February was a quiet month relatively speaking. I got sick at the end of January and ended up taking three weeks off training from the 24th January through to the 12th February inclusive.
In the final two weeks of the month I completed 9 walks ranging from 5km to 40km, and now feel that I am almost back to full fitness.
I was originally planning on doing the Bourges 24 hour race in France this coming weekend, but cancelled those plans when I got sick so as to not put pressure on myself to get back to training until I was ready. I’m glad I made that decision, and although I feel that I could complete a 24 hour race next weekend, I don’t think I could give it 100%.
So instead, the plan is to do a high mileage month in March including a back to back weekend mid month and a 10 to 12 hour walk at the end of March.
I’ve been debating whether or not to start my monthly training summaries again now that I have resumed serious training and my build-up towards another attempt at walking 700+ kilometres in 6 days at the 6 jours de france in August.
A few people have told me that they find my training summaries interesting, and one day I think I’ll want to read back through them – I haven’t yet read through last year’s monthly training summaries though.
And right now (31st of January) I’m unable to train due to illness, so thought why not spend half an hour writing something.
Last year I think I might have taken my training a little too seriously. I stopped eating unhealthy food, stopped drinking coke – except in races – and whilst I focused on training mileage (quantity), I don’t think I trained hard enough (quality).
So this year I have decided not to worry about diet so much. Although I will never go back to the diet I used to have before last year when I used to eat and drink way too many junk calories.
With my actual training, I have decided to increase the intensity in 2017. I’m still going to maintain reasonable mileage, but at least half of my walks will involve some high intensity walking of some sort – this will usually involve fartlek/interval type training in the middle of a walk. For example, I recently did a 5 hour walk that included 1km hard, 1km easy, 2km hard, 1km easy, 3km hard, 1km easy and 4km hard. And then after another 4km easy I walked a 29:46 5km at Bushy Park parkrun before finishing off with another easy hour. Two days earlier I had done a 3 hour walk including 6 x 2km hard, and the day afterwards I walked 7 ½ hours at an easy pace.
I enjoy exploring when I’m walking, and try to cover as much territory as possible – heading in a different direction every time I head out the door. Using my Garmin to tell me when to start and stop hard segments based on kilometre splits is an easy way of increasing the intensity of my walks whilst still enabling me to go exploring.
Where I walked during January
The other problem I have right now is that I have had to do a lot of travelling for work, and have worked hours that haven’t enabled me to walk in daylight much – other than the weekends.
This has meant that much of my training has been in very cold conditions, mostly before work (5am starts in zero degree temperatures), and as a result I now have a chest infection caused by breathing in too much cold air over a prolonged period. I had the same problem in 2015 but ignored it for too long and the infection spread to my lungs. This time I stopped training after two weeks of discomfort, but it is likely that it will take me at least another week before I can resume training again.
Rather than putting pressure on myself to get back to full fitness as quickly as possible, I have decided not to compete in the Bourges 24 hour race on the 4th/5th of March. Instead, I’m thinking of walking in the inaugural Dublin to Belfast 105 mile race in mid April as my first race of 2017. I like the idea of walking from one place to another, and this race is 5 weeks before my other point to point race for 2017 – the Grand Union Canal Race.
It does mean that I need to reconsider when I will have another attempt at a nonstop circumnavigation of the M25 motorway though. I was thinking of doing that at the end of April but that would be only one week after the Dublin to Belfast race. I could potentially do it on the first weekend of May which is two weeks after Dublin to Belfast and three weeks before the GUCR, or otherwise I will delay it until the end of the summer, after the six day race. I plan on competing in the Thames Ring 250 at the end of June/beginning of July which would prevent me from doing the M25 walk during the summer months. The TR250 is a 250 mile race starting 4 ½ weeks after the GUCR and finishing 7 weeks before the 6 day race. I don’t think it would be wise to attempt the M25 walk during that 7 week gap. The last thing I want is to end up with an injury.
The good news is that I’ve decided on a charity to support when I do my M25 walk this year. I’m planning to raise money for Limbless Association. The reason I have chosen Limbless Association this year is that I consider myself very lucky to be able to walk the distances that I do. I have two good legs and two good arms, but not everyone does, and I would like to raise money this year to help those less fortunate than myself. It’s just a matter of working out when I can do my charity walk.
So please stay tuned for an update. I’ll post updates here on my blog as well as via facebook and twitter. In the meantime, please visit my JustGiving page.
P.S. Thanks to Fitbit, and hopefully other companies, there will be a prize draw related to my fundraising walk. All you will need to do to enter the draw is make a donation AND share one of my facebook posts or re-tweet one of my tweets in which I ask for donations, so keep an eye out for these too.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say for now. I’ll probably write another training summary at the end of February.
Until then,
Richard
P.S. Total mileage for January was 353km (219 miles).
I’ve been thinking about the year that has just finished and how I would rate it if I was writing my school report card. Would I give myself an ‘A’, an ‘E’ or something in between?
Me after breaking the NZ 500km record at Privas in October
On the positive side, my 2016 highlights included:
My circumnavigation of the M25 motorway in March.
To my knowledge I am only the third person to circumnavigate the M25 on foot, and I’m the fastest.
The Continental Centurions Race in May.
I broke the New Zealand 100 mile record and also bettered the official NZ 24 hour record – both of which have been goals since I first started race-walking in 2012.
My second Grand Union Canal Race, also in May.
36 ½ hours on my feet without sitting down once. Great mental training, and 6 ½ hours faster than last year.
The UK Centurions Race in August.
More than just a race, I used this weekend as training towards my upcoming 6 day race and walked 125km from Leeds to Redcar the day beforehand.
The 6 Jours de France in October.
My main focus for the year, I walked 614km in six days, narrowly missing out on the NZ and Commonwealth record, but successfully breaking the NZ 500km record along the way.
And many other training walks during the year.
I love training. In fact I would say that I am addicted to it.
I covered over 2,500 miles in training for the first time ever – 4,100 km/ 2,548 miles to be exact. In total I did 201 walks on 146 days, taking 624 hours. And I loved almost every minute of it.
Improved diet, sleep and general health
With my focus on the 6 day race in October I also took steps to improve my general health which I wrote about in each of my monthly training reviews from January up until the race in October.
Friends
And as would be expected in the friendly race-walking and ultra-running communities, I enjoyed the friendship of many new and old friends from all around the world.
So based on all of that, you might think I would give myself a report card rating of an ‘A’ or even an ‘A+’.
But to be honest, I don’t think I did as well as I could/should have. In fact, when I look back at my big walks from 2016, I keep seeing one common failing:
My circumnavigation of the M25 motorway
I lacked the mental toughness to complete my goal of walking the 265 km / 165 mile route non-stop. At the time I blamed the weather (it was extremely cold at night), but when things began to get hard, rather than pushing through, I gave up.
I went back and finished the job after a 36 hour rest, but I’m not happy with my lack of mental strength, my lack of will-power.
I will give myself a ‘C+’ for this walk. A pass mark, but could do better.
The Continental Centurions Race
I might be a bit hard on myself here, but I think I could have done better. There were a few hours in the middle where I lost time, and after I finished the 100 miles (my first of two goals) I slowed over the last three hours when I should have pushed on at the same pace I had been walking earlier.
I’ll give myself a ‘B’ for this race, but again, mental strength was below expectation.
Th Grand Union Canal Race
Again, maybe I’m being too hard on myself, but after walking the first 100 miles in a little under 24 hours, I struggled mentally on the second day. I think I can cover the last 45 miles at least an hour faster by staying focussed, so I will give myself a ‘B’ for this race too.
The UK Centurions Race
This race was to be a training event in the lead-up to the 6 day race and I expected to walk at least 85 miles (135km) in 24 hours during the race, after walking from Leeds to Redcar the day beforehand. And I thought I might even be able to manage to complete the whole 100 miles within 24 hours if I had a good day.
But I struggled both mentally and with tiredness and only managed 100km before stopping after 22 hours.
I don’t think this walk was good enough for a pass mark, so give myself a ‘C-‘ as a ‘D’ is possibly a bit harsh given that I had to walk 10 miles further than planned on the Friday.
The 6 Jours de France
Before the race I said that my absolute minimum distance to get a pass mark was 622km (386 miles) which would have beaten the NZ and Commonwealth records, and before the race I thought I could walk 700km in six days.
So based on that, I failed. The reason I ‘failed’ was because I lacked the mental strength I needed to achieve the goals I had set myself. I fell apart, especially on the last day. But I finished, and finished strongly with an incredible last three laps. The bad weather during the first three days of the race didn’t help me either. I also broke the NZ 500km record, so am happy to give myself a ‘C’ for this race.
And therefore overall, I think that my 2016 year rates as a ‘C’ or ‘C+’ on the report card. General comment: “Performed well but lacked the mental strength when needed. Expect better next year.”
The rewards of my year. From left to right: two cups and badge from Continental Centurions Race, Medal from GUCR, medal and cup from 6 day race
2017:
I have to work on the mental strength. I think a part of that will come from seeing a sports phycologist which is something I have been thinking about for a while, but I think the other issue is that I don’t train hard enough. I do the occasional interval session but most of my training is at a steady pace, and whilst that is good for building endurance, I never finish a training session thinking that I couldn’t walk another step. In 2017, it is time for me to step it up a level.
Goals for 2017:
I feel that I have unfinished business after 2016, and 2017 is going to be all about finishing what I started in 2016:
NZ 24 hour record
At this stage I am thinking of racing the Bourges 24 hour race in early March. The goal is to walk 24 hours without any lapse in concentration. If I do that, then something around 190km is a strong possibility. I need to at least beat the official NZ record of 182.65km. I walked 182.95km at Schiedam in May.
M25 circumnavigation
I’m not yet 100% certain when I am going to do this, but I think mid-April will be ideal. The goal is to walk the 165 miles non-stop, without even sitting down once, and in under 48 hours. That was my 2016 goal, and in 2017 I will do it!
I’m also going to use this as my annual charity fundraising walk.
700km in 6 days
The 6 Jours de France has been moved forward to the end of August in the hope of better weather. I learnt so much in the 2016 race, and still believe that I am capable of walking 700km in six days with the help of a great support crew (which I had in 2016), better weather, improved mental strength, and an improved training schedule.
If I can achieve all of those I will be happy. I’ve got a few other races planned for 2017, but the above three events are my main goals.
Thank you for your support this year:
I have received plenty of support from people this year as I have chased my goals. Whether it is the comments on facebook, the comments on some of my blog posts, or the occasional email I’ve received, thanks to everyone who has helped me this year.
I especially want to think my family, the support crew I have had at various events this year, Shaun Lightman who has been giving me advice on walking technique, and both Fitbit and Strictly Banners. Without you, I would not have achieved anywhere near as much as I did in 2016.
The good news is that I’ve decided on a charity to support when I do my M25 walk this year. I’m planning to raise money for 
