Saturday 31 October 2015

New shoes!

After my last few runs I was feeling a bit of pain in my calf muscles and shins so decided it was time to replace my Mizunos. 
But first I had to get through bootcamp! The weather was warm and sunny in stark contrast to last week. It was a good session but very tough on the legs 
When I got to Run, I wasn't sure how my running would be for my gait analysis but it turned out ok and I walked out with a pair of Saucony Guide 8. Will break them in tomorrow on the marathon bus

Thursday 29 October 2015

Old Town

Once again our Thursday night routes took us around the sights of Old Town. I ran with route master Craig, he was kind enough to slow to a pace I could manage but encouraging me to push on the uphill sections. Happy with the performance overall. 

Tuesday 27 October 2015

10km

First run after the clocks went back, it was dark and damp but not cold. In fact, weather wise it was good conditions for running. I ran with Richard who generally runs like the wind but he is great company. At another 6 or 7km my shins started to hurt, a slight stitch and had I not ran with him there would have been some walking done. But, I hung in there and made it around in a good time. Time to do even more stretching and book sessions with Jack to get the legs back to how they should be.

https://www.strava.com/activities/421528415

£800.01 on the totaliser today, absolutely delighted with that!

Saturday 24 October 2015

Bootcamp

Return of the 6 week bootcamp today delivered by George & Clayton.  The rain poured down in the lead up to the start but stopped for the hour.  It's amazing how quickly you can get out of fitness but I always enjoy training with them.  Simple, body weight exercises like press ups, star jumps, jumping squats, bear crawls (I hate these more than burpees!) sit-ups mixed with interval sprints or pushing and dragging 50kg on a prowler meant by the end of it I was feeling pretty sick. A sure sign of a good workout.

George is great trainer, he's taken me from the point where I could barely do press ups to where I can take part in events like Tough Mudder. Tackling every obstacle head on, not just for myself but helping people before and after me get past the obstacle too.  He believes in his clients and uses variety to maintain interest and ensure that by the end of the session you're cursing him under your breath but ultimately you know you're in better shape. His belief is infectious as he tells you to do something and you do it without questioning it, even though there's no way you'd even have contemplated doing it at any point in your life until he said it.
Clayton is another great trainer, similar style to George and we can have great banter along the way which helps numb the pain!

Fundraising update: £9.99 away from the halfway point! As part of my place I had to be at £750 one month before the marathon so I'm over the moon to be at this stage now.  The sooner the target is reached means I can concentrate on training, sure I can still nag people for cash from time to time but the pressure will be off.

Thursday 22 October 2015

Old Town

Tonight's route took me around Old Town, I'm not sure which was more torturous; the hills or forcing us to run past people enjoying themselves in the numerous eateries and bars! My cardio is still building back up after my lay off and there was some shin pain afterwards but it's important to stay positive and continue to stretch well before and afterwards. Bootcamp restarts on Saturday which will help regain my fitness levels and I think I'll book an appointment to see Jack next week to work his magic on my legs.

My preliminary training plan looks like:
Monday - rest/massage
Tuesday - running
Wednesday - yoga/cycling
Thursday - running
Friday - abs/core
Saturday - bootcamp
Sunday - long run

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Tough session

So tonight I was feeling fit enough to attempt the long route. In reality my fitness levels have dropped since my injury. Even early into the run I was contemplating swapping to the short route. However, I kept moving forward. Trying to block out the feeling of cold, tight legs, stitch or whatever.  Felt good to get back to the club house, 10km under my belt and didn't give in despite wanting to. The training for the marathon will have days like these and getting through them is going to be tough. I'm going to have to rely on my experience of training with George for Tough Mudder, starting from nothing and achieving a great level of fitness. I will improve, it takes time, practice and effort.

In other news, I'm delighted to have reached £600 of my £1500 target. I have to have 50% of the target a month before the event and the reminder a month afterwards. Ideally I'll have the full total (and more) before the first deadline so I can stop pestering people for their hard earned cash and concentrate on getting mentally and physically prepared for the day. But I'm hugely thankful for all the support given regardless of what stage of the preparation

Sunday 18 October 2015

Inspiration

My older brother ran his first marathon today in Melbourne and finished in under 4 hours! He's trained really hard over the past 5 months and today got his reward. He also applied for the London marathon but sadly was unsuccessful in securing a spot which is a real shame. We started running about the same time, albeit in different hemispheres, so it would have been nice to taken on the challenge together. Maybe another day! But for now, I applaud his result and hope that in April I can post up such a great time

Saturday 17 October 2015

parkrun

Today I took part in parkrun for the first time in 3 months.  Parkrun was my first experience of running with others, it's a free event held all over the world every Saturday. Old & young, fast & slow and everything in between, it really is a great thing.  It was a cold morning but there were over 450 people lining up to run 5km.  I just wanted to see how my foot felt whilst running on the uneven surface, thankfully it survived unscathed. When I first started running, I found myself questioning how the small kid or or much older person were still sprinting at the 4km stage going up hill whilst all I wanted to do was start walking, now I'm full of admiration for them. Fair play to them.
Over the coming months I hope to use parkrun as part of my training as it's a great course, picturesque and full of enthusiastic runners and volunteers to help keep you motivated when you'd rather be sleeping.
22:57 was faster than anticipated but I'll happily take that!


Thursday 15 October 2015

Second run

After a three week absence from running it's nice to get back out there, even in the cold and dark! I'm sure there will nights when I'm not quite as pleased to be pounding the dark streets but not tonight.  I forgot to hit start on my watch so missed a few hundred metres but still managed 7.5km at an average of 5min/km. So far, the foot is holding up well :-D

In other news, fundraising is going really well! I'm overwhelmed by people's generosity and support, two weeks in and nearly a third of the money raised. Thank you!

Wednesday 14 October 2015

The beginning


In a bid to keep my social media feeds from being overwhelmed by talk of fundraising and marathon training and mainly for my own benefit, I decided to keep a blog of my training and progress up until the London Marathon.

Historically, I don't have a good track record with maintaining blogs but I'll give it a go.

So, where does this journey begin? Well, it started during the 2015 London Marathon. I was watching the coverage on the BBC, as usual amazed at the number of people lining the streets to cheer those crazy runners on their way around the course. The great thing about the London marathon is the mixture of participants; the elites, the wheelchair athletes, the charity runners, the club runners and those that run just because!

Over the years I've watched the coverage, I've looked for people i know in the crowd and in between the barriers and often wondered how it must feel to participate in one of the largest sporting events of the year. My wife told me that if I wanted to run it, I'd have to enter it first - she was right of course, as she often is. At the time, I hadn't been running all that long and my maximum distance was around 5km, nowhere near the 42km of a marathon distance. However, when the ballot opened I along with 247,068 others applied for a place.

On Thursday 1st October I received confirmation that my ballot entry was unsuccessful but I looked through the Marathon News magazine and found lots of worthy charities still looking for people to help raise money for them by doing the marathon. I submitted an application to Sense and the following day they called me back to discuss it and I'm delighted to say they have accepted my application to represent them.  All I have to do now is raise a minimum of £1500!  You can see how I'm doing against my target and of course, contribute towards it by visiting 

Unfortunately on 19th September I rolled my right foot and have been unable to do any training since but last night I finally managed to go for a run.  Click here for the stats.  Not quick and not far but it felt good to be back running.