It’s been a while…

…Over three months in fact. I promised myself when I started writing this blog that I wouldn’t let it slip. Unfortunately, life has a habit of getting in the way of best laid plans and so here we are. To be honest, not a lot of running has taken place since my last post. In fact, the total mileage since 16 October is 73. I ran more than that in February last year lol. Life really did take a pretty grim turn at the end of last year with the calling of the UK Parliamentary Election for December 12th. As you may know, elections are my livelihood and this unexpected one (our 5th election of 2019 and 3rd “surprise”) all but finished my running for the year. In all honesty it all but finished me! Here we are, 6 weeks on and my mental health is still in the gutter despite my very best efforts to lift it. The election took everything I had, chewed it up, spat it out and left the mess for me to deal with. I have zero motivation, not just for running, but for anything in general. I thought the break over Christmas would help but in reality it didn’t. I had a great time, don’t get me wrong. Spending time with my family after so many weeks of basically not seeing them, was wonderful but I felt like a fraud. I didn’t feel happy, I didn’t feel festive. I just felt really empty. People may think I’m being a tad over dramatic with that statement but unless you have worked in an elections environment you will not understand the pressures we face. People absolutely have more pressurised jobs but very few will be put under the levels of scrutiny and pressure that electoral administrators are when there is a national election. Add to that the vitriol of the general public and you have a recipe for a breakdown right there! I am struggling to get my life back on track, I really am. I can’t seem to switch off and get back to normal. I spent a beautiful weekend in York with the Mrs but as soon as I came back to work I felt awful again. I’ve tried getting out and going for the odd run in the hope the happy endorphins would kick in but they haven’t. Instead I’ve been left feeling frustrated and angry at how much my fitness has deserted me. I thought giving myself something to focus on would help so I signed up for the Edinburgh marathon in May but now I wish I hadn’t. I’ve started doing a daily mile with my son to boost his active minutes (he got a Garmin for Christmas), but the reality is it’s for me more than him because seeing him happy and content is literally the only thing stopping me from keeling over and curling in to a ball. If I didn’t have such a supportive wife and son I genuinely think I’d be in some sort of facility by now. I’m completely burnt out and I can’t work out how to recover.

Anyway, marathon training week 2 starts tonight – can’t wait!

Sorry for the negativity here. Hopefully, future posts will be a bit more cheerful. Thanks for reading, as always.

One giant leap for mankind…

Wow! What a weekend of distance running that was! 2 Kenyans, one unofficially taking the marathon into the realms of the ridiculous with a 1:59:40 and the other, officially, absolutely obliterating the women’s world record with a new time of 2:14:04. It was mesmerising stuff to watch.

On the one hand you had Eliud Kipchoge, who, regardless of what people may think, is the greatest marathoner of all time. He holds the official world record and he has now pushed the sport into the unknown with the INEOS 1:59 challenge. Yes, he had all the advantages that you could want – the pace car, the rotating pacemakers, the pacemaker formation, the optimum weather (and the choice to push the attempt back if the weather wasn’t playing) and the sexy, engineered shoes. He had all of that and yeah, it most definitely did give him an advantage but you know what – he still had to go out and maintain that pace over the course of 26.2 miles and THAT is something that we should be celebrating not nit picking over. It will be fascinating to see how close either Kipchoge or someone else (Bekele perhaps, after his 2:01 in Berlin) can come to “officially” going under 2 hours in the next few years.

Then, on the other hand, you had Brigit Kosgei in the Chicago marathon on Sunday – in race conditions, smashing a 16 year old world record to smithereens! Right from the very start it was obvious that it wasn’t going to be a case of would she win but would she break the record. The commentators kept expecting her to blow up and begin to slow but I think after 20 miles even they were starting to change their tune to “just how much is she going to beat this record by?” It was a phenomenal performance of speed and endurance, by both athletes, over the course of the weekend and it has hopefully shown upcoming generations of athletes what can be achieved by hard work and commitment (even if you don’t have the technical advantages these athletes do!).

As for myself…I’ve done precisely 5 miles since Berlin and I’m feeling ok. I was ill after the race and most of last week as well – I think a combination of the stresses of training and then racing, coupled with how awful the weather has been just left my immune system in tatters. I felt so weak and flaky – my hips were still sore up until last Friday. I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything, I just felt like I wanted to curl up and die. By last Thursday though I was feeling a bit better so I took a slow tootle along to school to pick the little fella up. My legs felt good so I can now start to get out and just run for a bit, without the pressure of hitting sessions or having to cover a certain number of miles. I think that’s my plan for the rest of the year, to just run for running’s sake. I really want to try and PB over 5 and 10k before the year is out so we’ll see what happens there – previously I have always massively PB’d fairly soon after a big race! I also got my annual “thanks but no thanks” from the London Marathon so have decided on either Manchester or Edinburgh as my next attempt over 26.2. I think Manchester will be better for support on the course but Edinburgh will be nicer for the weekend away with the family! Decisions, decisions! When I look back at my running this year, my better runs have come when the weather has been colder so I’m hoping that training for a marathon over the winter will put me in a good place to significantly improve on 5:15:36.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Ich bin ein Berliner…….

I’m still in a daze, it doesn’t seem real. At points a nightmare and at others a dream. I’m a marathoner. I did it. I ran 26.2 miles. I completed a challenge so great that only 1% of the worlds population has been there with me. I have mental strength and fortitude that I never knew about. I can push my body to it’s absolute limits and survive and thrive! Eliud Kipchoge says no human is limited and I believe him. I never thought I could run a marathon, just like I never thought I could run a half marathon when I signed up to my first. Testing myself and pushing my body and my mind to new places is something that drives me on to achieve these things and I hope that I will achieve more in the future. I may never break a record or run a really quick time but I will turn up, I will put the training in and I will do myself and my family proud and that is all I want to do!

Anyways, yeah, Berlin eh?! What a weekend that was! Had a couple of really gentle 5 mile runs during the week just to keep my legs ticking over and managed to avoid any real maranoia, although my sleep pattern was really off due to the nerves starting to kick in. Thursday night came and it was time to kiss wifey and the child goodbye. Little man was really upset which absolutely broke my heart (he may have been putting it on as he basically didn’t want to talk to me whilst I was away) so I was feeling pretty shit when I left the house to go for the train. The train ride up to Edinburgh was non-eventful and I got to the airport with just the 6 hours to wait for my flight. Grabbed a STRONG coffee and settled in to read my book as there was no way I could sleep in the airport. I was too nervous about missing my flight and it was way too noisy anyways! Arrived in Berlin at 9am on Friday morning and it was cool and cloudy with a little bit of drizzle in the air. This was the first time I had been to Berlin and what immediately struck me, even just from exiting the airport, was there was a really cool vibe about the place. I had been super worried about working out the transport system and finding my way around the city but I needn’t have been. It was simple and straightforward and in the blink of an eye I was on my way to Templehof for the marathon expo. The only trouble with me getting there so early was that I couldn’t check in to my digs so I had to carry my bags around with me. By this point I’d been up for over 24 hours and was starting to feel incredibly tired and the added weight of lumping my bags around wasn’t helping.

By the time I got off the S Bahn at Templehof the rain had turned from a drizzle into a steady, reasonably heavy rain, although it was still really quite warm. Thankfully, there was a bag drop so I got rid of my big bag and headed into the expo – mega excited to pick my number up! There was a palpable air of excitement around the place as runners from all over the world queued up to get their all important race number and timing chip. A quick check of my passport and my start card and my number was printed. It was time to explore the expo a bit. With this being Germany, there was a huge adidas presence – all the race t-shirts and other merchandise available at a suitably extortionate price. It was actually really annoying that you had to pay for your finishers t-shirt and I’m sure there were people who bought a finishers shirt who then either didn’t make the start line or didn’t make the finish line. These t-shirts should be earned not purchased!!! Had a wander round, got a hot dog as I hadn’t eaten since Thursday evening and then headed off to my digs. Now, where do I start…well, it was somewhere to lay my head down and that was it. I made the mistake of going for a cheap option, I was 6 miles outside of Berlin centre and the place itself was about a 15 minute walk from the train station which probably wasn’t the best considering I was carrying heavy bags and also had the small matter of running 26.2 miles on the Sunday. I finally got there and the place looked AWFUL! The photos on the internet made it look really cool and quirky but in the cold light of day, on a dull, miserable, wet afternoon it just looked squalid! What also didn’t help was there was no one around to check me in. There was a number on the front to ring but when I rang it, it was out of service. After about 10 minutes of standing sopping wet someone turned up and showed me to my cube. It had a bed and a shelf and that was it. There was literally no space to even stand to get dressed. At that point I wasn’t bothered though, 33 hours wide awake, I needed some sleep. I slept until about 9:30pm and when I woke, I rang home to let them know I was still alive, went to the shared toilet (splashing through giant puddles on the way which soaked my trainers) and then went back to sleep. One of the things I was looking forward to the most about my trip was the Generali Breakfast Run on the Saturday morning. Described as a very gentle 6k run starting a Charlottesburg Palace and finishing at the Olympic Stadium, on the track, where the 100m world record was broken in 2009. I set my alarm for 6:30am so I could get sorted and get there for the 9:30 start and drifted into a deep sleep.

Woke with a start on Saturday morning and something didn’t quite feel right but I couldn’t quite place my finger on it. Checked my watch and the time said 7:15am – odd, I could have sworn I set my alarm for 6:30am. Grabbed my phone to check and…..nothing! The charging light was on but there was nothing displaying on screen. I tried the factory reset….nothing! I unplugged it and plugged it back in to see if that would do anything…nothing! At this point I went into full on panic mode. I had no way of contacting my family and I also had no way of checking what trains I needed to get etc. I couldn’t think straight. All I could think about was the fact I was in a foreign country, on my own, and I was completely stranded. I was hyperventilating, I was crying – literally, I was having a panic attack! I felt sick and genuinely didn’t know what to do. Eventually, I managed to calm myself down and decided I would just head to the train station and ask someone which train I needed to get to the start of the breakfast run. After getting directions from a lovely lady in the newsagents I got on the train and made my way to the start of the run. The atmosphere around the start area was absolutely out of this world. There was music, there was lots of colour and there were thousands up thousands of runners all waiting to make their way to the Olympic Stadium. At this point, I had pretty much decided to just get the run out the way and then worry about everything else afterwards – it was obviously all added stress that I absolutely did not need the day before a marathon but there was nothing I could do about it and I didn’t want my enjoyment of the breakfast run to be spoiled. The run itself was amazing. It was REALLY slow and really fun. It rained (again) but then the sun came out and it was really, really warm. There were huge groups of runners from the same countries running together and the noise they made was phenomenal. There were Thai runners singing songs, Kenyan’s doing he same but the best noise came from a group of South African’s who chanted the entire way around and it was AWESOME, really uplifting and just ensured you had a smile on your face the whole way round. All of a sudden the Olympic rings came into view and you could feel the anticipation of the runners build as we approached this historic stadium. The run wound it’s way through the Olympic park and down into the bowels of the stadium before exiting onto the track. To say I was speechless is an understatement. I was completely awestruck – I think I even spluttered out “fucking hell” as I stepped onto the track, in the stadium Bolt broke the world record, in the stadium Jesse Owens won his 6 gold medals in 1936. The history of this place hit me just as much as the architecture, if not more. It was BRILLIANT! The only disappointing thing was I couldn’t take any photos. No one can take it away from me though that I’ve ran on that track and I’ve stood next to the flame and I’ve absorbed all that history – the stuff of dreams!!!!!!!!

After leaving the stadium I had to find some way of contacting home to let them know I was ok. Eventually, I found a very kind person willing to let me make a call from their mobile and I was able to let Stacey know I was alive and needed to get a new phone. I had planned on doing a bit of sight seeing on the way back through to my digs but that pretty much went out the window once the phone broke as I needed it for contact, for travel and also for music for the marathon. Ended up splashing out nearly £300 on a new handset which was gutting enough but then, as I walked out of the shopping centre, there was a thunderstorm!!!! I am TERRIFIED of thunder so I darted back into the shops and stayed there for another couple of hours. At this point, I was convinced God didn’t want me to run the marathon or enjoy myself. My stress levels were through the roof now and I was absolutely starving. I found a little shop that sold pizza and demolished 10 HUGE slices followed by the best burger I have ever had from Burger King – a bacon, cheese and guacamole burger – WOW!!!!!!! Once the storm had passed I went straight back to my digs to get my phone sorted and then tried to get some rest. An early night loomed and with it the nerves that led to a pretty restless night. Alarm set for 5:30am…marathon day was almost here!

I didn’t sleep very well at all on Saturday night. A combination of nerves and excitement building to a crescendo that kept me wide awake for large parts of the night. My alarm went off at 5:30am (yay, my new phone didn’t break overnight) and I was up like a shot. Porridge down my neck and a cup of coffee and then it was time to get rid of the nerves (via the toilet). The weather looked ok. It was cool and dry – perfect running weather although the weather forecast was for rain in the afternoon. After 4 trips to the loo it was time to get my kit on. I was liberal with the Vaseline – no chafing for me today lol. Packed my gels in my flipbelt, filled my pockets with packets of haribo and off I set. The journey to the start was completely uneventful but getting off the train at Berlin Hauptbahnhof there was a definite air of excitement around. From there it was a short walk down to the Tiergarten where the crowds of people got bigger and bigger. I was lucky enough to bump into another person who was running for Prostate Cancer UK so had a chat with him as we walked down to our start pen. We weren’t due to go off until 10:10am so there was quite a long wait and I was worried that nerves would get the better of me and I’d destroy the portaloo’s. Luckily, my nerves seemed to have settled right down so I was able to just sit, relax and take in everything that was going on around me. At 9:15am the race got under way and then it was just a matter of biding my time, waiting for my start pen to be released. We were kept entertained by music (the Germans love their cheesy pop music) and a fella on a microphone getting us to do the Icelandic thunderclap. It was all very surreal. By this point it had also started to rain, a light drizzle that would prove very useful during the race itself – except by the time we actually crossed the start line it had turned from light drizzle to full on heavy rain that lasted the whole marathon! By crikey it felt good to be on my way though.

I’m not sure what to write about the race itself. What I can say is the support from the people of Berlin was incredible. Despite the constant rain lashing down the streets were full of people cheering. There were people hanging out of their windows with loudspeaker systems set up. There was everything from rave to heavy metal being played. There were kids waiting for high fives from the runners. It was everything you could ask for as a runner. My race was very definitely one of 2 halves. The first 16 miles were incredible. I felt fresh, my running was going exactly to plan and I was on course for a 4 and a half hour marathon (the time I had secretly wanted even though I told everyone finishing was the only goal). The last 10 miles were absolute torture. I hit the wall at 18 miles which was way sooner than I had thought I would. Everything started to hurt, I started to notice how wet I was and how cold I was getting. I found I was having to stop every half mile to walk. As I went through 20 miles I genuinely started to doubt I could finish. I started to feel really emotional, holding back tears on several occasions. The marathon had got in my head and was tearing me apart from the inside out. Every instinct I had was telling me to stop; a voice in my head was literally screaming at me, telling me I was a failure, that I should have known I couldn’t complete a marathon; that I was too fat, too heavy, not fit enough; that I was a waste of space. My brain was going to war with me and yet, somehow, I was still running. My body was telling my brain “Fuck you!”. My heart and my lungs were on fire but they were telling me to keep going. My legs were like lumps of lead but they would not stop turning. 20 miles turned to 23 miles and the last of my gels was gone. The rain continued to pound down, the war in my mind raged on. Only 5k to go! At some point over the next mile or so I lost it completely. Local Hero by Mark Knopfler came on my headphones and I just lost it. Tears welled up in my eyes and I was struggling to hold it together. The crowd was immense at this point – the amount of times I heard my name called along with “you can do it” “you’re amazing” etc. was both pulling me through and making me more upset because I knew that I couldn’t do it. I knew I was going to stop. I knew I couldn’t go any further…1 mile to go! Even now, this close to the end I was convinced I wasn’t going to make it. The course seemed now to be never ending. At every turn I expected to see the Brandenburg Gate and at every turn I was disappointed. I got a spasm of cramp in my left calf (the one and only time I have EVER had cramp whilst running). The pain was unreal…how the FUCK am I going to do this? The war was won, my brain was victorious and my heart, lungs and legs were raising the white flag. I rounded a corner, fully expecting to see just more shops and there it was; that most iconic of structures, the Brandenburg Gate. That white flag that my body was raising was quickly lowered as I got a massive surge of energy. “I’m going to fucking do this” I said to myself. My legs all of a sudden felt light and I felt my pace picking up. I passed under the gate and everything hit me like a ton of bricks. I was overcome with emotions I can’t describe very well. I was elated that I was going to finish my marathon. I was in awe of the Brandenburg Gate and all the history attached to it. The noise from the crowd was incredible, I heard a couple of British voices shouting my name and managed a wave. My legs were getting faster and faster, the tears were streaming down my face and then I crossed the finish line. I was a marathoner, in a time of 5hrs 15mins! I rang home and I don’t think Stacey could understand a word of what I was saying because of the tears and the general delirium. People were looking at me with genuine concern on their faces. Everyone else seemed really happy and here I was an emotional wreck. I was happy, I was over the moon but my body and my brain had literally just been to war with eachother and left me in such a state that I couldn’t do anything but cry. They put my medal over my neck and I began to calm down as I walked to get my free Erdinger and then it was back to my digs for a shower and some rest. By late evening my body was as sore as it has ever been. I had muscles aching that I didn’t know existed but I went to sleep no problem – and yes, I did sleep with my medal on!

It’s Friday now, almost a week later and I still don’t think it’s properly sunk in what I achieved. I feel so poorly it’s unreal. It’s like every germ that I have managed to avoid for most of the year has caught up with me. My hips and lower back are ruined but my legs feel ok. Mentally I feel rotten. I feel empty. I don’t know what to do next. For the first time this year I have nothing to train for. They call it post marathon blues and apparently it is quite normal – it is horrible though, especially as my mental health isn’t great to start with. I promised myself 2 weeks without any running and I will stick to that but it’s going to be hard. My body needs to recover. I need to decide what I want to do next. Do I really want to put myself through all of this again and do another marathon? I honestly don’t know. In one respect this journey has been an incredible one. I have learned so much about myself and about running but on the other hand it has been too much – the early mornings, the lack of a lie in, the sacrificing nights out etc to make sure I was fresh for a run, the added stress it all caused – why would I put myself through all of that again? I’m in the ballot for London (I won’t get in). I’m now in the ballot for Berlin 2020. I’m thinking about Edinburgh in May. Why? Why? WHY?

The answer – because I’m a runner, it’s what I do! I’ve done it once, now it’s time to improve!

NO HUMAN IS LIMITED!

Thanks as always for reading.

I think I’m maranoid…

Take me down to taper town! I am now in the period which everyone I know who has done a marathon describes as a living nightmare. The time where every cough and sneeze is a sign of a severe oncoming bout of black death and you must be quarantined away from friends and family. Where every little twinge (and I’m typing this sat with my leg up with a hot water bottle under it because of a sore calf) is an injury that will require immediate amputation, which of course means, no marathon! This is a time when heroes are forged in the fires of Valhalla – not by listening to your heart but by acting against your body and it’s insane desire to go out and just sneak one last long run in. Training is done, it’s time to ease off the pedal and get body and mind ready for what lies in wait in 11 CHUFFING DAYS!!!!!

So last week was the big one, the hardest week, in my opinion, of my whole plan. Ordinarily, coming off the back of the Great North Run, I would have taken a week’s rest to allow my body to recover from what is a gruelling (and incredibly emotional) half marathon. This year, that wasn’t possible. I rested on Monday but then it was straight back into it with a truly horrible 5 miles on Tuesday. Everything felt heavy and I felt really, really tired. It was slow and pretty arduous but it was done. Wednesday felt a lot looser with an easy 4, though I still felt really fatigued and kept having to say to myself “lets just get this week done with”. Thursday was the hardest run of the whole block. It was only 10 miles but felt like 100. Again, everything felt heavy and sluggish and my calves started to ache A LOT. It probably didn’t help that it was really miserable weather – it was tipping down with rain but it was also bloody boiling hot – but this was one of those runs where I just ended up thinking to myself “what on earth are you doing man”. I should have stopped after about 6 miles but in my “wisdom” I decided to press on. At the end of it, all I was left with severe pain in my legs and right up my back which I took as a sign that I needed a rest. Friday was always going to be a rest day but I decided to take Saturday as well. I actually don’t think I could have ran even if I had wanted to on Saturday, such was the pain I was in from Thursday’s run. I genuinely had real difficulty walking on Friday. So instead of a 6 mile run I had breakfast out with wifey and the boy and then spent the rest of the day getting the gardens sorted before the weather turns and topped the day off with 4 massive plates of food at an all you can eat Chinese buffet – using the excuse I was carb loading for Sunday’s torturous 20 miles!

Early night on Saturday meant a 4:45am start on Sunday morning. I must admit, I’m REALLY looking forward to getting my Sunday’s back – not having to get up really early is going to be AMAZING! Anyhoo, I was up at 4:45am to get some food in me and get myself sorted for my longest run to date and the last long Sunday run before the marathon. I set off at just after 6:30am, but only after 2 horrendous trips to the loo (note to self: do not have Chinese buffet as pre run meal, it rebounds back terribly!), full of self-doubt and worried that my calf was going to stop me getting this distance done! I’d also decided to do a different route on this run to my normal long runs, deciding that instead of just doing loops of my local area, I would head further afield and run down to the river, cross it and run along to the Gateshead Millennium Bridge which I’d cross and then run back along the Newcastle Quayside back to mine. This takes me completely out of my comfort zone but I reasoned that was no bad thing at this point. My plan was to go very slow, not going too much below 11 min miles if I could help it and to gel every 4 miles. I set off and found the first 4 miles really easy – settled into a nice, slow rhythm and by the time I reached the pedestrian tunnel to cross the river I felt great. This is the point where it started to turn a little. I didn’t realise the escalators in the tunnel were not working so yeah, there were almost 150 steps to climb on my ascendancy! By the time I got to the top, my calf was screaming at me and it took me a good while to get going again. It was a lovely route though, looking down on the River Tyne the whole time. The only issues being there were a few steep hills which I could have done without (I walked them though, I’m not afraid to admit that) and after about 11 miles I was desperate for the loo again with nowhere in sight (I couldn’t bring myself to go outside, despite having wipes in my pack). I managed to supress my need for the toilet until I had crossed back across the river and found an open café – no mean feat a 8:30 on a Sunday morning! It was at this point that I also discovered I had lost one of my gels and had a little panic about that but after a few minutes I was back on my feet and heading for home.
The journey home was HARD. From about 14 miles in I felt like I had nothing left in me – the emotion involved with the Great North Run, the training – not just last week but all through this block – the realisation that I’m going to Berlin on my own, without my little family. Everything just hit me like a ton of bricks and I wondered what the fuck I was doing. The miles were ticking over but the stops were becoming more frequent and the legs were getting stiffer and stiffer with each step. As I ticked past 18 miles I had a sudden moment of complete panic that I wasn’t going to be able to make it home. I genuinely thought my legs would give up! 18 ticked over to 19 though and somehow I was still going – just VERY slowly! As 19 ticked over to 20 and I stopped I let out a guttural roar that may have frightened the few people who were around me. I felt both elated and exhausted then realised that I still had almost 3 miles to WALK HOME!!!!! How I made it home is a complete mystery – at least 4 people stopped and asked me if I was alright because I was moving so slowly and seemed incredibly uneasy on my feet – but make it home I did. I had a bath, I went food shopping and then I sat on the sofa and didn’t (because I couldn’t) move.


The journey home was HARD. From about 14 miles in I felt like I had nothing left in me – the emotion involved with the Great North Run, the training – not just last week but all through this block – the realisation that I’m going to Berlin on my own, without my little family. Everything just hit me like a ton of bricks and I wondered what the fuck I was doing. The miles were ticking over but the stops were becoming more frequent and the legs were getting stiffer and stiffer with each step. As I ticked past 18 miles I had a sudden moment of complete panic that I wasn’t going to be able to make it home. I genuinely thought my legs would give up! 18 ticked over to 19 though and somehow I was still going – just VERY slowly! As 19 ticked over to 20 and I stopped I let out a guttural roar that may have frightened the few people who were around me. I felt both elated and exhausted then realised that I still had almost 3 miles to WALK HOME!!!!! How I made it home is a complete mystery – at least 4 people stopped and asked me if I was alright because I was moving so slowly and seemed incredibly uneasy on my feet – but make it home I did. I had a bath, I went food shopping and then I sat on the sofa and didn’t (because I couldn’t) move.

So that’s the end of my hard training but I feel there is still some fun to be had! I’ve had a couple of days rest but now it’s time to get some nice, easy miles in just to keep the legs ticking over. I’m not sleeping too well as I’m already getting nervous about travelling to Berlin – the series of Ryanair strikes that are happening at the moment are not helping the nerves at all. I’m worried about getting lost when I’m in Berlin and not being able to figure the transport system out or of getting injured (particularly as I plan on doing the Breakfast Run the morning before the marathon – it finishes in the Olympic Stadium, where Usain Bolt broke the 100m world record – it would be rude not to see it!!!!!). I’m worried that my accommodation is too far out the way and is going to be naff. I’m worried that I’m going to miss my family too much and knowing they’re not there to support me is somehow going to impact on my performance…I’m just worried, worried, worried!

HOWEVER, If someone had told me this time last year that I would be less than 2 weeks out from running a marathon, I would have told them to piss off! I’ve worked my arse off not just for the last 20 weeks but this year as a whole to get me to a place where I felt like I could go and finish a marathon. I’ve sacrificed nights out, time with friends, lying in on a weekend. I’ve had a terribly stressful time at work that has, no doubt, impacted on what I could get done training wise at points. I’ve ran further than I have ever have before and somehow, from somewhere, I’ve still got to find another 6.2 miles! Eliud Kipchoge ran the final 10k of his world record breaking 2018 Berlin marathon in about 28 minutes, if I can run mine in 80 minutes I’ll be absolutely delighted. Crossing the finish line is my only goal – what is the point of aiming for a time when there are so many variables that could go wrong?! I’m going to go out there, give it my everything and just lets the chips fall where they may. Am I ready? Absolutely NOT! Am I confident? FUCK NO! Will I ever be either of those things? Probably not but as long as I can say I’ve trained to the best of my ability and can finish knowing I’ve given the race everything I have then I’ll be happy!

Thank you as always for reading!

One step closer to the edge…

LESS THAN 3 WEEKS TO GO!!!!!!!!

I’m starting to shit my pants, I won’t lie. I’m not sure it’s maranoia but all of a sudden I’m feeling little twinges and whenever anyone coughs or sneezes in my house I go into self preservation mode and take a box of flu plus!!!! I have now had the details from Prostate Cancer UK around pre and post marathon meet ups and more importantly I’ve had my start card from the organisers of the marathon so it is all very definitely feeling VERY fucking real now.

Training is progressing relatively well. I ended up smashing the 100 mile mark for August – ending on 122 which is far and away the largest amount of miles I’ve done in one month. I think I ended my last post with a really stiff 6 miles on Bank Holiday Monday that had me feeling all sorts of worried! I managed another 3 runs that week, a slow 5 miles and another very slow 6.3 miles which took me to 104 miles for the month and then I had to change my long run from Sunday to Saturday as wifey was going away for the night on Saturday night (jammy so-and-so) so I couldn’t go on Sunday. My long run was 18 miles. 18 M’FUGGIN MILES!!!!!!!! I decided that I would alter my usual long run route which usually includes a stop at home to collect more fluids. I dug out my hydration pack with the intention of using that and the fucking bladder was bust so instead, I filled 3 bottles of water and carried them on my back. This was also the first time I used my flipbelt to carry my gels and I planned to gel every 4 miles (the strategy I will be using in Berlin). I was up at the crack of dawn (alarm set for 4:30am as I needed to be out and back by 10:30am) to get some food in me and get sorted and I set off at 6:30am into a beautifully bright and cool morning. I think this is the first time I have ever gone out for a long run and not gone off too quickly which I was delighted with. I felt good, I was relaxed and I was just letting the miles tick over, slowing when I felt I needed to, gelling at the right times and making sure I took on fluids at least every couple of miles. I honestly thought, beforehand, that when I reached 16 miles I would collapse. You may recall from previous posts that I was in a huge amount of pain after reaching this distance in previous long runs. If I did feel any pain, I must have locked it away in the back of mind because as 16 miles ticked over, I felt like a machine. Yes, I might have been a very rusty, old, creaking machine that was about to fall apart, but I was a machine nonetheless. There was nothing that was going to stop me reaching 18 miles. I finished, I looked at my watch and I’d come home in 3:13:43 (with an average pace of 10:45). If I can do that in Berlin I will be over the moon! I got home and yes, when I sat down, a whole world of pain opened up in my legs and my hips and yes, I cried – partly because of the pain but mostly out of relief of having conquered my longest run so far with relative ease. I didn’t even have time to have a shower as wifey wanted me to walk her over to her friends (she wanted my brute strength to carry the 25kg bag she’d packed for ONE NIGHT away) so we did that and then when I got home, I ran a bath and had a soak whilst the little fella came up and had a chat. Wifey being away means one thing and one thing only in my house – BOYS NIGHT! We had movies and we had pizza – I ate almost 2 full 14” pizzas and a garlic bread from Domino’s – would have been 2 whole ones but, you know, child had to eat lol.

Last week ended up being a week of rest and hugely reduced miles. It was supposed to be my biggest training week of my plan but owing to a mix up in my workings out that week is now this week (only giving me a 2 week taper period which I hope will be enough!!). I was incredibly stiff and sore from the 18 miler until about Wednesday when I managed to get out to do a very painful 5 miles but then had a pain in my foot which prevented me getting out again until the weekend. Ordinarily I would probably have risked going out again but this weekend just gone was also Great North Run weekend and I didn’t want to be injured for that. So yeah, I had a nice rest going into the biggest sporting weekend in the North East of England. I LOVE GNR weekend – there is such a buzz around the area as the region gets set to show the world what we’re about. This year was my 3rd time completing the world’s biggest half marathon and whilst it will never compare to my first (I don’t think anything ever will) it was still a hugely emotional day. First up though, was the Mini Great North Run and the chance for Lucas and thousands of other children to experience something like what we old folks do at the big one! This was Lucas’s second time running this 1 mile course and he did brilliantly. He ran with a smile on his face and high fived just about every single spectator. It was an absolute pleasure for me to be his accompanying adult and it gave me a massive swell of pride watching him sprint away from me at the finish. If there is a better feeling in the world than watching your child achieve something, I am yet to find it! What made it all the more special was that his moment in the sun was shared with family, every single one of whom was as delighted and proud to watch him as I was. We had a lovely meal afterwards and then it was home to have a rest. Wifey had a couple of hours sleep as she wasn’t feeling well and me and the boy watched Wallace and Gromit and laughed our little heads off. Then, it was out for tea with friends which, again, was lovely and home for a good night sleep.

My Great North Run Sunday began with a 6am alarm and a bagel and a slice of banana loaf washed down with a strong coffee. I made plans to meet Stacey and Lucas in our usual spot at the finish and off I headed into a chilly but glorious morning. By the time I got into my start pen the temperature had rocketed and I spent the hour and a half waiting to cross the start line staying hydrated and needing the toilet! Finally, 32 minutes after the start gun went off I crossed the line and I was on my way. My intention for this years GNR had always been to treat it as a training run. I was more concerned about just trying to get a bit of consistency in my splits than finishing in a quick time. For those that have never ran this iconic race before, the Great North Run is NOT a run to achieve PB’s – particularly if you are in the green or pink waves. It is way too congested and it honestly feels like you spend most of your time dodging out the way of people who randomly stop without checking what’s going on around them first. It’s an awful race to run really. Why do we do it then??? We do it for the atmosphere. You won’t find a better one anywhere else on the planet. People from the North East of England are renowned for being the friendliest people in our country and they come out in force – even more so this year it seemed – to cheer every single runner. They go out of their way to provide sweets, water, oranges, even beer to make sure that all of us taking part can keep on going over what is a torturous course! It’s funny when you watch it on TV they always say it’s a downhill course – IS IT BOLLOCKS! If anything it is an undulating course. It is always bloody hot as well and this year was no exception. Doesn’t matter how hard or hot it is though, when you hit that last mile along the sea front at South Shields and all you can hear is the cheering of the crowds and it’s just getting louder and louder, you find that extra gear. Somehow, you know you’re going to make it, that the cheers and the encouragement of these strangers are going to lift you up and carry you over the finish line and when you do – WOW! It’s the best, most emotional feeling. There are tears, there are hugs and at the end of it all, for me anyways, there is the short walk from the finish line to where I know Stacey and Lucas will be and there is the look on their faces that say “well done dad, we’re so proud of you”. THAT makes up for every bit of hurt felt along the way! Anyway, I came home in 2:20:39 – some way off my PB and slower than I have been averaging half marathon distances but considering it was a training run in race conditions I was delighted! My splits were consistent, my fuelling was correct, really, it was everything I needed it to be! Next year though, I’m moving up a wave and I’m going to attack this m’fugga to get my time to a one closer to what I know I’m capable of.

I’m now in the home straight as far as my training goes – this week will be my biggest week mileage wise with a 20 miler to look forward to at the weekend and then it’s taper time until the big day itself. How will I handle 20 miles? I honestly don’t know but I will approach it the same way I did 18 and the same way I did 16 and 14 before that – one foot in front of the other, slow and steady!!

Thanks, as always for reading.

It’s been a while…

Wow, time flies when you’re running yourself into the ground to get ready for a marathon! It’s been over a month since I posted anything and seeing as it is now JUST OVER A MONTH until the big day, now is probably a good time to post where I’m at and how I’m feeling.

The short and sweet version of this post is that it is going reasonably well. After a pretty poor July mileage wise, August has been much improved and mileage has crept back up. I’ve still missed sessions and, in fact, have somehow lost a whole week of my plan which I am incredibly confused about but all in all training is going well. Mentally, I am all over the place, but I’ll touch on that a little later.

The longer version of this post goes a little something like this:

Whence last I left you, dear reader, I had just completed a half marathon time trial that was incredibly tough and was looking forward (?!) to 2 big weeks of training where my mileage would shoot up and I would not once, but twice go further than I had ever been before. Well, it didn’t quite work out that way. My first big week started well enough with a hot and sticky 6 miles but then the weather took hold – it was hotter than the depths of hell and I just couldn’t bring myself to run in it so I did nothing for 5 days and then couldn’t bring myself to go and do 15 miles on long run Sunday. I found myself totally lacking in motivation and not wanting to go out at all – I struggle badly in the heat so I’m 100% certain this is why I was struggling with motivation – but I managed to drag myself around 8 of the hottest miles I have ever ran. This is where mentally I have started to suffer – I look at my plan and think “well, I haven’t done this session and I’ve missed that run and my mileage was supposed to be…but it’s only….” and I wind myself up and talk myself into believing that because I haven’t followed the plan to the letter then I’m going to fail or something is going to go horribly wrong. I need to get into the habit of seeing my plan for what it is – a guide! Missed sessions and missed runs are a pain in the arse but that’s all they are. I need to remember that I’ve invested the whole of 2019 into getting ready for the marathon, I’ve logged nearly 700 miles already this year and yes, the plan will help, but it is not the be all and end all.

So yeah, no 15 miles for me and July ended with an early morning 6 miles in much cooler conditions but taken at a really leisurely pace.

August began with an early morning Yasso 800’s session – 1 mile warm up, 8 x 800m with 3min recovery and then a 1 mile cool down. I love these sessions. I think I’ve said before, even though they are completely repetitive and dull and pretty fucking boring, the buzz I get from them is unreal. The feeling of having worked my arse off and ran at pace for however many reps just can’t be beaten. Brilliant. After that it was home to get changed and then wifey and I were off up to beautiful Newton Hall in Alnwick for my cousins wedding. We had an absolutely beautiful day and it was such an incredible day to be a part of…bloody expensive drinks though lol. Days like that mean everything to me – I love my family and to see everyone so happy and enjoying themselves makes me really proud and privileged to be a part of it!

The day after the wedding, wifey and I had a nice breakfast in the hotel we’d stayed at and then headed home where we promptly went back to bed so there was no running. It was also our last day of freedom as the boy had been staying with my in-laws for the week and we were picking him up on the Saturday lunchtime. Wifey went to a baby shower that evening so I was left to my own devices and did what any self-respecting male should do – ordered pizza and watched sports documentaries in my pants. It was tasty, educational and liberating all at once!!!!

Saturday morning dawned and with it a nice easy 6 to stretch the legs. It felt a lot easier than any running had done for a couple of weeks which I was grateful for as it definitely boosted my mental state (only for it to be torn to shreds the next day). Shower and off to pick the boy up from York where he had had a great time. In fact, he was having such a good time he completely ignored his mam and dad when we turned up in favour of playing with his friends – missed us then lol.

Long run Sunday brought about the furthest distance I have ever ran – 16 miles. I came in bang on 3 hours which was what I expected. What I didn’t expect was the level of pain I would feel. The run itself was as I anticipated – I went off too quickly for the first 5k (in between 9:15 and 9:47 min miles) and then my pace fluctuated between 10min miles and 13:30 min miles. So slow but certainly not steady. My pacing is definitely something I need to work on. My route was split into 2 – the first 8 miles consisting of a loop around my local area and finishing with a pit stop at home to collect more fluids and the second 8 taking me out to the local parkrun venue and back (with the parkrun route in between). I think up until about mile 13 I felt generally ok but after that, every single step I took resulted in my feet screaming at me to stop. When my watch eventually did tick over onto 16 miles and I stopped, the sense of achievement was incredible but that only lasted about 20 seconds and was rapidly replaced by a sense of HOW THE FUCK AM I GOING TO RUN ANOTHER 10 MILES ON TOP OF THIS???????? I was half a mile from home when I stopped and it took me nearly half an hour to walk that half mile home. When I opened the front door I had to call for my wife to come and help me in the house – I literally had nothing left in me. I was helped in to the living room and sat on the sofa. Stacey and Lucas had to take my trainers off and undress me as I couldn’t function. I had tears streaming down my face, I was wrapped in a towel and just sat for a while, trying to both cool down and work up the courage to climb the stairs for a bath. Even after I’d processed the run and recovered, all I was left with was the question of how on earth I’m going to find the energy and the willpower to run another 10 miles – it’s twisting my melon man!

After that effort I found I literally had no energy to run consistently the following week (again, mentally messing me up because not sticking to the plan). I managed a recovery 5 miles and then a steady 6 but after that I just had to stop for a few days which meant no long run Sunday for me. I picked up again the following week with a good weeks training under my belt which ended with another 16 mile Sunday long run. I ran the same route but came in 9 mins quicker than the previous one – a fact I am attributing solely to the cooler temperature rather than anything I had done. I felt amazing on this run, my splits were alot more even and generally quicker (never going above 12min miles). Somehow, I even dropped a 9:24min mile in at mile 10 which consisted of a full on sprint – I am attributing THAT to Iron Maiden! I felt like I got my fuelling right, taking on liquid at the right times but also taking my gels at the right times too (something I am determined to get right in Berlin) and yeah, everything just felt…..better! I was still in a lot of pain when I finished but there wasn’t the same sense of foreboding, I didn’t question where I would find another 10 miles from, I accepted that I’d have to find them from somewhere! I even repeated my mantra out loud to myself to keep me going when things felt tough – something I’ve never done before but will continue to do as I feel it did spur me on!

Last week ended up being another disappointment – after the joy (?!?!) of the 16 miles I thought I would build on that and have another good week. Unfortunately, life has a tendency of getting in the way. I was off work last week to spend some time with the boy (save on childcare costs) and we had a great week – Monday we did nothing as I was recovering from Sunday’s efforts. Tuesday, I had a massage in the morning so we walked down there and then we went to the pictures and for a pizza hut lunchtime buffet and then I managed 6 miles, fuelled by 12 slices of pizza in the evening. Unfortunately, my legs had been massaged in coconut oil and I was wearing shorts and the child and I decided to go for an adventure through some country paths and I was bitten to fuck by mosquitoes. This resulted in not being able to run on Wednesday or Thursday as my legs swelled to the size of an elephants! Wednesday we had a lovely chilled out morning watching a couple of movies and then in the afternoon we headed to the swimming baths for some fun in the water. Little man loved the slides and we had fun in the waves and then it was time to meet mam for some fish and chips for tea. Thursday was another quiet day as I felt really poorly so we chilled in the house. By Friday legs were sufficiently recovered that I could get out in the morning for another Yasso 800 session – this time 1 mile warm up, 10 x 800 with 3 min recovery and a 1 mile cool down. All felt great except for the fact that it was roasting hot. When I finished and got home we had a family weekend up in beautiful Northumberland to look forward to – I took my running stuff but the weather was too hot and I was having too much fun swimming in the sea and spending time with my little family to think too much about running so it went unused. I discovered on Sunday evening that I’d actually misplaced a weeks worth of training somehow. I had initially intended to do my long run on Bank Holiday Monday but when I was looking at how long I had left till Berlin in relation to how long I had left on the plan I was a week ahead of myself so decided no run long – thankfully as it turns out as it was another scorcher and an increase to 18 miles in that heat may have just finished me off. I got out for 6 though and it was tough – my calves were tight and my Achilles was sore. Still, it’s done and I can look forward to another good weeks training which will see me top 100 miles for the month of August and start September with my longest ever run (18 miles).

Berlin, I may be going slowly and off centre a bit, but I’m coming for you!!!!!

I can and I will…watch me!

Thanks, as always, for reading 😊😊

When the going gets tough…

Not going to lie, I’m starting to feel this now. This last week was a bit of a disaster and yet, somehow, still ended up being a 31 mile week. When I made the decision to tackle the marathon I knew the training was going to be tough. I’ve been surprised so far as to how well I’ve adjusted to it. Even during the exceptionally busy few months we’ve had at work I’ve still managed to get out and run – maybes not to plan (I managed week 1 of the plan fully and then it was week 6 before I picked it up again because it became a case of fitting a run, any run in, wherever I could. But I persisted and I was enjoying the process. I have not enjoyed this past week! I haven’t been able to stick to plan because the week before an election work goes crackers so it has been fit in where I can!

Monday was, as always, a rest day. My legs felt heavy after the Great North 10k the previous day and, as much as I maybe wanted to go out and stretch them, I’ve said before, I’m taking the rest element of this training block very seriously so I didn’t. My running week started with an awful, hot, sticky 4 miles on Tuesday evening. I had staff coming into work for a training session which meant I didn’t get home until 7:30pm and so it was a case of get changed and get straight out. I was tired, I was fairly hungry and I wasn’t prepared for how hot it was…done though which is the main thing. Wednesday say another bloody awful hot and sticky run – this time 6 miles – still came in well under an hour which I suppose I am happy with. Days like these really make me wish I had chosen a spring marathon and could have trained during winter! I am NOT cut out for heat. I’m on the large side, I have a huge beard and I’m generally quite a warm person at the best of times. Add summer heat into the mix and I’m just a wreck! Thursday and Friday I managed to do sweet FA – there were storms forecast and I am genuinely terrified of thunder and lightning – my anxiety levels go through the roof and this makes it virtually impossible to go anywhere (another reason I should maybe have considered a spring marathon) so my next run was the double on Saturday. Was working on Saturday morning as preparations for the following weeks election were ramped up. 4 easy miles there and 4 easy miles back. It was cooler and that definitely showed in my times.

My long run for the week was a half marathon time trial – I needed an idea of where I am currently at. As usual, I was useless at pacing myself properly. I went off far too quickly and suffered for it later on. I eventually came home in 2:14:22 and felt every single step. It’s not where I want to be as I am much quicker than that but, given the circumstances, it’s probably right that I am there. Quick shower and then pestered by the boy to go to the beach so off we went. I could barely walk but the fish and chips and the sunshine, as well as how happy the trip made Lucas feel was worth the discomfort!

Election week then hit and I literally did no running at all. I had a sports massage on the Tuesday which really helped as my calves had been super tight but other than that it was work, work, work and then rest and recover over the weekend. We had a gorgeous weekend, going to see the new Lion King on Friday evening and having a day out at the beach with a picnic on Sunday and in between, lots of rest and napping. I must admit, I do feel really guilty for having done nothing but there is no way I could have done the week that was required of me so having a complete rest was the only option. What it does mean is that I now have 2 extremely hard weeks in a row to look forward to, starting tomorrow with 6 easy miles and including a 15 mile run on Sunday and a 16 mile one the following weekend. Add into the mix the current heatwave predictions doing the rounds and the threat of more storms this week and it is not looking like a comfortable or particularly successful wee for me. I will give it a bash though, that is all I can do!

Thanks, as always for reading.

Short and sweet….

Last week was a bit of a non-event really. It was planned to be a reduced mileage week and in that respect it was successful. However, the plan was not to only get out 3 times for a total of 13. 5 miles – that was just plain laziness on my part! Actually, it wasn’t really. I was always going to rest on Monday to allow my body some recovery time after the epic 14 miles the previous day. Tuesday I was ill throughout the day so thought it wise to skip the planned 4 miles. Wednesday I worked late and by the time I got home, I literally couldn’t be bothered. Thursday I did get out and did 5 miles but it felt all wrong. It was relatively steady paced but I just felt sore and off kilter a little bit! To be completely honest I’ve been feeling like that in general for the last week or so. I’m absolutely shattered, from work, from training and it’s being noticed – certainly by her indoors – which is a worry for me. I have struggled with my mental health in the past and running has always been my way of coping but in this instance it’s a contributing factor to why I’m feeling naff! I think I’d be ok if work wasn’t still so full on. We have had 7 months of pretty solid 150 mile an hour, non stop busy and I think everyone in my team is ready for a lull so they can relax a little…also, the air con in our office is fucked which really doesn’t help me as I struggle badly with the heat!

Anyways, I ran on Thursday and then did the school run on Friday and then binned off Saturday in favour of taking the wee fella for a hair cut and trimming my hedge! I was racing on Sunday and I wasn’t sure how this total lack of activity would affect me, but what the Hell. I wasn’t treating it as a race, more just a training run so I wasn’t too fussed – and it was only 10k so I figured I’d be ok!

Sunday dawned bright and early as I had to be over in Gateshead for about 9am ready to race. I had my usual pre race breakfast of a toasted bagel and a strong cup of coffee and then was wracked by the usual pre race nerves which had me on the loo for half an hour before I left. Got the metro over to Gateshead and was hit by a sudden wave of nausea as I walked down to the event village. Dived into McDonald’s and sequestered their loo for 20 mins or so before doing the decent thing and buying a coffee! Got to the race village and just chilled out for a little bit – I like to people watch and it was very interesting seeing the different people arriving, full of confidence or full of trepidation. When it was time for me to head down to the start to area I felt relaxed (possibly because I had nothing left in me lol) and just decided to go out and enjoy the run, not too fast, not too slow. I’d just make of it what I could. I’ve struggled with this race on the 2 previous occasions that I’ve done it. I think a combination of it being hilly, it being incredibly hot and generally just not knowing how to pace myself properly has been my downfall. This time I got everything absolutely spot on! I hit my rhythm early and because I wasn’t aiming for PB’s or wanting to run fast I found I just flowed along. I felt so comfortable and so relaxed all the way around. There is a hill in this race, right at the end, called Slog on the Tyne and I love it. I’m not one to walk up the hilly sections of a race – I attack them. With Slog on the Tyne I always find I have to stop and walk for about 10 second once I get to the top – not this time though. Up I went and I just carried on. The race itself finishes on the track at Gateshead International Stadium which, before the invention of the Diamond League was the setting for many a star studded athletics meeting. I can remember, as a child, seeing Linford Christie face off against Carl Lewis in the 100m not long after the Barcelona Olympics and being in awe of the place so to run the final 400 meters of a race on that track is a dream come true for me. I felt so comfortable that I even managed a hell of a sprint finish. Came through in 58:03 which is almost a 10 minute course best for me – my splits were as follows 9:13, 9:15, 9:46, 9:12, 9:15, 9:10 – if I hadn’t slowed to have a drink of water in mile 3 that would have been perfect. Still pretty consistent though so I’m really happy.

Anyways, a short one this week so thanks very much for reading and I hope you all have a productive week, whatever you’re doing 🙂

It’s a long road…..

My last post was brought to a close with a bit of a diatribe against the owner of Newcastle United Football Club for the disgraceful and disgusting way in which he has allowed our (now former) manager Rafa Benitez to leave the club. Since then he has also sanctioned the sale of one of our better players for £30m. This is against the backdrop of charging fans more than any other club for a replica shirt, increasing season ticket prices by 5% and generally just being an odious man! Once again, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB, YOU FAT COCKNEY BASTARD, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB!

Phew…I needed that! Onto the running and it’s been another BIG week. Huge steps, I feel, have been taken and I feel like I’m starting to find my way through this training block – long may it continue. I’ve achieved two things that 3 years ago, I honestly never thought I could. I ran 14 miles and in doing so smashed through the 100 mile barrier for the month of June (108 in total). My weeks training, in general, was good. I rested on Monday and worked from home which was good as it meant I didn’t have to do too much walking around. I think I mentioned in the last post that I was coming to realise how important rest and recovery is and I think, especially as my long run miles start to creep up this is something I’m going to become even more aware of and I’ll be trying to stay off my feet as much as possible in the 24 hours after a long run – not always possible with a demented 5 year old tearing around, but hey ho.

My running for the week started with an easy 5 miles on Tuesday just to get the legs turning again. I understand when people talk about easy miles they are essentially talking about running at a relaxed pace but I wish they’d think of something else to call them. It may just be me but I don’t think any mile is easy. It doesn’t matter whether I’m running at 8 minute mile pace or 10 minute mile pace, the effort is still there and I would, in no way, say it was easy. SORT IT OUT RUNNING COMMUNITY!!! Anyways, it was 5 miles, it was 9:26 average pace and it was canny! Wednesday was another “easy” run – this time of 4 miles. Slightly slower at 9:46 average pace but that’s not really an issue as it’s still way quicker than I’m guessing I’ll be running come Berlin. Finished off with 5 sets of strides (which I should do more of) and felt good for it! Wifey was out on Thursday night and the ever ongoing saga of elections in 2019 has meant that I haven’t been out on a Thursday with Mindful Miles since the beginning of April so it was either skip a session or get up and get out at 5am. For once, I chose the latter and I’m really glad I did. It was a 6 mile run with 1 mile warm up, 4 miles at marathon pace and 1 mile cool down at the end. It was a beautiful summers morning. The sun was shining and there was a slight chill in the air which was perfect. It was great to get out and run without really worrying about self-confidence issues as there was literally nobody else around at that time. All in all it was a fantastic run out – even though I, once again, couldn’t stick to my planned pace (went too fast). Thinking about it though, because my only goal is to finish the marathon, I’m not going to get stressed about marathon pace. I will train how I am training and that will be good enough, I’m sure! Only trouble with running that early in the morning is that I was dead on my feet by mid-afternoon.

Friday was supposed to be a rest day but I ended up doing the school run. Saturday was supposed to be a 5 miler but work meant that never happened as I was in Huddersfield again and then, with it being the hottest day of the year, I just couldn’t be bothered to go out when I got home and instead had a sleep! Nothing to stress about though, there will be days where I’m just not feeling it or I’m too tired or whatever and I’m just going to have to embrace these and not let them affect my mentality in any way. One missed easy run is not going to throw my plan overboard!

Saturday also saw me and the Mrs stepping out together sans child for the second time in 5 weeks (Crikey, I hear you say and you’re right. I could get used to this!) as Lucas was having a sleepover at Aunty Claire’s and then spending the day with them on Sunday, culminating in a trip to the cinema to see Toy Story 4. We had a lovely evening enjoying some food and a couple of drinks at the Village hotel before heading home and watching some telly in peace and quiet! It also meant we could have a lie in on Sunday – NOT! Well, wifey could – I had to be up to get some fuel into me ahead of my long run. I’ve been dreading moving into the phase of my plan where the long runs really start to ramp up the mileage. It’s been on my mind that I won’t be able to cope and I’ll make a hash of it but, if I’m going to complete a marathon, I’m going to have to push my body AND my mind to places it has never been before. I’d decided beforehand that I would do 2 7 mile loops around where I lived, as this meant I would be able to call home halfway through to pick up a fresh water bottle and an extra gel if I thought I would need it. I downloaded the latest ‘Those Conspiracy Guys’ podcast and set off thinking I’d be about 2 and a half hours, given the conditions (hot). I wasn’t far wrong, coming home in 2:35:31 – average pace of 11:06 which is probably slightly slower than what I will be aiming for in Berlin. It was hard going in places, there were more than a few walking breaks. I swallowed a shed load of green fly (good source of protein??!?!?!) and at one point around 10 miles I did seriously think about chucking it in but I persevered. I kept my legs moving and actually, at the end, I felt like I had a tiny little bit more in me and could have snuck another mile in! I didn’t though – plan said 14 and so 14 it was. After about 5 minutes of sitting down in the house though I couldn’t move! This was the point Stacey says to me “howay, get showered, we’re going to the metro centre, I need some new shoes for Kathryn’s (my cousins) wedding!” I’m not a violent man, I’m actually quite chilled out most of the time but as I hobbled around the metro centre, after running 14 miles, without any food to replenish me, I thought dark, dark thoughts! As we trundled from shoe shop to shoe shop, looking for the perfect pair of fuscia pink shoes I began to feel the icy hand of death upon my shoulder and in the end, I had to put my foot down (it hurt)…we need coffee and cake! Anyway, she got her shoes. She then had the cheek to complain when I said I wanted to go to a book shop (the one shop other than the Lego shop I wanted to visit)…like I said…dark thoughts!!!!

And that was that…my week over and done with. This week is a reduced mileage week (for which I am eternally grateful) so it’s all nice and easy (there’s that word again) although I do have a race on Sunday – the Great North 10k in Gateshead, featuring the infamous Slog on the Tyne hill (mountain). I love it, many more don’t! Hopefully it’ll be a nice day, not too hot like the last 2 years and I can just go and enjoy the run and, especially, the finish on the track at Gateshead International Stadium.

Thanks, as always, for reading. Have a good’un whatever you’re doing!

Start me up….

All of a sudden, it feels like a switch has been flicked and we have entered the unknown. It’s been almost 3 weeks since I last posted and in that time training has been ramped up a notch. I thought I might struggle and I’m sure at some point very soon I will begin to but at the moment I feel great. My running is easy and the miles are ticking by. I had a reduced mileage week not last week but the week before and it was most welcome, particularly after a very hard 11 mile slog along the coast the previous Sunday – that was horrendous! Every run during that week was nice and easy pace wise, although the long run that week was 7 miles of torture but I think that is my own fault – I didn’t feel right from the off and should have really stopped but I didn’t and I ended up feeling dizzy and weak and just naff to the point I was sick when I got home. I need to learn to listen to my body because that could have been a disaster. If it doesn’t feel right, STOP!!!

Last week was my highest mileage week ever – 32.2 miles. Now, this may not seem lie a lot to the elites who knock out 100 mile weeks without batting an eyelid but for a fat lad who works full time and has a family to look after, it can sometimes be a struggle finding the time to fit the miles in. I even started off with a little strength and conditioning session on Monday. Now, I used to be heavily into lifting weights and could quite easily lift big, BIG weights. Imagine my surprise therefore, when I struggled to lift and swing a 12kg kettlebell for 15 minutes. I felt like completely emasculated and it made me realise that whilst I am undoubtedly fitter than I have ever been in my adult life I have sacrificed a lot of my strength in achieving that. Lesson learned though and I’ll be incorporating a few more of these little sessions in (if only to get used to the ridiculous DOMS that seem to last for days afterwards.

I ran on Tuesday and by crikey it was warm. 10k and the first time in a good while I have achieved a consistency in my splits which I was pleased with. It wasn’t quick, not by a long shot – almost 3 minutes slower than my PB but I was looking for and am looking for consistency rather than speed and in that respect, I achieved what I’d set out to. Yes, I would love to run a marathon in 4 hours but realistically, that is not going to happen this time round so whilst I will do a little bit of speed work here and there it will mostly be about getting consistent splits. Wednesday saw a 5 and a half mile tootle that, whilst not as consistent as Tuesday’s run was at least reasonable. Again, it was on the slow side but it felt comfortable and I think, with summer now in session and temperatures on the climb, it is very much going to be slow and steady wins the race the majority of the time. Thursday saw my first proper session of this training block. I love these sessions. Even though I’ve just been waffling on about consistency rather than speed I do love to move a little bit faster than I ordinarily would. My only issue with these sessions though is I am hopeless at sticking to pace required. So my session was to be a 1 mile warm up at around 10 min mile pace followed by 4 sets of 800 meters at between 8:30 / 9 min mile pace with a 3 min break in between each set and a 1 mile cool down at the end. My 800 splits were as follows: 1. 3:59 2. 3:53 3. 3:57 4. 4:08 – NOT ONCE DID I HIT THE PACE I WANTED TO!!!!! Way too fast each and every time. Bloody good fun though and being on the waggonway doing them rather than the track was awesome as there was a degree of shade which kept things a little cooler than if I’d been at the track. Also had then benefit of not having any of the twats who think they own the track around, looking and judging as they glide past me with their perfect form and not a bead of sweat on them (God I hate them).

Friday was a rest day and a welcome one at that. I took a flexi day from work so that I could just completely chill out and not have to do anything at all. I even managed to persuade the Mrs to come out for breakfast with me before she went to work which was lovely (the breakfast and the company). When I got home I had 6 glorious hours of doing nowt and then I went and picked the boy up from school. Usually, I’d run to school but as I was having a complete day off I just decided to walk. That’s the other thing I’m learning through this whole process – just how important rest is. Yes, I could have ran the mile to school and it wouldn’t have made me any less fatigued than what I already felt but; it may have impacted on my running over the weekend; I may have slightly tweaked something; anything could have happened that might have stopped me for a few days or a few weeks. I also felt 100 times better for just having a nice gentle walk in the sunshine.

The weekend was a busy one with all the usual weekend chores to do – shopping / ironing / mowing the lawn – plus a kids party to attend on Saturday afternoon and a family fun day organised by Northumbria Police on Sunday morning. This meant running on Saturday was done later on in the evening and I’ve got to be completely honest I did not want to do it at all. One of the mams from school (who has recently just run her first marathon and is absolutely killing it in all her runs at the moment – the jammy sod!) suggested I just drink beer instead (just fuck it and have a beer were her words) and I was tempted. I was really, REALLY tempted but….Rome wasn’t built in a day as they say and this marathon isn’t going to run itself so I went out and it was everything I thought it would be – fucking horrible in other words but I got it done and then it was time for a couple of stiff drinks. The family fun day on Sunday meant that my long run was done first thing. It’s class getting up at around 6am every day during the week and then having to do the same on a fucking Sunday to squeeze a run in – said no one EVER!!!! 11 miles on the plan and 11.5 done because I stopped my stupid watch and forgot to start it again! Again, it was REALLY slow – I genuinely don’t know how I managed to sustain 9:39 average pace when I smashed my Half Marathon PB back in March because I have never looked like doing it since! All my miles here (bar the first which was a 9:32) were mid 10 – 11 min miles. They all felt OK though and like I keep saying I’m not going to be running the marathon with an average pace in the 9’s am I?! The only thing that ruined the run a little was the nipple chafe. It was very warm and my vest got very wet with sweat and then all of a sudden I noticed a red patch spreading across my chest. Stacey was horrified when I got home lol and Lucas thought it was dead funny when I was screaming in pain in the shower. I wouldn’t care, I’d put Body Glide on before I went out – guess it’s back to Vaseline for the old nips.

And that, as they say, was that. The end of my running week which saw the most mileage accrued, brought me to within 1 mile of my highest ever monthly mileage with a week of June still to go and brought me to the point where, all being well this week, I will smash through 100 miles for the month for the first time ever. Bigger challenges no doubt await (my long run this coming Sunday is scheduled to be my longest ever run) but I’m feeling in a good place to tackle them.

Thanks, as always, for reading this guff. I do appreciate it.

PS: GET OUT OF OUR CLUB, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB, YOU FAT COCKNEY BASTARD, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB!!!! You’ll only get that if you know anything about football and NUFC. So long Rafa – thanks for the memories 😭😭😭⚫⚪⚫⚪⚫⚪