Macmillan Mighty Hike - Cornwall
After my month of running 5km every day in May, I knew that a couple of things would happen:
- I would enjoy not feeling like I have to run everyday and...
- That if I didn't feel like I had to run every day, I would slip back to being unfit again
I didn't want to lose all the gains I had made in May, so I looked for another challenge and as usual, the algorithm was full of suggestions like "Cycle 300km in June", "Run 62 miles in June", "Do an Ultra Marathon..." but one caught my eye and for once the algorithm came up trumps: The Macmillan Cornwall Mighty Hike.
This is a marathon-distance hike along the South West Coast path from Padstow to Newquay that will take in some locations I have not been to before like Trevose Head, Treyarnon Bay before dropping into some more familiar territory such as the very picturesque Mawgan Porth before climbing back up and along Watergate Bay and Porth Beach and finishing up a bit more inland at Chapel Farm.
If the weather is with us it should be a spectacular days walking. And it will be all day... I'm in the first wave of people starting the hike at 06:50 and I am aiming for around 10hrs for my finish time.
The challenge
As I said, this is a hike not a run but it is a marathon distance and anyone familiar with the coast path (or Cornish... or any coastline really) will be aware of the kind of terrain I will encounter. If you are not aware, this is the elevation chart for the route...
I recently received my digital welcome pack and according to their very simple flow chart, I am a "Mighty Savvy Strider". I have done some hiking in my time but I think I am in a good place to start training for this off the back of the Mayday Mile challenge I did in may. My base fitness should be at a decent level and I'll just need to work on my endurance... and hills. Lots of incline training ahead.
Training logistics
As a "Mighty Savvy Strider" I need to start my training doing 14 mile (22.5km) routes, which to be honest feels about right. I am more than happy to take on 10 mile walks so pushing that bit further makes sense.
The 2 month training period seems about right too and given I signed up a little while ago it actually gives me 3 months to prepare for it. This challenge will be very different in terms of logistics from the May Day Mile Challenge. For that challenge I had to find 30-45mins every day to run, shower and get back to work / parenting and once I was in a routine, it was relatively straight forward. I did a lot of it on the treadmill so I was usually at home if I was needed for anything, the kids knew where I was and on weekdays I could either dedicate my lunch break to running to fit it in around work, or go out in the morning before work and the school run.
This one is different. I need to find time daily (or every other day at least) to do some training, and week days I can still run, do some kettlebells, incline train on the treadmill etc. but I also need to dedicate some weekend days to some long walks as these will take hours. The weekend is obviously family time so these will be the harder sessions to organise. The good bit is that the South West Coast Path is accessible from my front door, so I'm well placed to replicate the terrain I will be traversing on the day.
Sponsorship
Yep. I'm asking for money again and I know times are hard, but I need to hit a minimum target of £250 to take part in this event, so if you can spare some change to help achieve this goal then it would be very much appreciated. I raised £340 for the RNLI in May, if I can do the same again this time then thats a decent chunk of money raised for some good causes. I will be (attempting to) blog about any training hikes here as well; there is some stunning coastline to go and explore and I'm looking forward to getting out into it so look out for updates.
Sponsor me here if you can 🙂
