For anyone that follows me on Strava it probably appears that I’ve fallen off the face of the Earth or have decided to rededicate my life to the couch potato lifestyle. While I’m no athlete I haven’t been completely idle either.

At the beginning of May I came to the realisation that cycling had become something of a chore, it had developed into an activity I was doing for reasons other than enjoyment. It wasn’t that I’d fallen out of love with cycling, it was that I’d rekindled my old love of hillwalking (or hiking if you prefer) and walking in general and I was finding them much more fulfilling than cycling. I’ve spent a lot more time in the hills this year and rediscovered why I enjoyed it so much. For the last 10 years I’ve defined myself as a cyclist so, while I haven’t turned a pedal since the 26th of April, I don’t think I’m finished completely and have no intention of getting rid of my bikes.

Me being me, I felt the need for a challenge to motivate a daily walking habit to build strength and fitness for my weekend trips into the hills. With my 50th birthday this year (now into the final countdown) I also wanted this challenge to be out of the ordinary and something I’d have to push myself to the limit to achieve. I wanted a walking challenge to replicate the challenge of Audax.

While looking for ideas I took my inspiration from two illustrious sources. Fellow blogger Unironedman (Declan) is an avid runner with many long distance challenges under his belt. Last year he organised and completed an FKT (Fastest Known Time) attempt on the 115km long St. Declan’s Way. You can read his description of the “Day on the Way” here and watch his video below.

This year Declan completed a run of the full Wicklow Way (~130km) as a memorial to his recently deceased Dad. You can also read about that epic adventure here.

My second source of inspiration was (is?) Ellie from the excellent Tough Soles. Ellie and her partner Carl have a well established website and YouTube channel that originally started as a challenge to walk every official waymarked trail in Ireland. They completed this a while ago but the channel is still going strong. Ellie is currently climbing every Vandeleur-Lynam peak in Ireland (600m+) on back to back days. More info on their website or follow their channel to see how she gets on.

In July last year Ellie ran the 56km Leitrim Way setting an FKT in the process. She documented that day and you can watch the video below.

Despite flirting with running a few years ago I’m not very good at it and just about managed to get to the 5K distance. Ultra-running is simply not for me. However, ultra-walking (any distance greater than a marathon – 42km) is also a thing and walking I am good at!

My nearest waymarked trail is The Bluestack Way. It runs from Donegal Town through the Bluestack Mountains to Glenties and finishes in Ardara. I’ve walked bits of it to access walks in the Bluestacks and I walked a large chunk of it in 2012 on the 30km Bluestack Challenge. Overall it is 52km although, in typical Irish fashion, it is listed as 65km. This is because there is a lower level alternative route for the more mountainous section, that is recommended in bad weather and they’ve lumped both together to come up with 65km.

At 52km it definitely qualifies as an ultra route and I feel that it is doable in one day. With that in mind I registered the reverse route (Ardara to Donegal Town) on the official FKT website and plan to complete it on Sunday 27th August. I also plan to complete it fully unsupported meaning I have to carry all my own food and water, I can’t have any support en route, can’t buy anything in shops (not that there are many anyway) and can’t cache food or supplies along the way.

I threw together a 12 week “training plan” that essentially consists of daily walking with progressively longer walks at the weekend. Today saw me at the halfway mark and appropriately completing a 26km training walk. Although I’m tired this evening I’m feeling better than I expected.

My only issue is that I’m fighting a recurrence of Plantar Fasciitis in my left foot. This flared up before I started walking regularly again but unsurprisingly the increase hasn’t helped it much. Ice and massage will hopefully keep it at bay and prevent it derailing my challenge.