ 200km record until I beat that at Roubaix last year, and he also holds the NZ 500km record which I’m hoping to beat as well.

To be honest, I think I can go a lot further than 622km and am aiming for 700+ kilometres over the six days.  It is easy to say that I am targeting a particular distance, but I have never done anything like what I’m about to attempt – 144 hours of walking around a 1,025 meter circuit focussed on nothing but walking.  I don’t know whether I can do it.  But I don’t know that I can’t do it either!

I have really enjoyed the last nine months building up to this race.  At the end of last year I set myself some targets for both my training and also for things like improving my day to day nutrition, doing more stretching, getting more sleep, etc.  Before this year I ate plenty of junk food, justifying it by saying that I burn a lot of calories in training, but in 2016 I have been focusing on eating healthy calories and have dramatically reduced the amount of processed food I have been eating whilst increasing the amount of fruit and other healthy food I consume.  And in so far as sleep, I used to have the view that there is ‘plenty of time to sleep when I’m dead’, but in recent months I have been trying to get more sleep to aid recovery from training.

When I set my big goal for 2016 (the 6 day race) I also planned some other races and events along the way and whilst I didn’t achieve everything I wanted, I have had a year that I can look back on with a lot of pride:

• March – my M25 circumnavigation as a fundraiser for Sport Relief. The plan was to walk a lap of the M25 motorway non-stop – i.e. without sitting down.  Obviously I couldn’t walk on the motorway itself, but I could walk on the A and B roads on the outside of the M25.  I thought I could do it in around 48 to 50 hours but after 32 hours I had to sit down for the first time, and 2 hours later I pulled the plug on my attempt.  After a 36 hour break I went back and finished the walk.  The total distance ended up being 177 miles (285km) and it took me 86 hours – including the 36 hour break in the middle.
• May – By May I was extremely fit and decided to have an attempt on the New Zealand records for both 100 miles and 24 hours at the Continental Centurions Race in Holland. I achieved both goals and two weeks later I entered the Grand Union Canal Race with the goal of walking the 145 miles (233km) from Birmingham to London via the Grand Union Canal non-stop – i.e. without sitting down.  And I managed it!  36 ½ hours of continuous forward momentum.
• June – A work trip to Guernsey gave me the opportunity to walk a lap of the island. It was only a marathon in distance but was another fun adventure.
• July – two more adventures. On the 14^th I celebrated my birthday by spending the day walking the length of the District Tube Line, and three days later I walked the Monopoly Board from Old Kent Road to Mayfair via every street and railway station in the order they appear on the monopoly board.
• August – And finally, at the beginning of August I had my last adventure when I walked from Leeds to Redcar, a distance of 79 miles (127km) the day before the UK Centurions Race in which I dropped out after walking 100km in 22 hours. Including the Redcar parkrun on Saturday morning as well as walking to/from various parkrun, I completed 149 miles (239km) in the 48 hours between leaving Leeds on Friday morning and pulling out of the Centurions race on Sunday morning.  This was 6km further than my official NZ 48 hour record.
• October – and now for the biggest adventure of the year – the 6 jours de France.

September training summary:

After the Leeds/Redcar weekend I succumbed to an injury which limited my training in August and left me feeling rather despondent, but I am happy to report that four visits to an Osteopath have got me back to full fitness and on the last day of September I managed a 7 ½ hour training walk for the first time since getting injured.  With just 3 ½ weeks left until race day I won’t attempt another walk of that distance but will probably do a 4 hour walk this week and then reduce my mileage over the last two weeks before the race.

Sleep:

Earlier this year I set myself a target of getting 8 hours sleep at least three times a week, and trying to average 7 hours sleep per night overall.  I haven’t managed to achieve those targets yet, but if I didn’t have a target I wouldn’t even get as much sleep as I do.  I can always find something else to do before going to bed at night and before I set these targets I would average between 4 and 6 hours sleep per night.  In September I had 5 nights of 8+ hours sleep and averaged 6 ¾ hours sleep per night.  Interestingly, in the 30 days of September I had just 4 minutes less sleep than I did in the 31 days of August (according to the stats from my Fitbit).

Stretching:

In January I set myself a target of stretching for 30 minutes three times a week.  After getting injured last month I almost met my target in August, and finally, in September, I met the target for the first time with 14 separate stretching sessions of 30 minutes or more.

Nutrition:

I also set a healthy eating goal back in January and have been very well behaved all year except for a minor relapse during August when I was feeling depressed due to my injury problems.  This month I was back on track though, but I can tell you now that November and December will be junk food heaven for me 🙂

Year To Date Mileage:

Total hours: 435

Longest walk: 145 miles (233km) – being the Grand Union Canal Race.

Plans for October:

Get to the start line injury free!

And why am I writing all this?

As I have said at the end of all my monthly training summaries, I have huge plans for 2016.  Everything is focused around the 6 jours de france which is now only 3 ½ weeks away.  I broke my preparation down in to individual months at the start of the year and each month I have been writing my monthly review to help me assess where I am with my training, sort of like a business reviewing its KPI’s at month end.  It has definitely helped me to stay focused during the year, and what a great year it has been!

Richard

My body is falling apart!

One of the reasons that I am writing these monthly training summaries is so that after my year is over (after the six day race in October) I can read back through them and remember what I did, what went well, and what didn’t go so well.  They also help me to review the month that has just been and plan for the next month, and so far this year everything has gone pretty well.  At least until August, that is.

August didn’t go so well.

After a great early part of the summer from May through to the end of July I had intended to do one more big month before starting a long taper through to the 6 day race which is in the last week of October.  I started with a big weekend at the start of the month, covering just under 150 miles (240km) in two big walks, although to be honest I was a little disappointed with how I went during the second of those walks.

I then had a week off as planned and the following weekend I walked an easy 5km parkrun but found that my right hip or quad just didn’t feel right.  I had a few more days off and then went for another walk with the same result.  And then the following morning I woke up with severe cramp in my right calf muscle.  It was so sore that I wouldn’t have been able to walk even if I had wanted to, and it took a whole week to heel.  I decided to visit the chiropractor that I had seen back in May to see whether the pains I was experiencing could be back related (I have had a bad back since I was a teenager) but the pain and discomfort in my quad/hip continued.

I spent a minimum of 30 minutes a night doing stretching and strengthening exercises, working on both my legs as well as my back and core.  One of the benefits of not training was that I had more time to do stretching at night – something I have tried to do all year without any consistency.

On the last day of the month I went for another walk.  I was getting fed up with not being able to walk and was feeling a little depressed.  I walked 5km at a very easy pace and unfortunately I experienced minor pain over the last 10 minutes, and again after I finished.  It isn’t intense pain, but it is enough pain to make me think that if I continue to walk I won’t make it to the start line (of the six day race) in 7 ½ weeks time.

I’ve now made an appointment to see an osteopath in a few days time, and am hopeful that she might be able to help me.

Regardless of the result, there is no way that I won’t be on the start line on the 23^rd October, and I keep reminding myself that I struggled with injury for ten weeks before competing in a 3 day race at the same venue last year.  In those ten weeks I averaged just 16 miles per week in training and only had one walk longer than 10 miles.  In May and July this year I proved to myself that I was extremely fit and had excellent endurance, so even without any serious training between now and October I should be fit enough to walk for 6 days as long as my leg allows me to.

So that’s where I’m at at the moment.  Not happy, but trying to remain positive.

Sleep:

I have a target of getting 8 hours sleep at least three times a week, and trying to average 7 hours sleep per night overall.  I haven’t yet managed to achieve those targets but this month was an improvement, thanks to my lack of training.  I had 6 nights of 8+ hours sleep and averaged 6 ½ hours sleep per night – getting 10 hours more sleep in August than I did in July.  And that includes the two nights in the first weekend of the month when I had a total of less than 2 hours sleep!

September and early October needs to be focussed on getting as much sleep as I can in the build-up to the 6 day race.  If I can’t train, I can definitely sleep, and will go in to the race well rested.

Stretching:

In January I set myself a target of stretching for 30 minutes three times a week.  If I didn’t have a target I wouldn’t do any stretching at all and until this month I hadn’t got anywhere near my target.  In August, however, I spent at least 30 minutes doing stretching and strengthening exercises every day for the last ten days, and eleven days in total.  Almost at my target 🙂

Nutrition:

I also set a healthy eating goal back in January and have been very well behaved all year – until this month.  I have struggled a bit with motivation due to the injury and have to admit to eating a bit of chocolate and other junk food this month that I wouldn’t have eaten if I wasn’t injured and wasn’t feeling a bit depressed.

That said, I still haven’t eaten a ‘heat n eat’ meal this year, and am still eating up to six pieces of fruit per day.

I’ve now written off August with respect to my healthy eating but will be eating a healthy diet between now and race day in October.

Year To Date Mileage:

Total hours: 399

Longest walk: 145 miles (233km) – being the Grand Union Canal Race.

Races:

Other than the UK Centurions Race at the beginning of the month, which was really just a training event as a part of my back-to-back long walk weekend, I didn’t do any races (I was injured) and now don’t have any other races until the six day race.

Plans for September:

I’ve only got one plan, and that is to get over this injury!

And why am I writing all this?

As I have said at the end of all my monthly training summaries, I have huge plans for 2016.  Everything is focused around the 6 jours de france (Privas 6 day race) in October, and I am breaking my preparation down in to individual months.

At the end of each month I write my monthly review which helps me assess where I am with my training, sort of like a business reviewing its KPI’s at month end, and I set/confirm my goals/plans for the next month.  Writing this review this month has definitely helped me to refocus on the positive attitude I need to get the result I want in October.

Podcast Interview:

I almost forgot to mention that I appeared in my first ever podcast interview during August.  Chris Desmond from the Uncomfortable Is OK Podcast interviewed me about the M25 Circumnavigation walk that I did back in March.

Chris is also going to do a series of mini interviews with me, which he will consolidate in to one podcast about my six day race.  We’ve had the first interview already and I’ll be talking to him again during September and then before, during and after the race.  Hopefully it will make for an interesting podcast.

Richard