20 miles....

Well Monday 30th May and the time came to do what I couldnt avoid any longer....my final 20 mile walk! 20 miles...even the sound of it was just arrrgggghhhhh. Even worse, I had to go straight from school and be back in time to pick Sam up from school.

So anyway, route planned I dropped Sam at school and set off on my way.

Started off as before, heading for Christchurch via Castle Lane. Popped into Tesco for a wee stop and a sandwich and scooted off again. Once I got to Christchurch it was unknown territory. Although only 8 miles in, we have always got to a certain point and then turned round and got home. This time, I was doing a big loop. I headed out of Christchurch towards Bournemouth International Airport, then to Parley, then to Hobby Craft and then home. I was aware that I was going at a cracking rate. Most of my miles were averaging under 15 minutes.

Was doing really well until mile 17. 3 miles from home and I hit my wall. My legs hurt, my feet hurt and I had no idea how I would do the last few miles. Still a few encouraging texts from family and friends and I did get home! I also did it in under 5 hours!!!

I really really hurt the next day though so I am dreading the after pains from 26 miles lol

So here we are. Its not 6th May 2012 and 6 sleeps to go. We have the route and final instructions on what to take and there is now nothing I can do until the day. I can feel the nerves starting to kick in and the adrenaline is starting to pump....

Next update will be after I have crossed the line....wish me luck!

Update.....

Just realised that I haven't updated this for a while!

March 14th we did our 16 mile walk. We completed this in 4 hours 22 minutes which I was REALLY chuffed with.

Then it all went wrong. We then did a walk along the beach. It was going to be a 12 miler and Clare injured herself. We thought it was all over, but luckily with expert advice, a new pair of trainers and time out, she healed fine. Then we had Easter Holidays, so have just got back on the training this week.

So anyway, this week we have done 3 walks, a 9 on Monday, a 4 on Tues and a 12 Mile today!. Todays we did in 3 hours 25 so are well back on track.

So anyway, we are really on the countdown now (eek). Bras are nearly done and they are gorgeous!! I am so pleased with how they have come out!

Next week, we are planning a 5 mile on Monday, a 14 on Wednesday and then Sunday its the big one..the final 20 mile pre Moonwalk training session...EEEEKKKKK

OOps forgot to do this!!

I have just realised that I have fogotten to update this from last week!

Okay, so last week we did 5 miles on the Monday and 14 miles on Wednesday.

The 14 miles, we did our usual route and just added a mile on. We also did it in under 4 hours!! I think the exact was 3hrs 54 mins.

Surprisingly, we didn't find it that tough. It was easier than we thought it would be! It did help that the weather wasn't too hot, but it was still comfortable. I did ache by the end of it, but we have finally come to accept that if you walk that far, its going to hurt!

We have decided that from now on we are going to increase it a mile every week on the run up to the 20 mile final training target!

This week we are therefore going to 15 miles!! 

22 Miles done this week

Been a big week again for walking. On Monday we did 6 miles and on Thursday, Clare and I did 12 miles. The same route as last time, from my house to Castle Lane Tesco and back.

Was a lot warmer this time. We did it in 3 hours and 20 minutes, so knocked 5 minutes of the total time taken which is always a big yay. My legs still ached at the end of it, but I think we have acknowledged that if you walk 12 miles, it is going to hurt at the end of it lol

The train tickets arrived on Tuesday, so thats it, no backing out now, not that I would of course.

Then today I did just under four miles by myself. To be exact, 3.73 miles in a time of 1hr 5 mins and 5 seconds, so just under 22 miles in total.

This week we are upping the distance. Tomorrow we go for 14 miles!!!! Omg that sounds a bit scary, but then it did when we went to 12!. We will have walked over half the total distance when we complete tomorrow, so that is a moral booster in itself!

29 Miles Walked since Saturday 4th February.

God I am surprised my legs aren't yelling out in protest!

Saturday I did four miles
Sunday Clare and I did 7 miles
Monday Clare and I did 6 miles

and today we did.......

12 miles!!!!!

We walked to Bournemouth Tesco on Castle Lane and back in 3 hours 25 mins which I am really chuffed about.

We had one really bad mile at about 6 miles which was a twenty minute mile, but that was a run of one pedestrian crossing after another, but otherwise averaged 16 ish minute miles.

It was a lovely route and nice and flat so no horrible hills, but it was sooo cold. I think it was the equivilent of -5 out there today. My legs were so cold they were hurting without aching. The last mile was really painful, but better than I thought it would be

The thing that surprised me the most is the fact that I do not ache at all! I remember doing the small 5/6 mile walks at the start of this and being in agony at the end of it. I did have a really hot shower, but have no aches or pains at all now. I probably feel fitter than I have done in my life!

The huge milestone is though we are one mile of completing a half marathon, massive achievement!

We are allowing ourselves a week off next week as it is half term then doing another 12 before going for 14 eeekkkkk!

Another 10 miles done!

We did another 10 miles on Wednesday 1st February! We did it in 2hrs 40 mins, knocking about a minute off of each mile!!!!

 Did a gorgeous walk to Sandbanks Peninsula and back. The sun was out and although there was a slight chill in the air, it was beautiful.

It definitely felt easier this time. Maybe because there were not so many hilly sections, but more manageable. 10 miles was always my mental wall, so I am so happy to have got passed there.

We are walking 8 tomorrow (maybe with a stop for a cuppa), 5 on Monday and then Wednesday we are going for 12!!!!

We have worked out that 12 miles is to Castle Lane Tesco and back so should be nice and flat! Think those extra 2 miles are going to be bit of a challenge.

Apparently some people have said to not get so fixated on getting to 20 miles before the walk, but I think the nearer we can get to full distance the better!

Yay We did 10 Miles!!

I am a couple of days late updating this, but we made the 10 miles!! OMG I am so proud of us.

We did it in 2 hrs 45 mins with an average of 17 ish minute miles which I think is really good.

The weather was a bit iffy. It had been raining first thing and there was a bit of heavy drizzle a couple of times, but it was nice and cool which helped a lot.

We walked from Claire house to Ashley Cross, then from there to Whitecliff, all the way along Baiter to the end of Poole Quay, then turned round and came home.

Coming back was great until 8 miles and I will confess the last couple of miles were hard due to a couple of uphill sections! 8 miles and then hills yaaayyyyy...not.

Surprisingly enough though, I don't feel like I walked 10 miles, or 15 miles over two days. I feel remarkably refreshed and non achy. Maybe my endurance levels are getting up or maybe I am a bit fitter than I gave myself credit for?

Anyway, we have 10 weeks to get to 20 miles and all I can say is bring it on! I feel really positive at the moment and really believe that we can do this!

Two small Walks done, the big ones tomorrow!

Didn't see any point as putting these as two tiny posts so you can have one big one!

Did 5 miles on Friday 20th January and another 5 miles this morning. Was a bit trickier this morning as its the first one done in the rain really, although it did dry off towards the end.

5 miles is so easy, but it only takes an hour and a bit so don't need a huge gap in the day to do it.

Tomorrow is the big one though. 10 miles and its a mare of a route that is planned. Not so much focusing on time tomorrow, just doing the 10 miles. I have to say I am a bit nervous EEEKKKK!!

I have just worked out thought that we have covered 87.5 miles so far in training!! Thats massive lol

Two Walks In A Row And Theme Planned

Well I have done two walks in two days. Yesterday by myself I did four miles in 1 1/4 hours. Today we did 8 miles in two hours 15 mins. We didn't do the 10 miles planned as Clare had to get the gas men out. Hopefully we are going for the 10 miles next week, but planning to have a shorter route option in case it hurts too much lol.

I'm not worried though as we worked out that including the 5 mile plan we are doing on Wednesday, we will have done about 20 miles over the week which is pretty good going!

We have now also finalised our theme. The theme for the walk is "Rocking around the world" so we are going for the 50's Rockabilly look with a cherry red and black colour scheme.

We have on order from Ebay black neck scarves with red cherry's on. We are going to order some red tulle from Hong Kong to make the tutus out of and overlay them with cherry print fabric and then buying a pair of red and a pair of black leg warmers and each having one of each colour!! It's going to be soooo cool.

I am so excited now. It feels like it is all slowly coming together!

Walk Number 9 and others planned

Distance 5 miles- Time..not so much worrying about this


Had a lovely 5 mile walk today. We had planned 10, but due to injury on Clare's part, decided to do two shorter walks. We therefore did 5 miles today and are doing the other 5 miles on Sunday.

We did it in about 1hr 20, but after reading advice on the Moonwalk blog about not getting obsessive about times, are not so much focusing on miles per minutes now.

It was a gorgeous day for it. Nice and sunny even though it started off fresh. 5 miles is very easy now though, still hate hills lol.

So are doing 5 miles on Sunday, then are going for 10 miles on Monday and another 5 the following Wednesday. Over the four sessions we will have done 20 miles!! Just need to merge them altogether now hehe.

Starting to find all the little hints and tips to get us through this, won't be long before we need to start planning stuff to take!!!

First Walk of 2012 and OMG!!!!

Distance 8 miles. Time Taken 2 Hours


Well, after a gap due to Christmas and New year, we did the first walk of 2012 this morning!

It was gorgeous. The sun was out, the sky was blue and it was heaven. I haven't really managed to get any distance in since our last walk so it was bit of a shock to the system. We also realised that we have been slightly cheating ourselves. This is because the last few 8 mile walks we have done have been on flat terrain (along the sea front) and this was the first road walk we have done for a few weeks. I had forgotten how much harder it is to do when there are hills and traffic lights involved.

We also had to incorporate a trip to Tesco into the walk so I could pick up a new Skylander for my son that we had on order (thanks Sam lol)

Reassuringly, despite the three week break, we still manged to maintain a fairly steady mile per minute. Due to the app playing up, I am unable to add exactly what our minute per mile time was.

We are both panicing a teeny bit as the walk will be on us in under 5 months!! We have worked out that going by the training plan, we need to do the final 20 mile walk the last week of April, before the kids break up for Easter. The plan is then, that every other week we are upping the distance by 2 miles. We have done 8 for a few weeks though, so next week are going for 10 miles! Got a feeling thats going to hurt a bit.

It's all getting a bit real now. Next month we have to sort out the train tickets for London. My Justgiving link has been handed out and it's countdown time now....OMG!!!!!!