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I’ve not been blogging apart from to note my running. Thought I’d catch up in general. Wendy has just brought it up, about my boat. I’ve not been to the club in ages as it’s the middle of winter and freezing. My last outing was when I turned turtle and found my mast embedded in the lake bed and was contemplating possibly dying trying to swim to shore. I’ll not lie, that has taken a bit of the shine off. Then Wendy has said it took her mate years to learn how to sail. Huh. I thought the few lessons would suffice with a bit of practice. I’ve not given up on it yet. When it warms up I want to get back to it. I’ll see how I get on. The other thing that’s not about running is my cheapo ‘phone. I like the long battery, but it is just too cheapo. I’ve had to change my home screen picture because the screen can’t do black convincingly, and the camera is awful. I mean seriously bad. I can’t be doing with that. I’ve been trying to buy a second hand one on Gumtree. Luckily in my searching I came across a few adverts saying it was the fake ‘phone. Huh? I googled a video on Youtube and they are the spit. They arrive in sealed boxes, with all the Samsung branding, and fake barcodes and such. The guy opened the box, the ‘phone looks exactly the same, open the home screen all the same settings inside. It is a brilliant copy. Then you try to use the 4 cameras and only one of them works, and it’s terrible. You go to other features that are in the ‘phones menu, like on the real one, and they just aren’t there. The genuine, top of the range model, with 100x zoom camera and all the bells and whistles, sells for over £1000! Over a grand! Incredible. Which is why I was looking at second hand. I asked the people selling the four cheapest (still £400 or so) if all the cameras worked, as I’d want to test them. (The cast iron fake-detecting test.) No reply. The adverts are still up, so they’ve not sold them, so they must be fakes. How gutted would you be to spend £400 -£500 for a worthless bit of crap? So glad I watched the video. You would never know to look at them, and you see the perfect replica box, you just wouldn’t suspect. In the end I’ve plumped for a lesser spec, but brand new, ‘phone, off Amazon. It’s the same price bracket, £419, but it’s got good reviews and I know I’m not just throwing money away on a scam. Wendy said I should just get the model we had, an earlier Samsung, but still with a great camera. As they are quite old (in ‘phone terms) now, they don’t make them anymore, and a reconditioned one was £350! Which I thought was […]

I might as well stick all my boring running posts into dedicated blogs. These are only of interest to me, and will be a good record of my attempt. My New Years’ Resolution is to run a marathon in under 3 hours. I started off from two months of no running, resting a foot injury. I saw the physio on the 13th of December, he said it was a trapped/ injured nerve in my left knee (probably from slamming into that van sideways on my motorbike, 2 years ago). He gave me some stretches to free it up and told me to crack on. I was highly sceptical, after 2 years of done-in foot and intermittent training, that a stretch was going to sort it, but what do I know? It seemed to free it right up. The top of my foot still gets sore, but I’ve got full mobility. 2 days after seeing the physio I was back running. And my foot held up. I spent two weeks gradually building a base then thought “what the hell?” and started on the Advanced Marathoning training plan. It turns out, as usual I was being ridiculously optimistic in my self belief. I unquestioningly thought I’d pick up at the peak of where I left off, being able to run a 3.30 marathon. Ha! So no. I’d built up to 8 mile, zone 2 (very slow) runs before I started the plan. My first “general aerobic” (pushing a little bit, but slower than other runs) which I arbitrarily set at 8.30 m/m, was 4 days into the first week. It was a 9 mile run. It nearly killed me. That pace, for those miles, took everything I had. The medium long run at the end of the first week was 12 miles at target marathon pace plus 10 – 20%. For a sub 3 (6.50 m/m) that is 7.31 – 8.12. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to do the distance, that was upping my miles from the previous week by 50%. And a lot faster. I just couldn’t hold it at the end, it was too far and too fast, too soon, but I averaged at 8.15 m/m. It was a start and I was close enough to work in the parameters of the plan and wait for my fitness to catch up. 4 days later I accidentally ran 10 miles at 7.53m/m. Caught up. Game on. I think that was part of the problem for my medium long run a few days later. I’d run the 10 miles general aerobic thinking it was target pace+, so had nothing left for the longer run. I wanted sub 8 but did 13.1 miles at 8.07m/m. Not what I wanted but within the 8.12 outer limit. I was getting discouraged as all my runs were flat out and killing me and I wasn’t anywhere near the 6.50 m/m mark. Then I realised the plan is to get you there. If you could […]

Further to my latest boring running blog. I was saying how hard it is, but at least my foot is holding up and I’ve not had any plague weakness, so I am good to train and make up the lost fitness. Then yesterday at work I came over all weak and useless. I really thought it was the plague weakness/ Post Viral Fatigue. I was gutted. They say you have to train within the envelope of what you can do, and slowly push the boundaries. Doubling my miles in a week, whilst going faster, sounded like a perfect example of going outside of the envelope. I was devastated. That is the end of my sub 3 attempt for an indefinite period. I had some food and it did seem to go off a lot, but by then you are looking for the symptoms. I’m sweaty: plague weakness, no concentration: plague weakness, weak: plague weakness. I got home and did a covid test. That was clear. Today I had an 8 mile run planned, with 10x 100m sprints. I set my alarm and got dressed, but I was expecting to call it off half a mile in. Nope, I was fine. I was buzzing! The freezing cold 8 miles of pushing, with 10 sessions of flat out effort, were a joy and a privilege. Running to improve is such hard and painful work that you forget how lucky you are to be able to do it at all. It’s not until it’s snatched from you that you really appreciate it. I think (and fervently hope) that the weakness was an energy crash. I’ve had them all my life, long, long before the covids. I’m basing that on the fact that, in an effort to understand how I can be burning so many calories and losing so little weight, I’ve started counting calories. Because I can’t often taste much I’ve got into the habit of cheese butties and peanut butter butties for work. Nuts are energy and protein. And so, so many calories it turns out. Two rounds of light, brown bread and a good splodge of peanut butter is 600 calories. Wendy cooked me some chicken thighs in tandoori paste, so I’ve been taking them. They are about 230 calories. I think what happened was I was running a deficit from the previous day’s 12 miler, then I had no fat or massive calorie boost, so I crashed. Today was an 8 miler, it said I burned 999 calories so I had 500 calories (cereal and a banana) before work and I was fine. Hopefully now I’m gaining a bit of insight into calories in/ calories out, I can start to lose some decent weight in a controlled manner with no more crashes. And, *touches all the wood* remain free of the plague weakness. The plan is still on people, and now I’m grateful. Just thought I’d record some positive stuff for a change. Later, Buck. PPS I failed last week […]

I’ve been looking at training plans for my marathon attempt. The one in the Advanced Marathoning book, which I’ve been recommended on several occasions, is not 80/20. (80% very easy, 20% flat out.) That guy on Twitter who’s represents Great Britain as an age grouper, and wins the odd race outright, swears by 80/20. It’s the big thing with all the cool kids. But Advanced Marathoning is of the philosophy “Long slow runs produce long slow runners.” Their plan is push, push some more, rest, push again. To be honest, that works for me. I like challenging myself on my runs. Anyway, in the spirit of keeping with the science I spent an evening googling 80/20 training plans. There was a lot of chatter on the forums, but nothing concrete. I read “P&D” recommended a few times. The comment that summed it up seemed to be “P&D is the best plan off the peg.” Further Googling: What does P&D mean? Pfitzinger and Douglas. The authors of Advanced Marathoning. *sigh* That’s a few hours of my life I’m not getting back. So I started the plan. The first day was a rest day/ cross training day. I decided to break out my £20 rowing machine for half an hour then do another half hour on other strength training. Today was a 7 mile “general aerobic” run with 10 x 100 meter strides in it. I think that means a run where you are not killing yourself but are pushing on a bit, with 10 sprints included. I used to aim for a steady 8 m/m when I was fit, so I thought 8.30 would still be enough to slightly tax me. Oh very dear. It was killer! I did it, and, with the sprints, managed to average 8.14 m/m, but it had no right to be that hard. I’ve been getting a lot of wake-up calls about this sub 3 attempt. “Bare minimum is an 18 minute 5K (I’m currently 22 minutes) a 38minute 10K (no idea, never tried the distance) and a 1.25 half marathon (my PB is 1.33:37, I’m way off that now.) I’m trying not to freak out about it. I got up this morning, hours before work, even though it was freezing and chucking it down, and pushed myself for 7 miles, before what I thought was going to be an 11 hour shift. I’m committing. And I’m going to be cycling through the training plan at least twice, even if I have to lower my expectations the first time through, or maybe just some of the way through the first round, I’m still training hard, and I’m still improving. The huge positives to draw from it is my foot seems to be holding up. It still gets sore, but I’ve got full mobility. If the physio has fixed me, it’s just a matter of time and effort. “Success is working out the price you have to pay and being willing to pay it.” I’m not going […]

I don’t want to speak too soon, one hour and fifty four minutes to go, but I think we’ve survived 2021. I’m taking that as a win. I tried and tried with my pushbike thing, but in the end, inevitably, I’ve ended up getting a new bike. Three sets of mudguards, new tyres, on two different bikes, and still can’t get a winter bike out of them. In the end I researched Decathlon (store) for a new bike. Decathlon is always a good benchmark as they make their own kit and manage to fit a really good standard of parts for the money. They regularly win “Best Bike Under X amount”, reviews in bike magazines. They have exactly what I want. Takes up to 33mm (quite wide) tyres, with enough frame clearance and mounting points for the (fitted) mudguards. Perfect. But it’s £849. For a pushbike that is just for riding my 5 miles a day round trip to work and keeping me from being sprayed and soaked in winter. Once I knew what I was after I went looking for second hand. Sadly the bike has only been in production for a few years so there aren’t many and they’ve kept their price. Then, through a random google search, I found someone trying to sell one “ridden 5 miles”, for £510. He’d been trying to sell it since May. On a site for people selling record players and amps. Target audience, mate. I joined the stupid site to make an offer but he didn’t get back to me. Then I saw he’d just posted it on Preloved (another not obvious site) for £495 or offers. I offered £450 ( I would have paid the £495, or a haggle in the middle) and he said yes! Bargain! It’s the same frame and such as the kitted out winter bike, but without the mudguards and fat tyres. I’ve already bought them, trying to fit to my other bikes, so job’s a good ‘un! I’m picking it up on Sunday. I’ve just looked back over 2021. Started with a broken shoulder, and no running. Bike training with my arm strapped to my chest. Putting up that beast of a shed on my own. Bought a big, tourer motorbike, not the Triumph Daytona I really wanted. Realised I don’t need a big tourer motorbike, sold it, bought the Triumph Daytona I really wanted. Got the kit I needed to ride like a racer. Found out I was still an untrained, clueless, fool, but one with a nice bike and kit. Bought us recorders. And a Sax. And a clarinet. Playing none of them. Read that a shopping addiction was a symptom of my Borderline Personality Disorder. Got a grip. Bought a boat. Had a nightmare getting it to the lake. Nearly drowned. Still can’t sail. Fixated on buying a car for the boat, prevaricated until the obsession passed. Ran the Loch Ness Marathon, blew up and failed 20 miles in to the Manchester […]