Swimming and walking - now there's a variation

Walking seems to be absolutely fine for me (fingers crossed ahead of a 12 hour event!), but last night consisted of just 20 laps of the pool. Only 20 because I forgot my water bottle, and not drinking water when you're swallowing galons of pool piss water makes the mouth a little funny, so I limited it to 20 laps, but it was 20 laps non-stop, which was good. I find it funny when I go down to the Ian Thorpe pool. Admittedly I don't think I'm the fastest guy around, mainly because I can only swim breaststroke, always have been, can't really do that front crawl malarky. Anyway, I'm actually pretty nippy for a breaststroker (I think there's an innuendo in there somewhere), so I park myself in the middle lane. Now you get two types of people in the middle lane. Those that shouldnt be in there - and you know you shouldn't be in there when someone like me, a breaststroker, catches you up after giving you a 15 metre headstart. I end up having to almost tread water whilst these idiots finish their laps. The thing is that they actually look like they're giving it their all, but the reality is that they should really move down a lane to where the slow people take their swimming strolls :)

Next you have those that like to blast out the blocks. They hurtle past you, but then after two laps, they're screwed and rest at the end for 5 minutes after each 100 metres. Invariably they're Chinese as well. I have nothing against the Chinese at all, but they always seem to be hanging about at the end of the pool recovering from a 100m blast - very strange. anyway, I go about my business as usual.

Next up was a walk to work this morning. I thought it was just over 11kms from Balmain to work in St. Leonards. so I was a little disappointed when I clocked 1hr 39mins just now. However measuring it on Mapmyrun.com tells me the true distance is in fact 12.25kms - so I feel much better about that. That works out to 8min 5sec kms, with a 7kg backpack on as well. Given there are quite a few hills to negotiate along the way, that's pretty pleasing. I'll walk back again tonight as well. The only thing that concerns me about this 12 hour walking malarky is not the distance or time, but the fact that i heel trike when I walk, whereas I front foot strike when I run. This means I'm using totally different parts of my feet, and when I walk in my Asics, I invariably get some pretty major deep blisters in the heel. I think the foot scrub is coming out tonight to get rid of excess skin and there will be lots of pre-taping before Narrabeen. However today was a step in the right direction. The pace was good and the pack felt comfortable. However whether I can keep that pace for 12 hours is another thing. Realistically I think that I can keep that pace for 6-8 hours - the last 4 could get ugly, but we'll see.

It makes you realise how much of a legend someone like Jan Herrman is. He's a bit of a local legend over here in the ultra community. Apparently running ultras since he was 15, but later in life has to walk them now. His PB for 12 hours is 90kms, that is seriously going some. He also beats quite a few 'runners' in the big ultras over here. I haven't met him, but lots of people talk about him - fair play is allI can say. He's walking on Saturday, I'll use him as my incentive and try and keep up with him. However with 7kgs on the back, it will be tough going, but hey, I'll give it a go and what will be will be.

Evening update: So tro complete the 7 Bridges route as its known over here, I walked the back way home from work tonight, doing another 14kms, and a total of 26kms walking today. I knocked off the 14kms in 1hr 53mins. Not bad going again and a very similar pace to this morning. One thing that concerns me though is the heels and the potential for blisters there. As I mentioned, because I dont usually use the heel, it so susceptible to deep blisters and after 26kms today I was coming close to some. I think on Saturday I'll do a mixture if running and walking and aim to get through the 12 hours. My crew and I were talking about a power walk of 80kms in 12 hours. I think this will completely wreck my feet, so I'll do mini runs combined with walking, a kind of shuffle if you will as that will help ease up the heels and will also see me go a little quicker. Nice and easy for Saturday. No heroics, just simple easy run/walk with the aim of getting through and using this as a chance to do a nice distance again and time on my feet :)