Long road out of Jurby

  LONG ROAD OUT OF EDEN JURBY – PART 5 TRAINING PROGRESS – NO PLAN B I have now reached 150 miles of ‘proper training’ for the big day(s) which is where I had had planned to be by the end of March. However, this does not tell the full story. On 7 th March I called in at an elderly relative’s house to find that he had taken a fall and had been unable to get to his feet unaided. The time since has been taken up with visits to Noble’s and Ramsey Cottage Hospitals, sorting out pensions, bills and shopping prior to discussions and meetings on future accommodation needs etc. Family must always come first of course, though the time lost meant that it was only by doing 17 miles last week that I was able to get ‘back on track’ whereas I had hoped to be well ahead of schedule by this point. So, for the other 1016 entrants registered at the time of writing I can only advise that training doesn’t always go as planned – ensure you have a Plan B! There were two competitive events held ...

  LONG ROAD OUT OF EDEN JURBY – PART 4 TRAINING PROGRESS Training is so far going to plan, with 105 of the minimum 300 scheduled training miles completed by the end   of February. Mileage per session is also slowly increasing, with last Thursday’s 15 miles around Baldwin being the furthest to date, whilst a 13 miles hike including a ‘crawl’ up Injebreck hill being the toughest so far. This week I intend to travel out to ‘Stewart Jones’ territory’ around Maughold and reacquaint myself with the mythical Ballajora climb… It is interesting to note different training regimes across the competitors. Dean Morgan (4 th ) last year negotiates around his work schedule, by training regularly at night whilst my blogging peer Sammy Bowden (current Women’s champion) uses every opportunity between dropping off and picking up her family to get some miles in. Meanwhile Josh Knights (8 th in 2022) has posted 200 miles for February alone (!) Finally my nephew Ffinlo Moore, whose debut wa...