Last of the BMF Training Days...

Two weeks to go now and Sunday was the last of the Brecon Beacons training days - and what a day! A feeling of nervousness accommpanied the five of us who made it (me, Andy, Nic, Chris K and Paul) on the drive over to Wales - I had suffered badly and lost confidence on the first group trip to the Brecon Beacons and Andy, Nic and Paul had been on the first BMF trip which was really difficult and this one was meant to be the hardest day of them all.

Horizontal rain and hail, low cloud cover, howling winds, bitter cold - none of this stopped us having a great time! Despite the terrible weather conditions (which at least allowed us all to try out our wet weather gear, or lack of in Paul's case) we did really well finishing the 10.2 mile walk in just 4.5hrs (Mike from the BMF had allowed 5 hours for the 'fast group' to complete the walk and seemed to be quite impressed with us) - the training must be paying off! I even managed to stay with the fast group and we all started and finished together.

Total climb for the day was around 1250m so this puts it on par with Ben Nevis and the distance was a little more so confidence in the car on the way back was probably at an all time high for those of us who went - me in particular! We even managed to jog back down some of the way from Corn Du to Storey Arms....

Blisters stayed away, a bit of cramping in my legs and a sore right ankle couldn't damped the spirits! Stiff this morning though but the feeling that I might actually be able to do this thing hasn't gone away just yet!

Brecon Beacons (again!)

Will, Chris F, Kevin and I took a day off work for an extra training trip to the Brecon Beacons yesterday.

A good night's sleep and avoiding a 'fish & chip supper', ice-cream & beer the night before together with missing a large fry-up for breakfast seemed to have helped! I got to the top of Pen-Y-Fan and didn't feel like jumping straight off. We then went over to Crum Du, down to Storey Arms (not a pub - fancy writing a name like that on an OS map and it not being a pub must write to my MP), back up a long steep path to Crum Du, over to Pen-Y-Fan again, down and up to Cribyn where my back started to twinge and the blisters I got at the top of Pen-Y-Fan started burning (even with Will's super-blister-pad things on) and I decided to call it quits for the day - I still had to climb down Cribyn and back up Pen-Y-Fan and down to the car and Nicki's precautionary words about my back started to kick in! Chris, Will and Kevin went onto Big-Y-Fan and back the same route, arriving back at the car only half and hour after me.

Anyway, feel much better today than the last trip to Brecon. Training session with Mike on Thursday and then off to Brecon again on Sunday for possibly the last big session before the event....

That lasted a long time.....

Seven days may be a long time in Politics but it's even longer to stay off the beer it seems....

We had friends over at the weekend so the chances of not drinking on Saturday were always going to be remote and I failed miserably! Late Friday night I succumbed (well, it was almost Saturday and I was going to have a drink then anyway.....).

The mini 3 peaks event on Sunday ended with a picnic at Farnham Park with lots of school parents and friends so, having had a drink Saturday, well I might as well have one or two at the picnic (followed by a stop-over at the pub on the way home with Andy & Rich....)

Anyway - back on the wagon and on to Wales tomorrow. Early to bed, early to rise might help this time.

Prohibition....

I've taken the drastic step of deciding to stop drinking between now and the 'event'... only one month - I should be able to do it.

It's in the vague attempt to help me go that extra mile (or ten feet more likely....)

I've got a BMF trip to the Beacons on 29th June - apparently it's the hardest one they do of the pre-event training sessions - great, absolutely great. Didn't know that when I booked it.

Chris F has organised an extra trip to Wales on 24th June which I've also signed up for - probably really unwisely! Chris reckons five days should be enough to recover, afterall we'll only have five hours between hills on the day! Arrgghhhh.........

Extra Training Sessions

Since last Tuesday we've been doing some extra training with one of the BMF instructors - an hours workout in Farnham Park; squat-thrusts, running, carrying heavy eights, more running, press-ups, team races, more running, more squats, burpees, and more running.....

Third session was last night and although I was fairly hopeless at keeping up with everyone else I don't feel too bad today... After last Thursday's session it took me four days to regain the use of my arms!

Injuries plague the Team...

After my trip to Butser it turns out it wasn't my hamstring but my sciatic nerve - trapped or something. Anyway, after some pushing and pulling of my back by Nicki the worst seems over and I've been back training.

Unfortunately, not everyone's been so lucky!

Adrian has had to pull out due to a knee injury, Nigel broke two toes falling down the stairs (but in Nigel's true spirit is simply going to strap them up and get on with it...) and Andy's knee has flaired up after a run, quite badly too by the sounds of things. Will's done something to his foot but seems to be back in training - he's out tomorrow night for a session with Mike to find out how he's feeling.

Less than a month to go and it seems that stepping up the pace of training is starting to take it's toll...

Butser again...

Two days later on the Friday I thought I'd better get to grips with training and so took the morning off work to go back to Queen Elizabeth Park and Butser Hill.... ouch - running back down Butser Hill pulled my left hamstring and I've been hobbling ever since! Oh well, I reckon it should be better by Tuesday night (the first of the real BMF traininng sessions at Farnham Park.....)

Back in training

Two weeks on holiday without any training (one 3 mile along the beach doesn't really...) was telling last night.

Nicki, Rich, Kevin and I went to Butser again - short 4.5 miles half walk / half run. Up the steep side of the the hill in Queen Elizabeth Park (Petersfield), run down, back up again, run down. Then over the road to Butser Hill, to the top, run down, back half way up and then a run back down to the bottom.....

By all accounts from last Sunday's latest Brecon Beacons trip the going was extremely tough and the pace faster than we've all seen so far - and appareently the 29th June trip is set to be even harder!

5 weeks to go......... arrggghhhhh!

Change of Squad

Shawn Taylor has reluctantly bowed out but his space has been quickly filled by Kevin Davids - welcome aboard Kevin!

Not long to go now - the first of the BMF Brecon Beacons weekends took place yesterday and the reports coming back are quite worrying! Everyone seems to have found it really hard going, even thouse who went on the earlier Brecon Beacons trip and have been really trainig hard!

Right - time to step up a gear (if you excuse the pun...!)