Running in the dark - stupid idea

Sometimes when I'm on the treadmill at the gym I consider closing my eyes so I can drift off and think of something more Zen to break up the tedium.
It's a stupid idea of course, as within a few seconds I would of course be spinning out of control more quickly than a Lib Dem press officer.
However it's not nearly as stupid, it turns out, as running along a narrow pavement alongside a busy A road in the dark. That is stupid.
So, I'm in Banbury tonight, for work, and I was keen to rack up a five mile run. Each morning I'd driven into the historic Oxfordshire town I'd noticed that the road coming out of Banbury has a pavement and would be ideal for a nice long run. What I didn't figure was that what looked like a great idea in the morning sunshine, was not such a great idea in the evening gloom and pitch dark.
So it was, as I ran out of Banbury tonight, I literally ran out of Banbury and found myself plodding along in the dark. Now, you'd think that would be the cue to turn around and head back to what passes as civilization. But oh no, I wanted to prove just how stupid I really can be by stumbling on for another mile or so. I thought that the light provided by the headlamps of the constant stream of cars would help to light my way, but then it dawned on me that running through rush hour traffic and all the Co2 that goes with it really wouldn't be beneficial and for all the good it did me I may as well have sat in the pub garden smoking a packet of fags.
I also realised that my black shorts, black running top and black cap would do little alert drivers to my presence on the roadside.
I turned back in the end because I'd reached 2.5 miles, so knew I could hit my five mile target, so it was for running reasons rather than health and safety. Although, I appreciate that having several broken bones as a result of getting hit by a car would do little to aid my ability to run.
But on the upside, I managed to get to five miles in just about an hour, and my Nike running app confirms what my RunKeeper reckons about my average speed, which is now 12mins 30 secs a mile, which is getting ever closer to the ten minute mile I'm aiming for.
So despite my unintended foray into extreme jogging, I'm pleased to be back in the hotel, with an array of tosh TV to choose from as I munch through my chicken and bacon sandwich, having avoided getting knocked down in the name of running.

Booze-fuelled running

I realise it's not the kind of message that somebody training for a marathon should be putting out there, but it is a fact that I've had my two best training runs following nights of copious boozing, which I wouldn't have thought possible.
However today, I managed to smash my ten mile goal a week earlier than scheduled, following a fairly heavy night on the sauce with my brother, who knows how to enjoy a drink or two.
Heading out with the attitude that a ten mile run would be kill or cure, I found myself getting into my stride quite nicely and after the first hour was purring along with thoughts of the Portishead cycle path ahead of me.
And so despite the descending dark and ghosts of railway lines long forgotten about which seem to go nowhere, I managed to crank up another hour on the road and according to my increasingly dodgy RunKeeper distance tracker, I racked up 10.65 miles. So I'm not 100 per cent sure about the distance but I reckon running for 2hrs and 6mins should cover about ten miles and I'm claiming it.
The last best run I did was when I hit five miles back in January following another heavy night on the booze. Imagine what I could do if I'd just gone to bed early with a cup of cocoa.
Feels like good progress though, definitely felt a longer run and managed to cover more ground and also this weekend my weigh in revealed I've lost 27 lbs, just 1lb off two stone, which feels great and bodes well for marathon training.

Ooooh, new shoes

Today I have defied my doctor’s orders, although I suspect more of a recommendation, guideline, suggestion really, that I shouldn’t run as I have a brand shining spanking new pair of Asics Nimbus in my possession and couldn’t resist wearing them in on the treadmill in the gym for half an hour.

My new Asics, terrible colours, amazing shoes

Despite my previous shameless attempts at luring the Asics marketing team into providing me with a new pair for free, nothing of the kind has occurred and it was down to the nice people at Up and Running in Bristol.

Had some great service there down the years with the added bonus of being able to chat to Bristol’s own running legend Nick Rose.

Today was no exception and I’m only flagging this up because I don’t think good service gets enough credit, not because I got any free stuff or anything like that.

Having ordered the Nimbi (is that plural?) a couple of weeks back I went in today to pick them up and the chap (should have got his name) who served me was genuinely interested in what I was doing in terms of running. I said about the training and it turns out he ran the Edinburgh Marathon last year so we had a good old chat about that, which was really nice. I do love talking about running with other people like that. It’s slightly paradoxical in a sense as running is more often than not a solo activity (certainly when you’re as slow as me and everyone has left you behind), but talking about it with other runners is great for bringing people together.

I have been in other running shops in Bristol in the Clifton area and have been made to feel as welcome as a horse dealer at a Tesco meat counter. Or, more simply, about as welcome as a fat bloke in a hallowed temple of running worshippers and fitness geeks. I hate those kind of amateur runners who look at you with that disdain as if you couldn’t possibly achieve the great feats of physicality they have just because they've done a few half marathons down the years and some orienteering probably - how to ruin running, make it like work. If Mo Farah gave me that kind of look I would accept it, he’s amazing, they are not. Although Mo Farah would probably have more respect for people. (Really not going to that shop again)

Anyway, couldn’t be further from the case at Up and Running, and for that they have pretty much guaranteed my custom for as long as I can keep running, for what it’s worth.

With my quite luminous new running shoes in hand, I hit the treadmill at the gym for 30 minutes, which was the first run since last Sunday as I have been good and doing as the doctor said and not run all week. The toe seems to be healing well thanks to the antibiotics, which is good as it was pretty hideous and painful a week ago, much as the pic illustrates:

It's horrible, I know, but much better now!

I wasn’t going to show that but couldn’t resist for some reason.

So, feel confident about my injury status and with my shiny new shoes I’m looking forward to a good long run tomorrow. I’m also really going to need to get some miles under the belt as I only lost 1 pound this week due to some indulgences this week, and we’re having our Valentine’s meal tonight, courtesy of M&S’s marvellous deal, which means wine is going to be drunk, and I might be too!

My left foot turns out to be my Achilles' heel

Keeping things in perspective as ever, utter and unimaginable disaster has struck my plans for marathon domination, in the shape of an infected toe.
My left foot, it seems, is my Achilles' heel, as it were. I have taken a picture of the offending toe and intended to post it on this blog to illustrate the sheer horror of the situation, but realised even the internet is not an appropriate place to plaster this particular obscene image.
The problem is that I may have an in-growing toenail on my left foot. It has been looking quite angry and infected for the past couple of weeks and I’d hoped that after a bit of Dettol and the odd squeeze to bring down the swelling it might sort of heal itself.
However it reached a peak of pain over the weekend so off to the doctor I went today and have been told, that until it clears up, NO RUNNING! ARRRGHGHGHGRHRHG!
I nearly cried out like a petulant teenager who’s Playstation has been confiscated when I was told this evening that I would have to shelve my training.
I’m now relying on some strong antibiotics and steroid cream to do their magic or else apparently it may require minor surgery to cut out the nail. Which would presumably put me out for another week or so.
This all left me feeling quite bereft and sorry for myself as I limped out of the surgery clutching my meds, which apparently may or may not include diarrhoea as one of the side effects. That’ll go down well as I am spending the next three days working in the office of our biggest and most corporate client. Oh god.
So that’s it for this week I think. I’ll have to hang up my running shoes for a few days and hope to god that I’ll be able to get back into the regime next week.
It makes the progress so far even more important because if I hadn’t exceeded expectations it would be difficult to get back into my stride. I’m also worried about piling on all that weight again, but I’m going to at least keep walking on a regular basis to keep the cardio-vascular activity up. He didn’t say I couldn’t walk after all.
Realistically I could be looking at the rest of February on the bench. It’s looking like March could be a big month to get over this set back and really ramp up the mileage. As I turn 38 next month, I face a mighty challenge to keep up the progress and make sure I’m still on track to run my second marathon in May.

Wet Wet Wet!

Remember those days at school when you were forced to run across the fields and through muddy bogs in the name of physical education and betterment?
Well, I actually never had the pleasure of taking part in cross country because of my then much weaker heart. No, I had the golden ticket to stay in the changing rooms pedaling on one of the fancy new exercise bikes that had been brought in the year before,
Me and Martin Palmer, the only two kids in the school with genuine bona fide reasons not to do cross country. It even trumped the excuses that the girls tried to come up with related to 'womens problems', which at 13 was still baffling to me.
Anyway, my old PE teachers Mr Smith and Mr Burton, may be pleased to know that I am finally suffering the pain and agony of a two hour cross country run, through hell and high water, but sort of enjoying it.
Today was particularly challenging. Been raining for most of the last 24 hours and the footpath we normally take down by the river resembled, well, more of a river in fact than a path. So we spent the first hour leaping from one side of the path to other trying to avoid the sinking mud that would have swallowed us up. But pretty soon gave in to the inevitable and quite enjoyed getting down and dirty in the rain, so to speak.
And for once we weren't harassed or put to shame by dozens of other runners or cyclists fighting for space on the path.
After going out for an Indian last night I was particularly keen to run off the extra calories and set my sights on a two hour run, which would be longer and further than anything before.
Last Sunday's run was 1hr 40 and I did two 40 min runs in the week, so really wanted to push it a bit today.
Running on balti and pilau power, I'm glad to say the horrendous conditions didn't put me off too much and I managed to eek out two hours on the road, which totted up to 9.14 miles.
Even more importantly my average mins per mile are coming down as well, from 14.38 two weeks ago to 13.28 today, so honing in on that elusive 11 minute a mile pace I want to achieve before getting to Edinburgh  in May.
I'm getting considerably lighter as well, with five lbs lost this week, taking the total to 23 lbs, which is bound to be helping my pace. I couldn't imagine what running with an extra 23 lbs on my back would be like now, but I think I might try it just to see what the difference really feels like. But still, quite a lot to go in terms of weight so must stick to the porridge and chicken diet. Not in the same bowl you understand. That would be weird.
Overall very pleased with progress so far, on track to hit my next goal which is to be able to run 10 miles by the end of February.
However my biggest concern is the lack of sponsorship so far. It's difficult asking for money in the post-Christmas/recessionary period, but I really want to hit that target as much as the running, because of so many people affected by cancer that I've known and loved down the years. So, if you're somebody who has managed to get to the bottom of this blog post, please encourage people to donate and help make all this worth it to people who really need help today.
Thanks, I would really appreciate it: How to donate

Smashing the Pill 10K

Knees are creaking tonight after smashing all previous training distances and going more than seven miles this afternoon.
I have established my very own Pill 10K route, which is in fact more than 11K, and takes in views of the M5 motorway bridge as well as the more picturesque River Avon along the towpath.
With the half pizza from last night providing the slow-release carbohydrate necessary for a long run, as well as the couple of glasses or red wine to help my heart keep beating, I was pleased to rack up the mileage today.
Thinking a lot about why I’m doing this marathon after very sad news this week of a former colleague who died far too young because of cancer, which makes today’s progress even more important.
If I’m lucky I’ll never have to go through that myself, so really the very least I can do is get off my flabby backside and raise some vital funds to help fight this disease.
And once again I find myself slightly baffled at my good progress.
I did have a bit of a crappy start to the week in terms of training with a run on Tuesday night that was just horrible. I could barely move my legs, which may have been a hangover from the five miler on Sunday, and had to keep stopping every few minutes.
It may not have helped that I was in Banbury and didn’t really know where I was going. I also felt very self-conscious about the new day-glo waterproof running top I had on. I say new, Amy bought it for me a year ago. I couldn’t zip it up at the time, because of the belly, so threw it to the bottom of a bag and forgot about it for a year or so. It has now re-emerged and I can, just about, pull up the zip over the slightly-decreasing paunch. It must be said that the definition of 'extra large' when it comes to sportswear manufacturers, is stretched further than the lycra-spun top itself over my gut.
So, wobbling like a luminous Telly Tubby along the paths next to the dual carriageways of Banbury, I wasn’t at my running happiest. Struggling to get past some group of hooded youths I wished I was wearing anything other than the day-glo top turning me into a very slow-moving target. I cranked up the music to block out their derision, if it came.
I just managed half an hour in all, about two miles, but felt so miserable I couldn’t even bring myself to blog about it.
Thursday was again a bit creaky but much better, back on home turf and managed a couple of laps of the small half of The Downs, about three miles in all, which wasn’t the best ever run but kept the momentum going.
An evening of rest on Friday, maybe one or two glasses of wine and a whiskey and soda to relax, and today came out fighting once again.
In total 7.14 miles in 1hr 40mins. Unthinkable when I started this training plan just a month ago.

I can’t cure cancer, but I can run and raise £1000

This week the very tragic reality of why I’m running the Edinburgh Marathon came home to me, sadly again.
Cathy Ellis, the former news editor of the Western Daily Press and Western Gazette, died of cancer. Far too young and, you can’t help feeling, unnecessarily.
I wasn’t a close friend of Cathy’s but I have known her for a long time as she was the chief reporter when I started my newspaper career on the Western Gazette, in 1999.
She was only a couple of years older than me, and we both moved to Bristol within a couple of years working on different papers but sharing the same open plan newsroom which was once the centre of the Bristol media world. Or so we thought.

Julie Harding

Cathy Ellis

Cathy is one of a number of people I’ve known and worked with down the years who have fought and lost that battle with cancer. Notably Julie Harding, the talented and indefatigable former chief reporter of the Bristol Evening Post, who sadly died last year after a long illness. An illness she refused to make her stop doing the job she loved.
In my personal life there are many people who should be walking, talking, laughing and loving here today who we’ve had to say goodbye to before their time. My grandparents Rose and Wal, our friend Emma Pitcher. And there are many others who are living with the ravages of the disease, somehow finding the courage to make it through every day.
Happily we also know people who have come through it and are able to get their lives back in one piece.

All this is why I am running the Edinburgh Marathon and raising £1,000 for Cancer Research and the Bristol-based St Peter’s Hospice, both of whom deserve our support.

My place in the marathon is not a gold bond place, with the condition of raising the money, I have chosen these charities because I feel personally moved to try to do something, well, useful, in terms of trying to fight cancer.
Obviously I’m not a doctor, a research scientist or the kind of person with the endless compassion to work in a hospice. But I can run, and I can raise money to help those people do the job that could one day lead to the kind of breakthrough that we all hope for.
I know £1,000 won't in itself cure cancer or fund a new piece of equipment, but it will pay for pain-relieving drugs, or a little more time for research, and it's something we can all do, so easily.
Sadly it’s too late for Cathy, Julie, Emma, Rose and Wal and all those others we’ve known and loved.
But I implore you, please help me to raise the £1,000 I’m aiming for, by giving what you can, and give future generations a chance of surviving this most tragic of diseases.
If you can help, please go to my Virgin Money Giving page. All the money goes to the charity by using Virgin Money Giving.
Thanks for reading this, I hope you can help.