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.

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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.

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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!

It begins, but will it end?

So for years I've wanted to run a marathon, to have the dedication to train properly, to get fitter and feel better, plus the feeling of accomplishment after having run 26.2 miles for no real reason.

Lately I've not been feeling great, a little homesick perhaps, a little down in the mouth about not getting everywhere I'd planned in my travels. I've started to buck up my ideas however, I've stopped drinking for June (it's the 4th now and I've not even been tempted) though I realise that in the same way as smokers need a distraction, I'm going to be bored sideways if I don't replace those hours after work and before bed with something. Dope is not the answer, I'm not in the country long enough to start a band, so why not exercise.

I don't have a bike, nor do I want to buy one, so running is a possible solution. I've a bad knee, but some pretty good gutties from 11 years ago that should do for the impact. Basically it's a free way of filling the time away, making me a little fitter and giving me some direction for the next six months.

Why six months? Well I'm glad you asked. I leave Australia on the 24th of August, get to Scotland for six weeks or so before heading to Vancouver for a while. I've now started plans to meet with some dear friends in Las Vegas in May, plus I originally planned to go to SxSW in March before I started the trip - so now I'm feeling motivated I'm putting together something I've needed for a long time. A plan.

The plan is to stay in Vancouver until the end of Febuary, getting a cool decent job or at least something a bit different at the Winter Olympics, then to fly to Austin for SxSW in the middle of March, get to Vegas for the start of May then...well I don't know. The Rockies for the summer if I've the money, if not I'll be back to work in Canada to save up some cash for some other damn fool adventure. Maybe I'll go to South America with Chris and Jo as once suggested, who knows. What I do know is that I've got a plan for the next twelve months.

SO WHY SIX MONTHS?

The training program I've found for a beginner to run a marathon takes 26 weeks. That's six months. That's exactly the period of time between now and the Seattle Marathon, which is only 140 miles from Vancouver, which is nothing these days.

So is it fate, is it a whim, is this the turning point for a fat bastard to achieve a life's ambition. I can do, but will I? I expect to keep this journal and tell of the good times and bad. Apparently it takes three weeks before the running becomes fun.

Is this a personal test that I'll take seriously or just blow off when I give up claiming it was a silly idea? Is that why I'm not telling anyone I'm thinking about trying, and let's be clear, this is a test, it'll be a while before I book into the marathon - partially it's dependant on my Canadian work visa, I can't stay until the end of Nov without cash coming in. Well I probably could, but it's another out.

Last night I completed my first run, about four miles; running for one song on my iPod walking the next. It nearly killed me coming back up the hill on Darlinghurst Road.

This is roughly the route I did, except I didn't do the loop on the bottom left, can't get rid of that on the map.

No Snickering!

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