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
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
