Sacrifices and good news

Training miles completed this week: 12.5
Total training miles completed: 91
Training miles left: 155 + taper off period
Training runs left: 24 + taper off period

Hello and thanks for taking the time to read this week's post.

I've been deliberating whether to write this post for a few weeks now and I've decided to give it a shot.  I'm a bit worried that it won't sound quite right and I'll end up coming across as a bit self-aggrandising.  I hope regular readers and those who know me would back me up in saying that's not how this is meant to be.

The trigger for actually writing this came from an advert of all places - specifically this one:

I suppose it struck a chord with me because, whilst I knew that training for a marathon was no mean feat, I'd never really understood the actual extent of what it takes until I started doing it myself.  I've got friends who've run the London Marathon, and my sister and my dad have both done it too, but I've never really grasped the enormity of the challenge until very recently.  The line in the above that says "I am all the days you don't see" pretty much sums it up for me.

The thing is, that it's not really me that's making the sacrifices - it's my family.  At the moment, my wife has to put our daughter to bed on her own twice a week while I'm out running and as I start getting above 12 miles in the next few weeks, I'll be taking large chunks out of our weekends to prepare.

Whilst I do make sacrifices of sorts (getting up early for weekend runs, not getting home til 9pm some nights) I'm doing that voluntarily.  My family take the extra burden to let me do this and I think that aspect is overlooked as much as "all the days that you don't see".  I hope I've articulated that in a decent way.

Back to running and I've banked a decent 12.5 miles this week.  A 7.5 mile run last Friday night was a good test and despite feeling a bit of a twinge in my thigh muscle and feeling like I'd lost a lot of energy after 5 miles, I still put in a respectable 80 minute time.  Going back to last week's post again, I'm not setting out to run any of these distances in a "good" time - I'm setting out with the hope of getting back in one piece.  I'm keeping an eye on the mile times, but only as a reference, not a target to beat.  Fortunately that twinge in my thigh subsided quite quickly and I've not felt any additional pain in my foot yet.

It's been cold in Sheffield this week but the 5 miles last night felt pretty good.  A solid 55 minute time with no reaction afterwards is good.  I think it's a sign of how far I've come that when my wife asked me how far I was going I replied "only 5 miles".  In September, doing a mile filled me with fear and now 5 miles doesn't feel like much. 

I had my diabetes review at the hospital today and had some really good news! My long term blood sugar level (used in essence to monitor how well you're managing your condition) has dropped from 10.1 to 7.4 since August which is very pleasing.  I know it may not mean much out of context so I've handily got a picture (below) which might illustrate it better.

You should be able to pick out roughly where 10.1% is using the top scale and roughly where 7.4% is too.  Basically moving from red to green is the good new story of today!

I'm hoping to get to see a specialist nurse or dietician about running the marathon with diabetes as the consultant felt that would be the best approach.  Hopefully I'll get to do that sooner rather than later as there's some big distances coming up soon.

On a fundraising note, it's been another good week as I've managed to add another £100 to the total - taking it to £357 so far - more than a third of the way there.  I just need to find another 65 friends who have a tenner to spare to make the target now!  In all seriousness, people have been incredibly generous so far and I never even dreamed I'd have raised this much by January!  I'm still committed to making up any shortfall via a company donation, but it would feel even better to add money on top of the £1000 if I can reach the target.  As a reminder, you can visit the fundraising page by clicking on the link.  All money raised is being split between Diabetes UK and The Sheffield Children's Hospital Charity

A final mention on my weightloss target.  It's felt like another good week of eating sensibly and the Weigh-In has me at 191lbs (a loss of 1.2lbs since last week).  I think that's decent as I'm still slightly suspicious about last week's weigh in - 8.4lbs lost in 3 weeks is good - another 11 to go though!

I'll leave it there for this week - appreciate that's been a long post so thanks for sticking with it and for indulging me a bit at the start.  Once again, your continued support means a lot to me so thank you very much.  The blog passed the 1000 view mark last week - I never thought we'd get that far so that was a pleasant surprise.  I appreciate you all taking the time out to read this.  I won't let you down.

Have a good week and take care

Andy

P.S. Other brands of trainers are available etc etc - I'm not endorsed or sponsored by Asics - the advert just struck a chord with me.

Patched Up

Training miles completed this week: 10
Total training miles completed: 68.5
Training miles left: 177.5
Training runs left: 28 + taper off period

Hello - thank's for dropping by.

There are 95 days to go until the marathon - it's starting to feel very close now, and I've still not done over 6 miles yet.  But that's about to change quite quickly over the next few weeks.

I'm now heading into the stage of long run/short run, with the next two being a slight exception.  When I originally finalised my plan, I realised I'd ended up with all my distance runs mid week and my shorter runs at the weekend - and running 14 miles on a Tuesday or Wednesday night didn't seem appealing so I swapped at one week.  This coming week is the changeover week.

I've done 10 miles this week (4 and 6) and 10 miles are planned in next week (6.5 and 3.5) and then it's 2 miles a week extra on the distance run until the end of March.

The title of this week's post is a reference to how I'm feeling at the moment.  My foot aches quite a lot of the time now, particularly after the long runs and on Sunday, I felt some pain in one of my toes so I've strapped it up as a precaution.  I think at worst, it's a tiny stress fracture but there's no evidence of that really - I'm just being cautious.  I also felt a bit of a cold coming on this week but I think I've held it at bay for now.

I think that feeling like you're facing a constant battle is probably natural during any kind of training like this.  There's probably a lot to be said for mental fitness as well as physical fitness and I've overlooked that up until now.  I'll be trying to focus a lot more on the positives over the next few weeks.

Saturday's run went pretty well - 4 miles in a few seconds over 44 minutes was pleasing.  The 11 minute mile is nice, but realistically I know that as I start going further and further, that will probably push back out closer to the 12 mile mark overall.  It's not something I'm overly worried about, but it's good to be able to track what you're doing.  Another bonus was that it didn't feel too horrific getting up at 4am to fuel up before running.  As I get in to longer distances, I'll probably be leaving the house at a more sensible time so I can adjust my eating time accordingly.

I did 6 miles tonight in 65 minutes - consistent with my last run at this distance.  It might be a sign of how far I've come that I'm disappointed that I didn't do it faster.  I managed to run the first 3 miles without stopping which felt great - an actual sense of achievement.  I'm not sure if it's the cooler air, my determination to run whilst feeling patched up or the fact that I remembered I'd forgotten my inhaler and so paced myself a lot more but it felt a lot easier tonight than probably any other run I've done.  My foot started feeling heavy towards the end of it and I've not doubt it'll hurt tomorrow, but I'm celebrating while I can!  I may have mentioned that I was using Endomondo to track my runs.  Here's an example of tonight's 6 mile run (though you can see that the GPS is a bit off on the map) - I thought I'd share it with you.


It's been a very strange week from a diabetes perspective.  Since my run last Tuesday, I've really struggled to keep my blood sugar in check, but not in the way I've been used to. I've found that it's been really difficult to maintain a decent level and that I've crashed a few times a day.  Whilst it's obviously good to be having lower blood sugar, too low is as bad as too high and as I've mentioned before, it's walking that tightrope in between the two.

I've been experimenting by lowering my insulin doses with meals but it's a lot of trial and error at the moment.  I've got a consultant appointment at the hospital on Feb 1st so I'll be able to talk through it all in a lot more detail then - I'll just need to muddle through on my own until then.  Runsweet have a lot of good information and advice for people with diabetes but I'm wary of making any drastic adjustments without speaking to a doctor first - I think that's just sensible.

I was talking to someone last night about how frustrating it feels in many respects.  I've made a conscious effort to adjust my diet and get back into a proper diabetic regimen for a good few months now and it almost feels like I've got to start and learn how to do it all over again.  I think I probably just need to understand the science behind it and it'll hopefully be fairly straightforward.

A quick mention on diet and such as that feels like quite a good segue there.  I've started tracking my food through the MyFitnessPal which is giving me a good idea of how many calories I need to lose about 20lbs over 20 weeks.  It also helps track what I'm eating around training days and my carb levels (to aid insulin doses).  It's quite a useful tool.  I'm think I'll print off the reports to take along to the hospital in a couple of weeks.

Final quick update on sponsorship. A few very wonderful people have chipped in this last week and the total (exclusing gift aid) currently stands at £157 which is quite good I think.  You can keep an eye on progress, stay up to date with the latest blog and track the countdown to the main event by visting the fundraising page.  All the money is being split between DiabetesUK and The Sheffield Children's Hospital Charity and you can read about all their work by clicking on one of the links.

A hectic weekend meant I wasn't able to go out and get any pics for my Sheffield photobook, but I'm hoping to rectify that this weekend so I can get a good start on that.

I'll leave it there for this week - appreciate I've gone on a fair bit there so thanks for sticking with it to the end.  I mentioned a few weeks back that the end of this week was critical and it's really positive that I'm just about through it relatively unscathed.

Thanks for your support - the messages I get really mean a lot

Take care

Andy

We're not in Kansas any more

Hello and welcome to my first post of 2012.  I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year.  Apologies if this is a bit of a longer post than usual - I do appreciate that I'm more suited to brevity...


With only 108 days to go until marathon day, I'm going to start each new blog post like this:


Training miles completed this week: 9.5
Total training miles completed: 47
Training miles left: 199


It's as much as a reference for me as anything else, but it saves you reading the whole thing if you're in a hurry... The mathematically minded among you will probably notice that by the time I line up, I'll have banked nearly 10 marathon's worth of training miles.


The official London Marathon 13 Week Training Plan kicked in on January 1st (although I actually started on New Year's Eve).  As I've mentioned a few times, they provide you with a few plans depending on what your goal is.  Given my circumstances, I've opted for the 'Just-to-get-round plan' which, in practice is the 'Just-to-get-to-the-start plan'


Under this plan, you get a schedule of 3 weekly runs.  The overwhelming problem is that I can't physically manage 3 runs a week - certainly not of any great distance.   That's become apparent recently with the amount of time I'm needing to recover.  Whilst I'm not getting the same pain as I've had previously, the aches are becoming more profound and I don't want to do myself any further damage.  The physio exercises do help a bit though.

Instead I've modified their plan into a 2 runs per week schedule, taking the longest 2 of the three runs and adding a little on to the other one.  I might post it as a separate entry so you can see what's coming up.  I'm going to run each Wednesday and Saturday so I've got 32 more runs before I line up at Blackheath on April 29th.  That feels like a long way off yet, but I know it isn't.  If you're interested, there's an interactive map of the marathon route

As part of my preparations, I've now got a hotel booked for three nights from Friday 27th April.  The non-refundable nature of the booking just adds an extra incentive!


Last Saturday I got up and did, what looked on paper, to be a fairly straightforward 4.5 mile run.  What actually happened was that my "local knowledge" conned me into forgetting how unforgiving a couple of hills were and it felt like an incredible slog getting round. I managed it in 52 minutes (just inside my target 12 minute mile pace).

Tonight, I'd learned from that "mistake" at the weekend at chose a flatter route to do 5 miles.  Given the howling winds and rain, I managed a respectable 56 minute time.  However much I may have been seeking a bit of sympathy, I actually really enjoyed it.  It was the first run I've done with music as well and it didn't affect may pace one way or another which was very pleasing.  I also discovered that my running top isn't as waterproof as it looks, so that was fun...

A to B and back again...

With regards to my diabetes, Christmas was as I expected it to be really.  A few highs, a few lows and a bit inbetween as well.  The effects of a sneaky couple of After Eights is not to be taken lightly.  I had a check in with the specialist nurse at the hospital yesterday and she's happy that I'm doing the right things on my own.  I've got an annual review at the beginning of Feb where we'll start to really see how much progress I've made.  As long as my blood sugar is trending downwards, I'll be happy.  I'll have a blood test that works out my blood sugar levels have been over 3 months (as opposed to the tests I do at home myself). Christmas will have affected the results of that test a bit but we'll wait and see what happens.

I'm back on my diet proper after Christmas (where I think I only put on about 3lbs) so I'm confident of a normal return to blood sugar levels very soon.

As an aside, I've realised that as well as pacing myself with running and "hydration strategies" I'm going to have to pay a lot more attention to my blood sugar levels before and after running.  I need to monitor what the distance is doing to me and making sure that I don't go low when I'm 6 miles from home.

Finally, you all know I'm fundraising for Diabetes UK and Sheffield Children's Hospital Chairty but whilst I'm not asking for your money (just yet!) what I am after is your fundraising ideas if you have any.  These are a few that have been suggested so far. I'm not sure I can manage them all but I'm prepared to have a go at just about anything to raise money:

• Raffle
• Finishing time sweepstake
• Have my legs waxed (and apparently ask for extra donations if you want to tear the strips off yourself)
• Bag packing at a supermarket

If you've got any more, or would like to throw your support behind any of the above, then please let me know.  As I understand it, packing bags at a supermarket is lucrative for charitable donations but I have the feeling you need a fair few people to make the most of it.

I'll leave it there for now - you've been very patient if you've made it this far, for which I'm grateful as always.  This blog managed just over 750 views between 9th September and 31st December and I'm very thankful for each and everyone one of those.  I'm hoping that I can encourage others to spread the message about what this training is like for me and how much it's going to mean to achieve something I've wanted to do for over 20 years.

As always, you can find me on Twitter (@BroomOwl) or drop me a line (broomowl@gmail.com) if you'd like to get in touch.

Thanks for reading and I hope that 2012 is a great year for you.

Take care,

Andy

So this is Christmas...

The eagle-eyed amongst you have probably spotted that I've been naming most of my recent blog posts after 'appropriate' song lyrics so this title should come as little surprise.


This is the penultimate post of 2011 so I'll be firmly on topic for today.  Next week's will be a bit of a mix of training progress and a 2011 review/2012 preview.


I'm a bit sketchy on my dates this week (blame the impending chaos of Christmas) but I think I've run twice since I last updated this - 6 miles in total.  I had a mostly very pleasant 2.5 mile jog round Centre Parcs (Sherwood Forest) on Saturday morning.  It would have been completely pleasant had I not accidentally run through a bush at the side of the road and cut my face.  Whilst this is apparently amusing, I didn't see the funny side at the time.


Tonight I've done 3.5 miles (a new best distance) in 39 minutes which is just inside a 12 minute mile time.  Here's the route:

I managed my most sustained period of running to date as well which was pleasing.  I managed all the way from the start marker (above) to practically the Crown & Cushion pub.  It's not that far (just over a mile) but it represents a lot to me which is good.  Being able to take that impact without needing a break is good and hopefully over the next few weeks I'll be able to improve on that.


I've got 3 runs left before January and I'm hoping I can get a decent 4 mile run in before New Year.  My fundraising page tells me I've got 123 days to go before the marathon.  I truly believe that if I keep chipping away at it, I'll get there no problem!


Being diabetic this week has been....challenging.  As you probably know we had a long weekend at Centre Parcs this weekend.  That basically involved eating out for 3 meals a day for the better part of 4 days.  It also meant more indulgences that a) I'm used to and b) should have.  I roughly managed my blood sugar OK.  By that I mean I probably did as best I could given how difficult it was to find time to test my blood and make an educated guess about what I was eating.  I managed a horrifying 20mmol on the Saturday morning, and swung the other way to 2.7mmol on Sunday night.


As I've probably mentioned a few times, it can be quite frustrating when you're not exercising the amount of control you should be and that was certainly true this weekend.  I also 'confirmed' something that I've suspected for a little while, which is that a bad diet, even for a short time, leads to migraines.  I was in tears with pain on Sunday night which is probably the worst I've been for a long time.  I also know that once it's started, it's a good 3 or 4 days before it subsides properly.  It's just even more of an incentive to eat properly I guess.  Apologies for that segue...


I shall sign off there for this week.  To summarise, running - good, diabetes - OK, diet - causes migraines.


Thanks ever so much for all your support and kind words since I started this blog, you're all incredible and I truly thank you for all your encouragement.  Hopefully I'll do you all proud next year.  Remember you can donate (or invite others to) at the fundraising link above.   I know the charities don't affect a lot of you personally and I wouldn't dream of asking you to support something you didn't want to.  But if you know anyone who might like to then please feel free to share the link to the blog.


I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and a good break from work if you're taking one.


Merry Christmas


Andy

Inhaler

Hi - thanks for stopping by to read.


I'll start off with an apology - I feel like the last couple of (on topic) posts have had little variation of substance and it's unfair of me to expect you to keep reading if I'm not going to try to keep to a standard.  I'll be making a more concerted effort going forward.


This week has been a 3-run week and I've managed 7.5 miles since last Wednesday.  I was feeling somewhat under the weather last week so I did a smaller, 1.5 mile route just to keep some momentum.  Fortunately my man-flu had mostly subsided by Saturday morning and so I went for my longest distance to date and did 3 miles - something I repeated this evening.

Saturday morning was OK as things go.  I'd forgotten my inhaler before I left (I have mild asthma on top of everything else) and it was incredibly icy.  I managed the route in 40 minutes which felt OK considering the circumstances.  I wanted another crack at it without the ice slowing me down and did the same route in 37 minutes tonight - roughly on track for 12 minute miles.


The problem is that I feel like I'm my own worst enemy sometimes.  I got about a mile into my run tonight before I started with stitch again.  I'd been round Leeds Christmas market after work tonight and naively thought that a German sausage then wouldn't hurt before I came home to go running.  What I neglected to tell myself is that it was still only a couple of hours before and that being in a different city doesn't actually make a difference.   I need to be a lot stricter and more disciplined with myself because silly things like that don't help.


The good news is that I'm starting to believe that I can actually make it round 26 miles if I continue to be sensible.  I'm not usually low on self belief, but I'm wary of jinxing myself a bit with this.  When I'm out running, I feel like I can actually do it and that sort of belief is pushing me on.


I'm taking a lot of care when I run and I'm getting better at measuring my stride so I'm not coming down off a curb onto my bad foot and I'm not pushing off with it going back up a curb either.  I'm also starting to feel like I can open up my stride a bit and push myself a bit more.


I've had a bit of a roller-coaster week diabetes wise.  I had a work Christmas do on Friday and I had a decent reading before bed (6 ish if I remember correctly) but it was 20.5 when I woke up Saturday morning!  In trying to correct that I ended up going low three times that day and I've felt like I've hit peaks and troughs since then rather than any real stability.   I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was sort of anticipating this with Christmas coming up.  I just need to work extra hard to keep it in check over the next few weeks now.  If I was consistently getting high readings I'd be concerned but it's just a product of the time of year I think.  Hopefully I can keep it relatively under control.


I've also finalised my fund raising page on Virgin Money Giving today - you can see it here: AndyRunsTheMarathon2012  I also gave myself the first donation to kick start it.  I've talked about the charities a fair bit over the last week or two so please feel free to skip back a few posts and read up about the work they do.  I wanted to just briefly talk about my fundraising goal before I sign off.


My aim is to raise what I'd like to think is a relatively modest amount of money for each charity - namely £500 each.  It's not a lot in the scheme of things as far as the charities themselves are concerned (for examples, it's only about 12% of the funds The Children's Hospital need just to run their diabetes camp for kids for one summer - let alone the rest of their projects) but it's a target I think I can achieve.


I worked out that if every one of my Twitter followers gave £2 (less than the price of a pint as I understand it) then I'd reach my goal with money to spare.  I'm not for a single second suggesting that I'd expect or even ask that they would, but it's just an illustration of why I think it's achievable.  I've put £50 in myself to start and hopefully that'll grow and grow over the coming months.  I'm committing that my company will make up any shortfall to the £1000 total but I'll also put in £500 extra if I can raise more than £1000 in total.  I know Christmas isn't the best time to discuss these things, especially given the current financial climate, but I wanted to just talk about my goals for fundraising and given you my honest viewpoint on what I'm trying to do.


This has been a bit of a longer post than I'd anticipated so I'll leave it there.  I need to rest my foot a bit as the aches, whilst not crippling, are worse after a run and I could do with my feet up for half an hour before bed.


Thanks again for reading (if you made it this far) and don't forget you can always find me for a chat on Twitter (@BroomOwl) or drop me an e-mail (broomowl@gmail.com).


Take care and I'll update you in my last blog before Christmas next week


Andy