Jan-u-a-ry

Earworms

That’s the problem with this month. At least in the UK it is typically unremittingly grey, cold and dreary, it contains the day which is apparently the most depressing of any year (the third Monday in the month). If that weren’t already enough, it’s the title of an earworm song.

“January” by Scottish band Pilot is – so they say – named after a girl, not a month, but they released it at the very beginning of January 1975, so it cannot help being connected forever. If you haven’t heard it be very careful – one YouTube and it will stick in your head for hours, even days.

It has been plaguing my head as I get back into my stride – literally – with this month’s strolling. Mile after mile, Jan-u-a-ry, Jan-u-a-ry…

Lucky cold

If earworms weren’t enough I have also been knocked back by a classic winter cold, one of the reasons why I have been silent on here for so many days. I count myself lucky, all the same, because family and friends have this month been hit by a much nastier viral thing, not flu exactly, but just as debilitating.

Ramping up slowly

Despite all that I have started to escalate my walking activities, adding roughly an extra mile to each day’s little jaunts, and throwing in an 8-10 mile circuit each week so far. This is partly to move up a gear in overall activity, and partly to experiment with different combinations of socks and footwear. An unfortunate mismatch – right shoes, very wrong socks - about four weeks ago left me with a tender spot which is only slowly recovering. You live and learn.

Theoretical planning

In the background I got on with booking the accommodation locations for my planned big trek across England and Wales later this year. For some places it is critical to do this now, as there are very few options for accommodation at all in some of the villages along the way: I did not want to be adding long diversions to the route just to find a bed for the night. I’m indebted to the main reservation sites – booking.com, laterooms.com and expedia.co.uk – for allowing me to take these steps without so far spending any money, and to Google and Tripadvisor for helping me pick the best where there are options.

With the locations fixed, I went back to my electronic large-scale mapping and reworked the entire 240-mile route in detail. The third iteration of that task gives a good insight into exactly what the journey will look like.

Now all I have to do is get on and walk it!  

Plans, plans and more plans

That was it then…

All the Christmas decorations dismantled and put away, and the Christmas tree chopped up for recycling. So that’s that for another year.

It’s amazing that the preparations seem to start almost as soon as summer holidays end, building to a climax all on a single day – then it’s a struggle to keep the festive stuff alive for the few days until the New Year, one last good excuse to drink too much and – bang – it’s all over.

The Easter eggs will soon be on the shelves…

Planning ahead

Time now to get the walking back into gear, and to set out a proper training plan for my big stroll later in 2019. I already know that I will need to build up regular distances on foot, so that 20 miles day after day is a pleasure not a chore. I know that this is best done in gradual stages, and that I need to use the build-up to test the important gear, footwear, backpack and so on. I did what everyone does and trawled the internet for a template but found very little that didn’t tell me what is already pretty obvious. 

My thinking so far is to increase the daily stroll in weekly stages from just 2 miles (see earlier posts) to around five, and to add regular longer distances. I kicked off that part today with a 10-mile rural tour from home, intending to repeat something similar weekly at first, steadily increasing the distances and the frequency as time goes on. Later the stages can be redone with gradually increasing pack weights – today I carried almost nothing – leading to at least one full “dry run” over consecutive days closer to the start date.

Apparently there is a school of thought that claims you can “train as you go” – but luckily nobody with a brain agrees with that. The first days would be hell, and might leave me hobbling for the rest of the journey. Instead I fully intend to enjoy every step!

Calories and kilos

At the risk of being thoroughly hated I will confess that my weight did not change by more than 0.3kg through the whole indulgence of Christmas, and I didn’t hold back with eating or drinking. My body just doesn’t do the fat thing. My weight changes gradually over time – it’s up about 1.3kg in the last year, that’s all.

If you followed earlier posts you'll know that I'm taking on  extra rations - that includes much bigger breakfasts now, and extra portions all round. Time will tell if it builds any weight, or whether the training plans just keep it all in balance.
 
Of course, I have yet to tell the doctor about my plans - that can wait...