No Gastric Band Required

It's been a while since I last checked in so I apologise for that, but I've only just about found the energy to tap the keys on my computer, a week after the longest run I've ever done in my life.

Last Sunday I ran for three and a half hours, covering a distance of 17 miles and boy did that hurt.

It felt great to get that far, even though I did have to call Amy to come and rescue me from Bristol city centre and barely had the breath in my body to make the call.

But I really felt that I had broken through a bit of a wall, which is a good job as it's now one month and three days until the London Marathon.

I can't believe how quickly that is coming up, more bloody quickly than I can run, I know that for sure.

But hopefully the timing of my training will mean I'm just peaking at the right time for the marathon.

By running 17 miles though I do feel that I'm obviously very close to be able to run 20 miles, and once I've hit that milestone it should be enough to go the full distance on the day itself, hopefully with a little help from the crowd and the atmosphere of the event. I hear so much about this famous event adrenalin that I'm thinking about trying to bottle it and sell on the internet for vast sums, it certainly needs to be as strong as it sounds to get me round.

I also managed to reach another important milestone this week when I stepped on the scales and weighed 14 stone bang on, which means I've lost four stone in 10 months and five stone since I was at my heaviest (or should I say fattest), back in September 08. I don't think I'm going to hit my eight stone target before the marathon, but I'm very pleased to be able to ditch the tent-like shirts and stretchy waistband jeans.

And I've done it all without the aid of a gastric band, diet pill or any other drastic measure. That sounds really smug I realise, but I do worry about the rise in gastric band operations in the past 12 months. It feels like the easy option to me, although I am well aware there are genuine cases. Surely there's no guarantee that when the band is removed you won't start to put weight on again? I know it's taken me nearly a year to lose this weight, but at least I don't have saggy loose skin hanging from my stomach as a result.

Each to their own I guess, but I have to say exercise, diet and changing your life is a really positive approach.

In the time it takes to get one of these operations, why not start walking a bit more, stop eat junk and do something about it. Easy for me to say, I realise that, so I'll shut up before I offend somebody.


Training this week has been tough after the long run last Sunday. But there has been a significant change in the weather I feel, and on Wednesday for the first time I was running in just a t-shirt. Well, not just a t-shirt as that would have been indecent, but no need for windproof jackets or hats and gloves. I was doing some interval training so was working pretty hard. That was a hard session. Basically it involved running really fast for ten minutes, having a four minute break, and then going fast again, a couple of times.

I thought that one advantage might be that at least I will look like I'm running fast than everybody else for a change, but no, it seemed like everybody was doing the same thing, or just that everybody in Bristol runs really fast. Everybody seemed to be sprinting like mad fools rushing past me, which didn't help greatly.

Thursday was probably the most difficult run for a while. It was only 45 mins as per the plan, but I was really feeling it and nearly stopped at one point, which was disheartening in lots of ways. I feel like I'm being broken, in order to build me up again, or something.


I've had lots of good advice about nipple protection lately and the consensus is plasters over the sensitive areas. Last week was carnage in that area I must say. I did wonder what sort of reaction I would get from Amy if I asked to borrow her sports bra, as that is really the best option (you don't see women afflicted in the same way), but thought better of it and will be going for the manly option of stick plasters on my nipples. Not sure how manly I will feel ripping them off at the end of three and a half hours though.