On we go again . . .

Firstly, and most importantly I must say one thing, if you can give blood it is very important that you do.  I don't want anything I have said to stop anyone giving blood.  It didn't hurt, the people are lovely and it saves lives, just time it right if you're planning on doing anything that requires a bit more energy than normal.  I will definitely be back again once I've got my breathe back after 22nd April next year.

I didn't even attempt to go out yesterday, I could hardly get up the stairs so I felt 50 minutes would be a bit beyond me.  It was an odd sort of a day, it was Charlie's birthday but he's in Leeds at uni having a great time so for the first time since the birth of our first son we had a birthday without a child!.  I didn't know if we should still put up the usual banner and light the candles on a cake but I decided not to and made do with singing happy birthday on the speaker phone and a couple of messages on facebook.  It all felt very strange but I guess we will have to get used to it.  Anyway, together with my training locked in reverse gear, the day felt very flat!

Not knowing quite what to do in training terms I made the decision to go back by 2 weeks from today which meant a 15 minute lope at lunchtime.  We did achieve it which is good and I must look on it as a success because the only option is that every day from now is a failure and that just won't work.  I shall have to make up the two weeks gradually over the coming months.  I'm feeling a little more optimistic as the day has gone on, I'm not beat yet.

Good News and Bad News

Well the good news is that I have discovered why I am struggling so much.  The bad news is that it could take another 6 to 8 weeks before it gets better!.  I have to be the most stupid person in the entire history of people, why oh why after 53 years of excuses did I choose this time in my life to donate blood?

Searching for a reason for my complete failure this week I googled 'giving blood whilst marathon training' or something similar.  There were many answers, all said basically, not a good idea but one explained why, it read:


donating red blood cells, either through a whole blood donation or through an automated process, will have a negative impact on any endurance activity. The reason is red blood cells carry oxygen in your blood. Without those, your muscles will tire extremely quickly. It takes about 8 weeks for red blood cells to regenerate. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way!


. . . bit like me then!


What an idiot, why didn't I investigate first - because I never do.  At least though I Know why and I won't be quite so hard on myself over the next few weeks.

OK, so it's not just Wednesday's

. . . it's me!  I'm sorry Mr Patton but I wouldn't have been a great deal of use to you in the war, I would have been waving the white flag long before we had left the barracks.  I failed, with a massive 32 minutes remaining to 'hold on' for.  I seem to be 2 or 3 miles in and I've already 'hit the wall'.

This week I have failed for 50% of my training and not just by the odd minute or so, by huge amounts - and to think I could have done a sponsored silence or sat in a bean bath for a week, no, not me, I went straight to the top and somewhere in my stupid head I thought that running a marathon would be a good idea!!!.

There are thousands of people of all ages, from all walks of life who succeed with this every year so why is it beyond me?.

If anyone has any 'positive' tips for me I would be enormously grateful.

Quote of the Week

'Courage is fear holding on a minute longer'

George Patton

World War 2 General

Now that's what I call a quote.  Simple, short and so absolutely relevant for anything that you try to do in life.  I shall take this with me for the rest of the climb. 

What is it with Wednesday's?

I have never been too partial to Wednesday's.  It began many many years ago when I was at Ballet School.  All day Wednesday's we had Miss Kelly, first for contemporary dance and then for character.  She had the blackest eye's I have ever seen and a temper like you wouldn't believe - she absolutely terrified me and turned Tuesday's into a nightmare of foreboding and Wednesday evenings into a weekly celebration at having survived to live another day.  For three years it always seemed to be Wednesday!.

Through the years I obviously haven't had to suffer the trauma of Miss Kelly but Wednesday's have never been my favourite days, neither one thing nor the other, not Monday enough to be really depressed at the working week ahead but not quite Friday enough to open the champagne.

I thought that I had banished these feelings to an extent, when in January I joined a choir! - it's held on a Wednesday - and no, I sing as well as I run but that's kind of the point!.  It turned Wednesday's into a day to look forward to and I thought 'I'm cured'.

But now, I appear to be back with the Wednesday phobia.  My training week goes like this . . . I have a rest day on Saturday, the longest run on Sunday, which is hard but following Saturday I have, to date, achieved my goals.  Monday and Tuesday's are shorter recovery runs and then on a Wednesday it starts to build up again.  Wednesdays and Fridays are kind of split runs, for example this Wednesday I should have jogged (read lope) for 10 minutes, run (read jog) for 10 minutes, walk (stagger) for 5 minutes, run (jog) for 5, jog (lope) for 10.  Well I got to the first 'run' and I said 'legs, run' . . . nothing!.  I said 'legs, go faster' . . . again, nothing.  Now once again, Madi was at work so I was on my own - but that is a ridiculous excuse, I don't think they allow fun runners to bring along a pacemaker? if that's the problem I really have to get over it.  I did also give blood on Tuesday and having never done it before I do wonder just how long it takes to get back to normal?.  If that was the problem I can live with that because it will get better.

Anyway, today Madi was back and we did a very hard 25 minutes but we did it.  Tomorrow we will attempt another split run, hopefully it will work this time because on Sunday I have 50 minutes to go and that seems like a very very long time!

Anyone want to buy a stopwatch?

Unique Selling Points

• times all sports activities, 
• times single events and unlimited splits
• has a 40" nylon lanyard????
• Oh, and it's aesthetically pleasing!

Only used once and only slightly faulty - the alarm goes off every five minutes!... but it's not that annoying and if you can read Bengali you could quite possibly re-set it.  

I was looking for a simple way to time the different splits on my '24 week beginners guide' but to be honest it would be easier to take my phone and have someone call me at ten minute intervals - it's a bit tricky to run and read the instructions at the same time??.  Andrew has done a bit of investigating tonight and it seems what I need is an 'ironman triathlon strap watch'  and when I win the lottery I shall invest in one.

By the way, I did the 40 minutes on Sunday, I was so pleased

back on track!

Do I need a Whistle?

. . . . now this slightly off the wall question came about following a series of events that went as follows:

On Thursday after my Wednesday episode I went out with the coach determined to do 25 minutes.  We started loping as we hit the first bit of pavement outside the drive to our house (somehow that sounds very grand and not wanting to mislead you 'dirt track' might be more accurate).  We ran up the road, turned left at the top and then came down what I now refer to as 'The Mall' this is because it's slightly downhill so we always try to arrange to be coming down it rather than up it, at the end of a run and I visualise coming along the Mall towards the finish.  If we time it right at the weekend and Diss are playing at home and they are about to score a try we even get the sound of a cheering crowd as we 'round the bend onto the Mall'.  As we got to the bottom coach said stop, we had done 25 minutes - success!.  On Friday I was on my own and decided that I didn't want to have to keep looking at the time, there's nothing worse than waiting for the minutes to tick by so I planned to start at the same spot and attempt to come back to the same spot, this would increase the distance and hopefully mean I would lope for around 30 minutes.  I managed this but when I looked at my phone at the end I had only done 27 minutes - now either I had speeded up quite considerably - highly unlikely - or timing has not been terribly accurate up till now (I'm not pointing any fingers here!!!!!)

'I need a stopwatch' I declared to Andrew when he got home and I relayed my little story to him.  When the kids had all gone out we sat on the sofa together and set about ordering the stopwatch (this is the closest we come to romance in our house on a Friday night!).  I went onto 'that' site and discovered that there are thousands of stopwatches ranging in price from a fiver up to £400 plus.  I went for one around £20.00, the particular one I was looking at listed among it's 'unique selling points' the ability to time all sports activities, to time single events and unlimited splits.  These things I felt were probably all I really needed in a stopwatch, I couldn't think of any other requirements.
Half asleep, Andrew then said 'There's one there for £4.95' . . . now I had been waiting for this, I'm always waiting for this.  As I browse through the rails in Wallis or Next Andrew will always ask 'have you looked in Primark?' and then give me that 'What' face like he really has no idea what he has just said, and that is the problem, he really has no idea what he has just said.
To humour him I looked at the £4.95 stopwatch knowing full well there would be something - anything wrong with it.  Among it's list of 'unique selling points' it could . . . time all sports activities, time single events and unlimited splits.  I noticed though that someone had left a review and they had pointed out that the buttons over time became a bit loose and would 'double bounce'???.
'I don't want any double bouncing' I argued 'I could be gone for days thinking this is a very long 40 minutes!'
As we always do, we compromised and I went for one priced at £6.99 but reduced to £6.98?.  this one listed it's 'unique selling points' as . . . it could time all sports activities, time single events and unlimited splits.  It also is, evidently, 'aesthetically pleasing' - I'm sure this will be useful, anything that might help! and also has a 40" nylon lanyard, I really have no idea what that might be for????.  Anyway, I was about to order it when 'that' site thought I needed to know that of the 100 or so people who had bought this item, nearly half had also bought a whistle, now my only excuse for what followed is that I don't normally drink these days but I had just poured myself a small glass of wine which is all I can think prompted the very silly conversation that  went something like this:
Me:  'do you think I need a whistle'
Andrew:  'Why would you need a whistle'
Me:  'I don't know, but lots of people who bought this stopwatch needed a whistle'
Andrew:  'but why would you need one'
Me:  'well, I suppose, should I collapse on my way round and I'm on my own I could 'whistle' for help'
Andrew:  'do you think anyone would notice'
Me:  'I don't know but why else would I need a whistle'
Andrew:  'You don't need a whistle'
I have decided to go without the whistle for now, if it becomes apparent that I do need one for some reason in the weeks to come I will order myself one . . . if anyone can think of a reason why I might need one please let me know.

Rest day today and 40 minute tomorrow which feels like a very long time, that's longer than an entire episode of Eastenders!!!!!

Disaster of a Day

I'm not going to start this with 'this is so hard' like I said, I expect that now.  I don't know if it's the fact that my training was interrupted this week which threw the programme out the window completely or if it's the fact that I haven't felt great for a while but yesterday when I went out I felt like the guy in the lead diving suit and for the first time in five and a half weeks I well and truly failed to achieve my goal.

We did a great 30 minutes on Sunday, I was so chuffed.  I even found a fairly local 10 mile run for the end of January that we can do which falls in perfectly with the programme.  On Monday when I got home I did a 20 minute 'lope in the lounge'.  I can't go out in the dark as I have no fluorescent gear so no-one would see me and I really don't fancy it at all - is that really pathetic?, anyway, I decided on 'lounge loping' in bare feet (trainers are quite dirty now) within a couple of minutes I realised the value of the mid-foot support system,  I had pains in parts of my legs I didn't know existed before, I wasn't sure at the end if I had gone forwards or backwards in training terms.  Tuesday when I got in I felt awful and just couldn't face loping anywhere under any circumstances so I declared a rest day and sat in front of the fire.

Yesterday was supposed to see the introduction of 'running'.  I should have jogged 10 minutes, run for 5 then jogged for 15.  I decided that it might be best to do the day before's 25 minute lope and bring in the running the next day.  I was on my own as the coach was at work.  10 minutes in I wanted to take off my jacket and that's when it all started to go wrong.  I couldn't lope and extract my hand from the sleeve whilst trying to hang on to my phone - I use the phone for timing, I don't make calls on the way round!.
I was doing this weird kind of sideways crab lope to try to swing the sleeve off but it wasn't working so I stopped for a few seconds to organise myself but when I set off again my legs did that 'Uuurrrrhh, nope' thing again, my brain said 'Oh yes you are' and the legs went 'not a chance - not another step' I then had quite a long, rather dejected walk to get home.  I must have looked a bit sad, all done up in my running gear, walking!  I could feel the sympathy every time I passed someone along the road, even the ducks looked embarrassed when I passed them!.  Oh dear I thought, not a runner after all.  I was truly gutted, I thought that's it - funny how you feel the failures so much harder then the successes.

In the evening I went in search of inspiration, I looked on the discussion groups under 'lead legs' I came up with a few odd groups but eventually I found what I was looking for, it would appear many new and old runners suffer from this problem.  There were lots of encouraging words but again the answer which leaped out at me said 'sounds like you're not up to it, maybe you could defer your entry until the next year'

I decided to go in search of a quote, I like a good quote and there are many 'quotes for runners' my favourite, for this particular moment, was this:

'Believe that you can run farther and faster.  Believe that you're young enough, old enough, strong enough and so on to accomplish everything you want to do.  Don't let worn out beliefs stop you from moving beyond yourself'

John Bingham

With this quote in my head we went off again today and we cracked the 25 minutes.  So, on we go again, me,  Madi and my new mate, John Bingham ......

Thank you

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, we have already collected for the hospice around . . .

£300.00

This is just incredible and gives me so much encouragement to carry on

Thank you

Mind Games

Well I normally start each week with some reference about how hard the training is getting but I'm not going to say that any more.  I think I have got the idea now, there are no easy weeks, it's only going to get harder.  I did think that there would be a 'eureka' moment when suddenly I was a jogger and I could just go out and jog for as long as I fancied or had time for but that isn't the case.  I'm coming to realise that all the training isn't about making it easier, it's about getting your body to accept the pain for longer and longer.  So, I'm at the end of week 2 of the Marathon 24 week beginner training plan, and what have I learned?  Well lots this week....

I have come to realise that the start of the Marathon isn't on 22nd April next year, the gun has already gone off, April will just be the final stage.

I've learned that the pain comes in waves, five minutes in I can be really struggling to breathe but ten minutes later it passes, so when it really hurts it's always worth hanging on.

I've learned that occupying your mind is just as important as getting your breathing right and that there are positive brain fillers and negative brain fillers.  Contemplating this blog is a positive brain filler as is imagining sprinting down the Mall next April, but thinking 'I have a huge pile of ironing to go back to' or 'what can we eat tonight' is not a positive brain filler and the one brain filler that causes total chaos is 'breathe properly'  this is guaranteed to start me gasping for air and the more I think 'don't think about breathing' the more I think 'I can't breathe'

Today I've learned that I can 'lope' for 30 minutes which is a whole lap of our little run which is a huge landmark.

I've also learned that I could not have got this far without my gorgeous Madi, even if she does look so much better than me in a headband!

This week will play havoc with the programme, I have to go into the office tomorrow and Tuesday so I will be forced to lope around the lounge when I get home, I really don't want to go out in the dark, I shall be back on the road on Wednesday and hopefully all will be well.

Comfort Zone's

I had a lot to fit in this week, as well as the training, work and the usual things that have to be done to keep a home going I had to fit in a couple of trips to Norwich.  Working from home is great but it does make you ever so slightly reclusive.  Sitting at home every day in your comfy slippers without your face on can very quickly become your 'comfort zone' so a trip out can be a bit traumatic in our house, especially when time is short.  The first trip out with Madi was particularly difficult because there is no car park so, hanging over my head, all the way there, is the possibility, on our arrival of the 'parallel park'.  So hopeless am I at this manoeuvre that the fear of it turns me into some kind of demoniacally possessed lunatic.  I worry about it, have nightmares about it and shout about the stupidity of the lack of proper car parking for a good two or three days before each visit.  So, add to this a cash machine, a petrol station and the need for change for the meter before we left Diss and you will begin to understand just how high my stress levels were .... I don't get out much!.

Anyway, having tackled the first minor hurdles and thinking that there was only one major one potentially left, we set off.  Gradually we began to notice that the heater wasn't performing the one duty it was designed for, it wasn't getting hot.  Now I remember this happening once before, heater stopped, some time later car made a loud noise then, just as I got to the most inconvenient spot along the sea front in Cromer, car stopped!  Terrified history was about to repeat itself we did what I always do in such situations, we called Andrew.  He said to watch the temperature and to put water in the car asap.  I stopped at the co op in Long Stratton, shot out the car and walked straight passed the door into the trolley park!  I get this kind of temporary blindness when I get nervous and we were running late. When I eventually found the way in I raced up and down the isles like a contestant in 'Supermarket Sweep' shouting 'water' every time I passed an assistant.  Eventually I found it, people waved me to the front of the queue at the checkout, and I took the water outside.  Madi was on the phone to Andrew who talked us through 'opening the bonnet' and we went from 'Supermarket Sweep' to the 'Golden Shot'

'up a bit, left a bit, over to the right, the one at the top, no it's at the bottom'
'I'll stick it in here'
'NO, don't put it there'
'I'll put it in this one then'
'NO, that's the wrong one'

It was at this moment that a little face appeared around the side of the car and a lady asked us 'have you got a flat tyre?'  Now I know nothing about cars, absolutely nothing but I do know you don't change a tyre via the engine with a litre of mineral water.  There was a moment when we all just stood and stared at each other, then it all started again

'it's the one at the back, not that one, that's the windscreen wipers'
'it must be this one'
'no, that's brake fluid'
'are you sure, what's this one then'

The woman helpfully dragged her husband over who looked at the engine and muttered 'It's not been looked at for a long time' brilliant I thought, he clearly knows where it goes 'where does it go then?' I asked him 'I don't know' he shrugged as he sloped off - in retrospect I think what he meant was that my engine, unlike his, was not polished!!!!.  I would imaging, when the sales man pointed out what was under the bonnet it would have been the level of shine and not the level of engineering that impressed this man.

Luckily for us a leather clad motor cyclist who I'm sure will regret stopping for that cigarette, stepped into the farce, not that he knew any more than we did but he was braver than we were at unscrewing caps, he took all the tops off so we could peer inside and decide which one looked most like water.  In the end I made a 'kill or cure' decision, 'I'm going to put it in this one' I said to the hushed crowd.  Madi reported on the phone to Andrew 'she's putting it in, it's going in' when I looked up to thank the useless crowd they had all gone!

Anyway, it appeared to work, we got there, I didn't have to parallel park although we could have done without the walk!.  We even got home again and took ourselves off for a relaxing run and it felt very comfortable, not the run but the simplicity of it - there's not a lot that can go wrong provided you keep putting one foot in front of the other, I'm beginning to think this running quite suits me.

Hats . . . again!

On Friday afternoon my sister called in to see me which was nice, we don't see nearly enough of each other.  Having read my Hats blog she had brought me a gift.  It was one of those sporty looking headbands that are shaped at the sides to accommodate your ears.  She explained that she wore it for skiing which I knew because I remembered seeing a rather stunning photo of her, clearly on the piste (well isn't that what they call it?), wearing said headband.  She looked like a celebrity, with her lovely straight, white smile, dark glasses and skiing sticks??.  Anyway, I had to wait a little while until the house was empty before I took the new headband upstairs to give it a go.  I decided that, as with any piece of sporting attire it needed to be adorned casually and in an easy manner that enabled one to do it mid-conversation, without the need for a mirror.

I got into character. . . Take one, I imagined I was at the start of some run or another, deep in conversation with my new running chums, no doubt discussing the virtues of the mid-sole support system, when I would whip out my headband and drag it nonchalantly over my head.  I took a crafty look in the mirror and took it off immediately.  I looked like a Welsh international about to enter a scrum at Twickenham!.  It was so tight that it pushed my eyebrows down until they nearly met my eyelids, the flatness of the top half of my head was in stark contrast with the roundness of the bottom half and looked, to put it mildly, idiotic.  There had to be another way to wear this thing . . .

Take two, back into character, this time I hung the band around my neck like it had just grown there, at an opportune moment (when I had everyone's attention) I flung my head forward, pulled up the band, under my hair and threw my head back again glancing a peek in the mirror - I looked like a carrot! all I needed was to dye my hair green, wear an orange catsuit and I had my costume but, even had I wanted to wear a costume on the big day going as a vegetable hadn't been among my short-list of possibilities.

OK, this was serious now, I scoured the house for as many hair grips as I could find and gripped all my hair back, anticipating that it will grow before April I decided that I could wear it in a pony tail which, if pulled tightly enough also gave the added advantage of giving some of the attributes of a DIY facelift - that surprised kind of look!.  Once again I pulled up the headband, I was no longer in character, this would require hours of work in the mirror and a couple of cans of hairspray.  Again, bitter disappointment, I had been going for Katie Price but was getting more Les Dawson!.

I have now put the headband away and decided to try it again when I have some make up on, maybe it needs mascara.  For now though, I'm back to the bright blue ear-muffs, which reminds me - I had best get out there, 20 minutes to get run this morning! 

Up's and Down's

It's been a funny kind of week, so what have I learned?

That training for a Marathon is a case of 2 steps forward, 1 step (occasionally 3 steps) backwards!

On Monday, as you will have seen we did our first 15 minutes in one hit and it went incredibly well, when my coach said stop I hadn't been waiting for the last minutes to tick by, I thought 'cracked it - let's go for the 26 now' which was odd because the day before I had really struggled with a 2 minute lope/1 minute walk.  The next day was a repeat of the 15 minutes and it was a completely different story, I was struggling from the off.  Wednesday I was on my own, I loped for 10, walked for 10 then loped for 5, again, a real struggle.  Thursday took me back to 15 minutes, which was OK until the last few minutes.

Then there was Friday (cue scary music, dramatic lighting and lightening sound effects) RAIN!!!!!.  Now I'm not a wimp but this was heavy, continuous rain of the very wet variety and at present I have no waterproof clothing other than a purple mac and a brolly which I couldn't quite see would work.  The jacket I wear for the first few minutes of my lope and then casually tie around my waist is quite heavy and I felt that once wet would take on the role of a little person that I would then have to carry.

There was more though, I also have a little niggle in my right knee which seems to have swollen ever so slightly.  I did a bit of self diagnoses online and the resulting opinions appeared to be that it will either need to be amputated, operated on, or a couple of ibuprofen and a bag of frozen peas should clear it up in a day or two.  I decided to go down the ibuprofen/frozen pea route.  Some of the online discussion groups also suggested that running on grass should be easier to begin with as tarmac is hard - you don't say!!!!.  All things considered I made the decision that Fridays training should be held indoors, on carpet (well it's a bit like grass).  I did a 15 minute lope, 5 minute walk, 10 minute lope, diagonally up and down my lounge whilst trying to work out the ever so complicated relationship of five people yelling at each other on the Jeremy Kyle show.  It's very weird how much easier loping indoors is, I can't work out quite why that should be.  My dad suggested that you can't build up a lot of speed when you only have the length of the lounge 'how many strides can you fit in the length of your lounge' he said - Oh, you would be surprised just how many strides 'I' can fit in any length without actually going backwards, I rather think he is vastly underestimating the speed I go at when I'm outside!

Maybe, it's the carpet, does it really make that much difference? if it does there could be a little business opportunity here - trainers with carpeted soles??.  I know what your thinking - wrong horse again! Back to the job in hand .....

Today is a rest day which is just as well because it's still raining, the ibuprofen and frozen peas seem to have helped a little but we shall see for sure tomorrow when rain or shine I will go out and do my first 20 minutes!