Go hard or go home!

It’s all getting frighteningly close now and the time to sort out the finer details of the Kili trip is fast approaching. I feel as though now that I have put the miles in my legs and have trained as much as I can for the challenges. I don’t want to slack off the training over the next couple of weeks but equally I don’t see that any more big walks etc are going to do us much good at this stage and I don’t want to jeopardise the training I’ve already done. With this in mind I want to concentrate on preparing myself as well as possible and this is what the next couple of weeks is going to be all about.

Did my spinning session on Monday again which wasn’t too bad, I think I had a fairly easy bike! Tuesday’s walk took us from the start of the Parish Walk across to Marown church, down through Braaid and then back up to Mount Murray and back round to Quarterbridge, which must be approximately 10 miles but nothing too huge. Wednesday was a standard 7-a-side footy session and then Thursday as hockey training has now finished I headed to the NSC to get walloped at squash by Cooky and Corkey….all good fun! Finished the week with a gym session and the sauna/ice bath treatment. This has been recommended between Kili and the Parish Walk as a way to recover the muscles….10 minutes at a time! Will see how that goes…..

Had an early night Friday because on Saturday the first team had a few people who couldn’t make their final game of the season (including Bratty) so I managed to get a call up for cover! After the scorching weather we’ve had for the past 2 weeks, I couldn’t believe turning up in Peel it was absolutely throwing it down! Despite this we managed to finish the season with a convincing 3-0 win and it meant they went the entire season winning every game, the only hockey team on the island to do so! It was good fun to play at that level and I even surprised everyone (including myself!) by bagging myself the third goal at the end of the game! I don’t think anyone’s gonna hear the end of it! Still celebrating, I went to the MHA Karaoke for another crazy night on the J20s! Hilarious night and Pasty has to get a nod for his beautiful (…!) rendition of James Blunt’s ‘Goodbye My Lover’!

With James Blunt ringing in my head all day today, we decided to keep the training up but nothing too strenuous. We therefore went from the bottom of the Sloc up to the Round Table, back down through Ronague and then via Colby and Gansey round to Port Erin for another ice cream before heading back to the Sloc! I hope ice creams are as easy to get a hold of at the top of Kilimanjaro but I’m not holding out too much hope!

Definitely a more than decent week’s training, felt that it’s not as hardcore as a month or two ago but we’re staying in as peak condition as we’re likely to get to! Bring on the mountain and the long long roads!

Dave.