Friday, April 20, 2012

A bit longer than planned & 150 Not Out!

Despite my previous post suggesting I'd keep up with the blogging, (though not every day), it's actually been 80 days since my last post!


That's definitely a bit longer than planned, and I really do plan to start writing more regularly again - hopefully weekly, or at least every couple of weeks. 


"A bit longer than planned" could apply to many things that have happened since my last post, not least when it comes to running, which is something I have managed to keep up with over the past 80 days. I've still been running at least once a day, every day since I last blogged, in fact I'm up to 150 days of consecutive running 5K or more every day, and have no plans to stop any time soon.  


I've managed to just about avoid injury (I had a calf strain that troubled me for a few days and that led to some other minor niggles) and illness (apart from one minor cold), and generally I've been very lucky. I'd always have said I was "lucky in life", but since I started getting into exercise, and running in particular, I've felt even luckier than ever, and I'm certainly enjoying life more than ever. 


Rather than trying to recount everything that's happened over the past 80 days (my daily posts in January were long enough, I can't imagine what a post detailing 2 1/2 months would be like!), Sarah suggested that I just try to mention the highlights, definitely sensible advice, but where to start? 


The biggest highlight since my last post is definitely completing my 1st half marathon - at Silverstone last month. The whole experience was brilliant and the run itself went way, way better than planned. I'd started training with a goal of just getting to the finish, then it became finishing in under 2 hours and I actually ended up almost finishing under 1hr 40! My official time was 1:40:07 - which I was amazed and delighted with especially as it was pretty hot for the time of year (17C) and really sunny throughout!. 


Stuart and I ran together most of the way and he finished just behind me. Ellie & Jono ran brilliantly as well, with Jono making it all the way round despite having a fairly serious knee injury that meant he wasn't able to do any serious training for weeks before. 


Here are some pictures of us on the day.

Waiting and Hydrating!


Shades on - it was a scorcher!


Happy with our medals after!
I loved the whole experience of running a big event, and was very proud of how everyone did - I was also amazed and delighted that we managed to raise over £500 for the charity we ran for - Get Kids Going!

In the run up to the Silverstone Half Marathon, I was planning that if it went well, I'd gradually build up to a full marathon, and would probably aim to make my local event - the Robin Hood Marathon, my first 26.2 mile race. Then, a couple of weeks before running my first half, it was announced there would be no full marathon in Nottingham this year! (for the first time in over 20 years!)

I voiced my frustrations on Twitter and was immediately overwhelmed with running friends suggesting different full marathons I could do later in the year. One that caught my eye was the Greater Manchester Marathon - but there was only one problem - it was at that point only 9 weeks away and only 7 weeks after Silverstone!

Eventually, with a lot of encouragement from my Twitter friends, I decided to sign up, despite most formal running advice suggesting I would be silly to attempt it. Now, what seems like a very short time later, that 9 weeks has become 9 days - and my first marathon is now next Sunday: 29th April 2012!

Training for Manchester has been going pretty well - we've had a very similar routine to before Silverstone, and I've gradually built up the miles for my long runs, and have done 3 runs of 20 miles or more. The first 2 were pretty tough, but last weekend I managed to run 22 miles in the lovely countryside around Sarah's and still felt really good at the end, and that gave me a lot of confidence.

On all 3 of my 20+ training runs, I've been incredibly lucky to have 
support teams on bikes, passing me food and water, and that's probably my biggest worry for next weekend - that I'll be be going further than I ever have, and won't be able to say "water please" any time I feel I need to... Fingers crossed I'll be OK!

With all the running I've been doing, my cycling and especially my swimming have taken a back seat, so although I'm well ahead of where I planned to be towards my target to run 2012Km this year, I'm well behind my overall target to run/cycle/walk/swim over 5000 miles in 2012.

That hasn't stopped me from entering more events though - I'm going to be doing my first Sprint Triathlon of the year in 3 weeks time (2 weeks after the marathon) and my first Sportive bike ride, ever (the "Tour of the Peak") in 5 weeks time (2 weeks after the Triathlon). 

Here's a summary of where I'm at so far for 2012 (and where I'd need to be to be on target) . 

Running: 840 miles.  Target to date: 379 miles (so I'm way up!)
Walking: 91 miles
Cycling 245 miles
Swimming: 0.25 miles
Total:         1211 miles   Target to date: 1516 miles (so I'm way down!)
Running streak: 150 days (started 23/11/2011)

So I'm going to literally get on my bike over the next few weeks and months to have any chance of hitting my overall target! 

Right, this post is already far longer than it was supposed to be, so I'm going to sign off now - before I go, I just want to say a big "thanks" to everyone who's helped me over the last few weeks and months, I really appreciate the support I get from friends and family, and my online friends too - especially the Twitter running community. 

In particular I want to thank my amazing parents, and my brilliant other half Sarah, who have been totally supportive throughout, my kids: James and Kieran, who've made incredible progress with their fitness and running too, and my training partners Stuart and Ellie, who've been with me virtually every step of the way. 

I'm definitely planning not to leave it as long until my next post, and hope to do one very soon after my first marathon, if not before it! 

Thanks again to everyone and apologies for another very long post! :)

Mike