Training Week 6

Week 6 has been, to be quite honest, pretty uneventful. Some good runs early in the week gave way to late nights in the office and missed training days.


Saturday: After a day in my sweatbox of an office (a glass box facing South with no air conditioning on a weekend) I managed to get myself a case of prickly heat. Ironically I've now had it twice, once in Feb and once in Nov, months which you wouldn't usually associate with blistering heat! That's good Scottish blood that is! On both occasions I've realized that I've got it while at the gym. Thankfully on this occasion it didn't end with me throwing up, passing out in the gym toilet and having to get Dowdy to follow me home in his car to make sure I didn't crash (the next week consisted mainly of trying to find new ways of sitting that allowed me to type while keeping my shirt from touching any part of my upper body, not an easy task!). On this occasion it just made for a very uncomfortable weights session and 10k run and a few strange looks from people when I worked out that blowing down my top seemed to cool the itching.


Sunday: Time for the big run of the week. Stepping up to 17.5 miles this week and a good chance to road test some music for the big day(s). So, with the iPod loaded with an eclectic mix of music and a slightly fuzzy head from a few beers and whiskies the night before I set off. Some findings from my (very scientific) experiment below...


ACDC: Black In Black - Is there anything that Brian Johnson can''t do? First his music helps save a US POW in Somalia, now it helps me get rid of my fuzzy head!


Counting Crows: Sullivan Street - One of my favourite bands but I think Adam Duritz may have written a song that induces "The wall"! Had to skip this one!


Journey: Don't Stop Believing - It's Journey, nuff said! Only problem is that singing along leaves you out of breath! Why did Glee have to go and ruin this song!


DMB - Where Are You Going / Ants Marching / Jimi Thing / Satellite / Dancing Nancies / Grey Street / Crash Into Me. Can Dave do any wrong? No! No he can't!


Guns N' Roses: Sweet Child O' Mine - Great tune but has it's place, namely an 80's nightclub after a skinful, not when running!


Meat Loaf: Bat Out Of Hell - See above.


Eminen: Sing For The Moment - Great running beat but may have been responsible for me pushing a granny,  kicking several young children (they really do get in the way) setting some bins on fire and popping the odd cap (I was in Woolwich, I'm pretty sure that's all acceptable there!).


Chili Peppers: By The Way - Great running tune, partly due to the beats but also partly due to the fact that the lyrics are so confusing that trying to work out what Anthony Kiedis is singing about helps you completely forget about the fact that you're running. And I quote...Steak knife, card shark, con job, boot cut?!?!?! Seriously, what is he on about? Answers on a postcard!


Daft Punk: Around The World - Love it but makes me want to run like one of the spacemen from the video! Best video ever (obviously Eric Prydz is disqualified because it's just not fair on all the other videos!).


The Killers: Mr Brightside - Makes me feel like I'm 20 again! They should bottle this song!


Ayla: Ayla, Mauro Picotto: Lizard and Binary Finary: 1999 - Chavs must be able to run fast!


Foos: Learn To Fly / Best Of You - Two of the best drummers of all time in one band, of course it's going to make for good running music!


Linkin Park & Jay Z: Numb/Encore - Ah, chav rap meets chav metal! Chavtastic!


All in all a good run, felt slow but got stronger as the run went on and plenty in the tank at the end. 2hrs 14mins for 17.5 miles so looking good for a shot at a sub 3hrs 15min marathon. Oh and most exciting of all was spotting a Fabio Capello hobo-alike. Oh how the mighty have fallen!


Thanks once again to everyone who has donated. The grand total now stands at a whopping £2,285.00! That's 1,311,904.48 Zimbabwean Dollars (sounds much more impressive) or 45.7% of the overall target in under three weeks! Thank you so much for your kind support, it really will help make a difference!

Training Week 5

Sun 12th Feb: Hit in face by pigeon during half marathon! Most definitely malicious!
Mon 13th Feb: No run - Pigeon anger!
Tue 14th Feb: No run - Pigeon fear!
Wed 15th Feb: No run - Pigeon suspicion!
Thu 16th Feb: RUN! - Pigeon forgiveness! 6.5 miles in 42 mins. New PB!
Fri 17th Feb: No run - Relapse! Pigeon anger, fear and suspicion all in the same day!
Sat 18th Feb: RUN! - Found out offending pigeon is now safely behind bars. 15 pigeon collison free miles. Pigeon nonchalance!

Sun 19th Feb: Assuming I can limit the number of beers consumed this evening another 15 miler on the cards.

On a more serious note, another massive thank you to everyone for their continued kind donations. After only 11 days of fundraising the total now stands at exactly £2,000.00!

Training Weeks 1-4

So we're coming towards the end of training week four (not including the two weeks pre-training where I decided to take a run on New Years eve, did my back in, could hardy stand all night and then spent a few weeks hobbling round like an old man).

Week one was pretty uneventful, however weeks two and three were spent in New Orleans and cruising the Caribbean. Surprisingly despite the quantity of (free) food and alcohol consumed I was usually able to get two sessions in a day. By the end of the cruise I'd taken huge chunks off my PBs for 6, 8, 10, 12 and half marathon distance. This was mainly due to my inability to convert between miles and kilometres, causing much confusion on the ships treadmills. Just shows how much of it is in your mind!

Bourbon Street, New Orleans

Montego Bay, Jamaica mon! No problems!

Grand Cayman

Tulum, Mexico

Week four has included three half marathon + runs in some pretty cold weather! Today I had my first brain freeze from too much cold air!

So what have I learnt over the last four weeks?

1. I'm older than I was last year! Yes, I know, I probably should have worked that one out! One years older surprisingly! The aches and pains are definitely more prominent!
2. The left hand side of my body sweats more than the right!?!?!?
3. My left hand freezes before my right!?!?!? No I wasn't wearing one glove!
4. It's amazing how difficult it is to run on a treadmill on a ship when there's heave, sway and surge!
5. Whoever invented kilometres is a total moron! 42km or 26.1 miles? I'll take 26.1 miles any day of the week! 42 is a big number!
6. Successfully hand washing running gear is not easy! We thought there was a problem with the drain in the toilet ;-)

In need of a washing machine!

To finish I'd like to say a massive thank you everyone for their kind donations. In four days we've already raised £1,672.50! ...and that's not even including Seb & Ellie's kind pledge of 0.034p per race mile!