The Big Walk 2017 training

Last Sunday we walked over 30 miles and although the pace was fine it did seem that knees were damaged. My left has been a bit irritated during the week but as the pain moved around I thought that was probably an insignificant niggle. Certainly it coped at with circuit training on Wednesday although I was cautious with single let squats and lunges.

Today's run was slower than usual and felt like hard work but at least I didn't spot anything other that stiff ankles. I'd almost developed a blister last week on my right heel, possibly due to leaving my shoes rather loosely tied, but again that's OK. Last week's walk did feel to cause quite a bit of fatigue, a few pool swims have been slow and yesterday's open water swim left me tired.

So overall I feel that I'm doing OK but mustn't get into an overtrained situation. It seems hard to believe with my relatively low training programme that it's a risk but I do sense an accumulation of fatigue.

Slightly over-egging the journey

So today we're reported as having walked 35 miles although my estimate would be nearer 32 miles. Looking at the track it seems that 'UltraTrac' on the new watch is adding some additional distance through inaccuracy.

This particular view shows small steps, in some areas the track was spot on, in others it was much worse. Nonetheless it's clear that there's some exaggeration going on. This stepping will also explain why the course navigation repeatedly gave off-course alerts. There will always be differences between a GPS record and the real world but this isn't great.

This track, in a wooded valley, is far tighter and was recorded in standard GPS mode. Seems like UltraTrac needs to be used with caution. The issue is that 13 hours walking in UltraTrac took under 40% of battery (I turned off the course function early on as the motor spinning was clearly hammering the battery) but I don't know the relative consumption in ordinary mode. Officially it's around half the longevity.

Easter training

The Easter holiday has given me plenty of time to get some walking practice. I've even fitted in a few runs! Over the period I've covered 82 miles and feel this has set up a good baseline. Over 4 days we completed around 50 miles which is the distance of The Big Walk, although that has to be done within 24 hours.