2 weeks till London to Brighton

Had my last long run before L2B in Tuesday 6th May 2014. The only way to fit it in around work, was to go out at 3.30 am. Consequently I was tired before I started. Went steady and was joined after 31/2 hours by jon Regester (thanks mate) for 1.5 hours. My last 3 hours was cross country. Had a sock change every 3 hours and it felt great every time. I used ultra fuel every 2.5 hours. Was good during the run but upset my stomach afterwards. When I got back, had a rego and then jumped straight in a cold bath. Hot shower, carbs and off to work with a school and a game of footie. Unsurprisingly I felt abit weary in the evening. All in all felt good, feet good, knees good. Think I got a slight hamstring issue. It's now Sunday and it's ok.

Here the videos of the run.

3.30am



4.30am



6am



7.15 am



8.30am



9.45am



11.15am





Fitness tip#11 last time I mentioned getting friends and family involved in your training. Think about raising money for a charity. Pick a challenge or event, raising cash for your chosen charity will keep you motivated.


This blogs donation roll of honour

Andy and Sue Trohear - good friends of mine
Lisa Colby - my yoga teacher
Julie jones - sports therapy client

Thank you so much

3 weeks to go

This week has been a steady one. I have gone back to teaching Stomp fx at the sports centre.







stomp fx focuses on basic, athletic programming which allows you to switch off your head and turn up the workout. Using a step, this multi-peak workout shreds fat and boosts fitness through a series of results-focused cardio conditioning sessions. It includes a fitness test which participants perform in weeks 1, 6, 11 and 16. A new stomp fx workout is released three times per year.

This has taken a place in my training programme. Doing something different has felt pretty good. I have to learn the choreography anyway, so this kills 2 birds with one stone. Happy days..


Runs on video this week........







X- country run on May 2nd 2014







More x- country, same day


Diary of a long distance runner..

Tuesday 29th April 2014- 45min x country run with the dogs
Wednesday 30th April 2014 - 40min x country with dogs
Wednesday 30th April 2014 - 45 mins road run fast, very warm
Thursday 1st May 2014 - 60 mins of stomp
Friday 2nd May 2014 - 60 x country, steady pace, very warm
Sunday 4th May2014 - 65 mins road run with Paula

fitness tip #10 if you have lots of training to do, try to involve your family and loved ones. This will give you time together, all be it not quality time. It's easy to get soaked up in the things that you need to do. You will need the support from them to achieve your goals. Make sure you think about them too..


No donators this week.


Tomorrow I have my last long run before L2B.............8 hours.... Look out for videos next week.


Don't forget to visit my sponsor...Ultra marathon store

4 weeks to London to Brighton.

This week has been an ordinary week, steady training. I received my start time for L2B. I'm off at 6.40am with 150 other people. I'm looking forward to it. And I'm also looking forward to getting it out of the way. I can then cut my training time but make it more quality training.

I've reached £6000 in the fundraising, and I'm sure there is still money to come in from the Exercisathon.

.I've started another fundraiser this week. I want people to guess how long it will take me to cover the 100 km in 4 weeks time. £2 per guess and a correct guess could win upto £200. I've added the usual tie break of, guess how many times my peanut bladder will have to be emptied during the run.

#fitness tip 9 Try something new. Whether that's a new distance or a new part of your training regime. You might well be surprised with the results

Diary of a long Distance Runner
Sunday 20th April 2014. 60minutes steady run
Tuesday 22nd April 2014 45 minutes fast pace
Wednesday 23rd April 2014 60 minutes x- country
Saturday 26th April 2014 75 minutes steady
Sunday 27th April 2014 115 minutes steady on the road, warm morning

Videos from this week
6.30am sun 27th April 2014
7.30am Sunday 27th April 2014


March and April 2014 Donations Roll of honour

Andrea Hoskins- work colleague at Sentinel
Ian Harrison - ex work colleague at Sentinel
Paul groom bridge- Raf Regt gunner, did Mds last year
Red Lester- Raf Regt gunner
Rebecca Smith- fellow student from London school sports massage
Several anonymous donators

Thank you thank you thank you

5 weeks till L2B

Continuing on from last post and catching up with the last few months. Here's a few vids of my runs. I will be covering more of my runs on video as i have recently purchased a mono pole, which takes good footage.

Here's a sunny seaside run with Paula.....

http://youtu.be/L4-AdnT_-x0

And

http://youtu.be/EyBmUK_MR28

And a crazy night run starting at 2am

http://youtu.be/d8Rj-VGknuY

 My eating has changed for the better also. I'm trying to get to my race weight if possible. Improving food quality and quantity is changing slowly. I've always said I'm a functional eater rather than eating something because it looks good or tastes out of this world. Since ultra running food functionality has taken a whole new dimension. It's another thing on the list that has to be taken serious and not being overlooked.

This is something I had at the weekend......

Steak with charred corn salsa with white bean salad......... Lush and very filling.

Now that I'm making time for blogging, from next week, the old blog bits will return like: diary of a long distance runner, fitness tips and donation roll of honour.

2014

My blogging hasn't been happening but my running has. I've changed things that I was doing, because it wasn't working or I was getting too tired or injured. Its hard work training for ultras and working full time. My partner  Paula, has to put up with a lot and sometimes miss out on lie ins and relaxing weekends, and I am so grateful to her for her patience

I think families, partners, girlfriends/boyfriends can be overlooked when accepting to do some challenge. I'm lucky I've found an understanding one, most of the time.

Some of my changes.....

As mentioned in my last post, I now attend Yoga classes. I try and go at least once a week. I find it's abit of relaxing me time and my lower back and legs have so far been injury free. 

I was finding with my training, that I was putting myself under pressure with my training runs, by planning my runs in terms of distance. This on occasions wasn't giving me time to stretch following the session. I now look at what time I have, I then take off 20 minutes and then the time left, is my run time. If I'm having a good or bad day, the time remains the same. So far so good, I don't feel under pressure to get back and the all important stretches at the end, are able to be done.

I feel that these two changes alone, have moved me forward greatly.

This is my run chart now.

Latest on the fundraising front........

I'm over half way.....whoop whoop!!!!!

The last bit of fundraising was an Exercisathon on Sunday 23rd March at the Waterlane Leisure centre.

This event was from 10am until 5pm. 4 rooms, 28 classes, 15 fantastic instructors. It was a great day. Still waiting for all the sponsorship money to come in.

I would like to thank all those that took part, all the instructors and those that helped to make the day go as well as it did.

As I publish this, the 2014 MDS will be coming to an end, and so the 12 months planning really starts now.

Thanks to the ultramarathon store, who are still sponsoring me. Please have a look at their website at.  http://www.ultramarathonrunningstore.com/

12 months to go..........

It's been a while since I blogged anything. I have been busy busy and I'm not as motivated to write as I am to run. Marathon des sable 2014 started today , Apr 6th.

I can't believe how much training for this, has changed my life, the way I eat, the way I think about things, the organisation needed. And I'm doing Yoga. For those that know me, are probably picking your jaws off the floor, at this point. Anyway more about that in the next few weeks.

I just wanted to put a quick blog up, just to get me back into it.

I'm aiming to draft through the week and then post Sunday eve.

So watch out from next week.

Time to re- think

Today is Sunday 8th December 2013. I managed a 30 minute run this morning. Thank The Lord, because the lack of exercise has been killing me.

This is how my 8 days of pain relieve went.........

Thursday 28th - Sunday 1st......





Drove to twickenham on the Saturday, things not too bad. Then Sunday it went downhill fast. I ended up in the NHS walk in centre in Gt Yarmouth, not able to catch my breath because of my back spasms. Came out of there with........







Oh my god, the Tramodol opened up a whole new world, a very strange and weird new world. It took away the pain but that's because I didn't feel I was myself. The end of a good night on the beer would be close to how my head was spinning. On Monday it was spinning so much I could keep anything in my stomach, so had a visit to my Gp. This time a came out with........










This combination worked the best. The last step this week was.........




Had my back pushed, pulled and clunked..... Feels good though..... More work to do....


The lack of training has given me time to reflect and have a re think about how I go about things.

Number 1 ........ Need to spend more time on my flexibility. I know I have said it before, but this week really has been a reality check.

Number 2 ........ To help achieve number 1... I'm changing my run goals from distance to time.

Let's see how that pans out..

Good News on the fundraising front......






This blogs donation roll of honour

Paul Andrews.... An old Regt mate from my early days in the RAF

Astrid King..... One of my Walberswick ladies, a donation made from along way away in USA

Thank you thank you thank you.


Diary of a long distance runner

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