Jocked Off

The weather may have put a few people off but I would like to thank Mo Cox for coming to watch Jock Waddington, Maurice Bellando and me walking downhill a few times last night and then for judging in the 5k race that followed.

There was a small but good quality field including Vinny Lynch, Dave Mackey, Carl Wild, Brian Brough, James Green, John Robinson, juniors Hannah Kelly walking 2k, Lauren Whelan and Jessica Isherwood 3k.

I think it would be fair to say that in the absence of Peter Kaneen (well he was there but not racing,) I started the race favourite. Some people have questioned whether he trains quite enough but since his superb joint win in the Sarah Killey Memorial, Jock Waddington has put in a 20 miler and two 11 mile walks in every week.

We were locked together in battle from the start with Jock pulling out a slight lead over the first 2k with Vinny and Dave vying for the third spot. By the fourth k, I decided to take Jock on but was unable to break away and over the final 500m, he really turned the screw and left me trailing in his wake, winning by 12 seconds in an impressive time of 23 minutes 39 seconds.

Marie Jackson said it was the first time she'd ever seen him not look like he was out walking the dog.

Dave Mackey in his first 5k race, couldn't stay with Vinny Lynch who also recorded his fastest ever time. Dave agonisingly missed out on breaking 30 minutes by just 15 seconds. They were followed by John Robinson, junior & 5k debutant, James Green and Carl Wild. Brian Brough walked on gamely despite Mo pinching the course marking cone on him, being saved by the famous graffiti artist Allan 'Leapy Lee' Callow who had drawn little yellow arrows on the road.

Many thanks to Bridget & Judy who seem to contribute so much that they should be on 'overtime' money, Allan Callow, Elizabeth Corran and Steve Taylor.

Despite being beaten, I was very pleased to set my new P.B., a full 13 seconds quicker than I managed in this race last year. I have recently described Jock as a 'Coming Man' and he certainly came last night. Perhaps if the survey was run again today, he might gain a little more than 10% of the votes and I certainly can't see him finishing behind 'Others' again.

So, I turned up for my two dates last night but another bloke walked off with my prize.

I'd Love to Meet You for a Date Tonight, Maybe Two

Another hurried 'Post' I'm afraid but things are quite frantic.

Tonight as I mentioned on the 'Forum,' yesterday, Maureen Cox has kindly agreed to help me and anyone else who would care to turn up by making sure that our downhill walking actions comply with the rules.

For anyone who has designs on a top ten placing, I reckon it is very important as 'Time Penalties' are to be used for the first time for walkers breaking contact with the ground and hard earned time gained could be very easily added.

Whatever style you use to propel yourself, it is best to be able to walk with confidence, though it won't actually be Mo judging on the day it is useful to know what the officials are looking for and at.

The session will start at approximately 17:45 on the Marine Drive which has some fairly decent hills on the closed section. If you want any further information or know where exactly to meet, call me on 491695.

Immediately following is the Open 5K walking race on the TT Access Road which is a good short, sharp test and the second last race as far as I am aware before 'P Day.' Signing on for this 'FREE' race is at the Manx Harriers Clubhouse

I hope to see as many of you as possible this evening at either or both events.

Abducted by Aliens

Greetings Blogophiles!

I couldn't keep this from you a moment longer:

The key has returned! Apparently it spent the last 10 days on top of a beer barrel with another keg on top of it. Vaguely, I seem to remember breaking the plastic covering on a case of cider with it. I was so close to giving up and calling the vehicle recovery firm, only the reluctance (some would call it stubborness) to break into my hard earned cash prevented me from doing so.

A lesson has been learned though and I will have to take it to the dealers to have another couple of spares programmed whatever the cost.

On the walking front, I only trained(a euphemism for going to pick up the car after a boozy night) for 25 minutes on Sunday. On Monday, I attempted to play football extremely badly even by my standard and followed that up by doing 6 x 500m with Lauren Whelan.

As I hadn't had a day off this week, today after working breakfast, Irene and I did the Baldwin Valley loop, though it was a bit of a struggle for her as she is struggling to recover from a hip injury.

Don't forget to turn up on Thursday night for the 5k TT Access Road Race, signing on at the Manx Harriers Clubhouse from 18:30.

I wonder was that key really there all that time or are there darker forces at play?

Well Done Terence

Congratulations to my son Terence who by virtue of some rather generous handicapping, not to mention a fine run, managed to win the 2nd round of the Dave Phillips two lap race by a staggering 4 minutes and 23 seconds!

He'd better enjoy it while it lasts because I can see him starting the next one quite a little bit later.

Greetings To Elizabeth and Matthew in WebSurfers Paradise

You know, apart from other obvious reasons, such as guilt and betrayal etc., I would never have an affair for the simple reason that by some quirk of fate, I'd immediately be caught.

There am I thinking that I'm totally safe in my own personal 'Garden Shed,' otherwise known as 'Michael's Parish Blog,' when all of a sudden, Mrs. George announces over lunch, 'I read about the Marathon in your blog the other day,' I actually blushed like someone found with their trousers round their ankles!

It turns out that Elizabeth and Matthew, our eldest kids who've gone all antipodean on us were looking for my 'Blog,' for a taste of home. Irene couldn't remember off the top of her head exactly where it was in Murray's web of intrigue and actually ended up reading my latest posting after searching for the whereabouts of my ramblings. It's only the second one she's looked at since I started way back in December and there am I boasting about me being safely in a wife-free zone!

However, I reckon lightning couldn't possibly strike twice, so if you are logging on and indulging in Websurfers Paradise, how about looking to see if there are any races on Down Under over Christmas when we come to see you? And don't tell, Mum!

It's quite incredible that anyone will be able to follow the race from all the way down there in Australia and I'm going to put Matt's text no. down as one of my two mobiles to make sure they know what's going whether they're too busy enjoying themselves or not.

Racewalk Blog? More of a Ramble Really

Back to the present for now and I was very pleased on Thursday to put in my first proper 'pace' session for about 5 to 6 weeks as firstly, I was tapering for the 50k race and then in recovery afterwards.

It's an injury waiting to happen if you try to come back too soon to hard training after a hard race or a long practice walk.

The task I was set included 12 x 500m in 2 minutes 20 seconds with 50m strolling to try and rest my wheezing lungs. I couldn't quite ascertain how to work out the 50m distance, so using the hot weather as a convenient excuse, I extended my mid sprint break to 100m. If you're wondering how I know when I've travelled 100m, there are yellow paint splodges all around the perimeter track at the N.S.C.

The secret to achieving the maximum benefit from interval training for walking and running is to ensure you don't start too fast and are still able to maintain the speed until your last rep. This is excellent for improving your conditioning and most endurance athletes would agree that this method of improving your pace is essential as part of your build up to a long distance event.

Fortunately, I managed to keep to my targets and was even able to cut my last one down to 2:13.

I then used Allan Callow's Thursday evening training session to warm down with the aim of reducing the lactic acids from the muscles for the following day.

This last tactic (lactic tactic?) was fairly successful, so yesterday (Friday,) I walked in a roundabout way to Kaneen's Garage in Union Mills to collect my mother's car which had been in for service. Another recommended idea is to practise walking in the way that you will on the big day and therefore I tried to maintain a steady 10.5 minute mile. Don't forget to test which foods will suit you and to try and work out a basic menu for 21st June. As with any predeterminations, don't be afraid to change according to the conditions or because its not working but there is nothing wrong with having a loose framework for your support crew.

Dave Mackey has asked on the 'Forum,' about 'carb-loading' and it's possible you could receive a different answer from everyone you ask.

Personally, I try and follow the method taught to me by Nigel Armstrong and this is largely corroborated by the Australian Institute of Sport website. Over a five day period, I greatly reduce the protein from my diet, not eating meat nor much at all in the way of fatty foods. A common mistake is to actually pig out on carbohydrates but the idea is just to replace protein with them to increase the amount of glycogen in the muscles.

As you know the scientists are always changing their minds but interestingly, last year when I read the AIS information, they were stating that you can only effectively 'carb-load,' four times a year and that there was no evidence that ladies gain any benefit from using it.

Making sure that iron levels are correct was given great importance especially for females.

Oh well, that's the conclusion of today's ramble. I hope it's useful to somebody but bear in mind that I'm not a coach, not qualified in sports nutrition and am prone to getting things very wrong in races.

My Final Run

So Bloggies, back to 2006.

The Flora London Marathon is a great experience and I would urge anyone to have a go at least once in their lifetimes.

We travelled on the Friday to London City Airport which is in itself enjoyable as we had a tour around the capital in the air before landing.

The original deal was that if Irene and I ran the Marathon, then when we returned we would both learn to dance. Fortunately, for me and possibly her own toes, she has never actually held me to that.

The airport is also very close to the place where you sign on and on the Friday when we travelled it wasn't too hectic in the exhibition centre.

In my opinion, the most difficult aspects of travelling away for events are managing to eat properly, particularly if you are carb-loading, being on holiday and not having loads to drink and trying to relax and do nothing, especially if your hotel room is not that large or comfortable.

The Regent Palace is perfectly located for the FLM, being very handy for the Tube and close to the finish. In addition, they provide pasta meals specifically for the athletes, the rates are reasonable but in honesty, the rooms are quite small and not ideal for spending lots of time in.

When you are accepted for the FLM, you get advice by the bucketload and one piece is to remember what you are there for and not to get too much sightseeing in the day before. Saturday was a lovely day, so we just went for a wander down to the 'Mall' to see the finish and then on to the next park, then the next park, then the next park and before you knew it, we had been walking for two and a half hours, were knackered, starving hungry and thirsty. Yep we'd broken just about every rule in pre-marathon preparation.

As usual my planning also reached farcical levels. The day before I left the Island, I finally forked out to buy a stopwatch, so I wouldn't have to carry my mobile phone as I'd become famous for doing in races by this time, only to unpack it in London to discover my purchase was actually a heart monitor. I'd also decided to look for a bumbag or pouch to carry my gels in but we just didn't find one in the shops that we passed.

The day of the race, the fine weather had disappeared and there was a steady drizzle that hadn't been included in the original forecast. For the London Marathon, there are three different starts, so therefore Irene and I had to part company in Black.

The atmosphere is one of eager anticipation and fortunately having brought a black binbag to wear before the race, I was in good spirits and not too cold. For the first time, I was running a long race without pockets in my shorts, so now my failure to acquire something to contain my food became a major worry.

I decided to pop them into the waistband of my Manx Harriers kit as I'd also neglected to get some sticky tape or plasters. The FLM is started in groups determined by the time you mark down on your entry form, so the beginning was a little bit like the PW because you can't get a decent run and in my case this was exacerbated by the fact the all the celebrities were set off in front of me.

Of course, my planned first mile of 6:50 was a minute slower and therefore I panicked and then put in a couple of quick ones after that managing to lose all but one of my gels.

I actually remember very little of where I was during the race but I supppose the features that really stood out were the pubs and the people, all braving absolutely abominable weather. Live bands were creating a cacophony of sound which at times overlapped. There's that chef, I heard at one stage and briefly wondered how they knew I used to cook before realising I was passing Gordon Ramsey.

When the three starts came together, I saw Andy Gosnell one of our local runners and former top parish competitor and it was a great boost to see Manxies at the side of the road such as Gary Ashe, Nigel Armstrong's mum and John Rogers.

All the kids want to slap your hand as you go past and everyone shouts the name written on your running vest. Even slower than usual, it was a while before I realised I was the subject of, 'Come On, Manx!' It was an unwanted surprise to pass Murray though who was struggling.

In my previous marathon, I hadn't 'hit the Wall' until 25 miles but this time after 18 miles the extra pace and the dropped gels began to tell and I really suffered for a while. Eventually, I turned on the the Embankment and I had a girl just behind me whom everyone seemed to be shouting for. From somewhere I gathered my strength for one last effort and flew for home. I think it was around here that I overtook Mark Clague and Ed Gumbley before rounding the corner towards Buckingham Palace and racing on the outside of Paul Curphey.

My target of 3 hours was all but gone but my endeavour was still there and I really powered towards the line to miss out by just over a minute. It was really flattering to see recently that my 40k to finish is still in the top ten quickest of locals since about 2002.

Irene without any prior training managed to circulate in 6:02 which I thought was pretty good in the circumstances (I'm not buttering her up; I can say anything I want because she doesn't actually read this rubbish.) I've no time to research this now and I can't recall where I was placed but I was second local behind Nigel Armstrong and beat my P.B. by around 13 minutes. In typical athletic/fisherman style I still consider this as the one that got away and the what ifs are still hanging because it was to be the first and last running race I ever seriously trained for.

Since that day I ditched the two feet off the ground branch of the sport to concentrate on the walking.