Happy New Year

Christ on a bike I can't believe it's 2014 already.

I know we say this every year, but doesn't it just feel like time goes by more quickly with the passing of each year. It feels like just a couple of weeks ago that I was eating cous cous and chicken every day, trudging through the snow on training runs around Banbury and elsewhere, a whole year ago.

But what's worse is that I can now say, I'm 40 next year. Horrific. At the same time, I'm getting married next year, which is a whole lot more appealing of course.

Suddenly two big milestones looming on the horizon and a whole other year to get through in the meantime.

I've spectacularly failed to stick to any kind of fitness regime throughout December, and perhaps it was naive for me to think I would be able to. My party season has featured several excessive drinking sessions, leading to a number of tumbles and a couple of quite bruised limbs.

So it is slightly injured and not in the finest of fettle that I peak warily at new year's day, following a rather wonderful evening last night with some of our best friends, and a big pot of beef bourguignon.

But on the upside, I am about a stone lighter than I was at this point last year, which means by 2020 at this rate I should get to where I want to be. Although of course I can’t wait that long for things to happen.

2014 is going to be a year of change, in quite a significant way I hope, and in order to put that in motion I have now signed up for my first challenge which is to run the Edinburgh Half Marathon, on May 25.

Having applied and failed to turn up for the full marathon before in the city, I’m setting my sights at a more realistic level and feel confident I can make it this time and make the fundraising count for something this year.

Happy new year to all and here’s hoping all our dreams come true this year.

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

Ye gods, how have I offended thee?

I’m not a particularly religious man but I couldn’t help feeling that I done something to offend the weather gods on my run tonight, as thunder, lightning and hail rained down on me in what seemed a concerted effort to make me turn back and give up on the whole idea.

Think the weather gods were trying to tell me something

Added to this was the uphill challenged of getting out on a run at all given the amount of cider, whiskey and wine consumed last night in what can only be described as a belated Wassail/Burns Night mash-up, which involved lots of food, some poetry and a lot of boozing.

I needed to at least run off the excess but somehow managed to stun and amaze myself by running more than 5.5 miles, non-stop, in the pouring rain and thunder. The hail was quite something, stinging my legs and turning the road and pavement white in a matter of what seemed like seconds. Thankfully I was wearing my baseball cap and the visor shielded my face against the pummelling. Which was fortunate as with a face like mine the last thing I need is for it to be made any worse by getting a face full of hail cutting it up.

It took 1hr 22mins, so no records broken, but I couldn’t believe that after the night I’d had last night, and the fact that just a month ago I couldn’t run half a mile without blowing up and almost throwing up, I managed to keep going for 5.6 miles.

This means I’ve smashed the first goal in my training plan, which was to be able to run five miles by the end of January. I wasn’t really sure I could do it when I set that target, but it feels like this week I’ve regained all the ability I lost after basically giving up running three-years-ago, and the muscle memory has kicked in and remembered how to keep going. Otherwise I’m at a complete loss to be able to explain how I’ve been able make such good progress this past week or so.

I’ve also lost a total of 17lbs in weight since the end of December so that is clearly having a huge impact as well as near abstinence from boozing. An abstinence that was quite spectacularly smashed last night.

So, next target, to be able to run ten miles by the end of February. And by the way weather gods, thunder lightning and hail, is that all you got? Bring it on.