Your going where?

Feeling guilty at the lack of training I have done and missing the Wednesday night swim session I decided I was going to do the Saturday morning session. 6:30am and I leapt out of bed. Sarah looked at me as if I was mad and maybe I am! 6:45am and I was in the pool for a good swim session, in the second lane. Ohhhhh, not in the first lane with the ladies then? No, in the second lane, 10 ft away from the edge, ohhhh, I've graduated! Probably only temporary though. SO in the second lane I was with the swimming ladies. The swimming ladies were all ogling the 20 year olds and their 6 packs in the top lane. 'Stand back skinny runt and let us see the young men!'

After swimming with the outside temperature at ohhhhh all of zero degrees, Daniel and I played in the boys vurses dads football match, 50 mins of end to end play, abit like a speedwork session.

Bring on Christmas.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Another Week

The weather turned colder this week and the train service into London took a nose dive. I guess the rain from last week softened the ground up, and then there was a landslide up the line. So no trains to Waterloo all week, ohhh joy. The consequence of this is, Monday getting home was a nightmare. Tuesday I gave up before starting and went home for the day (probably the best idea all week). The rest of the week I got the train into Victoria and walked across London, the good point about this is that I get 60 minutes fast walking per day and in the cold sunny morning its quite pleasant striding past Buckingham Palace and down the Mall.

Training is going good at the moment. Tuesday, 8 mile run, Wed Masters swim session. I got some new toys for my birthday. Swim fins , pull buoy and paddles. Great fun. Fins mean you rocket down the pool, flutter kick on my back is the most restful, even practicing butterfly kick, which is a total first. Felt good with the pull buoy as well, I think I am developing more upper body strength as I am nowhere near as tired after a swim session as I used to be. Phil (swim coach) tells me the paddles are good for developing your stroke, if you get your stroke right you can really feel it, but they also tire you out quicker. Looking forward to playing more with these things. So I lead the lane all evening. The ladies pushed me to the front and followed me. Which means you need to count lengths and remember what strokes/drill your meant to be doing and not hold anyone up. Ohhhh the pressure. But hey, 1 year ago (and not that many swim sessions) I was at the back struggling to keep up and getting short of breathe.

Tuesdays 8 mile run was a Ballbuster curcuit, nice country road, bit of sandy/muddy track running. Ohhhh its good to be alive, ohhh hold on, I should be at work earning some money! Strange running is. I get to about 4 miles and feel like I can't carry on, then do carry on, grunt my way up Boxhill and then get a second wind at the top for a fast run back home. Heartrate was up in the 160's virtually all the way so this was a good session, if I can just do this in March I will be pleased.

Week 2 - A rest week

Ha, rest week. Well I took that one literally. 30 mins on the turbo trainer and an hour in the pool with the kids! Motivation, motivation, where are you? Are you here:

No, are you here:

No, all they want to do is go Skateboarding. How about here:

Well I don't know. But I hope it comes back soon.

Week 1

Week 1

Not a good week then. A couple of sessions on the turbo trainer, a masters swim session and a 8 mile run. The week started bad with a bit of a cold. I thought it wise to give it time to go away, and it seemed like a good excuse. Wednesday was swimming, yeah, enjoyed this session and stayed on in the pool to do another 400 metres after everyone else from the lane had left. I’m still pretty useless at swimming but when I think about the fuss I made in the summer about a 750m swim, I just have to call myself names, what was I on? The idea of 1900m for the New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon (the 2008 goal) is daunting but I’ll do it. Found a bargain wetsuit on Ebay and just couldn’t resist it. An Orca Sonar, retail 180 gbp on Ebay for 99 gbp. An early Christmas present. I hope it not an Ebay scam! Doh, hadn’t thought of that!

I have also rediscovered the turbo trainer. This is probably the easiest thing to do, as it means I can fit it in with my own schedule. So why have I only done 2 sessions? Moving on, Saturday morning I was up and out early to do a Ballbuster circuit. An 8 mile circuit, in the event I will do 5 of these, I did this 1 circuit in 1:05:36 did not feel too bad afterwards and was powered by 1 bagel and 1 energy gel. At some point I am going to need a nutrition strategy for this Ballbuster. I mean it’s got to be as tough as a marathon. I believe that based on 1 circuit in 1:05:36 I can complete this Ballbuster in 3:45, a similar time to my marathon time. So there is my target which I think will put me in the middle of the pack.

The run was good, Ipod in, not too cold, no traffic, felt good, tried to vary my pace and lift my knees. One thing I have found in the past is that my head says to me, take it steady, theres a long way to go, so I don’t speed up, I just plod along. I think cycling has taught me that I can vary my pace, speed up and slow down to recover and I will still be able to make the distance, so I’m going to try and remember this in training and put in some faster stretches.

Roll on week 2

Time for a Plan

I committed to the Ballbuster in March. Filled out the entry form and put it all in an envelope.

Told Sarah and the kids, 'I'm going to do the Ballbuster in March'. 'Ohhh my god', said Daniel, 'your going to die'.

Urghhhhh, gulp, that fills me with confidence! I'll show him the little ......

So my training started, 1 day of manic excel work and I have a plan. Here it is Ballbuster Training Plan and as it always is with my plans, I am falling behind already!

Time for a run

I am entered for the Tadworth 10 in January and figured I should start training at the beginning of Nov. So towards the end of Nov I did my first run. I snatched an opportunity whilst Oliver was playing Rugby. He was away at Worthing and the map showed me I was about a mile from the coast. So off I went, 5½ miles later I reached the coast! Navigation never was my good point. What I thought was heading South was heading East. If I had know the wind was from the South coming straight onshore, I would have known, but I didn’t, and having set myself a goal to run to the coast, I had to reach it before I could turn around. Why? Because I am a man, goal orientated and need to achieve. What a twit! On the way back, instead of backtracking, I thought I would take a different route. Why? I don’t know, what a twit. Thankfully I had my Garmin on. It’s the first time I have used it to navigate. So I did manage to navigate back, although it was a little difficult trying to tell which direction you were heading. So I would run along for about 500 metres before I could see if I was heading in the right direction. A few detours later I managed to get back onto my outbound track and find my way back to Worthing RFC. I thought I was in time to see the second half, but wasn’t.

So my first run in a long time was 12 miles and now I ache a lot.

New Discovery: Legs

At one end of me, I have 2 legs. I know, and they are wonderful things, but at the top end of me is a brain. Brain is not so big and can’t handle the constant barrage of thoughts that happens when I try to swim. High elbow, rotate shoulders, reach, catch, pull, push, S shape, head down, breathe in, breathe out, use your core muscles, holy crap I’m so slow, is that a cramp in my foot, I’ll never be able to swim 1500m, I’ll never be able to swim 1900m, yuck that water does not taste good, follow the bubbles, glide, angle your hand on entry, enter just above your head, aghhhh water up my nose, water in my goggles, I feel tired. Well in all of this my brain appears to have forgotten about Legs. Poor legs. Until last night. Daaaaa daaaaaa, I remembered to kick my legs and did I detect a new gear? It sure felt like a speed improvement. You see I normally kick slowly, the idea being, triathlon swimmers kick slow to conserve energy for the bike/run. Well that’s what I thought I had read, but there is an awful lot of people swimming with a faster leg action than me, going faster than me and swimming further than me, so I figure I can speed it up. Go legs go, welcome to the swimming party.

Boooo hooooo, back to work

October 1st came and went. 1 contract with a large public sector department did not start and another contract came along and started within 4 days. So Thursday I found myself chained to a desk, staring at a computer screen. Ohhhhh, boo hooo, whooa is me, poor me. It's a curse, having to work. It's about time society found a way of keeping me, paying for everything my family needs. I've paid tax, it's about time for some pay back! OK, I'll shut up and get on with it!

Still I did manage to not start work until Thursday. So Monday, swimming, Tuesday, Biking, Wed, swimming. Then Thursday and Friday its commute into London and back so no time for training. I can see its all going to be downhill from here, or time for the turbo trainer (thanks Phil for the reminder). Maybe I should get off at Clapham Junction and run in? There are showers and it is casual wear, there is even somewhere to park your bike securely, but can you really cycle into London? Ummmm running from Clapham Junction, must look it up.

Holiday Continues .......

This could be my last week of leisure. I have a new contract that should start on Monday 1st October, well the weather is cooling down and the sun is fading, so it's about time to do some work. So just a few more days to cram in some more training sessions. This said, Monday was research day. Sarah and I went to see 'Run Fatboy Run', a romcom with some running in it! In the evening I took Oliver for tennis coaching and went to the pool for 1500m swim. Tuesday has been a rest day and I spent it messing about and getting most of my paperwork done. Back to training on Wednesday. Thursday should be a good bike ride with Martin, and I must get some running in. It's all a bit adhoc at the moment, I need to get some structure and a goal together.

Saturday, I ran 4 miles, a couple wth Daniel, across to Headley. Sunday I did 8 miles. A Ballbuster circuit. I felt good and strong after 6 miles, really pleased.

The contract is not starting on Monday. I failed security! Hot new computer system to replace the 20 forms. First question, where were you born? Answer, Brazil. About now, the hot new computer blew a fuse and rejected me. Looks like my security needs to take the manual route! Still more days for more rides! Must see if Martin is around, next week.

I think I got over it

Tuesday

After whinging on, on Monday, I picked up my game on Tuesday. Emailed Martin and arranged to meet him outside Dorking Swimming Centre. A beautiful morning for a ride, (glad I was not stuck behind a computer screen). Out through Brockham, Newdigate, Forest Green, I dunno, placed I have not heard of before. Places where the locals probably can afford to pay you to stay away and not disturb them. I just wish I knew what they did and I could do it too. Think I'll start taking pictures, 'flash houses in Surrey'.
So, 38 miles later I got back home again, yeah an excellent ride, well except for the pothole that when I hit it (concentrating on drafting behind Martin at the time), bent my handlebars down. I expected worse, but a quick allen key and we were off again. No whinging today!

Wednesday
Today is 'triathlon training day', bike, run, swim. A 8.5mile ride around a Ballbuster circuit and a run down to High Ashurst and back (2.3miles). But, I need to whinge again! I got a pain in the small of my back whilst running. Swimming is this evening, Masters swim session. I missed last weeks so need to get back in there and practice, (technique, its all technique, must practice).

That was a tough masters session. The pool was crowded and 1 of the good/excellent swimmers from the next lane came into our slow lane and took us out. I was wasted by the end of the warm up! Then the drills and I was flagging. I guess I managed 1000m, and after an hour there was only 3 of us left in the lane. Honest this woman was like a dolphin. When I watched her kicking drill, it was like a washing machine behind her. I just don't move my legs that fast! Fantastic to see, wish I could watch her technique and learn something.

Thursday

Determined to get a decent run in this week, I don't like it when I think I failed, and yesterdays run left me feeling like I had failed. 12km today, it was more difficult than I expected. I really must get fitter.

Friday

Just a couple of 8 mile Ballbuster curcuits today. Quite pleased about the way I am climbing Boxhill on the bike now. Better than when I started doing it.

Sunday

1500m in the pool. Just going steady and trying to keep the breathing rate down. Managed to get 1500m freestyle done, and I could have done more. I am really encouraged by this as I have not tried doing this before. Think I will do it more often.

Back from Holiday

Not alot going on at the moment, back from holiday and no work so I should be able to get a bit of training done. However, I have been looking for work and taking a long needed go at the garden. It's all left me feeling a little weak, poor thing! I did make it to the running club for the last speedwork session, knackering followed by a bike back up the hill in the dark. Two things came out from that ride. 1, my little LED light does not light up very much, 2, my brain did overtime thinking about beasties in the woods all stalking me as I huffed and puffed my way up the hill. I also got a ride with Phil, after hijacking his commute home which was good, well good for me, afraid I filled him with dread and fear about a Cornish sea swim in May! Still the Gods paid me back with a good bout of food poisoning that night, and I can't say I have been right since.

Monday 17th I tried a run. Did 8km around Boxhill and the heartrate was up into the 165 range, which is way, way, way too high. So I am ill, unfit and a whinger. Must get over it.

View from the Top of the World

Well thats what it feels like when you look down and in the middle of summer you can throw snowballs and need to dress up warm.

But we took the easy route up in the cablecar, unlike the groups who came over the Valley Blanche. Now theres a goal. Got to do some of that walking in crampons, using an ice pick. Awesome as the kids would say.

Which gets me thinking. If we have just spent 2.5 weeks at 1800m or higher, does this count as altitude training? I noticed that I was easily out of breathe after not alot of effort and the experiment with the sealed plastic bottle demonstrated the difference in air pressure very well.

No training ....

France holiday week 1. Returned from Cornwall after vegging out from the Sprint Tri, packed the car and off to the Alps. 1 Espace, 1 roof box, 5 bikes, 3 kids, 1 wife and me. Amazing what you can attach to a car nowadays.

2 days later, much shouting at the kids and we arrived in the Les Get. Straight into the Lake for a bit of open water swim training (200m), a tad cold but OK. Same old problem with swimming though, I need to practice more.

Out with the bikes. Mine is a classy 15 year old £99.00 steel mountain bike with tag along for Sophie. (not a desirable machine) and awful hard to make move. But Sophie likes it, sitting at the back, singing songs.

Next was running at altitude training. So I ran the final incline up to Ranfoilly (400yards at 1800m) and I was 'puffed out'. Was it the mountain Crocs I ran in, or the altitude.

Then down to Lac Leman and I saw a 'Dorking Ten' tee shirt!!! 150m Sprint training after lunch, the running Crocs absolutely helped me beat Oliver over this distance, although he did take off faster than me. Biked around (tagging Sophie, in 1st gear to keep the cadence up, just to make it difficult), then we all jumped into an open air swimming pool. 50m pool and I knocked out 500m, feel good to have done this.

**** I am a Triathlete ****

I am a triathlete. Sunday 8am and I lined up with 153 others in Hayle pool, Cornwall, a locked in tidal pool, 19 degrees C. My strategy was to 1, lurk at the back. 2, don't die. 3, swim in the right direction. Here I am, lurking at the back so that I don't get kicked and staying close to a canoe for safety. The horn went and the swim started. Head down, water not too cold to breathe, stroke, stroke, breathe, stroke, stroke, breathe ......... Hey, I'm still alive, hey this is good. Quick where are the bubbles to follow? Head up, look about, ahhhh, I'm heading in the wrong direction! Quick back on track. Stroke, stroke, breathe ...... Put my head up again. Ummm, everyone seems to be ahead of me! Who is behind me? Whats that, what its all the breast-strokers behind me. Ohhhhh no, I'm swimming with the breast-strokers! I must get in more swim practice. Finally I too had swum 750m. Here I am coming out. Awesome I look like I might know what I'm doing, notice the breast-sroker still in the water behind me.


Onto transition (T1). Run out of the water, undoing wetsuit, (stagger out of water on wobbly legs, fiddling with zip), strip off wetsuit, (how hard can a wetsuit be to take off? Get off my ankles will you, when did someone glue this thing to my ankles?), put helmet on, (who twisted the straps around?), unrake bike, (easy) run out of transition, (owww my feet on the stones), jump on bike, feet in shoes, and cycle. (feet in shoes, go on feet, in you get, why does the shoe not stop turning around? ohhh quick pedal before you fall off, right do up the binding, arghhhh, next time I put the shoes on the feet first.



And I'm off, 20km on the bike, swig the juice and crack on and please, please don't let anyone on a mountain bike overtake me. The bike went quite well, I did overtake a number of people, including 2 people with aerobars. Coming back into Hayle was all down hill, definately would have been good to have aerobars here. This is me coming into T2. Notice feet still in shoes! Thats because I can't get the shoe fastenings undone. Notice 50yds to go before I need to get off. What am I going to do, get my feet out or fall off? I went for the unclip and run in the shoes option. Racked the bike ahead of the woman ahead of me in the picture, then had to take my helmet amd shoes off, and put my trainers on. The woman was off out of T2 before I had my trainers on. Note to self - Elasticated laces, enough said.


Heres me starting the 5km run. The last leg, 5km run, ohhh I've left my garmin on the handlebars, dohhh. How hard can a 5km run be? Well about as hard as the final 5km of a marathon. 'Come on legs, forwards, back, forwards, back. No, no, not round and round, that was the last leg'. Notice in the picture my pre-race strategy of 'no socks', that was a mistake. Within 200 metres I had rubbed a hole in my left ankle.

5km later and I crossed the finish line. I am a triathlete.

Here's the statistics:

Swim (inc T1) 19:48
Bike (inc T2) 43:19
Run 25:09
Total 1:28:18
Place 105 (153 total)

As the song says: 'Things can only get better', and that means swimming more, building some cycling leg muscles and brick sessions.

Return to Winterfold Hill

Conquered!

Yeah, a 21% hill after about 35km. bottom gear and push those pedals down and pull them up. I feel chuffed. Then onwards, last week I failed to get up Winterfold hill and failed to complete the route I set out on. Onwards from Winterfold hill are more hills. Winterfold is the most severe but the others are not easy either. St Martha's Hilll, Coombe Bottom Hill are both tough hills. By the time you get to Dunley hill you could easily loose the will to live, but in comparison Boxhill does not seem so bad.

One more week to go. Aug 5th is my first triathlon. A sprint so there should not be too many problems. But against all advise I have not done an open water swim. I know, I should have done at least one swim and I am now starting to think I have made a mistake. In fact I am worried about actually getting in the water to start with. Cornish water is cold. In the middle of summer it is still cold, even with a wetsuit on, it is cold and I have a reputation for running away from cold water! So I am pretty nervous about actually starting the swim!

Daniel comes for a run

For a couple of weeks now, Daniel has been asking if he can come for a run. Was it me that inspired him, or was it the school athletics day and all his mates running. I believe its his mates, but I might just like to think I helped a little bit.

So we went for a run in a break in the rain. We drove to the Viewpoint carpark and set off from there to a place I call the secret viewpoint. Its just over a mile through the woods and brings you out at another viewpoint looking north and west. Dan and I had a great run there and back. The tracks were wet and squidgey, ohhhh it must be summer! But we did not mind that, we ran and chatted and dodged puddles.

Well done Daniel, 'You ARE a runner'.

Sunday and I decided to follow a 81km route that takes in the major hills in the area. Is this wise? Ummmm, I don't know. Now I have always had a problem with those red triangle signs showing the hill coming up, they mean nothing to me. I couldn't tell you if 10% is steep or not or if 10% is steeper than 20%. I have no clue about them. So today when I saw on the map 21% it meant nothing. Nothing until I tried to cycle up it! Now I know that 21% means your heartrate goes up over 160bpm, that your speed drops to 1 mph, that your legs burn, it means that I have met my match. Winterfold hill. I kept going until I had to stop. I tried to get going again but fell off whilst trying to clip in, so I walked to a flat section, got going and caved again 70m from the top. What a nightmare hill. I continued on with the route until I got to Chilworth, then turned for Albury and the A25 to Dorking and up Boxhill again for 81.5km in total.

Ohhh, yeah .... and I got wolf whistled at! Ha, it was before Winterfold 'the destroyer' hill, made me laugh, must be the 'leotard', I mean cycling gear.

Swim, Bike and Run

Tuesday night I ran 5miles around Boxhill, Wednesday night I did the Masters Swim session and Friday I biked 18miles. Not a bad set for the week.

On Sunday I did the Elmbridge 10km. An great race on a flat course. I had previously done 46:30 here and I did have ambitions of setting a new personal best. But having not kept up my momentum after the London Marathon this was not going to happen. So on Sunday I managed a time of 47:12 I am dissappointed with this time, but 'if you don't put the training in, you don't get the performance'. Looking at my split times, I did the first 5km in 22:52, this was all road and I am happy about this time, don't think I could do 5km any quicker. The second 5km was on the Thames towpath and took 24:23. If I had kept up the training I believe I could have knocked 1 minute off that time.

Looking forwards, I now have 3 weeks until the Hayle Sprint Tri. This will be a new experience for me and I am still scared about the swim. The biking and running should be OK, I have easily done these before, just never swum 750m without stopping before, how long should it take? Time for some internet research.

An improvement

Last week I started to pick things up again. Ran 20km and Swam once. The weekend was taken over by Daniels birthday party, and Thursday was Daniels Athletics Tournament evening. Daniel ran a leg of the relay and helped the team win. He was so excited to be running, he could hardly keep his excitement in, so when he started to run, he exploded away down the track. Well done Daniel. After this event he asked if he could go out running with me sometime. So maybe, just maybe he is 'inspired', theres that word. The one I have been waiting to say. Daniel has asked a few times in the past about going out running, and we have done a couple of 3-5km runs. But I think this Athletics event, being with his friends running and mabe a little of seeing me training has inspired him a little. So we are going out for a run on Saturday.

This week I have run again, 8km Tuesday night. The calves are painful, but I think its getting easier. Not quite upto the 11km circuit yet, but improving.

Saturday we went to the Tour de France Prologue in London. First time I have ever been to something like this. The streets were all blocked off and the cyclings stormed through, amazing. It was quite difficult to see them, being 2 or 3 deep at the railing meant you had a field of vision of about 6 foot, which is about 0.1 of a second for a cycling to go past!

How long is it?

How long is it since I last did a run? That was the question I asked myself as I tried to do a 8 mile circuit on Friday evening, and finding myself run-walking up the zig zag. Ohhhh, no and I have a 10km run on July 15th. I need to get a plan back together becasue its all going horribly wrong at the moment.

Last week was a swim and a run week. Not very good and basically shows you need to have a schedule to follow. Have a goal, a race, an event you want to do and work back from it. Create a plan showing what your going to do each week. Then go do it. Have I done this? No, and thats why I am loosing that endurance and fitness built up earlier in the year.

Work ... It gets in the way of training

The stress continues at work. But it is improving and is at 50% of last weeks level. Whats been going on? Well I develop/implement business 'process' software (SAP Workflow to the techies out there). The piece I have been working on is Invoice Approvals and I have been behind the scene 'pedalling as fast as I can' to minimise the impact of 'issues' (OK bugs) on the business and to ensure invoices are approved and paid.



How did it happen? Testing, (reminder to self) test, test, and test again. Then get lots of others to test, because other people do things.

Back to training. This week I managed to go swimming. I have a 750m open water swim to do in August. It's filling me with dread and fear as I end a 100m puffing and panting and thankful for the end of the pool. How do you get to be a swimming superhero?

Training abandoned .....

due to overwhelming work commitments.

This last week I had some developments goto production and had to handhold it. So I have been working long hours and been under stress. Normal play will be resumed as soon as things settle down.

It is fun ..... Really

What a saga. It starts on Friday on my way to work when the car timing belt broke. Then a power cut and a computer remote connection that did not work. All this meant I had to go into the office in Sunbury on Saturday morning. So thats a 16.5 mile ride there, a load of stress and a 23.5 mile ride home via Dorking to get a haircut. All added up to 40 miles. Yep, and it ended with a climb up Boxhill again. Sometimes living on top of a hill is bad news.

Tomorrow I will be marshalling at the Dorking 10. That will be at least 4 miles running, ohhh and yes 2 miles back up that hill again.

Still, Sarah has managed to buy a new car, it's just in Cornwall, so that will be next weekends cycle ride then!

Swimming

I did nothing this week, except for Wednesday swimming. Monday Sarah was off out, Tuesday I was feeling too good, Thursday Oliver left his bag on the bus and lost it! Swimming was good though. I still lag behind everyone else, and still can't imagine doing 1500m non stop. How do I deal with going from 6 days a week running to 1 day a week swimming? Well I tell myself this is a rest week. Next week I am 'home alone' and intend to do something every night, so I see this week as a recovery week.

I found a triathlon to do this week. The Hayle Sprint Tri, August 5th http://www.hayletri.co.uk/sprint.html The swim is 750m open water and is filling me with dread and fear

Owwww, my sore butt

I became a cyclist this weekend, clocking up a 46mile ride. Not bad for my first proper ride. It was a DMVAC club ride, but there was only 3 of us. Martin, 2 times Ironman, fitness instructor and club triathlon chief. Then there was Robin DMVAC club Secretary, super fast runner, recently back from a triathlon training camp and super fast cyclist. Finally me, first serious ride, bowl of porridge, bottle of High Five 4:1 mix with added Hornet Juice. Get the picture? I'm out of my class!

Getting to Dorking SC was easy enough, its downhill for 4 miles. Met the guys and we were off out of Dorking, chatting about cycling I had not done, my new bike and marathons I had.

We set off to Shere, then onto Cranleigh, and back south of Leigh hill, through Newdigate and Brockham, before I had to climb Boxhill again. We passed through some amazing villages that I knew nothing about and all the time kept up a good pace. I did my best to keep up. The hills were hardest and I quickly got dropped. But they would slow and I would catch up again.

It's incredible how quickly the miles tick off on a bike and after about 30 miles the guys told me they were impressed by my endurance, and I was really impressed with myself. I would not thought it possible to cycle this distance.

It was 10:49 and we were still far from anywhere. I needed to be home by 11:30 and still had to climb Boxhill. By 11:10 we were back in Dorking, Martin said he was going around again, and I set off to conquer the hill.

Didn't quite conquer the hill, everyone overtook me, if I stood to pedal my muscles burned, and sitting was now uncomfortable as I was not taking any weight off my butt. 11:30 and I made it home, arghhhhhh, collapsed on the floor for all of 5 minutes before taking Oliver to his Football Tournament. Life still goes on, sore butt or not.



I think I realised something this week. I realised that if you want to push yourself you have to train with a club or others.

Swimming, I would never be able to swim the distance I do on a Wednesday night if it was not for doing it with the Dorking SC Masters Swim session. Running, there is no way I would give myself the beasting around the running track that I did on Thursday and Cycling, I would never have thought I could have done 46miles, if were not for Robin and Martin on Sunday, I would have gone home much earlier.

What training alone is good for, is, building endurance and maybe training with others is not so good for endurance as you always end up pushing yourself harder than you would on your own and that means you will tend to miss sessions.

Return to Iron Horse

This week I returned to the bike to start some proper cycling not the sweaty turbo trainer but the open road. Early Sunday I was off, just over an hour at an average of 16.7mph. I am Lance(not)! But it felt great, the difference to running is that you cover so much ground so much quicker. Can't wait to get back on it and out again.

One of the podcasts I listen to recently started to talk about Hornet Juice. This is an Amino acid concoction that apparently helps your body convert body fat into energy instead of using carbs. So helps with endurance. I sent off for a few packets to try. If the podcast (Zen and the Art of Triathlon) is right, I will be blistering along for hours. (Watch this space).

Need to find a local Sprint tri to do. There are some that do the swim in the swimming pool so that looks like a good place to start and the 400m swim I have a good chance of being able to do.

Marathon Casualties

This post is dedicated to ‘Johnny Second Toe’ of Left platoon. Johnny is a dedicated soldier, nothing was too much for Johnny and he showed great courage in battle. It was in battle that Johnny Second Toe gave everything, not complaining or slacking when Johnny sustained a terrible injury. Blisters a common injury sustained in battle claims many toes and heels, and Johnny was hit by a blister. The blister was dealt with immediately after the battle by the surgical fingers unit that joined Foot brigade on April 22nd. But quick intervention could not prevent Johnny Second Toe from loosing his armour and on May 5th Johnny succumbed and lost his nail. We wish Johnny Second Toe a speedy recovery and will be thinking of him.

Also injured was ‘Charlie Third Toe’ of Right platoon. Charlie’s injuries are not as severe as Johnnie’s, but look worse. Charlie, a committed toe who would always stand up with his mates is considered to be a great team player. He has black nail but is expected to recover. However latest news just back from the front line is that poor Charlie has lost his armour as well. Our thoughts are with his family.

Swim Bike Run

I returned to focus on triathlon training this week. Thats the 3 sports, swimming, cycling and running. I started by cycling to the running club on Monday and Masters swim session on Wednesday.

Mondays bike down the hill was great. The first puncture was not so great. Still plenty of experience and help at the running club. So after the 7 mile run, I started to replace the inner tube, only to knick the spare tube and puncture that one as well! 'Sarah, darling wife, whom I love the most, will you come down in the car and rescue me?'

Still I need the practice at puncture repairing. 2 inner tubes later and Oliver offered to help. 'Daddy, why don't your puncture repair patches work?'
'I don't know Oliver'.
'Why don't you use sellotape?' So heres my first ever puncture repair

'Sarah, darling wife, whom I love the most, will you goto the bike shop tomorrow for me?' 2 new inner tubes later and I got the wheel back on the bike. Thought I would spin it around, theres a awful flat spot where the tyre is sitting properly. Back off, back on, pump up, let down, repeat several times. Look for talcum powder (who uses the stuff? Not us). Use Pledge, pump up again, keep on pumping, keep on pumping, keep on pumping, keep on pumping. Thats about 160lbs/in pressure, spin the wheel. Ahh no flat spot. Ohhh joy. Now I can go swimming.

Not been swimming recently so I totally floundered along again at the back of the slow lane. I am not a dolphin. I am one of those strange shaped bottom feeders. 1500m is so totally out of the question. If is was not for the end of the pool every 25m I would be in trouble. Still all the ladies in the slow lane (these ladies are all swimming off ahead of me, leaving me in their wake), are impressed that I ran a marathon! I'm impressed at their ability to swim and breathe.

My 'thank you' to everyone

So many people have congratulated me or wanted to know how I did, that I must say "thank you" to everyone for your wishes. I am surprised that anyone should 'give a hoot' about how I did really, but so many people have emailed me, phoned me or asked how I did. It's great. I feel like a superstar athlete!! Only I really do know that I am lightyears away from being one.

Time to move on and attack that Triathlon goal.

FLM Garmin Stats

It's a 'man thing', everyone needs a gadget and mine is a Garmin 301 to collect statistics for my runs. Here are the statistics from Sunday. The things I see are, I was on track for 3:30 for the first half but then I slow down in the second half. My heartrate slows in the second half as well. If I could just keep it going, ummm, maybe next time!!!

The Flora London Marathon 2007

Preparation is everything. I had prepared my bag of things to take, I had checked train times, I even prepared my porridge oats the night before. What I did not prepare for was car parking and train tickets. So at 7am after following the worlds slowest driver into Epsom, I zoomed into the NCP carpark opposite Epsom train station, only to zoom back out again minutes later when I saw the £20.00 parking charge. Over to the Ashley Centre, ticket, park, 1/4 mile run around the block across Epsom to the Train Station, Queue up for ticket machine. Why is everyone taking an age to get a ticket? Choose a ticket, pay. Can't pay, machine doesn't take money, arghhhhh, jump over to other machine, get ticket and a pocket full of pound coins. Run for the platform, up the stairs. Wrong platform, back down, up the other stairs. At last, on the train. The train is full of marathoners, its more packed than a normal commuter train, but not as nearly as packed as the Waterloo to Blackheath train!

The Blue starters village is massive, so many toilets, such long queues, everyone milling about last preparations, vaseline, talc, body glide. Gulping down lucozade or water. Stretching, not alot of jogging around going on. Tannoy booming and time passing too quickly. I got my timing chip taped on properly, met and lost Graham (DMVAC runner) and joined Pen 4.

Pen 4 is for people who think they will complete the run in 3:30, my target time. Its a stretch of road fenced off with builders temporary mesh fencing. Now I don't know much about 'pen etiquette', but I would have thought that a line of men weeing through the fence was unusual, maybe 'continental', certainly 'alfresco' and a great laugh for the spectators the other side of the fencing as all they could see was a line of willies! I had to join them I am afraid to say. Then worried I was going to get held back I ran forward to catch up with the pen 4 people, but I went too far and looking around I saw pen 2 people. So I found myself going over the start line about 30 seconds after the leaders.

The whole run was crowded, but I always had enough space to run, the occasional 'on your left' helped and care at drinks stations was needed. In the first few miles my mouth was dry and I was getting hot. When the first drinks station came I took the bottle, swigged a gulp and poured the rest over my head. The effect was immediate and I felt cooler. I continued to do this for the whole course, the downside was that my trainers filled up with water but I was cooled. Later on I remembered Andy Fays advice and poured water on the backs of my legs to help the cramping I felt.

After a few miles I was not feeling too good. My head was saying, 'your not going to make it' and 'what excuse could I have for stopping?' Somewhere around 10 miles this changed, I was feeling OK, and my head had stopped thinking of excuses. The crowds were amazing, it was like a wall of clapping and cheering and 'come on Andy shouts'. I looked around and saw someone with Andy on his vest.

Tower Bridge came along and I looked around the sea of faces for my brother but could not see him. A mile later I heard, 'Come on Dorking', looked over to see a familiar face cheering. It's great to hear a cheer like that, I heard the same cheer at least 4 times around the course. A big thank you to all of you that came out and cheered.

Around 14 miles I saw elite women coming back and then the elite men with the timing car out front. A cheer went up for them as they cruised past. We still had to go around the Isle of Dogs! When I came back along that road I sure did not look so good. By this time I had started to feel cramping in my legs, nothing lasting, nothing to stop me, just a quick tight feeling in my leg muscles.

30km came along and then 35km. Now I was reaching the same distance as my longest training runs. This was the time that my legs felt the pain, my hips hurt and my feet felt heavy. Just a few more miles to go. I had used the last of my energy gels and just needed to keep going. Somewhere along here I expected to see Sarah, Oliver and Daniel. I kept listening out and looking into the crowd but did not see them. The 25 mile marker went past and it was now the final mile and some shade as I ran along Birdcage Walk. Round the corner and another cramp. 'Legs don't fail me now'. 200 yards to go, the finish in sight. I had made it, the clock clicked past 3:44 and I sped up to make it before 3:45. There was Sarah and the kids. It was so great to see them, great to share this moment.

What's it all about?

It was all about wanting to finish in 3:30, a medal, aching legs, loosing the ability to 'do' stairs and leaving my mark.

Check out the results:

http://live.london-marathon.co.uk/2007/

Flora London Marathon 2007 Results
Name MR CURTIS, ANDREW B (GBR)
Runner No.: 24579 Club Dorking & Mole Valley

10 km 0:49:11
20 km 1:41:31
half 1:47:15
30 km 2:36:06
40 km 3:32:10
finish 3:43:46



Position (overall) 5832
Position (gender) 5015 out of 24814
Position (age group) 681 out of 3966
Finish time 3:43:46


You have to see this: http://www.realbuzz.com/en-gb/Your_pictures_and_videos/index?pageID=3174&ht_do=view&id=130

Runners Number

Here it is. Dah dahhhhhh. Months of training, a morning at Excel in London to pick it up from the FLM Expo and here it is. My Runners Number. Number 24579, Blue start, pen 4. Next stop Greenwich. The small round thing in the top left is the Championchip that will be laced into my shoe and provide me with my marathon time.

But whats that in the bottom right? It's from the goodie bag and what does that say, 'for breast feeding mothers'? Is there something about marathon running I don't know? Maybe its time to tell you the 'Marathon Runners Secret'.

The Marathon Runners Secret
One of the consequences of running for a longtime is chafing and I know from a previous marathon that the parts on me that chafe are my nipples. I discovered this when I got in the shower after the New Forest Marathon. 'Ohhhhhh', I said, 'thats strange, my nipples feel like they have been worn right off'! So I took a look, and hey, they had been. So to take care of my newly recovered nipples, I will treat them and use the FLM goodie bag item.


3 days to go. Am I nervous? Yep, too right I am. I'm as ready as I could be, but is that ready enough? Probably, but my stomache is churning and all my thoughts are about Sunday.

The State of the Toes Address to the Nation

My Fellow Runners, Americans & Human Beings .....

For those that have suffered my boring 'goings on', I frequently tell people about my toes. Well one particular toe actually. My left big toe. It's a beasty and I do not like it. It's somehow, maybe injury, I don't know, but its gone and got itself Arthritis and basically doesn't bend. It bugs me a lot and it is very tender, so if anyone knocks it, I cry like a baby. But the other toes have been given a bit of a battering recently with the long runs over the tracks of Boxhill and are beginning to form a 'toe union', joined by their common suffering. A couple of toes on the right have 'gone to join the dark side'. They went like this last September after the New Forest marathon and never really got back to normal.

So on Sunday I will be rubbing Pain relief gel into the my big toe joint and will do battle with the toes. I will pound them, I will stub them and I will expect them to do their best.

'Toes, failure is not an option, you will not complain, you will not let me down. Remember, pain is only temporary'.

Training Update

Its time to taper, and I have wholeheartedly committed myself to tapering. 8km on Tuesday and 10km on Thursday. But the 10km on Thursday was with the club and with a group, not having run in a group for sometime now it was good to do it again. I felt good, not tired, and ran faster than I would on my own. Did intend to run on the weekend but did not do that either. Well I did run around a Lake in flipflops looking for the kids who were late for a tennis lesson!

Back in December I blogged. 'Yippee', 'I've got a London Marathon entry'. Today I will blog, 'yippee ..... the training is over!' The last long run is done. The last 22miler was last weekend and I thought that was it, but this week was a 15 miler. Thats a 2:10 run not a 3:10 run, but still not a short distance. So again I procrastinated until the last minute and then did the run. This is me at the end of it. See the 'yippee' in me? See the joy of having done a long run? No? Nah, nor do I. All I see is relief that these long runs are over. Its not all been like that though. I did look forward to the long runs early on in the training. But after 2 20 milers and 2 22 milers, I now feel relieved its over. Next long run is London in 2 weeks. Why blog this? So that when I read these posts after I have signed up to another marathon I will be reminded of the amount of willpower, the amount of motivation that I need, just to do the training. They say the training is the hardest part and right now I hope it is.

2 weeks to go then. 2 weeks to fend off the viruses and illnesses that all around me have. 2 weeks to think positive and build up energy for the day.

Bring it on !

Bike shoe or Running shoe?

According to the plan this week ends with a 22 mile run. The last long run before the event. Hooray! Sometimes I have looked forward to one of these long runs, but right now, I will be glad when this one is over and done.

As for the shorter mid week runs. Well they have turned into sessions on the bike in the garage. Bit of a beasty piece of work to do at the moment and then lots of picking Oliver or Daniel up from footy or friends to be done. So by the time I am free to do anything its 9pm and time to plug the Ipod in, goto the utility and decide on a shoe. Bike or running shoe? Bike has been winning each night this week.

Must say thanks to Jill Feenan this week. Out of the blue, Jill sent be a photo of me at University in my orienteering gear. Ahhhhhhh, it really should be destroyed, but just to show I have no ego here it is. The boys asked, 'Daddy, why has your mobile phone got such a big aerial?' (boys, mobiles were not invented when this picture was taken) and 'how could you have hair like that?', whilst Sarah asked, 'how did we ever get married'. I just want to know, what the heck am I wearing? Is it early wicking material or just plain nylon? Either way the static charge could probably power the giant phone.

Well look at that. I just read one of my first posts. I had a BPM in the 150-160 range. Today that BPM is in the 140's Cool and a good use for a Blog. Things have been getting better.

This week has ended with a 22 mile run. Thank God I don't have to do another one of those before the event. Theres no 2 ways about it, they are hard. Towards the end your body is screaming, 'STOP', and your head shouts, 'Why are you doing this', how you continue I don't know. This 22 mile ended at the bottom of Boxill, so I still had a 2 mile hike up the hill and back home. I guess its good to walk off all that lactate built up in your muscles!

Phil, if that was you on the A24 on that cool looking bike? Nice bike, nice shades, and we must go for a training ride after I recover from this marathon.

The wheels have fallen off

I have reached that point in my training where the wheels fall off. Last Saturday I did the 22 mile long run and that was the last run I did. I have done a grand total of zero, nada, null, none, no miles this week. So what happened? Well Sunday I was tired out after Satudays long run. Monday was a day off anyway. Tuesday I thought of some excuse and went to see Sophies school teacher. Wednesday I thought I would cycle in the garage, but thought of another excuse, last evening before Pat and Wendy go home. Thursday I had a long hard day at work then watched Casino Royale on DVD. Daniel Craig? Sarah tells me he's a hunk, well he is! Friday, well I wimped out again. The weather has been cold and wintery and it's just so much easier to believe your not feeling well, or that your toes have problems. Anything to stop you getting up and out the door will do. It's pathetic, I am in my forties and creating excuses like a school boy not wanting to goto school, and the daft thing is, once your out and going, it can be 4 degrees and windy but you won't be cold.

Sarah is so much better now than she has been. She is definately now on the road to recovery and Pat and Wendy have gone back to Cornwall for a well earned rest. They have both been fantastic and if it was not for them I would not have done any training in the last month and not been able to do the work things I needed to do this week. Thank you Pat and Wendy.

So, back to business, got to get the motivation back and run. The marathon is only a month away, 1 more hard week then tapering starts. Got to get through the next week and then it will get easier, until the day that is!

Yeeeha. I got out the door. Saturday and 25km done, it was 4 degrees, but I was not cold. New trainers so the feet felt like they were in a pair of slippers. All the excuses proved wrong. Sometimes just getting out the door is the hardest part of a run.

Morning Runs

Sarah has been recovering this week, and what a lovely week it has been. Temperature in the teens, the sun has been out. Just the week you need to paint the window frames. This is exactly what Pat has been doing for us. Thank you Pat. A job I have been putting off for 3 or 4 years and Pat has done it for me this week. Thank you. I have been couped up in air conditioned offices all week trying to meet tight deadlines. But I have managed to get my mid week runs in at 6am each morning. It's not so difficult to get out there and run 10km at 6am when the sun is out and it's warm.

The tale of woe continues in the Curtis household though. Oliver has been off school all week with a virus, Daniel caught it midweek and has been off as well. Then Sarah got it and Pat has got something as well. I can't believe it, Sarah must just be thinking the world has got it in for her and Pat is convinced he should not come out of Cornwall again! Maybe this is the reason people goto/use to goto a convalescent home.

The weekend bought me to the longest long run of the training plan. A 22 mile epic. I can't say I looked forward to this run. In fact I have been dreading it! The weather forecast said, fine on Sat. Wintery on Sun. So Saturday morning I was up at 6am, porridge, prepare the backpack, energy gels, energy drink, mobile phone and by 7am I was out the door. 3hr 8mins and 35.25km later I arrived at Brockham playing fields just in time to see Oliver play the 2nd half of his football match and get a lift back up the hill with Pat. My garmin tells me I burn 2309calories on this run, and I was 8mins faster than the last time I did a 22mile training run in Sept 2006. So I feel good and recovery has not been too bad. Still have another 22miler to look forward to ..... not!

Llamas on Boxhill

Training must be tough, I have started hallucinating. There I was trying to do a mid week run down the track to High Ashurst and I saw 2 llamas. Now I am use to seeing long horn cattle, black sheep, green woodpeckers and the normal animals like foxes, deer, dogs, horses even badgers. But until now I have never seen llama.

Sarah has not had a good week, this week. It started with her feeling terrible, so I tried to help and do my bit by taking the kids to school, then getting home from work and getting them off to bed to give Sarah a break and a rest. Then on Thursday she went into hospital for a gallbladder operation. Better out than in when it causes you so much pain. So its gone, but thats not the end of the story! She still needs to recover and still needs another ERCP sometime to remove the stents put in, in the first ERCP.

So this week I missed Running club night. I have run twice so far and biked 1 night. I need to get back into the swing of more runs. I have managed to pick it up abit this weekend. John and I did the Wimbledon 10km. A lovely day for a run, sunny and warm, what a change from the recent weather. I then did 13km around the usual loop from the house, didn't quite have the motivation to continue on to do a longer run.

Back to the plan next week though and no excuses. Sarah is home again, drinking and eating, which is great to see as she has not done much eating and has only been drinking water/lemon/sugar for what seems like ages. Granny and grandpa are coming up for a week to help out, so I am oping to get some training runs done and to get back on plan.

The plan calls for the longest long run to date. 35.2km ohhhhh, thats going to take sometime!!

Iron Horse

The first step in getting to run a marathon is to stick a training plan on the fridge door. The next step is to stay motivated and follow the plan. The third factor is to find a way of fitting the training in with all the other things in your life. My way to do this is to be flexible and when the plan says 9.6km run, then 50mins on the Iron Horse will do just the same. So on Tuesday this weeks training moved from the street to the garage and 50 mins on Iron Horse. On Wednesday a last minute rescheduling meant I found myself on Iron Horse in the garage for 50mins again. Thursday night I actually ran. DMVAC Club night, and a 7 mile tour of the hills of Dorking. Friday night was washed out by rain and a glass of wine. Saturday was meant to be a 32km long run. But Sarah is having a really bad day with the gallstone problem again. The long run was abandoned and the training ground moved from the garage to the kitchen sink. I always said 1hr in the kitchen is worth 2hrs running! Still tomorrow is Sunday and hopefully Sarah will be feeling better, then I can get my long run done. Overall for the week my total distance will be down, but at least I will have done the long run. Sunday was forecast to be rain but I got out early and managed a largely dry 32km. The final 6km were wet though! So, yee haa, I got the long run done. A statistic from this run is that I burned 1944 calories. I earned the chocolate pud today. Sarah is really unwell today, its as if she has another gallstone stuck. She really does not want this. So, after a 20 mile run I was on children duty. Which brings me to, todays advise. Do a marathon, triathlon, whatever before you have kids. One, because your body is more able to take the training, and two, you really do have more time in a day when your younger.

A Hard Easy Week!

Another challenging week. It was meant to be a recovery week with less km's than last week. I have also substituted runs with sessions on the bike in the garage. So Monday was actually 50mins on the turbo trainer and Friday was a Run/Bike session. The best for the week was Thursday nights Club Handicap run (see DMVAC link). The handicap race is a 5.5km, 2 loop run through Dorking/Pixham. Last month, having never done it before I had a really good handicap and came in 2nd. This week my handicap had another minute added on and I came in 5th. 5.5km in 22:55 With a time like that I could not stop extrapolating from it get to a 10km time of 42mins. Thats 4 mins faster than I have actually achieved. If only I could do it for real!

This week ends long run was 15 miles, it should have been easy compared to the 32km last week or next week. But, I don't know if its the Thursday night session or the cycling, it sure did not feel easy, and I was glad to get it over with.

As hard as it gets (part 2)

Back in December when I said, 'As Hard as it gets', I never imagined a week like this. It all started on Monday, Sarah was due to go into hospital for a gallbladder operation. Instead she went into Casualty and was admitted for gallstones in the bile duct. What this means is Sarah was the same colour as Homer Simpson and feeling terrible. She has spent the last week in St Helier hospital waiting for an ERCP which I am more than glad to say she had done on Thursday, but wished could have been done earlier.

The kids are on half term this week, so I drove them half way to Cornwall on Sunday and swapped 3 children for 1 mother-in-law (fair trade?). Then this week was the first week of my new work contract and I also had to fit in 80km of training. So the schedule this week has been, up at 7am, run 8km to 12.8km, home, shower, breakfast, hospital, work, home, hospital, home, phone, bed, sleep .......... Thank God for having my mother-in-law to stay, or I would not have eaten and would not have had the energy to this weeks running.

Saturday was my long run and not having done a long run for the last 2 weekends I was keen to get one done. The plan called for a 32km (20 mile) run and thats what I managed to do. Don't feel too bad for it either. My knees are not too sore, energy levels were good whilst I ran and another week of the plan is ticked off. The first of a series of 80km weeks. Long runs are not easy to find time for and recovery time is equally hard to get when shopping needs to be done.

Sunday I drove half way to Cornwall again to pick the kids up and my sister-in-law and my niece and we have all come back to Surrey for the next week. After this I did the final run of the week, a short 8km run. The heart rate monitor showed high readings, but the run did not feel that difficult. Maybe a lack of glycogen I don't know, it was all a bit strange.

So back in December when I said it was 'as hard as it gets', I had no idea that the hardest week was yet to come, and it was not going to be made hard by the weather but by general life things that training needs to be fitted around.

Roll on next week.