Okay - This isn't Pearl & Dean but with the belly beginning it's forced descent to near-where-it-should-be-normalitudiness I have built myself a training schedule.
I seem to have given up on training with the Canadian Airforce - I decided that they weren't going to call on me anytime soon. So, as there is nothing like walking to get in practice for walking, I fixed my sights on a walking training programme largely based on walking. The TGO organisers will be relieved to hear that no running is involved.
So - in addition to the already written-in-blood-in-the-diary Sunday afternoon walks with Miss Whiplash there will be the following exciting exertions:
February: The Lakes with Lord Elpus. This is an expedition principally to acquire a replacement pair of booties for the his Italian feet. It will involve a whirling miasma of sweaty feet and talcum powder, mountainous piles of discarded leather and Goretex goods and despairing howls as outdoor emporia are exited. It is never pretty. But we do hope to get up a few hills, even if it is raining. And see the inside of a few pubs, too.
March: We are hoping to bag a weekend away up in the Yorkshire Dales to marvel at an old bloke's past triumphs on one of the U S of A's longest hiking trails in a village hall. (The talk is in a village hall; not the hiking trail, you understand). But we do hope to get up a few hills, even if it is raining. And see the inside of a few pubs, too.
Then of course, there's the Snake Pass weekend - an 'Official' reunion for Challengers. We do hope to get up a few hills, even if it is raining. And see the inside of a few pubs too.
April: A busy month: We hope to stagger along with the Pieman on a hitherto unknown to me multi-day walk between two small towns 'upnorth' at very high altitudes. This will be a very difficult walk for flatlanders and we expect to struggle. We are expected to climb a few hills, even in the rain and there will be no pubs. What are we thinking?
Then in the same month of madness, we are hosting the annual PreWalkDaunder - again 'upnorth,' in an area famous for it's watery features. We will be clambering up a few hills, even if it is raining. And see the inside of a few pubs. (Phew!)
This is all good stuff and hopefully the legs will hold out.
Ashley, there are ,ultipile pubs at either end of this potentially disastrous walk ooop North, and, depending on which way round its done and whether or not its a return to wherever it starts, there's one in the middle too , but I've kept it quiet.
ReplyDeleteYou can tell how well planned this is.
Not too far to Stainforth Village Hall for me as it happens - maybe we could coincide somewhere in a pedestrian kind of way.....
That should be multiple, not ultiple.
ReplyDeleteThe word is fremess prolly a lady's product.
looks like you'll be selling the settee then ;o)
ReplyDeleteOh gawd - it's started. Just when I'd settled into a pleasant state of hibernation and sloth. Where will it all end?
ReplyDeleteMontrose, hopefully ...
Ah ha! The game's a foot - well actually two. What date be the Daunder?
ReplyDeleteI'm liking the schedule Alan, where can I get me one of those?
ReplyDeleteCharl was only saying today that 2010 needed to be a year of targets and milestones.......Not sure she meant my hiking itinerary but its a start!
Of course - I missed out the real point to all this: The Chally itself - two weeks of hanging on to Phil's bootstraps across Scotland in May. Up Hill and down Dale (or should that be 'Glen'?)
ReplyDeleteRobin: The settee stays. It is my friend, after all said and done. Besides - after all this walking lark I am going to need something comfy to collapse into.
ReplyDeleteMike: I like the sound of Ultipple Pubs.
Phil: hibernation & sloth Can I have some?
Baz: The PreWalkDaunder is at the end of April. But that's a tightly held secret, so now I shall have to kill you...
Dude: Schedules are one thing. Carrying them out is quite another...