Weekender

Bonjourno boys. Took Friday off and went for a run sat morning....bit late getting up so decided to make it a 10ish miler. However I took a bit of a wrong turn and ended up a bit closer to a neighbouring village than I had intended. Not to worry.

End result was 14.25 miles covered in just under 1hour 55mins. The half marathon section was covered in 1hr 44. Then off to get suit fitted for Bro's wedding. As I did not eat after the run I was feeling a bit light headed during the fitting. When the cruel bastard of a tailor yanked up the trousers and gave my crown Jewell's a knocking I felt even worse!

Cycled to work this morning and actually timed it for the first time in ages. 29mins dead. 7miles off road. I think the last recorded time was around 45minutes!

Just been sitting on my office window seal for Lunch and it is properly hot and sunny. Cant believe it is still April.

Need to run more!

Have cycled to and from work everyday this week and cant tell you how much I am loving it. Trouble is I need to sharpen up my running pretty hastily as I have my next Ultra in a little over 2 months. So, despite feeling quite sleepy last night I got myself to running club. We ended up doing a speed session which was definitely a kick in the pants I needed. I would never of pushed my self as hard if I had gone out on my own. I think about 7 miles in total were covered but around two thirds of that was at pace.

It made me feel a little like vomiting at the time but really glad I did it.

Yes, you guessed it, had another great ride in the this morning as well. Must go running at the weekend!

Oops

Forgot to mention the fact that Sally at Marie Curie Cancer Care also sponsored me! Sorry-thanks a lot! Very cool of you.

Awesome ride home from work last night and great ride in this morning......trouble is, it just makes me want to spend the day hacking around the country lanes instead of sitting behind a desk!

Thanks again Sally.

Fundraising update

A good few days all in all. On top of my speed dates being incredibly generous A few people who have sponsored me before have once again dug deep.

Mr anonymous.....thank you, look forward to watching some racing with you over the summer.

Greggy. Your the man.

Special thanks to Kate Mitchell, an old school friend whom I rarely see, for donating a second time. Magic.

I especially hope you three had good weekends!

Training update

Alrighty then, the weekend was not the weekend it should of been but I enjoyed it none the less and don't feel guilty about not doing a long steady run.

Had a cracking ride on Saturday afternoon and then on Sunday Morning I charged out of the house after watching some of the London marathon on TV and ran a brilliant 7 miles. The hardest I had pushed my self in ages. Raahh!

Well done to all London Marathoners, it looked like an incredible day in the capital and I am rather jealous.

Cycled in to work this morning as per usual and I reckon I still have least one fly in my left eye! Deeply annoying, it was if I heard it slap my eye ball! Blimey that's making me feel ill...... I must start wearing sunglasses even when it is not sunny.

Hope you had a good weekend.

New endurance event discovered!

last night saw me tackle my first ever evening of speed dating! let me explain, I got an email on Tuesday from Karen at Marie Curie Cancer Care asking if I knew any single men, as they were short for an event they were organising. So I though; 'what the hell, sounds like a giggle'. I love being right.

However, after about 3 or 4 'dates' I was starting to wonder if I would last the distance. A few more and I was starting to lose my voice! The upshot of it all was that it helped bolster my faith in lady kind. I think that almost without exception everyone I met seemed really, really nice. I would definitely make friends with virtually all of them. Great evening.

So, given that this is not about running why am I writing this? Well, the organisers were kind enough to let me appeal for donations a couple of times throughout the evening. The 'crazy Marathon Guy' even got asked to draw the raffle, I felt quite special! I was surprised when people actually seemed to be writing the web address down, so when a couple of Girls I had just dated started handing me money I was literally shell shocked. I promised a mention to them on the blog-wish I could do more, but here goes.....

HUGE THANKS TO VICKY, CATHERINE, JODIE and LAUREN. Genuinely surprised by your generosity and I am sincerely grateful. I have emailed Karen at Marie Curie this morning about how best to add it to there/my account.......in hindsight I should of just given it to her last night. By that time I was not really thinking straight though! Like the title suggests, I think I have discovered another ultra endurance event.

I am not sure if I said I would log the amounts on my blog or not so, just so you can be sure that I wont be spending your money on a trip to Rio it will get added to the 'offline donations' on my Justgiving website just as soon as Marie Curie let me know the best way to get it all logged. Here it is:

Vicky £2.50 (your a hero! if only more people did this I would be cruising)
Catherine £10 (wow!)
Lauren £10 (wow!)
Jodie £20 (HOLY COW!)

Pretty much speechless, thank you. Oh yeah, not to forget my partner in Crime, Greg.....he was splendid enough to donate another £50 yesterday! What a guy, I hope lots of ladies ticked his box! If not, whats the matter with you?!

Training update

After the start I made to getting fit again on Sunday and Monday I followed up pretty well. Tuesday and Wednesday saw me cycle to work and back and Wednesday Evening I got myself to running club for the first time in a few weeks. Amazingly I put in a pretty quick 10k which I was really pleased with considering my severe lack of running lately. Now I think about, it I also went for another cycle ride on Tuesday Evening with a friend. Well done Brucey.

Yesterday (Thursday) simply could not accommodate any training and today will be the same as I have not even cycled to work. My excuse is that I am having lunch with an old friend so needed the car to be able to meet them.

All in all a pretty good week, I feel a longish run coming on at the weekend as well.

Young at heart

Remember that song by the Bluebells? Hated it, but both seem pretty relevant today, firstly because after reading a great book about an Ultra Runner it reminded me of some great exercise memories. In particular whilst I was still at school. Winning the 800 and 200m on sports day with all the school cheering and running around the school field in sunshine with friends. I had forgotten just how important running had been to me then, great to reminisce.

Secondly of course because of the bluebells I photographed yesterday morning whilst cycling to work. Beautiful.

My great friend Charles Stockford ran his first Marathon on Sunday in sunny Canberra. He managed the blisteringly quick time of 3hrs 26mins and said that it was an awesome experience. I bet it was! Running a sub 3.30 on your first attempt is no small achievement! Well done dude.

I had got out for a run on Sunday morning for the first time in ages and thank goodness I did, I would of felt like even more of a loser if Chaz had called with great news and I had not even broken my recent exercise drought! I also got out for a good hard hour on the bike in the afternoon and it all felt great....apart from the fact that it reminded me how stupid I have been to lose all my hard won fitness. Yesterday I also cycled to and from work (40mins each way) and went for a 30 min run after I got home as well. One of the reasons I was fired up was because yesterday afternoon I entered another Ultra.......and its only a couple of months away. Yikes.

The Night & Day marathon series is organised by the same people that did Tring2Town and basically consists of running 2 Marathons in 24 hours. You start one at 6pm and then start the next at 6am the following morning. Its local to me as well. Result!

Anyway, sorry I have not been doing much lately but I hope that I am back in the groove now.

shocking

Been really useless lately, i have not run much at all lately. In fact I have done next to no running since T2T at the end of Jan. Not good enough. I am not even motivated to write about my lack of motivation so it must be bad.

I will write about other 'body' stuff instead. I sustained a bang to the head on Tuesday night and I went to bed shortly afterwards. I had fainted and even though I had landed hard enough to cut my shoulder and hip in the kitchen floor I did not pay too much attention what contact my head might of made.

Pretty bad is my guess, I woke an hour or so later, feeling very nauseous and wanted to be sick, so I went to the toilet but it did not come. But I certainly could not sleep because I felt so sick. A sure sign of a nasty knock to the head.

When I rose on Wednesday morning I showered and drove to work but with a big headache and as I never suffer from headaches it's really noticeable when I do. The feinting could be explained but the continuing headache was a trifle worrying so I went to see the Dr and she very pleasantly told me I was alright and that there was no pressure on the backs of my eyes etc.

I have had concussion several times before but never really like this. I normally just get the drowsiness but the headache was a new one on me. I still don't feel totally with it but tomorrow I intend to go for an early morning run and start getting back on track.

Keep you posted!

In the meantime I will share a pic from a recent trip to Germany.

You cant make it out but in the mist lays the mighty Nurburgring Nordschleife.