10/07/2012 - Preparing for "The Big One"

Following the elation of completing the Sandstone Trail and getting a small taste of just what we've taken on with Trailwalker we thought we would update on our preparation for "The Big One".

After managing to stay relatively injury free through training, we've managed to pick up a few niggles. We put this now down to now being such finely tuned athletes after all this training. After suffering pain in the hip that wouldn't go away after the Sandstone Trail, Mark went to see a Physio who diagnosed an issue with a tendon relating to the 'Glute Max' (basically a muscle in the left side of his backside). Stretches and strengthening exercises have been prescribed three times a day as well as physio sessions to try and ease the problem. At the suggestion of walking 100km, the Physio shrugged, shook his head and told him "We'll tape you up but be under no illusion - it's going to hurt". Great - painkillers it is then.

Lee on the other hand has gone downhill since completing the 55km walk and his recurring knee issue has come back on top of which he seems to be getting some sort of cold/flu/bubonic plague so will be readily identifiable by the sign "Unclean" hanging round his neck and his little bell so all can avoid him on the trail - it is only 100m we can be apart isn't it?

Polly is still recovering from blisters and ankle issues and has been practising with zinc-oxide tape with success (though some of the early attempts were somewhat amusing). Only Martin, (the oldest member of the quartet) is injury free, either that or he's just not moaning about the injuries he does have like the rest of us.

We arranged a meet up at The Pheasant the following Sunday after the last walk with full Support Team to have a 'post-mortem' on what worked well, what didn't and what we needed. We've decided to run with three support members, one vehicle for support and one in reserve with stock to be parked/abandoned along the route. This was mainly because the Support Crew don't want to miss any of the action and they feel they can cat nap if they need to when they get tired. We'll probably find out how good this strategy is when we arrive at Checkpoint 7 to find they're all asleep in a lay-by somewhere.

That should do us for Checkpoint 1 then.....

In terms of team actions, Kate was tasked with supplies having collated the team's wish list of goodies and went shopping (something which she has a particular talent for) and came home with an impressive haul of Lucozade, peanuts, Mars, Snickers, Dairy Milk, Curly-Wurlys, tea, coffee, Soreen, soup, plastic cups/plates, Champagne and a bucket - most of which is just for Martin. Simon as Support Team leader has been digesting the Trailwalker info and planning the logistics as well as organising the team T-Shirts (red of course). Mark has programmed each stage into the trusty Garmin that has seen us through all our training walks so far and worked out the team timings for each stage so the Support Team have some sort of idea where they need to be and when.

Sorry, really should've got the brakes checked....

The final bits of kit have been purchased and assembled including a Mobile Field Command Centre (gazebo) to allow the Support Team some dry space at the back of the car and the walkers to shelter during breaks at each Checkpoint. A trial packing of the car has been undertaken to ensure we can get the three support crew members, team clothes boxes, food boxes, gazebo, four folding chairs, folding table, cool box, water containers and all the other bits and pieces in.

When I said "Less than 100m apart....."

In between all of this shopping, tapering, organising, we did manage to take a break and enjoy a bit of rest and relaxation at the British Grand Prix on Sunday. 

Though we did mis-read the itinerary and thought we were down to do some sort of display, but apparently there's some air display team called the Red Arrows - what a coincidence! They weren't bad either.

OK...new game - Spot The Red Harrow

So all that remains really is the weather, which isn't looking too good. The rain just doesn't seem to want to stop at the moment. Just about every Trailwalker team must be logging into the Met Office but as it stands, it looks like Friday will be very wet, Saturday will be drizzle and showers all day into the evening before clearing up overnight and into Sunday morning. With 800 walkers off before we hit the trail, it's likely sections of the trail are going to get muddy and churned up before we even get there. Not what we all hoped for but at least we've trained in these conditions so know what to expect. Hopefully we'll see a welcoming sunrise as we head towards Brighton on Sunday morning.

On a more positive note, we've had a string of donations of late and as of today, we've gone through the £4,000 milestone with a total that now sits at £4,207.14. We had hoped to get past the £4,000 level before the event and this has given us a massive morale boost as we never imagined we'd raise this much!

We would like to thank, David Hall-Matthews, Hannah Jones, Pearl Engineering Services, Polly's Dad, Mette, Shelly Margolan, Margaret Yorke, Peter and Melanie Yorke, Tracey Statham, Mark Smith, Helene, Lucy Hopkins, Stuart McAnulla, Audrey, Eleanor Walker, Tim Noden, Audrey, Derek Edyvane, Lucy Webber, Jonathan Dean, Julia Harper, MGL Demolition, Andreas, pukeko, Hetta, Gordon Crawford, Andy Porter, Kevin Theobold, Chris Haslam (again!), Fellow Trailwalker Team Jon Paul Tom and Olly, Paul C, Martin's Mum and Dad, Jayne, D. Morgan PLC and our Anonymous sponsors for getting us through this major milestone - we can't thank you enough!

For anyone wishing to follow our progress on the day, we are off at 8am on Saturday morning and Oxfam have a live blog running and you can follow our progress as we pass through the Checkpoints. Alternatively, we will have our Satellite tracker with us which you can see on this web link and it should update every 10-20minutes as we walk along the trail. Please also feel free to follow us on Twitter and tweet us some encouragement which our Support Team will relay to us (if we can't pick it up directly).

Bring on Brighton!

05/05/2012 - Trailwalker Prep Session and Training on The South Downs - Pt2

Our plan following the Prep Session was to train on the Trailwalker route starting at Checkpoint 5 (Washington) to Checkpoint 7 (Devil's Dyke). Our logic behind this is that as we previously discussed in our blog, Stage 7 is arguably the hardest section of the trail with Stage 6 not far behind. It's likely that these stages will be done as we hit nightfall, we'll have already walked a long way and then we'll have to face the biggest climb on Trailwalker to the top of Truleigh Hill.

Mark was also taking the opportunity to test his Spot Messenger - a device which enables friends and family to track the team, and allows messages to be sent confirming all is OK or even issue an SOS (not that we're planning on using it) all by satellite where mobile signal is absent. In tracking mode it issues a location every ten minutes which should help the Support Team anticipate our arrival. The track can be seen here (well until we delete it anyway).
 

Chactonbury Hill

To do these stages presented somewhat of a logistical problem. Simon was going to walk stage 6 with us and then retire so he needed to leave a car near to Checkpoint 6. Mark, Lee and Polly drove to Devil's Dyke and arriving at the car park were blown away by the stunning view. It's a pity that it will be dark when we get here on Trailwalker. Leaving Lee's car in the car park, the gear was loaded onto Mark's and we headed for the Car Park near Checkpoint 5 collecting Simon on the way. This process took us nearly 2 hours. One thing we did note was the traffic congestion the closer we got to the coastal roads, it was Saturday and the out of town shopping parks were busy - this is likely to be worse in Summer so perhaps routes for the Support Team need to avoid.

Lee and Polly on the trail climbing Chactonbury Hi

Arriving at the car park at Washington on the East side of A24 presented a further small logistical problem. We had to cross over the A24 Dual Carriageway to find Checkpoint 5 but as this is actually in a field which is out of bounds during non-Trailwalker hiking we had to take a detour round it in order to reach the start of the route. This at least gave us a brief taste of the trails which given the recent rainfall were well churned up by hikers, horse riders and cyclists. We imagined what they would be like after a couple of thousand people had trudged it and decided it was probably a good argument for an earlier start.

Pond or path? You decide...

As we reached the southern side of the field, Chactonbury Hill came into view as we descended back to the A24 crossing the road using the public footpath through North Side Farm rather than being able to access the official Trailwalker road crossing and we were soon back on the official route, climbing the hill. The trail at this point was vehicle width, very chalky and full of flint. We could imagine the chalk becoming very slippery when wet (sounds like a good name for an album) and the uneven flint was felt with each footstep. The climb was steady and not particularly arduous and we were soon at the top and on the gradual gradient down again.

Taking note of where Checkpoint 6 will be we decided to take a 10minute break to simulate the stop, have a quick snack and Mark took the opportunity to change socks as well (well the simulation had to be accurate) while Lee timed the stop (yes - we trusted him with a clock!). The opportunity was taken to scoff a piece of Polly's 'Energy Cake' as well. 

The ten minutes over, we headed from Checkpoint 6 and crossed the River Adur where we said farewell to Simon (he counted us out and will count us all back in again) as he departed for his car and we trudged along the muddy path at the side of the river observing a large group of young swans gracefully swimming against the strong current.

Crossing the Rubicon, sorry, I mean Adur.

At near sea level, the River Adur marks the low point of the trail and weaving our way through Upper Beeding we found the track which would take us up to the top of Truleigh Hill - a 200m climb the biggest on Trailwalker. The track is quite straight and the initial section is the steepest part , this gradient starts to ease but just seems to prolong the climb to the top where the masts sit. The masts are a very useful landmark for gauging how much further it is to the top. Once at the top, unfortunately it's not downhill to Devil's Dyke. There are a series of rolling hills between you and Checkpoint 7. We passed the sign marking 'Fulking Escarpment' taking the opportunity to remark something similar as we went into the next climb.

Masts mark the top of Truleigh Hill - a good landmark

Polly noted a walker in the distance and set the team a target of overhauling this lone walker.  We seemed to gain ground on the uphill sections only to find this lone walker was running the downhills so we lost ground again. Eventually and only as we approached Checkpoint 7 did we eventually catch up only to find this was a fellow Trailwalker (The Champagne Chicks) who had already been walking most of the day on her own and had decided she would go to Checkpoint 8 before calling her boyfriend to pick her up! We bid her good luck as we turned at the National Trust Devil's Dyke sign and headed to the Car Park near the Devil's Dyke pub and managed to avoid the temptation of a quick pint before heading to our digs.

Devil's Dyke distant with rolling hills in between.

We completed the 23.36km in 4hrs 34minutes with a climb of 492m this was a good way ahead of the 5hrs we thought it would take us (mainly due to Polly 'Pace Setter' methinks). The stats for this walk are here.

It was great to finally experience the South Downs and the scenery we have seen so much of in photographs provided by other teams. We were amazed how far you can see inland to the North and out to sea in the South. It was well worth the effort to come down and do some of the course knowing the next time it will be the real deal. 



From hereon in, our training ramps up again as we add an hour to our long walk each week up to the event. Our next training walk takes us back to The Peak District and a route taking us from Rushton Spencer, over Gun Hill, down to Tittesworth Reservoir, up Hen Cloud, along The Roaches past Luds Church and back to Rushton Spencer. This 28km walk should give us nearly 700m of climb and hopefully great views if the weather is half decent.