Feeling good after first run of 2013

You know that point where you are running, or jogging slowly in my case, but feel like the engine has finally kicked into life and instead of lurching and spluttering from one step to the next, you're actually purring along quite nicely. That's just how it felt last night on the first big run of 2013 and the start of training for the Edinburgh Marathon.
Having spent December doing nothing more active than growing a beard, as part of my fundraising for Decembeard (which was a huge success btw), I was a little apprehensive about trying to run for an hour on Sunday. But somehow we managed to pootle along quite happily for four miles or so in the dark afternoon along the banks of the Avon.
I think I'm feeling more optimistic about achieving some running goals this year than I have since 2010.
But it's going to be tighter than a Tory public spending policy to make the Edinburgh Marathon on May 26, but the recent new that my very good friend Kirsty Hemming will be joining me to take on the half marathon as part of her preparation for the Loch Ness Marathon in September, is a tremendous boost.

Based on little more than a bit of a hunch and past experience, I have devised the following rough plan to get me to the start line in Edinburgh. Any comments/suggestions welcome.

End of January - Be able to run 5 miles
End of February - Be able to run 10 miles
End of March - Be able to run 15 miles
End of April - Be able to run 20 miles
End of May - 26 mile marathon.

All seems quite simple sat on my hairy backside writing it out in a list, but there is so much work to go into achieving those five little goals.
However, what is really encouraging is the first run of the year was almost four miles and although we did stop a few times to walk a bit, it was a lot further than I’d thought we’d get.
Also, I’ve hit upon a great little app called My Fitness Pal, thanks to a recommendation from a work pal, which is helping me to count calories as I need to lose so much weight to make the running happen. Since my Christmas seasonal high I’ve now lost six lbs, which is great progress and means I’ll be able to access an entire wardrobe of clothes by the time the marathon comes round if that keeps up. In fact at six lbs a week I’ll be the size I was at primary school by the end of May, so I expect that won’t necessarily last, but it’s another good start.
Anyway, that’s all the boring stuff out the way for now, as there are so many running/weight loss/fat bloke blogs out there that there is really little point adding one more drop to the ocean. And besides, I’m boring the arse off myself writing this so I’d be buggered with a fish fork if anybody else is going to find it either remotely interesting or illuminating.
Therefore, as of the next blog post, I’m going to reflect more of the interesting bits to this mission, the sort of things we talk and think about while running, the thoughts we have while munching on a bowl of cous cous and salad while perusing the Mail online at lunchtime wishing we could look like Ryan Gosling, well, Ryan Giggs perhaps, or even just the person we looked like 15 years ago. I think that’s more interesting that calorie counting or talking about how many times I ran slowly round the Downs.
And also, most importantly, there are many reasons to donate to Cancer Research UK and St Peter’s Hospice, which I also want to share as cancer is something that has taken too many people I love, and I’m sure it’s the same for anybody reading this. So let’s see how we can make that difference.

The best of starts

In the oh-so-slightly OCD world I live in, there is something wonderfully ordered and correct about the fact that tomorrow is Monday, and it is also October 1.
Not only does that bring together in such joyous harmony both the start of the working week and the start of the month, but in doing creates a very real point to identify heading into the next season, which is awesome autumn of course.
It’s the new school term, it’s getting back to work after the summer hols and it is very much the start of that whole new time of the year. The garden furniture which we kept out so hopefully through the sporadic summer months is consigned again to the shed, the jumpers that have lain at the bottom of laundry baskets are now coming back out and of course, the interminable run up to Christmas has started, signalled by the launch of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing and bloody X Factor. The advent for the 21^st century, it seems.
But, as well as all this, I do feel that it is the perfect point at which to really start putting in the hours in training for the Edinburgh Marathon challenge coming up next May. Not least as I have been feeling a tad guilty today about letting my Bristol Half Marathon entry slip past untroubled yet again, sleeping off a rather boozy weekend this morning while 14,000 lithe and hardy Bristolians put all us slackers to shame.
So, spurred on to a point, I did head out for a stumble around the Downs and spent 35 spluttery minutes walking and jogging round.
I am looking forward to getting my head properly into this, and hoping that some clear goals along the way will help, but this afternoon, while I swigged down some welcome water and stood heaving my chest more violently than at a TOWIE casting session, I couldn’t help but make a mental note of the scale of the challenge ahead.
Still, it is of nothing compared to the challenge faced by many millions of people around the world battling cancer, including some very dear people we have known and loved, and for that reason I know there really is no excuse now. As they say in distant colonies, let’s roll!

Going in search of Shakespeare

Just a week into my marathon challenge and I’ve decided to go on holiday!

So far last night I consumed half a pizza, swilled down with Prosecco followed by a couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio and a cheeky Peroni. Nothing beats an Italian theme to dinner. As we are spending a few days in Stratford-upon-Avon, and seeing as Shakespeare had a love of all things Greco-Roman, (to the point of plagiarism some might say), I’m sure the old bard would have approved.

This morning, we have started the day in more English fashion with bacon sandwiches and pain chocolate to set us up for some serious sight-seeing later, which I’m sure is likely to include some kind of sumptuous lunch and perhaps an ale or two.

So, in terms of sticking to a rigid diet and exercise plan, things have gone more off course than a Prospero-induced shipwreck in the Tempest. But as this is likely to be the last holiday until the Spring, it seems only right to enjoy things before everything goes flax seed and fresh veg.

I’m also looking to source some inspiration for my own theatrical performance, coming up in Bristol in November. As part of the St Paul’s Players, I get to play a pompous, bigoted, gently corrupt barrister, a QC no less, in David Hare’s Murmuring Judges.

It is a great play and I’ve been a big fan of Hare’s work ever since being younger and more angry about the world than perhaps I am now. One of my favourite Hare plays is Skylight, which I saw while at university starring Bill Nighy, before he became the global megastar he is now.

It’s a simple piece centring around the complicated love lives of a restaurant owner and his lover, which I remember mostly took place in a kitchen while somebody made a Bolognese sauce. It may be telling that the food is the thing that I remember mostly, but actually I loved it for the fantastic performances, vibrant dialogue and sense of place, seeing as at the time I was in London myself and aspired to that kind of lifestyle. (It was a couple of years afterwards that I fell in love with Bristol instead).

So, for that reason and a few others, I’m really looking forward to our production and I get to have enormous fun playing out all those latent prejudices that I’m acquiring as I get older in any case, mainly due to an unhealthy addiction the Mail Online.

Performances of Murmuring Judges are November 15, 16 and 17, at St Paul’s Church, Southville.

For ticket info, go to: www.spptheatrecompany.org.uk

Running and stuff

Pic caption: Running the London Marathon in 2010 was a great day, post-race recovery, not so great.

For the first time since I hobbled home after completing my first London Marathon in 2010, I am feeling excited about training to do it all over again - this time in Edinburgh.
Running the marathon in 2010 was one of the most uplifting, life-affirming moments of my life, when I conquered not only 26.2 miles but several demons along the way.
Afterwards, it was shite.
I never wanted to think about running again, hated the thought of poncing around in lycra shorts and the idea of begging my friends and online acquaintances for hard-earned cash was unbearable.
It is a universal truth, according to me and Marc Cooper, that once you have achieved that impossible task, whether running a marathon, or cycling from Bristol to London, or fathoming a self-assessment tax form, doing it again is actually twice as hard.
Or as those multi-championship winning football managers will tell you, winning the league once is one thing, defending the title is a whole other challenge.
Anyway, for those reasons and many others, mainly involving cake, real ales and a general aversion to stretching anything other than my waistline, running anything more strenuous than a virus scan on my laptop has been out of the question.
But, rather like the memory of childbirth, (I'm told) the pain has receded far enough for me to forget what a particularly stupid and unnatural thing running 26 miles really is, and I'm back in the saddle/running shoes and looking forward to taking on Edinburgh next year.
I do quite enjoy the challenge, and I kind of wish I could say that I deliberately piled on four stone since the last marathon in order to make it all worth doing again, but really, that was mostly down to the aforementioned cake and beer.
Over the past few weeks I have been back into running and today managed just over 3.5 miles up and down the picturesque River Avon Trail. Only 23 or so to go.

So, aside from wanting to get back into a whole wardrobe of natty M&S shirts and suits that haven't seen the light since the last Labour government, I have also been personally motivated this year to raise money for cancer charities.
Both myself and Amy, my long-suffering other half, have lost family members down the years, and 2012 has seen good friends and loved ones also lost too young.
I am looking to raise £1000 to be split between Cancer Research UK and Bristol charity St Peter's Hospice.
I wish I could do more, I wish I was a brilliant research scientist or a gifted surgeon, but as those career paths (as well as any others half way useful) are closed, I can do something else, like run a marathon. And you can help me, by supporting my effort in any way you can.

I am fundraising through Virgin Money, as all the donation goes to the charity, and you can find the page here: www.virginmoneygiving.com/SimonPeevers

But, in addition to the usual tales of the tribulations of training, I will also hope to offer a bit more in terms of useful information about running, what to eat, how to fit your training around a busy working schedule and asking for any tips on how to achieve all of that.

If you are taking on a similar challenge, get in touch, would be great to hear about your experiences too.

Breaking news...breaking news....

Okay, so, I have now entered the Edinburgh Marathon, which takes place on May 26 next year.
This is a serious attempt to take on the greatest challenge in long distance running, following what I felt was a successful run in London two years ago.
But also, we have lost too many good people recently to cancer, and I am looking to raise as much as I can for the charities which work so hard to care for those living with the disease.

More updates to follow soon, as well as fundraising stuff, but also trying to think of ways to make this more interesting than every other running blog out there, suggestions welcome!

This is why I run

When I mention to some people that I am in training to run the London Marathon 2012, they often ask, 'why the hell would you want to do that?'. On the face of it, it's a fair question as for somebody of my athletic ability running a full length marathon takes in excess of five hours on the day and about six to 12 months training. On top of working full time, trying to organise a wedding and thinking impossible dreams like buying a house.
But every now and then there are some big obvious reminders as to why I am looking to spend my winter evenings plodding round Bristol on the training treadmill towards April 2012 for my Olympic year marathon.
Anyway, we were just on a holiday and I had to take the chance to get a picture outside Rye's favourite teashop, see pic below:

I thought it might serve as a timely reminder of what being called Simon and eating all the pies really does to a man. Which is why since returning from our Kent sojourn I have been running three times, including a three miler yesterday and lost five pounds, a good couple of pies in my book.

So, I'm posting this picture today to serve as a reminder, if any is needed, as to exactly why I need to run, and, more importantly, stop eating pies. Nothing too deep or philosophical about it, no need to strive to find inner-peace, or to reach a point of zen tranquility to immerse myself in complete understanding of humanity, more like wanting to fit into a pair of jeans that I last wore in March 2010 which cost £40 and that's a lot of bloody money in this day and age to be stuffed at the back of a wardrobe devoid of any practical use. Come to think of it, an entire rack of shirts is hanging like a row of Lib Dem principles in my cupboard, utterly forgotten and unlikely to see the light of day for a while to come.
So instead of spending what hard-earned money I have left after the monthly outgoings on clothes that get a couple of days out before somehow shrinking beyond all wearability, I am, to paraphrase RUN DMC, going to take Take The Fat Back, mother lover. And that means running, lots, and for long distances. Or until I collapse.

London 2012, here I come

Came home to find the letter from British Heart Foundation I've been waiting for confirming my place in the London Marathon for next year. Amazing!

Now all I have to do is get marathon fit in eight months and three days. Easy!

Very excited and if I make it all the way to the finish line on April 22, I will be able to say that I took part in London 2012 and let people make up their own mind as to whether I was referring to the Olympics and wonder if that could possibly be true.