Secret in Seattle

On November 29th I ran the Seattle Marathon in support of Cancer Research. They are one of the world's leading charities feeding money to Doctors, scientists and researchers to try and help those with cancer, and prevent you from ever suffering from it yourself.  You may donate a small amount to Cancer Research by clicking here www.justgiving.com/SecretinSeattle.

I starting training for the marathon exactly six months ago.  I didn't stick rigidly to the training schedule, but I got through it all, in secret.  Why in secret?  In case I failed and looked stupid, but also to surprise my Mum on her birthday, all money raised is being donated to Cancer Research in her name.

I know what you are thinking, "there is no way Al ran a marathon, he can barely tie his shoe laces and the only trainers he's ever owned are Converse!"

I did, it hurt, and here's the story.

FOUR HOURS, FORTY FIVE MINUTES AND TWELVE SECONDS

I did it!

Yesterday morning I got out of bed at 6am, walked across a cold Seattle to the start line and ran 26.2 miles.

I hardly slept the night before, I was definitely nervous about the time of reckoning approaching - but once I got into the crowds of spectators and other runners it all just seemed a bit surreal.  The race started at 8.15am, I crossed the line about two minutes after that and we were away.

I'd purposely started at the back of the crowd, I didn't want to get passed by all the fast runners immediately, but I soon found that I was overtaking a good number of people.  I got talking to an English guy at the second mile marker - he saw my Saltire on my chest and I saw the Union Flag on his fully loaded army backpack that he was heefing around.

The course went straight down 5th Avenue to the Interstate, where we ran out to Mercer Island and back.  It was good to see the lead runners coming back the other way, and it made me realise that I wasn't going that slowly compared to everyone else.  Ish.  The route is here if you are interested.

The furthest I'd ever run before was 17.5 miles, so as we were heading past Kurt Cobain's clay pigeon coops there was a huge leap into the unknown.  I'm proud to say that I completed my main objective for the race.  I ran every step.  Even in the last six miles where the organisers threw in some huge hills, I ran up and back down them again.  I even caught up with the 4.45hr pacing group, then they overtook me again, but I was running and that's the main part.  To finish at all is surprising/satisfying, to do it in less than five hours is amazing, to be just twelve seconds over the 4.45hr mark is inexplicible.

So I kept this a secret for six months, in case I failed.  I didn't, so now I'm going to email everyone I know to try and raise some money for Cancer Research.  If you would like to donate, clicky here www.justgiving.com/secretinseattle.  If you would like to buy me dinner and hear the full story...well more fool you.

Happy Birthday Mum, the medal is in the post.

Highlights

I realise that there is a lot of text on the page here, most of it is waffle that I got down onto paper to motivate my geeky little self, but there are some posts that are worth reading to flesh out my six month story. By all means read the whole thing, but here are some edited highlights.  Don't forget the whole page is in reverse chronological order.

It Begins, But Will It End?
Mixed Bag
Proof
Fail
There IS Another Way
Not On The Run
Back
Unicorns and Pixies
17.5 Miles Don't You Know
Almost Enjoyable
Yer Update

The Night Before

So today I've been walking around Seattle doing my best to be a tourist, taking a couple of photos and walking around galleries etc.  What I've really been doing is trying to distract myself from the insanity that is the task tomorrow.

As I was walking alone 3rd Avenue it struck me that I'm running a sodding marathon tomorrow.  I nearly had a panic attack, even now writing this I can feel the adrenaline kicking in.  It's not fear, but it's not nerves either.  I guess it's just anxiety.

It's do or die.

Sink or swim.

Run or fail.

Wish me luck, because I don't want to have to train longer to complete another race if tomorrow doesn't go well.

For the last time, No Snickering.

It's Getting Worse

It's midnight on Thursday, I've been in bed for four days. I should have been enjoying short runs and fresh air, but I can't even sleep.

My cold is definitely getting worse, I've to be up and out of bed in six and a half hours to get the coach to Seattle. Even the night flu remedy pill isn't working.

I've decided that if I don't finish the race on Sunday I'll keep quiet and entry another marathon in 2010.

Sincerely hope I don't have to.

No Snickering.

Three days

Three days to go, the last three days spent in bed with a cold.
Am I fit enough to pick up a 50 quid note? Yes.
Am I fit enough to go to work, hypothetically? Just about.
Am I fit enough to run around Seattle for five hours with an estimated temperature of 10'C in swimming shorts and an Aussie singlet? I leave tomorrow morning, we will find out.

No Snickering.

Colder and Colderer

I've stayed in bed for the last two days, apart from a two hour goose chase around the city by bus, but I can feel myself getting worse.

I'm grumpy (more grumpy), I can't sleep well, I'm feverish and my throat is about to close up.

I've searched online for advice on what to do in this situation, and the rule of thumb is "If it is above the throat, run. If it below the throat, run and possibly move the infection into your lungs and ultimately your heart endangering your life."  See these Americans and their namby pamby "it's OK to fail" attitude?

It also says that if you are ill and capable picking up a £50 note up from the ground, it's not the flu. It's not the flu, but what I'm doing isn't quite free money.

I joked about getting ill and having an excuse, I'll be gutted if I can't go.

No Snickering.

Baby It's Cold Outside, and In.

Everything is in place;

I believe I've done enough training to get through the race,
Possibly enough training to finish in under five hours,
I've booked travel,
I've booked accommodation,
I've changed my accomodation,
I've missed the online registration for the marathon,
I've found out that there are no-limits on the number of participants,
I've bought Vaseline,
I've bought tape,
I've bought energy Gu.
I've maybe got a cold coming on.

In my lovely circle of friends, all courtesy of JenCor, there have been a couple of people with very bad colds - we've all joked that it's pig flu, but it actually might have been.  The three effected have been laid out in bed unable to do anything for days, and yesterday I got a tell tale feeling in my throat.

I don't know for sure that I'm coming down with anything, but I'm not taking any chances.

I'm staying in bed.

I've ran before with a 'bit of a cold' and it is terrible, so hopefully by eating lots of pasta, staying in bed and resting I'll stave off the cold.  Hopefully I'm not just delaying it.  I'm not going to cancel if I can get out of bed, but it will make the whole weekend an even more horrible experience.

No Snickering.

Almost Enjoyable

Saturday, eight days to go.  I knew that I had to get out there and put in another fairly lengthy run before Seattle, so today seemed like as good a day as any, factoring for injury and recovery and all that.

Blah blah run. Blah blah run run blah.

Pat the Trutch practically promised me that it wasn't going to rain this afternoon. He was wrong - I got soaked through but luckily it was a balmy 5'C which kept me going fine.

Anyandalltheroads, a pretty good run, even thought the route was lined with brass monkeys, I wore gloves for the first time which was great - until they got soaked and made it all worse. I've not mapped it as I've done the route before - I've just worked out that I ran 13.6 miles in 2 hours 15 mins.

That's a half marathon.

Again.

Bosh.

Off for a film, curry, a beer and some Class A drugs.

Well, probably more than one beer.

No Snickering.

Yer Update

No Snickering

Note to Self

Never EVER forget tit tape again.

No Snickering.

Cold

Damn cold today. Also had to see a lady about a dog, so I just ran 50mins - Granville Island and back.

Knee Worries.

Oh come on!



No Snickering.

OPEN!

Hi there,

 

I've put off my registration for your event until I was given the all clear by my Doctor to take part, and I now see that online registration has closed.

 

As I have to travel down from Vancouver, is there anyway to guarantee a place will be available for me when I register at the Expo?

 

Yours Hopefully,

 

Alan

Hi Alan,

Thank you for your interest in the Amica Insurance Seattle Marathon!

There is no registration cap or limit, and therefore, your spot for the marathon/half marathon guaranteed as long as you can make it to the hours of EXPO.

EXPO

Friday, Nov. 27 11 am – 8 pm

Saturday, Nov. 28 11 am – 7 pm

(free and open to the public)

Registration/Packet Pickup

Friday, Nov. 27 11 am – 8 pm

Saturday, Nov. 28 11 am – 8 pm

The Westin Seattle

4th Floor, Grand Ballroom

1900 Fifth Avenue

Downtown Seattle

Glad to have you joining us for this year's event, and we'll see you soon!

Damn it - I need a new excuse now. One of my new housemates has got a really bad cold....hmm.


No Snickering

CLOSED!

Online registration for the marathon has closed.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEENNRNRNERN@!E#!!$%@%$@%

I can now choose to go to Seattle on spec, and hope I can get a place in the race there.

I can't believe this.

No Snickering

Rubbish Soup

So with just ten days until I attempt to run a marathon - what am I doing?  Training hard, eating vegetables and sourcing vaseline?

You'd think so, but I'm not training hard.  Once again, as I've managed 17.5 miles I know think that this is all a breeze and I've nothing to worry about.  Had a bottle of wine and a huge takeaway meal last night too, plus I can't find a small pot of vaseline.  I don't want to be that guy who has a pot of vaseline just kicking about the house.  I want a small pot of lubricant that I can use in the next week and a half then be done with.

I am however, trying to eat properly, last night aside.  I'm currently struggling my way through a bowl of "Scotch Broth".  It's not.  There is no whisky in it for a start.  I've basically loaded it up with seasoning so it now resides somewhere between the Dead Sea and my Dad's celery soup, which I have to drown with pepper to make it go down.  It's made of celery, then watered down!  Sorry Dad, but it's not for me.

Training - should and will go out for a run this afternoon.  False Creek loop in the rain, which is about six miles from memory.  Hopefully it'll go better than two days ago.

I need to book this whole marathon thing in now I think.

No Snickering.

F.N.B.O.O

Today was already a crap day at 10am, so I thought a wee E Mall loop would be a nice wee run to make it all better.

I started at too fast a pace, I've hurt my right knee and ankle now, and I stopped at just the anchor monument. Jogged back and now away to take loads of drugs to make myself feel better.

Boo Tuesday 17th. F N boo.

No Snickering.

17.5 Miles Don't You Know.

I'll have you know I'm delighted with that. That's the same as running from Edinburgh Castle to Haddington.

Doing the science bit reveals that if I can run at the same pace I should complete he whole marathon in less than five hours. In theory.

All I have to do is the Trutch to East Mall loop twice then the False Creek loop, and that's the marathon covered. Will I? No! I'm only doing this once and where's the fun in getting to Seattle knowing I've done the distance before. Everyone says it's a race of two halfs, the first twenty miles and the last six.

I like a challange, sometimes.



No Snickering

Unicorns and Pixies

After the last update I had a serious think about what I was doing and why, and I feel a lot better for it.

I created my justgiving page (www.justgiving.com/secretinseattle) and by writing the plea for donations I feel remotivated, knowing that I'm not destroying my knees for no reason, not just on a whim that started in Australia on a bored Tuesday morning.

I really should thank Mr King for his working practice theories - get it done and do what you like around that time. Well that's what I took from him, and that's what allowed the first 10 or so posts here to be written. I was invited to Dinner with the Dicksons, the first proper meal I've had in a long time, followed by some cracking cheese on toast. In the morning I had a proper breakfast in the Trutch. All this nutrition must have been good for me, as I had the energy to run for THREE HOURS AND FIFTEEN MINUTES NONSTOP.

Muck fe, it wasn't even that hard. I listened to both Sarah mixes, a new Chopup I've made here and Radio Soulwax Pt3, before heading to some Primal Scream and finishing back at my favourite bench with Mr
Brightside and Juicebox.

I've not been able to map the run accurately yet, and I don't know when I will be able to (though seeing as no-one knows about this blog and won't until Dec 1st it doesn't really matter) but as a rough estimate I believe I covered SIXTEEN MILES. That's Trutch to East Mall and back, in for a drink and Advil (best idea ever), then around False Creek, back over Burrard Bridge and home to Trutch. I just kept going, and though I was tired and a bit achy today, it has renewed my positivity in maybe being able to finish in Seattle.

Originally I had wanted to complete the marathon in around four hours, but I now realise that finishing in that time isn't going to happen. If my estimate of 16 miles is correct I am paced for the marathon at about five and a half hours. Five hours would be great, but as all the books I read in Australia told me, for a lazy fat bastard to finish at all having started with the fitness of a wet couch just six months ago is pretty good.

I just hope I can walk after all this.




No Snickering.

17 days to go

Last night I walked 15 miles just for the crack, I started walking and only turned for home when it felt right. Today I have two blisters which is my poor excuse for not running today.

Poor excuses this week:
Tuesday - Don't have time before going out to dinner and drinks. Plus I'll run on Thurs, Fri and Sun.
Wednesday - Hungover, though walk almost made up for it.
Thursday - Blisters and tired even though I slept 10pm through 11am last night.
Friday - Unicorns and pixies probably.

The long walk wasn't a bother, legs ached slightly but nothing to write about (sic). The 12.5 miles I managed last week was hard, and I don't know if realistically I could have forced myself to keep going for the same distance again.  It's dawning on me how far 26 miles is. Less than three weeks away, in a city I've never visited before. I'm doubting if I can do it. I don't want to fail. I want to complete the race, but I'm sitting here  making excuses to not go out and practice. I'm shying away from it because it's hard, as usual. One of the ideas behind this was to stick at it, something challanging, and feel a great sense of accomplishment at the end of it.

What I'm actually doing is the bare minimum and thinking about crying off from it.  Maybe this is just a bad day, I've not eaten much in the last few days so my energy is down - I've partied quite hard the last two nights as well so maybe tomorrow will be better and positive.

I can't think of anything worse than doing this Seattle Marathon and failing. This is going to be my Mum's birthday present, and what am I going to do if I can't make it 26 miles around the city?

Maybe I should run it, and if I fail I might learn something from it.

Definitely No Snickering today.

Walking on.

Went for a walk, for a while.



No Snickering

Can't talk

2.75 Miles in .41 hours - 6.7 mph
6.5 in .67 - 9.7 mph
8.17 in 1.35 - 6 mph

 

No Snickering

The Day After is Knee too Bad After Half All

Just a quicky, I was predicting paralysis but the knee isn't too bad.  It hurts, but it's not locked solids as I thought it might.

I've been doing different stretches before and after the runs, so I guess that is helping tremendously.  I've also discovered that Advil is essentially Ibuprofin (sp?), which helps for the swelling and pain.  Can I take it before/during/after a race?  Is that doping?

Away to book accomodation, but not the race quite yet.  Only three weeks and two days to go, but after the length and pain of yesterday I'm only 75% that it's doable.  I'll have to set a D-Day, as it'd be horrible for the marathon in Seattle to be overbooked.

No Snickering.

Back

OW ouch etc.

Got lost on the way into Stanley Park, so I ran around Beaver Lake instead. Could not go on after Burrard bridge on the way back, I made it directly underneath before I quit through cronic leg pain.

It's going to be HELL on LEGS tomorrow, don't see me getting out the house.

I've also discovered that the Gu Gels are pretty good, they give an instant mental boost and offer 150 calories of refined sugar, so the body basically gets a half hour turbo charge - will experiment more.

Also discovered that this is going to take more than will power, I set out to finish a half marathon today, and I found myself making up excuses in my head as to why I should stop. Pain mainly, but I can't simply say I'll finish the full thing no matter what because the body doesn't work that way. Very disappointed in myself.

Literally just back in, legs are on fire, egg and sausage burrito consumed, and I thought I'd update the map to show my short comings and the change in route.

Turns out that Beaver Lake is smaller, but further away making up the difference. The First Aid symbol is where I stopped running, I ran ALL the way up to that point in 2 hours 24 mins, then walked/cried back to 3230 in a total of 3 hours.

The First Aid Point is 12.52 MILES. That's 0.6 miles away from a half marathon. That's just 1km.

I'm taking that. I'm delighted and slightly emotional.

Here it is..



No Snickering.

I may be some time

I didn't go on the half marathon run on Tuesday as Special, Brighton and I had a very messy Monday.

I'm going now.

It's raining, I've not eaten, it's dark and I'm wearing sunglasses.

Hit it.

No Snickering.

Knee Problems Pal

That is supposed to be a pun. As in "Nae problems pal".



Doesn't work does it?



The reason for the pun is that after the 8km run, my knees were NOT knackered! Don't know what the difference was/is, but I wasn't sore at all. I was overheating either through lack of fluids or simply as I had a thick cotton t-shirt on in humidish weather, but otherwise 8km was knee bother.



Oh come on, it's still not working for you?



How about this: this is a half marathon distance. This is where I should be in the original schedule. If we ignore the 6 week (minimum) gap in the training then I'm a living deity. If I can manage the distance. I'm doing it tomorrow afternoon, rain or shine. I've even bought some energy gels to give me a boost along the way. I'll bet my knee hurts on Wednesday.



In other news, I'm off the booze until St Andrew's day. Going to Seattle 27th Nov - 1st Dec, St Andrew is the day after the race, although I'll probably have a beer on the 29th if I can lift my arms.



Well done to Marsha who finished the NYC marathon this weekend. No news on the time/condition of Ruskie knees, but no doubt a solid effort by a top young lady.



Here's the run, half now, half later, see what happens.

No Snickering.

Un hour

So the other day i went out for a wee run along the beach at Kits, purposely jogging slowly to see how far I could go. I listened to the whole of 'As Heard on Radio Soulwax Part 2' and only stopped as I felt I'd done enough.

That album is an hour long.

The run was 10.5km, up hills and all sorts.

That's a quarter of a marathon, so a time of 4 - 4.5 hours is looking possible. Left leg hurt more than kneecapping for two days again, but seeming ok again now. Should be out for 20miles on Sat according to the original schedule, but I think if I do 20km tomorrow I'll be happy.

No Snickering.

I did this and forgot

But as I've not totted up the miles in ages it almost doesn't matter.

No Snickering

It hurts more than voodoo.

No Snickering.

I've got this Vancouvered

So Thursday was the big return to the running, with the marathon in just under six weeks it's going to be a mammouth task to get round in one go. On thursday I ran/jogged/walked something like 16km - which is just chuffing stupid. My legs were in bits all weekend although I enjoyed the run itself. The seawall around Stanley park in Vancouver takes you around three beaches with the stunning mountains over the river in the background. I got lost on the way back an ended up going a lot further than planned, but no lasting damage done.

Today I set off to run from Burrard St Bridge to the suspension bridge and back. I got there in 32 minutes with no real problems, bit dizzy but recovered fairly quickly. When I stood up though I realised that I'd hurt my entire left leg. The knee feels bruised on the inside, and the top of my thigh aches, but it's only my left leg. I obviously run like a stroke victim. Managed 15 minutes of the return run before walking the rest to minimise damage. It hurts now, but tomorrow is going to be hell.

With six weeks to go I think this is a goer, if I can do 10 miles from stone cold, all I need to do I pace myself and add 160% to it all. With six weeks I reckon I'll have 20 miles down pat, leaving the extra 6 miles as a nice treat on he day. Did just 8 km today, plus a lot of walking, and pain.



No Snickering.

BACK IN THE GAME

Back in the game, yeah, I wanna chat, but I'm tired now. Later. xxx

2.31km walk before run, and presumably afterwards
18.33km total, ergo 14km in an hour with 2/3 of it ran/jogged. That is 9.5mph, that's a scary time if you extrapolate to a marathon length. Strewth,

Gonna be sore in the morning, but now - BURRITOS!

No Snickering.

Not on the run

Now this isn't good.

You were injured, yes, but now you really could be back at it if you wanted to. The calf muscle still hurts, but you could be swimming/cycling etc and you're not.

You are a loser.

...

I was worried about how to keep this all quiet from people at home, but that's not an issue if you're not running at all. So do I start again when I'm in Vancouver, just 6 weeks training? Do I simply look for a marathon later in the year? I don't know. Seattle feels right, but I don't want to injure myself permanently. I could manage a slow 26 miles no bother, if you go slow you can run for ever, but I want to get 4 hours. All the advice says just finishing is enough, but I'd want to be proud of my time.

Realistically I'm not going to be running until Oct, which is pathetic.

Snickering is very much allowed this time.

On the Bench.

Working for the government now, and need to keep edgy on the old internet use at the moment. Should be Kool and the Gang in a couple of days, but I've been put in full view of the room so I carn't be arsing about too much.

So basicially I don't know where I should be in the training. I am still injured. A friend said that I may have hyper extended my calf muscle, but I just think that it is buggered. My left leg bends a little too far the wrong way (how far is too far? Any?) and it's feeling pretty weak.

As a result I haven't run for over a week, possibly two. I'm bored again, and find it incredibly boring in the gym on the exercise bikes, that is if I can get a key in the first place. It wass also school holidays last time I was in the gym, so there were kids running and jumping all over the place. Feral little organisims.

I'm finding it hard to go back in the gym, all I want to do is run. If I don't heal soon, I know that it'll be hard to catch up in the training and it'll all be lost. I DO want to do this, but not if it'll cripple me. I may start looking at marathons in Jan/Feb, if there's one on Groundhog Day that'd be pretty cool.

Anyways, No Snickering.

Injury

So after being such a lazy frog for the last week or so, I made it out for a 6km walk on Sunday - hungover with a spate of lying down in the park on the way, then last night headed out for the regular bridge and back run.

I knew that I had a bit of a niggle in my left calf, but much against the advice of the running books I proceeded to ignore it and run at my normal pace.

Again the second leg (I wish I intended the pun) was a lot easier than the first. I felt like I could go for ages aerobically, but when I stopped I knew something was wrong with my leg.

This morning I KNOW there is something wrong.

Ironically now that I want to run as much as I can this week it looks like I’ll not be able to. I’ll get on a exercise bike later in the week to see if that helps. I’d be very disappointed if this was a career ending injury. Unlikely, but I may need to look into alternative East Coast Marathons for this year. I don’t want to, Seattle feels right.

It shall be. I hope.

No Snickering.

Still not back running

You fat bastard.

I blame Rachel and Yvonne.

No Snickering

Bad Man

This weekend I’ve been drinking a fair bit, so Saturday’s run was pushed back to Sunday because of this, then Sunday’s run was pushed back due to a repeat of Friday.

Monday’s run was lost as Ritz Rachel is in town, and tonight won’t be a catch up night either as I’m saying goodbye to Sarah.

I’m tired. I’m not looking forward to the next run. I’ll need to quit the booze if this is going to happen properly.

No Snickering.

That Was the Mill

Last night for a bit of a change I decided to take on the treadmill in the gym instead of getting out there in the real world. I knew it would be different, but I wasn't sure (and still don't know) how it went.

All the flashy buttons etc I assumed were in km, but after busting my gut I had apparently only ran 5km in 32 minutes. It felt like a lot further, but who am I to argue?

A Runner - apparently. One of the girls at work overheaerd me talking about running and dubbed me a runner. Hilarious. I'd go for 'Exercise Tourist' at the moment.

Finding my feet on the treadmill took a while, and without the wind I was sweating like an MP filling in his expense form, but on a 8.0 incline and running at 8.0, a two minute break at 5.0 then a hard finish at 9.5 up to 11.0 felt good.

I looked like a wally right enough, but that's the game.

The map for the run? >---<


No Snickering.

Lies

The last post was lies, it wasn't an average run. I thought my bowels were going to explode through my arse, I was nearly doubled in cramping pain - plus I got a weird stitch from my right shoulder blade down to my heart. 


Managed to not crap myself and do the run, but it hurt.

Can't have been that bad if I forgot until now, but at the time there were a few Russian Roulette farts.

No Snickering.

This is the Mill

Morning lovely!

Nothing special to report, scheduled run yesterday mirrored Saturday's run - managed a few hundred metres more before the 15mins alarm went off. Rained on the way back and managed to get the new Nikes good and wet.

Apparently these are the testing times, the no progress in distance or time, a plateau for a couple of weeks. Head down, do the milage, get the foundation in. Consistancy is the key.

Legs are still a bit achy in new places, I'm still getting used to the new shoes I guess. Recovery is 'shallower' than before, less knackered and less time required to get going again. On Sat I might go 30mins non-stop, just at a slower pace.

That's the hard bit, pace.

No Snickering.

Hey, I got some new shoes on and suddenly everything's right...

Tried out the pair of Nikes that Graeme gave me last night, felt good though inserts in the shoe made my running pattern slightly different.  I was hitting my own legs and using my calf muscles in a different way, I can feel the difference this morning. 

Average run, untimed but the usual bridge and back route, again the second run was easier than first.

The swimming is becoming more enjoyable too, ten or so lengths on the 15^th floor is quite relaxing, though the Jacuzzi and sauna were both cold last night. Boo and indeed hiss.

No Snickering.

There IS Another Way, In Your Face Blur. Just Turn Left

Back out on Saturday to end week five, and back to the old 15 minutes at a time routine.

Still not feeling as good on the legs as I have in previous weeks, but aerobically I'm pretty sound. Might be interesting to get on the cross trainer on of these nights to see how long I can go for.

I've been studying these so called 'books' about running, and they all say the same thing. Steady progress, AMAZING SHOES, and a diary all required. So longs as I can rein in the ambition I should be right. One of the books is by Liz MacColgen and Duffy from Casualty who I always thought was fit in a mumsy way. The books all start getting quite techy about the training, all I want is a section called 'Run This Far, Eat This'. Unsurprisingly there isn't, apparently your first race isn't supposed to be a marathon.

No Snickering!

FAIL

After five weeks, it's happen.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but it came around last night.

I couldn't finish my run.


After having sore shins for a couple of weeks and not having the energy I had in the first couple of weeks of running I went to the library and took out a couple of books on running. The obligatory "Running for Dummies" and a few proper books too. The Charlie Brown coloured crib notes told me not to be too ambitious, and every website I've had a look at says not to be impatient. So running 10km on a Monday night five weeks after starting for the first time is impatient now is it?

Apparently.

Last night I started out on my regular Darling to Bridge run and didn't feel right from the start. My left leg was 'a bit funny' and I felt like I had a head cold. The first few minutes were really hard, noticeably as I past the aquarium, though once I reached the bridge I wasn't out of breath. I think I was keeping the same pace as I normally do, possibly 100m off pace, but aerobically I felt pretty darn good.

I turned on my heels, but something was definitely wrong. I didn't see a man carrying a DOOR down the street - nearly hitting him, and by the time I got to Hickson St I was in trouble. My legs were aching and I was panting like a dog in an oven at an icecream shop.

I probably could have finished the run, say if it was in Seattle I'd have forced myself, but after reading about injury and the soft American attitudes of 'hey man take a break' I succumbed to walking after just five minutes of the second session.

I was gutted. I can do better. I have done better every night for the last month. I was heartbroken, really disappointed and down. Angry almost.

Hitting the books again I read more about over training in the early stages of running. Apparently it is very common; "You can suddenly run two miles without feeling rough? Why not do twenty?" It's exactly how I've felt, so maybe it's time to stick rigidly to the schedule and not get ahead of myself.

Needless to say the books inform me not to take on a marathon until I've been running a year already, and can comfortably cover 60 miles a week, also that I should enter many shorter races as part of my training, plus something called 'fartlek'. Balls to all that. All the other schedules are wildly different to mine (and each other) but I'm sticking with the first one I randomly found online - so wild that I can't even find the original source.

So say I did 4 km last night, that's 2.5 miles, which technically takes me to 50.15 miles overall.

Doesn't feel like a victory right now. The lows after such great highs on Monday are pretty deep.

Here's to Saturday, I'll try for two 15min bursts, and I'll sort out my diet so I've some energy to do it. It was possibly Henry's Spag Bol, my beers and Cara's company that helped on Monday.

Maybe not.

No Snickering!

20/20 Visions

Dear me,

Last night you went for a run from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay.  It took 20 minutes each way, plus you added a little bit at the end to get back to the original start point, 'If You Want Blood' - you've got it.

The return leg was 200 metres slower over 20 minutes which is... a mere 0.6kph faster.  Embarrassingly you had to do two calculations to work that out, rather than do it in your head.  How the mighty have fallen.

8.58km, 5.33 miles, and giving our Blue Peteresque totalizer a quick check, we're reached 36+5.33+6.32= 47.65 miles, two sore shins, one iPod and a sense of ambition.  Should crack 50 miles tonight.


No Snickering.

I reckon I can do this

I reckon I can do this.

Last night, after a weekend of terrible behaviour and zero running, I wasn’t holding up much hope for the beginning of week five. Low and behold, I ran my first 15 minutes without much incident. I mean I was bored of course, and glad when the buzzer rang, but I felt good at the end of the run. I walked back towards Darling Harbour to cool down and started off again pretty quickly, back up to the regular haunt of Hickson St and the bridge.

Listening to podcasts is the future for running, especially ViewAskew’s SModcast. An hour of drivelling rambling from Kevin Smith (not you Mr Kev), but it takes my mind off the incredible boredom that is running. Anyway, I was putting in a good pace and made it past the bridge without much drama. After being interrupted by a film crew under the bridge, I only paused for 2-3 minutes before running back home along the regular route.

Near the end I was longing for the buzzer, but I wasn’t that bad – recovery again was pretty quick. I stretched out and hit the gym, straight into the pool for 250m (40 lengths for 1km? Sod that!) then around the disappointingly empty Jacuzzi and into the sauna.

I’m liking the sauna, although the heater is WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY too big for the size of the sauna. You can throw on a couple of ladles of water and nearly suffocate yourself with steam. Basically the sauna isn’t used through the day, just left on at full whack without any water, so as soon as any moisture is introduced to the stones it attempts to kill anyone inside.

Out of the sauna and back in the pool! Another couple of lengths and a bit of a float about. Totally chilled out, I forgot to breath, sank and inhaled some water. I felt totally trippy afterwards, Carridine style.

See the map, read the distance. 6.32 miles. 10km. Get in.

No Snickering.

Boozing Sex Appeal

Friday: Free bar.
Saturday: No run, postponed until Sunday.  More booze.
Sunday: No run, walked 4 miles instead.  REALLY REALLY rained.  More booze
Monday: Free muffin from girl I apparently met on Friday.  Run tbc.

No Snickering.

Grinding it out.

The last post had video, how fancy, but it also shows how wet it can be in Sydney. Unusually for the running it was also in daylight. Normally I'm running after work and by the time I hit the road it's 6pm and pitch black.

So the video shows daylight, that must be Saturday, making this week Week 4! Wednesday today, a day of rest and I feel like I need it. Although I'm still ahead of schedule I don't feel like it. The last two days of running have been hard - people are turning around to watch me run and I don' t think it's in admiration for a lone athlete, I think it's in shock at a wheezing red faced fool zigzagging across the pavements.

Both nights have featured the Darling Harbour to Harbour Bridge route, 15 minutes there and the same back (unsurprisingly for you physisists out there). It's a four mile round trip, and it is kicking the crap out of me. The first 15 minutes are harder than the second, which leads me to believe that I should investigate "warming up". I'm relieved when the second period is over, but I do feel like I *could* keep going if I *had* to. I don't right now so I don't.

What I do instead is swim for 1o minutes in the pool and kick back in the jacussi and sauna when I get home, playa style. My flatmates think I'm a exercise junkie, at least they are half right.

Total distance so far - 36 miles. From Glasgow to Law Castle in West Kilbride.

No Snickering.

Proof I'm Doing This and Hurting.

Not only did I spend Friday night in the gym, yes, the gym, but I made it out into the pouring rain to complete the third week of training for this ole Snickers Bar race thingy.

It was horrible. In my head I thought I'd run two lots of 20 mins, but as I approached the Harbour Bridge I had to have a look at my timer and once more the cursed four minutes stared back at me in the face. I literally couldn't continue, I was cramped and out of energy - not to mention soaked through.

15 minutes ran there and then back again though, 30 mins of rubber and ahead of the curve - though that won't be the case for long. In the coming weeks there are 30/35 mins runs, but then it seems to drop to 2 miles... Darling Harbour to the bridge is three steps short of two miles according to Ziggy2.0, so in theory I'm Mac-Daddy but it doesn't feel like it.

Neck is very stiff, but this may not be running related.

Congratulations to the wedding party that were hiding under the bridges at Hickson St, a shame it was raining so hard. I hope I didn't splash you as I ran past.

Got a tourist good and proper though.

No Snickering.

Back on the Rain Gang

If not to motivate myself,

If not to document the training,

Then to only amuse myself with punnerific titles.

Back running last night, faster than I have done for a week.

I sincerely felt like I hadn’t run in a week.

Living in the sky has opened up a new area of the city to run in and so I took it on with vigour, trying to meet the successes of Thursday Week 2.

I’ll not lie to you, nor myself, it was hard. Within a couple of minutes I was wheezing (illness or crapness?) and I broke a non-spoken rule of the route: I looked at the time remaining on my run.

So far in “training” I’ve ran to the length of songs (so I guess I know when the torture ends), but then moved onto fixed minutage. Not looking at the clock was an attempt to trick my mind into running longer, or at least prepare myself for running for five hours straight before Christmas, but last night I was pooped and eeked out a glance at the timer.

FOUR MINUTES STILL TO GO.

Horrendous news, but I persisted and happily punched the air when the timer finally ended.

(A note to my future self, remember the times where a 15 minute 1.73 mile run was hard? Happy Days eh?)

So I ran around Darling Harbour up to Darling Island through Ballarat Park, and walked back. Recovery was long and noisy, nearly a mile walk but after the traffic update on Vega finished I was off again, around the otherside of the harbour and up towards THE bridge. Part of the route was up Hickson St, a street I’ve ended up on a number of times by accident. It’s a long and pretty desolate compared to the rest of the city, but running up it was surprisingly easy and quick.

Then it started to rain.

In Australia, when it rains, it rains on purpose. It doesn’t drizzle, there aren’t showers and it never ever looks “a bit dreicht”. It doesn’t rain cats and dogs, it rains blue whales and A380 Airbuses. The rain started in the last five minutes of the run and did not stop. It was quite nice to cool down with the rain, but on the long walk home the novelty kinda wore off. I also became very disoriented on the way back and shamefully had to ask for directions, whilst on Kent St, which is the road I live on. I discovered a champion radio show though, Barry Bissell on Vega with ‘Cover to Cover’, an in-depth look at classic albums. Not the most original idea in the world, but one of the best executed ones in a long time. I’m such a radio geek.

So 1.73 + 1.96 = 3.16 miles of actual running, 6.12 miles if you include the walking too. And you should, for it is exercise. I do. Call it a round 6. 26 miles + 9km from the Liverpool St / Kings Cross debaucle and 6 miles today makes a roundy towndy total of 37 miles. Is there potential for a the longest ever Proclaimers reference to be held before Nov 29th?

No Snickering.

---

This man is also a huge inspiration.

No Snickering!

Here's a man who is inspiring

Pedal Powered

Good Craic eh?

No Snickering!

Go Go Power Walker

Nearly over the Death Flu which I’ve been experiencing, but not quite. Last night, Tuesday of Week 3, I only walked instead of running. I walked for about 70 minutes at a fair pace, which covered about 9km according to the maps of Google. Liverpool St to Kings Cross and back then back to the Cross.

Why?

Mes pad ala nouveau.

This may effect future routes,

No Snickering.

---

Walk, Don't Walk Away

Not being on full form with health and that, I heeded yesterday's preformed hindsight and did the bridge walk as planned.

http://www.run.com/showroute.asp?map=1896056

I got off the train at Milson's Point and walked across the bridge, through the Rocks and up to the Botanical Gardens via the Opera House. A beautiful walk, if you like city nightscapes and neon, and hell
sure it could be worse, but it's just the Opera House now. No biggy, plus the Eno lights were late on.
The Botanics were closed, something to do with "safety" or some other rubbish, so I had to back track along Maquarie St, down to the State Library and National Art Gallery, to the base of Brougham St and homewards.

Apparently a walk will burn the same number of calories as a run based on distance. TICK! But it's not helping the recovery or endurance, but I'm still a bit ill. I've a constant headache and the symptoms of flu without the snot.

So 26 miles in just over two weeks, two sessions missed and an over-riding feeling of anticlimax. Even though the schedule asked for 30mins walk/run and I completed 80mins walk, I don't feel like I've achieved the target. I will continue to walk instead of run until I feel better.

In other news, I bought new socks.

No Snickering.

The Ill Sh*t

Referring to an obscure quote by my Head of Music Steven Smith in 1998, I'm ill.

A very quiet weekend spent watching movies and talking about Bob Dylan led to a very lethargic Saturday, meaning I put off the marathon-length-completing run until Sunday.

On Sunday I was a sick puppy. I felt like I had a horrendous hangover, but I've not had alcohol for nearly two weeks (bar the three drinks post theft, and they are a Shay surely?).

So I missed the weekend's run, so I don't feel good about that. I feel ill, like a cold but WAY more serious because it's me. Also a little dizzy, the inner ear is all off. Psssshh, it's gonna cost ya to fix ya.

According to the schedule I'm due on tonight for the same again, well, I'm actually scheduled for a 25 min Walk/Run, so I'm still ahead of the curve over all, but pretty disappointed that I've not got the 26 miles in two weeks. I think I'll force myself out tonight and see what happens, failing is OK so long as I cover the time in  the table yeah?


No Snickering.

Muck Fe!

I've started a tally of the distance I've run so far etc, and will roughly update it to keep track of progress and though in a bit of encouragement.

You can see my first Running Rough Total at the end of the previous post, the distances are taken from Google Maps. Thank you Google Maps.


35km it says at the bottom of the last post.

That's the guts of 22 miles in old money.

That should mean that if I repeat Thursday W2's (last night's) run on Saturday, I'll have covered 26 miles. That's quite a nice feeling.

No Snickering.

Upping the Cut

Afternoon Self,

So it would appear that this is turning into a daily boring blog, but at least it's keeping me interested in running, and if nothing else it's a record that I finished at least two weeks of 'training'.

Nearly fell asleep on the train home after work, putting the mighty mighty run into doubt, but fear not! Just one apricot nut bar and a bit of a sit down saw me right and within half an hour I was on my way.

And on my way I was.

With lack of iPod I've only got tunes on my phone, and in the change to the inferior music device I've changed my tactics to a set time over set tunes. It worked a treated the night before so a repeat performance was on the cards - the stakes were raised.

Two hard fifteen minute runs split with a half trilap walk. Trilap - officially that bit in the park.

According to this that's four miles, http://www.run.com/showroute.asp?map=1895156 ,
and according to this (my one and only training guide) http://nosnickering.blogspot.com/2009/06/schedule.html , I'm ahead of schedule.

I can still walk, so surely this is a good thing. Left calf is a bit tight during running though, not that I really know what that means.

Running (geddit?) Rough Total: 35km, 5 sessions, 1 session missed, 1 iPod stolen.

No Snickering.

Birds Flying High, You Know How I Feel

It’s not all over I tells ya!

On the run last night with just my phone for tunage. There are only 60 songs on it so running may become a total bore until that’s rectified but it was good.  I changed up the songs on/off routine and went for a steady 10 minutes non-stop, and the insanely insane thing was I didn’t stop after the alarm went off. Primal Scream’s “Country Girl” was just starting so I ran for the length of that song too – OVERTIME. I used one song to recover and then ran ANOTHER 10 minutes unstopped. Insaner than before, I continued after the 10 minute limit AGAIN to the end of Roddy Woomble’s “Waverley Steps”.

Crazy apon crazy, I wound down for one song, then ran back to the hostel.

If that doesn’t make up for missing Monday, well tough.

No pretty picture of the map today, I can see them becoming tedious and somewhat expensive to reproduce in the eventual book deal that will surely come from my amazing writtening here, there is however a link http://snipurl.com/rushyrun30 which shows that I covered 4.29 miles, only walking for 8 minutes of that.

I’m quite happy with that,

No Snickering.

Needless

Needless to say, I didn't do the run last night to make up for Monday, but I did walk from town back to the hostel. Yea me. 1.2 miles.

Set the alarm to get up at 6am for a run this morning, but it was freezing cold.

Is the end of the running adventures already? Only tonight will tell.

No Snickering.

A Good Old Fashioned Mixed Bag.

Not drinking alcohol is nearly almost better than drinking it.  You can get up early in the morning and do things without feeling hungover, you actually want to do things, you suddenly have energy.

 

That’s how I managed to go for a good long run/walk/run and be back in the hostel BEFORE 9am.  I know.  Crazy shizzle.  Embarked on a new route too, down to Rush Cutters’ Bay.  Followed the path all the way to Darling Point before heading back and doing laps of the park.  A hard run in the cold air, but again recovery is noticeably better already.  Listened to the Fratellis on random the whole way around, which I won’t be doing again.

 

Why?

 

Because some fothermucker has stolen my iPod.

 

I was away for a night only to come back and find that the one thing that keeps the running vaguely interesting had been stolen.  I am not a happy bunny about this.  I no longer have the capacity to time runs based on songs.  I’ll get my phone sorted out with some tunes, but it’s not cricket I shall tell you that.  On discovery of my lack of having anything shiny anymore I rescinded my no drinking rule for an hour or so.  I only had three beers but I felt like I deserved them.

 

I also felt terrible the next day, and Tuesday isn’t much better.  This is possibly not booze related.  Possibly.

 

Due to my fragile nature (feeling sorry for myself) I missed a scheduled 20min walk/run, but I did climb the Harbour Bridge which is 50 metres vertical over 2km so that’ll have to do.  Today is a rest day, but I may play catch up – even if it’s just a long walk.

 

I was taken to the best restaurant in Sydney, but I lost my music.  I’ve had better weekends. This was the route, 5.3km apparently, plus about five laps of the triangle in the park.

View Larger Map

No Snickering.

Time Issues

I must have skipped some of these songs on my run, but I can’t remember which. I know that one of my ‘run’ songs fell on the seven minute long Stones track, but I can’t imagine that I was really out for an hour and twenty minutes.

Here Comes The Sun – The Beatles

Living Well Is the Best Revenge – REM

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger – Daft Punk

She Says – Howie Day

Ramblin’ Man – Isobell Campbell & Mark Lanaghan

Half The World Away – Oasis

Battle of Who Could Care Less – Ben Folds

Imitiation of Life – REM

One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer – John Lee Hooker

You Can’t Always Get What You Want – Rolling Stones

Rollover DJ – Jet

Little Baby Fratelli –The Fratellis

Carn’t Be Trusted – The Bluetones

Easter Bunny – Eugenius

You Owe Me An IOU – Hot Hot Heat

Fade In/Fade Out – Oasis

The Blues Are Still Blue – Belle and Sebastian

Slide Away – Oasis

If it was an hour and twenty minutes, I completed the week’s quota in a night. DAMN IT CHLOE! Again the loop in the SW wasn't run, so you can lop off 1 km.

View Larger Map

No Snickering.

Day Two

Although this blog is relatively anonymous and unpublished to anyone except the most unfortunate of Googlers, I do promise to you/me that I won't update everyday for that would most boring.

Made it out on the streets half an hour earlier than planned after getting out of work quick. We've met targets and they love us, hence being able to set up this blog etc.

The run route was the same as the first run, and was simultaneously at the same time concurrently easier and harder. I continued with the same pattern of two songs running, then one off one on for the whole course, and while I found it easier to recover when walking, the running itself was much harder. I was stiff from the day before and I somehow came across more hills. I was aching when I got back to the Pink House and am feeling the muscles crying right now.

Friday in week 1 is a day of rest, which apparrently is very important to allow the muscles to repair and grow in strength. Sounds good to me, but I know that motivation on Saturday will be a lot harder to find having had a day off. I'm doing slightly more than the schedule asks at the moment by running 50% of the way, but I figure it can't hurt in the long run.

The long run - do you see...?

No Snickering.

Schedule

So this is the plan. Today is Thursday, week 1. Same as last night, but with a bit of running thrown in for fun.

26-Week Marathon Training Schedule
Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
01/06	Walk 20 min.	Rest	Walk 20 min.	Walk 20 min.	Rest	Walk 20 min.	Rest	80 min.
08/06	Run/Walk 20 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 20 min.	Run/Walk 20 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 20 min.	Rest	80 min.
15/06	Run/Walk 25 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 25 min.	Run/Walk 25 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 25 min.	Rest	100 min.
22/06	Run/Walk 30 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 30 min.	Run/Walk 30 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 30 min.	Rest	120 min.
29/06	Run/Walk 35 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 35 min.	Run/Walk 35 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 35 min.	Rest	140 min.
06/07	Run/Walk 35 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 35 min.	Run/Walk 35 min.	Rest	Run/Walk 35 min.	Rest	140 min.
13/07	Run 20 min.	Rest	Run 20 min.	Run 20 min.	Rest	Run 20 min.	Rest	80 min.
20/07	Run 25 min.	Rest	Run 25 min.	Run 25 min.	Rest	Run 25 min.	Rest	100 min.
27/07	Run 25 min.	Rest	Run 30 min.	Run 25 min.	Rest	Run 40 min.	Rest	120 min.
03/08	Run 25 min.	Rest	Run 20 min.	Run 25 min.	Rest	Run 30 min.	Rest	100 min.
10/08	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	5	Rest	15
17/08	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	6	Rest	16
24/08	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	7	Rest	17
31/08	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	8	Rest	19
07/09	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	10	Rest	21
14/09	4	Rest	5	4	Rest	11	Rest	24
21/09	4	Rest	6	4	Rest	12	Rest	26
28/09	4	Rest	6	4	Rest	14	Rest	28
05/10	4	Rest	7	4	Rest	16	Rest	31
12/10	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	16	Rest	34
19/10	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	17	Rest	35
26/10	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	18	Rest	36
02/11	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	20	Rest	38
09/11	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	9	Rest	27
16/11	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	8	Rest	19
23/11	3	Rest	3	Walk 2	Rest	26.2	Rest	34.2

No Snickering!