Major Achievement

15 Minutes in one hit

. . . . . Maybe, just maybe this will be possible

Graduation Day

Huge progress over this weekend although today's 'recovery run' was harder than it should have been but that was my fault because I can't count!.

Yesterday's instructions read, jog (read lope) for 4 minutes followed by a 1 minute walk, 6 times making a total of 30 minutes.  Now I had to go out with Andrew yesterday because my running buddy was at work and he can't count like me, he can't run either but luckily he can walk as fast as I can lope so we managed.  At some point as my brain became starved of oxygen I believed there were eight five minutes in half an hour and Andrew didn't argue with me.  Imagine my devastation when at what I believed to be 29 minutes and despite my 'belief' my 'inner battle' and my 'dogged determination' my legs simply said 'eerrrrr nope - not doing this any more'.  For the first time in three weeks I had failed to achieve my target.  It was some time later when I had just about managed to get my breathing back under control that I found myself in front of the kitchen clock counting how many 5 minutes there are in half an hour - 6!  I went back to my instructions and sure enough I was aiming for 6 not 8, so I wasn't 1 minute under my goal I was in fact 9 minutes over which was possibly a step too far.

Anyway, by far the biggest leap forward this weekend was that today I did the 'recovery run' by myself, I can't begin to tell you just how huge that is, I was really dreading this step but it was OK - no one laughed, well only the ducks in that quaky sort of way that they do every time we go past the pond.  I didn't get attacked and only one dog barked at me and he was behind a fence so that was OK.

It is now time to graduate onto the marathons 24 week training programme.  Tomorrow I have to jog for 15 minutes which is quite scary but I will give it my best shot.  I do think I'm making progress but it's slow - very, very slow.

Good Guys, Bad Guys and a Cure for Insomnia

Now, in order to illustrate my point I have to first share with you something that is neither very interesting nor in the least bit funny but stay with me, I promise I'll be brief.

There are many things that keep us awake at night and I've had my share over the years of being wide awake at 3 am with the full weight of the world on my shoulders, usually as daylight breaks the problems shrink in order that normal service can be resumed, at least until the early hours of the following morning when the problems queue up once again for brain space.

I started last year with a little dream, many years ago it was quite a large dream but it had diminished with each passing year until all I wanted was to earn a small percentage of my income doing something I loved - photography.  By anyone's standards this was hardly huge and should have been achievable.  I have to mention at this point that both Andrew and I have an uncanny knack of always backing the wrong horse so to speak - not always in the same race, we can do this simultaneously at several different meetings!.  Anyway, I happened to stumble upon a local company who offered a photography franchise.  For what to us was a huge sum of money they could help me achieve my dream, I won't go into quite how they were going to do this, frankly there isn't a lot to tell, yes I was a bit stupid but in my defence so were many others - I feel you're probably getting ahead of me at this stage . . . . yes, it was a complete non-starter, there weren't enough hours in the day to cover what I had to pay them let alone pay me anything.  The resulting fall out from this monumental catastrophe led to numerous early morning appointments with one unanswerable question 'how can I make this right' of course I can't and still to this day pay to keep rich blokes in golf clubs.

Now there is one very positive observation I have made from all of this - The nett result, when I take the year as a whole, is that there are far more good guys in this world than bad and that if I measure the worth of my life on this basis rather than by how much money I have then I am very wealthy.

Anyway, back to my point.  I had tried books, storing TV programmes I missed to watch in the early hours, lavender oil, bath before bed, anything to stop thoughts getting to my brain but nothing really worked - until now, after 3 weeks of loping I am sleeping like a log, I turn out the light and within a few minutes I'm away and I don't know another thing until I wake up in the morning.  So, for anyone with a troubled brain - lope with me, it doesn't cost anything, if you need to it can help with loosing a bit of weight, plenty of fresh air and no more sleepless nights . . . .  win/win!

Hats!

So, the end of week two and what have I learned.

That this gets no easier, only harder and I just have to accept that or jump ship!.

That there really is another speed between what I was calling jogging and walking, I have come to know this as 'loping'.


Out of curiosity I took a little look at what was to come when I eventually graduate to the beginners guide - I know, no surprises, a lot more jogging! no, the bit that worried me is that at the end of week 7 it reads 'jog for 75 minutes' it may as well read 'morph yourself into a chimpanzee'  just how will this ever be possible?

My beginners, beginners guide has lots of useful advice, it said, if you are still out of breathe during the jogging sections - I am - very, try slowing down.  It was at this point that I discovered loping, it's a kind of slow walk with a bit of a bounce.  I'm really hoping that once I can master this for an hour or so (lol!) I might be able to pick up the speed a little.  I really hope so because at the moment dog walkers are overtaking me, and that's embarrassing. Having a pensioner in Burberry and wellies try to break into coversation as they stride passed  makes me wonder just what my midfoot support system is up to!

I had a funny conversation this week with my husband, there are many but this one particularly stood out.  He's a very 'make do' sort of person?  He's also, possibly, becoming not very interested in the endless stories about my 'journey' anyway, I was concerned after one particular jog - urrr, lope on a bit of a chilly day (it's going to get a lot colder - he said encouragingly)  that my ears were hurting more than any other bit? after all what do they do - they only come 'cause they have to, they make no other contribution.  I need a hat I said thinking of something suitably sporty that I had seen on the endless site's I have visited whilst trying to pick out my outfit for the day (no back end of a cow suit for me).  You've got one he said.  Now I may not have all the gear at this time and I am prepared to put up with the primark tee shirts and the old, handmedown joggers until we have established that this is not a passing faze but I draw the line at loping in a deerstalker!!! if I am ever to be taken seriously I feel I have to maintain a certain standard of attire.  For the time being my coach has loaned me a pair of ear-muffs which at the very least give me the appearance of being obviously funny.  Maybe when I get paid I can invest in some kind of suitable headgear.

So, to week three, by the end of this I should be jogging for 30 minutes correction, I WILL be jogging for 30 minutes (possibly loping)

This is hard

So, at the end of week one just what can I say I've learned ....... that marathon runners are completely nuts, that's what I've learned.  On Monday, I finally ran out of excuses - the trainers arrived.  I had no idea there was so much to buying a pair of trainers, my main concern was that I didn't want black!.  These shoes however are not made, they are 'engineered'.  I went with Andrew to the local sports shop where I tried on a black pair, I bounced about it bit and said 'they're comfy' but I really had no idea if the midfoot support system or the impact control was going to be of any help to me at all.  Gel was mentioned in the description which sounded a bit good but where it went or what it did I really had no idea but having seen it I felt I probably needed it!.  Unfortunately they only had black and I would have gone without the gel if it meant having a pink pair but they didn't have any 'comfy' one's in pink so we came away and got them online, albeit, they are blue but at least they aren't black - I didn't want black!.

Next I had to rummage through my wardrobe for something to wear, I just about managed the trainers, an outfit is out of the question.  Money is a bit tight!.  I needed something that said 'I'm a bit serious about this' but that won't look rediculous when I collapse at the side of the road.  I managed to find a pair of tracksuit bottoms, in blue! and a selection of primark T-shirts. The lycra, nose clip and long socks can wait for now.

Next I needed a training programme, I managed to find a beginners guide on the marathon site, unfortunately though I'm not quite up to the standard of the start of the beginners guide so I had to search on line for a guide to get me to the start of the beginners guide.  I found one, it uses the walk a minute, jog a minute method and builds up the time you jog gradually - easy I thought!.

Next I needed a coach, like I said money is tight, but my seventeen year old daughter is at home most days and she's done a bit of jogging - job done!

On Monday we did a workout with Jessie Wallace, we'de made up our minds before the trainers arrived that's what we would do and I'm not very good at being spontaneous.  Tuesday was the big day when we ventured outside, we had to walk a minute and jog a minute, five times - Madi was on timing, well, I had hardly started and I was gasping for air.  In total we can't have gone more than half a mile and I already had the bendy legs.  If anyone tries to tell me again that Norfolk is flat I will tell them different, it's the only place I know where you can go up and down the same road and each way is up hill!!!!.  Four days later and I have progressed to jogging for two minutes, walking for one, five times then jogging for one minute walking for one minute, five times.  It's no easier, I'm still out of breath from almost the first step, does it ever get any easier or is it just this hard for the whole twenty six miles?.  Surely this can't be beyond me, there are other normal people who run this thing?

To This Point

I meant to start this blog on day one but haven't quite got around to it, in my head I have written some hilarious, moving and down right brilliant pieces but I was never in a position to write it down.  So here is a very quick catch up, a background that will hopefully explain why at 53, having not exercised for many years I am going to run my first marathon!

My name is Viv, it has to be said that last year was not the best for any of my family but whatever had happened previously became completely insignificant when we learned that my brother had cancer.  I thought when he first called to tell me that it was probably early days and there would be something they could do, there is so much they can do these days.  When he and his wife visited some weeks later however, I knew the instant I opened my door that there was nothing they could do, this was a fight he would not win.  

It was just three months from the phone call to the day he died.  It was the saddest of days but it has to be said that I remember it with warmth.  The reason for that is because of where he died, he spent his last two weeks at Isabel Hospice in Welwyn Garden City.  Following weeks in Harlow and later a London Hospital where the emphasis was on cure the hospice was a place of calm, quiet acceptance.  It was a little oasis in the middle of chaos where it felt as though time stood still.  The staff had an intuitive ability to always be there when they were needed without ever taking over.  As a family we will be eternally grateful to the wonderful people at Isabel Hospice.  For that reason, when I got the letter to say that I had been successful in the ballot for the Marathon, there was no question that I wouldn't do it and, as it was the day before what would have been my brothers 58th birthday it seems absolutely right that I will run it for the hospice. 

So, for all the extraordinary people at Isabel Hospice and for my lovely, courageous brother - this is for you .........


If you would like to support Isabel Hospice and sponsor me you can do so by visiting:

www.virginmoneygiving.com/VivienneKanharn

Thank you