Sunday 28 February 2010

Not really believing...

..... is a private club with 57,965,646 carefully selected members.

8 weeks to go.... now time to concentrate!

So with things cleared, it now means I can focus for what seems like the hardest few weeks to date. Basically 3 to 4 weeks to get the mileage in and then slow down prior to the big one.

Interesting how I have started to look for what next :o) just to keep the need for mileage going ….. no slacking

Friday 26 February 2010

Bonne chance et bon courage pour la suite!

Bonne chance et bon courage pour la suite!

To quote a quote of a quote

A quote of a quote, taken from Linchpin by Seth Godin

“I know it’s impossible. But I know I’ll do it”.
At that instant, the towers become “my towers.”
Once on the street, a new thought: Impossible, yes, so let’s get to work.
- From Man on Wire, a must-read diary of tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s conquest of the World Trade Center

It's a mad mad documentary as well - you just have to watch it.

Makes a marathon challenge seem so much more doable when someone can do that.......

Just when you think it's safe to go...

Race number and details arrived for Silverstone Half marathon :o)
Also got the link to some pictures from Wokingham HM - one in particular really shows the pain and hurt :o) Very funny looks like I was about to be sick :o)
You have to love it.....

Monday 22 February 2010

Wokingham Half Marathon

So the Wokingham Half Marathon was a test of many things with lots of lessons learnt, including:
• Not to set off too fast – or you die on your ass at the end
• Don’t try and drink from a cup at a water station – would have been better to throw it over my head for the water that actually got into my mouth!
• Walking to take on fluid is probably a sensible thing :o)
• If you test enough of them you might just find some concentrated glucose gel that actually tastes OK!
• Running with others can be distracting – it was the first time that I have run with anyone…..
• Be humble: as I was passed by younger people, older people, skinny people, chunky people, fat people
• And always, always – outpace the pensioner in the last ten yards to claim a personal victory!

So race started off in the freezing rain - given I got soaked to the skin just walking down to the race start….. but then we were off and the sun came out.
As someone said “good course it’s all flat” I now know that obviously they hadn’t run the course before! Not too many inclines except in the last 3 miles when everything seemed to be on an upward gradient to various proportions (from painfull to oh my!).

Best thing of all was all the family at the end to say well done……

Sunday 21 February 2010

Where you were heading....

Lao Tzu "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you were heading".

:o)

Wokingham Half Marathon (more later).... you start and finish at the same spot - just a couple of hours of pain in between... OUCH!!!

Monday 15 February 2010

It takes time...

Not one for using others' words.. but this blog I thought worthy of sharing here...

It Takes Time
By johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)

As children we learned Practice Makes Perfect. As adults we know this truism as Deliberate Practice or the 10,000 Hour Rule.

No matter what you call it, it’s simple; it takes time to win.

Overnight success is a magic bullet mirage. Doesn’t happen.

Success for the New Orleans Saints took 43 years with the past year requiring 514,000 hours of labor by the entire Saints staff (players, coaches, and back-office employees).

The lesson is simple. Winning ain’t easy, it takes time.

Either you run the day or the day runs you.

Either you run the day or the day runs you or things are taken out of your control.....

Less than 10 weeks - brother in law gone down with recurring calf injury so is out of Wokingam HM and the full London M. :o(

Does make it a very public lone effort now......

Sunday 14 February 2010

It's not how you start, it's how you finish Part 2

Think it's more - just finish what you start.....

But on reflection, for me,  it’s start looking waisted, finish looking waisted  …. training doesn't seem to make any difference. :o)
Always been the same !

Saturday 13 February 2010

Not how you start, but how you finish.

Think it's more - just finish what you start.....

70 days, 10 weeks

Chugged around for 8 miles today.... took 20 minutes or so to get going then not great but not bad. So in terms of recent runs I think that rates as good!

Feel the need to refocus - more shorter runs to regain the proper habit.

"Whatever you are, be a good one" Abraham Lincoln

:o)

Sunday 7 February 2010

6 months to the day..... from 6 minutes to 210...

So to celebrate 6 months to the day I decided to treat myself to a special run and a different venue.
So 7:30 this morning I went to Virginia Water Lake and ran 4 and a half laps....

In all its painful glory that was 21.07 miles in 3hours 31minutes and 29 seconds at an average pace of 10mins 02 per mile and 3,494 calories.....

To give the comparison I started this running thing on August 9th 2009 and ran for 6 minutes at a pace of 15mins per mile....

I may not be a mathematician but that looks like progress to me :o)

So reflected briefly, his adventure has either kept my sanity over a difficult period or has taken my over the edge and this madness feels like normal now. It has taken 25lbs from my belly, meant that I haven't watched over 60 hours of rubbish TV and has moved me closer to being able to finish a marathon and raise a couple of thousand pounds for charity.

The music mix of the day from http://www.groovelectric.com/ included "For Funks Sake"  it's written on my shoes so it seems to sum up many things.

I am sure no one reads this blog and it is a bit self indulgent but it is something for me to look back on, and I think with some pride.

So 70 couple days to go to the marathon - lets see what this adventure has in store....   :o)

dch  February 7th 2010

Saturday 6 February 2010

Doh! Doh! Doh! Doh! Doh!

Sometimes !*!!*!*! So problem was not with the Nike+ sensor it was with the phone!!! So used ipod today.... all good I thought...
Except the date and time was set incorrectly as I recharged the ipod from flat so I recorded 5.05km in PB time of 26:28 - the only trouble is the ipod thought the date was 9th August 2009 - so not uplinked information !!!

BTW - I have reached he conclusion that running gets harder the more of it you do!!! Only taken me 6 months to work that one out! So goes to prove that my brain is as slow as my legs.

I feel like training for the marathon starts again from now - I am finding this (all distances short and long) just such hard work!!!