24th Mar – Days to go on 100 days dry: 19. Days until the Dartmoor Way: 52
“When the going gets tough, put one foot in front of the other and just keep going.” Roy T. Bennett
I feel like a bit of a fraud. Things are progressing well, but it’s been two weeks since I updated you on how things are going. Sorry about that, I’ll be more considerate moving forward. Only 8 and a bit weeks to go until Dartmoor, so things are starting to heat up a bit with the ongoing prep. Hotels are booked, all the gear has been bought and I am about 30% of the fundraising target for Bipolar.
The weekend walks are stabilising nicely. Last weekend was a repeat of the Nibley circular that #littleDacombe and I did a few weeks ago. It was a joy to get up the hill again. The view from the monument was lovely.
But the walk before that came with a big win, the final conquest of TBH. That walk was a last minute thing. I hadn’t planned anything epic, so decided to tackle the Cam Peak – Uley Bury ring. If I am being completely honest, I had been putting that off for a bit. Having failed to get up the hill without stopping on three or four separate occasions, I didn’t want to fail another time. I set about tackling other areas for improvement, distance, pace, and so on, but kept putting off walking up that hill. Well, having no real plan for the walk on the 12th, I rolled my waterproof up into my pack, stuffed a couple of nutty bars into the side pockets and strode out of the house with confidence and purpose.
The closer I got to Cam Peak, the more I started to unpick the thought of the hill to Uley Bury in my mind. To the point where I was at the top of Long Down before I realised it. That had its upside, the hill which used to crush the breath out of my lungs was now at the back of my mind, the downside however was that I was just one descent from Hodgecomb farm and the bottom of TBH.
And I was there in no time at all. Well, this was the point of this walk, sure I was planning on clocking only 20km that day, but the real purpose was to tuck TBH away.
Which I did, in a one-er. No stopping. It is a steep bugger, no doubt and I didn’t run it. But as I crested the hill and took stock of the view, I did have to ask myself how much of it was a mental thing and how much was down to improvements in my fitness. Meh, who cares? I did it, and I carried on, through Uley, back to Cam peak and home. As they say in Jazz Club… ‘Nice!’
The plan now ramps up to a regular cadence of 30km to build stamina and confidence for May.
In other news, running has become a de-facto way of life. I am regularly running over 15km a week. #couchto5k did a brilliant job motivating me and giving me the confidence to get going, but the Garmin Coaching app has really helped me to push my distance and speed. #littleDacombe and I are doing our first Parkrun in a couple of weeks, I am on the mailing list to hear about tickets to run 10k around Silverstone’s F1 track in September and I am running the Bristol half marathon at the end of September. Running is addictive.
The last thing to update you on is that I am still alcohol free after 81 days. Something I honestly did not think I was going to be able to say. I have attended two work do’s, surrounded by brilliant, dedicated people who enjoy bizarre cocktails to unwind at the end of hard meetings, three pub lunches, two lots of ‘having people over’ and a day playing the Alien RPG. Lime and Soda is the new Craft Ale. (Well, it is for me, for now!)
But all good things… I am having a drink on Maundy Thursday and I have already picked out the bottle of wine that I am going to open to break my duck. Everyone I have told is looking forward to speaking to me on Good Friday, apparently I am going to be a cheap date.
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” Dory, Finding Nemo
