Training

Nope, this is not a post about bible college, it is a post about my legs!

1 Corinthians 9:24-26

²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air."

With two big walking challenges coming up this year I am in training. Not yet "strict" training, but training all the same.

Monday morning saw me do the usual loop. The Lawley (1237 ft), Caer Caradoc (1506ft), then Hope Bowdler Hill, and back over Caradoc and the Lawley and back to the car. We think it is about 8.5 miles but it is really difficult to work out the total ascent. The Lawley and Caradoc are both brutally steep in places, which does not come across in this photo, but perhaps the distance does.

I am hoping for a GPS print out after my friend recorded it on their phone to work out exactly what we do, but it hurts, and that must be good.

So now it is all about the times I can do. I don't have time for many "whole day" walks or even getting up to Snowdonia much in the run up, so I am trying to get my teeth into what I can do locally. My time of doing the loop was about three and a half hours. This reduced to three hours ten, then by running bits of it I got that down to two hours fifty. On Monday I made it in 2 hours thirty four. I think two thirty is achievable, and two twenty a further goal.

By the end of July hopefully I will have been successful in the "games" I am aiming for, but more so, maybe God is teaching me something about grit and determination to achieve a goal.