3 Chickens and a runner

Up and Running

2012-01-23T10:58:00.005Z

It has been a long time since I've been able to say this, but I've actually had a few good runs recently.

Since the turn of the year, I have been out for a series of 5 K runs, while also running a 7 and 9 miler on consecutive weekends. The latter however served to demonstrate that I'm not quite ready for 9 miles as I was shattered for several days after. This wasn't help by an urge to also announce my return to football, the problem being too much too soon. No damage, just sore muscles and joints and a knee saying 'steady on now let's remember to take it slowly'.

True to my form 'taking it steady' is not something I'm used to, but having to learn for the sake of my long-term running career.

I had made plans to keep my runs to less than 6 miles for a few months and then graually increase that distance. The 9 mile run was an accident which I'm hoping won't happen again. Solution is to not go running with someone who is training for the London marathon and needs to get miles under their belt.

So why have I been able to return? What has helped me overcome recent injuries? Well before Christmas I had steroid injections into two vertebrae by epidural. The aim of this was to break the cycle of inflammation, aggravation and pain. MRI scans of my lower back revealed a potential cause of my lower back/hip pain, identifying a bony outgrowth which in weightbearing situations may cause a pinch of my spinal cord. Following these injections, I felt generally much improved but still suffering some sciatica. This has now been helped with some good stretches and a return to exercise.

So at the moment, all is looking well. Fingers crossed the sciatica will eventually subside and my running distances will gradually increase as my fitness and stamina return.

Been awhile

2011-11-03T13:04:00.002Z

I wish I had good news to report, but when preogress has been slow and sometimes backwards, it often difficult to motivate myself to write about it.

Anyways, with that out of the way, I can say it has been a disappointing summer. I've not run further than 2 miles and have been plagued with repeated hip problems.

Recent view is that I'm suffering with scaroiliac joint dysfunction, and fingers crossed with the right type of physiotherapy I should be able to return to training again in the near future. I won't hold my breath. A summer of physiotherapy has seen me have recurrent hip up-slips and suffer with constant hip pain.

I watched friends and fellow running club members take part in the Birmingham half, of which I had entered back in June, anticipating that this nightmare would be over. I was so pleased for them, but realised I lack experience when itcomes to supporting, as I cheered and clapped encouragement for almost every runner that went past. Great you say, well considering there were 15,000 runners my hands and throat were somewhat sore. It was tough not taking part to add to the sore hands and already bruised aspirations.

Next week, I have an appointment for a second opinion on what the hell is going on with my hip, I'm hoping that the consultant will confirm the SIJD diagnosis and I can focus on treating this.

I have been self-treating, i.e doing the recommended exercises to strengthen muscles supporting my hip, and I'd like to say cautiously that it has generally improved the last couple of weeks. A good sign? well after everything that has gone before, I'm not going to count my chickens.

Speakig of chickens, they haven't featured for a while and one may come to the conclusion that they may have come to some sort of demise. I reassure you that they are alive and well (living the life of Riley actually). However they seem to have come accustomed to eating everything, pooing everywhere and not laying any eggs, or at least any such quantity that would bring this equation back into any sort of balance.

We love them none the less.

Anyhow, hope you peeps are all healthy and running strongly.

Almost there...

2011-06-28T16:27:00.006+01:00

It is now nearing the end of June and I'm still not back on the road yet. This is not for trying, beginning of May I began running again with short distances, approximately 1 mile at a time. This started well, but after increasing to 2.5 miles a week later, it was not good. I felt pains in my knee and hip during and after the run. the knee pain settled down but the hip pain gradually got worse. This coincided at the time with a very busy work schedule, which didn't help the hip as I found myself sitting at my desk for prolonged periods of time and then adding a 120 mile daily driving commute made matters worse.

Visiting the Physio, she diagnosed me with an upslipped hip and inflammation of the SI joint, a few yanks of my leg later and several acupuncture needles in the thigh, glute and back and I was beginning to feel better. Another follow-up appointment to repeat this abuse made my hip much better. This coincided with a holiday to Kefalonia which helped enormously as no driving or work, just pure relaxation and swimming.

Since then the hip has improved a lot and no longer appears to be up-slipped. The inflammation has almost completely settled down and I'm nearing a return to trying to run again.

Hopefully this second attempt, with more gentle increasing of distance will be more successful.

A lazy arse

2011-04-18T12:59:00.003+01:00

This diagnosis confirmed something my parents have suspected for many years. Truth be told, it's actually an inhibited glute, but in my mind translates to a left but cheek that ain't pulling it's weight! Solution, lots of butt clenching exercises to stimulate it back into life. The assessment by the physiotherapist after surgery was quite enlightening. I learnt that some of my physiological and musculoskeletal attributes may have actually predisposed me to the injury that I incurred. The lack of any help from my left glute, meant that I have had very poor hip rotation, with my hamstrings also having to work excessively hard. Further to this, I have a collapsed arch in my left foot, which contributes to the way my knee is positioned and supported. Both of these factors, has meant that my hip/knee/ankle alignment was rather shocking to say the least, and meant that my knee was being put into positions that might have enabled a tear in my cartilage more likely. So the physio has given me a list of exercise to combat both, and improve the alignment. This is critical before trying to even run again, as I don't want this injury to ever happen again. The exercises to stimulate my glute seem to be working well, and it seems to be responding nicely, similarly the exercises to strengthen and restore my arch seems also to be making a small but noticeable change in my ankle position. I have another physio appointment booked for tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how far she feels I have progressed.

Anniversary of tearing my medial meniscus

2011-04-12T13:33:00.003+01:00

This weekend will see the one year anniversary since I tore the meniscus in my left knee. The result of this injury was two knee ops, the most recent being in February, and limited running. This has been such a bad year and has seen me reach some real lows. Running has become such an integral part of my life, affecting everything that I do both physically and mentally. The inability to put on my trainers and hit the road has left me moody, depressed, out of shape and slowly gaining in size. Last October, when I attempted to run the Birmingham half marathon, I realised that my knee was not still right, 5 months after surgery. Advice from my surgeon was that post surgery I should be back to relatively normal activity within 4–5 weeks. This was not the case for me. Following the half, I had another appointment with the surgeon and we agreed to do another MRI, this came back without any clear evidence of further damage. Good on the one hand but also bad, as there was no further explanation for the pain I was still feeling. We decided that a second investigative op would be advisable to identify the root of the problem and address if possible. This took place on Feb 19th. The outcome of this, was that he identified some degenerative cartilage where I had the previous menisectomy. He hadn't removed all of the bad tissue. This time however, he was satisfied that he had removed all the bad tissue and only left good healthy cartilage. Would this be successful? Time will only tell. It is now just over 7 weeks since the surgery and I believe all is going well. I've taken a go slow approach and have not yet tried running in any shape or form. I have been on the bike and the rower, but not touched the road or treadmill yet. Both of these activities have led me to believe that my knee is going well, as I've had no signs of discomfort in doing either and also have been able to exercise longer in both activities. This all bodes well, but the real test is when I begin putting impact through my knee. This hopefully will begin in a weeks time, when I (fingers crossed) get the o.k to begin running from my Physio. Until then I just have a few small issues to iron out; a lazy glute and a collapsed arch. I'll explain soon.

fingers crossed

2010-11-12T10:06:00.003Z

A few weeks after the Birmingham half and I seem to be o.k

Well others may object with that general statement, but I'm referring to my knee.

O.k I haven't done a significant amount of running since then, but the little I have done has been encouraging. The combined strengthening exercise in the gym and light running seem to be supporting each other.

I'm still getting odd twinges, but it is unclear as to whether these are muscular or of joint origin.

Running down hills is still a no no, but that is to be expected. I need to gradually introduce forces like that through my knee.

All in good time.

One concern I do have though is that squatting or kneeling for any sustained period really gives me bad knee pain for several days. This I'm concerned about. Is this normal for nearly 5 months after a menisectomy?

Made an appointment with the surgeon to find out.....

The Birmingham joke half-marathon 2010

2010-10-28T09:03:00.002+01:00

Well after completely my scientific personal designed training regime of running 3 miles once and once only in preparation for the Birmingham half-marathon, I was all ready to go for my return to the running stage!

Luckily for me, Birmingham council were equally as organised and prepared, I mean they have held this race twice now, you'd think they would know what makes a successful event. Hmm, maybe I'm giving them too much credit.
The Birmingham half-marathon turned out to be the worst organised run I have ever taken part in during my 6-7 years of running. Which is disappointing being a Brummie my self. I feel embarrassed that my city put on such a shambles of an event.

They were expecting 15,000 runners to take part, I can't see that many turning up next year.
Most races of that size have 'starting pens' for people of different abilities. Yes the half had coloured zones, but they chose not to enforce this, so you had slow runners right up at the front just behind the elite runners. What made this worse was that the organisers decided that 30 yards after the start it would be good to put in a bottleneck and narrow the road.

Genius!

They seemed to do this all through the circuit in the most inappropriate places! When roads were closed in both directions, they put up barriers to restrict runners to one side of the road, which made it very dangerous with the volume of runners.

Lastly, and this is the most inexplicable thing to happen at any event. It was so disorganised, that when I finished (and many others behind me had it worse) I had to queue to cross the finish line. For me it was only 30 seconds, but others several minutes! Not great for chip timing- begs the question of what's the point in that? The organisers had really messed up the finishing area such that they had the chip removal too soon after the finishing line, and prevented people from proceeding any further until it had been removed, I only saw maybe a dozen people there to remove the chips-It was extremely dangerous- I dread to think what would have happened if there was a medical emergency at the finish line.

Anyhow there is my moan! Suffice to say that despite all of these occurrences I did manage to finish in a very slow time of 2hrs 1min. This run was not about time though as it was always going to be slow, it was just about returning to running and being part of events (although bad) like this.

My strategy kind of went out the window, partly due to the congestion and issues with the race itself, and partly as at 3 miles my legs and knee felt good, so I changed my strategy to being run until you feel knackered or walk as soon as you feel any twinges in your knee.

With this new strategy, I ran the first 10 miles, at a pace between 8–8.5 min miles. At 9 miles my fitness had given up on me and my running started to become laboured. This had a knock on effect on my knee, which started to ache, so once at 10 miles I decided to walk and run the rest of the way. Run 0.5 miles, walk 200 yrds, and repeat. I finished by running the last mile.

Four days later, my legs have stopped screaming at me. I don't recommend running only 3 miles to anyone as a training regime for a half-marathon. My knee is a little tender where I had the meniscectomy, but is feeling better than I had expected.

So what now? Well hopefully a very light running calendar for the remainder of the year, before starting my training to hopefully complete the NY marathon 2011.

Third time lucky?

Only a few days to go

2010-10-20T11:27:00.002+01:00

The Birmingham half is only a few days away and I've never been so under prepared for a run of this distance before.

My new slow and steady approach to injury rehabilitation has meant that I haven't even accumulated the mileage of a half-marathon distance yet, with only two 1.5 mile runs and one 3.2 mile run completed.

I wouldn't recommend this sort of training for anyone wanting to complete a half marathon distance. It is not ideal, but in my case it has served a purpose.

My aim for the Birmingham half is to mainly run in 2.0 mile stints with a short walk in between, so it'll be something like 3–2–2–2–2–2, thus a total of 5 walking breaks.

This will hopefully be better for my knee and also suit my general lack of fitness due to the rehabilitation.

The most important thing will be to finish. I have a number of friends running who will undoubtedly finish long before me, so it will hopefully be nice to see them waiting at the finish line.

Starting again

2010-10-04T10:34:00.003+01:00

Having avoided high impact activities for the past 3 weeks and resting my knee, it is time to re-introduce some high impact onto my knee-However this time, 'slow and steady' is the mantra of choice.
The past few weeks, I have completely omitted high impact activities from my exercise regime. This left me with cycling and swimming. These two have kept my cardio levels reasonably intact, although they are significantly lower than pre-injury.

My knee does feel better for this 'impact'-free period. The tenderness has essentially gone and it feels ready to begin working again.

My physio seems encouraged as well with the improvement and has also given me the o.k to begin more impact work starting off with having me doing kangaroo jumps in the hospital car park and shuttle sprints. My aim is to do this once a week, followed by 2 non-impact rest days, then a 1 mile run, followed by two more rest days. I'm going to continue with this over the next 3 weeks, gradually increasing the distance each week of my run. However, not like I did before in which I went from 1 km to 5 km in less than a week and ended up with a very sore knee.

I still have intentions of taking part in the Birmingham half-marathon on the 24 Oct, 20 days from today. The emphasis here on 'taking part' as I don't intend on running the race. I will hopefully be able to run part of it, but I aim to walk the majority and to just finish. We'll see how the training goes before then before posing any expectations.

11 weeks Post-Op

2010-09-16T10:32:00.002+01:00

It has now been 11 weeks since my surgery and well progress has been good but frustrating.
My initial thought of being back up and running again within 4 weeks, were now I realise completely unrealistic. In truth I feel it will be another 4-6 weeks before I can run with out have any repercussions.

Muscle strengthening has gone well, and my muscle bulk is nearly back to where it was pre-injury. I'm still working on stability of my knee, and that is the focus for the next few weeks.

During my last Physio appointment, we had discussed trying to introduce more high impact work gradually onto my knee, but like me, I went into this a little to aggressively and I have a very tender knee at the moment. Ice and ibuprofen seem to be relieving the pain and soreness, but a swift yank on the rehabilitation reigns was needed. A sharp reminder, that slow and steady is the mantra required.

I just tend to have a bad habit of pushing my limits too quickly, impatience or ambition, perhaps a little bit of both with a sprinkle of frustration added to the mix. The latter I'm finding is significant, particularly as inactivity and me do not make good bed fellows.

So while, I have to again resist the temptation to go running, I'm encouraged to continue my cycling and swimming, whilst adding weights to my muscle building and balance exercises. The balance exercises are aimed at providing more support for my knee through my ankles and hips- got to be a good thing. So far I've found out that my balance is absolutely shocking even in my good leg!

Will I be ready to run a half marathon by the end of October? Probably not, Will I try to? Probably will do.

I never learn.

I am still here

2010-08-04T12:56:00.002+01:00

No, I haven't fallen off of the planet. I'm still around, but have struggled to source inspiration to update my blog. Two reasons for this, I'll explain...

Following the DK10, my knee instead of getting better actually got worse. I don't think the run made it any worse itself, as I ran through pain for most of the run, and subsequent training runs I still experienced the same pain and felt this is something more serious.

Shortly after seeing my GP, I was referred to an orthopaedic surgeon with the suspicion that I had torn my meniscus cartilage in my left knee. A consultation with Mr Marcus Green and an MRI scan confirmed I had indeed torn my left medial meniscus cartilage and surgery would be required.

This was a big blow for me, as firstly, I was hoping to build up my training to peak for the NY marathon in November and secondly, I've never had to have a GA and surgical procedure before.

Surgery took place late morning on July 2nd, and I was able to leave later that day. The actual procedure took approximately 40 mins, and just over an hr from sedation to waking up post op.

Not too surprising, I couldn't walk very well as my knee was A) bandaged quite heavily, B) swollen, and C) quite sore.

A week of resting/ working from home and lots of pain killers and anti-inflammatories and I was able to again start walking and driving again. Another week of taking it easy took me to my first physio appointment post op to start the rehabilitation process. This has been quite good, as my knee has been getting stronger and stronger each day.

It was quite helpful, that we went on holiday to Cyprus two weeks after the op, where I could rest and also exercise in the swimming pool. I think this gave me a great leap forward in the rehab process.

Five weeks post surgery, I've been able to start using a bike and the flexibility of my knee is probably approaching 90% of what it should be. More Physio exercises are increasing the strength of my glutes, hamstrings and VM to provide better knee support.

My physio even mentioned the possibility of doing some jogging at the next appointment. Whilst the prospect of being able to enjoy running again is still far away, this has given me a big boost.

I've lost all my fitness and this year has essentially been wiped out for me in terms of running achievements. Sadly, I've also had to defer the NY marathon for another year.

It is important for me to do this in good health and to the best of my ability. I would risk damaging my knee further by taking any part this year.

So with my injury to one side, the second reason for my blogging absence, has been my new job. The end of May saw me finish my research career in Birmingham and begin a medical communications career in Oxford. I'm happy to say it is going really well and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Hopefully, sooner rather than later I can update with my first run!

DK10 2010

2010-05-06T16:35:00.002+01:00

It has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for me since the Silverstone half marathon.
That run was meant to be part of my training for the Shakspeare half marathon on April 25th (london marathon day) that would have hopefully seen me post a new half PB.

Sadly, I buggered my knee two weeks before putting up a new fence in the garden. Having twisted my knee I had to instead pull out and watch the London marathon on the telly, which made me even sadder, as I've run London the past two years. Seeing the spectacle made me wish I was there or at least running in the Shakespeare half.

Since then my knee has been gradually getting better, but I've been unable to return to running proper. Last night was the Dudley-Kingswinford 10K, a really nice rural race over an undulating course. Prior to this I had only managed one 6 mile run with breaks and a short track session, so I was uncertain as to whether my knee would hold up for the distance. Further more I haven't been training for over a month so I didn't know what pace I would be able to maintain.

Running with me was Ewan and Mark, and there were a number of Bournville harriers there as well. There was also a few others in the 1000 strong field, it's always been a very popular mid-week run.

I started the run nervously as during my warm up I felt a twinge in my knee and I was uncertain as to whether I would get past the first 1km marker.

However my worries were misplaced and my knee felt o.k, I tried to get settled into a 7 min mile pace, which felt comfortable. I think I maintained this throughout, but as I pressed the wrong button on my Garmin watch, I didn't record my time.

I finished the run in 128th position with a time of 42 mins 54 secs. I was pleased with this as compared to last year I was only 35 secs slower. I think if my knee wasn't an issue I may have got closer to 40 mins.

Ewan finished in 45min 45sec and was 217th overall and Mark finished in 1hr 1min 40 secs and 771st overall, which was excellent as this was his first ever 10K and 8 weeks ago had never run further than a mile!

My next big race is a half marathon but not until June. I might try to fit in some more 5Ks and 10 Ks before then.

Just need to keep strengthening the knee and improve my speed again.

Silverstone Half marathon 2010

2010-03-15T13:58:00.004Z

After setting a new PB at the Birmingham half in October 2009, I swiftly entered the Silverstone half marathon hoping to improve and get closer to that illustrious 1hr 30min target, in the knowledge that the Silverstone course is quick and mostly flat.

A broken toe and two hamstring injuries later, I was less confident of getting anywhere near that landmark time or my previous Silverstone best of 1:32:41.

Setting off to the circuit, the conditions for the day looked encouraging with it being dry but cool, however an increasing breeze slowly turned in to a strong wind by the start of the race which made the conditions not very conducive to posting a fast time.

Nonetheless, I chose to stick to my plan of trying to run at 7 minute mile pace and see if my body would hold together. Approximately 10,000 runners took to the start and it was a good atmosphere, as most runners were using this as preparation for the London marathon.

Construction at the circuit meant the course was slightly different this year, but the new twists and turns did not offer any shelter from the wind and thus it was a constant battle to find someone to slip stream behind. This did actually help for most of the race but by the last 3 miles, the runners had thinned out and there was no where to hide. I had managed to keep to the 7 min mile pace for 9 miles, with the aid of a Runner’s World pacer, but then began to slow to a 7 1/2 min pace for the last 4 miles.

I was very grateful to see the finishing line come into sight but pushing through that last mile uphill and against a headwind was tough work. I managed to finish with a time of 1:33:47 and placed 242nd. Although, this was the first time in 6 years I have not managed to improve my half marathon time, I was not disappointed with it. Sometimes to move forward, a step backward is first required. Despite running a slower time, my placing improved from 1302nd in 2008, and then 349th in 2009 to 242nd in 2010. So maybe the conditions affected everyone and it just wasn't all about me running slower.

With the Shakespeare half marathon less than 5 weeks away, this has helped serve to indicate that I'm heading in the right direction and that I might just be able to get close to a new PB in Stratford.

Chickens on a mission

2010-03-09T14:54:00.003Z

It has been some time since I wrote an update about my chickens.
The main reason for this is that during the winter months, the short days and cold weather coincided with very little hen activity to update on.

We are approaching our first anniversary of having the chickens and it has been an interesting period of time. Each of the hens has really developed their own personalities during this time and it will be interesting to see how they continue to mature.

During the past year the head of the pecking order has changed hands several times, but only between two, Peggy and Doreen. Poor little Betty has never really shown leadership qualities but this certainly doesn't mean she's the quiet one either. In fact, Betty is the noisiest out of the three, perhaps this has something to do with trying to compete with the other's dominance. She is though a very jealous hen and does not like to be left out.

With the long dark nights through winter, I've had to put their food out early in the morning, which also included their treat of corn and oats (they would normally only get this late in the afternoon) . This routine has meant that as soon as it began to get lighter in the morning and the automatic door release let them out before I had chance to put their food out, they have started making an almighty racket! Fearful of them waking the neighbours I've had to dash out a few times to shut them up. This behaviour has also led to Betty and Peggy breaking out into the garden in search of food and digging up the flower borders. To prevent them from doing this we had to take drastic measures and clip their wings. Fortunately this seems to have done the trick.

The lighter days has also led to the hens cranking up their egg production, for the past two weeks we've had close to an egg a day from each of them (just over a dozen eggs per week). This rate has begun to slow now as Peggy has become broody and has stopped laying. If previous behaviour patterns are anything to go by, she'll be like this for about 3-4 weeks and during that time, one or both of the other hens will eventually follow suit.

They all seem to be happy though and it's lovely to see fresh eggs in the hen house everyday, albeit underneath a very warm broody hen.

Action Heart 5 miles

2010-03-01T16:36:00.003Z

Yesterday I took part in a 5 mile race in aid of Action Heart. With the state of my hamstrings and recent injuries this was a perfect distance to get myself back into the swing of training proper again.

The past couple of weeks have been good, as I've been able to steadily increase the distance I'm running and the weekly mileage. I'm still very paranoid about my right hamstring, so I'm running with that on my mind all the time and so running is not as relaxed as it should be.

Yesterday was no different, the course profile revealed the route to be made up essentially of a long slow incline followed by a long decent roughly splitting the 5 miles in half. This wasn't the greatest news for the old hamstrings, but it would serve as a good test.

There were 588 runners (10 walkers) taking part so there was a good atmosphere within the race. Unfortunately due to some building work near the start line the official start was moved forward and so the total distance was 4.85 miles this year rather than the usual 5 miles. There were six of us from Bournville running, so it was good to see the teal vests dotted within the pack.

The start was a bit frantic as everyone is trying to claim their territory and make quick advances. I knew I wasn't going to be able to target a very fast time and so I set myself a target of trying to stick to a pace for the race, which was 7 min miles, meaning I should finish just under 35 minutes.

Two of our faster club runners set off at a blistering pace, and I saw Gareth leading the race at the first corner. He was eventually to succumb this place and finish an amazing 10th overall. The other runner, Mel, was right up there too and was the leading lady, which she held all the way round and finished as the first lady for the second year running.

I was holding my own and running with another club member who was aiming for roughly the same time. At close to the 1 mile point I had a bit of a setback, as I chose to go one side of a metal barrier skirting around a roundabout and he went on the other side. Unfortunately, the barrier continued for a distance taking me off the circuit route and I fell behind him by about 15 yards. Although he wasn't too far ahead, I struggled to close the gap as we were running up hill at that point and I was nervous about burning myself out too early trying to catch him. I decided to just keep the distance and hopefully close it on the descents. Sadly this didn't happen and he continued to gradually move away from me, despite me trying to run him down (no I was not in a car).

When the decent did happen, I was so pleased, and finally I could get a bit of speed up. I found myself yo-yoing with a couple other runners, it was something to keep me occupied for the remainder of the race.

As we approached the last mile, I glanced at my watch and was pleased to see that I was ahead of my anticipated time, but I also looked down the road to see that the route started uphill again. My joy was briefly felt.

The last mile was tough and I tried not to yield any places in that distance. Seeing the finish approaching was a delight, I had no kick left in me and even if I did I had no desire that cold wet morning to push.

I crossed the finish line with a time of 33mins:42 seconds, finishing in 66th place. I was very pleased. I ran faster than expected and after the disappointing cross-country season, it was nice to finish closer to the front than the back.

I still have a long way to go on my journey back to full strength, but this was encouraging to know I'm heading in the right direction.

Silverstone half in less than two weeks! No PB likely this year for me, but hopefully a good confidence building run.

London marathon tribute half

2010-02-18T11:13:00.002Z

This year I'm not running the London marathon. Probably a good thing too, considering my recent injuries and disrupted training. With NY the 'big' run for me this year, I still wanted something to be motivated by to get me through the winter and spring before beginning to focus on marathon training in the summer.

On the same day the London marathon takes place, I too will be pounding the tarmac, but unlike the marathoners, I won't be in London, I'll be in Stratford and unlike the marathoners, I'll be stopping halfway.

This sounds to me positively wonderful!

It is a common occurrence for people who complete a marathon to forget how painful the event is, and thus they find themselves entering another, and then another. This is how I came to run London in consecutive years and then enter NY marathon. There seems to be an in-built phsychological block or amneasia that is triggered when thinking running another marathon might be fun. Certainly there is an aspect of addiction involved, however addiction is usually associated with pleasure rather than pain. Perhaps it is the rush of endorphins which the body remembers. I know consciencely that I remember the moments of pleasure during and most definitely after the marathon was completed, but these were largely provoked by feelings of emmense pride in others and then myself. I'm not certain that these on their own can completely account for the desire to run another marathon. Being a scientist, I am facinated by what drives us to want to take part in such events, and in terms of evolution, how we are built to be able to complete such events of endurance. Reading the book Survival of the fittest by Mike Stroud, has been excellent as this very topic is addressed by the author ,who himself is an endurance athlete and medical doctor having crossed the Antartic with Sir Ranuph Fiennes, completed the marathon des Sables, 7 marathons in 7 days and many other endurance events. I would highly recommend this to anyone that wants to understand greater the physiology of endurance athletes and also wants inspiration to keeping pushing themselves further.

So during my half-marathon in Stratford, I'll be thinking of all of you in London, thinking about my physiology that is enabling me to run 13.1 miles, and thinking why I would want to continue running for another 13.1 miles.

From elastic hamstrings to NY

2010-02-16T08:57:00.003Z

Another opportunity to moan about my aging body. Why oh why can I not go a few weeks without my right hamstring snapping like an elastic band?

I thought I had improved my hamstrings by focusing more time to specifically stretch them before and after running, spending more time on the latter than I used to. This seemed to be having the beneficial effect I had hoped, but it seems they have returned to their usual fragile ways again.

This means that any training I've tried to start has been interrupted with set back and I start from scratch. This current injury has lasted two weeks and has seen me pull out of the final cross country event.

Perhaps there is a clue there as to the cause of the recent injuries. Maybe my legs can't take the strain of running on soft uneven ground? Plausible, but these injuries have also coincided with me starting to play more 5-a-side football again. I had hoped I would have been able to pinpoint one of these as the cause but the strain I get in the hamstring reveals itself independent of either cross country training or football, so I can't make any correlations.

Cross-country is now finished for me and I'm going to resist playing football for the next few weeks, so hopefully this will help.

On a plus note, I've completed my guaranteed entry form for the NY marathon. No going back now. Well there is I could cancel again but at the cost of $265, I don't think so.

just keep my fingers crossed that I can get my hamstrings sorted out before my training starts proper in July.

Baptism of Fire

2010-01-18T08:50:00.003Z

Sometimes you just have to accept it, and this weekend it was certainly one of those occasions. What is it? Well it should come clear. Let me explain.

Over 2009, my training for the London marathon led to me improving my ability at shorter distances, making PBs at half-marathon, 10K, 5K etc. This improvement meant that I was regularly finishing in the top 20% of events and occasionally in the top 10%. Whilst this was great for feelings of self-achievement, it was terrible for establishing expectations.

This weekend at the 3rd race of the Midlands x country league, I was actually very pleased of my achievement, but because of my expectations I was very disappointed and a little embarassed.

The club I run for, Bournville Harriers, is in division 1 (nothing to do with me, but the team has been promoted in successive years) and the competition is tough. Until this year I have never run x country, so it has been a bit of a learning curve (give me tarmac any day).

To make a football analogy, being in the Midlands division 1 for me is like being a semi-decent striker in the championship, that upon achieving promotion to the premier league can't hit a barn door for toffee. Now having never run in division 2, this analogy is based on a belief that division 2 was less competitive than division 1 (isn't this the usual way things work) so it could be majorly flawed.

BvH front runners (not me)

The rain on Friday evening meant that all of the snow was essentially gone, and the course was extremly sodden and the going soft. Considering the race consisted of 3 laps of of a relatively flat course, the ground just got worse each lap. By the time I finished, it looked like I was wearing Wellington boots made of mud. The conditions were more suited to wellies than spikes, but the spikes did help me stay vertical.

Of the 218 runners that took part I finished 193rd, and 16th of 22 bournville harriers. This placing was the worst that I have done ever since I've....well ever since I've put running shoes on. What makes this worse is that even though I haven't been able to train much because of toe and snow, my time wasn't actually that bad for me (5.38 miles in 36:42; just over 7 min miles). O.k it was closer to my half marathon pace, but I thought this would have been reasonable under the circumstances. Turns out a pace closer to 6 min miles was required to do well.

Must aim for this before the next and last race in about 4 weeks (13th Feb). With hard training I think I could get closer. So whilst I'm disappointed with my result, I'm pleased I got out in the conditions and ran as hard as I could.

So what is it that I must accept? I just have to accept that on this occasion there were a hell of a lot of people that can run faster than me! well done.

Thought I got away with it!

2010-01-14T15:10:00.002Z

This Saturday sees the 3rd Midlands division 1 X country meet. It is taking place in Coventry, so just a short jaunt to the other side of middle earth. This will be my official return to competitive running, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

Part of me really wants to get back to running competitively again, but another part is a bit nervous following the toe injury and the difficulty in getting any regular running done over the past few snow covered weeks.

There is the additional pull of bed rest. Since and during the holidays I haven't had much of a break and could do with a couple of days of just chillin.

I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a soft place, and at the moment I have more affinity to the soft place.

I was hoping that I didn't manage to have my name placed on the team role call, but email confirmation arrived today that I'm in. Enough time for an unfortunate cold to happen though!

Lets see if the lure of snow and mud wins out!

The problem with snow...

2010-01-08T16:19:00.003Z

Now that the Southerners officially have snow, the nation can now be considered to be in the grip of a wintery freeze. Having lived in Canada for 17 years (before moving back to the UK), several inches of snow was never much to get worked up about. It was only when you woke up to find the snow covering the roof of your car that you began to worry.

So this past week I've tried to carry on as normal. Yesterday I managed to get out for a run during my lunch hour. It was beautiful, the sun was shining, clear blue skies and enough nice powdery snow to stay upright whilst running. I only encountered problems when I came to well trodden paths in which it became a bit slippery.

Pace was a bit slower, got 5 miles done in the time that it normally takes me to run 6, but I'm not sure how much of that was simply down to my toe-related fitness.

Hopefully I will get a longish run done on Sunday, but we are again forecast more snow. Not too worried about the snow, it the hidden ice underneath that becomes the problem!

Anyhow, hope you fellow snow runners manage to stay upright!

2010: a Running Odyssey

2010-01-04T16:08:00.002Z

Here we go,
New year,
New decade,
New start!

For me 2009 ended with a bit of a pathetic sigh. The breaking of 'the toe' in November essentially meant that I could return to running proper a few days before Christmas. Suffice to say I had one or two other things on my mind, such as Turkey, mince pies, beer, wine, more turkey, Christmas cake, shortbread, chocolate, wine, more turkey, peanuts, Christmas pudding, crisps and a satsuma.

Now with all this behind me (some of it still in me as I'm certain I've gained weight following my inactivity) and 2010 before me like a blank canvass awaiting my eager brush strokes, I'm excited to return to training.
The rest has probably done my aching limbs some good, but the break has played hell with my fitness. Having wimped out of running outdoors yesterday, I chose the treadmill as my running companion. This had the benefit of added warmth of the gym and the cricket on the telly. Win Win in my books! However the warmth of the gym was to serve as my downfall. I wanted to run 5 miles as a way of easing my body and mind self back into the notion of training again. I only managed 4 miles before my body felt as if it was going to over heat.

Today, however I plucked up the courage to run outdoors ( check me out!) I wanted to achieve the 5 miles I failed to run on Sunday, but managed to push through to 7 miles during my lunch break. I was really please with myself, but I am absolutely shattered now.

Rather depressing to struggle to 7 miles, especially as 2009 was really a story of gradual improvement for me in terms of both distance and speed. I feel right now I've lost a lot of the ground I had gained. I know it will come back, but it is hard to accept that I know I could do much more.

2010 has one major aim for me and that is the NY marathon in November! Before that I have smaller targets of improving my half marathon time to below 1:30, Silverstone is likely to be my first opportunity for this. Fingers crossed I can pick up the miles and pace soon.

My Big Toe

2009-11-10T10:58:00.003Z

I was trying to think of something witty for the title of this post, but failed horribly, so I decided to go with a title that got straight to the point.

I knew it was dangerous making a plan. All my best laid plans seems to go a little bit pear shaped. In this case, I wish my toe was more pear shaped than the turgid sausage that it has become.

There have been several incidents now that have given me a little nudge to gently suggest that I'm getting a bit on the ancient side to keep up with my current sporting activities of running, football, squash, and gym.

The squash I have pretty much given up, my hamstrings and knees just don't agree with the rapid acceleration and change of direction required. Even when they were young & youthful they struggled with this feat.

As for football, I've been trying to reduce the quantity of football I play, as a 36 yr old, I realise that in the professional world I am considered scrape heap fodder. However I still try to play when I can.

Last Thursday for instance, was one such occasion, for which now I am wishing I chose not to take part.

7 mins into the game was when it all happened. Sadly the team I play for consists of 5 other 'wrong side of 35' players and so we are not really a team blessed with pace, but we do have a wealth of experience, which is at least worth a psychological 1- nil. This lack of pace usually means we are indeed, one step behind, as all of the teams we play against consist mainly of undergraduate students, still full of pubescent hormones raging inside them and an never diminishing level of energy.

In one instance, I found myself one step behind the youth I was marking, when he decided to have a shot on goal. Ready as ever to give everything for the team, I lunge my leg out to try a push the ball away. Surprisingly for me and I think also for him I managed to make contact with the ball sufficiently to push it away from his rapidly approaching striking leg.

I think you might be starting to get the picture of what happened next.

With the ball being replaced with my meagre size 9 foot, the fore mentioned striking leg continued on its course and almost sent my foot into the top corner of our goal. Fortunately the foot stayed attached to my leg. Unfortunately a surge of pain was emanating from my big toe.

I left the pitch, and sat disgruntled on the side lines knowing my right toe had received some damage, but I couldn't face looking.

When we got back to the changing rooms, I reluctantly took a gander to see what the damage was, and was greeted with the delight below

It doesn't look so bad here, this is 3 days later.

I don't think it's broken, I just think the joint took a severe blow. Suffice to say I can't run on it.

I can walk, which I think is a good sign, and now almost 5 days later the bruising is significantly better.

The training plan though, has been put on the shelf for the moment. Hopefully, a little jog tomorrow will give me some indication of how much rest I need to give it before I can resume.

It's a FIRST

2009-11-04T11:05:00.002Z

For the next 18 weeks I'm embarking on a specific new training program focused on improving my half marathon time.

Normally with a specific event in mind, I try to work my running schedule to suit. Building up the frequency and length of my runs. In the case of half marathons, this usually incorporates 2 short and 1 long. The short I usually try to run at a faster pace and the long at the target half marathon pace. This has generally worked for me, and helped me to over the years gradually improve my times.

In the summer, I bought a book called Run Less, run Faster promoted by Runner's world, but is designed by the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST). Having read the book, I'm now in a position to put it to the test. What seems very good about this training program is that is can be designed for any distance, whether it be 5K, 10K, half marathon or full marathon. Further to this the program enables you to choose a program that is based on your current fitness. There is no point in trying to stick to a plan when you fitness levels mean that you will always fall short and most likely end up injury yourself.

The FIRST program works on the basis of '3 plus 2', i.e 3 quality runs and 2 aerobic cross-training workouts.

The runs are composed of 1x tempo run, 1x track repeats, and 1 long run. This is in fact not far from what I had previously been doing apart from the track repeats.

The cross-training can take the form of swimming, cycling, or rowing (i.e most of the things you can find at a local gym) and the program gives you specific guidelines of what intensity you should be doing these at different stages of the program.

The program is designed to give you a specific workout each week, thus providing variation through the training, something which many runners find frustrating about training-the lack of variation and boredom.

An additional bonus about this program is that you have two definitive rest days ( you can however incorporate an additional cross-training workout, but not running).

One of the strengths of this program it seems is the philosophy that you don't need to keep pounding out miles upon miles to improve your running. It preaches 'quality over quantity'. However, it is not that you aren't running a lot in this program, the required long runs are indeed just that long runs which are determined by the distance you are training for.

This program may not suite everyone but it seems to be beneficial to runners who suffer with recurrent injuries, such as ITB or hamstrings. As it is focused on quality, it discusses running form, which runners often lose when trying to accumulate the miles and sometimes stick to a program that their fitness level is not up to. In addition because it is quality over quantity, your legs take less of a battering and are given time to recover.

I tend to have hip problems, which thankfully have not been an issue for the last 9 months. In my run up to the London marathon last year however, I had a real issue with sciatica affecting my back, hip and leg, which thankfully eased after having a forced break from my training.

I'm hoping that this FIRST training program will prevent such injuries.

I'm not sure whether following this training program will be a success or not, but I will keep you updated. The true test will be at Silverstone next March!

NY marathon

2009-11-03T16:26:00.002Z

363 days to go!
I managed to see some of this years NY marathon TV coverage on Sunday gone. It was a pleasure to see the elite runners running through central park. Sadly Paula Radcliffe could only manage 4th place, but considering the tendinitis injury she was running with this was a very respectable achievement.
Many people in the sports media were suggesting that she should retire as a result of this. How ridiculous! If there is anyone that has shown a will to triumph over adversity, it is her. Following Olympic disappointments, she has come back to race competitively, in particular the NY marathon in 2007 & 2008.

I for one hope that she takes a long rest and comes back stronger next year, and shows the critics that this was just a blip, and that when injury free she can still compete at the highest level. I still struggle to see anyone but Paula in GB that can mount a potential medal challenge in the marathon for the 2012 Olympics (naturally excluding myself here).

For me less than a year to go now!! I've just put together the start of my training plan. I've highlighted a series of half marathons in the spring, before I begin to increase mileage and endurance training over the summer. My aim for late spring is to set a new half marathon PB of 1:25, this should hopefully give me a good fitness basis to train for the marathon and improve on my London time of 3:42.

Fingers crossed I stay injury and illness free over the winter, need to get to Boots to get my bucket of vitamins.

Middle of nowhere?

2009-10-27T16:19:00.003Z

That's how I'm feeling at present. For the past two years, I have been fortunate in obtaining a place in the London marathon. This year through choice I'm not taking part. Instead I have the NY marathon on the very far horizon. You can just about see it if you squint really really hard.
As I'm by no means an ultra-runner (I'm barely holding it together to be classed a just a 'runner'), 12 months is a little early to start training. Normally this time of year, I would have received my letter saying 'congratulations! You've got a place', and be full of beans like a six year old on Christmas day. However, as I didn't enter, I've no letter, and hence no beans!

Whilst I'm pleased I've stuck to the plan of not running London 2010, I feel there is something absent from my life.

This where I need the A-Team! I need a plan. I need some form of regularity, a routine, something to target! I need motivation!!!!!

With the Birmingham Half been and gone, that's it. The only things left in my running diary are two six mile cross country races and as some would say 10Ks are for wimps! I need a bigger challenge.

I can't wait for my Runners world subscription to start- I think I may be flicking straight to 'Upcoming events'!

'Middle of nowhere' also very fittingly describes my running at the moment. I seem to have plateaued. Yes I posted a PB for the half marathon, but every other distance I'm staying the same. The short days are not helping either, when I'm in need of altering my routine and upping my game, the dark nights and my waning motivation are plotting against me. Hey ho, I wonder if there's football on telly? I'm sure I've still got a beer in the fridge.

Is this really fun?

2009-10-21T10:31:00.002+01:00

I came across a couple of YouTube videos whilst searching for directions to Senneleys park, where the race is taking place.

I'm not sure I want to do it anymore!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmZdhmjYbDE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDQFLF2dYiI

Good bye road, hello, grass, mud and streams...

2009-10-20T08:35:00.003+01:00

This is it!
To steal a not quite so immortal quote from the not so immortal Michael Jackson! I'm moving off-road! Cross-country season beckons and as a wide eyed bushy tailed cross country novice, I'm looking at it with slight excitement, possibly a bit of bewilderment, but definitely lots of trepidation!

Last Saturday I awoke at 7 am, not just by accident, no nightmares involved, but actually with due purpose and cause. Anyone that knows me well, would tell you that 7am on a weekend and me are just not compatible, but give me credit, I hauled my tired ass over to a nearby park where our club was having it's cross country training session at 8 am.

Now seeing that I only live 10 mins away, I now realise I could have had an extra 50 mins in bed. Damn it!!

For someone that has spent the past 5 years of his 'running career' (if there is such a thing-possibly less career, and more taking running a little more seriously than using it as a means of getting from A to B a bit quicker than walking) on hard surfaces, running off-road is just odd.

Firstly, it zaps all your energy, soft ground absorbs your impact thus pushing off on each stride takes more effort.
Secondly, soft ground by its own definition is not 'hard' thus ankles, knees and other bits of my anatomy (behave) are not as stable as running on road.
Lastly, it's not just grass, but dirt, mud and also water features such as brooks and streams! Thus adding an additional degree of difficultly as it is quite slippery out there.

The training session went o.k, it was just 10 x 800m reps over undulating terrain. Not too bad but tiring nonetheless.

The first cross country race is this Saturday, so I'm being thrown straight into the deep end. The races tend to be about 6 miles. Apparently this event has a brook which we will run through twice. Sounds like fun to me.

This lunch time I'm off down to a local sports shop to buy some 'Spikes', I do have off road shoes, but I've been advised that whilst these will have good grip, they won't compare to the benefit spikes will give.

This however fills me with slight nervousness, the more kit that I purchase, the better 'runner' I feel I need to be, other wise I will fulfil the criteria of the phrase 'All the gear- but no idea'.

We'll see, my off road career could still be very short lived....

One last update before I go....

I took part in a lovely 5K road race last Sunday, which was a nice transition from 13.1 miles of the Birmingham Half the week before. I think I managed to run my best 5K of the season so far running a time of 19 mins,23 secs. I think I could have possibly got under 19 mins, but the X-country training the day before and the half the week before, just drained the legs a bit. This time however gave me a placing of 49th of 278 runners. The male runner that won the race did it in a time of 14 mins, 40 secs!! Crazy, that is just insane. Mind you I knew it was going to be a very competitive race when I spotted a tattoo on the bicep of the runner in front of me, which had the Irish flag and the Olympic rings underneath followed by Athens 2004.
This was spotted at the start line, as I was no where near him during the race!!

Birmingham Half-marathon report

2009-10-12T12:20:00.002+01:00

As half marathon's go, I really enjoyed this one!

Which is really rare, normally the word 'enjoy' can not often be found in the same sentence as anything describing 13.1 or more miles, but on this occasion and I hope this is true for others that took part, it was a very enjoyable course.

The morning was excellent for runners, cool but not cold and a slight drizzle in the air which didn't start until the gun went off. The course this year was changed dramatically from last year, to suit a fast pace required to attract elite runners for the World half marathon championships, and despite the last 1.1 miles being uphill, it was generally a fast route.

The start was downhill for almost a mile, and I think I clocked just under a six minute mile, which was frightening and I had to force myself to run slower, as I thought I would burn out at 3 miles if I kept that ridiculous pace going, by mile 4/5 I had nicely settled in my planned 7 min mile pace and everything was going well.

Dame Kelly Holmes was the official starter, although I completely blanked her, I wasn't aware she was at the startline until after the event.

The route went through Canon hill Park, then past Edgbaston Cricket ground before heading towards Bournville and Cadbury's world. Being a Bournville Harrier, there was a lot of support in Bournville which was really nice as this was the half way point.

By 9 miles my legs were really getting tired, as I haven't been able to do much training beyond this distance. Fortunately my pace wasn't suffering too much it was just getting harder.

As I approached 12, I knew that the finish was uphill, so I tried to dig into any left over energy reserves and push hard. Many people were starting to suffer with cramp on this uphill section. The only bad planning of the route really-no one wants to finish a half marathon running uphill.

After a last surge down Broad street, which was lined with an incredible amount of people, I crossed the finish line in 1hr 32mins and 24 secs, giving me a finishing place of 485 out of 12,000+ runners. I am so pleased with this, as it is my fastest half marathon time, and for the training I've been able to do it was unexpected. I was aiming to be somewhere between 1:35 and 1:40, so I am overwhelmed.

Some credit has to be given to the organisers this year, as although I think they got the finish of the race route slightly wrong, the event was better organised from start to finish than last year, so well done to them.

So those of you that would like to run a fun fast half marathon course, please sign up for next years event, you'll love it.

Bournville Leafy 10K

2009-10-06T14:34:00.003+01:00

Things are finally starting to look up and I'm beginning to get excited about the Birmingham half marathon. Since being ill in August, I haven't been looking forward to it at all. The loss of training during that month meant I was several weeks behind where I wanted to be. However after completing two 10Ks in the past two weeks and running around most the route for the half marathon I'm starting to feel a little more confident.

People that know me will be aware of my competitiveness, if not directly with others, than almost always with myself. Which is one of the reasons I enjoy running so much, as it is not about racing other people, it's about competing with yourself. Pushing yourself to new levels, fighting the demons in your head telling you to quite, when you can actually continue going.

Over the past few weeks I have tried to push myself hard, combining running, cross-training and more cardiovascular workouts to try and get my fitness close to where I wanted to be for the half marathon.

I know inside I'm not quite there, but I am actually closer than I ever thought I would be. So whilst I don't envisage a PB at the half marathon, if all goes well I can post a time I will be proud of.

Last Sunday saw the running of the Bournville Leafy 10K. It's a race organised by my club and a fun informal event. This year there was a bumper turnout- I think largely associated with the half-marathon round the corner and a number of people looking for a local race to use as part of their training-197 runners turned out to run an undulating course over parkland, streets and paths. The day was a sunny but brisk day which made for good running conditions.

I can't say I enjoyed the run as you were either running up hill or down hill, but mostly up hill it felt like with a short steep hill just before the finish line. All together it was a good run, I managed to finish 15th male. Which is my best ever finish in any event I've run in before.

I was reasonably pleased with my time too, finishing in 41 mins: 18 secs. Compared to the Conductive education 10K a couple of weeks ago, I improved on what I think was actually a much harder course.

So all in all, a big mental boost for next Sunday. I'm not running at all this week, as I'm trying to preserve my left foot. Whilst playing football last week I managed to take off a piece of skin on the ball of my foot roughly an inch x an inch & 1/2. The young soft skin underneath has been screaming at me since, and running the 10K on Sunday didn't help matters. Lucky for you I've resisted posting any photos.

So next time I post will hopefully be after the Birmingham half!

Conductive Education 10K

2009-09-29T08:57:00.003+01:00

This race took place in Canon hill Park in Birmingham, which those of you unfamiliar with Birmingham is right next to Edgbaston Cricket ground. The race is to raise money and awareness of Conductive Education, a foundation that teaches children and adults with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy, dyspraxia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, stroke and head injury how to overcome their movement difficulties. This is an annual event and is well supported by the Bournville Harriers running club I'm part of.

The 10K itself is a 2 lap course round the park, it is moderately flat which enables fast times to be made. There is only really one slow part of the course which is where runners need to perform a sharp U-turn.
This year I think there were about 150+ runners of mixed skill level. I wanted to use this race as a tester of my fitness after my recent bouts of ailments. It went fairly well, despite not feeling particularly great before the start. I ran the course in 42 min 4 secs, placing me 26th. I'm reasonably happy with that as it is not too far away from my fastest 10K time.

Last Sunday, I ran the course for the Birmingham half marathon that is in less than two weeks time. I think it is going to be a great race, the course is very runner friendly, only one challenging incline. so fast times should be posted for the World Half marathon runners which are sharing this event. I'm keeping my fingers crossed to try to run a time of 1hr 35mins, but I think this is asking alot. sub 1:40 and I'll be very pleased.

I've got another 10K this weekend, which hopefully will push me towards this goal.

Running progress

2009-09-24T08:48:00.002+01:00

With the Birmingham half less than 3 weeks away, my training is struggling to get up to the mileage required. Majority of my training runs have been around the 6-8 mile distance, with a few shorter 5Ks working on speed.

I think I will be absolutely fine for the Birmingham half, but I don't think I will be posting a PB, which was my original target.

This Sunday, I'm intending to run the course and complete the first 13.1 mile run I've done for a very long time. This is more a confidence booster and hopefully being familiar with the route I can actually prepare myself better for race day on the 11th of October. Just knowing where the ups and downs are helps to plan when to push and when to conserve.

This will be my last long distance run of the year, before most of my running turns to off road cross-country events, with the aptly named 'Suicide six' happening in November.

With darkness becoming ever more a companion to my running, I have bought some new gear. It is still too warm to wear my hi-vis jacket, so my new purchase is a hi-vis vest, but not just any old vest-this is a funky skeleton pattern vest and with Halloween approaching, I can't wait.....

look out for photos soon....

Back in business

2009-09-02T08:30:00.002+01:00

September 1st couldn't have arrived any sooner. I've decided that August will not be a month to remember, yet I'll probably recount the tale of the 'Swine flu' saga to my grandchildren in years to come. 'On death's door I was!' o.k a slight over exaggeration, but I'm so pleased to have gotten through that episode and back to what I hope will be a long stint of good health.

To celebrate the end of August, I went running for the first time in 4 weeks on Sunday, I managed about 4 miles. Not a lot but small baby steps first. I think my legs could have gone further, but my lungs couldn't.

I can only imagine that's how a 20-a-day smoker would feel. Struggling to get enough air into your lungs. Not a pleasant feeling.

For my sins, I'm still targeting the Birmingham half marathon on Oct 11th, although I'm several weeks behind schedule, I think will give it a go. I know I will finish, but I'm not anticipating an improved time.
What I've learnt over the past few weeks is that I'm no iron man, tin perhaps, but I definitely need to reign in some of my expectations and ambitions. I have a tendency to push myself too hard, which has led me to falling pretty hard.

I've picked myself up now though, dusted myself down and am starting again with a steady steady approach.

I did a restrained spin class last night, holding myself back from going mental and burning out-which is quite good for me. My next run will hopefully be a short lunch time run on Friday and then maybe I will try 6 miles on Sunday.

all in all, it's nice to just put the trainers back on and hit the road again.

Swine flu

2009-08-20T14:47:00.002+01:00

Just when I thought this summer couldn't get any worse! I have now contracted in addition to my chest infection Swine flu! On Monday of this week, I began the day feeling a bit unwell, but went to work as normal as I associated it with my chest infection and the lack of sleep I've been getting. As the day progressed I started to feel gradually worse and by mid-afternoon began to realise that this may be something more than just my chest. I was feeling really lethargic and achy. I took myself off from the communal office I share to an empty common room in the medical school for a rest. I was concerned that with all the coughing I was doing, my colleagues would not be too pleased if they caught my germs. I was intending to go back to the Doctors on the Tuesday to tell them that my chest was worse and I was feeling worse. I had a Dentist appointment at 6:20pm and managed to get to it. On the way home I started to feel really shaky but put this down to being hungry. When I got home, I felt worse, the shakes were shivers that I couldn't control and I felt really cold. All of my joints particularly my wrists, hands, lower back and hips were aching, and my skin was painful to touch. The shivers just made the pain worse, I got into bed to try to get warm and lay still, but the shivers wouldn't stop. When my wife got home, she made me a hot water bottle and took my temperature. It was 38.4, I had a fever.
Suspecting that this could be swine flu, my wife telephoned the hot line and went through a series of questions for a diagnosis of swine flu to be confirmed and a code given to pick up some Tamiflu from one of the designated centers. We found one that was open late and collected the medication.

The next 24 hrs to 48 hrs were not very enjoyable, but 72 hrs after starting the tamiflu I started to feel more like myself again. I'm also on antibiotics now for my chest which seems to be improving.
Monday night was not something I'd ever like to experience again. I had dismissed people's claims that swine flu was worse than any other flu, but I can now sympathise with one person's comment that when they had swine flu said 'if someone laid a £50 note 3 yards away and said it was yours to pick up, I couldn't do it'. I understand that now, the sheer lack of energy and joint pain is indescribable.

I'm hoping that this experience is now the rock bottom for me, and things begin to pick up. I can't remember a time when I've been ill for so long.

Any how as you can see I'm typing at a key board, which means my aches have gone, I'm just suffering from tiredness, coughs, and a persistent headache, hopefully these too will subside over the next couple of days.

Still ill

2009-08-17T09:24:00.003+01:00

August 17th, and I'm still ill.
I have what seems to be a lot of fluid on my chest, which strangely the Doctor cannot hear. Perhaps the fact I sat in his reception room for over an hour waiting to see him contributed to the fact. So I left the surgery with nothing more than what I walked in with and now four days later, my chest is worse and head is stuffed up and throbs every time I cough, which is frequent.

I would have thought, that when someone who has trained as an Immunologist says they have a chest infection which they are struggling to overcome themselves, they should be someone that you believe considering the immune system is what they know. But hey, being a GP is less about treating patients these days and more about numbers on a spreadsheet. Cynical? Yes! Realist? Definitely. Apologies to all you good GP's out there, and there are some just not mine.

I'm now beginning to wonder whether I will be able to get any significant training in before the Birmingham half? This summer has just gone from bad to worse. I can't remember the last time I ran.

anyone like to give me some new lungs?

On a positive note, looks like Paula Radcliffe is getting back to her best after winning the NY half marathon. Hope she goes on to spank the world in the marathon championships in Berlin this weekend.

best made plans...

2009-08-04T08:59:00.003+01:00

I thought I was being very diligent this summer with a well thought out training plan to see me improve my speed and short distance times.

It's fine on one hand to make the plans with the best intentions, it's another thing seeing those plans through to fruition. Now I'm not saying I haven't made my best effort to stick to my training regime. It's just other things have conspired against me this summer. I say summer very loosely as this was one of the damning factors which has led me to fail miserably in my aims. For the past three weeks I have suffered off and on with two different colds, not flu or swine flu, but a foggy head cold and now a chest/hacking cold. Both of these have taken the stuffing out of me. When I have felt o.k to put some training in the weather has defeated me, with some extraordinary downpours. And lastly when I have been healthy and the sun has actually shown it's face, my hamstring has gone.

So this summer of 5Ks has turned into a summer of discontent.

mustn't grumble I'm British with a stiff upper lip!

Anyone got an elastic band? My hamstring is broke.

2009-07-29T12:59:00.002+01:00

This is what happens when someone who is, lets say, closer to 40 than 30 yrs of age and tries to do a 7 mile run, a spinning class, a squash match, a football match, and compete in a 1 mile hill race over a 4 day period.

Sensible, if you are in your teens and your body has the ability to repair itself in the wink of an eye. My body however, has swiftly move way beyond the point of return for such teenage delights.

This seems also true for body to recover from the occasional alcohol over indulgence. When did I lose this ability to drink two nights in a row and not regret it for days to come?

At risk of becoming a bitter old man, I'm getting fed up of my body reminding me what I can't do anymore! Is this the sign of a mid life crisis starting? I'm already losing my hair, is that not punishment enough?

Something is going to have to give! Considering I'm not intending on running 1 mile hill races each week, this is a natural starting place.

This 'Killer' mile experience was short in distance but long in pain. 6 mins 40 secs of it to be precise! This time enables me to finish 12th in the club, which is not bad (personally I was hoping for a top 10) but I'm happy with my efforts. For those that want to witness my pain you can watch the finishing video, that some delightful club member thought it would be beneficial for us to be able to relive this event at the click of a button.

I'm meant to be running a 5 K race this evening in Wombourne, but the hamstring has scuppered that idea, plus have you seen the rain!

So my next competitive race will be Aug 13th, another 5K and another attempt to see how my 5K training has developed---not very far me thinks!

On the training side, I have just taken delivery of a book called 'Run Less, Run Faster!' now that is my kind of training.

I'll let you know how I get on!

A year older, and a bit slower

2009-07-15T08:37:00.002+01:00

Last Thursday was my Birthday and also the stage 2 of the Birmingham Rowheath athletic club (BRAC) 5 K series. I wasn't able to take part in stage 1. so I wasn't sure exactly what sort of time to expect for this course. I have run part of it before and it is slightly undulating so a fast time wasn't likely but I had my hope up as I've been trying to focus my recent training on speedwork specifically aiming at improving my short distance running. Granted going on holiday wasn't meant to be part of that training, but I did manage to get some running done whilst away.

I had an extra incentive on the night as it was my birthday and I was going to be treated to dinner afterwards, so I knew there would be some reward for a good effort.

This stage of the BRAC 5K series was also doubling as the Warwickshire county5K championships. Seeing that I live in Worcestershire this meant nothing to me but did mean that there would be a strong turn out.

I planned to try to run with someone that I knew was slightly faster than me, as an attempt to improve my overall time and for the first 1.5 K this was going well, we then hit a hill and my rubbish hill running showed and he began to move away from me. Not a huge distance but enough for me to start feeling demoralised. Especially as when speaking to him beforehand he was planning on starting steady and then speeding up (i.e negative splits). Normally I run the opposite start fast and try to maintain momentum which usually results in positive splits (i.e second half slower than first). What I found in this run is that I neither sped up or slowed down but rather just ran at a constant pace from start to finish.

What's wrong with this you say? Nothing, but as I couldn't inject any more pace I just had to watch as my target runner drifted away from me. When I did eventually cross the finish line, I was knackered and knew I had done my best on that night, but I felt disappointed as I think by changing my running strategy to suit his I actually ran a slower race than I could have. I clocked 19 mins 58 secs. I was hoping for something closer to the 19 min mark, but I may have to aim for this at the next Wombourne 5 K series, which is at the end of July and is a much flatter course.

The time on the night was good enough for 64th place and my target runner finished 24 secs ahead of me finishing 56th. There is one more race left in this series, on August 13th, so I have an opportunity to continue my training and hopefully improve on this. In the meantime Wombourne 5K is July 23rd (next Wednesday) where I will be trying to beat 19 mins 26 secs.

So whilst I'm slightly disappointed with last weeks result, I know I got my strategy completely wrong.

On a different note today marks the start of my training for the Birmingham half marathon in October, hopefully a nice steady 6-7 miler at lunchtime.

Jeesh-I'm sad, in so many ways!

2009-07-06T08:46:00.004+01:00

Oh Leigh, let me count the ways of how sad you are!
1. I've been back in the U.K for just over 24hrs and I'm suffering holiday blues. A week in Cyprus has been just what my wife and I needed after having a few turbulent weeks in our personal and work lives. Temperatures in the 30's and not a care in the world helped to make this one of the most relaxing breaks we've had for some time. The Cypriot people are very welcoming, although our hotel seemed to be predominantly staffed by Polish, French, Czech, German, Australian and Swedish nationals. Still they all did there very best to make are stay a good one, that was of course until our All inclusive finished 6 hrs before our pick up to the airport and it was a case of 'Are you still here?', 'You know this conditioned air you are breathing is not free!' Well it wasn't that bad really, but the power of the mighty A/I wristband was like a modern day Talisman. Bow down and worship the wristband Ye feeble staff of internationals and bring me my Frappe! Anyhow once the band was removed. They saw me for what I truly was, just another paying customer making them have to work in unbearable heat.

2. I have an amazing knack of being able to select a holiday when the U.K. decides to have a heat wave or unbelievably amazing weather. The residents of the U.K should all monitor when I choose to leave the country on holiday and respectively book their annual leave and stock up on BBQ food and booze and prepare to bask in the incredible weather. This could not have been demonstrated any better than when we watched the BBC World news, whilst getting ready for dinner and the weather forecaster announced London temperatures would be 34 C and in Cyprus we were going to experience 30 C. Damn you! Despite this it was hot enough and I was not too perturbed that it was warmer in the U.K. To appease the Sadist in me though, it does help me enjoy my holiday a little more though when I know that the weather is rubbish back home.

3. To round up my 'Sad' summary, I decided to take my running trainers with me on holiday. The two (running trainers & holiday) shouldn't really be placed in the same sentence. Ever! Having thought long and hard about it, and taking into consideration my summer ambitions and the fact that however controlled I tried to be with the 'all inclusive talisman' wristband I would no doubt over indulge and eat and drink myself into a state of sloth I decided to throw the shoes in the suitcase and see what happened. I was quite good and did three sessions during the week. The first was a 5 K tempo run at 8am on the Monday along the sea front heading towards Paphos town. This was great and there were a lot of runners out also. There is something very nice and idealistic of running with your shirt off along the sea front in sunshine! Almost 'Baywatch'-esque although I don't look like the Hoff or Pamela Anderson! The second session was a 6K interval workout in the hotel gym on the treadmill. The gym was wonderfully air-conditioned which enabled me to put in a good speed session, half mile fast, half mile normal etc repeated. The last session I did was a 20 min hills session outside again at 8 am and then a 5K on the treadmill in the gym. It was so nice to get inthe cool gym.

It was actually quite enjoyable to do this exercise on holiday-especially as the most activity I would have otherwise got up to was to flip myself over like a burger on the sun lounger and order myself another Frappe!

All in all, I've come back refreshed, sun-kissed, and 3 lbs heavier.

Bench mark-tastic!

2009-06-25T08:31:00.003+01:00

Having laid my summer plans out in yesterdays post, I ran the first of my 5 k races last night under sunny skies and through fly ridden hot air.

It wasn't actually that bad just mildly unpleasant. I can't complain really, I knew it was going to be warm, but the flies, those pesky flies!!!

The route was and out and back route along an old disused railway line, so most of it was actually sheltered with trees which helped against the sun but encouraged the large massing of flies.

There seemed to be about 50 people taking part, possibly slightly less. I thought there might have been more.

I was pleased to see another runner from the Bournville Harriers there, Linda. She is a top class runner and my Nemesis. She runs just a bit quicker than me so has always been a target for me since joining the club to try to aspire to keep up with her. The past few races we've both taken part in I've managed to get within a few seconds of her, but tonight I think the gap may have been a bit wider. She has managed finish top female in the last couple of 5 Ks that she has done, and beaten a hell of a lot of blokes in the process.

I was 26th off the line, as they staggered the start. For running a race on a narrow path this is the best way to do it. They set people off in roughly 15 sec intervals and we were chip timed.
I managed to catch up and overtake I think six people, but I was also overtaken by 3 guys who were moving pretty swift.
The out 2.5 K was o.k and I was maintaining roughly 6 1/2 min miles at the turn though I was feeling truly knackered and the thought of doing the back 2.5 K wasn't inspiring me, however it felt slightly easier, I couldn't quite gauge why, but then realised that the disused railway line was actually on a slight slope and the first 2.5 was mildly uphill and the back was thus slightly downhill. This was a very welcomed relief.

Despite taking a few flies in the face none managed to find there way into my mouth but one did hit me plum in the eye. My Garmin time reported that I crossed the finish line in 19mins 28 secs.
I was hoping to set a time near 19mins, so I'm not too displeased with this time.

So that is my bench mark that I hall judge my training progress by this summer.

The next 5K is on July 9th (my birthday) but seeing that I will have only just returned from a week long all inclusive holiday I think my time may go backwards first before going forwards.

And before anyone suggests it. It's a holiday so no I'm not taking my trainers!

A summer of 5Ks

2009-06-24T11:55:00.002+01:00

I think I have just coined a new phrase for a collective of many 5K races.
Similar to a gaggle of geese, or a herd of cows, when you have more than one 5K races lounging together they should be referred to as a 'summer' of 5 Ks!
Granted this has many short comings and is probably highly inaccurate (5K races do occur in other seasons), it does have a certain ring to it.

Although 5 K races do pop up throughout the year, the bulk of them happen in the summer, which makes a lot of sense, I mean who wants to run a marathon in hot sunny conditions (o.k one could be allowed to think I was referring to somewhere such as Greece, rather than the U.K) even 10Ks are relatively unpleasant.

I've been scanning the interweb for longer distance runs happening late summer/early autumn so i can plan my training for the NY marathon next year. There is nothing longer than a half, so it looks like I'll have to be more disciplined and run several long distances on my tod.

Anyhow enough about next year, this summer I'm trying to improve my short distance times hence the focus on 5Ks, I've got at least 4 planned with the first tonight in Wombourne (near to where I was born) and the last one happening on October 18th. The aim is to set a bench mark tonight and then combine over the summer regular speed work sessions to try to bring my time down for the Oct 18th race.

Gosh this almost sounds like a plan.

Green shoots

2009-06-17T15:43:00.002+01:00

Although this may not be true of the economic status of the U.K. It is certainly true of our vegetable plot. The recent spell of wet weather and intermittent sunny days have combined to yield bumper crops of spuds, lettuce, peas and runner beans. Well perhaps not the latter just yet, but the runners have produced tonnes of flower buds which should translate to a large harvest of runner beans. Our Red Falstaff apple tree (a new purchase this spring) has settled into our garden and is laden with developing fruits which looks like we could have a yield of maybe 30+ apples from this single tree later in the year.

Having already benefited from copious amounts of Lettuce (little gems, curly leaf, and Italian mixed leaves i.e Rocket and other interesting flavoured leaves) to the extent that we cannot keep up and will have to pull some up to be discarded (beginning to bolt [Flowering-not good as it makes them somewhat bitter tasting] but chickens still like eating them) we have just tried some of our 'Early' potatoes, King Edwards, which were a delight. Only the size of New potatoes but full of flavour.

Having never grown potatoes before, we couldn't help ourselves and just had to harvest some now. Will let the remainder (about 9 plants) though continue to develop for another 4 weeks to let them get up to jacket potato size.

We've also got 5 Cherry tomato plants developing nicely and fingers crossed with the dry hot summer we're promised, we might actually get some tomatoes this year. Last years crops were a complete disaster suffering with blight.

Further to these, we've got some carrots, Brussel sprouts and some sweet corn, all of which look like they're doing well.

The chickens seem to be getting themselves back into the swing of laying again, both Peggy and Doreen are back to normal and out of their broody phase, fingers crossed they remain this way for the rest of the summer. Getting almost an egg a day from the two of them. Betty however has got it bad, and with the other two starting to lay again, might prolong her broodiness as she just leaps onto the others eggs once they've laid them! Not quite sure how to deal with her a part from separating her from Doreen and Peggy.

So whilst the running has gone quite in terms of races, the budding Farmer in me, is being kept very busy.

Birmingham half - I'm in

2009-06-10T09:13:00.003+01:00

After announcing the Entry opening Yesterday, I have gone and entered the Birmingham Half marathon this morning. Well it would be wrong not to, when the event is on your doorstep. However I nearly tripped over this doorstep when I saw how much they are charging for entry!

£23 if you are unaffiliated and £21 if you are part of a club. Personally I think this is a ridiculous charge. I personally try to champion Birmingham when I can because I think it generally gets bad press and usually from people that have either not visited Birmingham in the past few years or have actually never been to Birmingham at all.

However on this occasion, I am very disappointed that the race organisers (Birmingham City Council) have decided that £23 is a fair price. O.k granted that this year it is also the World Half marathon championships, but that shouldn't give them license to charge whatever they want. Not only this, but then the Council want to squeeze more money out of you by charging a £3.50 administration fee! What exactly is that for? Entry is all online and therefore it is completely automated-no poor girl sitting in a post room opening thousands of race entries.

I think the council have managed to shoot themselves in the foot here. Last year I don't recall the price of entry to be as steep, then it was just the course. This year the course is flatter but the price is steeper. Having an opportunity to put Birmingham on the world stage is fantastic, charging people an extortionate amount to take part raises the bar of expectation and considering how last years event unfolded (poor organisation at the start-better but not brilliant at the finish) it is more likely that this expectation will not be met.

I don't want to be too negative, as I'm certain that the Brummies will make sure that the atmosphere will be great, it's just a shame that they seem to want to use this event to make money.
Despite my frustrations, I would still encourage people to enter, it should be a fun and fast run, the course looks better than last years and it should still yield opportunities for PBs.

http://www.birminghamhalfmarathon.com/

Birmingham Half marathon entry opens tomorrow

2009-06-09T15:31:00.003+01:00

Calling all E-runners!

For all of you that ran the London marathon and enjoyed the buzz of the event, in the knowledge that you were plodding along the same streets as some of the best marathon athletes the world has to offer. Well get yourselves over to Birmingham on October 11th to take part in the Birmingham Half marathon, which will also be hosting the World Half marathon Championships in the same event.

Last year, Birmingham hosted it's first half marathon sponsored by EDF, and used that event as a template to learn from to make sure that when they host the world championships this year it will be one of the best organised half marathons. The entry limit, last year I believe was about 9000, but I would imagine that this will increase considerably for this years run. In addition they have also changed the course, as last years event took in much of Birmingham prettier streets, which unfortunately meant it was a fairly hilly and you finished at a higher altitude than you started so in effect you were running up hill the whole way. The organisers have taken this on board and have apparently produced a very flat fast course which is likely to enable new world records to be set, and for many lots of new PBs.

The on-line entry opens tomorrow, I don't believe it to be a ballot system, last year it was a first come first served basis, so get your entry in early.

The website is http://www.birminghamhalfmarathon.com/
but at the moment still has last years info and has not yet been updated for this year, so have a visit to the site tomorrow on the 10th if you're interested.

I'll definitely be running and it would be good to say hello and maybe have a beer and a balti with any other E-runners taking part.

Good luck

Tour of Bournville: Final Stage 5

2009-06-06T14:25:00.003+01:00

At last it is all done and finished!
This week has been something else. When viewed individually, each race is not so much of a challenge, but the true test is being able to compete in each event, each night with the same vigour and energy. It's not necessarily a case of going out and running as fast as you can, as this would mean by Friday you are completely burnt out, but managing your energy knowing your strengths and weakness, when to put in a burst of energy and when to hold back.

The notion of doing this type of event isn't something I wouldn't necessarily look forward to taking part in, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone having now completed it. You learn quite a lot about yourself as a runner and what you can put yourself through. Plus you meet some fantastic people.

Last nights finale, was a case of trying to hold on to 6th place overall for me, I had a 22 sec and a 32 second lead on the next two runners, so I had to make sure they didn't get too far ahead of me.
I generally like 5 km distances, and really enjoy running at a faster speed. I think a big factor for me is that whilst it is very knackering, it's all over relatively quickly. It's also a distance that training for is quite easy. So I was looking forward to this run. I had thought there might have been an opportunity to finish in the top 5 but it would all depend on what was left in the legs.

When the race was started I took to the front, I wanted to do this for two reasons, firstly I've never led a race before and secondly I wanted to play a slight psychological game with the two runners chasing my place. Plus it is easier to keep check on them if they are behind you.

My lead did not last long, maybe perhaps 3/4 of a km, but it was nice whilst it lasted. I managed to stay ahead of the 22sec gap runner for the first 1.5 km, then I noticed he was on my shoulder.
he went past me, but I tried not to let him stretch the gap between us too far. My legs were really tired after all the running this week and I knew it was now going to be a case of just hanging on in there.

At this stage I think I was in about 5th or 6th place on the night, this didn't really matter to me much now, as I just wanted to finished 6th overall so I had to stay in contact with 22sec runner.
The route was a two lap course and on completing the first loop I felt two more runners on my shoulder, the first was the runner that was 1 place ahead of me overall and the second was the 32 sec runner and I thought, bugger, I've got both of them to keep track of.

we ran together for quite a while, but with the last km approaching he seemed to be trying to push away. I tried to stay close keeping a little back in case I needed to try to push at the end.

Every corner or clear land mark, I tried to count the seconds between 22sec man and myself, with 1 km left it was about 18 secs, it was going to be really close.

At about 400m from the end I could see him nearing the final 200m and thought I'm going to have to sprint. When I got to about 200 m from the end I decided this was it, if I wanted that 6th place I had to go now, I put my head down closed my eyes and tried to reach into every last energy store I had, with about 50 m to go I passed 32 sec man, and was gaining on the runner placed above me, I could see the 22 sec man waiting at the finish to see whether he had done enough. I got through the finish line hyperventilating, I couldn't have done anymore, and thought if he beat me, then well done to him, I knew it was going to be really close.

Knowing my wife was at the finish line really helped me find that last bit of energy, and I'm absolutely certain it made the difference which allowed me to finish the 5 day event 2 seconds ahead of the 22 sec man. I had done just enough.

On the night I finished 8th, with a time of 19 mins 6 secs, and secured my 6th place overall.

I was the 5th fastest male, and overall really happy with how the week went. I've never done anything like this before and I learnt a lot about my limits, that I'm rubbish at hills, but good over flat, and that surprisingly off road running is rather enjoyable.

Would I do it again?
you betcha!

New York New York 2010 2010

2009-06-05T11:44:00.002+01:00

Well, having been overwhelmed by gaining entry into the NY marathon this year, I have had to fight the urge to actually run in the event this year.

Let me explain, I entered the NY marathon ballot with the anticipation that I would not be accepted in the same manner that I was rejected 5 consecutive times for the first London marathon I did. So being accepted into the NY marathon on the first attempt was a complete surprise.

Yes, I have plenty of time to train for NY, it's not until Nov 1st, but the thought of running two marathons in one year in different countries doesn't really appeal to me. Now I know people do run more than one marathon a year, in fact several people multiple marathons in a week, but I'm not yet that obsessed or sadistic just yet. Considering how long the training takes, and how much time you have to commit to it, I would effectively be throwing away any free time that I could be spending with family and friends.

So today I have made it official and cancelled my entry for NY09, but this does mean that I have a guaranteed place for the NY10 marathon. Sadly I have to pay for the entry twice, which compared to London is extortionate, but definitely worth it to have this opportunity.

So if anyone fancies running with me next year, remember to enter the ballot before May 1st 2010.

Tour of bournville: Stage 4

2009-06-05T09:31:00.002+01:00

Thank goodness that is over!
Last night was a 6.5 mile hill run in the countryside. Not only did we have to run up a hill 3 times which is also referred to as 'the killer mile' but it also took in a very steep descent and another short but steep incline. Add into this a farmer and his tractor whom seemed determined to take me out of the race and you have last nights race in a nutshell.

I had been dreading this race the most of all of them and after my difficulties in the shorter hilly stage 2. I wasn't sure how my stomach would react.

I had intentions of trying to stay with the person just above me in the leader board, but as we started and approached the first ascent of the killer mile hill, it was clear that she was a much better hill runner than me and she drifted further and further away from me. Alternatively I could view this as I am much more of a pants hill runner than I had anticipated, possibly a combination of both is likely the most accurate. So my strategy changed quite quickly and my plan was then not to be overtaken my anyone immediately behind me without burning myself out.

Getting to the top of the first hill was knackering and I had thought great only two more times up that hill. I questioned whether I would be able to run up it without stopping during the next two attempts. After Tuesday's disappointment I was determined not to stop and although on the final climb up the hill, I could have probably got up it faster if I had walked, my mantra of 'don't stop, pain is temporary' got me to the top and the finish.

One of the delights of this race is that it finishes by a pub called 'the Peacock' and so the lure of an ice cold beer post race helped in the final stages.

I wasn't overtaken by the person immediately below me in the leadership board, but another runner a couple of places below has had a few blinding races in the last 3 stages and has reduced the gap between himself and me to just 22 seconds and then the next runner is 32 seconds behind. So there is the potential that in the final stage tonight I could easily drop two places if I'm not careful. Notions of moving up the board for me are no longer feasible as the runner above me is 3 mins and 14 secs ahead, and although I'm feel more confident over shorter distances, I know I'm not that fast to make up 3 mins on her. She had a great run last night and if things had been different last Tuesday I may still be in touch with her, but as we come to finale tonight with a 5km road run, it's a case of letting it all out. I tried to hold back some energy from last night so I could give it a real go tonight. Lets hope there is some fuel left in the tank.

My time for the 6.5 mile Stage 4 was 46 min 52 secs leaving me in 8th place on the night and 6th place overall.

Over the week I've had a 7th, 9th, 8th, and an 8th place finish. I would love to finish one stage in the top 5, so tonight I will be pushing hard to do that.

Hopefully my wife being there tonight will spur me on to do just that.

Tour of Bournville: Stage 3

2009-06-04T08:17:00.002+01:00

Last night was a 5 mile canal side race, which meant it was flat. That word 'flat' has never sounded so nice. After the hilly Tuesday stage, I was so pleased to be back on familiar ground. I had been nervous all day, as the events on Tuesday, causing me to stop during the race and almost give up was playing on my mind. I felt determined that I wasn't going to let the same thing happen but this also had the effect of putting additional pressure on me, and so by race time my nerves were giving me a lot of grief. My stomach had been upset again all day, which I now put down to the nerves.

The race the a staggered start race, we were divided into 3 groups dependent upon our times from the previous two stages, I was in a group with the faster runners, which is a double edged sword. For that when I started, the really fast runners just seemed to run away from me with ease, but it also meant that there were enough people ahead of me to try to keep in touch with, which dragged Me along.

Having run this route a number of times I felt confident I could put in a good time and hopefully make up some time on the person immediately ahead of me in the standings and also put a bit more distance between me and the person behind me.

As we started, I managed to stay with one runner that had finished ahead of me in the last two stages until half way, when he decided to inject some additional pace and moved away from me, I couldn't respond. One thing I've learnt from this Tour event is that finding that little bit extra is hard to come by when you've been running everyday and what is essentially your optimum pace for that distance. Last night I was running at mine and could not squeeze any more juice out of my legs.

I did manage to stay ahead of the person that is placed above me and reduced the deficit by about 18 secs, and also increase my gap on the person behind me by 21 seconds. I finished the 5 mile run in 32 mins 45 secs which placed me 8th on the night, and maintained my 7th place overall. I'm still 1 min 24 secs behind 6th place though.

With a 7 mile hilly run tonight, I'm not certain that I will be able to do anything about that gap, and in fact I could easily see it widen as I openly acknowledge I am rubbish at hill running. My plan is damage limitation so I will try and stay as close as I can with the 6th place runner in anticipation that I might be able to do something special in the final 5Km run on Friday.

On a plus side- my stomach was fine last night and I had no urgency to stop. So I'm going to try and not to put too much pressure on myself today and hopefully enjoy the run as much as possible tonight.

The Tour of Bournville

2009-06-03T10:52:00.004+01:00

Started 3 years ago by the Bournville harriers running club. The Tour of Bournville is a five day competition of 5 consecutive races starting on Monday June 1st and ending Friday June 5th. Much like the more famous Tour de France cycling competition there are prizes for stage winners, but your times for each race are aggregated over the five days. The 5 stages this year consist of:

Monday Stage 1.
10Km mixed terrain

Tuesday Stage 2.
4 miles off road hilly

Wednesday Stage 3.
5 miles flat canal side path

Thursday Stage 4.
7 mile hilly road course

Friday Stage 5.
5Km mixed terrain followed by a BBQ.

The first two stages have been completed and with the heat we've experienced the past few days made them very difficult indeed. About 40 runners from the club are taking part this year and there is a very good atmosphere as most of the people know each other.

Monday's run, everyone was trying to set a bench mark to continue from, and I was no different. I wanted to post a time that I felt confident with but didn't want to be burnt out after just 1 stage. That seems to be the key with this type of competition is to control your speed and energy usage. No point in running a fast time one day only to suffer the next and lose any advantage you gained. I ran the Stage 1 10km in 40 mins and 4 secs leaving me 7th overall.

Tuesdays Stage 2. was a completely different story. Although a shorter distance, this course was completely off road and consisted of some major hills. It was a 2x 2mile loop course. On the first loop I was feeling fairly o.k, I was in 6th place, but the hills were having a real effect on me. The heat was also making it really difficult to breath. I can only describe the feeling as if running in a bubble of hot humid air.
Through out the day, my stomach was feeling very unsettled and at the end of the first loop when I started up another hill my abs tightened and I thought I was going to throw up. As I had just looped past the start line, I stopped and walked back to the start where there was some water and just caught my breath. This meant I was losing a huge amount of time of the runners ahead of me, 5 more runners went past whilst I was recovering. I didn't want to quit as that meant I would be out of the weeks competition, so I began running again.
The short break was a big help I suddenly felt refreshed. My mouth was again moist, my stomach had become less tense and body felt a few degrees cooler. I was able to pick my pace back up and I managed to retake some positions back. I was so pleased though to have got to the finish line. My time for stage 2. was 27 mins 56secs and I finished in 9th place on the night.

I can't help feel disappointed in myself for stopping, but I realise by doing so I may have helped myself to still be able to compete in the remaining races.

Overall, after 2 stages I am in 7th place with a combined timed of 1hr:7mins:59secs.
I'm 1 min 42 secs behind the 6th place person and 2 mins 42 secs behind the 5th place person, However, I'm only 4 secs ahead of the 8th place person.

So tonight is a 5 mile flat run along the canal. I'm hoping to gain some time here. I know I'm rubbish at hill running, so the fact it is flat is a huge bonus. I often run this route myself, so I know what pace I can achieve. I just hope that the past two nights haven't taken as much out of me as I dread and that I can run at the speed I feel I can. I know if I'm going to make up any ground tonight is one of very few chances left as Thursday is another hilly run and a long one at that. Fridays 5 km is a chance for me again to gain some time, but as it is only 5K we are only talking seconds rather than mins.

I hope everyone else running is feeling the same stiffness in their legs and the lethargy that I am feeling in my entire body.

The Big Apple-Here I come!!

2009-05-19T10:31:00.002+01:00

These things just aren't meant to happen!
Why is it when you don't want something to happen, it almost always does without fail.

The genius in me thought that having finally achieved my aim for the London marathon after two attempts, that instead of giving in to the post marathon cravings to enter again, I would enter the NY marathon on the assumption that I wouldn't get in.

On this same train of genius intuition, I would hopefully after being rejected for consecutive years, get an automatic place in 3 years time. Just about the time when the hunger to put my body and mind through this again would be peaking.

Great plan, well in theory. Of course this plan would all fall completely on its face if (now this is the funny part) that on your first attempt at applying (I'm being totally serious the really really funny part) you receive an email that says:
"Congratulations! You're in for the experience of a lifetime, the ING New York City Marathon 2009!We are thrilled that you will be joining us on Sunday, November 01, 2009. Be sure to bookmark our site and visit it often for the latest news. Good luck with your training."

Are you laughing? cause I am! It's all I can do. The wife is going to kill me!

She wasn't best pleased when she found out 4 days later (and not from me-oops) that I had entered the NY ballot, after promising I wouldn't run another marathon for awhile.

So, being the coward that I am, I sent a her a text this morning to let her know the good news!

I was quite surprised to receive a text back almost immediately.

I'm not really sure of how to interpret the text though. I mean how can you gauge someones mood in only 3 words?

Surely her response of "Oh my God!" is good?No?

Now I'm no Sigmund Freud by any means, but I think these are words of genuine excitement, especially as they're not followed by such terms of endearment like 'You bastard' or 'I'm filing for divorce'.

Well I guess, the proof will be when I see her this evening.
Note to myself, get home early to make sure locks have not been changed.

Running on empty

2009-05-11T09:55:00.002+01:00

One of the fallouts of the marathon last year, was how long it took me to recover.

I never really felt like myself until a good four weeks after. Physically I was fine, but when it came to putting any sort of effort into doing a task, I always fell short.

Once again, I have the same feeling this year, two weeks have past since the marathon, and physically I feel great, and I get excited about running again thinking I'm fitter and stronger, but when it comes to it, all of this great expectation is let down by just not having any energy.

Last Wednesdays 10 km race was one example of this, as we set off everything was good, until we reached the first hill at 1km, everyone started running away from me and I had no energy to respond. I got through the run, but I was just so tired. 24 hrs later, my throat started hurting and then I had a fever for two days. Before anyone says it, it's not Swine flu!

Yesterday, was the first day that I actually felt good again. So tonight, I'm off to the club to run what I hope to be a positive run, rather than one that leaves me questioning myself again.

Am I doing too much too soon? Probably. On a quest to maintain this level of fitness that I've built up over the past 5 months, I think I'm at risk of over doing it. We'll see how this evening goes before I get too panicky.

One thing for sure, is that I think I need to restock the cupboard with Vit C again. Fevers are pants!

DK10K road race

2009-05-07T09:50:00.003+01:00

Last night was the first competitive event since running the London marathon 11 days ago.

The highly acclaimed Dudley-kingswinford 10k road race. It had a great turn out with over 1000 runners taking part, which is impressive for a mid-week evening race. There were loads of club runners there, which as a running club 'newbie' is still quite daunting to see, and so I just try to slide into the crowd of runners unnoticed. This is a bit of a problem if I want to improve my times and be more competitive.

Events like this, don't have chip times, so when the hooter goes, your time starts ticking. This is fine if you are at the front of the pack on the start line, as you can get away unimpeded, but if you are somewhere down in the middle of 1000 runners, it takes a while first to cross the start line (19 seconds as it turns out last night) and then some time to get clear road in front of you to get to the pace you want to run at. I think that this could easily account for gaining a minute or more off my time which in terms of races like this is potentially a difference of a bout 50 places.

So I need to begin feeling and thinking like I deserve to be near the front just like anyone else and forcing my way up there, thing is though, that's just not in my nature. I don't do pushing, I'm competitive but not that competitive, and I can't certainly be rude to anyone-I'd feel ashamed and want to apologise endlessly throughout the run.

Well last night went quite well, I ran the 10K which was mainly through undulating country lanes in a time of 42:00 minutes (my Garmin) and 42:19 official time. This placed me 109th out of something like 1000th runners, full results have not yet been posted so I'm unsure of exact numbers but there were 1051 entrants before the run and also entries permitted on the night. So I'm very happy to be around the top 10%. I had set myself an aim of trying to finish in the top 100, so with the point I made above regarding starting places I'm slightly frustrated as I feel I could have broken into that group, but despite that I am genuinely really pleased with how I ran post-marathon. The legs felt good no aches or pains, but what was missing was just the energy to feel I could push on.

This is something I remember from last year, it took me almost a month just to begin to feel like myself again, and not constantly tired.

Anyhow, whats next? Well May 17th a Cure Leukaemia 10K run through Sutton Park, in Sutton Coldfield. I ran this last year, and it is a lot of fun in aid of a good cause, lets see if I can go sub-42 mins!

Beware of the Broody chicken!

2009-05-07T09:11:00.004+01:00

What goes on in the mind of a chicken is far beyond me. I've been learning since we've acquired our hens how some of the chicken 'references' such as pecking order etc were originally coined.

The most obvious but also humorous of them all, is why we refer to people as a 'chicken' when they are scared- or pull out of something at the last minute. Why use the term 'chicken' to mean afraid? Why not some other domestic or non-domestic animal like donkey? I can't think of seeing any particular brave or bold donkey strutting about. Mind you, my only contact with donkeys have been during my childhood at one of many British seaside resorts, for which I don't really recall them being either brave or cowardly, just rather docile. Perhaps this now explains a lot. Animal behaviour I'm finding is really quite strange but fascinating at the same time. I've learnt from keeping hens that they are indeed practically afraid of everything! and they certainly don't do change very well at all.

For instance, where I keep my ladies I have put down, over the bank holiday weekend, approximately 250 kg of pea shingle. If anyone has any in cling of doing this make sure you have some help, unlike me, who's back now feels like it needs to be physically manipulated back into shape. This introduction of tiny little pebbles, has freaked the hens out, so much so that they will do almost any thing not to walk on it. Seeing 3 chickens walk the equivalent of a tight rope to avoid touching the offending shingle is rather amusing, however, after nearly a week they seem to be getting accustomed to it.

They still look like they are tip-toeing over it, if chickens could tip-toe!

With all of this excitement in chicken-land, 'Peggy' hen has decided that she is broody. This means that she feels that she has had a nice romantic rendez-vous with a tall dark and handsome Cockerel, I'm imagining she'd probably go for a George Clooney of the chicken world, and is now expecting babies. So all she wants to do is sit in the nest, all of the time.

Considering there is no George Cloony cockerel or even a Martin Cloones cockerel (sorry Martin but you're not really that much of a looker) anywhere in the vicinity, this is all in her head.

Being Broody means that she stops laying, as all her energy goes to trying to sit on an egg or two.

So when ever one of the other two hens lay, Peggy is straight in there trying to sit on it.

Apparently this can last up to 3 weeks before, she finally cottons on to the fact that chicks aren't going to materialise.

It's quite cute and sad at the same time. This lifestyle change also means she has given up her place atop of the pecking order and is now servant to Doreen. Much to her delight.

The ladies enjoying a nice dust bath together!

Bye Bye London....Hello New York

2009-05-05T08:50:00.002+01:00

I had made a decision before this years London marathon, that if I managed to beat my time of last year, and if I managed to run sub 4 hrs, it would be my last London marathon and there would be no endorphin-induced entering of the ballot.

So last week was a strange week, as I managed to achieve both of my personal goals, raise more money than I had anticipated, but then also deal with an endorphin high and fight the urge to enter again.

For anyone that has run a marathon will acknowledge that the training required consumes your life for at least 4 months, and considering that I've run London two years consecutively, that totals 8 months of my wife having to put up with me torturing my body and putting our lives on hold.

So whilst it will feel odd next December when all the training would normally kick off in earnest to not be focusing on April 25th 2010, it will also be a welcomed relief to have a lie in on Sunday mornings, to know that on Monday mornings through the winter/Spring I won't start the working week already feeling exhausted.

I'm hoping though for the VLM 2010 to finally be a supporter and not a runner, I have always been taking part in the races I would love to spectate in, so my fingers are crossed for friends that have entered the ballot that they will get a place.

For me this is not the end of my marathon career, just London.

Last Friday, I appeased a small fraction of my endorphin demands my entering the ballot for the New York 09 marathon. Similar to London, the NY marathon is always oversubscribed and places are very competitive. Unlike London, NY has a guaranteed place system if you are rejected 3 consecutive years. This is kind of my aim. The idea of running this November doesn't actually appeal to me, next year perhaps. So what if I do get a place? Well if that miracle happens at the first attempt I'll be deferring my place to next year.

I love running, but I also realise that as I'm approaching the age if 36 I need to look after my body and particularly my joints. So the thought of running more than one marathon a year just frightens me thinking of the stress I am exposing my joints to.

So whilst it is sad to say good bye to London, it is very exciting to put NYC in my sights as my next big challenge.

On the road again.....

2009-05-01T14:42:00.003+01:00

Having decided that my post-marathon depression needed sorting out.
I chucked the trainers in my bag and decided to get back running today.

I thought maybe just a short 5 miles to see if the legs remembered what they're meant to do.

Started off a little unsteady, I seemed to really have to concentrate to put one leg in front of the other.

Although my muscles don't ache much any more, they are still not quite what they should be.

My knees felt a little wobbly and my hips weren't too appreciative of me forcing them to run again so soon.

After about 1.5 miles, all seemed to have settled and I put my muscles back in order like a well trained Drill Sergeant.

By the end, I was happy to be back running again, strangely on a scale of knackeredness- Its towards the high end- which is rubbish for a five miler- so more glucose needed. Beers and pasta penciled in for the weekend.

Originally it was just beer- in aid of retox! But if I'm going to anything half decent in the 10 K race next Wednesday I need fuel!!

It's nice to be back....

London: My FLM09 experience; The end

2009-04-29T15:30:00.005+01:00

Entering the streets of Canary Wharf is a favorite part of the course for me. The streets are lined several people deep, and the sound that is generated bounces off all the tall city buildings and amplifies further. It's hard to know where to look as people are cheering everywhere. At this stage, you know you are almost 3/4 of the way to the end, but in actuality you haven't reached halfway.

People who have completed a marathon will tell you that the second half begins at 20 miles, and this is the hard part. Last year it was also at 20 miles that I began to struggle, and my body slowly began to fall apart, so approaching this distance I began to get nervous.

Sarah and Em, were at the second meeting point approximately 17.5 miles, I searched the faces desperate to see my wife. Sadly it wasn't until I was just past them that I saw them. After weaving in and out of people, my hips were getting stiff and changing direction was becoming very difficult, I couldn't stop and turn, so I shouted 'I love you' to my wife. I saw her smile, which gave me a second wind. They hadn't shouted anything about Ewan to me, which I knew meant that he was o.k.

I re-focused and targeted the finish. Every time I see Canary wharf I think of the 'Apprentice' TV show-However unlike Jim, the theme tune wasn't going through my head, instead I ran past a runner dressed as a pirate, and couldn't help sing 'have a healthy bowl of Treasure flakes' after the last task the teams had to endeavour (this won't make any sense if you don't watch the Apprentice). Anyhow with a smile on my face I plodded on. The other nice thing about Canary wharf is that you get some shade and strangely there is a cool breeze that blows between the buildings lining the streets. Very much welcomed.

I reached 20 miles feeling surprisingly o.k, everything my head was telling me was that I should be struggling now, but for once my body was telling me 'hey- I'm o.k keep going', which is quite rare for my body. It was at this point that I realised I was running next to Gordon Ramsey. I did an embarrassing double take, before picking up the courage to speak to him. I didn't realise until seeing the highlights later that he was struggling at this point. I said to him 'Well done Gordon, keep it going mate!' to which he replied 'cheers'.

This will be another of my famous claim to fames, to add to the time I lent a pen to Jamie Oliver-check me out rubbing shoulders with Celebrity Chefs.

Anyhow, I continued onwards towards the goal of 35,000 other runners. At 22 miles, my body decided to change its mind, and let me know it no longer was feeling very happy. My calves were incredibly tight and my right hamstring was beginning to feel somewhat suspicious (My right hamstring and I have a love/hate relationship- It loves to give out frequently, and I hate it for it)
I saw at this point another Bournville harrier who was walking, I thought this was a good point to give my legs a break and decided to have a walk with him and see if I could get him running again. I didn't know him so I introduced myself, we had a chat and I found out that he was having stomach problems having incorporated some of the lucazade drinks and felt like throwing up every time he started to run. I wished him well and got running again. The brief walk helped my legs, but I was noticeably slower.

Having reached 23 miles, I forced myself to think only of each mile and get my body through that and then re-plan. 24 came along painfully, with my new mantra of 'pain is temporary, pride is forever' repeated in my head. The crowds along this part of the route were so inspiring, they knew people were in pain and their encouragement really helped.

Yes, I could have easily shouted sarcastically at people who shouted 'come on Leigh , you're almost there!' (You'd think I'd know that after training for 17 weeks, and having already run through 24 miles) but kept these tiredness-induced outbursts inside and forced a smile in way of acknowledgement to the spectator. The biggest boost I got, which almost sent me to tears, was someone shouting 'Come on Leigh, you're amazing!' that pulled at my heartstrings, and through all the pain screaming out of my legs clouding my reasoning, I had a moment to think I am doing something amazing, just keep going.

At 25 miles I knew, I would hopefully be seeing my wife again at the last meeting place and this would see me to the end, but I couldn't see her, or hear her. At this stage there were lots of shouts of encouragement, and I became almost blinkered, someone could have offered me a million pounds and I would have just plodded right past having heard them but not being able to take in what they were saying. I past the Houses of Parliament and had noticed the Sri Lankan demonstration that had been previously reported about that it may disrupt the run, but as far as I could see (granted I wasn't quite with it at this stage) it all seemed quite orderly.

The final run in, is still a bit of a blur for me, I remember seeing someone I work with in the crowds, and thinking 'how random?'. The 800 m sign came and went, I thought about trying to put an extra push to the end and tried to persuade the legs, but they said no, and so I just continued to focus on keeping them going round.

Turning into the Mall, was a tremendous feeling, I glanced at my watch and saw that I was under 4 hrs, and at that moment my bottom lip began to tremble. I plodded towards the finish line, I'm not exactly certain how I crossed the line, but it was certainly with a sense of relief, so I look forward to seeing the expression on my face in the marathofoto web sight photos. 3hrs 42min 27 sec.

Having had my chip stripped off, medal placed around my neck and my kit bag handed to me, I found a spot to stretch my legs and then sit down and cry .

Running for me is often quite emotional, I push myself hard and I try to break the boundaries and goals I set myself. It is something, that for a brief moment at least, I can enjoy the success and make up for my failures and shortcomings in other parts of my life. Crossing the finish line, allows me to think of all the things that have got me to that point, the passing of two of my grandparents, the love of my wife, the charity I've run for....I could go on.

But for the FLM09, one recurring thought came to mind and I'd like to dedicate my run to the memory of my 'Best man''s Dad, who passed away a few weeks ago.

You're in my thoughts Antony.

Ewan finished not long after, and whilst not managing to break the 4 hr target, he finished in a fantastic 4 hr 9 mins. Something that will have definitely have whetted his appetite to run London again I'm sure.

Two tired, but happy marathoners!

London: My FLM09 experience; The middle

2009-04-29T13:49:00.005+01:00

Having lost my running partner at 0.5 miles, I tried to boost myself by interacting as much as possible with the enthusiastic crowds.

Last year, my vest had 'Leigh' on the front in slightly small letters, and I didn't get many people shouting my name in encouragement. So this year, I thought I'd use the alternative spelling of my name, as I figured that it is easier to read a 3 letter name than a 5 letter (that you aren't quite sure how to pronounce, and when you have the runner is already 10 yards past you). So I put 'LEE' in large bold letters on the front and then LEIGH in sequins (thanks to Em & Ewan) on the back.
This made such a difference, by the end of the first mile I had more people shout encouragement to me than the entire of the course last year! This gave me such a boost when I was feeling rubbish about losing Ewan. This encouragement carried on through the miles and lifted my spirits.

Between 1-3 miles I was joined by another 'Bournville Harrier', Helen, and we got chatting, it was so nice to have someone there, it may sound strange, when you are surrounded by thousands of runners and spectators, but you can feel quite alone, so it was nice to have a chat with someone and give each other encouragement. Just before 3 miles Helen went for water and I didn't and I was again on my own.

At this stage, the congestion was easing a bit, but I knew this would not last for long as the REDS would be merging with us. The usual banter was ever present, with the accustomed booing and then spontaneous shouts of encouragement 'Come on the Reds' and 'Come on the Blues'.

I tried to stay close to the sides of the roads to maintain receiving support from the crowd. They didn't disappoint. Kids wanting high fives, people offering sweets, bands blasting out music, it all helped. At 5 fives the drummers under the fly over were incredible, my heart was pounding to the beat and the sound was deafening.

Cutty Sark, came quite quickly, and I rounded it without difficulty this year (last year- was forced to walk due to congestion). Miles 7-12 went by very swiftly, and I had held my pace.
The first meeting point for our support Team (Sarah[my wife] and Em) was to be shortly after 12 miles. I was searching the crowds for them, as I was intending to stop and question them about Ewan.
I couldn't see them, but then heard my wife shriek as I was just level with them, I couldn't stop, as my legs or the runners behind wouldn't allow me, I heard Emma shout 'where's Ewan?' and I shouted back 'I don't know'. She didn't hear me, but I now knew that Ewan must have been behind me.
Another decision to make, slow down to hope that he would catch up or continue running at this pace. I chose to continue at the pace I had got myself into, as I didn't know how far behind Ewan was or whether he had come into some difficulty somewhere. The next meeting point was to be in Canary wharf around 17 miles- I would stop then and find out what the score was, and give my wife a huge and a kiss (more for my benefit- than hers-think a bout it- a sweaty man launching himself at you-not very appetising)

Tower Bridge was just around the corner, and it gave an opportunity to reflect. Almost half way round, legs still working, energy levels o.k, reasonably hydrated, and ahead of 4 hr pace! Apart from losing my running partner early on everything was going well.

We turned right after Tower bridge, which gives you the first sight of the Elite runners- Gosh they are fast, running between 4-5 minute miles- I couldn't hold that pace for even 1 mile.
After Tower Bridge some of the support dwindles down and there are a few miles which can be challenging. Despite mt pace staying the same, these miles seemed to go by slowly, as I was desperate to see my wife at 17 and steal that kiss.

London: My FLM09 experience; The start

2009-04-29T10:19:00.009+01:00

The marathon already seems like it happened weeks ago, yet it is only Wednesday.

Hydration has returned, aching muscles soothed, sleep deprivation rectified and post marathon depression entered.

The day, albeit hot, was an experience I won't forget soon. I feel so privileged to have been able to take part and complete, and also raise money for Birmingham Arthritis appeals Trust. Following 4 weeks of fundraising, and running a charity pub quiz, we raised over £550. I'm really satisfied with this total, especially as so many people had also sponsored me last year.

The marathon
After following the weather forecast intensely the week before, seeing the clear blue skies on Sunday morning filled me with apprehension, but also excitement. Whilst a sunny day is not great to run it, it is brilliant for spectating, and more (happy) spectators turn out, which makes the event atmosphere amazing. We weren't let down, the support of the crowd was incredible, and it is hard to describe, unless you were there to witness, the volume of cheers in certain parts of the course.

After having a slight detour on the tube (took the wrong line) my wife and I met up with our friends at Charring (two or one 'Rs'- this was a debate through the weekend) Cross, Ewan looked at bit stressed as we were late, but relaxed again once we were on the train to Blackheath and the blue start. The nervous excitement started to build here, and I couldn't help grinning from ear to ear. Finally all these months of training were finally coming to fruition.

We made our way to the Blue start following Shell suit man- We were hoping that he wasn't intending on throwing this outfit away and in our on imagination, envisioned that he had run every London marathon and this was his lucky kit, it at least looked like it was from the eighties, but it made us smile.

Outside the start zone, we made our final preps, nipples taped, Vaseline on eyebrows, banana's and granola bars ingested, sequins put on vest....

and model sequined vest to anyone with a camera!

Having got all the pre-run prep done there was just time for the BAAT runners Team photo (Ewan and myself).

We realise Ewan has forgotten his plasters for his nipples and I offer to help in the only way I could. I managed to apply Vaseline to one of his nipples in a non-sexual manner, before feeling slightly self-conscience and let him do the other.

All prepped, we said bye to our loved ones and joined the twisting queue for the toilets, it went on for ages, I couldn't believe it.

Soon though, we were ready and joined our starting pen! The intention was to run together trying to keep to 8.30 - 9 min miles and see how we got on. When the hooter went we all cheered, this was it, what we had been preparing for and we began our slow march to the start line.

This went quicker than last year and we were soon into a jog, the start line approached and we wished each other luck and crossed the start. It was very congested as usual and for a short while we were doing o.k, getting into our pace.

About half a mile in I got shepherded to the right behind some other runners and suddenly found myself split from the main pack of runners by the spectators, I looked across at Ewan and shrugged as I didn't know how I managed to get to where I was and how to get back in the pack.

I looked down the road and saw some of the other runners were leaping back over the barrier tape to get back on the course proper, and followed suit. However when I rejoined I couldn't see Ewan any more, I didn't know whether he was in front or behind. Looking forward I couldn't see him and thought he must be behind, but each time I looked back I couldn't see him.

After the first mile marker, I pulled to the side and stopped to look for him, after a couple hundred runners went past and I hadn't seen him I rejoined thinking perhaps he was ahead of me. I hadn't prepared myself to be running on my own at such an early stage and panicked a little as to what to do, I tried to maintain my pace and see if by chance we would find each other.

London: Very brief update

2009-04-27T14:21:00.002+01:00

Hello,
I ran it, I finished it, I loved it.

Well done to everyone for running a very hot and last ever Flora London marathon.

I'll be posting again later when I've had chance to compose my thoughts. Aches, pains, and general lethargy are still clouding my mind and body.

It was a great day, an emotional day and for me personally one that was a celebration of several achievements.

I managed to break my target of 4 hrs, which I had failed to do last year.

I finished in 3hrs: 42mins: 27 sec.

I've got lots more to say and show (Sequin update-Phil I hope I will have done you proud), but right now I'm going for a nap.

London: All dressed up with somewhere to go

2009-04-24T19:06:00.004+01:00

I've now got all my kit sorted out and I'm just about ready, only a couple more carb loading meals to go and then we're off.

This is my kit and what I will look like on the day (minus the chickens), so if you see me please give a wave and a hello.

This is my last post before Sunday so I wish you all a very successful and most importantly an enjoyable London marathon.

Good Luck!

London: Exhibition Update

2009-04-23T21:33:00.007+01:00

It's all official! I'm registered-definitely no deferring to 2010 for me. I managed to do the Expo in 10 mins flat.

This wasn't particularly exactly how I planned to do the exhibition, but my tight train schedule meant I had to be slightly efficient with the use of my time.

Afterwards I thought I could have actually spent a bit more time there than I did but having gone around it last year, there wasn't really anything more there that I hadn't already seen before and with the thousands of email reminders I've had in the past week telling me how great it would be I kind of felt like I had already been around it even before getting to London.

Registering was extremely efficient, no queues at all. I may have just happened to choose the only time that this is likely to ever occur or they somehow had heard of my tight schedule and pushed everyone to the side to let me through.

The goody bag that they give you this year, did not disappoint, well actually it's not that brilliant so don't get too excited, but there is definitely one item that's always well appreciated!

Yes, you guessed it, the people's favorite, 'The original Swiss Herb drops' (like there could ever be another delicacy that came close to this). AND not just one but two! so you could let your better half join in on some of the fun!

I think the can of London Pride will be finding its way into my kit bag for opening shortly after crossing the finish line. Yes I know this is not the best way to rehydrate myself, but after running 26.2 miles I think I might just risk it, and then have the recovery cup of tea.

Whilst at the exhibition I managed to add a message to the Adidas message board, you can't miss it, that's the message board, not my message, the latter you can definitely miss. So I've included a photo to help you get close to finding it. The photo is only one small section of this wall of messages which was pretty full by today and the exhibition had only been open less that a day and a half.

Can you see it? Look closer, I said CLOSER! no?

o.k look at the photo below:

Phil, you are officially part of the FLM09 exhibition. Apparently over 15,000 people during weekdays and 25,000 on Saturday go to the exhibition, so at least 40,000 people will walk past and maybe one or two of those will read the message and get excited for the long awaited return of you and your Sequins in 2010!!

London: Off to the exhibition!!!

2009-04-23T08:49:00.005+01:00

Yipee,

It is definitely the point of no return, for in a few hours time I will be passing through the doors of the exhibition.

I might have made a small miscalculation on how quick I can get from Euston to the Excel exhibition center, register and get back to Euston, I've got a 3 hr window between trains. Fingers crossed I won't be introducing any unanticipated running today.

I'm getting quite excited now, I remember last year how much of a buzz I got from being there, surrounded by other runners equally excited. It just starts the whole weekend off.

Last night we hosted our fundraising charity quiz night, which was a tremendous success. We raised an additional £180, which will be added to the sponsorship that we've been accumulating. So from being uncertain as to whether I was going to run for a charity this year, Ewan and I have raised funds for BAAT which looks like it will surpass £500, which I'm so pleased with as we only started our fundraising 4 weeks ago...

So a big thank you to all that have sponsored us so generously and to those that came to our quiz night.

London: Post London

2009-04-21T11:52:00.003+01:00

Everything for the past 4 & a half months have been leading up to this one day. So what happens after Sunday.....

For me I've got two events planned, the first is getting back to running a sensible distance and so I've entered a Mid-week 10K race called the Dudley-Kingswinford 10 K on May 6th.

This will probably be one of the first runs I will actually do after the FLM, so it will be interesting to see how my body has fared.

Following that I've got a 5 day event called the 'Tour of Bournville' starting on the 1st of June, this is a aggregate event, in that there is a run every day ranging from 7 miles down to 5K. Your time for each race is added to the next, and the overall winner at the end is the one with the best time. This is a club only event, but it finishes with a BBQ on the Friday and I'm sure a beer or two.

This should be quite challenging, as I don't think I've ever ran 5 consecutive days....

London: Streets of London...and my last tip

2009-04-21T08:23:00.002+01:00

Well, the next time my trainers grace my feet they will be pounding the streets of London.

Last night was my final run before Sunday. I say last, I'm currently trying to fight the temptation of putting in a short jog later in the week. I'm happy with where I am so that should be it really.

Last night went really well, it was a route that was just short of 8 miles, that I ran with the running club. Several other members are also running the marathon and their was lots of excited discussions going on. However a lot of people were expressing concerns over the forecast weather for the day. By the end of the run, I had heard people quoting temperatures ranging from 13 degrees to a raging 22! If its the latter, some major readjustments on targets will have to be undertaken. I'm trying not to focus too much attention on the weather at present, but if it is hot, just remember to control fluids.

It's a frustrating scenario if its hot, for all of our training, or at least the hard stuff, is essentially done in the winter when its cool or cold and wet. Having time to train in temperature hasn't really been an opportunity for us.

This brings me onto my last tip for the marathon.

Tip #5
Preparation
With the weather potentially an issue, this underlines the importance of preparation for all events.

For blokes this includes remembering to include some plasters to whack on your nipples-even if you don't suffer from joggers nipple-it would be terribly unfortunate if in the most important run, they start to bleed.
Remember to stick in plenty of sun screen, even if it looks like it will be overcast.
Consider rubbing some Vaseline onto your eyebrows, really helps to stop the sweat from going in your eyes.
Do not forget to get your name as big as possible on your vest-the extra push this gives when some random person shouts encouragement specifically directed at you.
Have a change of trainers, socks, etc in your bag ready for when you finish
If it is sunny, bring a cap.
Don't forget your red laces that came in the last FLM pack, it will help raise essential funds.
Finally, bring a smile, you're about to do something amazing!!

London: Last training run and tips 3&4

2009-04-20T07:39:00.002+01:00

Tonight is the night! The last training run I will do before the marathon next Sunday. It's hard to believe it is here. Taper town seems to have whizzed by.

Am I ready?

I think so, no current injuries to speak of, and the only thing that is niggling me is leaky nose, but apart from that all is o.k.

I was thinking yesterday when the sun was beating down on me late morning, please let it not be sunny like this. Cold and wet I think I could cope with, Sunny and dry, hmm, I don't fancy running 26.2 miles in it.

Anyhow what will be will be.

I couldn't get online yesterday to install tip 3 for an enjoyable marathon, so tips 3 & 4 are coming now.

Both are fluid related.

Tip 3:

TEA
Last year the best thing that help me recover after the race was a warm cup of sugary tea, unfortunately this was about half an hour after I had crossed the finish line. Up to that point I was an irrational wreck. Having that cup of tea forced me to sit still, something that I was reluctant and stubborn against doing. I don't know why but everything everyone else was telling me to do, I wasn't having it. I just didn't want to listen, but the cup of tea just made me feel human again. Not only did it warm me up but it seemed to help get my glucose levels closer to normal much quicker than anything else. The photo on my blog is me with that cup of tea, and it is still to this day the best cup of tea I've ever had.
So my tip would be, if at all possible have your support team bring a cup of tea with at least 2 sugars (even if you don't take sugar) when they come to meet you. Trust me you will be so grateful for it.

Tip 4:
Water management
During the run, you will have lots of opportunity to take on board fluids, whether it be water or lucazade drinks. Have a look at where the water stations and drink stations are and plan ahead for when and where you will take water on board, having this strategy in your head really helps you fragment the run into chunks and gives you goals to reach. Just because there are frequent water stations, doesn't mean you have to take water on at every station. If it's hot, plan to introduce more frequent drinks than you would normally, but don't take on too much water.

I have found that when reaching a station, the first swig of water I'll take, I'll use to rinse my mouth out and spit out (nasty but it helps) then I will drink perhaps two mouthfuls. I will then splash a small amount on my face to wash any sweat away from my eyes.

As much as you want to pour the water over you head, I wouldn't recommend it, naturally you get very wet of course, but when you've done this a few times through the run, all your clothes become very heavy and feet soaked. If you do need to cool down, step to the side lean over and pour it over the back of your head with your face facing the ground, this will reduce how much you actually pour over clothes. Just be careful when returning upright- you can go dizzy.

If you haven't tried the Lucazade drinks before, now is not a good time to try them. They are extremely sweet and isotonic. I came close to throwing up when I got adventurous and tried one at a half marathon a few years ago, never again.

I hope these help.

London: Top Tip #2

2009-04-18T14:13:00.002+01:00

Having Phil pull out through an ITB injury and other bloggers complaining of knee pains and other joint pains, my second tip for having a better marathon experience is a practical one.

Top Tip # 2:
Run in the center of the road
Throughout all of the training for the FLM09 most people will have been running on paths, pavements, running tracks, and possibly tread mills. All of these surfaces are generally flat. When it comes to road running it is a bit different because road aren't actually flat, they have a small crest in the center and then slope down to the gutter, this obviously aids drainage but is not good for runners.
People who suffer with knee problems, or weak ankles, may not actually notice over shorter distances, but over 26.2 miles running at a slight angle, puts a lot of stress on your joints and muscles, which can cause several people to start suffering from cramp, joint pain around 15-20 miles. The center of the road is the flattest part of the road and is also beneficial for helping to manoeuvre yourself around people through the run.

If you are unable to run down the center for periods of the run try to alternate the sides of the road that you are running on, so you distribute the effects to both legs, rather than having one take all the burden.

hope this helps you to have a great day.

London: Top Tips for a successful FLM09

2009-04-17T15:16:00.002+01:00

As we are now into single digits in the countdown to FLM09, I've decided to write a 'daily top tip' for the London marathon as we put our final preparations in place for the big day.

Having run the marathon last year, which was my first ever marathon, I learnt a lot from taking part in the event itself but also things other people had advised me. All of these titbit's, I hope will mean that this year, the enjoyment of the day will be much more appreciated for myself and hopefully help others during their FLM experience.

So My first top tip

Patience
This may sound odd or obvious, but on the day frustration builds at a incredible speed. Firstly we've all been training with a predicted finishing time in mind and a running pace that we know we need to maintain to achieve that goal. On the day, if you are not prepared for this to change, you're going to be stressed. For the first 5 miles, if not longer, the congestion created by several thousand runners being launched onto the course is staggering. Last year I was in the blue start, and the first mile was almost at walking pace, and on several occasions, the congestion bottle necked and it was walking pace.

Also at the Cutty Sark, a great landmark, the course narrows ridiculously and we were still so congested that we had to walk around (that's at 6.5 miles), following this the roads widen and you can begin to run at the pace you intended on.

So don't try to fight the congestion, you'll spend a lot of energy weaving between people for little benefit and you end up hitting the wall much earlier, instead enjoy this part of the run, enjoy the enthusiasm everyone has, the cheering, the banter, the bands and the fact that you are running the marathon, a feat not many will achieve in their lifetime! You'll have plenty of time to increase your pace and get your time back on track.

My other advice regarding 'patience' on the day, is to expect to be kicked, expect to be elbowed, expect to be run into, expect to someone to run straight in front of you as if you are not even there, expect someone to step on your heals, and finally expect that all of these things will have been done unintentionally and by accident for there is a lot of people and everyone has the same aim to reach the end and hopefully on the way round maybe spot a friend or family in the crowd.

Anticipating all this and not letting it get under your skin, will mean you have a much more enjoyable run and you'll stay focused on your own goal.

hope this helps,

read tomorrow for Top tip#2

London: Receiving the HAY baton

2009-04-17T09:31:00.002+01:00

For those that have been keeping up to date with Phil's progress, will know that he has sadly retired hurt from this year's FLM.

For us fellow e-marathoners, that have, I like to think, become a close knit family largely due to Phil's entertaining and uplifting blog, losing Phil from this years marathon is like losing a key member of your team.

When Phil asked if I would run in his place, only one thought came into my mind-'SEQUINS', no actually, it was without a doubt a resounding 'YES' of course. Phil's charity HAY, is definitely a worthwhile cause that I would be more than happy with to Champion!

I don't think I am doing anything spectacular in picking up this baton, I was and still intending to run the marathon for my own charity BAAT, so I'm not in fact putting myself through any other hardship in doing this deed, so I feel unworthy of any accolade.

If I can represent the hard work that Phil has put in through the months of training, that we all can acknowledge have not been the most pleasant of our lives, I'm happy to do so, especially if this means the money he has raised for his endeavours can fulfil their aim of helping HAY.

As for the Sequins......we'll just see

Chickens: Everyone's laying

2009-04-16T13:30:00.002+01:00

Egg production has moved into full swing!

All the ladies are now full blown layers! Betty decided to join the party late last week.

We were previously getting almost an egg a day from Peggy and Doreen, with Betty looking on from the sidelines wondering what the hell the other two were doing. For those, that aren't familiar with Chicken anatomy, they essentially have two orifices; one for food to go in, and the other for poo and eggs to come out (yes they come out of the same place! freaky, I know) . So you can imagine what Betty was thinking every time Doreen or Peggy would lay an egg! 'Look at the size of that sh*% ! That's just not normal'

Anyhow, now that Betty is laying too, she's strutting around with some new found confidence, I think the other two considered her as the juvenile and thus generally picked on her a bit, but now that she is a fully-fledged Woooman, they ain't messin with her now!

Full egg-production means that we are getting 3 eggs over two days, which is great, but we can't keep up with eating them at the same rate, so we will soon be initiating the distribution and cake making phase. Much to the delight of Friends and work colleagues I hope.

London: Harsh reality

2009-04-16T09:22:00.002+01:00

After my ramblings yesterday about the anxiety I've been feeling in the final run in to the FLM, I was gutted to learn that Phil's FLM09 adventure has been cut short through injury.

He has suffered what is every Marathoner's nightmare. Having put in all of the training on the streets, the hours blogging and keeping us fellow e-marathoners entertained, motivated and updated on what everyone else is up to, he has been dealt a cruel ITB injury with just 12 days to go.

Having had injuries in the past I can sympathise with the frustration, but to happen so close to the actual day ruling yourself out is a frustration I've been fortunate to have avoided and one that I can't begin to imagine how devastated I'd feel.

For Phil, He is a young[-ish] (Younger than me but still approaching that '30' land mark-so I can jest) and from Yorkshire, so I know that this phoenix will rise from the flames to triumph another day.

I wish him all the best for a speedy recovery and hope that similar to Lee Majors in the 70s sitcom (see I am that old) 'Six million dollar man' his London physio will greet him saying "We can rebuild him — we have the technology" and like the bionic man he will return to our streets stronger, faster, better!

However, if his Physio is from Yorkshire, we might only see the return of the '£1.45 man' that runs on coal.

What can this harsh reality do for me, well I know that when I get to 20-22 miles and my body is telling me to stop, I've now got another reason to keep going.

London: Clock ticking?

2009-04-15T09:50:00.003+01:00

Can anyone else hear the London marathon clock ticking louder and louder each day?

For me, it is almost as loud as my own heart beat (it could just simply be my heartbeat and I'm just being melodramatic) . Perhaps it is just the anxiety. Weeks upon weeks of training are finally coming to a head. All of those hours we've put in for this one day and those few short hours (relatively speaking of course) of actually running the marathon.

For each of my remaining training runs, I slide my feet into my trainers nervously thinking, what if I pull something, trip, or go over my ankle? What if now, only days away the knee and hip problems I suffered last year come back? What if my these few runs don't 'feel' right? It's almost enough to take the trainers off and put off doing any more running before the big day again. But this would then lead to a how new category of anxiety, have I stopped too soon, am I really ready?

When I ran the Oakley 20 almost two weeks ago, everything just clicked, it was magical. The mileage felt good, the distance was comfortable and psychologically it was an enormous boost, in my head I walked away from that run thinking 'I'm ready'.

Now, I'm wondering whether I've peaked too soon? Is that possible? Or is it just the nerves? For since then the longest I've run is 14 miles, and I'm telling you, that was much harder than the Oakley 20, and today a 6 miler ( through rain and thunder-that was exciting, if not slightly scary) which felt not brilliant, but not horrible either, but again leaving feeling I'm not just at my peak.

Maybe it is just everything coming to a head and that this year the pre-race nerves that I get, which usually are a good sign that I'm ready, are kicking in early and just reigning me back from over doing it.

In my head, for now that hypothesis will have to work for me because come marathon day, the body may be talkin, but the head won't be listenin!

London: Taper town Landscape

2009-04-08T08:45:00.002+01:00

Having safely navigated my way to Taper town, this is what I've found:

8th April 6 miles
10th April 6 miles
12th April 15 miles (2 weeks to big day)
13th April 6 miles
15th April 6 miles
19th April 10 miles (1 week to big day)
20th April 6 miles
22nd April 3 miles + fundraising curry & quiz night!
23rd April Register at FLM exhibition
25th April drive down to London
26th April WIN the FLM09 (hahaha)
27th April bind my wrists together to prevent me from entering this madness again.

In summary:
8 runs, 52 miles and 18 sleeps left to the big day!

London: Grrr blasted work!

2009-04-06T16:56:00.002+01:00

Don't they realise I've got a marathon to run!

Oh the life of a scientist -(big pathetic sigh)- Why is it when I'm thinking hooray a nice easy wind down week of work before Easter, others are thinking Oh my god only a 4 day working week, we must make sure Leigh's workload is rammed to the max!

Today, everything was going nicely, chilling back, going through some data analysis at a comfortable pace (yikes I'm starting to use running terms to describe my working routine), and then the phone rings.

A patient sample, and not just any normal patient sample, a huge patient sample.

So this has any relevance to anyone who hasn't got a clue of what I do, I'll give a brief synopsis:- I am Dr. Church, a research Scientist, employed to do Academic research into the causes and pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)- I specialise in one aspect of the immune system (the thing that keeps us generally healthy and infection free-but occasionally gets a bit confused and attacks our own body [in RA- your joints]) called T cells. RA is diffrent from normal arthritis- which is what most of us e-marathoners will have some 10-15 years post doing this brilliant idea of running 26.2 miles around London.

I often get patient samples which are usually blood and fluid from the affected joint(s) (knee, hip, wrist, elbow you get the picture).

The phone call today told me there was a patient sample on its way, 40 mls of joint fluid!

40 mls is a lot, and believe me if you've got 40 mls of fluid on your knee, you ain't going to be a happy bunny.

This sample means that I am likely to be at work until about 10:30-11pm-ish.

Now this may seem quite exciting, people possibly imagining a CSI type lab with people in white coats under atmospheric lighting, saying things like 'we'll have him nailed when the DNA extract places him at the scene and blows his alibi'.

I'd like to say it's like that, but it's not really. Cutting edge? it's more like a dull blade. Science unfortunatly advances at a snails pace (much like my running) and leaps forward are usually preceded with significant steps sideways and often backwards.

So whilst I'm happy for this sample today, I frustratingly know that whilst my research may help in some way in the future to understanding this disease, for the patient today who gave this sample, it is unlikely to make any impact for them in their life time.

And so whilst I huff and puff at having to stay at work late with the forementioned knowledge, I realise that at least I've got a small window for a 6 mile run with the running club (7:30-8:30) .

Result!!

London: The 20 mile journey from Oakley to Tapertown

2009-04-06T09:21:00.003+01:00

In some ways, the notion of driving 85 miles to run 20 miles then drive another 85 miles home, is perhaps a reflection of the insanity of those who enter to run the London marathon.

Yes, I could have stepped out my front door and ran 20 miles quite easily. To be completely clear here, the 'easily' reference is the stepping out the front door bit, not the actual running of 20 miles- that still is quite challenging.

But come Marathon day, I won't simply be stepping out my front door and crossing the start line, nor will I be running alone for that matter.

The benefit of running in races beforehand serves several purposes, it prepares you for the pre-race preparation for the eventual race day, it gets you used to running in the company of several hundred people, it throws competitive challenges at you, it helps with getting your drinking/ food/gel intake strategies right. Lastly, it gives you a taste of the atmosphere of being cheered on by people you've never met before.

Having run Oakley last year, I had a couple of personal targets to meet, firstly to run at a regular constant pace and secondly to try and improve on last years time.

As my well publicised sciatica playing on my mind, I was nervous what impact it would have. On the morning it was predominately a dull ache, but I knew if it flared up, my gait would change and my right calf would eventually tighten so much that I would have to stop. Thank fully, it didn't factor in the race at all. After about 500 yards it was completely out of my mind and I could focus on other things such as making sure I controlled my water intake as it was quite sunny and warm.

The first 10-13 miles went really well, Ewan and I had kept to 8:30 min/mile over a very undulating course. At 14 miles the first indication that Ewan was beginning to get affected by the heat was showing and our paced slowed to try to make it bearable for him. We took on some much welcomed water at 15 miles, but Ewan was still struggling and he felt a stitch beginning, we took 15-16 fairly steadily, but by 16.5, Ewan was in a lot of pain with the stitch and needed to stop.

I was worried that if I stopped with him, my sciatica may become an issue as my body cooled, so I continued running steadily, hoping that Ewan would catch me up once he felt recovered. By 17 miles he hadn't appeared, so I decided that I would test my legs and run the remaining 3 miles at a faster pace, having previously slowed to 9:30 min miles. I changed my pace, by upping to between 7 and 7:30 min/miles. It felt really good, my legs responded, I still had a lot of energy reserved and I pushed on.

I began overtaking people that had long overtaken me earlier in the run, it was exhilarating reeling in the runners ahead of me, each runner overtaken gave me a boost to catch the next and see how many places I could take.

When I finally crossed the line, I think I had overtaken about 50 runners from the point at which I upped my pace and was really pleased that I had improved on last year running a time of 2:51:59 this year.

Not too far behind and despite struggling with the heat and a stitch Ewan crossed the line, with his training partner shouting encouragement at him like lunatic on speed, in 2:59:12.

Considering we had set ourselves a target of just under 3 hrs, we had both achieved it under slightly different circumstances.

For me, I'm entering Tapertown, feeling positive and ready for London, just hoping to maintain this level of fitness and avoid illness and injury.

For my training partner, I'm hoping for a cool, wet marathon day, or those last 6 miles are going to be very painful indeed.

Welcome to Tapertown everyone!!!

London: Sciatica update II

2009-04-03T14:40:00.002+01:00

I'd like to annouce that the pain in my arse is beginning to subside....you may all now have a good weekend.

London: Sciatica update

2009-03-31T18:40:00.002+01:00

Just went for a probing 5.5 miles.

I needed to see if I could run off the pain I've been getting in my butt, leg, and foot.

Short answer: No

Long answer: I tried adding a series of new stretches before setting off to see if I could loosen whatever seems to be pinching my sciatic nerve. I began running (more of a cautious jog), trying to get a bit of warmth into my legs muscles. This I thought would then evolve into more of my normal running stride, but it never did, in fact the whole run was a laboured painful event, which I don't want to experience again soon. Parts of the run my right foot seemed to go numb. All this is really starting to worry me.

What's causing it? I don't know. What can I do to stop it if I don't know what's causing it? I don't know? how long will it continue? again I don't know.

When I got back I stretched again, really focusing on my sacroiliac joint and sciatic nerve, this seemed to help, but it could also be that I'm no longer moving which is why the pain has subsided.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck in work until 10pm (the joy of science), so I won't be able to get any Ibuleve gel on it or ibuprofen down me until much later this evening.

The plan 11 miles for tomorrow has been discarded and I think that's me done until Sunday now-If the nerve is inflamed, then hopefully massage and ibuprofen will settle it down before the Oakley 20 on Sunday, otherwise it's going to be a very painful run.

London: Pain in the Bum

2009-03-31T11:04:00.002+01:00

Literally, I've got a major pain in the bum.

The past couple of weeks it has been gradually increasing, only revealing itself shortly after a run and then eventually subsiding with a bit of massage, heat treatment. The past two days, however it hasn't gone away and is giving me a lot of jib.

Every step I take, I get a shooting- stab-like pain which goes from my sciatic nerve of my right arse cheek straight down to my heel.

The level of pain is significant to cause me to flinch, this does not bode well.

I've had this before, but that was related to my wallet putting pressure on my nerve when I'm essentially sat down which every day is either at my desk or driving the car. This was relieved by changing pockets that I carry my wallet in.

This time however, I don't have any simple explanations as to why it is occurring and massaging it doesn't seem to alleviate the pain.

Strangely, no one at work is offering to massage it for me either, perhaps this does cross the line of a work relationship?

Going to have an Internet search about alternative self-treatments before I call in the physio's, but I need this to go away sooner rather than later. I don't want this looming over me during the final run in to London.

London: A run of two halves

2009-03-28T20:01:00.003Z

Today, I ran my weekend long run, as on Sunday I will be first of all glued to the telly at an obscene time to watch the first F1 grand prix of the season and then I'll be away for the rest of the day.

I planned to complete a 16 mile run today, as this weekend is sandwiched between the Ashby 20 and next weeks Oakley 20.

I chose to run a route that would kill two birds with one stone, but may also incur a technical infringement to the overall distance run ruling. An experiment I set up in the week (I'm a scientist- so no underhand scheming taking place here) required me to pop into work for 20-30 mins today, so I thought I could run to work, do the deed and then run back home today.

I got myself weather proof, i.e baseball cap, water proof jacket, running leggings, stuck my phone, some cash (in case-the weather turned really bad and public transport was required), work I.D in my back pocket.

All ready for an onslaught of the forecast cold wet weather, I set off on a route that was exactly 8 miles from my door to the Institute, taking in the 'Pig poo mile'.

This was great, I set off at 10 am and got there in just over an hour, running at just under 8 min/mile pace. However, the forecast rain did not happen, nor was it that cold, so I arrived very sweaty and a bit smelly. I did what I had to do and then left the building having stretched to remind the legs that they hadn't finished yet.

Set off on the return journey, somewhat pleased to find that the wind was now behind me and pushing me along. So much so that I managed to get home quicker than my run in to work.

However, this extra speed could also be simply explained by the fact no one really looks forward to getting to work, but getting far away from work and with the wind behind you....well there you go....

Again, no rain, and if anything it felt even warmer (no windchill?), so all in all thank you BBC for a very inaccurate forecast, and having me run 16 miles in what felt like a vegetable steamer.

So this is where I incur a slight technical issue. Can I honestly class this as a 16 mile run? Or is it really two 8 mile runs? Does stopping to do 30 mins of Laboratory work mean I can't claim this as a single run? Or lastly, should I just not care about the technicality and be happy that I got 16 miles under my belt today, in two halves or not?

I think the latter, I'm knackered, surely that is enough justification.

London: Wet weather running kit at the ready

2009-03-27T09:47:00.003Z

The forecast for the Midlands tomorrow can be summed up as ridiculously wet.

From 6am to 6 pm, it will be cold with torrential rain.

Not one to be put off by such apocalyptic weather (I refer here to the snow running challenge of earlier weeks) I have prepared my wet weather running outfit for my 16 mile run tomorrow morning (see below).

I'd be happy for any additional suggestions.

I may replace flippers with trainers

London: psychologically speaking...

2009-03-26T16:38:00.002Z

Psychologically speaking, I feel much better, managed to strategically squeeze 8.5 miles in during lunch.

We went along the canal, cunningly avoiding the wind, apart from our own flatulence, all this protein is not good...

From canal side, we progressed to Edgbaston reservoir-side, for 1.5 laps of the reservoir, then return back to the University via Edgbaston and Harborne streets. A bit of rain involved, but overall a nice stretch of the legs and a bit of a boost.

Now, how can I squeeze a run in tomorrow. 3 meetings planned with very little time between to get the trainers on and off. May be forced to do a dreaded evening run.

I hate running at night on my own, it's only marginally better than being forced to have a cold shower after running at night on my own, or any other time for that matter.

My dislike of night running can be summarised as follows (not really in any particular order):
1. It's dark, bit obvious but I like to see things when I'm running, most important of those is the ground.
2. It's cold, this is relative, but at the moment it is still much colder post 6pm than it is pre-6pm.
3. Because it's dark, and one 'Sense' is already partially impaired, I don't like to run with my Ipod as that would mean another useful sensory tool being impaired, which leaves smell-not really that useful when running to alert one to potential hazards-can really smell that car that is about to run you over; taste-well same as the smell really, and anyways when have you seen anyone run with their tongue out!; and finally-touch-this often becomes effective when in the act of falling, which does happen at an increased frequency when it's dark (I live in the country, where street lights are rare as...very rare things!
4. Scary people come out, usually in cars, who think it's funny to nearly kill you, or force you to make emergency manoeuvres, like leaping into a ditch. Alternatively, they are on foot and like to shout less than encouraging remarks and occasionally throw things at you in the thought that as it's dark they are invisible to the law.
5. I have to make decisions, like eat tea first or eat tea later. Food to me is very important so this decision is not taken lightly.
6. I've got chickens, don't really know how this makes me dislike night running but I just like to say 'I've got chickens'
7. I get bored, because it's dark, it's cold, I've got no tunes and I just think about the warm house I've just left.
8. Tomorrow is Friday! which equates to Beer O'clock, I dare anyone (let me change that to any sane person) to choose a night run over beer.

Having considered all that, I think I might go for a run before work!

London: Work once again spoils the party

2009-03-26T08:59:00.004Z

Or to be precise, my training.

I agree, that describing training as a 'party' is possibly bordering on delusional.

This week work as been like ill-timed zit on the end of your nose before a first date.

Encouraged by horrible windy wet weather, I've had great difficulty in sticking to any sort of training plan this week. Hence, Monday night has been my only run this week!

If all goes well, I hope that I've applied sufficient Clearisil to my work load to allow a decent run today and get back with the program.

If I can get a run in today, tomorrow, and then my long run on Saturday this week, I'll be mildly happy.

London: Strike a pose!

2009-03-24T13:58:00.003Z

Are you a 'Pose' or a 'Chi' runner'?

If you don't have an answer for that question and are instead thinking 'What the hell am I talking about', you are in good company.

I hadn't heard of either of these until someone told me that they had started Chi running, and I stared blankly back at them.

It may sound daft, but I'd love to hear from anyone that has tried Chi running.

If you, like me, are in the dark, you are most likely a 'pose' runner, which is well defined on this website. It essentially means that when you run your body is aligned from the head to the tip of the shoulder, through the center of the hip joint, to the ball of the feet. This kind of means your body takes the shape of an 'S'.

A 'Chi' runner has a slightly different technique, apparently their body posture when running has a slight forward lean of the body with the axis of the forward lean being the ankle joint and with the legs relaxed. What this looks like in reality I have no idea.

A friend described it as almost leaning forward as if you feel like you are going to fall on your face, and it is this momentum that gives you forward motion and more relaxed running.

Now, I'm not really one to get too technical, yes I like my gadgets, and yes I think footwear is important to suit one's gait and foot structure, but I haven't yet got to the point of focusing on maximising my posture.

I just kind of thought that like learning to walk as a child, whatever technique stopped you from falling over was pretty much all you needed. Apply this to running, and I like to think of it as faster walking, you get from A to B just a bit quicker, of course the technique changes but essentially that's because you are going faster, and the rest of your body naturally accommodates this by adjusting the movement of certain body parts accordingly.

Maybe this is where I've been going wrong all these years. How do I know whether 'pose' is better/worse than 'chi'? or should I just stick with what came naturally.

Perhaps after the marathon....less than 5 weeks before London is probably not the time to start experimenting.

please let me know if you can enlighten me!

London: The day after the day before

2009-03-24T08:26:00.003Z

After completing a long run, I usually aim to have a rest day before picking up the miles again.

Yesterday I decided to try something different by running the day after doing the 20 mile Ashby run.
People have said this is good to get any stiffness out of your legs and will aid in recovery.

To be honest I didn't have much stiffness in my legs after Ashby just not much energy, so I thought it would be interesting to see what training the day after would be like.

The weekly running club run was a 6.5 mile route, that I've never done before, so tried to lump myself into a group of runners that seemed to be going at my pace. This was going o.k. for a while.
Unfortunately, I soon realised that the quick pace I was happy with was only because we had run the first mile largely down hill or a long flat roads. When we hit the first couple of hills, the group of people I was with started moving away from me, I looked behind and saw that there were a few people not too far behind me so I thought if I lose them I can just slow and let the people behind me guide me back.

After another mile of going up and down, the leading pack were still moving away from me, my legs felt o.k, but the petrol tank was just empty. I began to get a little concerned about being able to keep them in sight, particularly as I looked behind me and I couldn't see anyone else.

I gave myself a short pep talk and tried to increase the pace to close the gap, telling myself this is not the part of Birmingham you really want to get lost in. This had almost an immediate effect and I could see the gap between me a runner ahead decreasing, after a couple hundred yards, I caught him up, only for him to say 'I slowed down because I'm turning off here to run home and didn't want you to think this was the route'.

Bugger!

He said the leading group had carried on up the road, so I pushed on again determined not to be lost.

I could see two distant figures ahead one in a hi-vis jacket and the other in black (great running attire for night running). I got my head down and pumped my legs through each stride, finally the hi-vis jacket was getter nearer. I caught him at a corner, and said to him 'am I glad I caught you' to which he replied 'so am I, I've got no idea of where I'm going'.

Bugger!

Looking down the road the black figure was a long way off and I knew the fumes I was running on were not going to allow me to catch him. I just hoped upon hope that I would recognise some of the surroundings.

So chasing the lone black figure in the dark, I watched as he disappeared around a corner, when I reached the corner, he was no where to be seen. I thought shit-this is not good. Fighting the panic, I decided to just continue along the road and see if by chance anything became familiar.

Thank fully it did, The route managed at this point to complete a loop and I knew there was only about 0.5 mile to the end.

It was here that I thought I was going to throw up, the peanut butter on crackers I had before setting off were doing there best to exit my body the way they came in.

To my relief, all ingested food stayed that way and I managed to find my way back.

all in all- a top night of running-not! Still undecided about this running the day after lark.

But I guess it's better to endure the pain in the short runs then struggle in the long runs.

London: Peaking too soon?

2009-03-23T08:15:00.005Z

The Ashby 20,

Ewan and I were running this race together. This was the first time we had run a race at what we aimed would be marathon pace together. Nothing necessarily odd in this, but the fact that we have very different pace. For anything under 13.1 miles, I like to run faster, but strangely when we do something longer than Ewan tends to want to run faster than me, and often slightly erratic. so my chief-role as instructed by Ewan was to control the reins and ensure we didn't run faster than 8.30 min/miles and no slower than 9 min miles.

So that was the plan.

Having arrived into Ashby in good time and being able to park very close to the finish line it was time to put the first item on the agenda into action. Knowing Ewan's tiny bladder, we needed to locate the toilets. Finding the nearest Marshall, we were instructed that the port-a-loos could be found 400 yrds across the playing fields or we could 'risk the Royal'.

Now I don't know about you, but the phrase 'Risk the Royal' has comedy game show written all over it. I believe that writing an idea down is enough for copyright, so for all you TV producers out there, get stuffed, if you want this, you're going to have to show me the money (a large chunk of the proceeds would of course go to charity)! Now I'm envisioning Des Lynam as the host, that man oozes charisma which will be needed to placate most Royals. As the number of Royal family members that are likely to be able to take part in a TV game show type program is going to be limiting......hang on a minute I'm digressing.

O.k Risk the Royal will be a later blog when I've had more time to think of rules and format. Back to the race.

The risk the Royal was actually a warning about Hotel staff at the Royal Hotel, that we actually parked the car by, and the staff are not too happy about having a 1000 runners coming through the front door to use the toilets. Can't imagine this would be too great for hotel guests either. So Ignoring the warning we ran the risk, or in Ewan's case ran the risk twice. Suffice to say we survived.

I realise I'm focusing a lot on toilets, here, but there is good cause to do so. In the information pack they sent out to everyone- There are clear warning regarding 'peeing' during the run, primarily regarding the good will of residents of the villages we run through and the potential damage it could cause the organisation of future races if runners are peeing in peoples front gardens.
This was particularly enforced in one village, in which in bold letters in stated 'NO PEEING in PACKINGTON' with the risk of being disqualified if caught doing so.

Imagine how worried I was with my peanut sized bladder running partner.

Anyhow digressing again, We were directed towards the start line, where we met which looked like close to a 1000 runners, and once again took the opportunity to have a quick pee, now having already stated the above, it was a case of majority rules here, they would have had to disqualify half the field, as most of the male runner took a quick opportunity to water the hedge row of the park.

Finally, the race got started on time and we were off. The first 3-4 miles were going really well, we kept to our pace quite well varying from 8:30 mins to 8:50 mins. First water station came and went.

We then came to 5 miles, this was our first gel 'opportunity' we both held off to the next water station which was around 6.5 miles. everything was still going well, the course up to this point had been quite undulating but no big hills.

We reached the 10 mile mark both feeling quite fresh, but buoyed by the fact we could have our second planned gel, and have the psychological surge of energy this gave.

We kept on through with our steady pace past the 13.1 miles, at which point, we realised that Ewan had set a new Half-marathon PB, beating his Silverstone time.

We carried on through to about 15.5-16miles, my legs were feeling quite good, I felt really fresh, but I began to get concerned about Ewan, from 13.1 onwards he had gone very quiet. Shortly after Ewan confirmed my suspicions that all was not right, by saying he needed a walk as he felt a twinge.
So we walked for 50 yards and began running again. I encourage him that we were in the final stage and tried to relate the distance we had left to some of the short training runs we had done back in Brum. This seemed to work for a while before he called for another break. so we had a gain a short break of 50 yrds walking before getting the pace going again.

As we approached 17, Ewan didn't look great. I said we would have a strategy of walking through the last water station which was very soon. then at 17 have a short walk, then run to 18, then a short walk, and then run to 19 a short walk and then keep it to the end.

Ewan managed this for the most part, a couple of unplanned stops in there to stretch calves, and a quick pep talk.

As we approached the end, all the pain was put behind us and we had a good final mile.

The finish line was across a playing field and there was a lot of runners and supporters gathered, the cheering and clapping spurred us on and we picked up our pace across the field. Approaching the finish line, the man on the tannoy caught our numbers and announced us finishing in 2 hrs 58 mins.
We had done it, Our aim was to run around 9 mins miles and try to finish near the 3 hr mark.

To finish under 3 hrs was such a great achievement. I'm really proud of Ewan, he was in a lot of pain but got through it.

I'm particularly proud, as last year for my first 20 mile race, at the same stage of training my time was 3hrs 2 mins, so to knock off 4 mins from that I think we can be pleased that we're in a good place.

We need to work on a few bits such as slowing the pace and reducing the walks, but on the whole I'm pleased with the progress.

The next 20 mile race is in two weeks at Bedford, we'll try to implement this strategy there.

Just hope we don't peak too soon.

London: a sunny sunday 20

2009-03-20T14:30:00.003Z

After getting sun-kissed at Silverstone, I'm not looking forward to the 20 miles on Sunday with the forecast of another potentially sunny spring day.

Sunny spring days- I like. Don't get me wrong, they are good for sitting in the garden or even better sitting in a beer garden. What they're not good for, is running 20 miles over undulating country side.

Thankfully, the race starts at 10am so it is unlikely to be too hot at the start, but as I'm anticipating it will take us 3 hrs to complete, I think it will be warming up nicely for the last hour. Great!

As this distance is much closer to the marathon than anything I've run in my training yet, I will be incorporating some gels into the run, my intention is to take a gel approximately every 5 miles, so I will being carrying 3 with me. It's hard to really measure as to whether these give me any better performance. The simplest boost I can say they do give me is a psychological one, in that in my head I'm thinking ' o.k I'm giving my body something it needs and therefore it should help me keep running'. Whether this is true or not, my head believes this and so I keep running.

I'm not prepared just yet to perform a placebo experiment to disprove their benefit.

So fingers crossed, I'll be reporting back Monday with the next stage of the training done and dusted.

Have a good training weekend everyone.

London: duck slippers

2009-03-17T15:50:00.006Z

Went for my lunch time 6 miler today.

It was my first jaunt since the Silverstone half.

After firing up the Garmin, a few quick stretches, I began the steady jog.

My goodness! What a couple of days can do.

Sunday, my body was a well oiled, fuelled, and pimped up running machine (less of the pimp, but definitely race ready).

Today, an old knackered jalopy ready for the scrap heap (nice use of motoring metaphors-a little OTT?).

I felt like the tin man walking after trekking through the rain forest. However, I forced these aches to the back of my mind in the knowledge that after 10 mins they would all melt away.

Gladly, they did, but as I sit hear now, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get up again.

so 10 miles tomorrow? seemed like a good idea. I'm sure it will be fine, I think.

I'm starting to think maybe I need another run in there before Sunday's 20, but then perhaps just rest is needed. Perhaps this is one time I'll listen to the body.

Highlight of today's run was nearly ending up with a duck slipper!

Yes, a duck slipper, it's amazing how those little creatures can hide asleep amongst the long grass of the canal side.

I never thought ducks could show real facial expressions, but I definitely saw fear in this duck's eyes, as my size 9 trainer headed directly towards it.

A last second shift of my body weight before impact, saved it from certain death, and me the guilt of looking at my chickens in the eye, knowing I had murdered a fellow winged friend.

The idea of having a duck impaled on my foot, didn't really do it for me either, for one, how long would I have had to search in order to have a pair of duck slippers?

London: Ashby 20

2009-03-16T13:33:00.002Z

Less than 24 hrs after Silverstone, the basking in the satisfaction of a job well done is quickly and unceremoniously tossed to the side as the focus of the next race begins.

Next Sunday, is one of the big ones, a whopping 20 miles in Ashby-de-la-Zouche (I love the sound of this place). Although I've run obviously the marathon last year and two 20 mile runs in the run up to the FLM08, just the thought of 20 miles is daunting.
I'm sure for those that are running the FLM for the first time, they too will be seeing this distance figure in their training programs in the very near future and visualise it as this enormous physical and psychological barrier. I'm sorry to say it, but it is just exactly that.

There is no way of disguising it, 20 miles is a hard slog, but on the plus side- it breaks the fear factor of running London, getting this distance completed, no matter what time you do is the best feeling in the run up to the marathon, the knowledge that there would only be 6.2 further miles to go is huge. The knowledge also, and I can vow for this, that the crowd support over the last six miles is so brilliant, it will keep you going even if your legs won't.

So my plan for this week is:
Tuesday 6 miles
Wednesday 10 miles
Thurs-Sat Carb load and rehydrate for Sunday.

London: Silverstone part II

2009-03-16T08:46:00.005Z

The glass is half full, or is it half empty? Just another 13.1 miles to go for London.

What a great day it was for running! Lovely sunshine, cool breeze, and a great atmosphere. These make Silverstone a brilliant half marathon venue. The ease of access and quick departure also help. What makes Silverstone a bad venue is a rather boring run, unless you are a motor sport fan, and if the weather is unpleasant, as you are completely exposed. However the weather played a blinder this weekend and I am typing this with my freshly sun-burnt face.

When can you ever say that you've got sun burnt in March in England?

Well enough about weather, lets get down to the knitty gritty. How did it go? Well, Ewan (my London marathon running partner) and I both set personal bests. Although we ran separately for this half marathon, all of our remaining races we will be running together.

Ewan ran his PB at 1hr 52 mins. Which is fantastic considering he had to take several toilet breaks. I am trying to potty train him for London- as this could damage our chances of finishing sub 4hrs.

Last year, I ran Silverstone in 1hr 47 mins, and my best ever half-marathon time was 1hr 43 mins. So I was ecstatic to have completed Silverstone in 1hr 32 mins (apparently 349th position). This blew me away as I was hoping that all of my training so far for London would help me break the 1 hr 40 barrier that I have found so hard to get past.

I'm in shock that I knocked off 11 mins from my best time and 15 from last year's Silverstone.

This doesn't mean I'm going to be trying to run any faster for London, some will look at this time and say 'so you are going to aim for just over 3 hrs?' Those are the people that have never run a marathon before. The Silverstone pace was a gut busting, nothing left in the legs pace.

I must give huge credit to the 'Runners world' pace runners, these guys will run at a pace of 7, 8, 9, 10 etc mins/mile pace and you are free to join them. They run the whole race holding a little flag identifying the pace they are running at. I stayed with the 7min/mile pacer through 10 miles, but then began to lose ground on him for the last 3 miles, but found him at the end to say 'thank you' for helping me set a time that I think I'll find hard to improve on for some time.

A big well done to everyone that ran, particularly Ewan and James, who beat their respective target times.

Hope all left Silverstone injury free and feeling positive for London.

Chickens: Ladies in Da House!

2009-03-14T20:42:00.010Z

Yes, we finally have occupants!

Today we travelled into Wales to collect our three Pekin Bantam Hens from Perfect Pekins.

Having had to postpone previous trips because the hen enclosure looked a bit like this:

But as of today, I can happily announce it looks a bit like this (yes those are real chickens):

The black one, whose head is in the food dish, is Betty, she is the smallest of the three, 2 weeks younger, and is unable to get her head into the food without some assistance as the rim is too high for her. Peggy, the other black one at the entrance of the pen in this photo, is the ring leader, she seems to have the respect of the others at the moment, possibly due to her 'mid-journey antics'. Doreen (the white one) is very friendly, she tends to hang around with Peggy at the moment, I think it's an age thing. Betty is a bit too young and seems to be a bit of an outcast at the moment. Hopefully this will change .

We were greeted when we got home with a very special surprise, we thought it would take weeks for the birds to settle before producing an egg, but when we opened the box to release them into the garden, we were met with the sight on the photo above! Just below Peggy (middle), you'll see a little light brown egg! Our first egg! We think it was Peggy who laid this, as she is the most mature at 22 weeks, and the other two are a little behind her.

I can say, that the egg has already been eaten. It was served fried, with bacon chops from the village butcher, a jacket potato and salad. It was delicious.

Hoping that this will be the beginning of many eggs, and a high cholesterol diet!

To give the ladies their moment of fame, here are their mug shots:

Doreen

Second oldest, she is all white, her comb is just starting to get quite red, so she should start laying fairly soon. She is a happy girl, tends to follow Peggy around at the moment.

Peggy

Slightly out of focus, She hasn't quite yet grasped the art of posing. Peggy is the bossy boots, definitely at the top of the pecking order. Believed to have produced the first egg for us. She seems to have a bit of her own mind, so she'll tell you when she wants to be picked up, not the other way around.

Betty

She is the youngest of the ladies, and possibly this naivety enables her to be the most trusting and friendly. She is a bit shy, but does enjoy being picked up. Notice her comb is quite pale, she won't be laying for a couple of weeks yet. Sadly she seems to be an outsider at the moment as Peggy and Doreen are Bessy-mates and don't seem to want to let Betty into their Cliche.

Dinner

Our first egg, at the moment a very expensive pleasure, but a delight nonetheless

London: Silverstone

2009-03-13T09:02:00.003Z

Good luck to everyone taking part in Silverstone.

Hope you all have a great run.

Looks like it is going to be a warmish spring day (12-15C), so remember to keep your fluids up.

Although it will be chilly beforehand you'll warm up very quickly after the race starts, so I would lean toward wearing shorts. However as the course if fairly exposed, if its windy you may be grateful to have some warm running leggings, so I'll leave that up to you. People do, like at the GNR, wear warm clothing that they intend to throw away at the start- so a visit to a charity shop is a good place to find something cheap you don't mind losing-alternative the famous bin bag 'Mac' does help keep the wind out.

Lucazade usually have a tent there, so you can get your wrist bands with the time/mile splits for the pace that you want to run at, but they will also be giving away bottle of lucazade. As there are more people running Silverstone this year than ever before I would maybe try to make the visit to their inflatable tent early.

Of special interest to those who wear Adidas trainers, there will be an adidas shop which will be offering a buy one get one free on all their trainers, so again this will probably be quite attractive to many so an early visit is recommended.

My last piece of advice would be that shortly after finishing make your way to one of the Chip vans and order yourself a large plate of chips, they will not only help replace the salt you've lost, but they don't half help warm you up!

Have fun!

ps If you haven't done so already, have a look at Phil runs London's guide to Silverstone, you'll be pleased you did.

London: Spring beautiful Spring!

2009-03-11T13:16:00.003Z

I can't stress how much joy I am feeling after running through my lunch break on the most beautiful of spring days!

Having the sun on your face, and the cool spring breeze gently caressing you makes the pain of the 9.2 miles just about bearable.

Although I had to force myself out the door this lunch time to do my last run before Silverstone, I'm so pleased that I did.

I would like to think that training in the Birmingham sunshine must be very reminiscent to that Katie Price and Peter Andre are experiencing on Malibu beach.

So I'm counting the pennies I've saved in flights, accommodation, food, not to mention the carbon footprint. My Yorkshire buddies I'm sure will also acknowledge and commend such wise thriftiness.

Who needs sunny California beaches, when I've got sunny Birmingham canals. Sadly no Buxom American beauties, just angry Canadian geese.

Ho hum

London: Birmmingham Arthritis Appeals Trust (BAAT)

2009-03-11T08:12:00.004Z

Over the past few weeks, I've been putting a lot of thought into which charity if any I would raise money for by running the marathon.

With the current financial crisis, and Comic relief being so close, coupled with the fact I badgered many of my friends and family to donate money last year, it was a difficult decision to make as to whether to raise money this year or not. As I work in research in an Academic institute which is largely dependent upon charitable financial support to conduct this work, I'm aware that at these times of financial crisis is when charities really need the support the most.

So this year I am running for a local charity called The Birmingham Arthritis Appeals Trust or BAAT. This charity is quite small and supports local medical research into arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and helps to maintain a patient information/resource center in Birmingham's central library.

BAAT has funded some of my own research during my PhD, so I have a direct connection with the charity and would feel proud to be able to give something back as a thanks.

The Charity is so small however that it is not registered with Justgiving.com, which makes fund raising that little bit harder.

So friends and family, I'm sorry, but expect a knock knock knock on your door in the very near future.

I've set myself a moderate fund raising target this year, but anything will go along way for this charity.

London: Back with a vengence!

2009-03-10T15:00:00.003Z

For those that may have been concerned, I am alive and well.

In fact I'm feeling brilliant.

Man-flu is a distant memory and my run last night was a great success.

My training I'm pleased to say appears to be back on track and wasn't affected too brutally by having a week off for foot and Flu issues (almost sounds like some very odd disease).

The toe lasted the full distance and no further blisters have presented themselves.

I ran 7.2 miles at a pace of 7 min miles. This has given me a huge psychological boost before Silverstone, as I'm hoping to set a new PB for a half marathon distance. Silverstone is a good course to for setting PBs as it is relatively flat course. The only major challenge is the weather, if it is wet and windy, it is a horrible run, as you are completely exposed. Forecasts suggest dry but possible winds... not good news.

Last year, I encountered a new challenge, how to deal with a screw sticking in the bottom of your trainer which penetrates the sole and your foot, whilst running.
My answer was sitting down removing the shoe and tugging like hell on the screw with frozen fingers for 5 mins before the damn thing released its grip. Not great when you are at the mile 1 marker. So hopefully even if I run at the same pace as last year I should knock off 5 mins from my time.

Unless lightning strikes twice of course, which for me is quite likely.

London: Into the void

2009-03-09T15:38:00.000Z

Tonight is a big night, I'll be testing my not-so abnormally long toe (as it turns out, survey is all evens so far on the long 'index' toe front) in a 7.2 mile run this evening. I will also be testing my lungs, sinuses, and overall fitness.

Goals will be set very low in an attempt not to feel too depressed about illnesses and injuries.

Don't wait up, might be some time.

Chickens: Update

2009-03-08T20:28:00.000Z

This weekend was meant to mark the arrival of Peggy, Dory and Nemo (potential names of our 3 reserved Pekin hens) from Wales.

However, my inability to complete the construction of their enclosure meant that they are still in Wales. Despite taking Friday off work to finish the build, it didn't happen and is still not fully complete (all 4 sides up and assembled, but no roof, not great for stopping foxes).

With fingers crossed, I'm hoping that we'll be able to collect them next Saturday.

On a plus side, I took delivery of their food this week,

I'll be able to offer a variety of delights in what will hopefully be when finally opened a 5star chicken retreat.

London: Kick a man when he's down

2009-03-08T13:50:00.000Z

This weekend was a disaster.

If my toe injury wasn't bad enough, my body has succumbed to a serious bout of man flu I've haven't experienced for a long time.

Throw into the mix the horrible wet weather and you can imagine how much of a happy bunny I am.

Making matters worse the house was barren of painkillers of any form. The only joy I found was that we had some lemsip cold and flu sachets which contain paracetamol. I've never been so happy at the sight of a lemsip sachet.

So much for my vitamin C supplement theory. Perhaps instead of having lots of colds, the vitamin C just stored them all up for just one mother of all flu bouts.

So no running completed now for a full week, not panicking just yet. All depends upon how long this cold hangs on for.

fingers crossed for not long

London: Short versus long

2009-03-05T13:05:00.000Z

I've decided against running today.

This will be the longest gap in my training for close to 3 months.

The decision was based upon the benefits of a long run over a short run. As my toe is doing sufficiently well, but a premature return to training with what should be a planned short run, could inevitably mean not being able to do my planned long run this weekend.

I think the extra days my toes will have to return to normal, before Sunday will mean fewer problems in coming weeks.

Will be aiming for 18 miles, this weekend, as the following weekend will be Silverstone half marathon.

London: Toe update

2009-03-04T10:26:00.000Z

The Toe is recovering very nicely.

Pain has been eliminated, and the healing process is advancing well.

Normal running will be resumed shortly.

All this toe treatment and self-reflection of my toe care routine (or lack of it) has led me to discover an interesting foot anatomy irregularity.

My second toe (i.e the one next to the big toe- if it was a finger it would be the index finger), the one that is the source of the current problem, is longer than my big toe.

I hadn't really noticed this before and I can't say I've ever had a foot fetish to really notice anyone Else's toes.

So when I noticed this toe irregularity I applied my scientific reasoning and decided to compare mine against a normal control, in the absence of a normal control, I found the wife, and stared at her feet. Now I'm not being mean, by not calling her normal, but she does have feet the size of a Pygmy goats trotter; size 3. What normal human has size 3 feet?

Confirming my toe irregularity hypothesis, her second toe was indeed smaller than her big (relatively speaking here) toe.

I think this may be contributing to the blistering on this toe and why it is so badly affected.

A few more normal controls and I'll start writing the scientific paper!

London: Septic blister, ouch!

2009-03-03T13:14:00.000Z

Ouch, ouch and again ouch.

I had a very painful night yesterday.
After doing a 9.5 mile run through my lunch, I thought one of my toes was looking a little worse for wear and thought o.k, another toe blister to deal with later (seems to be a feature of increasing the frequency of runs this year).

I seem to have three toes which are fairing worse than any others, it's not that my trainers are ill-fitting, they are actually one of the best set of trainers I've had. It just seems that running almost everyday is beginning to take it's toll.

I knew that this was likely to happen at some stage and have taken as many precautions to prevent it, anti-blister socks (twin skins) which do work, but unfortunately I haven't yet sufficient quantity to keep up with the laundry so I occasionally run out and must go back to single skin socks which don't help.

By the time I got home from work, I was limping which told me this ain't no ordinary blister.

Close inspection revealed an obscure looking blister, that was surrounded by red swelling.

The best description I can give of how my toe looked and felt comes from my childhood memories of cartoons, when Elmer Fudd or someone similar hit their thumb with a hammer.

It was throbbing so much I thought it was going to explode.
I had to do something about it, so for those that are squeamish, stop reading now, and I'll see you tomorrow. For those that like a bit of gore read on.

I decided that I needed some DIY surgery.
Out came the needles, boiling water, anti-septic cream, and bucket of salt water.
I thought the best course of action to relieve the pain and pressure was to pierce the menacing looking blister with a sterilised needle, stick the foot in a salt bath and then smother antiseptic cream over the offending digit.

Without going into to much detail, after a lot of needle prodding, as one blister turned out to be a blister on top of a blister on top of another blister, the root of the pain and pressure was found.

It was a bit messy to say the least, but immediately felt better, and after the sharp pain of being plunged into a salt bath, the pressure that was emanating from my toe began to subside.

Today, after a little more draining this morning and treatment again with the antiseptic cream it feels almost human again. Another salt water soak tonight and I think it'll be much better.

However, it means I won't see the trainers again for a couple of days, but will give the toes some much neglected pampering.

Moral of this story, look after your feet, you're gonna need them to get you round the 26.1 miles.

London: Running music

2009-03-02T08:38:00.000Z

I don't normally like to run with music.

Primarily because it would be quite rude to my running partner, but when I'm going solo I try to fight the urge. However some days the beat of the jungle drums is needed to do the distance.

Often in the gym if I'm doing a treadmill session, I must have my tunes to drone out the rubbish the gym is blasting out and also the grunts of the really big scary men lifting the free weights.

Because these treadmill sessions are generally short runs, I usually have a compilation on my generic mp3 player of up tempo fast music, that keeps my legs pumping as if there's no tomorrow.

This playlist however is by no mean suitable for marathon training.

Being naturally gifted with rhythm (tee hee-slight untruth here), my legs can't help but find the beat, so if you are on say a 16 mile run and 'Rock this party' by Bob Sinclar comes up my pace can't help but go from marathon pace up to silly pace. Equally when trying to run a quick 5k and 'When we dance' by Sting comes on my pace naturally drops to snail speed.

So what is good marathon training music? I throw this question out to you all!

During my pig poo mile run, I got listening to Duffy's album Rockferry and although I ran slightly faster than intended (due to competitiveness more than music choice on this occasion) I thought this was fantastic for marathon pace- perfect tempo throughout almost all tracks to keep a constant pace. Now some will baulk and say Duffy? This is not music.

So I hope to claim some respectability back by saying my recent purchase of Kings of Leon's 'Only by the night' album I think is going to be played a significant number of times on my future solo long runs- It's absolutely brilliant.

London: School run

2009-02-27T18:29:00.000Z

Finished the 16 miles, it was an interesting run for many reasons.

Firstly it went really really well, but in terms of trying to stick to my plan i.e run marathon pace I failed miserably.

I blame partly pixel Peter Andre! I decided to try running against the virtual runner to help maintain my pace, after reading Jim's blog about his use of his 'pixel pete'.

Instead 'competitive Leigh' turned up and ran like a flipping lunatic at a pace that is no way sustainable over the marathon, so much so I ran the fastest 16 miles I've ever done in my life and I set a new PB for my half-marathon training time.
Whilst I'm happy with these achievements, this wasn't the point of the training today.

So I a bit annoyed with competitive Leigh.

What was also interesting today, is that I learnt that running between 2pm and 4pm on a weekday is not particularly pleasant, so many psycho parents doing the school run, the near misses I've had during that run is unprecedented. both the congestion of the paths and the road was crazy- granted the roads also had people leaving work early for the weekend but it was crazy, I was quite pleased when I reached the canal towpath part of the run and serenity returned.

Another interesting part of my run was that I thought I might give this run a name. The first name that came to my mind was 'pig shit' mile. This is inaccurate in so many ways but the name suits. Let me explain...Firstly the name is already misleading because the route is indeed 16 miles rather than 1 mile, but the mile is represent a portion of the route that stinks of pig poo! However this is also slightly inaccurate for whilst it feels like the smell is lingering in my nasal passages for at least a mile it is probably more like a 1/2 mile, but 'pig shit' half mile doesn't sound as good as 'pig shit' mile.

The smell is one of those really bad intense smells, that you can't help feel like your are actually tasting it. Not good when it is only 2.5 miles into the run and you feel like vomiting, as as this route turns back on itself you have the delight of going through it again, so may be the 'pig shit' mile is actually accurate!

This run though isn't all that bad, as one really bad smell is replaced with one really good smell, as the route goes past the Cadbury chocolate factory and today it particularly smelt amazing, which compared to the pig poo is so much more favorable but as it is just under halfway through the route, its a bad place to start thinking about chocolate.

Anyhow, managed to get back in one piece and then ate everything and anything that contained chocolate when I got home (the good part about training).

Anyhow, got to go get ready to celebrate a friends nuptials.

ps cheers Phil for the earlier comment-I'm having problems placing comments at the present (word verification just won't load up), so I'm not being anti-social I just can't comment.