My training in October had gone really well and I was pleased with the balance I’d managed to get between weight-lifting, boxing, running and walking. Since then, I’d been doing more reading about the MdS and one of the things I noticed was everyone saying how much more walking you end up doing than you expect. It can be harder to walk longer distances than to run them, for example to run ten miles it may take you one hour forty, to walk ten miles it could take you two hours thirty mins. So you end up spending another fifty minutes on your feet.
I decided in November to really work on the amount of “time on feet” and I wanted to do as many long twenty mile walks as possible. I have two options where I am, a twenty mile coastal walk or the twenty four mile Wirral Way walk. I’d only really feel comfortable doing the Wirral Way walk with someone else, so I spent a lot of time doing the coastal walk.
November Training Walking/Running
1st - 24 mile walk – Wirral Way Walk
3rd – 20 mile walk – Coastal Walk
5th – 4 mile run
8th – 8 mile run – Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest
9th – 20 mile walk
12th – 20 mile walk
15th – 20 mile walk
16th – 20 mile walk
23rd – 13.1 mile run – Conwy Half Marathon
24th – 4 mile walk
25th - 2 mile walk
Photos from the Wirral Way
Total distance ran - 25.1 miles
Total distance walked – 110 miles
Total miles - 135.1 miles
Other Training Sessions
Weights - 10 sessions
Boxing – 4 sessions
Hot Yoga – 5 sessions
November was an interesting month from a training perspective. The Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest race really took it out of me, not from the fittest point of view, more due to how cold it was and how the cold affected me. At the half-way point, my lips were blue and I was physically shaking, as my body tried to get warm - no one else was having this problem! I made it to the finish line but I was not in a good way. I was freezing, I knew I needed to get warm as quickly as possible; it wasn’t a case of feeling unwell. I was just cold; and I could feel my body starting to shut down.
I think one of the reasons this happened is I’ve lost a lot of fat recently and gained muscle (not huge amounts of muscle – but I’ve dropped from a dress size twelve to a size eight). One of the things I’ve noticed is I really start to feel the cold and for me being cold and wet is the worst thing that can happen. So having to swim across cold canals in the middle of the Manchester winter was probably not the best idea.
I wasn’t feeling great after Manchester, but where I went wrong was deciding to still go on my twenty mile coastal walk the following day! I continued with my training and kept doing the weight-lifting and boxing. I would get up to do weights in the morning from nine thirty to ten-thirty, head home for a protein shake, shower and then start work. I’d have an early lunch at twelve and then I’d have to go to bed to rest for a few hours. Even though I was exhausted, I would then head back out in the evening to do an hour’s session of boxing.
After the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest on the 8th, the Conwy Half Marathon on the 23rd and clocking up 102 miles in training. I decided for the last week in November, to reduce all my training, to give me a proper chance to recover. I was going to have a week of just hot yoga and weights. This was exactly what I needed. Proper rest and relaxation to get me back to normal.
So although November was not the best month for me training wise, I definitely ended it strong and felt more refreshed and recharged and ready to face December training!