So there I was tonight, out for a brisk walk and half way through 'Da Funk' by Daft Punk (superlative effort from the French) and I remember having/over-hearing various conversations with people about the fact they had taken pain killers before the race started.
Many years ago, when I had ideas about joining the army I would run with a heavy weight on my back everyday and to cover the pain in my legs I would occasionally take painkillers. This means I cant exactly moan at these people for doing it...... and yet, I have to say that I just don't get it? Ultra events hurt. You have to have that battle with the part if you that wants to give up. Is that not one of the reason's we do it? Isn't it one of the reasons it feels so fucking cool when we do finish?
So what is the point in masking that experience with pain killers? Besides for me, one of the main reason's I run is because it puts me in touch with my body and how wonderful it is. Not just how capable it is or how far it can travel or even that it does not fail to start-even on the coldest of mornings. No, one of the wonders of this world is that there is this species known as homo sapien that can endure so much pain, so much discomfort and so much hard ship that it makes us one of the most remarkable organisms ever. Sure, there are faster, more beautiful, stronger, more enduring etc etc...but surely we hold the title for most flexible/adaptable. Consider Maurice Green a 100 meter specialist of shattering speed and power and then cast an an eye at Paula Radcliffe...totally different but THE SAME species! You just don't get this kind of extreme variety in any other species. We are literally the most amazing creature ever to inhabit this earth. Lets ignore all the bad stuff we do.....just for a moment.
I rock! we all rock! God dam it, use your body for something new today! It took thousands of years of evolution to look this pretty.... make the most of it and respect it!
before you ask, yes I have been drinking.......oh the irony.......booze is no good for you. Well, I am afraid it is. As a species we need an escape. There are tribes in far flung locations that actually distill yak shit in order to produce alcohol! it's within us to to seek out these experiences. I don't do any illegal drugs and never really have but don't you think its odd that people in Westminster tell you what you can and cant put in to your body? After all, I don't attempt to throw them in to jail for getting overweight from lack of running/exercise.
Anyway, When I started this blog I promised my self I would stick to the running and ignore politics. Sorry. Yeah so painkillers, funny one that.
30.1.07
29.1.07
Where was I?
Good evening, its late again and i am rather tired so I intend to spill as much information on to the keyboard as possible, as quickly as possible. Had a beefburger made from Kobe Beef tonight, but that's not important right now.
OK, so the race was meant to start at 8.15am. This was cool but there was a little bit of apprehension about the fact that normally before I run these big distances I eat my Brekky and I am gone. This time I knew that I would be waiting around 2 hours from Breakfast to start line. It turned out the race was delayed and I had a 3 hour period without food before the start. This was annoying because after 30 minutes of running I was hungry and decided to stop to get food in early, whilst this meant that running out of food became a possibility i gambled on the fact that there would be food at the checkpoint to offset this problem.
Aside from feeling hungry and need to stop for a pee, the first ten miles literally flew by. This was due in no small part to the fact that I was running with a great bunch of blokes, I believe a couple of them had military backgrounds so the humour was down to earth and the conversation was great. Thanks Gents. I actually dropped back from them after about 10 minutes because I was worried about the energy of the start pushing us off to quickly but I ended up catching them up a few minutes later and decided the benefits from running with a group were worth having, besides I was not running beyond my self anyway.
Somewhere around the 12-15 mile mark I needed to stop for a comfort beak and I never saw the group again after that but I trust they did well and perhaps I will bump into them at some point in the future. I hope so.
The The next thing worth mentioning after that was the fact that some idiot dog owner did not have suitable control of his animals and whilst I dodged one of them, the next one stood statue like right in my way and the resulting knee to its head must of hurt it. It certainly hurt me and my vicious response of 'For f**ks sake' aimed at the selfish owner was fairly simple and to the point. However, the bang to the side of the knee completely seized it up for a few seconds and whilst I stretched it out I wondered if a less reasonable man would of gone and thrown the owner in to the canal.I am sure you getting the idea that it was the last thing I needed at the 20mile mark. Probably best I don't even get on the subject of dog turds along the canal. Bloody disgrace.
No sooner had I got moving again, I met up with a couple of friends, Helen and Kirsten and they ran with me for a while which was great. I did make me realise though that I had ran the first 20 miles quite quickly because although the race was delayed by 45 minutes I pretty much reached them at the same time we agreed before knowing about the delay. This was probably not sensible and I knew I should take it easy if I was to keep my chances of finishing favourable.
Within a mile the girls dropping back another Friend, Greg joined me and for a jog, again it was great company but unfortunately it was at around this point that I discovered that the CP's did have food and I grabbed a Pain au Chocolate. God it tasted good but it did not really work well once it was inside. Lesson learned stick to what you know.
Greg and the girls met me a further 3 times between them and I cant overstate how cool this was of them. A lot of work went in to driving around the various unfamiliar villages in order to cheer me on and I am very grateful. Thanks again.
A couple of these ambushes overlapped with me falling in to step with another runner called Sonia. It was at a bridge that was almost exactly 26 miles in, that I turned around and said to her: 'well that's a marathon done I am going to have a snack to celebrate'. We ran the remaining 19 miles together and it was wonderful, we both agreed that its very unusual to find someone of such similar ability and we had both lucked out.
Well, just for the record; the hardest parts were between 19miles and 26miles. Some pretty tough moments in there and there I focused on 35 miles and not 45 miles fir a lot of this time. I wont bang on about the final ten but suffice to say they passed quicker than I thought they would. One funny memory of the final ten was when Sonia would bump into me, or more likely me bumping into her we were so British about the whole thing! 'sorry', then the reply would come from the other; 'no, my fault'.
OK pretty lame report but, I want to make a note for myself that the terrain was more punishing than I had anticipated. I had never really planned for a trail race with the extra toll that takes on the ankles but oh well done it now! So I am obviously pretty hardcore!
I will no doubt make reference to the race many times in future posts but a couple of things worth mentioning now are that I miss it. I feel like I should still be at the canal. It felt right and it kind of made sense. I knew why I was doing it-but don't ask me to explain that.
A friend of mine said to me today that I was now part of an elite group because I had run an Ultra. All I could say was that I honestly did not feel like that, I feel like I have done something for the right reasons and I got high doing it. It makes other things seem a little clearer at the moment but it certainly does not make me an elite athlete. I think you could even argue over the 'athlete' bit. Please don't mistake this as me being harsh on my self like people have after the previous T2T post (thanks for reading), I just feel like its something I should be doing, something we should all be doing. I have put my money where my mouth is and it feels great!
Thanks for reading and congrats to everyone who finished and also to everyone who even had the balls to turn up and have a go. I enjoyed meeting so many of you but I feel I need to make a special mention of a man who finished about 90 minutes after me and walked directly from the finish to the bar and ordered a pint of Stella, then another and so on.......heroic stuff. He was there until at least 10.30pm and drank a good 5/6 pints of STELLA. How? Why? Even my running partner Sonia had a pint of Guinness in front of her in the pub. Impressive stuff. I started on the fruit juice but at about 10pm My good friend Max and I decided to blaze up a couple of Montecristo No.3 and whilst lager is not the ideal paring it seemed wrong to drink anything stronger.
Another guy was keeling over whilst turning green and Greg found two others being sick in the toilets. I know that at least one guy was hospitalised through dehydration. I have read his post on the forum. He was sure he was being sensible with fluids but after the race he could not hold any food or fluids down and eventually A+E was the only way forward. 2L of saline drips and drugs to stop future vomiting sorted him out but it goes to show even in a British January you can get your self in trouble.
Raw data:
A letter dropped on my door matt this morning (spooky timing) reminding me that if i wanted to row the Atlantic at the end of the year then I had to pay a deposit before the end of the Feb. Any one up for it? Let me know if you are.
OK, so the race was meant to start at 8.15am. This was cool but there was a little bit of apprehension about the fact that normally before I run these big distances I eat my Brekky and I am gone. This time I knew that I would be waiting around 2 hours from Breakfast to start line. It turned out the race was delayed and I had a 3 hour period without food before the start. This was annoying because after 30 minutes of running I was hungry and decided to stop to get food in early, whilst this meant that running out of food became a possibility i gambled on the fact that there would be food at the checkpoint to offset this problem.
Aside from feeling hungry and need to stop for a pee, the first ten miles literally flew by. This was due in no small part to the fact that I was running with a great bunch of blokes, I believe a couple of them had military backgrounds so the humour was down to earth and the conversation was great. Thanks Gents. I actually dropped back from them after about 10 minutes because I was worried about the energy of the start pushing us off to quickly but I ended up catching them up a few minutes later and decided the benefits from running with a group were worth having, besides I was not running beyond my self anyway.
Somewhere around the 12-15 mile mark I needed to stop for a comfort beak and I never saw the group again after that but I trust they did well and perhaps I will bump into them at some point in the future. I hope so.
The The next thing worth mentioning after that was the fact that some idiot dog owner did not have suitable control of his animals and whilst I dodged one of them, the next one stood statue like right in my way and the resulting knee to its head must of hurt it. It certainly hurt me and my vicious response of 'For f**ks sake' aimed at the selfish owner was fairly simple and to the point. However, the bang to the side of the knee completely seized it up for a few seconds and whilst I stretched it out I wondered if a less reasonable man would of gone and thrown the owner in to the canal.I am sure you getting the idea that it was the last thing I needed at the 20mile mark. Probably best I don't even get on the subject of dog turds along the canal. Bloody disgrace.
No sooner had I got moving again, I met up with a couple of friends, Helen and Kirsten and they ran with me for a while which was great. I did make me realise though that I had ran the first 20 miles quite quickly because although the race was delayed by 45 minutes I pretty much reached them at the same time we agreed before knowing about the delay. This was probably not sensible and I knew I should take it easy if I was to keep my chances of finishing favourable.
Within a mile the girls dropping back another Friend, Greg joined me and for a jog, again it was great company but unfortunately it was at around this point that I discovered that the CP's did have food and I grabbed a Pain au Chocolate. God it tasted good but it did not really work well once it was inside. Lesson learned stick to what you know.
Greg and the girls met me a further 3 times between them and I cant overstate how cool this was of them. A lot of work went in to driving around the various unfamiliar villages in order to cheer me on and I am very grateful. Thanks again.
A couple of these ambushes overlapped with me falling in to step with another runner called Sonia. It was at a bridge that was almost exactly 26 miles in, that I turned around and said to her: 'well that's a marathon done I am going to have a snack to celebrate'. We ran the remaining 19 miles together and it was wonderful, we both agreed that its very unusual to find someone of such similar ability and we had both lucked out.
Well, just for the record; the hardest parts were between 19miles and 26miles. Some pretty tough moments in there and there I focused on 35 miles and not 45 miles fir a lot of this time. I wont bang on about the final ten but suffice to say they passed quicker than I thought they would. One funny memory of the final ten was when Sonia would bump into me, or more likely me bumping into her we were so British about the whole thing! 'sorry', then the reply would come from the other; 'no, my fault'.
OK pretty lame report but, I want to make a note for myself that the terrain was more punishing than I had anticipated. I had never really planned for a trail race with the extra toll that takes on the ankles but oh well done it now! So I am obviously pretty hardcore!
I will no doubt make reference to the race many times in future posts but a couple of things worth mentioning now are that I miss it. I feel like I should still be at the canal. It felt right and it kind of made sense. I knew why I was doing it-but don't ask me to explain that.
A friend of mine said to me today that I was now part of an elite group because I had run an Ultra. All I could say was that I honestly did not feel like that, I feel like I have done something for the right reasons and I got high doing it. It makes other things seem a little clearer at the moment but it certainly does not make me an elite athlete. I think you could even argue over the 'athlete' bit. Please don't mistake this as me being harsh on my self like people have after the previous T2T post (thanks for reading), I just feel like its something I should be doing, something we should all be doing. I have put my money where my mouth is and it feels great!
Thanks for reading and congrats to everyone who finished and also to everyone who even had the balls to turn up and have a go. I enjoyed meeting so many of you but I feel I need to make a special mention of a man who finished about 90 minutes after me and walked directly from the finish to the bar and ordered a pint of Stella, then another and so on.......heroic stuff. He was there until at least 10.30pm and drank a good 5/6 pints of STELLA. How? Why? Even my running partner Sonia had a pint of Guinness in front of her in the pub. Impressive stuff. I started on the fruit juice but at about 10pm My good friend Max and I decided to blaze up a couple of Montecristo No.3 and whilst lager is not the ideal paring it seemed wrong to drink anything stronger.
Another guy was keeling over whilst turning green and Greg found two others being sick in the toilets. I know that at least one guy was hospitalised through dehydration. I have read his post on the forum. He was sure he was being sensible with fluids but after the race he could not hold any food or fluids down and eventually A+E was the only way forward. 2L of saline drips and drugs to stop future vomiting sorted him out but it goes to show even in a British January you can get your self in trouble.
Raw data:
- Approx number of starters: 140
- Number of finishers: 83
- My time: 8 hrs 41 mins 48 secs
- My Position: 41st
A letter dropped on my door matt this morning (spooky timing) reminding me that if i wanted to row the Atlantic at the end of the year then I had to pay a deposit before the end of the Feb. Any one up for it? Let me know if you are.
28.1.07
Tring2Town
I really cant be bothered to write this. Bit of a negative note to start on but I have too much to say and know that I will not get it all down I am also aware that I am not a good enough writer to explain things.
However, I will say that it was incredible and probably the first time I have experienced that phenomena of 'self achievement'. Not in any euphoric way you understand but yesterday is something that I am comfortable with. Normally I would be thinking; 'its not as if I have just ascended Everest without oxygen' or 'oh well some people have survived harsher journey's with out food or water'. I am not saying I am hard on myself or that I am obsessively negative but I am saying that I know the facts of some human endeavours and running for 1 solitary day out of a lifetime is fairly...er,.... Well, it is what it is and people will and have done it faster, harder, higher, hungrier, colder etc etc. Completing T2T yesterday though did not see me thinking like this I was simply satisfied with what I had done. Real emotion even crept in as I saw my Brother and some friends at the finish-good job my daughter was not there because I think I would of cried. It was brilliant.
What probably made it special though was my accidental running partner. I ran roughly the final 20 miles with the same person and it was wonderful. She was almost exactly the same ability as me and it worked tremendously well-thank you.
Now the important bit of yesterday; The last ten miles were sprinkled with magic, In a way that I have never experienced before. They were probably as easy as the first ten and here I find it hard to describe, somehow we just carved our way through the last 10 miles we literally could not believe that the GPS gadget on my wrist was correct and when we hit the 41 Mile mark it was the most perfect surprise. Just four miles to go, we had covered the previous 6 miles so quickly that we literally had to phone our friends again to tell them to get the finish line quickly. My Brother's response was a telling one: 'Fuck me, did you sprint the last section or something?' He was sitting in the West End some where and was half way through a pint. Poor thing. I think after a few days have past I will be even more baffled by the performance we managed over those final 10 miles but hey, we all love a good mystery right?
I am going to bed now but I will write a more formal race report soon, hopefully tomorrow.
Massive thanks to Alex, HELEN, GREG, KIRSTEN, SONIA, Stuart, Sarah, Mark, Kate, Max and Simon. Without sounding too much like an Oscar acceptance speech I would like to say how much more special you made it and how grateful I am that you made the effort.
However, I will say that it was incredible and probably the first time I have experienced that phenomena of 'self achievement'. Not in any euphoric way you understand but yesterday is something that I am comfortable with. Normally I would be thinking; 'its not as if I have just ascended Everest without oxygen' or 'oh well some people have survived harsher journey's with out food or water'. I am not saying I am hard on myself or that I am obsessively negative but I am saying that I know the facts of some human endeavours and running for 1 solitary day out of a lifetime is fairly...er,.... Well, it is what it is and people will and have done it faster, harder, higher, hungrier, colder etc etc. Completing T2T yesterday though did not see me thinking like this I was simply satisfied with what I had done. Real emotion even crept in as I saw my Brother and some friends at the finish-good job my daughter was not there because I think I would of cried. It was brilliant.
What probably made it special though was my accidental running partner. I ran roughly the final 20 miles with the same person and it was wonderful. She was almost exactly the same ability as me and it worked tremendously well-thank you.
Now the important bit of yesterday; The last ten miles were sprinkled with magic, In a way that I have never experienced before. They were probably as easy as the first ten and here I find it hard to describe, somehow we just carved our way through the last 10 miles we literally could not believe that the GPS gadget on my wrist was correct and when we hit the 41 Mile mark it was the most perfect surprise. Just four miles to go, we had covered the previous 6 miles so quickly that we literally had to phone our friends again to tell them to get the finish line quickly. My Brother's response was a telling one: 'Fuck me, did you sprint the last section or something?' He was sitting in the West End some where and was half way through a pint. Poor thing. I think after a few days have past I will be even more baffled by the performance we managed over those final 10 miles but hey, we all love a good mystery right?
I am going to bed now but I will write a more formal race report soon, hopefully tomorrow.
Massive thanks to Alex, HELEN, GREG, KIRSTEN, SONIA, Stuart, Sarah, Mark, Kate, Max and Simon. Without sounding too much like an Oscar acceptance speech I would like to say how much more special you made it and how grateful I am that you made the effort.
26.1.07
Little hand says its time to rock & roll!
Nice little cycle ride last nigh but my throat is definitely not 100%. Its been like this for a few days now and not gotten any worse so I am doing my level best ignore it. I have been taking extra Vitamin C (1000mg a day) Vitamin E (400i.u a day) and eating really well. Typical day consisting of something like:
Breakfast; Real porridge
Lunch; wholewheat pasta followed by roast vegetables with garlic, anchovies and olive oil
dinner; KFC....only joking. Soup and wholemeal bread last night but it has varied, homemade fish and chips.....liver casserole. basically, good home cooked food.
As per normal, copious amounts of Dairy Milk are consumed after lunch and dinner. I resist after breakfast, but god knows how.
I have not drunk alcohol since early January but this has more to do with being bored of it after Xmas than worrying about it affecting my preparation. I intend to drink slightly more water than normal for the next couple of hours and then get my bag packed for tomorrow. Getting excited now.....that's why I had to stop working and write this post!
Breakfast; Real porridge
Lunch; wholewheat pasta followed by roast vegetables with garlic, anchovies and olive oil
dinner; KFC....only joking. Soup and wholemeal bread last night but it has varied, homemade fish and chips.....liver casserole. basically, good home cooked food.
As per normal, copious amounts of Dairy Milk are consumed after lunch and dinner. I resist after breakfast, but god knows how.
I have not drunk alcohol since early January but this has more to do with being bored of it after Xmas than worrying about it affecting my preparation. I intend to drink slightly more water than normal for the next couple of hours and then get my bag packed for tomorrow. Getting excited now.....that's why I had to stop working and write this post!
23.1.07
happy days
On a really positive note I am now dangerously close to reaching £1000 worth of sponsorship! Thanks everybody and you can expect a really annoying group email on Thursday to try and squeeze another £36 out of you all!
Its been a while
Bonjourno boys and girls.
Not written for a while so here it is: last Wednesday's running club was a good speed session consisting of 10x300m and I felt really strong which was nice.
I have since done absolutely nothing until this evening! I am sure that when running coaches talk about 'tapering' the last 2 weeks of a training schedule they don't quite mean doing absolutely sod all but hey I am hoping to pioneer a new way of doing things!
However tonight saw me hauling the rucksack on and doing a steady hour of running just to stop my legs going to sleep before the big which is this Saturday. I also went for a very cold bike ride of a little over an hour. Worst of all was the fact that my gloves had gotten damp from sweat whilst running and this meant that on the bike my hands became painfully cold very quickly. I was glad to get home!
So there we have it, I will probably do a gentle cycle on Thursday night and that will be me done until the race on Saturday. Bring it on!
Not written for a while so here it is: last Wednesday's running club was a good speed session consisting of 10x300m and I felt really strong which was nice.
I have since done absolutely nothing until this evening! I am sure that when running coaches talk about 'tapering' the last 2 weeks of a training schedule they don't quite mean doing absolutely sod all but hey I am hoping to pioneer a new way of doing things!
However tonight saw me hauling the rucksack on and doing a steady hour of running just to stop my legs going to sleep before the big which is this Saturday. I also went for a very cold bike ride of a little over an hour. Worst of all was the fact that my gloves had gotten damp from sweat whilst running and this meant that on the bike my hands became painfully cold very quickly. I was glad to get home!
So there we have it, I will probably do a gentle cycle on Thursday night and that will be me done until the race on Saturday. Bring it on!
14.1.07
not the best
Illness has plagued the last bit of my training and its rather bloody annoying. Forced my self out for my 40miler this morning but alas I only managed 29. Something was not right, I was not quite with it and it felt a little worrying so I opted for the cautious option and, with 4 miles between me and home I ate some food and drank additional water and walked for a while in the direction of home. I even made a few calls to people to give my mind something to focus on because I was a little worried about how I was feeling. After this I put my iPod on and ran the remaining 3 miles or so for home and i was jolly glad to get there.
I also noticed something today and not for the first time, when I have been running for hours and I am getting tired something quite odd happens. I find my self feeling strangely emotional like I watching a sad film or something. No reason for this at all, its not because I have inadvertently started thinking about my late rabbit or something, it just come out of no where. I blame my Daughter, I became a complete wimp as soon as she was borne!
Bottom line is this: the race is just under two weeks away and I have not done the prep that I wanted. This undoubtedly means the big day is going to hurt. Accepted wisdom would discourage me from doing any major runs in the time that I have left so its all about maintenance now and ensuring that I am feeling 100% for the race.
My glands are up and I have a mouth ulcer witch is very unusual for me. I take these as indicators that something is wrong. Add this to the fact that I had quite a serious tunny upset and today can be explained. I am also a few pounds lighter than normal where I have not been eating normally since the stomach upset. Underweight, glands up, recovering from stomach bug.....comedy of errors really.
Oh well, early night tonight and see how tomorrow looks.
I also noticed something today and not for the first time, when I have been running for hours and I am getting tired something quite odd happens. I find my self feeling strangely emotional like I watching a sad film or something. No reason for this at all, its not because I have inadvertently started thinking about my late rabbit or something, it just come out of no where. I blame my Daughter, I became a complete wimp as soon as she was borne!
Bottom line is this: the race is just under two weeks away and I have not done the prep that I wanted. This undoubtedly means the big day is going to hurt. Accepted wisdom would discourage me from doing any major runs in the time that I have left so its all about maintenance now and ensuring that I am feeling 100% for the race.
My glands are up and I have a mouth ulcer witch is very unusual for me. I take these as indicators that something is wrong. Add this to the fact that I had quite a serious tunny upset and today can be explained. I am also a few pounds lighter than normal where I have not been eating normally since the stomach upset. Underweight, glands up, recovering from stomach bug.....comedy of errors really.
Oh well, early night tonight and see how tomorrow looks.
9.1.07
Bit rough old chap
Phew. Just eaten my first bit of food since Sunday dinner. Terrible stomach bug hit me Sunday night and it kept me awake all night. Horrible. Yesterday I was just wiped out all day hence there has been no exercise since Saturday morning.
Only thing worth reporting is that I conducted a little telephone interview with the local paper from my bed yesterday and the photographer came round today to get some photo's of me running. I should be in a couple of the locals tomorrow. Keep you posted.
Only thing worth reporting is that I conducted a little telephone interview with the local paper from my bed yesterday and the photographer came round today to get some photo's of me running. I should be in a couple of the locals tomorrow. Keep you posted.
6.1.07
Timing is everything
I was sleeping so soundly when my alarm woke me. Really wanted to stay there but eventually got up and I left the house at about 6.15am. Undoubtedly one of the best runs I have ever done, the night/early morning was almost totally still and I could hear the birds singing and the near full moon kept me just about on the path. Fewer cars around than normal as well. When there is little or no breeze it is quite incredible how many different smells you pick up on, we are bloody amazing things us humans!
Totally awesome run, one of the best ever. To top it all off about 5 minutes after I finished and I was stood in the kitchen sorting out my rucksack it started to rain and has been doing so all day. I have felt smug at my lucky timing all day. Nice.
Steady 15 miler was completed and then headed out for a huge seafood lunch with some family and friends to celebrate my Brother's Birthday. Beautiful.
Later Potata's.
Totally awesome run, one of the best ever. To top it all off about 5 minutes after I finished and I was stood in the kitchen sorting out my rucksack it started to rain and has been doing so all day. I have felt smug at my lucky timing all day. Nice.
Steady 15 miler was completed and then headed out for a huge seafood lunch with some family and friends to celebrate my Brother's Birthday. Beautiful.
Later Potata's.
5.1.07
Equipment
Its been a bumper few days and I now have all the bits of kit I need to be able to compete in the Ultra at the end of the January.
Arrivals over the last couple of days include a Helly Hanson lifa top, a distress whistle and most importantly a head-torch (Petzl myo XP). The last two of which are compulsory items for entry.
Its been like Christmas all over again!
Arrivals over the last couple of days include a Helly Hanson lifa top, a distress whistle and most importantly a head-torch (Petzl myo XP). The last two of which are compulsory items for entry.
Its been like Christmas all over again!
training last night
Was meant to get out for a bike ride with the boys but the lure of London's best burgers was too much and I went for a quick 10k a little before 6pm instead then headed in to London. I think I may of ran a PB? not sure where all this speed is coming from but its not really the correct type of training for an Ultra.....this weekend will see a change of gears and I will get some longer slower work in during the early hours.
Great Burgers (probably not ideal nutrition either!) as per normal with the added bonus of meeting a mates new special lady. Great to meet you, fancy sponsoring me?!
Great Burgers (probably not ideal nutrition either!) as per normal with the added bonus of meeting a mates new special lady. Great to meet you, fancy sponsoring me?!
Fundraising
I have really been hassling people with email over the last couple of days in a bid to boost the donations. I am really excited about the fact that I went through the £500 barrier, and last night an old school friend, Simon Owers pushed me through the £600 barrier with a donation of £21. (beautiful bit of one-up-manship after his brother had donated £20!).
Upon sitting at my desk this morning I learned that my own Brother had unbelievably thrown a staggering £100 in to the pot. A £100! That pushed me through the £700 barrier and I am sitting pretty (but not content!) on £716!
I am thrilled with this and in particular with the donations from Lisa, Mark and Simon. People, whom I very rarely see and did not expect to receive a penny from. True meaning of charity.
Upon sitting at my desk this morning I learned that my own Brother had unbelievably thrown a staggering £100 in to the pot. A £100! That pushed me through the £700 barrier and I am sitting pretty (but not content!) on £716!
I am thrilled with this and in particular with the donations from Lisa, Mark and Simon. People, whom I very rarely see and did not expect to receive a penny from. True meaning of charity.
3.1.07
Running club
Loads of people turned out for the first club session of '07. First Wednesday of the Month as well which meant it was the painful timed lap, it was raining all night as well so it made the turn out even more impressive. Fairly pleased with how I ran, by my reckoning only a few seconds slower than lasts months personal best and considering Christmas was in between I can live with that.
I found myself overtaking more people than I normally would so I am not sure if the handicapping was a little out or if everyone else has eaten even more than me over xmas! I bet none of them can beat my half a stone accumulation! That said, apart from a couple of pounds I have all but shifted it anyway.
Well done everyone and happy New Year!
I found myself overtaking more people than I normally would so I am not sure if the handicapping was a little out or if everyone else has eaten even more than me over xmas! I bet none of them can beat my half a stone accumulation! That said, apart from a couple of pounds I have all but shifted it anyway.
Well done everyone and happy New Year!
2.1.07
Drop the dead donkey!!!!!
Holy cow! could do with some fake tan, I look grey!The papers are always so full of doom and gloom but very soon they will cover a tale of fun stupidity! Finally it looks like I will be hitting the local press of Dunmow and Braintree within the very near future. I did the interview today and have seen a draft of what will roll off the presses, I felt almost proud of my self when I read it. The opening description of me is legendary! I think the Journalist must have a sense of humour!
I will keep you posted as to when it will be released and I will put a copy of the the article on here for no other reason than I am vain. Fingers crossed it will raise the sponshorship situation.....Speaking of which my good friend Max generously donated a rather large sum to the pot today. Thank you kindly dude. Burgers are on me next time we go.
Annoyingly I still dont have full sensation back in my fingers from yesterday's bike ride. Fingers crossed (sorry) it will be sorted tomorrow.
Good little session
Nice solid effort this evening. Bit of strength training consisting of sets elevated press-ups to exhaustion, sit-ups to exhaustion and combined arm curls/shoulder press to exhaustion. As always 3 sets of each conducted in a simple circuit fashion.
Followed this up with a hill/speed session which consisted of a 8 efforts up a hill of approximately 400 metres in length. Hard to be precise because inexplicably the battery was dead on my GPS Gadget.
It was good, pleased with my self. No mucking about just a business like work out. Bravo to me.
Followed this up with a hill/speed session which consisted of a 8 efforts up a hill of approximately 400 metres in length. Hard to be precise because inexplicably the battery was dead on my GPS Gadget.
It was good, pleased with my self. No mucking about just a business like work out. Bravo to me.
1.1.07
The very best start to the year
When I awoke from my alcoholic slumber in the arm chair at about 7.30 am this morning I could see the weather was looking nice. Naturally, I made a drink (mouth was a little dry for some reason) and headed straight out on my bike. Not really. I made the drink, necked it and went up to bed for a couple of hours to get some decent sleep.Upon waking I was delighted to see that the low winter sun was filling the house and this meant I had to get out and make the most of it. I forced some breakfast down me and made some sandwiches and headed off on my bike. Big Bro joined me and we rode to Hatfield Forest, which was, to be honest rather under whelming. The ground was saturated and it was not really riding, more of crawl. So we got back on to out usual track and headed back in the direction of home. By the time we got there we had been out for around 2 and a half hours but I was determined to make the most of the daylight and eat my sandwiches out in the fresh air somewhere. So after a quick tinker with my brakes (they had all but stopped working) I was off. I ate my sandwiches sitting next to a little river in the middle of no where and it was glorious. Utterly glorious.
All in I was out for about 4 hours and it was just beginning to get dark when I returned. Perfect.Interestingly I have been suffering from a numbness in the end of my left ring finger when out on longer rides. The numbness lasts for hours after I finish and today i decided to find out what it is. Its the result of pressure being applied to the Ulnar nerve-The Internet is a wonderful thing. Just need to figure out how I can prevent it from happening now.
The Mad Maldon Mud Race
Ka Boom! What a race it turned out to be yesterday! I loved it, if someone said I could of done it again today I would of. Next year I going to do it in fancy dress and make a bit more of a meal of it. As it was Kirstin and I made a good fist of things!Arrived in Maldon at about 12.30 in order to register before 1pm. The race started at 2pm and the only bit I did not enjoy was the waiting around in the cold before the start. We were herded onto the bank of the river and then set off straight into a freezing river. I mean freezing, it felt like glacial bloody melt water. Easily deep enough to swim if the water had not been so crowded with other competitors. Then it was straight out of the water and onto the mud! Impossible to walk on, the suction on your feet was immense so only one thing for it and that was to get down on all fours and forge ahead! I was cruising baby! Carving my through the mud and overtaking plenty of people in the process, If I had not been stuck behind so many people in the water I reckon I could of achieved a pretty high position! As I was moving along parallel to the river bank I heard a tannoy announcement that someone had finished (and won) in about 3 minutes. The commentator also said that it takes some people 3 hours! I can almost believe him. Moving through churned up mud was very difficult and I found my self breathing much more deeply than I had expected, it was actually quite a good work out. For a very unfit person moving through churned up mud I think it would be really, really difficult.
I am definitely doing it next year, it was a really interesting little challenge. Forcing yourself to get in to a freezing river in the middle of Jan and then crawling through filth is not something you actually experience very often and I really enjoyed it.
Annoyed that I did not get any pictures of me really filthy but as you cross the river to reach the finish line in obviously removes a lot of the mud. Boooooo!
Serious note: I would like to make it clear that have I nothing but contempt for all the people who competed in wetsuits yesterday!
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