Plodding

Last Thursday was not a good day for my feet or legs. I did my daily 4 miles to and from work but then went out for an additional 15 miles walk the evening. I got the distance from http://www.walkjogrun.net/ which has an excellent route tracking tool!

I was perhaps walking quicker than I am likely to do on the Cotswold Plod and averaged 4.5 miles per hour, but my legs and feet should not have been aching in the way they were after that distance - the last mile or so was a real struggle for me.

I hope that this is because I had been doing a lot without any real break for my legs and feet, rather than an indication that there is a weakness, but it did concern me.

My Hamstrings were incredibly tight and very painful towards the end, but also my feet are also causing problems as two of my toes on my left foot are black and my big toe on my right foot looks very peculiar and showing signs of lifting.

I am continuing my 4 miles per day walk to and from work and we have a 20 mile Cotswold Way walk from Tomarton to Dursley planned on Thursday evening after work which will be the final big night walk before the Cotswold Plod on June 10th. I hope that all will go well on Thursday to set me up for the big one, but I am a little concerned. I will take it easy this week in the build up and not walk in on Weds or Thursday this week to give everything a bit of respite.

I have decided to invest in some new and slightly thinner socks to see if I can help my toes a bit by giving them some more space. I had been using the smartwool socks but as the weather has warmed, my feet are swelling therefore giving me the problems. I purhcased some 1000 mile socks at the weekend so will test these on Thursday and feedback. I hope that this will alleviate some of the foot problems.

I also purchased a 2 litre Camelbak at the weekend. This should be useful on the day, but will again test it on Thursday to see how I get on!

If you would like to learn more or indeed sponsor us to do the Cotswold Plod, please follow this link - http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/rsg1
Starting at midnight on June 11th 2011, I will be walking 40 miles non-stop for Action Aid Medical Research.

A Fundraising Milestone Approaches

It looks as though we are about to break the £2000 mark of kind and generous sponsors for out Cotswold Plod.
We try and thank everyone that we can individualy and I note that we have a couple of anonymous donations so thank you whoever you are!

I am planning another walk tomorrow evening but a little shorter this time but perhaps just up and down some hills near me several times, so give me a wave if you live in Bristol and see a man in running compression gear and walking boots plodding the hills! I do get some funny looks, especially when it gets darker and I have a head torch on.

I have just taken delivery of my new headtorch so I will try it out for the first time tomorrow night. Its a Petzl Myo XP and so far looks very good. Several reviews that I read promised that it would turn night to day and from brief trials outside, it looks very good!

There has been lots of debate between the teams and team members about kit for the Cotswold Plod. The first and biggest item was of course walking boots. Everyone has been off and purchased boots from different stores and manufacturers with lots of comparisons made. I tried on several pairs of boots and read and watched the reviews online. In the end I went for the Salomon Cosmic GTX's which seemed to fit my feet the best and came highly recommended by a number of sources. So far so good, although the recent bash between Bath and Tormarton at speed damaged my feet quite badly. Up until then I had experienced no problems with the boots, but after that walk I had a blister on my heal and two bruised big toe nails which were pretty grim. It took a week and a half for the nails to stop weeping and I still have a concern that one of them may fall off. I am not sure why I had the problems as I had not experienced the problems before, but I suspect that it was a combination of not cutting my toe nails short enough, not tightening my boots properly and the speed that we did the distance in. There were a couple of nasty climbs and descents with some running as well and a really fast pace over the 18 miles so its not too suprising I guess. On the Cotswold Plod, we will be dropping the speed over the distance.

I am also trying to work out whether I take some walking poles that I purchased. They are great on the hills but a pain to carry on the flat and or collapse into my rucksack whilst still moving. We dont like to stop very much once going so I am still unsure whether I will take them with me.

The other piece of kit that I have discovered through the training is how good compression tights are. I look a wally in them, but they offer lots of support for aching legs and also wick moisture away so great for the night time stuff or when its cooler. All of our team now have them and we get some funny looks but I really am not too bothered about the way I look when hiking. I realise that I am nowadays an embarrasing dad and I am proud of it. T is a bit too young to be embarrased of me yet, but it wont be long and the look of me in those tights might be the first time!

Incase you have no idea what I am talking about, we will be trekking non-stop for forty miles across the Cotswold Way, in the DARK, and all in the name of charity! Its the Cotswold Plod!

We are raising money for 'Action For Medical Research for Children', a charity dedicated to improving the health of children and babies across the UK. We are hoping to raise a grand total of £2500 collectively, to help Action Medical Research continue to address serious childhood conditions, and improve the quality of life for children with disabilities.

If you would like to donate, please follow this link http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/rsg1 and thank you once again for your generousity and support.

Jonny

Cotswold Plod 2011

Cotswold Plod 201140 miles non stop starting at midnight on 10th/11th June 2011
As the challenge is fast approaching last week we decided to test the night gear, having never walked at night before we thought it would be a good experience, not only to test the head torches but also to improve our navigation skills (especially for Charlie as he struggles with his directions in the day light). We decided on a tough 18 mile walk from Bath to Tormarton (which is officially the first stage of the Cotswold way) and after hitching a lift from our resident accountant Neil Pollinger with found ourselves on the outskirts of Bath just below Landsdown.

We set off at about 7pm and soon found are way walking up and extremely steep hill to Lansdowne, this climb must have lasted about 20 minutes and had us all blowing apart from Chesney who at 23 was showing his youth as he strolled out in front. Once up on the top the terrain levelled out and as time wore on we passed Bath Race course, Landsdown Golf club and the Infamous Lansdowne battlefields (battle of Lansdowne was part of the British civil fought on 5 July 1643. Lord Hopton led a Royalist force against William Wallers Parliamentarians).

The terrain was very undulating with some tough climbs but nothing to strenuous. As we approached Marshfield we decided to stop to put on our head torches, we got some funny looks from the locals as we passed by the local polling station and crashed through the undergrowth trying to find the next path. As night fell we picked up a good pace and swiftly covered the next 6 miles finally finishing in Tormarton at 10.30.

Highlights of the Walk

• Charlie having trouble with the gates (again)
• Charlie slipping down a hill
• Jonny struggling up a massive Hill, then blaming it on the sandwich he’d just eaten

If you would like to sponsor us, please click on the following link. We have set an ambitious target of £2500 so all help is greatly appreciated.

More info on the Cotswold Plod can be found here - http://www.action.org.uk/plod_cotswold_way

The link to our sponsorship page can be found here - http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/rsg1

Cotwold Way Plod 2011

On the weekend of 11th June 2011, a team of 4 including me will be trekking non-stop for forty miles across the Cotswold Way, in the DARK, and all in the name of charity!


We are raising money for 'Action For Medical Research for Children', a charity dedicated to improving the health of children and babies across the UK. We are hoping to raise a grand total of £2500 collectively, to help Action Medical Research continue to address serious childhood conditions, and improve the quality of life for children with disabilities.

We will complete the challenge in two seperate teams; the first headed up by Jonny Hiles and consisting of Stuart Adams, Charlie Ten Broeke, Oliver Dawe along with team driver Chesney Windsor; and the second headed up by Jon Ball, and including Mark Beale, James McNicol, Paul Bennett and David Nock.

Stuart said: "Training is underway and both teams have already done a number of walks in preparation for the challenge. Friendly rivalry is growing between the teams, and all those involved are definitely starting to understand how tough this challenge will be. "

For more details and sponsorship please log on to the link below, your support would be very much appreciated for a very worthy cause. http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/rsg1 or http://rsg-charity.blogspot.com/