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!
30.12.06
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.
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.
29.12.06
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!
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!
28.12.06
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.
I estimate only 8 miles were covered in total but we did discover that Nick could definitely cut it as a Postie!
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.
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!
27.12.06
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.
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!
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.
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.
17.12.06
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
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
15.12.06
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?
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?
13.12.06
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.
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.
12.12.06
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.
Will keep you all bored, er I mean posted.
11.12.06
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!
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!
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.
6.12.06
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!
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!
4.12.06
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.
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.
29.11.06
Running club
Worked hard tonight. I had enough trouble understanding the training routine tonight so explaining it might be a rather big ask. Particularly good atmosphere though when no one knew what they were doing. Liked that.
Oh yeah did an upper body work out before running club as well, worked my shoulders, biceps, triceps and abs. Abs were actually as little delicate from the long run monday morning so exta core work is def needed.
Basically, we did speed work around a 500 meter lap. Teams of three with two running at any one time. After two laps you dropped off and the other joined in, the idea being you had a fresh pair of legs to chase when you were on your second lap. Get it? No? Oh well this blog is more for me than you so tell me I am an inarticulate fool in the comments and I can ignore you. (no wonder no one visits this blog, I am starting to abuse the 1 or 2 people who actually read this thing).
6.5 miles covered and club went on for a little over an hour.
After running 33miles on Monday morning I am fairly pleased with my performance. I am however a little worried about a pain that developed in my foot. This was about half way through the speed session and I seemed to run it off but when I stopped at the end it seemed to return.
I was desperately keen to say to people; 'I could of course run this faster but I ran an Ultra Marathon on Monday morning.' For once in my life modesty prevailed.
Being able to talk to my daughter on the phone tonight (back from holidaying in India) and having running club has taken the edge off of a truly awful day in the office. Trouble is tomorrow might be worse and I definitely cant run tomorrow as I have not had a rest day since the 33 miler........ Beer and burgers might just do it!
Oh yeah did an upper body work out before running club as well, worked my shoulders, biceps, triceps and abs. Abs were actually as little delicate from the long run monday morning so exta core work is def needed.
Basically, we did speed work around a 500 meter lap. Teams of three with two running at any one time. After two laps you dropped off and the other joined in, the idea being you had a fresh pair of legs to chase when you were on your second lap. Get it? No? Oh well this blog is more for me than you so tell me I am an inarticulate fool in the comments and I can ignore you. (no wonder no one visits this blog, I am starting to abuse the 1 or 2 people who actually read this thing).
6.5 miles covered and club went on for a little over an hour.
After running 33miles on Monday morning I am fairly pleased with my performance. I am however a little worried about a pain that developed in my foot. This was about half way through the speed session and I seemed to run it off but when I stopped at the end it seemed to return.
I was desperately keen to say to people; 'I could of course run this faster but I ran an Ultra Marathon on Monday morning.' For once in my life modesty prevailed.
Being able to talk to my daughter on the phone tonight (back from holidaying in India) and having running club has taken the edge off of a truly awful day in the office. Trouble is tomorrow might be worse and I definitely cant run tomorrow as I have not had a rest day since the 33 miler........ Beer and burgers might just do it!
Tuesday night bicycle club
Reasonable cycle ride last night but it was a little lacking in pace. Nice pleasant evening not as cold as I had thought and just over 13 miles were covered all of which was on roads. We were out for an hour and ten minutes.
Legs have felt great considering I ran 33 miles on Monday morning. Certainly they have not been as bad when I ran my first marathon in the summer......but I was ill at the time (had to mention that again).
Last time I mention it but I took my little torch with me and it is amazing. Way, way brighter than my top of the range 1500+ Candlepower bike light. Awesome stuff. There was no practical reason to take it with me I just wanted to see how good it was and compare it to a light that I know to be very bright by normal standards. It will def make it into my rucsack at the end of January and it will doubtless see service in the desert as well.
Legs have felt great considering I ran 33 miles on Monday morning. Certainly they have not been as bad when I ran my first marathon in the summer......but I was ill at the time (had to mention that again).
Last time I mention it but I took my little torch with me and it is amazing. Way, way brighter than my top of the range 1500+ Candlepower bike light. Awesome stuff. There was no practical reason to take it with me I just wanted to see how good it was and compare it to a light that I know to be very bright by normal standards. It will def make it into my rucsack at the end of January and it will doubtless see service in the desert as well.
27.11.06
Gadget tastic
Oh yes.....its here. Could really of done with this bit of kit this morning but nevermind its here now. Running with my bike light has been fine but it is a little awkward. Besides once I had heard about Surefire Torches I had to have one!
I know what your all thinking (if your a geek like me, that is) Maglites are the best etc etc. Well, this little puppy is 4 times brighter than a big D-Cell maglight! I know! I was excited too.
Its fricking incredible! They are described as 'illumination tools' not torches and I am not arguing. Its really quite something, one of there selling points is that they are so bright they can be used to blind bad guys and the bogey man. The police/army use them apparently.
The only downside is the price. The model I just got is £100 in the UK.
You know your getting old.....
You know your getting old when you notice chocolate and cereal bars getting smaller! I took some tracker bars out of there big box and put them in my rucksac ready for snacking on during today's run and when I cam to eat one they were tiny! Literally 'Fun size'! Why do manufacturers do this?! Just charge me more and give me a decent size bar! Please!Ok rant over. Pretty good effort today, left at 5.20am and it was odd being in complete darkness for the first two hours. It kept trying to rain during those early hours but I got lucky again and it held off. The most remarkable thing about the weather was just how warm it was. I had my wooly hat off inside of 5 minutes and my windproof unzipped shortly after that. I had to keep reminding myself that it was nearly December. Not complaining but in a weird way I would of almost preferred it to be a bit cooler.
The sun rise was pretty spectacular this morning and stopping to get pictures did slow me down a bit. It was worth it. I actually looped past my house today at around the 13 mile mark and then carried on for the remainder of the distance. This gave me a chance to refill water bottles and put some decent sized snacks in my bag.
Now for the bad news, I did not do 35 miles. I estimate 33 but hate doing this because I know us humans tend to be generous in these kinds of estimates. My GPS gadget logged 31.8 but like an idiot I accidentally turned it off at around the 15.5 mile mark. I suspect that it was turned off for at least 1 mile and so I think 33 miles is a fair shout.
Like on previous runs my legs started to feel achey at around the 17/18 mile mark and at 22 miles when my direction turned once again for home I was in need of human conversation to take my mind off them. I had been running for over 4.5 hours and I needed a bit of company. Charlie in Australia was the obvious choice, so after a bit of a chin wag with el Stocko I got the iPod rocking and headed for home. My legs were severely weakened after after the Marathon mark and I was moving along very slowly, this frustration was compounded by a couple of very muddy/slippery sections towards the end where the effort to steady my self was monumental.
Although I would normally be annoyed with myself for not completing the goal of 35 miles I am not. I know I could of continued but time was really against me and I was feeling dehydrated. Earlier in the run my mind felt blunted and I felt oblivious to the winds. I was plodding along listening to music in a kind of nonchalant state. My mind had accepted the pain in my legs as normal and it was only when I stopped to pee, drink or eat that the pain could not be pushed into the back ground. I was knackered but able to continue. I love this body of ours, its so rediculously capable.30 seconds after stopping I felt absolutely fine. Going and doing another 2 miles felt so plausible that I did not even feel the need to prove to my self I could do it. However after having a shower I had a bit of a power nap before getting on with some work and this did not not feel very nice, it reminded me of trying to sleep when you have a head full of stimulants. Slightly ill and cant really relax even though you are asleep...Weird. This is why I rarely drink Coke or coffee, but today was likely to be some kind of runners high that prevented me from feeling calm. Felt a bit rough when I woke up to.
30+ miles means that this really was my first Ultra!
Science bit:
Approx 4.5 liters of fluid were drunk
I was out for 6hrs 11 minutes
7 cereal bars (6 Kelloggs Nutri Grain and 1 tracker)
Its now nearly 6 hours since I finished and I feel in pretty good fluid balance but as ever will keep a close eye on thigs.
cant upload pics at the mo but will get them on asap.
26.11.06
F*ck
Very annoyed, alarm did not go off and I did not wake up until 6.30. My new phone needs to be told not only what time I want to be woken but also the day......annoyed, but at least I know now. This meant that if I began running at 7am I would not of finished until around 1pm. I was not happy with th idea of spending only the afternoon with my my daughter as she has been away for the last couple of weeks so that was the decision made. Another bonus has come from the rain Gods, unforecasted torrential rain (even some thunder) has hit us this morning so at least I have missed that......trouble is I have kind of been wanting to do a training run in the rain. I am well aware that this makes me slightly strange.
Finishing at 1pm instean 11am was not really an option. Alternatively, I am going to run the 35 miles tomorrow morning and start work a little later than normal.
Instead, we are learning the rules of chess! I never learned them and it was my daughters idea so I guess this will be today's adventure instead!
Finishing at 1pm instean 11am was not really an option. Alternatively, I am going to run the 35 miles tomorrow morning and start work a little later than normal.
Instead, we are learning the rules of chess! I never learned them and it was my daughters idea so I guess this will be today's adventure instead!
25.11.06
Cant wait!
Its 10.30pm on Saturday and whilst most eligible young batchelors are out trying to meet chicas I am sitting in so that I can get up early and do a 35 mile run. This rock & roll life is pretty wild at times.
In all seriousness, I am looking forward to my alarm going off at 4.30 tomorrow morning. I will be doing something I have never done before. I have spent the evening packing my rucksack at a relaxed pace and popping to the Supermarket to stock up on cereal bars.
The first 2 hours will be dark and I have clipped my rear bike light to my rucksack to increase visibility/safety. My new torch has not arrived yet so the front bike light is also doubling up for running duty as well. iPod is charged and I will finally get to have a proper listen to Royseven's album. Helen, who is just a little bit more rock & roll than me is there manager and was kind enough to send me an album to listen to. Sorry to be so slow Hel's!
Camera, is on charge, gloves/hat are in my windproof's pockets, warm clothes in rucsack, drinks are made and in the fridge.....think I am done.....Phone will go in Peli case, so even I get run over that will live....what else......New pair of Gel Kinsei's (shoes) are being rolled out tomorrow as well so hopefully my big toes wont ache as much come Monday.
Until now I assumed that my current (old) Karrimor sc35 rucsack would be used for Tring2Town but now I am not so sure. The longer you are out running the more little things you need quick access to. Vaseline/shave oil (for chaffing), drinks, food, iPod, torches, phone, gloves......
The bags designed specifically for Ultra's seem to have a plethora of little pockets and other nooks to stow all these little things meaning you don't have to go into the main the compartment. I generally think its quite nice to get the pack off your shoulders every so often so that you can let the muscles in your shoulders/neck have a bit of movement and rest. Now, I am not so sure. I am starting to see the benefits of having more little pockets to store things in....will keep you posted if a new bit of kit is purchased. You are going to love the torch I am getting!
I have gone off track tonight talking about kit and prep etc. The reason I sat down was because I wanted to record the fact that I am excited about tomorrow. This made me understand my reason for doing this a little better. I realized that to me doing something like this is a huge adventure! Running for 6 hours straight is a new boundary, a new journey! I have a need for travel within me but as a Father I could never leave my daughter for months to scratch this itch. I think this kind of running is Methadome to the hard drug of 'proper exploration'.
Sound like a drunken philosopher again. Really sorry.
Ps. I have no idea how you spell 'Methadome'. I may be describing some bizarre stadium from a Madmax movie for all I know.
In all seriousness, I am looking forward to my alarm going off at 4.30 tomorrow morning. I will be doing something I have never done before. I have spent the evening packing my rucksack at a relaxed pace and popping to the Supermarket to stock up on cereal bars.
The first 2 hours will be dark and I have clipped my rear bike light to my rucksack to increase visibility/safety. My new torch has not arrived yet so the front bike light is also doubling up for running duty as well. iPod is charged and I will finally get to have a proper listen to Royseven's album. Helen, who is just a little bit more rock & roll than me is there manager and was kind enough to send me an album to listen to. Sorry to be so slow Hel's!
Camera, is on charge, gloves/hat are in my windproof's pockets, warm clothes in rucsack, drinks are made and in the fridge.....think I am done.....Phone will go in Peli case, so even I get run over that will live....what else......New pair of Gel Kinsei's (shoes) are being rolled out tomorrow as well so hopefully my big toes wont ache as much come Monday.
Until now I assumed that my current (old) Karrimor sc35 rucsack would be used for Tring2Town but now I am not so sure. The longer you are out running the more little things you need quick access to. Vaseline/shave oil (for chaffing), drinks, food, iPod, torches, phone, gloves......
The bags designed specifically for Ultra's seem to have a plethora of little pockets and other nooks to stow all these little things meaning you don't have to go into the main the compartment. I generally think its quite nice to get the pack off your shoulders every so often so that you can let the muscles in your shoulders/neck have a bit of movement and rest. Now, I am not so sure. I am starting to see the benefits of having more little pockets to store things in....will keep you posted if a new bit of kit is purchased. You are going to love the torch I am getting!
I have gone off track tonight talking about kit and prep etc. The reason I sat down was because I wanted to record the fact that I am excited about tomorrow. This made me understand my reason for doing this a little better. I realized that to me doing something like this is a huge adventure! Running for 6 hours straight is a new boundary, a new journey! I have a need for travel within me but as a Father I could never leave my daughter for months to scratch this itch. I think this kind of running is Methadome to the hard drug of 'proper exploration'.
Sound like a drunken philosopher again. Really sorry.
Ps. I have no idea how you spell 'Methadome'. I may be describing some bizarre stadium from a Madmax movie for all I know.
Running club
Few days late....I knew I would soon lose interest in this blog!
Running club on Wednesday consisted of hills and speed work. In all, just over 7 miles were covered in a little over an hour. Enjoyed it.
On Friday I got out for a quick 30 mins on the bike but not exactly hard effort.
Running club on Wednesday consisted of hills and speed work. In all, just over 7 miles were covered in a little over an hour. Enjoyed it.
On Friday I got out for a quick 30 mins on the bike but not exactly hard effort.
20.11.06
Week summary
Missed one of these out last week but not to worry it was identical to the week before.
Last week has been pretty pathetic to be honest. It mostly consisted of 'rest'.
Thursday: Cycle ride in evening 13miles
Sunday; 10k run followed buy 5 sets of walking lunges. Then hour and a half cycle ride (17miles).
The cycle ride consisted of at least a dozen photo stops though so nothing too intense
Crikey, I have some sore buns today though from the cycling/lunges!
Last week has been pretty pathetic to be honest. It mostly consisted of 'rest'.
Thursday: Cycle ride in evening 13miles
Sunday; 10k run followed buy 5 sets of walking lunges. Then hour and a half cycle ride (17miles).
The cycle ride consisted of at least a dozen photo stops though so nothing too intense
Crikey, I have some sore buns today though from the cycling/lunges!
19.11.06
That's better!
Good evening to you all, I trust everyone had a good weekend. My daughter is still away but I did my best to salvage things and the weather was kind enough to lend a helping hand.Yesterday was spent at Brands Hatch cheering a friend on. This was followed by a bite to eat in London with the same guys I was at the track with.
Today is slightly more relevant to this running blog. I had always planned to steer clear of any huge distances this weekend. Instead I opted for a quick 10k and an hour and a half riding around the beautiful countryside where I live. The 10k was good and I somehow managed to run a Personal best for the distance. I ran slightly under 43 minutes so all good there. Cycling was awesome, literally everywhere I looked was a picture waiting to be taken! Luckily I had remembered to bring the camera and I will add as many pics as I can.
Most importantly, I enjoyed training today. I have been a bit down on it this week and wondered if I was coming down with something because normally I am chomping at the bit to get stuck in. Perhaps running marathons on consecutive weekends took a lot out of me? For probably the first time in my life I have experienced a dip in my sex drive and apparently this is normal when running long distances. Normally the reverse is true for me, the fitter I am the more intense the desire. Perhaps this explains the lack of motivation to train? The pleasure derived from these two activities is often similar so once one pathway in the mind is closed off perhaps the other fades away as well?
Dam this kind of thing fascinates me, our mechanics, the effects our actions and environment has on our bodies. On top of all that we have to consider the effect of the mind on our bodies as well..... Wow I could waffle on all night about this but I know my limitations as a psychologist and as a writer so I will spare you. I think however that this is what makes me want to run across the Sahara. To study your self under such harsh conditions and experience such extremes must be very special.I know a chap who once had to make a very difficult decision and so he fasted for 7 days because many people believe that it focuses the mind. He felt that he could do with the additional clarity that it would bring and so this is why he went with out food. This notion literally captivated me and I had to experience it. So a few years ago whilst my daughter was still very young and University lectures were at a minimum I went with out food for 4 days. I have to say that I did not experience any kind of 'high' or a feeling of increased 'clear headedness'.
Despite all this I am so pleased that I did it. I had proved to my self that we Westerners do eat far too much and that our bodies are indeed designed to starve. Most people think this is somehow reckless, I believe they are missing a trick. I believe in making the most of our incredible bodies and like any worthy subject, the more you know the more it contributes to your pleasure. Besides, I bet our hunter-gatherer ancestors commonly went for days without food, given the amount of time that has passed since then it is unlikely that we have lost these remarkable capabilities. With the introduction of commercial farming we simply do not need to tax these hidden strengths.Crikey I sound like a drunk philosopher. Sorry.
16.11.06
What a bind!
One of those days today. Everything has been a bit of an effort.....I suspect its because I decided to have a couple of days off after running Marathons on consecutive weekends. Then work prevented me from going to running club last night and suddenly its Thursday night and you have not trained since Sunday. Poor show old chap.
Anyway....You guessed it, tonight's cycle ride was frankly rather crap. Covered around 14 miles and did not really get into it. 99 times out of a 100 I will always be pleased as punch I got off the sofa and exercised. Not really the case tonight, I would rather have been watching the new Bond film.
Pretty negative post Brucey! Snap out of it!
Anyway....You guessed it, tonight's cycle ride was frankly rather crap. Covered around 14 miles and did not really get into it. 99 times out of a 100 I will always be pleased as punch I got off the sofa and exercised. Not really the case tonight, I would rather have been watching the new Bond film.
Pretty negative post Brucey! Snap out of it!
13.11.06
Wild life
Bit of a delay since posts but its not as if I have had a load of adoring fans wondering when they can read more about my exploits. 'Exploits' almost make things sound interesting!
Anyway, last Thursday night a couple of us had a cycle ride of around 12 miles and the most memorable things were the wildlife. Nearly had another head-on collision with a badger and then shortly after that nearly ran a black cat over. If either of you chaps are reading, sorry about that. The highlight though was an Owl that flew above us for a few seconds. It looked ghostly in the moonlight/darkness and I don't think I can explain it any better than that, it just did not look real. Alex reckoned it to be a Barn Owl and frankly I am not in possession of sufficient knowledge to say otherwise. It was very beautiful whatever it was, something that will stick in my memory for many years to come. So, if you are reading reading thanks for joining us!
I have to confess to getting really rather drunk on Friday night and when attempting an early morning cycle ride to sober up the inevitable happened. On top of the black eye and grazes I think I have had a slight concussion ever since. I dont really think the 'the football hooligan look' will be a big hit on this seasons catwalks. Silly sod.
Onto the serious business of Sundays long run. Regrettably my daughter is on holiday with her Mother at present and therefore I did not have to get up quite so early in order to 'run long'. As planned I ran another Marathon. Around 5 minutes slower than last week and I am trying to decide why this was. It did feel like more of a chore than the week before but that could easily of been because of the previous nights alcohol intake or was it the concussion? Like I said, silly sod.
It felt like it took a bit more out of me this week, I ate more on route (6 bars instead of 4) and I consumed almost an extra liter of fluid. Yesterdays Marathon suppressed my appetite just as the previous two had and today I could literally eat a cow. I have been picking all day long and tonight I could easily jump in the car and grab some junk......But I wont.
Fluid levels have again been watched with interest. Last week I thought I had got my self back in to balance very quickly after the run but the reality was different. Last Monday afternoon it was obvious that I was quite low on fluids.
In light of this I did not stop drinking all day yesterday after the run and I have still struggled today to get back into proper balance. This is a lesson that all active people have hammered into them and frankly you get bored of hearing it and anyway, for the most part it is relatively easy to get right. Consequently, the last two weekends have really surprised me. I have drunk at least double my normal daily intake today and it was only at around 7pm today that I could say with any real confidence that I had topped my self back up. that's at least 30 hours after completing the run. Fascinating man. Fascinating.
Bottom line is: whatever the prevailing temperature a Marathon is a big undertaking and it takes a lot from your body, its vital to keep an eye on fluid levels for at least 24 hours after the run not just the traditional 'couple of hours after exercise'.
Anyway, last Thursday night a couple of us had a cycle ride of around 12 miles and the most memorable things were the wildlife. Nearly had another head-on collision with a badger and then shortly after that nearly ran a black cat over. If either of you chaps are reading, sorry about that. The highlight though was an Owl that flew above us for a few seconds. It looked ghostly in the moonlight/darkness and I don't think I can explain it any better than that, it just did not look real. Alex reckoned it to be a Barn Owl and frankly I am not in possession of sufficient knowledge to say otherwise. It was very beautiful whatever it was, something that will stick in my memory for many years to come. So, if you are reading reading thanks for joining us!
I have to confess to getting really rather drunk on Friday night and when attempting an early morning cycle ride to sober up the inevitable happened. On top of the black eye and grazes I think I have had a slight concussion ever since. I dont really think the 'the football hooligan look' will be a big hit on this seasons catwalks. Silly sod.
Onto the serious business of Sundays long run. Regrettably my daughter is on holiday with her Mother at present and therefore I did not have to get up quite so early in order to 'run long'. As planned I ran another Marathon. Around 5 minutes slower than last week and I am trying to decide why this was. It did feel like more of a chore than the week before but that could easily of been because of the previous nights alcohol intake or was it the concussion? Like I said, silly sod.
It felt like it took a bit more out of me this week, I ate more on route (6 bars instead of 4) and I consumed almost an extra liter of fluid. Yesterdays Marathon suppressed my appetite just as the previous two had and today I could literally eat a cow. I have been picking all day long and tonight I could easily jump in the car and grab some junk......But I wont.
Fluid levels have again been watched with interest. Last week I thought I had got my self back in to balance very quickly after the run but the reality was different. Last Monday afternoon it was obvious that I was quite low on fluids.
In light of this I did not stop drinking all day yesterday after the run and I have still struggled today to get back into proper balance. This is a lesson that all active people have hammered into them and frankly you get bored of hearing it and anyway, for the most part it is relatively easy to get right. Consequently, the last two weekends have really surprised me. I have drunk at least double my normal daily intake today and it was only at around 7pm today that I could say with any real confidence that I had topped my self back up. that's at least 30 hours after completing the run. Fascinating man. Fascinating.
Bottom line is: whatever the prevailing temperature a Marathon is a big undertaking and it takes a lot from your body, its vital to keep an eye on fluid levels for at least 24 hours after the run not just the traditional 'couple of hours after exercise'.
9.11.06
Running club
Pretty good session last night, basically pyramid training around a 300 metre circuit. i.e
1 fast lap and 1 slow,
2 fast and 1 slow,
3 fast 1 slow,
4 fast 1 slow
Then the same in reverse back down to 1 fast and1 slow
Had a mile or so run either side of this and the session lasted just over an hour. Thorough stretch afterwards and headed home to upload the data from the run (did I just write that? upload?) and then headed out on the bike.
As soon as Nick turned up at the house though it started to rain which was rather annoying. My first wet ride of the winter and it felt quite cold at times. We altered our normal route and found ourselves on a part of the railway line that had been used recenty but a tractor, quite possibly a lot of tractors! Very muddy and this made it slow going but very entertaining. Only out for about 45 minutes but ended up muddy and very wet. All good fun.
No stiffness this morning but despite drinking plenty of fluids last night I felt rather dehydrated upon waking this morning.
1 fast lap and 1 slow,
2 fast and 1 slow,
3 fast 1 slow,
4 fast 1 slow
Then the same in reverse back down to 1 fast and1 slow
Had a mile or so run either side of this and the session lasted just over an hour. Thorough stretch afterwards and headed home to upload the data from the run (did I just write that? upload?) and then headed out on the bike.
As soon as Nick turned up at the house though it started to rain which was rather annoying. My first wet ride of the winter and it felt quite cold at times. We altered our normal route and found ourselves on a part of the railway line that had been used recenty but a tractor, quite possibly a lot of tractors! Very muddy and this made it slow going but very entertaining. Only out for about 45 minutes but ended up muddy and very wet. All good fun.
No stiffness this morning but despite drinking plenty of fluids last night I felt rather dehydrated upon waking this morning.
7.11.06
Working Lunch
Got my strength training session in at lunchtime today. Work was serving up a few anxieties so it was great to have a bit of relief.
Anyway, basically the same circuit as last Tuesday so wont bore you with the details. No bike ride tonight either as I am heading to the best burger restaurant in London.
Later potata.
Anyway, basically the same circuit as last Tuesday so wont bore you with the details. No bike ride tonight either as I am heading to the best burger restaurant in London.
Later potata.
Week Summary
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Upper body/core strength training and Evening bike ride
Wednesday: Running club
Thursday: bike ride of 13 miles
Friday: rest
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 26.5 mile run
Also a 20 minute brisk walk every morning followed by stretching
Tuesday: Upper body/core strength training and Evening bike ride
Wednesday: Running club
Thursday: bike ride of 13 miles
Friday: rest
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 26.5 mile run
Also a 20 minute brisk walk every morning followed by stretching
5.11.06
Big Thanks
I don't know about you but I hate Group emails. Especially the chain letters you get. They are probably more annoying that the 100 emails (not joking) I get everyday offering me Stock tips and viagra. I therefore cringed on Friday Morning as I hit the 'Send' button on a group email telling some friends about my plans.
So you can imagine my bewilderment when two of those friends were generous enough to sponsor me the astonishing sum of £100 each!
Cheers Adam, I thought I had peaked early with Greg and Kirsten but you kept it going! Then Mr anonymous slipped in another £100. Thanked him privately but prob best I respect his wishes and not mention his name. Thank you!
This amazing generosity has even prompted a close friend of mine to say; "I will sponsor you when a few other people have sponsored you 'normal' amounts"!
I never anticipated this problem! Seriously, £100 is great (putting it mildly) but so is £20 or £5 or £1.
Hope your all well and speak soon.
So you can imagine my bewilderment when two of those friends were generous enough to sponsor me the astonishing sum of £100 each!
Cheers Adam, I thought I had peaked early with Greg and Kirsten but you kept it going! Then Mr anonymous slipped in another £100. Thanked him privately but prob best I respect his wishes and not mention his name. Thank you!
This amazing generosity has even prompted a close friend of mine to say; "I will sponsor you when a few other people have sponsored you 'normal' amounts"!
I never anticipated this problem! Seriously, £100 is great (putting it mildly) but so is £20 or £5 or £1.
Hope your all well and speak soon.
My First Ultra
Good afternoon. A momentous occasion has come to pass! This morning I ran my first Ultra Marathon. Just! I completed the distance of 26.5miles. Ok, so I scrape in by about 200 meters but I am so claiming it!Weather was fairly misty and cold when I first went out at around 06.30. Apart from this it was a clear bright day. The picture you can see was taken at around 7am and even though I have run past this lake at least several hundred times I still wanted to get a picture. I am so lucky to live and train around here. I get very jealous of Charlie having the beaches, sun and sand but I know I am very lucky.
I took snacks with me today for the run. This was a first and I think they made a tremendous difference to the run. Sure, from 20 miles onwards my legs ached like a mamma jamma (remember the censored version of Coming To America?) but I never felt light headed or hungry despite being on the move for over 4 hours.
I had put a bit of thought in to what I should snack on on whilst running and ended up settling on Kellogs Nutri Grain bars. Not exactly health food but I knew that I liked the flavour and I have had a few of these whilst in the middle of a hang-over. I reasoned that if my stomach can deal with them when I am suffering from the night before I would be able to digest them whilst running. Thankfully I was right.
Total consumption during the run:
4 x Cereal bars and 2 litres of fluid (simple squash/cordial)
I finished off with a cold bath and I have to confess to finding these utterly horrific. Recent research has even cast serious doubt on there worth so I am definitely an idiot for putting my self through the torment. Interestingly, upon finishing the run I was approx 4kg lighter (around half a stone). Clearly this must be fluid loss but I don't feel dehydrated and getting back in to balance has been very easy. Interesting stuff.
Any way despite the fact that I just ran a Marathon and should be feeling rather smug with myself I feel that this has been a rather uninteresting entry. Apologies.
If you are reading this check out Charlies blog entry under 'Marathon Des Sables'. Its brilliant
www.charlierunsmds.blogspot.com
2.11.06
Good ride!
Cracking ride tonight! Just over an hour and 13+ miles covered. 90% off road. I did nearly hit a Badger though, poor thing! For something so big and cumbersome they can really Hussle when they need to!
Well, three posts in a day are quite enough so that's me done. Need a shower.
Well, three posts in a day are quite enough so that's me done. Need a shower.
BIG NEWS
Hold the phone and Stop Press!
The most important news so far since starting this blog! my 'Justgiving' website is now live! Karen Chesney at Marie Curie Cancer Care and I set things up this morning. Thank you.
Click the 'Sponsor Me' Link on the left hand side and see how my fundraising is going or maybe even donate yourself. Donate the cost of a couple of pints!
Good friends (they definitly are now!) Greg and Kirstin have been incredibly generous and already given the astonishing sum's of £100 each. With 'Gift aid' that is over £250!! Unreal! Thank you very, very much.
Its only been on line an hour or so! At this rate we should of cured the worlds ill's by Sunday Lunch time! (approximate forecast)
The most important news so far since starting this blog! my 'Justgiving' website is now live! Karen Chesney at Marie Curie Cancer Care and I set things up this morning. Thank you.
Click the 'Sponsor Me' Link on the left hand side and see how my fundraising is going or maybe even donate yourself. Donate the cost of a couple of pints!
Good friends (they definitly are now!) Greg and Kirstin have been incredibly generous and already given the astonishing sum's of £100 each. With 'Gift aid' that is over £250!! Unreal! Thank you very, very much.
Its only been on line an hour or so! At this rate we should of cured the worlds ill's by Sunday Lunch time! (approximate forecast)
Timed lap
Good afternoon! Need to be quick as in a bit of a rush. Running club was good, but I always forget that its the first Wednesday of the Month and therefore the dreaded timed lap! In the Summer its a lovely 5 mile loop round a near by village and in the winter its approx 2.5miles around town.
Strangely I find the 2.5 harder.
Anyway last night was good with a thorough warm up and warm down either side of the lap and I estimate that around 7 miles in total was covered.
Must dash
Next Caller....
Strangely I find the 2.5 harder.
Anyway last night was good with a thorough warm up and warm down either side of the lap and I estimate that around 7 miles in total was covered.
Must dash
Next Caller....
31.10.06
Tuesday Evening
Nice steady ride tonight, predominantly on roads and covered about 13 miles in a little over an hour.
Quite chilly though, might have to buy some of those girl leggings you see people in.
Quite chilly though, might have to buy some of those girl leggings you see people in.
Tuesday Morning
Lovely walk before work and a bit of a core/upper body work out. Consisted of a Nice circuit of Elevated Press ups (feet on step), bicep curls, standing shoulder presses, over head tricep extensions, sit ups (elbows to opposite knees) and that Superman thing whilst laying on front.
Completed the circuit 3 times and each set was to muscle exhaustion. i.e until I was literally unable to continue. Consequently, I have no idea how many reps of each were conducted ( not too many!). The last circuit certainly did not take as long as the first though, that's for sure.
I really find my heart rate revs up during this kind of thing and when laying on my front (lower back Superman thingy) I can really feel my blood being pushed through my body. Even standing up the visible fluttering of my stomach indicates blood vessels being charged with blood below the surface. I find all this rather fascinating and when my daughter was small enough to take out running with me (God I use to love that) I would go to great lengths to explain all this to her. She would ask why my face had turned red, why I was breathing faster and why my skin was wet. I remember standing on Southampton Common and loving the fact my little girl was asking these questions. I was so thrilled to be able to give her half sensible answers to her simple observations. In my opinion few bits of information can be more important than those that illustrate how blindingly clever our bodies are. I hope it encourages my daughter to enjoy and respect hers. I digress.
Fascinating it may be but its a sensation I still feel rather squeamish about.
Just remembered my that my Daughter arrived on a Tuesday. Nice coincidence.
Completed the circuit 3 times and each set was to muscle exhaustion. i.e until I was literally unable to continue. Consequently, I have no idea how many reps of each were conducted ( not too many!). The last circuit certainly did not take as long as the first though, that's for sure.
I really find my heart rate revs up during this kind of thing and when laying on my front (lower back Superman thingy) I can really feel my blood being pushed through my body. Even standing up the visible fluttering of my stomach indicates blood vessels being charged with blood below the surface. I find all this rather fascinating and when my daughter was small enough to take out running with me (God I use to love that) I would go to great lengths to explain all this to her. She would ask why my face had turned red, why I was breathing faster and why my skin was wet. I remember standing on Southampton Common and loving the fact my little girl was asking these questions. I was so thrilled to be able to give her half sensible answers to her simple observations. In my opinion few bits of information can be more important than those that illustrate how blindingly clever our bodies are. I hope it encourages my daughter to enjoy and respect hers. I digress.
Fascinating it may be but its a sensation I still feel rather squeamish about.
Just remembered my that my Daughter arrived on a Tuesday. Nice coincidence.
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