3rd March 2011

        I'm walking 5 to 10 miles a day to try and get the knee strengthened up although it's still a bit stiff when I finish. I've confirmed my entry/team entry for the national 10 mile race in Coventry on Sunday although I'm a little nervous. One more week would have been a lot better for the sake of my knee, I'm just thinking it's just too soon so I'm planning to start off slowly and build up, test it as I go along and just make sure I finish, whatever the time. As long as the four of us finish then we get a team time, and my coach thinks we have a chance... although Redcar have some excellent walkers, and I know very little about the teams from "darn sarf" It's all racing experience.

        Personally, things are changing quickly. I've been training on bigger ships in the Humber, good fun... But, I've been given the hurry up because they've started on the next set of windmills (oops, generating turbines. They don't like it when you call them windmills) in the Irish Sea between Barrow in Furness and the Isle of Man. So, sometime towards the end of next week I'll be back in Ulverston in the lakes until late summer. Not Wednesday though, we've managed to get front row tickets for John Bishop, the hot new comedian, at Hull City Hall, I'm looking forward to that.

Commuting to work, avoiding traffic jams. About 10 miles out in the North Sea. The worst part as I don't like heights!



                So, by the time I've got across, unpacked and settled down, It'll be time to start my Parish training with a vengeance. It's 10.25 miles from the flat to work, (and 10.25 miles back!) with the garmin it'll give me an incentive to push on further and faster. Cardio work, I'll be climbing mountains between tides, still got many to pick off. That's if my knee makes it past sunday! Also I have my 5 mile, 8.5 mile, and 12 mile circuits with strategically placed hills. (I didn't put them there, they were there when I found them!) Some have a good climb at the start, others near the end. And, most importantly, doing race walking training in the lakes is just accepted, along with the runners and cyclists, not frowned at like in Hull, where exercise is reaching for the remote control, or walking to the pub, and race walkers are "mincing poofters"

          On a completely different note we still haven't got a fourth member for the team, we need someone who's going for a finish who hasn't finished before. Team name? Half Man, Half Yorkie! is the best I've come up with. (Isle of Man and Yorkshire... geddit? Oh, never mind.)