Gardening vs training

I respect gardeners. In my opinion, gardening is harder than swimming, biking or running. I know because I spent 4 hours cutting the tops off some beeches. With the job half done I was, dehydrated, lacked any energy, felt cold and ached all over. Honest it's worse than a marathon. So next time that mild mannered retired gentleman looks over the fence with pruning shears in hand, give him some respect because gardening is right up there with endurance sports.

Today I thought I had better put in some training. I have not done anything all week and feel bad for it. Not got on the turbo trainer or anything, now what sort of base training is that? Rubbish base training thats what. So today I started by swimming. 2000m in Dorking swimming pool, then when the rain stopped off for a 8 mile run. I even met another runner today. The Ballbuster is next weekend and so there are people running and biking the course. Now I feel better, well mentally anyway and I have put in some training 'so you don't have to'.

Finally, a huge thank you to Merk, Gianpaul and 'that fat northern bloke' for sponsoring me this week, I have sent CD's in the post. Ha ha ha, you may not want them but I have a load of them taking up room. No honest they really are crap CD's, you won't be disappointed!

It begins with a Base

Training
In the beginning you need to build a base, in running terms thats base miles. It's like the foundations of a building. Build good foundations and your building will stay up. In running you need to do base miles (lots of slow miles) to be able to run the whole marathon.

All these base miles build mitochondria. Why are mitochondria important? Because they transport Lactate acid away. Whats Lactate Acid? It's bad stuff, it's makes your muscles hurt and it makes you want to stop moving. Nasty, nasty stuff but unfortunately it's a by-product of running.

I have a training plan that will get me to being able to run the marathon that starts in December, until then I will be building base. To do this I will bike and run with my eye on my heartrate. I will also swim as that helps your core and thats got to be good to help keep your body on top of those running legs.

Fundraising
And were off, thank you Paul Deba. A crap CD is on the way to you, I hope it lives up to expectations!

An opportunity to do good

Having been lucky enough to get a ballot entry, I am going to run the Flora London Marathon for charity and will be running to raise money for Cancer Research.

Think of this as an opportunity.

This is an opportunity for you to sponsor me. To read about me doing the training miles, to follow my journey from now until April 26th 2009, when you can feel good about taking your place on the couch holding onto the TV remote control to watch me and 33,999 of my closest friends pound the streets of London.


From now until April 26th 2009 I will be blogging about my training, my Marathon event and how I feel afterwards, ohhhh and giving you new and exciting opportunities to sponsor me! So sit back bookmark this blog and 'feel my pain'.


Heres your first incentive. The first 10 donations each get a crap CD. It's easy, see the JustGiving widget on the righthandside? The widget is your friend, get to know it. Click the Donate button. Go on, give it a go, (click here if it's too difficult). It does not matter how much you donate, I'll be extremely grateful for any amount, and you will get a free crap CD. Donate 5 times and I'll give you 5 crap CD's.

Daniel, you ARE worthy ........

Well done Daniel. Last week he played fantastically at football. His team won 14-0 and he did not stop for the whole match running up and down the wing. He was like a boy on fire, must have been the hot chocolate I got him in Dorking before the match. He was named 'man of the match', and presented with the trophy.

What a trophy, well done Dan.

Then this morning he told me that at school they did a long run around the vineyard next to the school and he came in seventh. Go dood, thats a terrific result. In all the running I have done I have never got anywhere near that good a position. Are we looking at the turning point? Is this the base from which Daniel launches himself on a quest to be an Ironman? Is he now worthy? Go Daniel, imagine the day when you cross the finish line and hear those words I would love to hear ...... 'Daniel Curtis, you ARE an Ironman'.

Look what came through my letterbox

Just as I was wandering what to do next, there it was laying on the hall floor. Ohhhhhh, I said. Ohhhhhh I keep on saying, ohhhhhhh, because I didn't really expect it to happen. Time to dust off that old marathon training plan again. Time to get out on those tracks with the autumn/winter sun shining through the leaves.

ohhhhhhh ...............

Post New Forest MD Triathlon

Did I say, 'I could not have gone any further', a couple of Sundays ago?  'did I really have problems walking properly on the following Monday?  I can't remember any of that.  All I recall is having a good time and sitting here now thinking when can I do another?  Guess I'll have to wait until next year.  Hold on, 'wait'?  No I mean 'train' until next year. I feel a yearning to run tracks again, ipod in, camelback on and a crisp, sunny day.

 

Last night I returned to the swimming pool.  I hopped into lane 2 and started the warm up, but the leader was powering along too fast for me.  So instead of having to swim (flawl around) as fast as I could to try and keep from being lapped and getting on everyones wick, I hopped out and into lane 1 again.  It's so much more relaxed in lane 1 and I led the group for the hour.  What do I need to do to keep up with the lane 2 people?  Whats the missing ingredient?  Maybe it's strength? After all I am Mr Puniverse, maybe it's the size of my hands.  Probably not, probably more to do with technique. 

 

I bought myself a present.  I now have a pair of aerobars.  The hope is that if I use aerobars I won't get the backache on the run.  Nice theory, lets see what happens in practice.  So now I am watching 'You Tube' videos to find out how to position them.