nice and dry

Well, its been around 3 weeks since I realised that just 2-3 pints twice a week was making me feel rubbish so I stopped doing it. I feel so much better for it and despite fancying a beer last night I decided to go to bed early. This made sense because I had not had much sleep for the previous couple of nights and this morning I was out on the bike at 7.30am, on a Saturday, at 07.30...on a Saturday...you get the picture.

Dam it was a beautiful morning, sun was just coming up, still a bit of mist sitting on the fields, frost making everything look wintery. Lovelllly. Holy-shit-balls though it was cold! Took me ages to get warm but when I did it was thoroughly enjoyable although I did wish I had eaten a little something before i went out. An hour later, I was pleased to have seen the best bit of the day. I even saw one of our country's most successful front men out for a run with his personal trainer! I did lower the tone a bit though by having a blazing row with a woman whose dogs were not under control - silly cow.

Week summary
Monday - day off after big weekend
Tuesday....cant remember......er best i feel this in later!

Have a good weekend everyone and I will fill this in later when I have checked my training diary.

Lazy bones

Well, well, well who has been a lazy boy then?

Its hard to summon the strength to go back over the things that I have done in the weeks that I have been too lazy to blog but the things that stand out are an outstanding trip to Spain with Charlie to take in some spanish girls, paellla and a little f1, oh and some running. The other is sleepless in the saddle (24hr mtb race) it was just as memorable mainly becasue it was the sort of experience that I just wan tto forget all about. The weather made it absolute hell.

We also dropped out of a 3 day ultra Marathon because, well we were u n prepared mainly in terms of kit instead of fitness but what a couple of dickheads for missing the opportunity!

Oh well, at least it is now possible to really focus on the MDS and do this we must. I have even taken the last two weeks off from drinking and got organised. Yay to me.

Lets give you some pics of spain and the mtb race to make up for being a loser.

Let me know if you have any trouble figuring out what ones were taken in England.

Guest appearance!

Well, I have some good stuff to add but more importantly I have an entry from a great friend of mine called Adam. I mentioned him a couple of weeks ago and invited him to be my first ever guest blogger! Take it away Adam..............

Ok so it’s been three weeks today since I went to sunny Dunmow to borrow a bike from my good mate Bruce and start my training for SITS. I had not been on a bike ride since I was 14!! The feeling of freedom it gave me just getting out there and riding is something I’ll never forget and I haven’t looked back since.

There were a couple of things that compelled me to give the 24 hour marathon a go and the main reason was fitness (I think). I am / was 3 stone overweight and if I am honest had probably let my 20’s go by without more than 5 months of sustained exercise in the gym when I was 24 and single! I got fit that time and lost weight, met my girl, married her, had two kids and in no time was fat again. I needed a jolt and motivation this time to keep going - so doing something extreme like this was ideal even if I was more than a little apprehensive.

Cycling machines are my worst as well. So boring! We’ve got one that sits in the living room - its part of the family and gets dusted every few days. I didn’t give mountain biking a thought. Just not me. How wrong was I! I can’t imagine not having a bike to ride now.

In three weeks I have gone out on average 4 days a week on various rides and not just discovered a love for the biking but for the first time really discovered where I live! Welwyn Garden City rocks. So many cycle routes and the woods 5 minutes away from me has become the battle ground where so many of my demons are being slayed I tell you. Uphill struggle rewarded with fast treacherous downhill. I found myself whooping with joy at times - how good is that feeling… forget the brakes - Woohoo!!

It’s freedom, pure and simple.

Suffice to say I’ve lost some weight already although I’m not weighing myself I just look a bit better. I am fitter and have worked well up to now. I have three weeks before the actual race and I am quite exited and nervous. I am enjoying the pursuit of fitness like nothing else so the actual race will be something amazing I am sure. Cheers Bruce, inspired me baby.

What a plonker

Well, I have been useless. Apart from the the last three days I pretty much took 10 days off of training!! WHAT A LOSER. I have missed key sessions, some really important long runs and long cycles and seriously pissed myself off.

Its now 3 and a half weeks until Sleepless in the Saddle and I need to get moving! I figure I will max it for 3 weeks and then ease off the days before the race! Sounds scientific ay!??

Must stay focused now and have had a pretty good 2 days of training. Still a bit anxious about my left calf but it held up fine during a gentle 10k yest morning so fingers crossed its pretty much fixed.

Must start taking some pics and putting them on here!

Week summary

Sat: 20 mile run
Sun: Strength (upper body, legs and core)
Monday: Rode to work and back and a quick 40min pop at lunch.
Mon Eve: Very gentle ride of about 2 hours
Tue: Cycled to work and hard 3 hours on the bike in evening
Wed: Got drunk
Thur: 10k fartlek running (a very satisfying 43 mins)
Fri: Core work out and 45min fartlek cycling

Monday night is worth an additional note. A friend of mine who is making a fitness comeback came and joined me for a ride. He has decided to take on the monumental challenge of Sleepless in the Saddle (24hr Mountain Bike race). Respect due! Bloody infectious to see someone getting excited about a new physical challenge and glad I could help out in a very small way. The race is just 5 weeks away! Can't wait!

Physio........
Went to see a physio about my calf on Thursday and she was not too worried about it and I received a bit of ultra sound and some massage. Specific stretching was also prescribed. Other than that, I found out a lot more about her life and opinions than I was frankly interested in and would of paid more to leave sooner. Fingers crossed the calf will settle down properly now.

Calf problems

So, did a 20 mile run sat morning and after 10 minutes my head felt clear and Bruce was a happy boy. I still felt like this after an hour but after that I was bored stiff and really felt like phoning someone to come pick me up. I didn't but the point is I so rarely feel like that that I have shared it with you. Be grateful, got it?!

I had planned to another 20 on Sunday but my left calf is still causing probs so going to see a physio asap to get it looked at. Instead I did some strength training. Walking lunges, pull ups, squats, press ups, sit ups and these funny things I call 'drags'. Some army type people used them to torture me many years ago and every so often I include them in a work out. They basically involve laying one foot over the other whilst laying on your front. Then you extend your arms (bit like doing a press up) then you have to drag yourself along. Killer upper body workout, but also great core conditioning as well. The only trouble is you get red ants biting your hands and it puts an odd pressure on the ankle that is being sandwiched between the ground and the other foot.

My abs and pecs are a bit sore today which feels great!

Go Heller

Many congratulations to the citizens of D.C this evening.

Chaz, last bit of politics mate!

I could murder a curry!

Its a dam good job I finished training late this evening because otherwise I would of been straight up the curry house for a ruby. Tomorrow night I am all over that like a jellyfish!

Cant remember what I last wrote on here so thinking that I have not updated since Sunday. So after my Marathon on Sunday morning I have been a little gentle on my beautiful body.

Monday: Gentle ride to work and back (about hour in the saddle)
Tuesday: Gentle ride to work and then thundered home in record time.
Wednesday: cycled to work and back then after dinner I got serious.......

Well kind of. I did my core workout and upper body workout but frankly I felt knackered and did not really push myself as hard a I could/should of. After doing this strength work I went out on the bike for a hill session. 20 reps up a long hill which took me just over an hour.

Its now nearly midnight and all I can think of is having a curry. Sweet dreams readers.

On days like these

Morning all, you know its days like these I feel a bit odd about exercise. I feel completely lost sitting at my desk, I feel like I should be out running or cycling or doing something more linear. You head out for a run......you do it, done! Work; leave some messages, get something else done, go round in a few circles, overall purpose gets fulfilled when several other people finally get organised......sometimes months later......get the idea.

I find myself scanning through the training programme, wishing that it was Wednesday already so that I could get stuck in to that big training session I have planned....I am starting to think that I should step my training schedule up because I find my self just getting more and more hungry for additional sessions.

Whilst stepping out of the ordinary is awesome, it also underlines how ordinary life can suck!

On that happy note I hope you all have a good week!

Weekend

Friday: Rest
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Gentle 26 miles.

So, cheeky Marathon this morning. Time was tricky so after 2 and a half hours sleep I woke up at 3am and was on the road at 4am. Obviously took it easy, eating and drinking along the way but I did not really feel the need to be eating and drinking that much so I guess that's why I did it in just over 4 hours. A half respectable marathon time all things considered.
Considering a Marathon is always a big deal and my weekly running mileage has been pretty low I feel really good. Grabbed a few quick cat naps during the day but have felt pretty wired all day.

The run itself was a complete joy. It was fairly dark when I headed out even though I was only a day shy of the equinox. Another surprise was just how warm it was. After 30Min's I was really sweating but the thing I really remember was just how much of a boost it is doing a big run so early in the morning. Even if you think you are doing badly you take a look at the watch and think 'Good man! Been running for 2 hours and its still only 6am!'

All in all a beautiful run and the weather was really kind. Too kind in fact, the 1.5 litres of fluid I had were not really adequate. Some tightness in my left calf which I have never had before so will keep an eye on it but not too worried.

Time for bed.

Last two days

Wednesday: Warm up then 10 hill reps of approx 40 seconds (running)

Thursday: cycled to work and back then 3 and half hour ride in the evening. 11.20 finish.

Just got back and wanted to quickly update this blog, going to have a couple of days off training now and have a steady run on Sunday. I reckon the training plan has worked out well this week because apparently the weather is going to be shite for the next few days!

Maintained a pretty good pace during the ride and feel really good, not too tired.....should of stayed out a couple more hours! Neck was a little stiff towards the end but other than that, all was fine! Tonight was actually a bit of a departure from the original plan. Had scheduled another strength session but changed it a week or so ago after the last ride.....figured it could be accommodated when I took a second look at it.

Waffle, waffle, waffle, waffle. Sweet dreams all, I am off for a shower.

Bike Gadgets!

Bike lights

Many of you must of been wondering just what light I am going to use for the all night stage of the 24 hour race? I am sure you have been wondering just how many lights provide enough light and last all night....and not have a battery bigger than the average house.

What do you mean you have never given it a second thought?

I decided after much research that I should just spank the credit card and get the best money could buy - Lupine. I opted for their new LED product which last summer was the 'wilma'. I went for the one with the second largest battery pack, the Wilma 6. The reason for this had to do with positioning of water bottles and battery on frame.....all of which is now redundant because I have a new bike (see below). I wont go into all the things this light does but worth mentioning that the power output is completely controllable for brightness.

Burn times are as follows:

15W: 4 hours
9W: 6 hours 30 minutes
1W: 42 hours (still brighter than a standard commuter light)
0.5W: 84 hours

I have kept my programming simple and have mine set up to run at 2 brightness levels. 90% and 40%. A simple touch of button takes you between the two.

Here is what it looks like when used in anger.

The burn times seem to be conservative, it really is a top notch product and beautifully made. Running the light at 40% during the majority of the race will doubtless make it last all night.

Hand grips

After just one practice lap of the course last year I knew my hands would not stand up to 24 hours on my hard standard grips. The hammering to the hands was unreal.

I decided to treat myself to some grips I had been thinking about for ages......as luck would have it one of the trade tents had them for sale!

They really are the brilliant and if your going to do a long cross country mountain bike race then i really, really reckon you should give them a whirl! They are made by Ergon and are the large GR2's

Let this post to serve as a reminder to all of you that boredom is a terrible thing.

Hard-core

Strength training this evening. Pushed pretty hard but at the same time keeping things at a fairly low level of intensity. By that, I mean not banging through the circuit as fast as possible. I catch my breath between each set and then hammer the next one out concentrating on technique. Intensity will build in the coming weeks.

What I did:

Core strength first - each circuit consisted of 9 different exercises. I did the circuit 3 times. This took about 45 minutes.

Then upper body. 5 Different exercises per circuit and again 3 circuits. About 25 minutes.

Finally legs: Simply 3 sets of squats. Man I felt this! prob 6 minutes.

Its worth saying that doing a dedicated core workout has already paid MASSIVE DIVIDENDS. NO lower back back sitting in the car, NO lower back after a four hour bike ride, NO lower back pain after a hard run and increased movement in lower back. So satisfying when you make things happen ay?

5 day Summary:

Fri: Rest
Sat: Rest
Sun: hard 90 minute run
Mon: Active rest..... Cycled to work and back (about an hour in the saddle in total)
Tue: Cycled to work and back + Strength training.

Oh yeah gave my gorgeous bike a bit of TLC this evening......Man I can't wait for sleepless in the saddle!

Need to get some photo's on here...how about one of my new(ish) wonder bike?

1,2, resting....1,2

Clever title ay? I am dickhead sometimes.

A general post this time about rest. This is one of those subjects that every 'expert' talks about in the same way they talk about hydration. 'Make sure you drink enough, try to make sure your constantly taking fluid on, even in the cold you still lose fluids.....' Sound familiar? Well, blow me cupcake.

'I think you are over training, have to been increasing your weekly running mileage by more that 15% at a time, are you taking rest days?' Okay good advice, no wait, actually blow me cupcake.

Its personal, sometimes you know you have to just punch through this 'good advice' and accept the 'risks' of doing do. The real problem is that that all the expert voices can start to drown out the most important voice of all. The one coming from your own body!

Writing out my training plan a couple of weeks ago, it all seemed too crammed and unrealistic - jumps in distances looked too big etc etc. Generous blocks of rest were included as well as cautious sessions or 'active rest' as it's known. I feel great and know that I could of done more and pushed harder.
This is where it gets confusing.....if I had done this would I be sitting here injured and severely pissed off? Alternatively I might be sat here stronger, fitter and more confident in what I was capable of. My recurring lower leg injury (medial tibial stress syndrome) has gently re-surfaced and I expected it to. Physio is now being done before I go to bed to sort it out and it will doubtless fade into the background.

I feel a bit confused myself about how much I could or should be doing. I am being cautious and roughly sticking to my plan of getting a base of strength and cardio ability locked in. Then I can really hammer myself - hopefully with reduced chances of injury. I feel there is so much more to come and I am literally arguing with myself about what to do tonight. I really want to do that 4 hour cycle ride again, rationalising that if I feel like I want to then I cant be too tired. The other half is saying, stick to the plan for one more week Bruce and then start doing additional stuff.

Really interesting topic this. The answer is unique to the individual. Dependent on current fitness levels, training experience (months, years decades), age, stress levels, diet, climate, illness, genetic makeup and probably loads of other things.

My guess is that even people who are serious about fitness or a particular sport could train a bit harder and usually a lot harder than they think they can. That probably includes me - even in this cautious stage.

Comments rock!

Cheers Helen and Charlie, gives me a serious boner when people actually comment on ye old blog!

Anyway, it seems that the petrol crisis is deepening and many stations have run dry......only joking people, I am in a much better mood today!

Hokay, so I have had one of those weekends that was way busier than expected. Plumbing emergency upon plumbing emergency and unexpected trip in to London to help my Brother out of a spot. But don't worry I still managed a Run and a Fathers day curry which was preceded by a rather splendid siesta.

Okay running was cut short by the various things going on but I managed to get out for a blast on Sunday Morning. Time was short so abandoned the 20miler idea and thought I would blast out for 50 minutes and then come back again. Got home a lot quicker and was back 1hr and 30 after I left. I reckon I must of done at least a half Marathon. I cant wait to verify the distance on my gps gadget, because that's a pretty respectable time.

One other interesting thing about the run was that I carried a water bottle in my hand and when my arm tired from holding it I would swap hands. In a very real way, this change really seemed to reset my mind and I could stay focused on pushing hard. Is this some kind of left brain, right brain thing where one side distracts the other from the pain and fatigue? Any theories you guys have would be cool! The more ridiculous the better!

Hope you all had a good weekend and did not get burnt in the sunshine! Who would be that daft?

Running in a new direction

People who know me personally will know that certain things about my country drive me nuts. I was also thinking that as no one reads this blog anyway I could start spouting off about those things on here to make my self feel better! Just what the world needs another half wit going off about how he can save the world!

I always said to my self that I would keep this blog to training and fitness matters but as no one reads the dam thing I am seriously thinking about branching out.

Any objections?! Course not, your all too busy queuing for petrol......its started!

Tired but happy

OK, quick update...

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Hard (and hot!) 10k.
Wednesday: Core and lower back training.
Thursday: 4 and a half hours on the bike.

I guess the 10k and cycle are worth a mention. Really felt the 10k and was really pleased at how hard I pushed myself. Really hit 'the wall' (going anaerobic) about 8 minutes from the end and that was interesting. The weekend had taken more out of me than I had realised.
The cycle ride was great! After a massive dinner I headed out about 7.30 and got back at midnight. Scoffing cereal bars and losing myself in that tired tunnel vision you get when your fatigued and its dark. Awesome stuff!

Couple of rest days planned now and then a run on Sunday, but we'll have to see if I can sit still until then! I really should do dome upper body work this week......

Have a good weekend everyone.

Update

I keep promising myself I will stop waffling so this one is going to be brief!

Thursday: Rest
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 20 Mile run
Sunday: nearly 3 hours on mountain bike

Interesting stuff getting the rucksack on again and carrying fluids and food for a run! I was really excited the night before and really pleased I did it. I had planned to run 25 but I really felt the 20 in my legs so not over doing it seemed to make sense. It did it in a very cautious 3 hours 17.

Fair bit planned this week so really looking forward to it!

Ps. No spelling mistakes, why does that turn me on so dam much?

Wooden legs!

Morning all, great couple of days but now my legs are feeling a little stiff! Good. Means I am working them!

Monday: Rested after having had 3 pretty hefty days
Tuesday: Core strength, Upper body strength, short run and then leg strength. prob 2 hours.
Wednesday: Hill reps on bike. 12 reps.

Thursday morn = Stiff legs!

Last night I realised that the area I live in is as flat as a pancake! The only hills are pretty short and certainly all the off road hilly bits just aren't that steep. So I had to settle for doing the hill reps on road.

Unfortunately I don't have my daughter this weekend (school trip) so I have a weekend all to myself......if the sun is out I will be unstoppable!

Loving training at the moment, just wish the weather would sort itself out!

And there off.....no wait...

Well, a couple of days after I just decided to get going again I sat at work feeling decidely odd. My head started to ache, I had sinus pain and I felt very light headed. I had an early night that night and improved quickly thereafter. That was on Wednesday of last week and what with Charlies 30th celebbrations and My Mums Birthday on the same weekend it all got rather hectic and exercise was lost.

Anyway I reckon this was a good thing to ensure I had what must of been some sort of virus out of my system. It has been immensely frustrating and the weather in the UK has been shite as well. However I can now be sure that my ongoing cold was not hayfever but some kind of light virus that had been lurking in the background.

So what have I done recently?

So, I have cycled to work and back twice (Wednesday and Thursday)
Friday: Hill reps 10 x reps of 40 approx seconds (this hurt)
Saturday am: Hard and fast 10k (also hurt!)
Saturday pm: Core and upper body work out (again....)
Sunday am: Very gentle run of around 1hr 45. I am guessing 12miles.

I feel great for it and cant wait to do more. My legs are a little sore but my recent focus on core strength is already paying dividends. Lower back pain has reduced massively and even sitting in the car for hours on end collecting my daughter is less uncomfortable. Result!

Need to get some pics on here soon!

Cold?

I finally just decided to get stuck in and ignore the cold. After a week of taking it very easy I was desperate to start dedicating some proper time to working on my lower back and core strength. So, Saturday afternoon I got the Swiss ball out and ploughed on with the new routine. Kept it all gentle so as not to prolong the cold though.

Come Sunday evening I was actually feeling anxious because I had not run for over a week so I decided that I would run to work and back on Monday regardless of my cold (total of 14 miles). Well, still had the cold and ran in but I am seriously starting to wonder if I have developed hay fever? I have heard you can develop it at anytime in life. This would be a major annoyance if I had! It is now Wednesday and I still have this dam 'cold'.........

Anyway, great run in to work and back on Monday and then a great weights session/core routine again in the evening. Still a little bit stiff but that might be from clattering over curbs when go-karting last night (bit bumpy!).

The last few weeks

The last few weeks have seen me get pretty serious with training and I have been loving it. Starting to look a little leaner and loving being out on the bike. The sunshine has really helped and I have been so excited about the 24hr mountain bike race on August 9th/10th.

So why am I sitting here on a Saturday Morning with a laptop on my legs? Well, because I have a cold, and jolly annoying it is too. I am really wanting to be out running or cycling or at the very least be doing some strength work indoors. Instead I am sat indoors with rain falling outside.

There have been some great sessions during the last month though, some gentle 15mile runs, some reasonably quick 10k's, cycling to work, the odd hill session (running), the odd long session on the bike and I just cant get enough of it! Monday night just gone saw me get a great 2 hour session in on the bike. Great practice for the race because it was mostly dark and riding by artificial light is a very different experience to day time. Not least on this occasion because I actually had a bat bump in to my chin and then skid off my neck as I was cycling along! That was definitely a first! I also saw a huge owl and cool little badger that.......I love that!

The morning before this night ride though I decided to see an Osteopath. Nothing particularly wrong with my back I have just had a few niggles over the last few months and wanted to get it sorted before anything went majorly wrong. He crunched me about and generally said I was in pretty good shape. Despite this though my lower back was pretty sore on Tuesday after my cycle and I reckon I really need to work on my core strength to compensate for the strain being placed on my back whilst cycling.

Other than these generalities I am annoyed to say that the first event of the year was cancelled at the last minute. It was called Tough Challenge (11.5.08) and was billed as the toughest half marathon in the country. A bit relieved but it would of been better to have an event under my belt.

Anyway, back to writing that training plan. keep you posted..........

I need more cow bell...MDS dates released

Well, well, well. Was expecting a call this morning from South Africa so took the mobile in to the shower with me and low and behold I get a text from my partner in crime, Charlie. Big news often comes at odd times and this was big news indeed. The dates for the MDS 2009 had just been officially released.

The 24th Marathon Des Sables takes place 27th of March to 6th April 2009.

Coincidentally I had been up late staring at a training plan that took me up to mid September. I was shuffling various sessions around and stressing about how little time I had to get ready for SPAR Coast (3 day Ultra of 105 miles). Spar coast will be hard and with only 4 months to get ready for it I am little pushed for time. Not too mention the fact that I am entered in a 24 hour montain bike race a month before SPAR Coast. The word 'yikes' comes to mind.

The main goal posts hav been laid out now. In 10 months and 10 days I will be in Morroco to fulfill a dream I have held for 10 years. Is it me or is there a lots of '10's in hat last sentence? Time to ge serious about all this.

2007 summary

Well it started off well with a successful attempt at the Tring2Town 45 mile Ultra Marathon. I think inexperience and less than adequate prep cost me better performances in SITS and Night and Day Ultra. But then, that is the point of doing these events. Hopefully I wont make a hash of the MDS in 11 months time!

Bring on 2008's events......first one is this Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More info soon!

Oh yeah my partner in crime has kicked his Blog in to gear as well check it out;

http://www.charlierunsmds.blogspot.com/

Sleepless in the Saddle

A few weeks before the Dunwich Dynamo I was agonising over whether to purchase a ridiculously expensive light for this race 24 hour epic. I had resolved that if I felt strong through out the Dun Run then i would purchase the wonder light.

Well, Dun Run was a success and if I was doing the SITS race then I needed illumination that would last all night. The other tricky bit of the equation is that you actually need a light that is not just designed to make you seen by others (i.e motorists). For an off road night race you actually need one that enables you to see where you are going. This sounds simple and after all how expensive can such a gizmo really cost? The answer is hundreds. However, if I was up for this I kind of just needed to take the plunge and do it.

Anyway, what a lot of waffle about a light.

So i travelled up to Derby the Friday afternoon before the race and pitched my tent in the solo entrants area and set about fixing a puncture that had somehow occurred to my spare bike in the back of the car. Mmmm. Still scratching my head about that one. The whole set up for the race was awesome, there was a real carnival type vibe and everyone was really friendly and happy to help. I had a wander around the stalls and then got a quick lap of the course under my belt so I knew what to expect during the race. Holy Cow! It was a epic ride! By the end of one lap i decided it was time to treat my self to the big over sized handle bar grips that I had wanted for a while and had spotted in one of the trade tents. Suffice to say it was hard work and was very glad to have given my self a taster of what to expect. I registered my arrival and got my timing chip before having a cook up and watching a DVD in my tent.

The race it self kicked of at 2pm on Saturday and during the morning I took advantage of the shimano tent to get my bike checked over, they tuned my gears and even replaced a cable free of charge which I was very chuffed with.

The race began with a Le Mans style start where we all had to run for about a mile and then grab our bikes to cross the start line. All went well for the first few hours and I planned to stop at around 8pm to attach my light and get a good helping of food in before settling in to the night stage of the race. I remember stopping and texting my Brother's saying it was great, but stupidly hard and my hands were ruined and knee was hurting.

The hurt in the right knee soon developed in to get the most horrendous pain. I pushed on for a couple more hours but it became excruciating and I was worried I was going to do my self permanent damage. So I am guessing at around midnight I retired, pissed off, to my tent for a rest and then it started raining. I guess I stopped at the right time! I laid there in disbelief at what I was doing. When not riding, my knee felt perfect and I felt pretty fresh and awake and yet I had to stop. This was really odd. Eventually I fell asleep and woke at about 7am, I opened the tent to see other riders still going strong and glanced at my bike which I had dropped at the opening of my tent a few hours before.......

I could not believe what I was seeing. The seat had slid almost all the way down to the frame! No wonder my knee felt like it was about to fall apart. I pulled my cycling shorts back on and jumped back on the bike to re-enter the race. I could not understand a) why it had happened and b) why I had not noticed? The answer to the first question soon hit me. When I had taken the bike the service guy he has loosened the seat collar off before fixing it to his work stand.....I should of checked it after I got it back. As for why I had not noticed I can only put it down to fatigue and inexperience.

Anyway, so I got a few more laps in the morning and finished mid table out of approx 80 solo riders....bring on 2008. This time I intend to not make another dumb mistake like last year.

Dunwich Dynamo

What? The Dunwich Dy....what? Basically its a fun event organised by a London cycling club. It consists of riding 120 miles from London to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. There is no official start time and everyone kind of just heads off at about 8ish. That's 8PM! Oh yeah! Its a night ride on the Saturday in July closest to the full moon.

Sitting here writing that now I am reminded of what a romantic notion that is. Just think......lovely summer night, gentle breeze, full moon, solitude out in the country.....bit of adventure thrown in for good measure. Sign Me up!!! Well, at 8pm on the night of the race it started raining and did not stop until about 4am. It sucked. Without a crowd of people suffering with you its the sort of thing you would quit pretty easily.

I have to say though it was a bloody great experience and one that me and some friends had been meaning to do for ages. We first found out about it when we were leaving the pub one night in my little town of Great Dunmow and we were swamped by cyclists! It was an amazing spectacle so we we were sold! Had the Dun Run's route not snaked it's way through my little town we would never have known about it.

What this also meant is that we could stop at my house and binge on Pizza chocolate-happy days! I filled my boots! however leaving the house was the hardest bit of the journey, as we cycled up the hill out town I could literally feel my shoes filling with water from the rain and road spray. It was cold and I was now thoroughly waterlogged......with at least 6 hours left till the finish.

Anyway, the computer just crashed and I just lost a load of this post (that angers me) and I cant be bothered to write it again..............

Long story short we made it to the beach and had an amazing cooked brekky at the end just before my Big Brother collected us. I will find pics of me and Nick triumphantly waterlogged asap.

I hate it when computers don't bloody work properly!

Where were we? Night&Day Ultra Marathon

Okay, so enough apologising and lets get writing. Kili was awesome and so was the stag do before hand but holy moley that was nearly a year ago and I have written next to nothing on here since then.

So a quick update is due. The two key things that I should posted about are 'Night & Day Ultra Marathon and the 'Sleepless in the Saddle' mountain bike race.

Night&Day is basically 2 marathons in 24 hours and if memory serves me it was just 2 or 3 days after I returned from Kili. It was fairly local to me, in Chelmsford and work was rather hectic that Friday of the first Marathon that evening. My map for the race never turned up which meant I had to go in to town on the way to the race (which was bloody annoying), I also had to find a shop to stock up on bottles of water (which was bloody annoying) and what with work hassles all this meant I turned up just in the nick of time for the race. However, as I was so late I had to be a pain and hassle one of the organisers to mark my map with the route (which was bloody annoying and embarrassing). Basically, I turned up under trained and under prepared for a very hard race and I paid the price because I simply ran out of steam and threw the towel in at about the 20 mile mark.

I don't want to offend any of the other competitors but frankly I found it bloody soul destroying that people were cheating during the race, it was easy enough to cut chunks out of the route and unfortunately I know that some runners did just that. However, if this was a contributory factor to me quitting then the other 99% was entirely my own shortcomings. Whether or not I was fully recovered from being unwell in Africa just a few days before hand is perhaps part of it but every time I looked down at the map I was spinning out. I basically thought 'bugger this lets go see my little girl instead.' so I went back to the main road and called a cab. Owing to Kili and the stag do I had not seen my daughter for 2 weeks so there I was waiting for a cab.

Annoyingly the driver was a military man who was about to go through 'p company' (one of the armies toughest physical training courses). In spite of this I was really not too pissed off with my self for quitting which to this day I am surprised about. Anyway, I am still looking forward to doing it again properly one of these days.

I wont go in to any more details of that evening but I do remember having a burn up with an Evo 8 on the way home. That's not really anything to do with running though is it.

So, to summarise. I turned up ill prepared for a very demanding race ballsed it up as a result. Simple. Next!

I will be right back.....

Have been completely hopeless with this blog for the best part of a year! Shame really, because I got off to such a good start!

Although everyone must of given up on this blog some time ago I am still going to get stuck in again very soon!

I need to add the story of the 'night and day ultra marathon' from last summer and the '24hr mountain bike race' from last summer..........watch this space.