Less than three weeks to go!

It seems forever since we shared an update on our Lake District Challenge coming up next month!

But with less than three weeks to go, training is going… well it’s going, let’s put it that way!

My focus was mainly getting fit for the Kent Spring Marathon in April, which I did (just about!). I left my job at the end of March and was looking forward to a whole month of focussed training, building up my strength, before returning to work with my new job at the start of May. Until I enjoyed a first weekend of being unemployed and then came down with illness that seemed to be waiting for me to have some time off to hit me. That was the first week gone.

I recovered slightly the second weekend and had decided to give it another day or so before pulling out of the marathon altogether. Typical of my body, there was a miraculous recovery and I felt strong enough to take on the marathon. Between that and driving back and forth to Wales house-hunting my training took a severe hit.

A two-lap figure-8 course that took in a revolting hill FOUR times, I managed to make it over the finish line in 5 hours. Not too bad but not what I wanted and at least it was another one checked off the list.

After a couple of days rest, focus became split between moving house and training for the LDC.

Unsurprisingly, moving house became an all-consuming event – once we had the keys we then cleaned the property from top to bottom, including re-painting almost all the rooms. We moved in fully at the end of April and are still unpacking boxes, but at least we’re in and our excuses for not training have all but disappeared.

So last week we headed to the seaside for some fish and chips, 2p machines and a relaxing 20+ mile walk.

Apparently, the Welsh coast path runs uninterrupted from Chepstow to Chester! Unless you’re walking from Porthcawl to Port Talbot in which case there’s a massive steelworks in the way.

We started with the Porthcawl Park Run (Walk) which heads from the RNLI shop to Rest Bay and back, which added a very handy 3 miles to our walk. I then thought the coast path to Port Talbot was 10 miles, where we could have some lunch and head back. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and as we headed inland to go around the steelworks, we realised we were still quite a few miles short of Port Talbot and if we made it there and back again (WE’RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!) the walk would be closer to 30 miles. Much longer than our previous longest of 12 miles and clearly too much of a jump up in mileage for our staggering fitness levels.

So we did an about-turn and headed back, managing to get back to Rest Bay in time for a much later lunch than planned. We got back to our B&B with over 18 miles in the bag. Not what was planned but not too shabby; and at least it wasn’t too hilly.

This weekend needed a step up again, so off we went to Abergavenny to take on a circular walk that took in The Blorenge and The Sugar Loaf. Much more hilly, covering around 900m of ascent, but not quite as far at just over 15 miles long.

Sunday we went down to London, mainly for the final Brentford game of the season but we still needed to make sure we got some miles in. So we headed to Hammersmith and then back along the Thames Path to Kew - another 5 miles in the tank.

It's not enough to be doing the weekend walking, although that is a very important part of it. We’re still doing strength and cross-training exercise through the week as it all contributes to getting us through the incredible challenge of back-to-back 50km walks.

It’s really hard going but the end is in sight! If you would like to donate to our charities, to spur us on even more, the links are:

Matt – Mind Mental Health: https://www.justgiving.com/page/matthew-cox-1693768108128

Rosie – Dementia UK: https://www.justgiving.com/page/rose-marie-hetterley