At slight risk of offending those kind people who I’ve conversed with following comments received, I consider the single biggest personal advantage (to date at least) of writing this blog has been the extra motivation it has provided towards my fitness goals. I wrote about my pre-walk targets for both weight and running a few months ago, and the thought of having to provide a corresponding ‘results’ post has really helped me stay focussed. Similarly, the thought of being criticised for lack of preparation should anything go wrong has been the key factor in me also doing some ‘proper’ prior walking.

It’s also fair to say that I’d hoped for these benefits from the outset; indeed they were probably the main reasons I became a blogger.

So I guess now is the time to reveal how it did actually all turn out!

Weight: In late November I was at 14 stones, and I set myself the pre-CtoC target of 12.5 stones, although I also said I’d probably be happy with anything under 13 stones. The rough idea was to lose at least as much weight as per the rucksack I’ll be carrying. Things didn’t start off too well, indeed over Christmas, and despite some reasonably regular running, I actually put on a few more pounds! So, by Jan 1^st (isn’t that everyone’s real start date?), I’d peaked at 14 stones 4 lbs.

The better news is that, with just a few days to go, this morning’s weigh in puts me at 12 stones 11 lbs. I’m happy enough with that.

I lost the majority of the weight by following Dr Michael Mosley’s Fast Diet: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/. This asks you to eat normally for 5 days a week, but to restrict yourself to no more than 600 calories (typically spread over a breakfast and small evening meal) on each of the other two days. Monday and Thursday duly became my target fasting days, and in the end I’d lost most of the weight by the end of Feb. I found the fasting days relatively easy – as long as I was at work anyhow – fasting never proved compatible with being at home! What I struggled with far more was not overcompensating on the normal days; it was only in the weeks where I got a good grip on this that the pounds began to disappear.

 Since the end of Feb I’ve been away from home quite a lot: work sent me on 3 separate trips, which together totalled 11 days (and included a week in the US), and I’ve also spent 10 days away on hols. The vast majority of these were either expenses-paid or all-inclusive, so that will have to do as my excuse for not making the full target! Indeed I was quite pleased that I didn’t regress during these various travels.

Running: Until the end of Feb, I managed to continue with 4 runs per week, else 3 runs and a walk (the latter replacing Sunday’s ‘easy’ recovery run). During the more recent travel-interrupted weeks I’ve managed almost enough running to maintain the improvements made. This essentially means I’ve managed to string together over 20 consecutive weeks of injury free training, which is massively longer than I’ve ever managed before. In combination with the weight loss it was thus hardly surprising that I started setting new PBs; February was a hugely rewarding month. However I held off running the ‘big one’ – the 10K at race pace – thinking I’d prefer to properly smash my PB rather than just nibble away at it. This cunning plan was slightly ruined, however, when I accidently beat it (on 23^rd Feb, by just over half a minute) on a ‘regular’ run – and on a hilly route at that! More recently I’ve just been trying to hold on to the improvements made; I never did get to the point of properly testing myself on my faster ‘race’ route.

I’ve now started tapering down the running in preparation for starting the walk, but straight after the CtoC I hope I’m able to train harder once again to prepare for the July half marathon.

Walking: I finally got started with some training walks in mid-February. The first of these – nine miles over and around Longridge Fell – felt so easy that I also went out for the ‘missed’ recovery run later that same evening. But I did get a slight wake-up call the week after – a local and somewhat dull 13 miler, involving too much tarmac, also felt fine at the time (in fact I was beginning to grumble about cramming the benefits of a 30 min run into a multi-hour trudge!), but, fair play, the aching feet later that evening told me another story. So I’ve been getting in plenty of walking miles most Sundays ever since. Nothing too special in terms of locations – mostly routes straight from the front door – although for the record I decided the Brighouse Boundary Walk deserved another ‘B’ and should be renamed the Brighouse Boundary Bog Walk. And of course I’ve also recently been on my (snow affected) Herriot Way weekend – see the earlier post. The new boots have proved both waterproof and comfortable, and the (always) fully loaded rucksack never felt onerous. One thing I have revisited though is my underwear – I’ve gone from briefs to stretch-boxers – I’ll leave it to you to work out why – although strangely I never had problems when running. A final slight foible I’ve noticed is that, when working hard, I seem to have developed the habit of making ‘motivational’ noises when breathing out. This has come from my running, and is probably a sign I’ve been doing too much training alone – I firmly hope it’s a habit that doesn’t survive contact with fellow walkers!

Summary: I won’t tempt fate and say I’m fully ready, but I think I can at least reasonably state that I’m as ready as I ever have been.