The Wednesday Witter

At the start of a very busy day I grabbed my stuff and headed off across the car park towards my workplace musing "we'll see what today will bring", with it has to be said a slight tinge of resignation to rolling with the daily punches of endeavour. Then it occurred to me that in management or positive mental attitude speak I had that little phrase all wrong - and so with as big an ironic smile as I dare muster wandering across a busy city centre I pondered "what will I bring to today".

From an article by Richard Wiseman in The Observer, Saturday 30 June 2012 22.40 BST http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/30/self-help-positive-thinking

  

See the difference? Hmm, I'll let you know how it shakes out.... short witterings today (follow the link in the image above for a good coffee break read) because I have projects to organise, interviews to sit in on, relatives to organise for the weekend, oh, and a Bon Jovi concert to go to tonight with my sister :-D  Whatever I bring to today for tomorrow I will be bringing a head full ringing (from the amps set to 11), a tired body (from jumping about), and no voice (from singing my lungs out)!

Hope you enjoy your Wednesday whether it brings things to you or indeed you bring things to it.

Warm, overcast, unsettled weather - good job the Millennium Stadium has a roof for tonights gig.

Type II diabetes - reduce your risk

I am planning to run the Berlin marathon in aid of Diabetes UK and a few weeks ago I picked up one of their information sheets in a local supermarket. So I thought I would pass on what I read, and it is in the most part copied from the flier - but I am thinking they really wouldn't mind a little blatant palagrism in a the name of a good cause.

Apparently in the U.K. there are 7 million people at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Which equates to approximately 11% of the population*.

Those at most risk:-
Anyone overweight especially anyone with a large tummy.

Those who may have a higher than average risk:-
People of Black African, Caribbean and South Asian origin. As well as those over 40 (or over 25 if you are South Asian).

Other risk indicators are:-
Having a parent, brother or sister with diabetes.
Having ever had high blood pressure, a heart attack, or a stroke.
Having a mental illness for which you have taken medication.
Women, having had polycystic ovaries, gestational diabetes, or a baby weighing over 10 pounds.

Lower your risk:-
The better news is that by eating a healthy balanced diet, keeping active and managing your weight can significantly reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes.

To find out more about Diabetes UK and how we care for, connect with and campaign on behalf of everyone affected by, and at risk of, diabetes, visit www.diabetes.org.uk or call 0845 123 2399.

If you would like to support the work of this fantastic charity visit their site or if you like go to my JustGiving page for my Berlin marathon run at www.justgiving.com/Andrew-BerlinMarathon

* - based upon the UK Office of National Statistics 2011 census estimation that just over 63 million people reside in the U.K.

The Wednesday Witter

I have had to change the title of my occasional (sometimes even regular) weekly waffle, it seems that 'Wittering on Wednesday' might be just fine but by shortening that to 'WoW' on a blog which is for the most part about exercise 'WoW' may cause some small confusion with the cross-fitters version of 'WoW' - "Workout of the Week". No confusion was intended, not that anyone finding one of my WoW posts would be in any doubt after reading two lines or so.

With all that said this Wednesday's witter seems like me to be suffering from fatigue, I have been getting on the move of late hoping to sort out an injury, and it seems the extra workload is tiring me out. I will take some time to adjust to the new routine, and this much I have learned during my blogging days - you do adapt to new routines and habits quicker than you think (once you get past the initial resistance). So for me that is the exciting prospect of early nights to help the tiredness while I adjust and settle.

I have been busier with this blog nonsense of late (as my wife pointed out), and whether this is because I'm living out my running vicariously at the moment, or a genuine deep seated need to write stuff down, I am not entirely sure. Anyway it turns out I am usually at my most prolific in August (see my swiftly constructed graphic below), so perhaps this year I am just blooming early - I blame the crazy weather.

Did I really? Well I never! - my average number of blog posts per month over the years 2006-2012

Have to say as a diary type blog the graph does confirm one of my paper diary trends that January always sets out with good intentions (!). Could be cruel and make some comment about consistency, but hey this is a blog about life and few lives are consistent (at least thats my defence) :-)

Sunny, warm, decent breeze, some Simpsons title sequence type clouds moving through - looks like a fine day for gardening and being outdoors.

For a few moments I thought this was the most viewed thing I'd written all month until I spotted two new referrer spams have taken up residence in my google stats. Thanks for your 'interest' spammers now go do something a little more worthwhile!!

Sunshine rolling

Feeling good today, I have ridden the bike (my wife's now old bike) to work and back two days on the trot - I am indeed a fair weather cyclist. I haven't exactly been thumping along, between strange bike, busy cycle ways (all those other fair weather cyclists out too, damn it), and the lack of fitness. It has been great to get back into an old pattern and I am already resolving to keep it going in my quest to regain all around on the move fitness.

Happily my knee hasn't grumbled about the cycling, and although it still isn't better I do hope that it will sort itself out soon. Everywhere I look at the moment there is another article on stretching so I have no excuses not to be doing it and getting things stabilised. Not sure when I'll threaten my knee with another run, but I will be on the move and trying to heal it with plenty of active recovery.

Sunny, warm, gentle breeze - perfect day for commuting on your bike here in Wales ;-)

My Monday motivation - Road-to-Berlin (2)

Charity - which aside for beginning at home - is one of the biggest motivations for many runners in large events. For me the charity doesn't so much begin at home as it is close to home, a member of my close family. I am planning to run the 2013 Berlin marathon for my eldest niece, who last year at the age of nine was diagnosed with type I diabetes.

Over Christmas in the aftermath of the diagnosis I was telling everyone of my plan to run two marathons in 2013 and how I would like to run one of them for a diabetes charity for my niece. My niece was pleased at the thought though was a little unsure of which charity I should run for. In the UK their are two leading diabetes charities that I am aware of - one supporting primary research as a lead focus and the other supporting patients and families with the disease as their lead focus. As a researcher myself I was drawn very heavily towards the former, but in the end my niece chose the latter as in fact a nurse from the charity - DiabetesUK - had visited her in the days immediately after the diagnosis and made a clear and lasting impression on her. So then the deal was struck with my niece - I would run the Berlin marathon (a major city 'World Series' marathon) for DiabetesUK to repay that kindness and to support their ongoing good work.

Click to visit their homepage

Click to visit their homepage

I have, of course, a JustGiving page set up for my efforts http://www.justgiving.com/Andrew-BerlinMarathon and even though I am struggling right now with a knee issue I will try to raise money regardless of whether I toe the start line on race day or not. If you have any coins, notes, credit or whatever to spare my niece, the charity, and I would be so grateful if you can give what you can.

My niece has taken really well to the new regimen of multi per-day tests and injections, happily she was old enough at diagnosis / onset to understand much of what she needs to do and why. Going forward her and her family will undoubtedly face challenges, but for the time being she is super active (swimming as a member of a local swimming club) and is smart enough to tackle any challenges head on. Going forward I rest assured that the healthcare where my sister and family live is meeting their needs and that there are wonderful charities like Diabetes UK there to pick up any gaps whilst providing terrific patient advocacy.

As a small footnote, I am not in any way financially supported by the charity to go to the race, I am not part of any kind of all-in charity travel / race package. My wife and I will (fitness permitting) make our own way to Berlin for the race and so forth. The charity have very kindly provided me a sponsor pack with further information about their work, a sponsor form, and one of their racing vests which I will wear with pride on race day.

Wishing I was lucky

I ran again yesterday for the first time since last Monday, and whereas the Monday run felt mostly fine apart from a single knee twinge and some post race aches yesterday however was different -from the outset I felt my knee with each footfall. It was nothing sharp and not intense but it was there - a dull ache inside my knee cap with each landing. I could not work out what to do, was I being paranoid paying it too much attention then running in an unusually slow awkward way, was it about to break down, was it going to disappear any moment, was I stupid, should I stop and head home. In the end I found it wasn't getting worse and so I kept trying to alter my running form in an ongoing attempt to alleviate the ache.

After about a third of the run I got into a rhythm and things felt better throughout my kinetic chain though I was getting fearful now that my brain had dupped me by kicking in a compensation mechanism that would ultimately lead to a different muscle or joint to joining the party. I went with the joy of comfort and in the end ran a decent time for the loop (10.3km in 63minutes, a loop I normally run a lot), but when I slowed to stop I could feel that my knee was not at all happy. I am still trying to work out what is a joint issue and what is a lack of all around fitness issue, although the fact that it felt like no post run soreness or stiffness I have experienced before leaves me worried.

It looks like I will be keeping up my stretching / strengthening routine and heading to the physio at some point this week for a thorough opinion of how this thing is evolving, and morevoer whether anything warrants closer medical inspection. Until I see him I am going to try my best to keep a lid on my nerves... the more this lingers the more concerned I am that I might end up stratching the next marathon too, and this is an outcome that will tear me up as I have invested huge amounts of emotion in taking it on.

So I find myself wishing I will get lucky and that I can get back to training for the race properly.

Stop reminding me - lost fitness

So today I got on the bike (my wife's bike actually, mine is in need of major repair) and figured it'd be fun. Now it was fun don't get me wrong, the weather is fabulous this morning and the trail was quiet. However, at the nice long stretch where you can see several hundred metres ahead of you I decided to unleash the canons (arms = guns, legs = canons? never mind), and then a minute later rolled along having discovered another muscular change that has occurred since last year... I have lost, for the want of a better phrase, my 'top end grunt'. My quads, which have been extremely tight of late and implicated somewhat heavily in the knee issue story, are certainly also lacking in sprint strength and general power.

The reflection / introspection of this last week and a bit about the loss of stretching routine and bringing that back with rigour has now extended itself to other forms of exercise. I used to post blog entries about weeks where I had cycled daily, swum, run and rowed in a busy mix. Quite where all that went I'm not 100% sure, though much of it is work and the kids it can't be all of the reasons why I don't do the variety these days. This weekends quest is now to work out where these things can be improved - if only because I love dropping the hammer on the bike and roaring along sometimes.

Sunny, warm, light breeze and the promise from the weather guesser forecaster that it is set fair for the next few days. Right off for another stretch then loads of that afore mentioned work to do.

Footnote - May = a whopping 17.1 km run (!), an injury, a marathon race DNS (did not start), several trips to the physiotherapist, lots of planning for when I am fit again (and plans to get fit in the first place), and so I don't have to do much in June to top its proceeding month exercise wise.

I want to workout, workout, workout

I am at that stage where I am need of doing something, the knee injury is subsiding (albeit not without a fight first) and I am getting that urge to go crazy. It is something that I suppose happens to many people in my position and can lead to trouble... 'too much too soon' syndrome. I want to run, I want to jump around, I want to go rowing, but I am reigning myself back as hard as I can to try and prevent recurrence of the injury to my knee or even picking up a new niggle.

It seems I am wrestling with the issues of balance: the conservative approach versus the what the heck approach. I am looking for that just right and finding that it means keeping my powder dry and waiting on the bigger (and perhaps more fun) stuff. Funny though that I've gotten to the state of wanting to exercise all the time from a state several years ago where I wanted to exercise none of the time because I was too busy, too tired or just plain too busy comfort eating.

At times like these I ask myself what would an pro-athlete do? And frankly I have no clue as I don't know anything other than fellow weekend athletes. Hot on the heels of that thought comes the what would a coach tell me to do, but much though I actually know at least three of those I don't employ them and there is only so far a "just out of curiosity" type question would get me. So in the end I will do what I always do, fight that crazy urge and see if I can intuit something that will work. Which reminds me I'd better go stretch again (see yesterdays ramblings)...

Mixed bag weather, mostly overcast with showers - though I have only observed it through the office window and frankly there could have been anything falling from the sky.

Tuesday tightness - more power to the stretches

"Right, okay, right that's it!!"... I am going to go stretch crazy and from here on, I could well be found randomly at any time stretching. My knee has not responded at all well to my running on it, and was better for rolling and stretching yesterday before deciding to make it's big protest felt this morning. It used to be the case that I would go through a stretch routine a couple of times a day when I was rowing, then somewhere along the way I fell out of the habit.

Looking back on it the drop in stretching came initially when I managed to exacerbate a calve injury by over doing it, and then was compounded by reading those articles decrying certain forms of stretching before exercise (seems I must have subconsciously read it as "all stretching is bad" - dumbo!).

I will be bendier than a bendy Yoga person - ahem, perhaps not that bendy I am a lanky 6ft2 after all
"Silhouette Girls Doing Yoga" - Image courtesy of sattva / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So I am just going to stretch until I get all bendy again and hope that my knee decides shut up with the pain when it has everything around it super loose. I have to say that the very first time I went through my old routine again this morning I could feel tightness and pulling where I don't ever recall feeling any, which of course tells me something pretty major. My quads were like rocks and took the longest time to ease off under tension and I used to have great mobility through that stretch (it used to be the back of leg stretch that would leave me whimpering). Somewhere along the way an adaptation for the worse has happened and I need to put it right.

In a timely twist of fate an excellent blog that I read "50after40" posted a great video called 'Hip workout details and my first video' - which for a first ever video outing was awesome and contains some great moves that I hope to build into an expanded stretching / strengthening regimen. I reccomend you go take a look and enjoy the rock out to the soundtrack too :-)

Overcast, breezy, persistent rain, and a complete reverse of yesterdays weather. Now where is a quiet spot in the office I can go stretch?

Note - I should of course once again heed my own previous advice - 'Joys of stretch' - if I was so wise back in July 2011 what happened?

Do it all again

8.7km in 56 minutes, sees the beginning (I hope) of a new training block that will lead into the Berlin marathon. It was as much a test of my knee as a training run, so it started and ended with a few hundred metres of walking. Weirdly the only major twinge I suffered in my knee was slowing to walk at the end of my run, so I still have plenty of remedial work to do. In fact even after a good foam rolling and stretch off it is beginning to develop beyond an ache and into something a little painful which is a lingering worry.

It felt great to be running again, and for the most part I was well within myself. I have managed to shift some 6lbs during my enforced lay off and that at least felt particularly good. Over the last few days I've been continuing the aerobics DVD and adding in more stretching and flexibility as I've gone. Fingers-crossed my knee decides to like the new regime.

Sunny and then turning to rain - a busy bank holiday. Pondering when to go sculling again (knee permitting).

Morning walks are back again

Meet the reason why I am getting a huge amount more walking done than I have been for some time...

     

... yeah, we have a new dog in the household. Another rescued former racing Greyhound, a doggie who through being not faster than her peers was thrown on the canine scrap heap. Her name thanks to our kids is Sali and she is a bundle of youthful energy with a puncheon for 'borrowing' socks and chewing small plastic objects!

It is so nice to have a dog again and not least amongst the many reasons that I'm enjoying it is that I get to talk longish brisk walks most days. I had almost begun to forget how good for me these walks are, but it only took a couple to remind me of what I had been missing. I haven't missed the occasional irresponsible dog owner or crazy cyclist then again maybe in a funny way I have missed that too. Though Sali doesn't know it she is already a part of my exercise landscape each week - I wonder if she's noticed we are going a little faster each day as my knee heals?

Cooler, overcast, moderate breeze - hoping to run again for the first time since the injury in the next couple of days.

My Monday motivation - Road-to-Berlin (1)

I promised a few posts around my motivation to go run a major city marathon in another country this year, and so I start with simple "connection to location". As it is I know Berlin a little having lived there twice in the period before I'd started junior school and visited again several times through my life it is not such the great unknown leap it might on the face of it appear. Of course the city (like all major cities) has evolved immeasurably since my first or even last visits, but it feels emotionally like somewhere part of me belongs.

The Berliner Bear - from www.seeklogo.com

So already you see a chunk of my motivation simply lies in having made it into a kind of hometown run, or at least a coming home run. Simple as it seems a connection to location for an event can make all the difference in the world, imagine running somewhere you'd not heard much about or even heard bad things about wouldn't that then detract / distract from your run? I ran once in a place I only had a vague sense of and found that although the location, course, organisation and people turned out to be amazing I just wasn't 'into' it and it was a horrible run personally (in fact on of my worst). In Berlin there will be familiar landmarks I know, places I was pushed around in my push chair, and street names long since burned into my memory. It truly is somewhere I WANT to run around and there in lies a nice big motivational foundation.

I have begun to recognise I am an emotional runner, running makes me feel great, and running location lifts that to a whole other level. Give me sights to run around and not dull city dual carriage-ways leading to nowhere any day. All being well I'll be on the move past the Brandenburg Gate, the Tiergarten, the Siegessäule column, the Reichstag and Berliner Dom, Kurfürstendamm, Potsdamer Platz, and the Staatsoper this autumn (to list just a few) feeling absolutely connected and super motivated.

What does a good connection to a location mean to your running?

Weird Friday

Well yesterday could have gone a great many ways but in the end at least some of it came straight out of left field. It was my wife's PhD viva day so a day out of the ordinary from the outset. I was to be daddy daycare while it was all going off in a meeting room between academic brains. Meanwhile I had instruction not to answer the phone, but of course I did and that was where it got weird.

Phone call one & three - my mother-in-law - "oh, your there, where's my daughter?", first time I fooled her with "she's walking the dog, I'm going into work late" which was simple genius I thought - not a lie just a bending of the timeline a tad. Second time, I had to be a little more 'creative' "oh it's all topsy turvy here this morning, she's had to pop in for a quick meeting and then I'll be in work for the afternoon" (I had booked the whole day off for the event weeks ago in case you're wondering). I wasn't sure the little fib would have washed but it seemed to work and so I could get on with worrying and waiting for the viva outcome.

Phone call two - the police - when things got bizarre - I had a call from the police in a town I used to live in the best part of a decade ago, and like I suppose most people my heart rate leapt as soon as the phrase "this is the police, no need to worry" was uttered. As I was beginning to calm from the initial stunned moment, I became increasingly baffled, they wanted me to confirm my old address and details... what on earth was coming next... "and you were burgled". In fact we were indeed burgled not long after moving in 15 years ago (!), what on earth was this about? It turns out the have someone in court for the crime this week (!), whereupon I couldn't believe my ears. We were told various things at the time and none of them ever made us believe that the deeply personally disturbing shattering of our new home would see any conclusion. The arm of the law appears very very long indeed, and I assume they matched finger prints or something (or just got someone to say "yeah, I mighta dun that place too"). They gave me details to find out what happens in court and then left me stunned to take in the news.

This second call put the wobbles on me totally, I began to wonder if this was going to turn into one of those really random red letter days, and I got irrationally concerned that other random things might happen in the day. As it was the kids were hardly being angels, I had to get the eldest to school, and I was feeling frustrated.

In the end the random weirdness subsided as quickly as it arose and I got to eat a celebratory ice cream with the new PhD later in the day, after she was released from her gentle grilling. Better still I got to confess to my little white lies to my mother in law who was mighty happy that her daughter had done so well (though apparently not surprised that she kept it all a secret from her mum and dad!).

Not an 'on the move' post I know, but my knee is healing up it seems and will be back to normal nonsense soon. Sunny, clear, and breezy.

Watch out there's a plan brewing

No I haven't bought into some X-Files style of conspiracy theory, I have been busy fashioning my plan for the Berlin marathon - or my training and preparation for that particular event. I have you might note already raised the race into a fairly over prominent position in my mind, and to that end I intend to elaborate my motivations over coming weeks.

The beginning of a plan??  A work in progress...

As with all good plans first thing is always... first, and so I have begun to sort out the knee issue that stopped me running Milton Keynes marathon and started to build a solid (and mixed) fitness base again. I have opted for the start over in part because of the injury of course, but also to make sure that I reign myself in and don't over load intensities and distances too early in the piece.

Early progress has been a return to aerobics sessions, which my knee hasn't complained too much about. So here goes the base building.  It is my mission to run the best marathon I am capable of this autumn, so watch this space.

Cold and rainy, then warm and sunny - the weird British weather continues into May.

Recent finds during the run up to my 'almost' marathon

Although the build up was cut short at the 11th hour I made a few little discoveries in this particular block of preparation...

New shoes - now I know you'll likely groan "duh!" but a few niggling issues appeared in my feet and legs with my old pair before I realised they were too old. It should not have been the blisters (when I haven't had them in the shoes before) or the different aches I was getting in my calves and achilles (again new) that made me realise I needed new ones but, alas, it was. I should have twigged that I had worn them through a marathon training cycle (including the race), two half marathons, and a couple of 10k races... and that time was up on them. Still I did realise and I made a change and all seems fine again. Running shoes so the rule of thumb goes (so I was reminded by the shop assistant!) one full training and race marathon cycle, or roughly 500 miles. Though it also depends somewhat upon how much you bash the cushioning materials with distances and consecutive runs (i.e., running two or more days in a row may not give the shoe time to recover - let alone you perhaps, phew!).

Zero tablets (made by High5) - in the build up I increased my daily water consumption, yes I fell into one of those "you should absolutely do this to keep healthy" articles on-line, and I know there is a how much it enough debate as with most things... sorry about the near change of tack there, the point is I got a bit bored with water and looked for something that wouldn't lead me into expensive sports drinks or worse still fizzy drinks. I 'found' electrolyte tablets that give your water useful salts (potassium and magnesium to name two) and a yummy favour to it as well. Again there is a "how much is too much" and "is it necessary" debate that can break out, but I made sure my intake didn't exceed RDA (recommended daily allowance). They have been great, they are refreshing, tasty, and appear to have added a bit of energy to my day - although likely a hefty placebo effect compared to the "oh, no more water" moments I had before. They aren't cheap to buy, but working through some maths and they come out far far cheaper than the drinks available in my work cafe (though clearly not as cheap as water from the tap!).

Physio - before having to use my favourite physio for helping to sort my current knee problem I had discovered that he was running a two-for-the-price-of-one deal on sports massage. Buy the pre-race massage and get the post race 'fix me' massage free. Genius, just genius! If you are heading into a race be sure to ask your local physio / sports masseur if they would do you such a cool deal.

Running hat - the race organisers let everyone know it was going to be a very hot day by recent standards (we have had the strangest lingering wet / cold winter). So I realised a hat was the order of the day, among other things, and noted that all the hats I have are heavy. I get a real thing going pre-race about how heavy the stuff I'm carrying is, which is bordering on irrational given how much I usually weigh... so I went out to find a light running hat realising also that the ones I have would be very uncomfortable full of perspiration! I duly found one and tried it out - brilliant! I now recommend looking for a good running hat and making friends with it in case you need it - even though granted here in the UK that isn't many days of the year ;-)

Hill repeats - back when running was still happening (not that I am troubled or bitter about this injury you notice) I discovered hill repeats are actually good fun and make excellent GPS timing fodder - I do love a good graph.

So to sum up I discovered nothing much more useful than anything you might find opening any issue of a running magazine, but as a collective they were adding to a reasonable run build up. Oh, and no one offered me anything for these ramblings, they are as ever just my meandering thoughts :-)

Three Things Thursday

Simple as 1, 2, 3...

1) The joys of calorie tracking apps...

Moving in the right direction over recent days :-)

2) Keeping busy whilst injured...

No running for exercise just now, but plenty to keep me busy up on the allotment!

3) Boy oh boy, had I over shopped for marathon. I was getting über prepared before the injury rudely interrupted...

DNS hangover - I have a bundle of stuff I'd gathered for the marathon that never was :-(
...still I'm all set when training starts again.

Re- rehabilitation

So I find myself, after the disappoints of last weeks new injury sinking my Milton Keynes marathon run, at the point of rehabilitating my knee. I have plans in mind regarding the road to my major goal of finishing the Berlin marathon, but in the back of my head are those lingering doubts "will the knee respond to treatment?", "is it a bigger injury than it appears?", "will I have to change my plan to run?".

It is only to be expected and I am delivering the nervous doubts in spades at the moment - I suspect because of the sudden appearance and nature of the problem. Any injury rehabilitation, let alone training cycle, brings those unknowns and so I am now trying to rationally work through them.

Sunday morning - ice-packing my knee and cursing my luck
(taped foot is to support the knee by limiting foot roll somewhat - apparently?!?)

The immediate plan has been walking, resting, popping glucosamine sulphate pills (eases my inner hypochondriac - I have begun worrying about OA in the knee joint), getting out books and looking for a training guide, and most of all sorting out my diet.

My diet is probably key here in my humble opinion as it has not been consistent of late and in hindsight I hit the last training block a stone (6.3 kg) heavier than I did my last (first) marathon block last year. Though pure weight / mass probably isn't correlated directly with the symptoms, it is the composition of the weight that I suspect does... suffice to say that I am not exactly lean just now (but then I haven't been truly lean since the the '90s - the ravages of student life and over indulgence over time).

So at the extremely real risk of repeating myself a little, this time* I am targeting the weight and more over body composition whilst working hard (with a little help from the physiotherapist) on general strength and flexibility, before I tackle the run training block in around a months time. It is a plan, and I am a past master at making the things, but this time around my motivation is total and drive utterly clear - I will run the Berlin marathon and I will run the very best I can!

* - seriously I'm beginning to sound like someone waking up with a hangover swearing he'll ever never drink so much again only to be back at the bar the following weekend downing doubles.

Big change of my plan - the hard choice

Well I have had to do it, I have had to pull out of running the Milton Keynes marathon. On a training run last night I 'tweaked' something in my left knee, and managed to turn my intended pre-race sports massage with the physio into a diagnostic session. Good news, nothing huge is torn or broken - bad news small ligaments or some cartilage is likely damaged and will need time to heal (or be investigated further even) over the coming weeks - the bad news making running a marathon in three days time foolish. I can walk slowly just fine, I can run just fine, but the transition causes pain as does particular changes of direction of travel. So with other runs in mind, not wanting to do any major damage, and not wanting to DNF a big organised run I've had to take the hard choice.

I really wanted (somewhere in the quieter recesses of my brain) to make Milton Keynes that thing I do every year having attended their first ever marathon last year, but that ambition didn't get much past the starters pistol. I wanted to run for the enjoyment, the challenge, the fulfilment of crossing that line at 26.2 miles. I feel pretty empty just now and can't quite believe how close I came to getting there after the ups and downs of the last few months. Training hasn't been perfect, that I admit, it has not been consistent enough or in all actuality varied enough (with respect to strength and flexibility - hence perhaps the injury).

After a good long chat with Leon the awesome physio things were in good perspective and I have already armed myself with a plan towards the biggest challenge of my running 'career' Berlin this September. That plan is alive and vital (knee injury permitting of course) but it is the loss of the Milton Keynes plan that makes me feel heavy hearted and down beat. I will now be contacting the kind folk who sponsored me or were going to, and in some cases offering refunds where they have paid already... marathons become much bigger than the long distance and much more part of your thinking than you realise. I will learn more lessons and I will roll forwards it is just that in this particular moment 42.2 km or 26.2 miles seem an awfully long way away.

If you did still want to donate to my chosen charity then please follow the link below...
http://www.justgiving.com/AndrewHollins

I'm going to have to find something else to do with my intended blog post on Tuesday (post-marathon day) and indeed something else to do with the day off I booked for a day of solid recovery (pampering)... I think I'll write that Berlin plan down make it real and bring that 42.2km a little closer.

Happy running and race well if you are going to be  in the next few days / weeks.

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

"Underneath the Lemon Tree: A Memoir of Depression" - Mark Rice-Oxley

Another non-sporting book review, and insight into my eclectic book buying habit...

"Underneath the Lemon Tree: A Memoir of Depression" - Mark Rice-Oxley 

To be sure to give the book its complete title "Underneath the Lemon Tree: A Memoir of Depression", this was one of those books that does spring off the shelves at people it comes with a knowing smile and a "you really should read this it is so, well, just so" kind of comment. Given that I am it seems an utterly suggestible person and at least I gave the description a read on-line and then caved to the mildest peer pressure and gave it a go. In the end I came to understand what it was that those knowing smiles were trying to say.

Customarily I begin to gush about why I thought the book was great and why you might enjoy reading it, well I am going to try to be more measured in my overview. The book is written by a journalist and family man who is laid low with a bout of depression, and seemingly true to his nature journals his experience of the condition and his efforts to understand what it is whilst seeking to come to terms with life after diagnosis. It is brutally honest its chronicling while so well written as to give insight into the processes of descent into and ascent from depression within the context of personal, family and work life.

As someone who through family and personal experience has had some insight into the subject, and moreover the devastating impact of not talking about the subject of depression, it was so beneficial to read such a clear account. I want to at this point say much more but then actually I realise that I can't articulate the subject as well as the author... so in fact in the end I am be joining the ranks of those who give that knowing smile and say quietly "you really should read this it is so, well... just so". Most of all though I will do what I have always tried to do and listen to the person I mention this book to, because listening can do so much in so many ways for people affected directly or in directly by depression. The book doesn't offer a cure all, or a happy clappy way forward, it is genuine real and just firmly and quietly says "there is something more to come... go with the rationalising / healing process and you'll be just fine".

Footnote:  It is true that I most often find more in a biography than almost any other form of literature, the human conditions is true to us all in its many shades and nuances and in general makes for compelling reading. So much so in this instance that the next book I picked up was a sporting challenge biography. If it so happens you have not ever picked one up I challenge you to find one by someone you relate to and open its cover - happy reading.

Kit review - Nike compression T-shirts

What is the second thing that I put on when I get ready to go running? Okay, so no one wants to know what order I get dressed in but a piece of kit I have become reliant upon are Nike compression sleeveless and capped sleeve t-shirts. They act as a terrific light base layer, and if you ensure you have the right size compress with just the right amount of vigour. I have found that wearing them all but eliminates joggers nipple, even over a marathon (though my only 26.2 miler to date was in cold and rain and not fierce hot sweaty weather). Compared to one other base layer brand I have the fabric is very forgiving on the skin, even around the seams.

Frankly I think the manufacturer might prefer that I use one of their images 
- rather than me with my less than six pack six-pack!

I own 7 of these Nike compression t-shirts between the sleeveless and capped sleeve, I bought one and then found that I liked them so much I purchased more. I even have three different colours in my kit box by now (white, black and red

March?

Set back? Well I am used to those by now... I have been suffering all week long with a cold (which happily came along with a fever courtesy of the kids). So I have not so much as laced my trainers all week, which I was kind of okay with until my diary pointed out that March was arriving. As things go I could be in worse shape, I could have done more mileage in February but for the bug I would have topped January's 75 km handsomely. What can you do? I am super cautious with colds after twice in the last year having severe chest infections.

Spring is showing some signs it is on the way, we have enjoyed a dry spell that left my trainers weeping all the harder when I abandoned them this week. It is from here that juggling the training (and I have to up the distances from here) gets that little bit harder as the spring seems to generate more pulls on time - more work projects, more home projects - the desire to shake things out after what was a dark cold icy Winter puts running time under pressure. Still pinch punch first run of the month and all that... hopefully my symptoms will have eased enough to let me get round a regular medium distance tomorrow and get the month going properly.

Footnote: I left the computer on and when I came back to do something else noticed that someone found my blog using the search term 'Sue Thearle Pregnant' wherein I discovered that back on Monday July 31st... 2006, I mentioned those three words talking about a breakfast television sports presenter - randomness utter randomness. Can't think they went away happy as it was an irreverent list of what my wife made of the then presenting roster, haha... what is the most random search that has found your site? (outside of those spam ones of course)

505's

I went and missed the 500th post on my blog and even then the 501st... which then led me to wait for post 505 for any kind of fanfare.

Why 505? Well way back when I was very large I went to the U.S. of A. and while there really wanted a pair of authentic 501's... suffice to say 505's proved to actually fit and I had to head home and hope no one looked to hard at the label of my fancy 'authentic' jeans. I was a much larger person back then and the compromise on clothes extended far beyond a single brand of denim jeans - back then before this blog started huge t-shirts, loose jackets, over sized jumpers were all things I had to compromise on. All little things that eventually penetrated my awareness and made me take the small steps and actions that put me on the road to a healthier and slimmer life*.

"Dude! Like anyone really cared anyway!" - why did the make or model even matter to my younger brain?

Happily things move on... ...so when I first clicked a link and clanked the keyboard on this blog I never for a moment considered that at some point in the future I would have written 500 let alone 505 blog posts. This is still pretty much a collection of thoughts and experiences, nothing more, nothing less than my stream of on-line / on the move consciousness.

505 posts in brief? Well, in the beginning there was running... then there was rowing and running... and then there was running (and some occasional rowing). There were successes, injuries, losses and gains over time that made my life as colourful as it is. It all started on Saturday August 27th 2005, and since then it seems my most popularly viewed post is a cartoon I drew of a circuit session we used to do when I was doing a lot of rowing training (Circuit dizziness).

All that has gone on over that time represents the largest personal journal I have produced (of any kind), and for whatever it is to anyone who finds it it is deeply special to me for that alone. I am aware this is a lazy post that contains no content, no solid opinion, no deep humour, no product review, no life enriching mantra... but then who knows what the next five hundred and five posts might contain.

* I never did buy a pair of 501 style jeans, it turned out the overall cut didn't look that great on my slimmer frame either - I am just not an owner of a suitable body geometry (there was probably something ironic in that somewhere?!?!).

Wittering on Wednesday (sort of)

So I have been busy, or have I? You might have those phases too where you seemed to have not stopped but yet reflect and wonder quite what it was you achieved... it has been like that this week. To borrow a lyric from somewhere I have been travelling without moving (apologies if that was not the intended meaning behind that phrase whomever penned it, and to my shame I don't recall who). In terms of on the move type activities, I have done nothing but eat since the large number of kilometers covered over the weekend. The eating started as post run munchies and don't seem to have relented since - it often gets that way when I am rushing around I get lazy with food choices and food control. Still having noticed it today I hope to put that back in its box.

In the wider terms of wittering it to has been a busy week with the press full of all sorts of stories everything from studies of the best forms of activity (long and steady versus high intensity training), to a new material heralded by major sports shoes maker as the next big 'boost' to running performance, to the sad stories of sporting icons heading into courtrooms.

Oddly though with all the sources of wittering fodder I have passed as my brain seems engrossed in a any 'spare' moments with a personal reading frenzy (but that I could develop a faster mode of reading overnight). I have inspiring books a plenty and for a change am applying myself to consuming them rather than doing the proud ownership thing "oh, yes those are great and they are real classics!"... "sorry, what? Have I read them all - ah, well - no, no, no not all of them no"... "how many? Hmm, well these are... well they are classics aren't they? Fancy moving into the other room?". My challenge at the moment is thus to dent my unread books collection, including all those running and fitness books that will undoubtedly tell me what I should be doing and set me on the path to a marathon PB without bumping into more injury / illness.

All I need to do is figure out just when I can find the time to tackle my unread book mountain... more hours in the day - anyone? One day soon a real slick blog post will tumble of my keyboard, for now - sorry ;-)

So sometimes I actually go running

This weekend just gone was one of those rare weekends when I actually got my running shoes on two days in a row! It is indeed worthy of an exclamation mark because in the world of a busy Dad it always feels a little wrong to use up so much weekend time on yourself. The first run was a pacey affair with my training buddy because as it turns out whilst I have suffered various illnesses he has managed a very consistent weekly mileage 'commuting' to and from his work. It was good to both crack on at a decent pace, and better still to share a bunch of gossip. We completed 8.35 km in a couple of minutes over three quarters of an hour.

"Feet Of Runner In Evening Light" - Image courtesy of Sura Nualpradid [www.freedigitalphotos.net]

Now it is here that I will reveal my latest mad-cap scheme - as you might notice I quoted my run distance in kilometres (km) just there, and so it will be for some months to come if my plan works out. My big goal for the year is the Berlin Marathon and there is no getting around the fact that they are wholly metric and use kilometres... so I am trying to give myself enough time to grasp the min/km pacing, and splits for various points on the course in the correct measures. It is a simple plan to move into kilometres, although I have rarely judged my shambling pace in anything other than min/mile. The nice thing is that 10 min/mile becomes a much smaller number in min/km, the not so nice thing of it is that the distance goes from 26.1 units (miles) to 42.2 units (kilometres)... I only hope that because the numbers will tick by quicker I'll learn to like the change.

The second run of the weekend was my long run (which I paced for the last time in min/mile), which covered 18.5 km (or 11.5 miles). I was suitably tired after an easy effort run that finished with 20 minutes at race pace at the end... I suddenly had flashbacks to some of the early pain I felt as the wheels feel off during my first marathon. Still it was a beautiful day to be flogging myself around the paths of Cardiff Bay and Cardiff city centre, some say spring is on its way, others groan and say there will be more snow yet. Whatever the weather me and my running shoes will be churning out the training kilometres in the weeks ahead - only 11 weeks now until the Milton Keynes marathon the first major stepping stone towards my Berlin run.

Diary - everything is busy though I am feeling out of sorts with things at times, which has left me even more grateful that I get to run and clear my head. My book binge continues a pace, more reviews in the pipeline I think.

"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" - Haruki Murakami

Just occasionally I get around to a book review as a non-sporting thread,  because it is book principlely about running, fitness, life it fulfils a a rarity in my book reviews - a book that is somewhat about subjects encompassed in my blog. So having threatened to write this this very week in my previous post here goes :-

"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" - Haruki Murakami

"It was a book choice out of left-field to an extent, I have never read this novelist's books, I have never taken part in a running event with this runner, but a colleague during one of those random conversations that crops up about my own running suggested I should take a look at this "great philosophical running book by one of my favourite authors". I was intrigued and marked the book on one of those on-line lists as one to buy at some point, my birthday came around I plundered the list and thus I own a copy. Without giving away all my thoughts in one sentence, it is not a book I intend to part with in a hurry.

It is a book that is simple, straight-forward in concept and delivery, but where it goes with style and often humorous grace is into the mind of a lifelong mover (the life of someone who values the benefits of motion and activity in fuelling the other elements of their day to day). If indeed like me you have ever struggled to explain quite what the 'addiction' and 'pull' of your sporting endeavours are then try and get your nearest and dearest to read this book. Murakami sets out the majority of the reasoning behind persistent fitness efforts coupled with sporting goals, and so eloquently frames them against the ever present backdrop of life and the phenomenon of ageing.  It will draw you in and make you smile, both with shared humour and recognition of the human condition.

From this one book runners and non-runners, tri-athletes and non-tri-athletes, authors and non-authors will take so much. I read the short volume in near enough two days straight, it is rare that a book has that much pull on an otherwise busy existence. Can I recommend it? Well if you haven't gotten the gist yet, then - YES, it is simply one of those enriching books that will leave an impression on you long after you close the cover."

Running book binge

Okay, so I went a little crazy in the book shop this weekend and before I knew it I had FIVE new running books! It was all inspired by my birthday and having had the Murakami "What I talk about when I talk about running" book recommended to me by a colleague whose partner is a runner and loved reading it. So that was one book, the others came about through an as it turned out wallet denting chain of associations - the Jane & Mike Tomlinson book / biography from of the fact that I had heard an inspiring interview with Mike on the Marathon Talk podcast - the "Born to Run" book from having read about passing of Micah True on a blog I read some many months ago, and at that time reading something of his relationship with the Tarahumara of Mexico (the book centres on him and the adventures his Mexico I understand).

My new collection of running books (which should keep me busy when I'm not running and doing all those other things I do!!)

The last two were pure and simple impulse buys, at that point the ball was well and truly rolling and so I picked them up and popped them in the basket. "Why we run" caught my attention because of the subheading "A story of obsession" which seemed very appropriate to my current mental approach. It could be that element of personal obsession that led me to pick up the fifth book, I mean "Racing weight" (?) that is phrase I have pondered for at least 3years of running now (I'll get there one day!?!?).

It has to be said that I am already half way through the Murakami book already (and I have only had it for 2 days), it is that kind of absorbing a read. The style, the approach, the ethos / philosophy is just spot on and utterly engaging. When I finish it, ahem very soon, I will review it properly.

In other news, I ran my first hill repeats today, and racked up 12 repeats of a short sharp hill not far from home. Each repeat turned out to be slightly quicker than the previous one which I was very very pleased about, especially as I really wasn't sure how hard to go at the session. True I walked the recoveries for the second six repeats, but I reasoned this was sensible and did mean I could maintain my form better through the latter efforts. All in all its been a good period of running having negative split my way through a 9.8mile session on Saturday too.

Diary - windy, cold, dry. Glad to be the father of two fabulous kids, and blessed with a wonderful wife (who has taken it upon herself to use me as a recipe tester of late - not that that is why she is wonderful, she has always been wonderful). Life has a good balance at the moment, not perfect but then that would probably be dull :-)

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 - 'that guy'

Well as a sports fan I was drawn into watching the interview where a sportsman did his level best to distance himself from, well in the end from, himself. It was almost as if Lance Armstrong was trying to convince the audience that there were 'forces and pressures' that made him do things and that he was not true to his current self, but a victim of a whirlwind of circumstance that he could do nothing about. Well in a nutshell, I was not at all convinced, I was not convinced at all... you can always say 'no'.

There are so many issues surrounding the 'confession' that a debunking of it all would take hours, and from where I sit as a general sports fan it is all just deeply sad. I myself was wow'ed by the sport of road cycling during his run of Tour de France wins, I would leave work early with a very good friend to sit in his lounge wrapped in the wonder of watching 'that guy' storm up an alpine col. It was incredible to watch the drama of those races unfold, and frankly though I will still watch the Tour or other events I feel robbed of something. I watched the cancer survivor apparently defy the odds and blow the world away, it was inspiring and I feel very hollow at the final analysis.

I know that I was not alone in that sinking feeling over the last years leading into this admission, and the bereft feeling now we know the accusations were true. I bought the wristbands for the charity, when I might have spent that money on another charity, because of the feats of the man. Why else would I donate to a charity based halfway around the world (yes, I am very aware they fund global research). I am also the owner of a Nike / Livestrong running jacket that is frankly brilliantly stunning at its job, but lately has made me think twice about going for a run in it.

It is absolutely crazy to take something of this nature personally, but here I don't think I am alone in doing so either. Following heroes and icons has always been a risky enterprise.

At the moment I hope that 'that man' both from the past and present goes on to confess more fully in a more appropriate forum (law courts, some form of court of arbitration for sport clean-up commission). That there is still so much not laid out for further actions to be based upon in cycling and sports around doping is wrong, and 'that man' has not forgotten the machinery that got him around the Tour de France as 'winner' seven times.

Sadly my personal opinion is that sport should not allow Armstrong into any arena even if the total confession is given, it has been the manner and conduct of not wishing to be truly accountable for his own actions that leave me with little doubt a lifetime ban is merited. A truly humbled, repentant, sorry individual would not on balance carry on business in this way, and would likely be granted some form of sporting outlet in the future.

So there, I couldn't bite my insignificant sports fan tongue any longer. Sadly I will likely now be using the story of Lance Armstrong as a story of the bleak side of sports to my kids rather than the story of effort that many of believed not so very long ago.

Monday in motion

So I arrive at the second Monday of January very much in motion. I have successfully turned around a bunch of bad habits that I acquired towards the back end of 2012, where I came down with flu and spent a month comfort eating myself in the wrong direction. I am some way to shifting the weight that I 'gained' during the illness and the festive season (though to be fair to myself the festive season was pretty restrained by my own previous standards).

On the move again is feeling great and each day the chest infection, that has had a hold on my lungs since just before New Years, is loosening its grip. All being very well I will be able to run this weekend rather than power walk. Not having run for so long leaves me curious as to just how much it will hurt and just where it will hurt - my feet, my legs, my shoulders, or simply my lungs from lack of proper usage.

The plan for my the first marathon of the 2013 'season' is still evolving, and I am refraining from putting anything in actual stone (i.e. sharing it) until I have a couple of runs under my shoes :-)

Diary - cold, sunny, dry. Grateful for being able to get busy again and enjoying the start of the journey back to fitness.

First steps into my new marathon training cycle

So this week has been the first full week of the year, and already things are in full swing. I am still suffering a chest infection / cold, but have been busy getting properly 'on the move' again. With my eyes firmly fixed on the major challenge of the spring / summer, the Milton Keynes marathon, I have put a plan into action. The plan as it stands comprises to parts, firstly to just get busy (increasing daily activity by walking / cycling to work, doing some Wii fit / fitness DVDs when I have spare moments) and get healthy (eat right, eat smart, eat fresh), and the second part is to move into a 16 week training program for the marathon.

I have not felt it has been a sensible idea run, but have covered a lot of miles walking instead so that at least my body gets used to time in motion and my joints get the idea of carrying me over longer distances again. Sounds a bit melodramatic I suppose, but that is simply where I am - and really these alternatives to actually running are all about not getting sick again. For example, if I just hit the roads with the chest infection I fear to will lead me back to acute bronchitis / walking pneumonia, which would lay me up for weeks.

Essentially my 'base' phase is starting very tentatively and with as much 'protection' incorporated as possible (stretching, aerobic work, diet, & simple incremental activity increases). I hope to run for the first time in this training plan next week, week 3 of the plan, but at the moment I am relaxed about how I have moved through the first two weeks.

Diary - cold, dry, icy under foot. I have lost 5lbs in two weeks, so good progress into the New Year. Grateful that I am busy and productive already in 2013, with so much to make and do this year.

Monday Motivation - A plan? A plan? Well a series of goals at least

Do I have a plan? A plan? Well I do have a series of goals at least for the moment around which plans are beginning to crystallise.

For the time being here are my goals for the year ahead...

1. Log a total of 1000 running miles in 2013.
2. Complete 2nd marathon, and better my PB by at least ten minutes.
3. Complete 3rd marathon (and first Big City Marathon), and better my PB.
4. Find and run at least one half-marathon that I have not run before.
5. Set a 5K PB.
6. Scull far more than I did last year.
7. Set a 2k indoor rowing PB.
8. Get to my goal weight by April and stay there throughout the rest of the year.
9. Stay well and injury free.

(Okay so the last one is strictly out of my total control, but I will do all I physically can to make it happen).

I know a kind of sporting bucket list for 2013 is hardly novel, and my list was inspired by reading some of the blogs I follow. The truth is I am recognising that without goals I find it tricky to get myself out running on a cold wet British Winters day - let alone summers day, hehe!

Diary - clear, mild, dry (though still wet under foot). Went for two long walks over the weekend in lieu of a run because I have a chesty cough at the moment and didn't want to stress my lungs. Generally I am on track with all things fitness again and will be running just as soon as this cough goes. Grateful for a busy but fun family Christmas and New Years.

Friday Fix - Possibly the 'smallest' tiny tip-bit of 2012

"Small cup, will travel!"...  

...the weirdest bit of health advice I think I read during all of last year was to get a smaller cup / glass for your desk (office or home).

The idea being that you then find you have to make more frequent trips to the water cooler / kitchen to top-up and refresh your cup, and that in so doing you make yourself more mobile through the day, you break off from screen starring more often giving your eyes a rest from eye-strain, and that it leads to a greater probability of interacting with people you work with by becoming more social, also perhaps even burn more calories through the work week.

I think it was from an office based tips list that I stumbled across online - though I sadly don't remember the source of this simple sage advice. Now because as I said I don't remember the specific source of this nugget I can't remember what they were pushing as the prime reason to get a smaller cup - I fear it may have been the calories thing, but I'm going to use rose tinted hindsight and suggest that mobility and stretching during your day helps keep you loose and active.

Whatever the case I found it it is useful and actually seems to be having an effect in as far as I end the day less stiff, tired and knotted from desk working.

Give it a try - "from small things big things one day come...", and all that :-)

Two year anniversary of 'that' coffee thing

So I have racked up over two years now of being caffeine-free (with the exception of two running events where I 'used' it to see if it would directly benefit my running). To say giving up was easy would in all actuality be the truth, the hardest aspect over time has been having to keep reminding family and friends that I don't want coffee / tea.

Somewhere in a cupboard in our house a teapot mourns it's loss....

....happily it still gets outings when we have visitors or if my wife is hitting the tea hard because of heavy work load.

Would I recommend going 'clean' - well "yes", but I won't get on my soapbox (afterall I have done that before - "Caffeine-free in which blogger tries to avoid a pious essayist style"). Instead I will simply celebrate the anniversary of a good decision in my day to day life.

Are you celebrating any anniversaries of good life style choices?

Out with the old year in with the new

Out with the old year in with the new, a new calendar year has flipped over and it is the seasonal taking stock moment. So in a list driven way, that many others are doing too, here are my 2012 blog / 'on the move' highlights...

• Logged a total run distance of 436.6 miles
• Entered 6 organised mass participant events (3x 10K, 2x half-marathon, 1x full-marathon), I completed five.
• Completed my first marathon = 4hr 43min 52sec (Milton Keynes marathon)
• 10k personal best = 51min 32sec (Swansea Bay)
• Half-marathon personal best = 1hr 57min 53sec (Cardiff Half)
• Posted more posts in a year than I had done since 2006
• Had more visitors to my blog than ever
• Added a bunch of excellent blogs to my blog list (24 great reads)

The highlights all the sweeter for the setbacks that dotted the year (injuries and illness), and more importantly the downs taught me a lot of important lessons that carrying into the New Year will I hope bring even higher running highs this year.

Whatever you did in 2012 I hope that your 2013 surpasses it, and that the New Year brings you everything you wish for.

The aftermath - taking stock of a 'bad' month

The post-November analysis is continuing, though I am feeling a little stuck and frustrated until the after effects of the flu and its companion ear infection have passed. I have been out of exercise mode now for what must be six weeks between work and being ill, and boy oh boy does it show (I am the heaviest I have been for around a year).

I am still a rattling pill pot thanks to the various prescribed drugs for the infection, and it is hard to think about much else when the side of your head is throbbing. It is true that I have a low tolerance for pain and that there are far worse things to be suffering from (I am all to well aware of that), but it is perhaps the timing that is magnifying the apparent pain.

The certainty is that I need to get going as soon as I am well again, and get into a serious training plan... and I suppose there is no time like the present to start putting one together - especially as I have 41 weeks until my first major city marathon!

A month out - mostly on my ass

Over a month of non-blogging and I feel bad. It is not just that I haven't blogged for a month it is that I don't seem to have done much else for a month. Part way through Mo'vember with moustache doing well (a whole other story), work going well, and not much running or training happening I came down with a heavy dose of influenza. Sadly this was not the man-flu variety but the full on stuck in your bed feeling dizzy, weak, gripped by fever, tired and utterly rotten. It took a full week of what amounted to bed rest to feel more like myself, I have only ever had one experience of the flu worse than this once almost 20 years ago!

Happily a recovery began to appear after the week of resting, but then unhappily I came down with secondary ear infections (yeap, plural not singular). A trip to the doctors and then a mountain of pills collected from the pharmacy and again I'm sitting around feeling right royally sorry for myself. I have the itch to exercise - more than an itch it is a raging desire - I really need to get moving and get that buzz! Until the pain abates in the sides of my head I will be hitting the road because I just need to.

My targets haven't gone away but just now they seem an awfully long way away... all I want for Christmas is good health so I can train well.

Four random ffotos Friday

So I have had a bunch of photos knocking around that I just haven't gotten around to posting this week, so here me are...

I must explain that last weekend I did a lot of fitness work and so I got to feeling that I deserved a good big treat for my efforts. The treat was a big full English breakfast for lunch, though I did concede to making it a veggie version ;-)

A really really tasty breakfast even though the bread wasn't buttered that well

 As a guest in our house of late we have had a fairly handsome piece of workout kit, a Concept II ergometer (indoor rower). It is interloping in our dinning room and making occasional visits to our kitchen for sessions, not of rowing training but of rowing analysis system testing - all to do with my wife's PhD studies. She is doing so well doing it part-time as within and as part of a demanding job. I have nothing but the uttermost respect for her efforts, as I studied from my doctorate full-time as a paid student I know all the hopes, fears, highs and utter lows of thesis producing that must only be magnified by working as well. I have every faith and now she is testing out her efforts it seems the home straight is in sight. By the well I am the willing crash test dummy for the tests, and it has actually been good fun.

It seems odd to have such a large piece of exercise kit in the house 

So it is November, or as it is known to some men (and women) Movember. The idea is that you strive to grow the best Mo (mustache) that you can in the month of November for cancer charities. Go see their website if you are interested or just plain curious Movember. As part of the run up to the month I took a drawing package to a couple of pictures of myself in an effort to work out what kind of Mo to go with. I still haven't totally decided but I have a few more days until my stubble gets thick enough to actually shape :-)

Ah ha! Trying out a drawn on beard seemed like a good idea at the time

Finally for four random ffotos Friday, my first ever (yes, I have lead a sheltered life) carved pumpkin lantern for Halloween. The last time that I had one was as a youngster in Berlin when my family made one for a lantern parade around my first school in Charlottenburg. My first actual carving effort was inspired by creative direction from my wife I set about a small pumpkin with a melon baller and a kitchen knife - it turned out pretty well I reckon.

Properly scary witch on my pumpkin lantern - though actually we copied it from one of the kids books

A new huge challenge - the 2013 Berlin marathon

I have been a little busy to have posted anything this week, but having spent most of the last 40 minutes going through the process I thought I should share my newest challenge... all being well (with payment processing and such) I am registered for the 2013 Berlin marathon. This will be my first marathon outside of the UK and by the time of race day my third marathon event.

The scale of the logistical challenge is beginning to bite now that it looks like I'm in. I 'm hoping friends may have run Berlin before and be able to offer lots of sage advice about travel, accommodation and so forth. It is a little weird to think about an event a almost be more daunted by the where's and when's rather than the how's (I think I have enough training experience to get me to the start line - barring unforeseen events).

Diary - rain, gusty breeze, mild. Grateful for opportunity and big challenges.