So I suppose it was bound to happen at some point given the amount of training I am trying to do. I'm injured. At first I had hoped it was just a little niggle and would go away but it doesn't seem to be at the moment. Seems to be centering around my right knee although mostly muscular around it. Stared off in my calf but now seem to be the bottom of my thigh. I'll be of to see Aiden at ITRM Chiropractic Clinic at some point soon to see what he can do but am now looking at a second week of not really running. Need to get it sorted soon as it's not long to go till the next event and I need to be upping the mileage ready for the marathons.
Author Archives: allarsj
January 2012
I think it is safe to say that the first month of 2012 has been pretty bad. There have been some positive parts but on the whole it's not been a month that I'll look back on fondly. Roll on the rest of the year!
Kate
On news years day a kayaking incident in the Rawthey saw our very good friend Kate Stainsby being airlifted to Preston Hospital unfortunately she died there two days later. Kate's death came as a huge shock to us all. Kate was such a fantastic person and will be missed by so many people. This was made clear on the 18th of January when hundreds of people from every part of Kate's life turned up to to celebrate her life.
Kate was an organ donor and as we were coming to terms with losing her around 20 people were coming to terms with a new lease of life that her organs and tissue would be giving them. It takes 2 minutes to become an organ donor and could save countless lives just like Kate was and did. Take a look at http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/default.jsp for more information. It is also important that people know that you are an organ donor, especially those close to you.
Exercise
As some of you may be aware I am training for a marathon later in the year. I'm not sure how or why but this has now turned into 2 marathons. I will be running the Edinburgh Marathon in May and the Liverpool Marathon in October. Around the 2 marathons I have a number of half marathons and 10K events that mean between September 2011 and October 2012 I'll be running almost 150 miles worth of events. Add to that the training that goes with running these distances and I am looking at quite a distance this year.
To get the training off to a good start I decided to participate in 'Janathon'. I'd done a similar thing in November to get up to speed and managed to exercise every day of November reaching a total distance of 217.25 miles. The target for January was to better this. Needless to say with the events of the beginning of January and some motivational issues I didn't come anywhere near. Maybe 'Juneathon' will go better! If you haven't heard of 'Janathon' and 'Juneathon' google them and find out more.
So I have 86 miles under my belt in January including a personal best half marathon time of 2:07:18 so I'm feeling a lot better about running now than I was in the middle of January. I do have a niggle in my knee but am hoping that Aiden (http://www.itrmcc.co.uk/) will be able sort that out on Thursday. I may even try and make it to 2012 miles in 2012 although January wasn't a very good start so I've a lot of work to do!
I've not done a lot else other than running through January even my road bike has been mostly neglected. I've managed a few hours in my boat but nothing much. That is something I plan on fixing over the next few months and hopefully a few of us will enter the 661 Mini Downhill Series next year.
Music
Top 10 tracks I've been listening to this month are:
- Fix You – Coldplay
- Wherever You Will Go – The Calling / Charlene Soraia
- The Funeral – Band of Horses
- Everchanging (Acoustic Version) – Rise Against
- A Little Piece – The Jezabels
- Blurry – Puddle of Mudd
- Everlong (Acoustic Version) – Foo Fighters
- Like the Angel – Rise Against
- Torches – Rise Against
- Children (Dream Version) – Robert Miles
I'm not usually a fan of covers especially not when someone covers a song I like. 'Wherever You Will Go' by Charlene Soraia is a cover of a long time favourite song of mine by 'The Calling' I didn't expect to like it but there is something about it, maybe the fact that she can't say r's, that has caught me listening to it again and again. I still prefer the original but this isn't a bad cover.
TV
We've finally gone HD and it is fantastic. The deciding factor was that it means I'll get the F1 channel and sweetening the deal for Sarah was the £100 worth of M&S vouchers! I wish we had done it sooner to be honest as it is a whole different world. We seem to be firmly in the 'mid season break' so there is not a lot going on. We've got a lot of films recorded that we need to get around to watching. I keep watching 'Tron: Legacy' and 'Despicable Me' which I think are both brilliant. I'm looking forward to a lot of my favourite shows starting up again over the next few weeks 'NCIS', 'NCIS:LA', 'The Walking Dead', 'Criminal Minds' and Sarah is looking forward to the 4th series of 'True Blood'. There does seem to be bad news with Sky seemingly not buying the final season of 'Chuck' which may mean it doesn't make it to the UK in a while but on the bright side 'Red Dwarf X' has been filmed and will be heading to Dave sometime towards the end of the year. I've also been reading that 'Amelia Pond' will be leaving 'Doctor Who' she has grown on me, but I'm still not convinced.
Janathon – 31st, The last day
So I'm quite pleased with myself today. Yesterday I had tried to run faster than my usual plodding pace and although I had managed a little faster it was nothing to write home about. I'd been aiming for 9:30 average pace over 4 miles and got 9:43 average pace over just short of 4 miles. Today I went out with the aim of doing 9:30 average pace over 4 miles again but a strange thing happened. I felt quite good and was going quite fast. In fact I was just under 9 minute miles for the first few miles. As I was feeling good I kept going and ended up doing 5.75 miles and the average pace at the end of this … wait for it … 9:10 which I am quite pleased with. I was out for a total of 52:45 but then stopped to pick up supplies and sort out some bank stuff in Heslington and walked the 0.5 miles back to the office. This seemed to make stretching a whole lot easier, maybe this is that warming down thing people talk about!
So that's Janathon over and done with as Sarah is going out tonight so I won't get any more done. The final totals are not as big as in November but I had other things on my mind for the best part of January and running was by far the biggest part of the totals this time rather than riding. I had 7 days off during January which is 7 more than I did in November. It should be noted though that this morning I weighed myself and was 13 stone 12 pounds so it has had some effect! The final totals are:
Running: 86.29 Miles (812 Minutes) – 163% of November (52.77 Miles)
Riding: 21.65 Miles (111 Minutes) - 15% of November (152.47 Miles)
Swimming: 2.86 Miles (85 Minutes) – ∞% of November (0 Miles)
Other: 5.13 Miles (98 Minutes) - 43% of November (12.01 Miles)
Total: 115.93 Miles (1106 Minutes) - 53% of November (217.25 Miles)
Janathon totals – 1 day to go!
Totals with one day of Janathon to go are as follows:
Running: 80.54 Miles (760 Minutes)
Riding: 21.65 Miles (111 Minutes)
Swimming: 2.86 Miles (85 Minutes)
Other: 4.63 Miles (90 Minutes)
Total: 109.68 Miles (1046 Minutes)
Janathon – 30th, Just a short one … but faster than usual
So Sarah keeps telling me I need to mix up my training and do some short fast runs as well as trying to do distance. Today I went out for a short run around new campus with the aim of and average pace of 9:30. I did 3.88 miles in 37:39 giving an average pace of 9:43 so didn't quite make my target. It's quite hard trying to run at any other pace than plodding! Apparently I need to do some interval sessions … I don't even know what they are but I've seen what they do to Sarah so they can't be very pleasant!
Last day of January and therefore last day of Janathon tomorrow. I've not managed to do as much as I had hoped this time round, but my running distances are well up on November. The main difference is having not been out on the bike very much. That's partly due to some icy weather early in the month but also due to trying to cram in the running. I've certainly not managed every day as I did in November so that's hurt the numbers. Although if I can carry on trying to get out 4 – 5 times a week I'll be quite happy. The effects of trying to exercise every day, and succeeding in exercising most days, have been pretty impressive so far. Since September I have lost about 11 pounds and since February last year I have lost nearly 25 pounds! I am no longer 'Obese' and now just 'Overweight' but am hoping to get towards the 'Normal' range before this year … if I manage that I'll have lost nearly 4 stone!
Janathon – 29th, A Day in Nottingham
Didn't do any exercise today as we were in Nottingham to catch up with friends. I did however order a new boat (Stomper 80, hopefully in PINK) from Desperate Measures which should lead to more time in a boat. Didn't decide on a playboat but a new one of those will be coming and them some days at Nottingham with Dennis getting back into Freestyle.
Janathon – 28th, A bit of offroad
I went out for a run with Kelly and Sarah today. We built in a shorter loop for Kelly and then headed out to the beach aiming for around 10 miles. At about 3 miles I didn't think there was any way I was going to make it to 10, especially not with Sarah running 2 paces in front of me all the time. I don't know why but it really winds me up. Sarah definitely has a very different running style to me … I'm very much a plodder whereas she likes to push it as hard as possible all the time. I had planned a route in advance to try and take in some of the trails in the woods around Formby that we used to mountain bike on when we were kids. I figured Sarah would really like them as she is much happier off road than on. In the end we managed 9.81 miles of which around 5 miles was offroad with that being a mix between the beach, sand dunes and pine woods. I think we both could have gone a little further but we were starting to run out of time and light! Average pace was 10:56 and we were out for 1:47:17.
A result of all the offroad is that the tops of my feet hurt now. I think I curl my big toes up when I am coming down steep uneven terrain which pushes the top of my feet against my trainers. Hopefully it will subside soon. Then I need to stop myself doing weird things with my feet when offroad!
Janathon – 27th, nothing doing
Didn't do anything today. We did look at some nice new offices which are much closer to home then spent 6 hours driving to Liverpool 
Janathon – 26th, Short lunchtime run
Just did 3.96 miles today around the two University of York campuses. Felt a bit tight but it is my first run out after the Brass Monkey. 3.96 miles in 40:06 giving an average pace of 10:08.
The Brass Monkey 2012
So it has been a few days since the 2012 brass monkey and I've had some time to think about how it went and what it was like.
Usually when I do something as silly as running 13.1 miles I can't walk for a week afterwards and coming down stairs is something to definitely be avoided. Even the last half marathon I did, the Great North Run, back in September caused at least 3 or 4 days of proper inability to function in the leg department! This time though was different, for the first time ever I trained well for the event. I'd been nowhere near the distance but was consistently running 6 – 8 miles almost or at pace and being able to go out and do it again the next day. If it hadn't been for the break in training over the new year I may even have run the distance before the event, maybe?!