Cheaper than smoking?

During a conversation with the great Charles Stockford yesterday he suggested that I have recently spent a lot of money on equipment and fitness over the last few months. The conversation came about because I said I needed to get a headlamp for the Ultra at the end of Jan. He suggested the cheapest possible one I could find and be done with it. I attack things a little differently. I suspect this is because I have a less active social life than I should but never the less I still derive some satisfaction from researching the best bit of kit to buy and knowing that I have done all I can to avoid problems arising when you least need them.

More honestly though I just love my toys.

So this got me thinking, how much had I spent on fitness? Firstly, I should say that I believe beyond any doubt that spending vast amounts to obtain fitness is definitely not the proper way of looking at things. Internal desire to achieve fitness is the most important factor.

I totted up everything I have spent on equipment this year, I also included the cost of race entries as well. It totalled around £1300. A good chunk of which was on a bike. Give or take a few pence we are looking at £3.50 a day. I was strangely quite proud of this and was willing myself to remember other things that I had bought to swell the total. Anything that contributes to being aware of ones body is a truly wonderful thing and I can honestly say that all of this money has been spent on highly useful items. My life would not of ended without them but my training and therefore my life is definitely improved for having purchased them.

The question I often ask is 'how many pints would that of bought?' Lets see, call it £3 a pint and we come in with 433 pints. I like a drink but if I was to look back on a year and see that I had spent £1300 on lager I would be less pleased with myself than if it had been spent it on exercise. If I was a smoker averaging 20 a day at £5 a pack that would total a whopping £1825. Now, I know a couple of supremely fit people who enjoy drinking and occasionally smoking I might even be one of them but spending the best part of £2k on fags must break even the most devoted smokers heart-perhaps literally. Wow! See what I did there.

Just where did the money go? I wont bore you with the details (amazed if your still reading this anyway) but consider that £450 went on a bike (I will have this for several years) and around £250 has been spent on running shoes and you will see that £1300 is not that extreme for a whole year. Frankly, any financial investment made with a view to exploring this remarkable body of ours is a sound one. But realistically, unless you are preparing for an Ultra Marathon, Adventure Race or Expedition of some kind then most of what I have bought is utterly pointless.

Another thought worth considering is this; how much does your average person spend on Gym Membership? Around £50 a month not including joining fee. Even I know that totals £600 a year and there you have it £600 well spent! Perhaps not, if you only go to the gym once a week or once a fortnight.....can you see where gyms make there money? Yep, from people who clear there conscience by deciding to join a gym in January and then hardly ever attend. I know a few people who have managed Gyms and they will openly admit that the bulk of there money is made from the people who join and rarely attend.

Keep it simple and try to find something you enjoy. I bet you a thousand pounds that if you did sit ups and press ups to exhaustion before going for a 30 minute run 3 times a week then you would be fitter than at least 95% of all Gym members in the UK. Seriously. All for the price of a pair of running shoes. You will probably have a little more money to spend on tobacco and alcohol as well. Just a thought.

I wont do it now but I will make a full list of all the equipment I have used and purchased over the last year at some point in the future.

If you have read this then make a comment because I will be amazed if you have.

Crappy weather dude

Running in the greyness of the day I really cursed my self for ignoring my alarm clock at 5am. It was dry then and it would be over and done with by any normal persons breakfast time. Still, it did give me a chance to test out my new waterproof and I am pleased to announce its waterproof. The wind and rain were a real ball-ache at one point as it was kind of pushing the sweat into one of my right eye and that stung. I had to run at least a mile winking like a pirate....perhaps I should of just purchased an eye patch? Shut up Bruce.

I felt today. I had a backpack on and I have not run for a few days but even so I only covered 15 miles and I really felt it. Admittedly I pushed hard for the last 3/4 miles but I am surprised how sore my legs are this evening. I think I needed to get them working after being a little slack recently, I am sure they just needed to be shocked back into life. If they feel this bad after my next run then I will begin to panic about the impending Ultra.

Have I mentioned that I am entering one of Britain's utterly stupid eccentric races on New years Eve? Well, I am! The Mad Maldon Mud Race will have my good my self there this year and I hope to be able to post some jolly funny Photos straight after the event.

By for now legends and if i dont post again before hand: All the best for 2007!

You dont see that everyday.

Rather pleasant day today, did absolutely no work not even the much needed tidying of my desk I had intended. My daughter had not been well in the night and so jumped in with me. I love this, makes me feel like a Dad and reminds me of getting up in the night when she was little. All together....Ahhhhhhhhhhh. So basically, this resulted in a rather splendid lay-in. Bravo Jeeves.

Half a stone was accumulated over the last week or so and the fight back began today. My daughter and I cooked our favourite lunch. Known simply to us as 'Peppers'. A recipe first proliferated on these shores by the proprietor of the famous Walnut Tree restaurant. They consist of Tomatoes, Garlic, Anchovies and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Delicious. Nice bit of real bread and voila, you have the perfect lunch. A bit more sunny Italy that cold English Winter but most nutritious. See picture.

This was followed by a cycle ride with Big Brother Al and Nick. Beautiful clear day in our neck of the woods and Nick was keen to head out in the daylight but wanted to ensure a post sundown return. This is not because he did not want the world to see him wearing silly tights but because he wanted to test his new super bright bike light! I was keen to see it as well!

All was going well and I took some beautiful wintry pictures of the countryside but just as the sun was dipping below the horizon for the one of last times of the year we had a bit of an incident.

Nick somehow got a twig caught in his rear spokes and this banged into his rear derailleur and subsequently came to rest against the frame of the bike thus locking up his rear wheel. Or this is is what I thought had happened. No! Upon closer inspection the chain looked rather twisted as well.......The 'twig' had completely ripped the rear derailleur off the frame! I could not believe it but when I saw Nick was dealing with it fairly calmly I could not help but laugh. I have simply never seen anything like it (See picture). I immediately offered him my bike and said that I would run home whilst pushing his one. He declined and managed that half on half off pushing thing that Postman seem to do so well.

I was curious to see how far we had come since leaving home until point of disaster but like a dickhead I had forgotten to press 'start' on my GPS gadget. Anyway whilst the two grease monkeys tried to manipulate the twisted bits of metal to a position whereby the rear wheel would at least move I took the chance to get some more pics of the stunning sunset. Enjoy.

I estimate only 8 miles were covered in total but we did discover that Nick could definitely cut it as a Postie!

Oh brother, where art thou?

Guess how much weight I have put on over the last seven days? Give up? Quitter! I will share this fascinating information with you. 7lbs. That's right half a stone in old money! I have to say, its amazing how much tighter a brand new shirt felt on me by the end of yesterday.

Give me ten days I reckon and it will be gone. Will keep you posted.

Apart from 'some' beers, plenty of excellent wine and large amounts of food I have taken in a few exercise sessions. Firstly, on Saturday the 23rd after a rather boozy session in London with my two big Brothers I got out for a thrash on the Mountain bike and bloody enjoyable it was too. Really cleared the head and reduced my anxieties about getting drunk again that coming evening. Which I did and bloody enjoyable that was too.

The Morning of Christmas Eve had me feeling less than sharp but I knew a huge roast dinner was planned at my aunts house that lunchtime so I had to get out for a some exercise. A short but hard run was the order of the day and I opted for my hilly 10k course and I was revved up for it. So much so that I ran another Personal Best. 41minutes 45 seconds. Over a minute quicker than my previous best. Rock on. Roll on the roast beef.......guilt free roast beef thanks to the run. A few short hours after this saw some friends and I once again consume enough alcohol to sedate a family of gorillas.

Christmas morn was a real pleasure. Its not often that all three Brothers wake up in the same house and even less common for all of us to have our Mountain Bikes in the garage ready for a little fresh air. So, after completing the Christmas Morning ritual of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs we exchanged some great gifts and headed out in to the country side. My eldest Brother and I are very familiar with the route we took and we proceeded to show my city dwelling middle brother the great outdoors. Oh yes! We were mightily impressive in our guidance.....until eldest brother who was in third place could be heard taking a rather large fall. We cycled back round the corner and all I could see were two legs poking up out of a ditch like a pair of bunny ears. Possibly one of the funniest things I have ever seen (see picture) and because of the way he had come to rest i.e head pointing down slope, he struggled to flip him self over. Much like a turtle floundering on its upturned shell!

Rather poor photography skills on my part though, I rushed back to get a picture and dumped my bike next to him. Naturally I wanted capture the bunny ear moment and headed back round the path to capture the shot. Like a nugget I left my bike in the way. I redeemed my self though..........On the way back home I really raised the bar in terms of high speed accidents. Sprinting down a rather steep slope I managed to get a bit of course and this piled me into a hedgerow and dumped me into a ditch witch, rather annoyingly was filled with freezing cold water. During the crash I managed to bang my head on the floor and I experienced the rather odd sensation of my neck being forced some way past the normal range of movement. This hurt, I was worried that I might of done something rather serious. However, the freezing cold water that I was now sitting in was enough to make me jump up and sort my self out. Oh yes, we really showed that lazy city dweller how to tackle the Essex countryside. In fact, Stuart (middle brother) was the only one of us not to fall off! He always was the smart one.

Any way, that is it in terms of exercise for me over the xmas period. To summarise: two bike rides of approx an hour and a half and one 10k run.

Cheers bro's for Christmas Morning. Definitely my Seasonal highlight.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

The big one (35.5Miles)

I had a late night on Friday and even had some Chinese takeaway after dinner at about 11pm. Shortly thereafter I went to bed and my alarm woke me at 3.30am. Raining cats and dogs outside so dozed on and off until a little before 5 then got up and had breakfast and a pint of water. I left the house at about 5.20am. The Chinese and breakfast all within a few hours of running meant that I felt full up for the first hour or so of running. This bloated feeling and light rain really did not endear itself to me and that first hour or so was not the pleasurable time I have spent running.

I was surprised by just how many houses had lights on at this early hour on a Saturday morning, one of the houses was a particularly beautiful house out in the country belonging to a friend and x-girlfriend of mine, partying until the early hours no doubt. Good work! I hope your well and Merry Christmas to you!

As planned, yesterday saw the biggest yet. 35.5Miles run. It took longer than I thought, this is interesting because I actually know that I took fewer breaks than normal. I did not stick religiously to the run for 9 minutes and walk for 1 like I usually do and even though I only covered approx 2 miles more than my previous best of 33miles I was out for about 45 minutes longer than before. I am surprised by this because I did not stop to take photo's either (sorry!).
The only explanation I can come up with is that I made additional toilet stops, and I mean ADDITIONAL toilet stops! I did not stop weeing yesterday. It was as if there was a tube going from my mouth directly to my bladder. As an example: During the first 2 hours of yesterdays run I pissed 6 times. 6! Not little trickles but 6 big powerful blasts. I think that I must of 'marked' most of Essex yesterday with my scent! I have just checked how much fluid I consumed on my previous 33miler and it was a whole litre more than yesterday. Now I am really am baffled as to why I was urinating at every opportunity. Over the space of nearly 7 hours of running I drank around 3.5 litres of water when last time I drank 4.5.

3.5 Liters does not sound like a lot to me for 7 hours of running and yet I have never passed as much water in a single day as I did yesterday. Upon finishing I dutifully downed a further litre and really wished that I had not. After a quick shower and bowl of pasta I had to drive for an hour and a half to collect my daughter and for the first time ever I had to stop at some services to go to the toilet and then once again I needed to go when I arrived in Brighton and once more on the way home as well. I am baffled by this amount of toilet activity! I am wondering if there was a diuretic of some description in the Chinese food? MSG? Please offer any theories you might have.

Anyway, how did I feel afterward? Its a funny thing running for that long. For the last 45 minutes I could literally of sold my own mother for a chunk of nice fruitcake and I never normally eat fruit cake. However, once stopped your appetite all but evaporates. I just want to sit in the fresh air and adjust to not running. I did not feel tired mentally afterward but yes my legs were sore. In fact apart from a spell of fatigue whilst stuck in traffic yesterday at about 5pm I felt far more awake/alert than normal. I attribute this to a kind of low level 'runners high'. It certainly was not because I had a great amount of sleep the night before! I would even go so far as to say I found it difficult to get to sleep last night. A little like the 'caffeine' feeling I have mentioned previously. I could waffle for hours about things I saw and experienced on the actual run but I wont, I'll finish by saying that today I feel way better than I did the day after my first Marathon.

All of this is positive, interesting stuff to me. Even the annoying amount of peeing is interesting. The only slight negative to come out of yesterday's run is the thought that at the end of Jan I need to run 45 miles as opposed to 35. Whilst I love the unknown factor of 'can I actually do that?' It is a little daunting. I reckon another 10miles would easily of kept me out for another 2 hours and that is a lot of extra running when you have already been out for the best part of 7 hours. I think I would like to get a least one more long run completed before I turn up in Tring for the start of the race at the end of January.

Science bit
Time: 6hours 54mins
Distance: 35.5Miles
Fluid: 3.5 litres
Food: 6 nutri grain bars

Friday night

Well, here we are at the end of another long week. Today has been particularly trying but that has had little to with running so I will leave that.

Tomorrow Morning will be another milestone run. 35+ miles and will be heading out very early morning I estimate at 4am. We are forecast rain tonight and if it is still raining when I wake up then I might stay asleep a little longer.....but who cares! I am tired, waffling already.

Last night Nick and I had a great ride. 25 miles covered. Including short breaks for snacks and drinks we were out for around 2 and a half hours.

Just poured a lovely cold beer and will have that before packing my bag for tomorrow. God I am interesting.

Have a great weekend everyone.

PS. I just hit the spell check button and I had made no spelling mistakes. WHO-IS-YOUR-DADDY?

couple of nights well spent

Tuesday night saw a good bike ride where Nick and I both had big 'off's'. I went down a rather steep section and came off in a big way and whilst trying to break my fall by using a tree it felt like I almost tore my bloody thumb off. Nick followed me down and promptly did the same. hilarious stuff.

All in all a good ride, new ground covered and it opened up the possibility of a few new routes that we can take advantage of. We were out for the best part of 2 hrs.

Running club tonight consisted of some hill work and then some flat out sprinting at the local Tesco car park. We were out for about 1hr 30 but a fair bit of that was spent standing around. I have totally forgotten how far we went but my heart rate did top out at 180 at one point. Thrilling ay?

Need to get some pics up soon me thinks. Will be taking camera on Saturday morning, so hopefully get some nice shots.

Well, what d'ya know.......

Just looked at the running clubs website and last week I ran a Personal Best for the timed lap of 14mins 21 seconds. I had no idea! I think an attempt at going through the 14 min barrier is beckoning me.

Will keep you all bored, er I mean posted.

And another thing

Whilst out on Friday night I met a couple of people who claimed to be very into there health and fitness and clearly enjoyed talking about it. 'Great' you might think but sadly, no. Strangely they both assumed that I had no interest in running/excercise and proceeeded to tell me that I really should work out and maybe even start running. Even more strangely I was modest and did not inform the first preecher that last Monday I ran 33miles before work. I was truly stunned by the way she spoke to me. She said that she ran regularly and I said at this point 'thats great, I love to run as well'. her response was not to question me and figure out if she was looking like a prat by bragging about her incredible fitness...oh no, she looked down her nose at me and said 'yeah but I run 4 miles everyday'. she was clearly very use to people being impressed by this and it was a full gone conclusion that I would be as well. Strange. Like I said, how I did not bite is a bigger mystery than how this person became such a wally.

The second fitness guru did get told I ran 33 miles last Monday and this left him speechless. Pretty much did not even know that humans could do this. With so many people competing in amazing events (way beyond the plodding I do) I cant believe people dive straight in with both feet and assume you are obviously not up to there high standards.

I am sure most people who exercise are not this annoying, hopefully I am only annoying in other ways.

Random quote time:

'Enjoy your body every way you can, dont be afraid of it or what other people think of it, its the greatest instrument you'll ever own'

Best line from a song ever!

Woh....getting lazy!

Okey dokey. Really quite a good run tonight 9.2 miles in 1hr 8mins. Was not really thinking straight but would of got an even 10miles in had I thought. I dont think I have run 10 miles any quicker than 1hour15mins so tonight I could easily of beaten that! Oh well, next time

Running club last Wednesday was pretty good. Start of the month so a quick timed lap of the town and back home for dinner. I have no idea how my time compared to the Month before but I will have a look on the website tomorrow and find out.

All in all last week was fairly lazy and this was topped off on Friday with enough alcohol to kill a horse. I really should be doing more as I am running my first Ultra in around 6 weeks. Yikes, not thought of it in those terms before. I am not picking my daughter up until Saturday lunchtime so I will be doing a mammoth 35 miles this coming Saturday Morning.

Other big news........new waterproof arrived today and goddam it's nice! Hunted for months to get last years model as the updated model is is a horrible colour! Its made by a French company that specialise in Ultra Running equipment called Raidlight. Its Rediculously, er, light, waterproof, breathable and has little thumb loops to stop the sleeves riding up when running with a rucksack. It even has a little clear plastic window on the cuff so you can see your watch/GPS/HR Monitor whilst running. I know! Genius!

Incredibly it scrunches down to about the size of an apple. I have owned a couple of running tops both of which were not waterproof but windproof and highly breathable. The first was a Lowe Alpine which was excellent but sadly stolen the second was a very expensive North Face item which was unfortunately not stolen. It was Utter crap.

Whilst the Raidlight has an RRP of £130 (the same as the North Face) it is clear how much thought has gone into it. I beats the others handsdown and really does look fricking good. Plus I got a great deal on it! £50 off! Happy days!

Bedtime.

Biathlon without the rifle or ski's...

Good morning all, biggest ride yet last night. Did not plan it like this but we got talking about an all night ride that we are entering in the summer and that inspired us to do something a bit bigger than normal. Still not epic in its proportions but the longest we have done since we started these regular cycle rides. Incredible full moon last night (looks strangely squashed in the picture though!) and despite strong winds it was not cold at all. Suits me!
It was going really well, we stopped at home for a quick drink at the 21 mile mark and then headed off again. The plan was to do roughly another 5 out and then come back which would take our total to 31 miles. This would of meant we had covered the entire distance of the disused railway line between Stansted and Braintree.

Unfortunately this was not to be. After a couple of miles I heard my bike was making a funny noise and when I stopped to inspect I saw that the noise was coming from a twig stuck to me tyre and it was knocking against my forks as the wheel went round. Annoyingly the twig was attached to the tyre by way of a big thorn. I did think about just pulling it out as I have inner tube protectors that are meant to stop punctures. However, after wiggling the thorn we could hear air coming out so we decided to make a dash for home without completing the full distance. Fat lot of good this did us! The extra speed I tried to go at on the road obviously knocked the thorn out and the tyre was flat in about 20 seconds.

That was me running home. Took about 30 minutes to jog back and I did not really mind. One of the reasons its good to be fit is that if this sort of thing happens you know you can get your self out of trouble.

All in all we covered 28 miles in 2 hrs 44 min. Now, we were not going fast for much of this journey and most certainly we could of done this a lot quicker but it is still incredible to think that a good Marathon runner could of run that distance quicker than we rode it. Amazing.

Look at 'you know your getting old' post....finally managed to get the photo's on and I am rather pleased with them!

Catch up

Right then, couple of sessions to add to this. Firstly, I had a great cycle ride on Saturday morning. Out for about an hour, it was a glorious morning....could of done with my new gloves but was fine once I got going. Upon my return I had a couple of parcels waiting for me. My gloves arrived about 10 minutes after I left.

Sunday afternoon I went for what was meant to be a brisk run but the wind was so strong on my way out that I was running no quicker than if was going out for a 30miler. Annoying. However, after I turned for home the wind was on my side and I got a bit of a wiggle on. Just under 8 miles covered and was out for 54 minutes.