6489

So this is my final blog post anywhere before Sunday's Yorkshire Marathon attempt.

I say attempt because that's exactly what it is.  Despite all the training and hard work that's lead me up to this point, there's absolutely no guarantees of anything and I need to carry this determination over the start line and around York to get me to the end.

That's not to say I don't feel prepared because I think I am.  Definitely more so than I was two and a half years ago in London.  I've paid a lot more attention to my diet and training and I've focused on more than simply just logging miles.

I said recently that almost every day this year has been a lead up to this race.  Whilst I know I don't have anything to prove to anyone, I still feel like I owe myself something - that the first time I did a marathon wasn't really a true reflection of what I might be capable of.

I boldly said at the start of the year that I could knock an hour off my last time (5:30:41) and I still think that with some good conditions and a little bit of luck, that might be possible on Sunday. I think 4:45 is a more achievable time but I'm not going to put any pressure on myself to do anything until 18 or 19 miles in.

Experience tells me that the last 7-8 miles are the hardest and I'm hoping I can put myself in contention with something I can personally be proud of at that point.   If not, then maybe it just wasn't my day and whatever happens, I'll be glad to get round.

I read somewhere recently that running a marathon has become "normalised" to some degree.  Back in 1981 when the first London Marathon was staged, running 26.2 miles was a rare thing that few people outside of elite athletes even attempted.  My dad doing the 1989 marathon was what hooked me in from an early age.

Nowadays there are so many opportunities open to people that want to go that full distance (which I think is fantastic), but what I think it means is the effort that goes into preparing for a marathon gets lost.  Basically it's incredibly hard work for your average Joe like me. 

To give you some idea of what it takes to get to the start line, I've run 507.33 miles so far this year - roughly the distance from Sheffield to John and I've spent 86 hours, 16 minutes and 25 seconds training.  It's a huge commitment and it's very tiring.   But compare that to 2012 when I'd logged just under 195 miles (and just 36 hours running) it's a huge step forward.

Whilst running is mostly fun (and running in a big race with a big crowd is almost certainly the closest I'll ever get to being a rock star), it also has it's downsides.  It can be very painful, at distances over about 18 miles it can make you want to be horribly sick and you can ache in places you never knew existed.

Of course I have to manage diabetes alongside all that too which makes it a little more complicated.  I'm hoping I've had enough practice this year to have a clear strategy set out, and I'm hoping the jelly babies I'll be scoffing every few miles won't make me throw up (though you never can tell.

In short, I'm not taking anything for granted, but I'm hoping I can get round in a reasonable time and do so without injuring myself!

In 2012 I spent the day before the race watching The Hunger Games at the Odeon in Leicester Square.  This year I'll be at a networking day for Diabetes UK (conveniently held in York) meeting volunteers and other local group members, before having dinner and an early night.  It's good to have something to take my mind off it all and I'm hoping there'll be a lot to think about which will distract me whilst I'm running the next day.

Going to York is very much like going home, as I lived there for 10 years, and the start/finish will be at York University where I studied for four years.  I'm hoping it'll be a great weekend all round.

Finally, I just want to thank everyone who's supported me in one way or another.  I've received a lot of encouragement from friends and family and it's been great to see so many people generously donate to Diabetes UK.  I've raised £635 so far and I'm really hoping I can make it to £1000 before the end of the year.  I won't tell you all again, how much good that money will do (check any of my last blogs to see what I mean) but trust me, it really will make such a huge difference.  If you want to donate, then please visit http://www.justgiving.com/broomhead or text BROO81 10 to 7007 to donate £10.

I'll see you all on the other side with the verdict on how it went.

Thanks for reading.

Andy

Reasons to be cheerful

The Yorkshire Marathon is 20 days away now and I’m now fully focused on the last nine (NINE!) training runs before the big day.

 

I did my longest run yesterday – 22.2 miles – which is the furthest I’ve ever done in training and the second furthest I’ve ever done in my life.  The time of 4 hours 10 was a little outside what I’d hoped, but nothing too demoralising so I felt pretty pleased with it all things considered.  I didn’t push hard at all to be honest – didn’t tackle any of the major inclines on my route as I was trying to leave a bit of energy for the later, more gruelling miles.

 

I got to about 19 miles before I really felt like I was struggling but, that said, a lot of the last 3 miles was uphill which I took at a walking pace.  I’m also having to do these longer runs with a backpack carrying spare water as I can’t convince people to set up impromptu water stations for me around Sheffield.  Losing that bit of weight might make a difference.

 

I’ve decided that while a sub 4:30 marathon might still be a remote possibility for me, a lot of that will come down to conditions on the day.  You can train, plan and prepare as much as possible but sometimes things just won’t quite click and you’ll not get the performance you wanted.  Conversely, you can feel under-prepared and go out and have a great run.  I’m prepared to accept that unknown factor so I’ll just take it as it comes.  I feel confident I’ll beat my last time (5:30:41) and I’m quietly confident I can do sub-5.  Anything after that is a bonus.

 

This coming weekend will be interesting as I’m doing 20 miles on Saturday followed by another 6 on Sunday morning as part of the Great Yorkshire Run.  After that it’s some swift tapering before Race Day.

 

I’m also feeling pretty pleased about my weight for once as I’ve finally managed to get below 180lbs for the first time in about 5 years.  It’s fair to say that marathon training whilst dieting has played a major part in that, but I’m now looking to  just try and maintain this new weight.  It feels strange actively trying to find extra calories to eat (rather than avoid!) but I’m hoping it’ll build up my energy stores over the next few weeks and maybe make those last few miles a bit more bearable.

 

My diabetes seems to be behaving itself as well with all my post run blood glucose levels being in a ‘normal’ range.  I’m having to scoff most of a bag of jelly babies throughout the course of a long run but it seems to be paying off.  Hopefully that’s going to continue without incident.  It’s an added variable I have to take into account on each run and the longer I can keep it well controlled the better.

 

Finally it’s been a pleasing week from a fundraising perspective with people generously donating another £30 to take the total raised to £215 so far.  There’s still a long way to go to the £1000 target but it’s great to see the notifications come through about new donations – it really is an added incentive to get out and run.

 

I read something recently discussing how running a marathon had become ‘normalised’ because of the number of events and the number of people signing up for each one.  I think that is true to a large degree because it is a lot easier to find an event that it was 15-20 years ago.  But what that doesn’t do is normalise the amount of work that goes into preparing for running 26.2 miles.  It’s still an incredibly hard slog and the support that comes in from friends, colleagues and family makes a real difference.

 

As you probably know by now, I’m raising money for Diabetes UK so they can help to support the millions of people living with diabetes on a daily basis.  Diabetes is a chronic condition that directly affects more than 4 million people in the UK (and over 30,000 in my home city alone).   There’s also an estimated 700,000 people who may have undiagnosed diabetes at present, and seven million adults are currently at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

 

The money I’m hoping to raise will pay for 20 qualified assessors to help people at risk understand what changes they can make to reduce their risk and be able to live a long and healthy life.

 

If you feel like you can spare a few pounds to help this incredibly worthwhile cause, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/broomhead or text BROO81 + your donation to 70070 (e.g. BROO81 5 to donate £5).

 

As always, thanks for reading.

 

Andy

 

Five weeks to go

I’m conscious I’ve not done an update for a while and with just under five weeks to go until the Yorkshire Marathon, I thought I let you know how I’ve been getting on.

 

I’ve logged just over 380 miles this year now and I’m on track to go over the 600 I’d planned for 2014 in total.  That’s quite encouraging in a sense because while I started the year pretty well, I had a huge dip around March/April after I’d done the Retford Half Marathon and it took quite a lot of motivation to get back out running at all, never mind training for a marathon.

 

I’m now very much at the business end of the training – three weeks of long runs and lots of miles, followed by two weeks of tapering (when I basically try not to undo all the hard work a fortnight before the big day!).  I logged 101 miles for August and I think September will be close to 120.

 

It was great to see the coverage of the Great North Run this weekend as I find it incredibly motivational to see all those people pushing themselves to their personal limits to get round the course.  Hopefully that’ll be what I can manage in a few weeks’ time.

 

Whilst running is obviously very much about overcoming physical barriers, it’s also crucial to be able to overcome the mental barriers too.  I’ve had my training plan set out for a few months now, but when it came to entering the last few long runs into my diary, I started thinking a lot more about what it means to run 18/20/22 miles just for training purposes, never mind the 26.2 miles for the actual race.  My wife has pointed out how physically and emotionally exhausted I was last time I tried this and she’s right – I was a complete wreck by the time I’d finished.  But at the same time, I’d like to think that no-one goes into a marathon thinking it’ll be anything but exhausting in every way. 

 

As a way of trying to promote a positive mind-set, I’ve been contrasting my first and second marathons:

 2012 London Marathon

Started training with one mile runs, having not run at all for over a year

Completely unknown territory – previous best distance was 13 miles about 15 year previously

Average mile times were about 11-12 minutes in training

Diet was mixed with no real information around the relationship between nutrition and running

Unsure how to deal with illness and injury – missed 5 or 6 training runs in the build up

Ran twice a week as pain meant any more wasn’t possible

Managing my diabetes whilst doing distance running was completely alien – lot of trial and error involved

2014 Yorkshire Marathon

Had logged over 700 miles in the run up to training

Know exactly what I’m getting into in terms of distance and the required mind-set

Average mile times are between 9.5-10.5 minutes and less than 11 minutes on hilly routes

More structured diet, eating the right foods at the right time

Able to handle niggles/aches/pain more effectively and better at preventing them

Run three times a week plus including non-impact training as well

Ready-made strategy to manage blood glucose levels whilst running and start/finish readings often almost identical

 

As you might gather from that, I feel like I’m in a lot better place physically which is very reassuring with my eye on Saturday morning’s 18 mile run.  I also think that mentally I’m a lot more clued up.  I know it’s going to hurt, I know I’m going to feel sick, that I’m going to have impossibly sore legs, and probably lose a toe nail or two along the way.  But ultimately I’m OK with that because it’s all temporary and I’ll live to tell the tale.  What I need to concentrate on is running my own race and not getting caught up in what other people are doing.  I’m not built to run a marathon in 3 or even 4 hours so putting myself down while reading about other people’s training isn’t going to help, and neither is trying to keep up with them on the day.  I’ve got to just zone out and do my best to ignore what everyone else does.

 

My training is currently focused on the end of September when I’ll do my 22 mile run on Saturday afternoon, and get up to do the Great Yorkshire Run (GYR) on the Sunday.  Thankfully I’m not looking to run any sort of fast time in the GYR and I’m just using it as a cool down run.  After that, my distances will drop to no more than 10 miles and I’ll be concentrating on keeping my legs fresh and injury free.

 

I feel like my diabetes has been incredibly stable over the last few weeks too which is good.  It often takes a while for me to get into a cycle where I can almost manage it without thinking and I feel like my current diet and exercise regime is really helping me at the moment.  I’m eating fresh, healthy food for every meal and I’m exercising regularly and that definitely shows in my blood glucose readings every day.  I’ve got an annual review coming up at the hospital in a couple of weeks so I’m hoping my consultant is going to be as pleased as I am.

 

As always, for those of you that made it this far, I’m going to finish with a little bit about the charity I’m running for this year – Diabetes UK.  There’s been a lot of press about charity recently and chances are unless you’ve been in outer space, you’ll be familiar with the Ice Bucket Challenge and the incredible amounts of money it’s raised for charities all around the world.  What you might not be so familiar with is how much charities like Diabetes UK rely on fundraising and donations to help the millions of people in the UK who either have diabetes, or are at risk of developing it.  As I may have mentioned before, almost 4 million people in the UK currently have diagnosed diabetes, with almost another 750,000 people who may have it but be undiagnosed.  Another 7 million adults are at risk of developing the condition in the future.

 

As I wrote last time, diabetes currently accounts for almost 10% of the prescribing costs of the NHS and this will only increase as more people get diagnosed.   Helping to educate those at risk to reduce the number of people with diabetes is critical, as is the ongoing support and education of those already diagnosed to reduce the chances of them developing serious long term complications such as blindness.  As if helping and educating all these people isn’t a big enough task in itself, Diabetes UK is a charity with a relatively limited budget.

 

To use another UK charity for comparison, Macmillan spent more than one-and-a-half times  the entire Diabetes UK’s 2013 annual income on their fundraising activities alone (£58.1m on fundraising vs £38m annual income).

 

Fundraising and donations are crucial to helping those with diabetes be able to live their lives and you can make a huge difference to millions of people by donating.   By running a full marathon, a half marathon and three 10km races, I’m hoping to raise £1,000 this year to make a difference to people with diabetes.  If you have anything you can spare, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/broomhead or text BROO81 + your donation to 70070 (e.g. BROO81 10 to donate £10).

 

Thank you.

Progress

Another week down and the miles are stacking up now.  I’ve now covered over 300 miles this year which is quite satisfying.  You may remember from a previous post that I covered 450 miles throughout all of 2013 and I was hoping to make 600 miles for 2014.  Whilst I might only have just gone over halfway to that target (with almost two thirds of the year gone), I think I’ll make 600 comfortably by New Year’s Eve.

 

It’d been a slightly mixed week with my first “long” run of the training now behind me.  It probably went about as well as I’d expected – a quick first 6 miles followed by a slower return home giving me an average pace of10:22 per mile.  It’s easy to pick out the negatives (the return was a lot slower than I would have liked) and the positives (that overall pace would get me a 4:30 marathon time) but I think I’m just content to have managed 12 miles without injury.   I’ve got some longer distances ahead of me over the next 8 weeks, including 16, 18, 20 and 22 miles before the race so drawing on the positives is going to be key over the next couple of months.

 

This week’s training began yesterday with (a little over) 4 miles.  It felt quite slow and broken as I couldn’t seemed to find a rhythm or any power in my legs (despite 3 days off from running) but actually it was actually better than I thought.  Perhaps I’ve been setting some higher (and slightly unrealistic) expectations of myself recently and I need to look at setting a reasonable pace and trying to stick to it for longer distances.  Saturday will be a 14 mile run – my longest of 2014 so that will be a good opportunity to get some proper race practice.

 

In more exciting news, my weekly dual with the bathroom scales showed I’d dropped to my lowest weight of 2014 which is really encouraging.  Again, 188lbs is possibly not something you’d want to shout from the rooftops (just an internet blog…) it’s good to see that there’s another payoff to dieting and running.  A quick check of a BMI calculator says I’m still overweight which I knew and that really to have a “healthy” BMI score, I’d need to lose over another stone.  I’m fairly sure that’s ambitious and really unsustainable in the long term but I’m quite happy to see where my reduced calorie diet and exercise program will take me.

 

A word on food and nutrition before I finish.  Having Type 1 diabetes means I fixate on food a lot more than a lot of other people I know.  My daily life is a series of maths problems regarding carbohydrate content, insulin doses and blood glucose levels.  I suppose in some ways, that makes dieting easier as I’m always looking at food labels before I eat anyway – now I’m just checking calorie content as well as carbs.  I’m currently on a diet of 1200 net calories a day which is about as fun and restrictive as it sounds.  But it does mean I’m losing some weight and I’m making more healthy decisions around what I eat.

 

Work days are all fairly similar – salad for lunch with some oatcakes for low GI carbs to keep me going.  My evening meal is usually grilled  fish or white meat with some green vegetables and either wholemeal bread on rest days (to keep a slow release of energy) or some pasta after running (to quickly replenish the energy I’ve used from exercising).  I know as I start really picking up the distance that 1200 calories a day just isn’t going to be practical, but by then I’m hoping I’ll be at a lower weight that I can sustain with more food on a daily basis.  But for the time being, this diet focuses me on making sensible, healthy choices with what I eat and it seems to be working well for my overall health and wellbeing.

 

As usual, a final mention of my fundraising page.  I’ve raised £160 so far against a target of £1,000 for the year.  I’m incredibly grateful to all those who have generously parted with their hard earned money to donate to Diabetes UK.  Raising £1,000 would mean that Diabetes UK could train 20 risk-assessment volunteers who work at Lifestyle roadshows, connecting with some of the 7 million people at risk of Type 2 diabetes and helping them to make sensible diet and lifestyle choices to reduce their risk of getting diabetes in the future.      Prescribing is the second highest area of spend in the NHS (after staffing costs) and in 2013-4, diabetes prescribing accounted for almost 10% of that cost (up from 6.6% in 2005-6).  Helping to educate people at risk will not only make their lives better in the long run, but will go some way to reducing the huge strain that diabetes places on the NHS.

 

If you can spare anything at all, please click on the link to the fundraising page and donate, or test BROO81 £5 to 70070 to donate via text.

 

Thanks.

Rainswept

The most intense training week I've probably ever had is finally behind me...and I actually feel pretty good about it.

If you remember from last week, I was planning on 2, 3, 4 and 5 mile runs this week, using the shorter ones to try and have some actual speed and the longer ones to translate that into some pace over more miles.

Family and charity commitments over the next week or so meant I actually had to pull one of Week 4's runs forward into this week so I had an additional 6 mile effort in there too, making it 20 miles for two consecutive weeks which is something to be pretty proud of!

To say I've done 5 runs in 7 days (something I've never attempted before) I feel pretty good and my times have reflected that.   My average pace across the last 20 miles is 9:26 minute miles compared with an average of 10:13 for the previous week.

I know for most people, they aren't anything amazing to write home about (and I look at others on Twitter who are training for the same race and they're a lot faster).  The one thing about marathon running is that for 99% of people entering you're only really racing yourself - it doesn't matter how everyone else does so I'm trying not to pay too much attention to other people and just focus on doing what I'm doing.

I talked last time about how conditions are something you need to bear in mind when running and managing your diabetes.  This week the weather has given me a fair few challenges, varying between warm sunshine and monsoon rain.  Fortunately I've managed to take most of that in my stride (pun unintended).

The most difficult run this week was the 6 miler this morning (Sunday).  Having been out four times already meant I was pretty tired but I'd had one of those nights with my diabetes that meant it was all the more difficult to motivate myself to get going.  I'd replaced my cannula just before bed as the adhesive had lost its usefulness but this is something you should generally avoid because if you put the new one in wrong and you don't get insulin properly, it can be pretty catastrophic and you're unlikely to know during the night.

For some reason I still don't understand, the new one only lasted about 20 minutes so I was still up at nearly midnight putting a third cannula in (and sticking it down with surgical tape to be certain).  To make sure I was going to be OK, I set an alarm for 1:30am to get up and check my blood glucose (which was fortunately OK).  I then had a hypo at 5:30am so I was up again to eat and raise my blood before I set off to run.  That's a fairly good (but thankfully rare) example of a diabetes rollercoaster - highs and lows and the physical strain of dealing with everything in between too.

Thankfully I managed to get round in a pretty decent time and made it home in the rain before it properly bucketed it down.

Next week is relatively easy, two runs and some non-impact/strength work. I'll be doing 5 miles tomorrow (Monday) and then 12 miles on Thursday after work.  That definitely won't be fun as I'm not a huge fan of doing my long runs midweek, but needs must this time.  The distances are going to start getting bigger pretty quickly now so the next 6 weeks are crucial now.

I'll finish, as always, with a mention of the fantastic work that Diabetes UK do and why I'm raising money for them.  Living with diabetes isn't an easy thing to do a lot of the time.  Having a self managed chronic illness  takes a lot out you and knowing there's someone there who can support you is an incredible help.  Diabetes UK offer that help and support to millions of people like me who need it and to say it makes actually living life easier is a huge understatement.  If you can spare anything to help me reach my £1,000 target for 2014, then please visit http:www.justgiving.com/broomhead - I'm incredibly grateful for your support.

Thanks

Peas in a pod

So that’s week two out of the way and my first 20 mile week since late January/early Feb.  As usual, it had its ups and downs with a pretty good 5 miler followed up by a pretty atrocious one, all rounded off with an average 10 mile run at the weekend.

 

While I was out and about, it struck me how many similarities there are between running and having diabetes:

 

·         They’re both unpredictable.  Take my two 5 mile runs.  The first was excellent – one of the fastest I’ve done in months, and my 7thfastest time of the year.  I came back feeling really pleased and confident that I had finally started to get to a place where I could push on and start to make some serious progress.  The second of those runs a few days later was abysmal.  I’d prepared in the same way I usually do – checked my blood, had a couple of jelly babies to stop my blood going low while I was running, had a few puffs on my inhaler to help my breathing and did a few (albeit brief) stretches.  After 3 miles I was a wreck – with an aching back, pain in my left side and I couldn’t catch my breath (and worse still, my inhaler I carry with me had run out).  Now I’ve been running long enough to know things like that will happen without any obvious reason and having diabetes can be the same.  You can have one day where your blood glucose readings are pretty much ‘perfect’ and the next day, you’ll do exactly the same things, weigh your carbs out as usual and your blood glucose levels will be bouncing around between painfully high or sickeningly low.  Being able to accept that and try and again the next day is key.

 

·         They’re both affected by many things.   Obviously things like the terrain, route and weather will affect how you run.  Running uphill on uneven ground will definitely yield different results to running on a nice flat, even path.  Well it definitely will for me at least.  Diabetes is very similar.  Insulin absorption is affected by temperature (it absorbs faster when it’s warm) so you need to think about how your body will behave differently in the heat of summer compared to cooler days.  A lot of people with diabetes will tell you that they have more hypos in the summer.  Even the time of day has an effect on the amount of insulin you need.  Many people have different insulin to carb ratios at different times of the day and a lot of people also see a rise in blood glucose in the morning, which may mean they need more insulin first thing.  Foods with higher fat content will affect the rate at which carbohydrates are absorbed into the bloodstream which means you need to adjust the way in which you administer insulin.   Being aware of the things that are going to affect you is important.

 

·         They both require proper planning.   I foolishly underestimated the weather on Saturday morning as I set off for my 10 mile effort.  It was overcast and a bit breezy so I set off in a t-shirt with a litre of water, thinking I’d have some to spare by the time I got home.  After about 6 miles, the sun had broken through the clouds, it had got a lot muggier and I was rationing my water to make sure I had enough to get me through the last mile.  I got home cursing myself for not starting with an extra half a litre and a running vest.  A lot of my life is given over to planning how to manage diabetes.  I went to a wedding on Saturday night and stayed over in a nearby hotel.  Fortunately it was little over an hour away from home so I decided not to take my usual bag full of spares and supplies, but still made sure I had a couple of spare cannulas and my inserter with me just in case.  I’d refilled my pump with insulin after my run that morning so I knew I’d be OK for insulin (a full pump will last me at least 3 days).  Really I should have packed a spare vial, a couple of reservoirs for the pump, plus all the kit in case the pump failed and I had to revert to pens.  I took a chance that being relatively close to home meant I’d be able to sort it out fairly quickly if anything went seriously awry.  That said, I still forgot extra blood testing strips so had to ration them a bit.  Not great when my evening readings started to go high and I wanted to keep checking!  Prior planning will affect performance.

 

·         They’re both tiring.  This might be an obvious one in some sense but it’s definitely a big similarity.  Obviously running make you tired and running on a muggy summer’s morning makes you extra tired.  Thankfully my legs recovered pretty quickly after this 20 mile week.  It’ll get harder as the weekly miles increase (and I know I’ll start to feel the longer runs when they start!)  Having diabetes is quite frankly exhausting sometimes.  Not so much physically, but mentally it can take its toll.  A lot of the self-management becomes second nature after a while.  You keep your medication and supplies in the same place, you can almost test your blood without looking and inject or use a pump as a reflex.  But as I mentioned in another post I wrote for Diabetes UK, it can be difficult to switch off from diabetes.  You constantly have to consider whether you have enough insulin to get through the day, when the battery on your pump will run out, how many carbs are present in a biscuit that someone brings into work…. The list feels never ending, and having to manage all that information in your mind 24/7 takes its toll.  If you ask people with diabetes what they want more than anything, I’d wager the most popular answer to that question (besides “a cure”) would be “a day off”.  We all know what it’s like to be tired and being able to manage that as best we can is all we can do.

 

I could go on and on with that list, but I’ve rambled a fair bit already.  This week is supposed to be an “easy” week to let your body adapt to the training.  I’m mostly going to adhere to that philosophy but I might stick an extra run in so instead of doing 2, 4 and 5 miles, there’ll be an extra 3 miler in there to help me try and rediscover that confidence I had at the start of last week.  I can also use the shorter runs to focus on pace and the longer runs to practice holding  steady pace for longer distances.  It all depends what I can fit in really.

 

Finally, as always, a word about why I’m doing all this (besides the promise of a medal at the end of it all!)  I’m raising money for Diabetes UK who are the leading charity who care for and campaign on behalf of all people with diabetes in the UK.  As you may know, I’m involved in some of the work they do already by writing a monthly blog for their site as well as being chairman of the Sheffield Group of Diabetes UK.  The work the charity does benefit millions of people across the country who can struggle to manage their condition and have their voice heard when it comes to getting the appropriate level of healthcare and support.  I’ve had diabetes for 13 years and still rely a lot on the support they offer – these services are so valuable for people who have either type of diabetes, regardless of how long they’ve had it.

 

If you can spare anything at all, please help me try and raise £1000 ahead of the Yorkshire Marathon in October by visiting  http://www.justgiving.com/broomhead and donating whatever you can.

 

Thanks

 

Andy

 

1 week down

Eleven weeks left to go.  I’ve done a little over 18 miles this week without any real ill effects so I think that’s probably got to be a success.  I have learned a few things so far though:

 

·         Training in the summer for an autumn marathon is harder than training in the winter for a spring marathon.  As you’re almost certainly aware, it is HOT out there at the moment and this has obvious impacts for anyone thinking of running middle to longer distances.  Plenty of fluids are a must so I’m lugging (at least) a litre of water around with me each time I go out.  The heat has an impact on my diabetes as well.  Insulin is absorbed more rapidly in the heat so it can lead to hypoglycaemic episodes if you’re not careful.  Basically, it means I can end up with too little sugar in my bloodstream and that can cause dizziness and disorientation – not good when you’re miles from home!

 

·         I am still embarrassingly overweight.  I tipped the scales at 199lbs this morning – now a good 12-14lbs heavier than I’d like to be.  This is bad for three main reasons.  Firstly there’s the unflattering sight of an overweight man in his (near) mid-30s lumbering about in a running vest.  No-one wants to see that.  Secondly, it’s obviously not good for your health to be overweight – avoiding some sort of heart attack while I’m running is fairly high up on my to-do list.  Finally, it’s a lot harder to run carrying a load of unnecessary weight.   I’ve resolved to fix this problem so hopefully I’ll be able to report a downward trend in my weight over the next few weeks.

 

·         I definitely need to pay more attention to warming up and cooling down.   It seems like an obvious thing to say but it’s something I tend to ignore for the most part.  A lot of that is down to time pressures.  Fitting in 3 runs a week around a job, family life and my commitments to the local Diabetes UK group mean I’m usually up against it so warming up is the thing that’s sacrificed.  I’ve felt a few twinges while I’ve been out this week and I’m going to be more diligent in doing some warming up and stretching before running now.  There’s no point in skipping on a warm up only to get injured is there?

 

This week will be my first 20 mile week for quite some time - at least 6 months if not longer.  I feel like I’m starting to get more mentally focused on what lies ahead of me which is good.  Towards the end of last year, I was running regularly and I felt a lot better physically than I had done for a while.  Hopefully I can drop a few pounds this week and string a few confidence boosting performances together over this week.

 

My ultimate target of a 4:30 marathon means I need an average mile pace of 10mins 18secs over 26.2 miles.  In 2012 I averaged 12min 35secs a mile so it’s a big challenge to come down by 2 minutes a mile.  At the moment I’m certainly in the right area (between 9:55 and 10:20 typically) but I’ve not done more than 10 miles for quite some time!  The next few weeks will be crucial I think.

 

Finally, another mention of the charity I’m running for.  Diabetes UK work tirelessly to support people of all ages with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.  They run events across the country, offer risk assessments and support voluntary groups across the UK.  Whilst diabetes is estimated to affect around 1 in 12 people in the UK, Diabetes UK rely on donations to ensure they can continue to help people.  I’m trying to raise £1000 this year which would be enough to send two families on a Care Event weekend, allowing them to learn more about how to manage diabetes and understand the impacts it can have on family life.  If you can spare anything at all, you can donate at http://www.justgiving.com/broomhead

 

Thanks

 

Andy

 

Exercise

This blog first appeared on the Diabetes UK blog site on March 26th 2013

Like many people, I have a love/hate relationship with exercise.  And like many people, I suspect I'm not the only one who finds the hardest part of it is actually getting up off the sofa in the first place.

My particular weapon of choice when it comes to exercising is running.  I remember thinking when I got diagnosed that it was the end of my dream of running the London marathon.  I couldn't see how I could manage something as complex as diabetes whilst doing something as gruelling as a marathon.

Thankfully my specialist care team at the time helped me see that diabetes doesn't have to be a barrier to things if you don't let it.  Whilst I'm sure he might already be one of the most famous diabetics, Sir Steve Redgrave is someone that probably personifies that attitude more than anyone else.

Training for a marathon is a pretty tough business as you can imagine and adapting that regime to take into account diabetes makes it that little bit more complex.  I started by working out a plan for how often I could expect to run.  I suffer from a few other, less glamourous, conditions (mild asthama and shin splints) that hampered me a bit but it gave me a place to start.

After that, I was back speaking to my specialist care team and trying to understand what effect my training plan would have on me.  This was back before I'd been on a DAFNE course so a lot of the information felt brand new (despite how long I'd been diabetic).

The upshot of it all involved running with one pocket full of jelly babies and the other with my blood glucose tester packed in a little plastic zip-lock bag so I could monitor how I was responding to the exertion.  Happily I found I could do about 10 miles before I needed an energy boost and that 4 jelly babies would get me about 4 miles.  That made running on the day a lot simpler!

I learned a few important lessons from that training which I think can apply to any kind of exercise you're thinking about:

• Always have fast acting carbs with you.  I learned that one pretty quickly after having to abandon a run when I went unexpectedly low
• Speak to your care team before you try something new, be it a marathon or any kind of physical activity. The hour I spent with a dietician made a world of difference
• Monitor your BG.  I found that even having pretty good control before I started training, my routine mean things changed (e.g. my sensitivity to insulin at certain times) and monitoring is the only way to understand that
• Don't be afraid to adjust your doses.  While I was on my two insulin regime, I'd never appreciated I could adjust my basal insulin (nor did I know by how much).  If you're doing lengthy exercise, this could help
• Do some research - websites like Runsweet are packed with information and tips for all kinds of exercise
• Make the most of the opportunity.  I was incredibly well supported and raised £1500 when I ran the London marathon.  If you're taking on any kind of challenge, then encouraging people to sponsor you can provide extra motivation for you whilst raising money for good causes.

I think the most important tip is to find something that works for you.  I know that running isn't for everyone but I genuinely believe that  20 minutes of something a couple of times a week not only makes you feel better but can have a significant impact on your quality of life as a diabetic.  I finished the year on an exercise bike in front of the TV as I couldn't run comfortably and that was just as good as dong miles on the pavements.

I'm happy to report that I completed the marathon last April in a respectable, if not earth shattering 5 hours 30 minutes (about 30 mins slower than I would have liked).  My plans for this year are a little more modest, but do include some unfinished business with the Sheffield Half Marathon in May (an injury training for that race in 2008 set me back a lot) as well as four 10km races.

As always, I'm raising money for DiabetesUK and The Children's Hospital Charity in Sheffield (specifically to raise funds for a summer camp for children with diabetes).  I'm aiming to raise £500 this year and if you'd like to contribute, you can do so by visiting my fundraising page (note all money is split 50/50 between the two charities)

2013 - Resolutions and more

Happy New Year!  I hope you're all recovering from whatever you got up to last night.

The first few days in January are usually a time for people to think about what wholesale changes they'd like to make, and then persevere with them as much as possible.  I wrote last year about how I'd been in a similar boat myself a number of times and all my good intentions had fallen by the wayside by late January.

There's traditionally talk of making major lifestyle changes which is usually difficult to achieve.  Not through lack of desire per se, but through the difficulty in overhauling your day to day life and sustaining those changes.  I'm as skeptical as the next man when people say that's what they're going to do, but this year, that's exactly what I'll be attempting.

At the end of this month, I'll be starting a two year clinical study to see if insulin pumps help people manage diabetes better than multiple daily injections (MDI).  This will effectively mean a brand new type of medication, a brand new way of looking after myself and a lot of other changes that affect my day-to-day life.

I wrote in the the very first post on this blog how I do my best not to let being diabetic define my entire life, it's merely a part of who I am as a person.  Whilst that remains the case, a complete change in a medical regime I've been used to for over 10 years will take some getting used to I suspect.

With that at the back of my mind, I've only made 7 resolutions this year but I'm hoping to keep them all (as opposed to the 8/10 from 2012)

1.  Run the Sheffield Half Marathon and the Great Yorkshire Run

As regular readers will know, the Sheffield Half is my nemesis and I'm determined to conquer it this year.  The Great Yorkshire Run eluded me last year as I'd pushed myself a little too much and wasn't able to compete when the day came.

2.  Raise £500 for charity

After raising £1,500 last year, I'm taking an admittedly more modest approach this year (but then again I'm not running the London Marathon this year either).  I'd like to be able to do more for charities that are important to me, but at the moment, I'm not sure how to do that other than run around and ask people to sponsor me for it.  Hopefully I'll meet my target this year

3.  See 12 gigs

This is the same as last year - I just like to be able to have a night out once a month so I'm hoping there'll be some great live shows to see this year

4.  Read 11 books

Slightly more ambitious than last year's 10 - I ought to read more and having got some excellent books for Christmas, I'm confident I'll make this one.

5.  Do a photo-a-day project

This is something I've wanted to do for a long time and I've never motivated myself to do it.  I enjoy taking pictures and I'm probably quite reasonable at it.  I'd like to become a lot more accomplished over the next 12 months and I think this will be a good way to do that.  I'll be posting the results on a separate blog if you want to keep track of them

6.  Keep my weight below 190lbs all year

There's a technicality that means I've got to get my weight back under 190 first (having lost 32lbs last year, a few have crept back on over Christmas).  This one in itself is fairly ambitious as I've never maintained a weigh I'm happy with for more than about 6 months.  I think the fact that I'll be in the clinical trial will help motivate me here.

7.  Run 450 miles

That doesn't sound like too much - less than 10 miles a week shouldn't be that hard when you think about it.  But I'm conscious I could end up injured again and I want a target that is attainable without having to put my body on the line in order to meet it.   I'll be trying for 2/3 runs a week and supplementing that with sessions on the exercise bike at home.

So there you have it.  That's my goals for the year in a few short paragraphs.  It may not sound like too much (and I feel a little like I've copped out), but I think I have to be mindful of what else will be happening this year.

Once again, I hope you all have a wonderful 2013 and that you manage to keep any resolutions you've made.

Andy

2012 Review

Well the end of 2012 is almost nigh.  It's usually nice to look back over some of the highlights of the year and ponder what there is to look forward to in the coming year.

I'm going to go through a few of my highlights of the year and then review my New Year's Resolutions I set myself in January.  I'll do another blog in the first week of January to do a bit of a 2013 preview.

A personal highlight of mine was finally running the London Marathon in April.  You can read about that in more detail by checking out the post-run blog post.  It had been an ambition of mine for over 20 years and the feeling of achievement as I crossed the line was incredible.

Mile 25

In May, we flew out to Krakow for the wedding of some friends of ours.  The entire day was wonderful and we had a great time.  I'd never been to Poland before but had an amazing time.  We'd managed to rent an apartment right on the Old Town Square and saw so much of the city in just a week.  I also did a day trip to Auschwitz which was an incredible but very sobering experience.  If you're looking for a city break holiday, I'd definitely recommend Krakow.

Saint Mary's in Krakow

I managed to see some incredible gigs in 2012 and picking the best isn't easy.  One of many highlights was the Watch The Throne tour in Manchester over the summer.  To see two of the world's biggest music stars in Jay-Z and Kanye West together on stage for over two and a half hours was incredible!  Watching Pulp play a home town arena show to over 12,000 fans was also pretty special and a great way to round off the year!

Jarvis on stage

The end of the 2011/12 football season was also something to celebrate (for once).  I was at Hillsborough to watch Sheffield Wednesday beat Wycombe to confirm promotion back to the Championship, ultimately at the expense of city rivals United.  Whilst the current season is a bit unpredictable (to be diplomatic), the wild celebrations at the end of the season was incredible.

Some people are on the pitch...

It wouldn't be right to review 2012 without mentioning the Olympic and Paralympic Games and I was incredibly fortunate to get tickets to see events at both.  I took my dad to see Olympic football at Old Trafford, my wife and daughter to see tennis at Wimbledon as well as taking in Handball at the Copperbox and Volleyball at Earl's Court.  It was incredible to see the wave of support our athletes had.  Whilst the summer gave us a lot of memorable moments, I personally won't forget the drive back from Legoland to Sheffield, to get home just in time to see Jessica Ennis in her final event.  Watching her cross the line and win gold was my moment of the Games.

Inside the Copperbox

Olympic Stadium for the Paralympics

Watching the Olympic torch go past the end of our road (and the incredible number of people that turned out to see it) really got me hooked on the Olympic spirit, and getting to hold one of the torches later that summer was an amazing feeling.

Obviously there were a few other newsworthy events in 2012 such as the Diamond Jubilee celebrations (I'll never say no to an extra day of work, thank you Ma'am), but one of the most iconic moments for me was Felix Baumgartner's freefall from space.  I told my wife it was our generation's Moon Landing, and while that might be a bit of hyperbole, I'll remember my daughter sat on my knee on the landing watching it with me on my laptop.

And so onto a review of my 2012 Resolutions...  I posted a half-year review (in that link) but it's worth doing a final summary to see how well this year went:


1. Run the London Marathon

A pretty easy one to tick off - 5:30:41! 

2. Raise at least £1000 for charity

Yes.  People were incredibly generous with their donations and I managed to raise over £1500 this year which I'm very proud of.  Thanks again to everyone who donated - it was very generous of you.

3. Get a photograph published or sold

I'm counting this one as a success.  I mentioned in the half year review that I'd done some promo shots for a great Wakefield band call Skint & Demoralised and I followed that up with the cover shot for their single "When Saturday Comes".  You can listen to and download that song here (as well as seeing the 

4. Carry on training to run the Sheffield Half Marathon 2013

I eased off the running in August after a 10k race as I was starting to feel a bit of pain.  I did however switch to an exercise bike to keep fit (and managed to lose over 30lbs in the process).  I start running again this week and I'm all ready for the Sheffield Half Marathon in May! 

5. See at least 12 gigs

I think I ticked 13 off in the end which is quite a good effort.  Obviously I've mentioned some of the highlights above, but also seeing Ladyhawke at The Leadmill in Sheffield was incredible.  Here's to a few more in 2013

6. Read at least 10 books

I think I said at the time this was a pitiful number to aim for, but at least I managed it.  If I can finish off my current book in the next few days, I'll have a clear 11 to my name for this year.  Must try harder next year!

7. Continue my blog after the marathon

This was a tricky one.  After all the effort of blogging on marathon training, I felt at a bit of a loss for what to write about.  I dabbled a bit over the summer but I feel like I've finally got back into a bit of a groove towards the end of this year.  I've also been really lucky to be able to write a monthly blog for Diabetes UK which I'm really looking forward to continuing next year

8. Support the community via sponsorship/donations etc

I'm chalking this down a success as well, though just barely.  I sponsored a mini festival a friend of mine staged for charity earlier this year.  The amount of work and effort she put in to making the day a success was incredible and sponsoring the event to ensure it could go ahead was a real privilege.

9. Expand the smaller areas of my company

This is my first failure, partially through lack of effort and partially through lack of time.  I realised that diversifying from my main business can be good, but the amount of effort required compared to the return doesn't really make it viable.  I'm having a rethink and a re-plan for next year so we'll see what comes of it...

10. Make some friends

Another tricky one.  I've definitely built up some excellent relationships over 2012 - no doubt about it.  I think what's proved trickier is to make those mainfest themselves in a non-digital environment.  I do feel lucky to count some of my Twitter acquaintances as friends but should possibly try harder to turn some of those into "real life" friendships.

So there we go - 2012 in a nutshell.  A fairly large nutshell, but nevertheless.  If you made it this far, then thanks a lot.  I hope you've had a look back at your 2012 and remembered some of the good times you've had.

I'm still pondering what 2013 might hold but I'll be back again in the first week of January to talk about that.  In the mean time, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a Happy New Year

Speak soon

Andy x

A Bientot Running

Hello again

As many of you know, I've had a love/hate relationship with running over the last year or so.  If you're unfamiliar with that, you might want to re-read the opening post of this blog and the one describing my finest hour (but don't feel obliged).

Tonight will mark my penultimate run of 2012, with my grand finale being the Great Yorkshire Run on Sunday.  It's a difficult decision to turn my back on it for a while, but it's the right one to make.

In truth, I've not felt right since the marathon in April and I've held on to the notion that having races like the upcoming 10km at the weekend will keep me fit and solve all of my problems.  The reality is much different.

Without rehashing old ground too much, I've found myself back at almost the exact same place I was a year ago.  I'm not as fit as I was in March and my inability to find any kind of consistent exercise has meant I've piled on about 2 stone since the end of April.  I'm probably a bit better off in the sense that my diabetes is more controlled than this time 12 months ago (though it's still be no means perfect).

I'm also battling quite severe shin splints.  No matter how much I try and convince myself it's not a problem, I know deep down it is.  I'm at the stage where a long drive in the car causes me pain from holding my foot on the accelerator in the same position.  Fortunately I rarely drive more than about 30 miles at a time.

The only real treatment for shin splints is rest and so I find myself in the situation where I'll be stopping my running adventure for this year when I cross the finish line on Sunday.  I suppose if I was less stubborn, I wouldn't even bother on Sunday, but I've paid my entrance fee and with the opportunity to get a medal as well, I'm not prepared to give up (I'm all about the glory really).

Instead I've turned my attention to a low impact form of exercise and I've bought an exercise bike which is currently in front of the TV in my living room (much to my wife's disdain).  I'm on a mission to lose around 35lbs by Christmas all being well and I'm hoping that 2 bursts a day on the bike will help with that.  It'll be more regular exercise than I've had in years so I'm hoping the "little and often" approach will work.

Of course I'll never manage twice a day every day, but if I keep my targets realistic then I'm confident I'll start to see a difference eventually and I'll allow my body the time it needs to properly recover.  I managed 7km before breakfast this morning and hopefully that can continue alongside a longer burst in the evenings.

I know I'm going to have a certain amount of jealousy when I see other people out running but I'm trying to look at the positives and come back fighting fit in 2013.  The date of the Sheffield half marathon is 12th May 2013 and I'm determined to finally beat the distance.  I'm aiming to start training after the New Year so I've got 4 months of cycling and dieting to get me into the right position for that.

My sponsorship page for the Great Yorkshire Run is still open and you can find it by following this link.  I've not actually raised anything yet, and I feel a bit cheeky asking people to dip into their pockets again given how incredibly generous people were at the start of the year, but if you have two quid spare, then The Children's Hospital and Diabetes UK would be really grateful of it.  I'm going to stagger over the line come what may and I'm optimistic of beating my 10km time from three weeks ago (68 minutes).

Before I go, I should wish Dan and Ben all the best for Sunday as well.  I know they're both running and will do a much better (faster) job of it than I will.  I'd also like to mention Sam who's running the Berlin Marathon on 30th September for Children With Cancer.  I'm sure Sam will attest to the fact that distance running isn't without pain and suffering and you can follow her journey on her blog.

Thanks to everyone who's supported my running/fundraising efforts this year - I do appreciate it all so much.  Hopefully I'll be back next year asking for your money and support again.  The blog will continue in the meantime...

Take care

Andy

Concerning Sport

Hello

After a ridiculous absence I'm back.  It's not been a conscious decision to stay away - I've just struggled to find something meaningful to write about.

The last few weeks saw the country gripped with Olympic fever and I was no exception.  I was fortunate enough to get tickets to 4 events (football, tennis, handball and volleyball) and I was so enthralled with the buzz of the Olympic Park that I signed up for Paralympic tickets as soon as I got home.  I'll finally get to go inside the Olympic Stadium this Friday for two sessions of athletics.

I took my daughter to the tennis at Wimbledon as well and she was remarkably well behaved for a 2 year old.  I wanted her to know that she'd been part of this great spectacle, even if she wasn't necessarily ever going to remember it herself.  Aside from being asked to leave Court 2 at one point for walking around and shouting, she survived a full day of sport unscathed.

Last weekend, the football season returned to fill that void left by London 2012.  A number of people (including journalists far and wide and those at the FA) were quick to note the differences between top flight footballers and our Olympic athletes and 'demand' something be done about it.  Privately I think I was one of those people too.  Having been a follower of football (in one way or another) for a good 27 of my 31 years, it's fair to say I'd forgotten how brilliant other sports can be, and how humble and gracious other sportspeople can be too.

Football is a worldwide "brand" (I hate that term) and due to it's lucrative appeal it has over a number of years descended into a soap opera of sorts.  For those less familiar with this, you only have to look at Sky Sports' self-parody of a Transfer Deadline Day to see what I mean.  I've tried to stay away from "articles" about what Rio Ferdinand tweets or who Ashley Cole has dinner with - such things fill me with an inner rage that isn't good for my health.

Compare the daily, relentless, in-your-face minutiae of football with the Olympics and the difference is so refreshing you'd think someone had thrown a glass of water in your face.  As you'll no doubt be aware, our Olympians work incredibly hard for a fraction of the recognition (and for the most part, a fraction of the financial reward) of top flight footballers and, it seems, do so with a graciousness you'd be hard pressed to believe.

And so, for the first time, my enthusiasm for the start of the football season was subdued.  This is the first year I've ever had a season ticket for my club (Sheffield Wednesday), and yet somehow I was struggling to motivate myself submerge myself back into football. 

Admittedly, a lot of that went out of the window on Tuesday night as I turned up at Hillsborough for our first home game of the season.  I sang as passinately as I've always done and shouted as loudly as ever when we scored, but it felt a bit different watching the game.  Seeing players (ours and theirs) shouting at the referee for calls that were never going to go their way seemed cheap somehow.  My Dad turned to me at one point and said "you wouldn't have see that [player rolling around on the floor after a 'foul'] at the women's football the other week".  And he was right.

I don't mean this to sound like some incredible revelation - it's quite the opposite really.  To anyone who's not a football fan (and to a lot that are) this is old news. 

Football is, and will always be, my first love.  I've been going to Hillsborough for about 26 years now and I'll keep going as long as I can.  But I think the Olympics has changed my view of it as a sport - in the short term at least.  There's a good chance that the spirit of London 2012 will die away (the reasons for that are numerous and probably another post in their own right), but for now, the daily gossip columns and "Breaking news" stories can go whistle.  I've long understood that football is only a part of llife, but now, more than ever, I'm starting to insulate myself from the trivialities of it all.

My best football memories make me smile - I haven't cried about football since I was 9 years old - but I'm still not yet past the stage of watching Jessica Ennis win the 800m without welling up.

Whether London 2012 inspires a generation remains to be seen.  It's inspired me to look at my sporting life differently and that feels like a good thing.

I know this is just a set of random thoughts, but I felt like I needed to write it down.  If you made it this far, then thanks.

I'll be back again soon no doubt.

Andy

P.S. As part of my final fundraising attempts of 2012, I ran a 10km the weekend the Olympics finished.  I worked out if I was 2.5 faster, I'd give Mo Farah a run for his money.  My Olympic dream may be over.  I'm running my second and final 10km next Sunday (2nd September) and like the other one, I'll be doing so in quite a bit of pain, having struggled badly with shin splints since the London Marathon. This will be my last run of this year as I'll be switching to low impact exercise afterwards to give myself some proper rest ahead of training for a half marathon next year.  I won't post a fantastic time, and it'll hurt like hell, but I'm going to do it anyway.  If you want to put a few quid towards my attempts to raise £200 then you can do so by following this link to my fundraising page.  Thank you.

Half Year Review

Whilst the title of this week's post sounds like one of those awful things your manager makes you do at work, I'm hoping that this will be slightly less turgid.

I'm going to review the first 6 months of 2012 against my New Year's Resolutions to see how well things are progressing.  It's obviously not the most accurate barometer of success/failure, but I it's better than nothing right?

I was searching for my earlier post where I discussed my resolutions when I realised I never revealed what they were so apologies for that.

1. Run the London Marathon

Well this is a pretty easy one to tick off.  As anyone who read this blog before May this year will tell you, this has been my main goal for quite some time and I can proudly say that I managed it without too many problems in the end.  I've bored you to death with tales of the marathon for a few months now so I won't go over it again.  If you're not familiar with it all, here's a link to the post-race blog

2. Raise at least £1000 for charity

This is another one that I'm proud to say that I've achieved, though I definitely couldn't have done it without the help and support of so many people.  My marathon fundraising brought in a total of £1500 for Diabetes UK and The Children's Hospital Charity in Sheffield for which I'm incredibly grateful.

I've definitely caught the running bug though (despite my appalling lack of fitness since the marathon) and I've entered into two more 10k runs this year.  I'll be doing the brilliantly named Cannon Hall Run in August which is a course from Barnsley town centre to Cannon Hall.  I'll then be doing the Great Yorkshire Run in September which will start go from Sheffield city centre to Hillsborough Stadium and back.

Once again I'm running for the two charities above, hoping to raise a modest £200 in total.  If you'd like to donate, you can do so by visiting my fundraising page

3. Get a photograph published or sold

This is a difficult one in many respects.  I've struggled for both the inspiration and motivation to use my camera as lot this year which is something I'm determined to change in the second part of this year.

I was fortunate enough to be able to take some press photos for a Wakefield band call Skint & Demoralised for the launch of their new album earlier on this year.  A few of those got used as promo pictures as part of that launch which I was really pleased with.  You can see those photos here.

I'm hopeful that something else may come up later on this year but I'll try and get more pictures out there which I've always been a bit nervous of before.  I'll leave this resolution half ticked off for now.

4. Carry on training to run the Sheffield Half Marathon 2013

I've recently got back out running after a good few weeks off after the marathon (down to injury rather than apathy).  I've forgotten how hard it was to build up a base level of fitness and I mentioned a few weeks ago about how I felt like I was starting over in many respects.

Running is really my only form of regular exercise and so I'm determined to keep to about 10 miles a week for the rest of this year which should give me a solid platform to build up to the Sheffield Half Marathon next year.

For those of you not familiar with my history with this race, I injured myself whilst training for it in 2008 and the recovery took quite a while.  I see it as my nemesis a bit now and so I'm determined to beat it next year

5. See at least 12 gigs

I enjoy live music a lot and so I struck a compromise with my wife that sees us get at least one night out a month.  She meets up with friends and I go out to see a band.

So far this year I've seen 7 gigs and I have 3 more on the calendar so I'm confident of meeting this one by the end of the year.  It's difficult to pick a favourite as they've all been different, but Mile Kane in Leeds, Ladyhawke in Sheffield and Jay-Z & Kanye West in Manchester could possibly be my top 3

6. Read at least 10 books

I completely realise that this sounds like a pretty poor target but I'd wager that I probably read less than 10 last year and that was something I wanted to change this year.  Whilst 10 is a modest target, I think it's achievable and I think that's the main thing.

I've ploughed through 6 so far which isn't too bad if you consider the first four months of this year were almost exclusively spent running.  Reading Guitar Man by Will Hodgkinson inspired my Birthday Resolutions and I've just finished reading Just Kids by Patti Smith which I enjoyed immensely.

I currently have three more on the go but I'm focussing on Whoops by John Lanchester which is non-fiction and explains how the world financial crisis cmae about.

7. Continue my blog after the marathon

This sounds like a bit of a cop-out resolution but I really enjoyed blogging about the marathon and the training and I wanted to continue writing this (albeit less frequently) if I could.

I'm finding things to write about a bit difficult to come by at times, but I'd like to think I'm doing a decent job of only writing when I have something to say rather than blogging every week just for the sake of it.

The one year anniversary of We Were Promised Hoverboards is on the 9th of September so hopefully I'll be able to make it through to that and have something to celebrate.

8. Support the community via sponsorship/donations etc

This came about because I was asked to support a few things in my local community last year and I wanted to try and do that again if possible.

I'll be honest in saying that I've not done much on this so far this year but I'm hoping I'll be able to contribute and make a difference before the year is out.

I did recently sponsor a charity festival in Harrogate which allowed a friend to raise about £1400 for charity so I suppose that would count.  Hopefully I can do something closer to home in the next few months.

9. Expand the smaller areas of my company

This is another one where I haven't really done anything worth shouting about.  I work for myself doing consultancy work for the most part, but I've tried to develop a bit of a sideline in doing web design and some photography.

As I alluded to in point 3 above, I haven't really done as much there as I'd like and, despite some advertising, there's not been much call for the web design service I'm offering.

Again, I think there's the opportunity to change this before the year is out, but I'll not be too disappointed if this is the one that gets away as my main line of work takes up most of my time.

10. Make some friends

This sounds like a bit of a poor resolution as well, but it's not without ground.  I moved back to my home town early last year and whilst everything looks incredibly familiar, the people I used to know are now really just Facebook friends and nothing more.

Working for myself means I'm often changing jobs and so developing "work friends" as is normal in most jobs is a bit more difficult for me.

I've been really lucky to connect with a good group of people on Twitter who all share a common love of Sheffield Wednesday and we've all got together before a few games this year.  I'm sure we'll all manage that again a few times this coming season too.



So really that's how the first half of my year is going against my "plan".  I've got the original list of resolutions taped up against my oven at home and it's good to have them visible as a bit of a reminder.  I'm not convinced I'll be able to tick all 10 off by New Year's Eve, but if I get through more than half then I'll be veyr happy.

Thanks for reading - appreciate I've gone on a bit there.  Hope you enjoyed it.