Month: November 2009

After managing just a couple of runs last week, and although I had good intentions for running on the weekend, I found some “other things” to entertain myself with. This, unfortunatly, meant that I had way too much to drink on Friday, ate way too much pizza and chinese on Saturday and generally slobbed about eating “left over” chinese and tons of chocky on Sunday.. Which all in all means that I really need to be sorting myself out and taking this a little more seriously.

I also spoke with Peaky on Saturday, just as the massive chinese arrived – with my chicken balls, satay skewers, beef and black pepper and singapore rice, and he let slip that he had run a little in the day – his “little” being 15miles – swine. Peaky, along with GD are going to be accompaning me on the marathon, the only ones who have agreed to show me up.

Ok, here we go for the real thing – week 1 – went out this afternoon at around half four just as it was getting dark, and did around 1.2 miles – thats all!!!! – Just talking to the Mrs and she said that she used to run 4.5 miles around here “easily” … Don’t I feel like a fat lazy get.. ;o) So plan is to be able to run 3 mile by Sunday.. hmmm.

Oh yeah, and I also got my first pathetic little blister today, on the walk down to the start point, on the blumming walk down to the start of the run  – sometimes I think perhaps I should stick to watching telly.

So stats as its week 1.

BP – 125/80, 12st 3, pulse 66

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Days left: 146

Confidence: 9.0001%

Ability: 2.2%

Ok – second day, cant expect miracles – but its still sooo hard….

Did the same route, without quite so much break today – in all about 1.5 miles plus the walk there  in around 20 minutes. Didn’t get that stitch thing today, but the tops of my legs are pretty hurty just now – also my knees felt  a little painful and around the achilies.

So got home and feel light headed and my back is now hurting, and it hurts when i stumble down the stairs.

So all in all it must be doing me good – eh?

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Days left: 150

Confidence: 9%

Ability: 2.1%

Holy shiiite……..

So, just did the first run, the first real proper run, the first step in the journey that will enable me to run 26 miles. And it was the hardest thing I have done in a long while. I could cycle for a couple of hours – no problemo – I just ran for 12 mins and thought i would die.

I figured that for the first run, I would just take a brisk walk, then try running non-stop for 12 mins and see how far I got. Well 12 mins later (I think, I was so knackered I lost the power to tell the time) I seemed to have managed 1.07 miles. But I was shot, my legs and feet seemed fine, but my shoulders and fat gut were really sore. It was sort of like a “stitch”, but as I have not done anything to give me a stitch for 20 odd years I cant really remember. It felt a little like someone taking a very thick needle and pulling thick cotton through the ample skin above my shorts – so I guess that’s pretty close to describing a  “stitch” …

I stopped after the allotted 12 minutes – thank god, and walked a short way to get my breath back. I also realised its quite a good idea to take some water even on a short run. Then once I was ready, I jogged home (about a third of a mile).

After run 1 the main pain point is the muscles at the top of my legs, which I guess have not been used properly for a few years.

Planning to run the same tomorrow, then again on Sunday – but at least that’s day one finished.

I guess I only have to be able to do 20 of those and I would be most of the way round – easy peasy lemon sqeeezey

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Days left: 151

Confidence: 10%

Ability: 2%

So, yesterday I did my first “run”. Well I had to go down to the post office, so thought I would put on the new trainers to bed them in slightly.

When I came out of the post office it was pouring down, so I figured I’d run home, all 200 meters – I managed it – but was totally knackered.

It would appear I will struggle with the 385 yards at the end of the 26 miles at the moment – still that’s what training is for.

So its becoming real now…

Went into Cardiff early on this morning to see if I could get some running shoes to give me the push to do the *first* run.. Got into Cardiff around 9:00, and already there was a fair amount of traffic going into Cardiff, and I managed to find a space in the new fangled car park in Cardiff itself.

Walked over to the bus station and found Run and Become ( http://www.runandbecome.com/cardiff.html ) just across the road. I realised that when I worked in Cardiff I must have walked past it many times, but always thought it was something  like a “Nardos” shop selling second hand stuff for some kind of charity or another…

Luckily at 9:00 there was only one other person in the shop, so within 5 minutes I was rolling up my jeans and a very pleasant lady was getting a collection of shoes for me. First off you put on a pair (the comfiest shoes I have ever worn) – and then you have to do a little jog outside. The trouble is the little jog location is outside in the main street where people are waiting for their buses!!! So a jog back and forth, with40 people cheering doesn’t really let you run as normal, but anyway a couple of runs later and we were back in the shop with many shoes to check. After trying each there was an obvious choice and 10 mins later they were in the bag and I was on the way home..

So I have a pair of Saucony shoes which should be good for 500 miles!!!!!…

I also nipped into Debenhams to day to take back something for a relative – it was past its 28 days return, it still had the security tag on, and when I took it to the counter it also had already “been returned” according to their system.. Well, she looked at me as if I was a thieving …. but fair play they gave the £6 back on a card – thanks….

So what is the point of this…

Well – I quite like the idea of a “Blog”, but only if its got a purpose.. I went through a phase of creating a “killer app” a couple of years back and figured that it was a good idea to run a blog at the same time, so that when i was a millionaire I could (and others) look back at the blog and see where it all came from. I did it for a while, but the killer idea actually wasnt..

So this one is going to be about running a marathon as a beginner. In the past 20 years I have not run further than perhaps two miles, but after a drunken evening in Pembrokeshire the idea was formed to do a marathon in 2010. I had a look around, and decided that I would prefer to train over the winter – although it was going to be wet and misserable – in the late spring and summer all i want to do is have a pint after a days work, so the matathon I decided on is the Shakespear Marathon in Stratford-upon-Avon on the 25th April –  http://www.shakespearemarathon.org.uk/

This gives me around 5 months, although Xmas will be in the way of that. Initially I had though four months, starting 4th Jan 2010 would be fine – but I realise now that perhaps I need to run about before this, so the initial goal is to be able to run six miles reasonably easily before the turn of the year.

First step is shoes – I have been told it is essential that i get a decent pair, so as soon as I get the chance I am off to Cardiff to visit Run and Become who have been recommended to me – http://www.runandbecome.com/cardiff.html.

I have just installed this blog in my web hosting system, so thought I’d write something initially, to really test it out.. Be back soon……