Very quick three things thursday - without pictures or hyperbole

No pictures - sorry, I am out of picture fodder and need to go around capturing some stuff. It probably stems from an overly busy work schedule of late, but I will try harder.

Hyperbole - reading back my through my blog of late I have notice my predilection for hyperbolic post titles (which at times are let down my the ramblings they lead to), and more than occasional over use of exclamation marks!!!!!!! I hereby promise that neither of things are likely to change, oh okay I will be trying.

Marathon talk - more substantial than any of the above and a great source of material to boast your running IQ.

Running - I seem to have found a new groove, Thursday I rest - tomorrow I Friday Fartlek!

Marathon Monday - the run up to my second marathon

Monday looms large, and not only large but also potentially warm, the build up to my second marathon is heading towards completion. I am making lists, buying provisions for the trip, checking that my best kit is ready, and importantly that this time I don't have to go on a mad pin chase the night before the run. It is one sadness that I haven't blogged about my build up this time around in anything like the way that I did my first run, but life threw so many curve-balls over the last 3-4 months that I have simply not been able to. Between personal illness and family illness and working commitments and occasional bursts of decent training I have not had the time in the day to get to the keyboard with organised thoughts to set out.

The Milton Keynes marathon 2013 draws ever nearer and though I am not as physically prepared as I want to be I believe I am mentally much better equipped this time around.  I have decided upon a sensible pace, and opted to track a pace maker to keep any tendency to over cook the first half of the run. All bar the wheels absolutely falling off I hope to negative split and if the weather isn't kind then at the very least even pace the race. I have been listening to the Marathon Talk pod-cast since January, and though my training hasn't matched their schedules and considered advice it is my hope that all the psychology tips will come in handy when the going gets tough. My main goal is to get through 20 miles and towards 22 before really feeling that I am breaking myself.

I will do my best to blog shortly after the event with the ever present GPS data, pictures, and so on... only four more days of thinking / planning before the doing on May Bank Holiday Monday.

I am running for Cancer Research UK, and if you can spare a few moments a small amount of cash please visit my JustGiving page...

http://www.justgiving.com/AndrewHollins

A tale of two podcasts

The number of podcasts that I regularly listen to has now doubled, to the princely sum of two! Yes, that is right I now listen to literally a couple of podcasts. Which two and why?

The first one I have listened to for a while now (and have mentioned before) is the Jillian Michaels podcast - not because I'm a closet north american, not because I'm a huge Biggest Loser fan, and not because I am a woman of a certain age... just because it is generally silly, but informative, and benign whilst insightful. I am sure many people have said many things about the 'show' and I am certainly not going to critique it here.

The second one I have been downloading has been a revelation - Marathon Talk - for me at the moment simply perfect listening and simply perfect content. As someone hoping to run two marathons this year it has been a brilliant find for tips and training ideas / guides. The running advice is coupled with some absolutely brilliant interviews, and since I started listening over the New Year I have heard some crackers with Kelly Sotherton (former GB heptathlete trying her first marathon after retiring from elite sport), Mike Tomlinson (event organiser and husband of the late Jane Tomlinson), Amby Burfoot (RunnersWorld guru, and lifelong runner), Prof John Brewer (sports physiologist), Brett Larner (the guy behind Japan Running News), and Kurt Fearnley (paralympic athlete) this year, and I haven't begun dipping into their archive yet.

I have taken so much from the Marathon Talk podcasts that I would recommend a listen to any runner. It is true that the podcast it is supported / funded by Adidas but it is not by any means an ad driven enterprise it comes across as genuinely about running community, and the two hosts (Messrs Martin Yelling and Tom Williams) are warm and engaging. I have yet to find time to root around the website but I have the feeling that when I do it will be similarly rewarding.  

Both of these are available through iTunes just stick something relevant in the search do-da :-)

Diary - very busy in work (not a bad thing), very busy at home (also not a bad thing), not getting many miles out on the road (not a good thing). I'm 10lbs lighter than at the end of December, and moving towards fuller training. Weather - cold, windy, and possibly bringing more snow our way.

Wittering on Wednesday ...(2)

More outdoor
Last night I attended my fourth session with the Outdoor Fitness crew and wow was it tough! There were bunch of hill sprints with the usual spot exercises, and again some pairs work. All of this was good fun and again I met some lovely people. This morning though I ache like a very achy person, and wish I had taken myself off to my bed early. I have plans to go at least twice more (possibly trice more) this week - I figure aches on top of aches won't hurt as much, and happily my hip is not reacting to badly to the sessions.

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
It is all a little more than follow the leader, but this was the best image I could rapidly grab [I will investigate better ones]
 

In some ways I am wondering what next? In the four sessions I have attended I have 'experienced' four different trainers / leaders and so the variety has been pretty broad. It isn't possible to say which I have enjoyed more because aside from common themes they have all brought interesting and subtle twists. These being anything from how the interact to exercise style to different kinds of intensity. At the early stage of my block I am wondering where I could fit this into my week going forward beyond these six weeks and also beyond my marathon training block.

Podcast powered

There is something tempting about listening to a podcast or an audio book while training / running. The temptation of getting 'two for one' out your time is very appealing. I used to try and listen to crime thrillers in the gym several years ago, but found they struggled to compete with the background noise (even after I had invested in better headphones). In fact I usually enjoyed the plots better during the short walks to and from the gym, wherein each book seemed to last so long I lost the will to remember the threads of the stories. So personally I like the concept but have struggled a bit with getting a great deal out of it.

Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In the last week or two I caved into advertising and tried out the wisdom of Jillian Michaels podcast (free via apple's itunes istore, the most recent can be found at http://bit.ly/JillianMichaelsPodcast). Just so we're clear, the advertising came in the form of tweets and facebook comments from the eponymous Jillian after I clicked 'follow' and 'like' respectively. I tend to follow athletes and sports people as a form of living my sporting life vicariously, I am not ashamed to say that I am an avid sports watching fan (the Olympic period is always an absolute treat for me). Anyway I downloaded the podcast an dipped my toe into the world of American fitness and lifestyle tips and found it was actually pretty good. I don't mean it in a derisory way but it is just like listening to the radio but with topics that are generally more useful than which celebrity did what, when, with whom which you get between tracks on a lot of 'regular' radio stations. The banter is fun, the topics illuminating, and so I will be listening to more in the near term.

Music to exercise by?

When I do exercise with music I generally go loud and large, stuff like the Prodigy (heavy dance tracks), the King's of Leon, the Foo Fighters (driving rock), basically stuff that is real adrenaline fuel. I have never really found anything that I can run long distances to outdoors, the rhythms of a long run for me at least, haven't fitted my (albeit eclectic) music collection. As I have moved to higher mileage I have found that I need to listen to my rhythms, breathing, footfall, and even the noises my t-shirts make (?). So music with exercise has become for me very environment driven: indoor gym = music, outdoor run = no music, and perhaps I am not so very unique in doing this?