New blog for the walk to Wales

Six weeks to go...

This is just a test post here, to see how it feels to be writing blog entries from a mobile phone - because while travelling that will be very important to me.

Just six weeks now before my toes head away from my front door. It's exciting and daunting in equal measure!

Training getting hotter

Yep - in more ways than one, as I've had some days approaching 30 degrees, and still trucked out for miles carrying my 10kg load. This may seem trivial to serious walkers but it's all new experience for me.
I'm generally achieving around 65-75 miles a week now, slotted in around normal family commitments, and making sure that the total includes at least one good long day, typically around 20 miles. The first one was tough, but they get easier...

New site coming up

The trip itself won't be documented here. To follow to journey go instead to www.keithsbigwalk.com - at the moment there is nothing to see except a holding page, but in six weeks...
The site tops a Google search for "Keith's big walk 2019" so it's easy to find.

Catch-ups and preparations

Rising sun

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I inflicted my words on this long-suffering blog, but we are where we’ve landed. While I have been silent the weather has warmed, the world outside my window has turned green and happy…and some of my usual walking routes have buried themselves under stinging nettles.

Through much of April I gradually increased my training mileage, discovered how it felt to walk good distances in very warm weather – especially near the end of the month – and gradually acquired various bits and pieces which I shall need for my trip to Wales at the end of August.

At the end of April, and for half of June, we were in Japan, visiting my younger son and travelling around. I won’t bore with a full-on holiday travelogue, suffice it to say that the weather was very kind, and we were treated to some spectacular views around Mt Fuji which last year were denied us by rain.

While the jetlag from a 23-hour journey and 8 hours’ time difference can be nasty, my cure was to get my walking shoes on, the day after arriving back in England, and go for a 9-mile stroll. It worked.

Full load

In preparation for my August/September walk – a 240-mile trek from London to the coast of West Wales – I then started training with a full load. I reckon the total weight of my backpack will be around 11kg, which is significant but not a killer. I loaded my big Osprey with old clothes and weights and started at just four miles. While I’m no stranger to load-lugging it had been a while, and I confess my legs felt like lead on that first trip. It did concern me, as the average daily trot on my journey will be twenty miles! Time to build up then – five miles the next day, feeling good, then up to eight miles, still good, then ten. Apart from being aware of the hip belt – which carries most of the pack load – by now it was all feeling very much easier. At the end of the second week I covered 16 miles fully laden one day, followed the next day by 18 miles, and my confidence took a real boost.

It is a little amusing seeing people’s reactions to someone strolling through London streets carrying a very large pack, with a hydration tube clipped across the front, but so far nobody has actually said anything!

Gear notes

Anyone who read my earlier stuff will be aware that footwear has been a preoccupation for me. I knew that going out with a full load would be a serious test. Would it mean a shift in my centre of gravity which could make so far comfortable shoes into painful devils? After favouring low-rise walking shoes, would I find that the heavier load demanded more ankle support? Answer no, to both. I went out and bought the replacement pair of Merrells (Moab 2 GTX) which will be going on the actual trip. My wife did query what looked like extravagance, until she saw the wear on the heels of the shoes I have been using for training – after about 700 miles the heels are pretty much shot!

All the other gear, especially the Osprey backpack, but also technical clothing, has performed brilliantly, validating the sometimes expensive choices I made.

And nobody is paying me to say so, but I have discovered “Eat Natural” fruit and nut bars, in particular the ones with dark chocolate…amazing!

Next…

It’s become a regular thing for me to disappear for two or three hours to clock up some miles, so that will continue. For the moment I am holding steady on distance, but in a week or two I need to get kitted up and go beyond 20 miles in a day, later doing it on two consecutive days just to be sure. Closer to the departure, which is now less than three months away, I can taper the training once I’m fully confident I’m “there”.

There are also some practical things to do. For navigation I use Anquet’s OS 1:25,000 maps on a smartphone, together with GPX files created on a PC. The Anquet app defaults to live streaming of the maps, so I shall ensure I’ve downloaded what I need, because the data signal in some parts of Wales and the border country is anything but guaranteed. I’ll repeat all that on a spare phone in case the main one ends up crunched in a puddle somewhere.

On the planning side I am reviewing all the points on the journey where I’ve noted “shop” or “pub” – nothing worse than arriving hungry or thirsty to find the place closed five minutes earlier…

Into Spring gear

Been a while…

I know, I know, nothing from me for a month, but please bear with me as the weather gradually improves and plans get firmly underway.

The last few weeks have seen some quite impressive weather in the London area: gales, days of rain, random sunshine and alternations of warm and cold. The British traditionally talk a lot about their weather – recently it has very nearly (but not quite) toppled Brexit from the top spot in the chat list.

Persistent heavy rain turned the little brook which runs alongside some of my regular routed into a raging dirty grey torrent, at the same time flooding parts of the paths and rendering some areas impassable. As quickly as it came, so it gave way to drier times and a return to some normality.

At least flooded paths are a good test of GoreTex-lined footwear…

Most recently there is a hint of Spring, some little explosions of blossom and the return of green to the landscapes. Things are looking up.

Talking of looking up, it’s often the little cameos which stick in the memory. A day or so ago I saw a lady pointing her phone intently up at a cherry tree in full bloom. She was Japanese: homesick, or what?

Choices and combinations

A few words for the gear bunnies, now that my training schedule is fully active. Longer walks certainly sort out what works and what struggles. After various experiments I’m alternating my footwear between Merrell Moab 2 GTX shoes and Meindl Respond XCR mid boots, still undecided as to which would fare better on the long trek to Wales later in the year. There is little to choose between them for comfort, the boots are slightly heavier – a little harder work over longer distances – but more supportive around the ankles. There is lots of time still to work on that one. In both cases the combination of good footwear and the right socks is critical – I’ve talked before about Bridgedale and Darn Tough socks, so I am now pitching those against other brands of merino-based socks just to see what happens.

Having discovered them while in Yorkshire last month I’ve also invested in some Rohan Stretch Bags trousers – so far they seem to work well, comfortable, with lots of pockets in the right places, and lightweight.

Modular mixes

Now that my self-imposed training schedule is gradually ramping up – this week it requires at least 55 miles in total, but this must include at least three excursions of minimum 12 miles – it has proved invaluable to have a range of circular routes which can be plugged into each other to produce longer treks. Up to now I have circuits of 4, 8, 9 and 11 miles in various directions, which can be connected to give, say, 12, 15, 17 or 20 miles. I could also add them to a straight-line route for an even wider range of options.

Apart from seeing places and objects which would never be uncovered otherwise, this whole exercise helps to make connections, to link places together logically. It’s very much harder to do that from inside a car, but then that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

Snow, socks, shoes and schedules

Woolly socks and Gore-Tex

Sounds like a cue for winter walking! As my training plans engage first gear, these are the sort of topics which loom large.

The last couple of weeks have seen a transformation in the weather in London, encouraging my head and my feet to ramp up the strolling a little. It’s hard to believe these two pics were taken just a few days apart:

 

It’s still quietly amazing, by the way, that both were taken within London postcode areas – they could be deep in the countryside somewhere.

Woolly socks to the fore then – my Bridgedales warming my toes through a few 8- and 9-mile sorties into the slippery white stuff, and a new pair of “Darn Tough” socks now on test. Darn Tough maybe, darn comfortable so far, and darn expensive too: let’s see if they are worth it. I’ve said it before, but the choice of socks is going to be critical for long-distance comfort.

Just before the second photo was taken, I had sloshed through a swollen boggy patch, the water covering my footwear. That’s where the Gore-Tex comes into play – perfectly dry feet kept on walking afterwards, completing that particular 10-mile jaunt in total comfort.

What kind of idiot…

…buys a new pair of walking shoes, wears then round the house for half an hour, then takes them straight out on a 10-mile stroll? Well, here I am!

I’m still testing different footwear options, as for my long trek later in the year what I put on my feet will be one of the most important decisions of the whole exercise. The shoes in question this time are Merrell Moab 2 GTX – half price if I could accept a rather odd shade of battleship grey (I did). I have a good history with Merrell in the past, they seem to work well with my fairly wide feet, and the Moabs attract very good reviews. They’re right. Straight out of the box they were just fine. Time will tell whether they can stand the pace.

Whatever I decide on during training, it is almost certain I will need a new pair closer to setting out for Wales, so there is still time to refine the options.

Scheduling, holidays, and early rising

Now that the year is rather rushing on I am beginning to take walking training much more seriously, although I am sticking to a plan which builds up distance gradually. This also allows me to settle to a comfortable pace for mid/long distances, and thus to predict when I will get home. That helps…

I am now going to 10 miles ideally twice a week, with a selection of 2-, 4- and 8-mile routes to fit around those longer strolls. Very soon 10 will become 12, then 15 and longer, but the progression has to be done in a planned and measured way. After being rained off on a previous attempt I have also tested going back-to-back – in this case 10 miles one day, then 9 the next. I got up early for the second day’s stroll and proved that 9 miles can fit in before breakfast. I think the early rising was more difficult to handle than the walking, but I’m sure that will wear off with future exercises.

But hey, a boy needs a break now and then: last week we spent five days in Yorkshire’s Bronte country, staying right in Haworth. Those very literary moors were extremely soggy, so they will need to be revisited in drier times. Holidays can put great pressure on a stepcount obsession, but they are great fun!