Happy New Year

Apologies for this but before I rant on about what I've been doing for the last month or so I just want to start the 2007 fund raising effort. This is the 'official' story:

After raising over £1,100 for Help a London Child doing the BUPA Capital 10k run (very, very slowly) last summer I said I wouldn’t hassle people for sponsorship more than once a year.

That was 2006, this is 2007.

I’m doing the Asics Reading Half-Marathon on 25th March and am raising funds for CLIC Sargent (Cancer and Leukemia in children) this time. Any sponsorship would be greatly appreciated at www.justgiving.com/johnlowit and if you’re feeling really, really bored you can read about my training on my blog (it’s the latest thing, you know) at http://www.joggersblogger.blogspot.com/.

In fact, last summer the feedback I got from my blog helped my training enormously so as a special favour I’ll let you know whenever this is updated and you can read the latest exciting instalment. If this isn’t for you just send an email saying something like ‘Leave me alone, I’m far too busy for this tediousness’ and I’ll trouble you no more.

Cheers

John

PS Happy New Year

OK, that's done. Now where do I start?

New Years Resolutions:

Running:

Increase speed and/or distance. More of this later

Non - running:

Don't be ruled by Sky+

Get more sleep. The kids get up at 7 something these days, not 5 something

Improve handwriting. Looks like that of an 83-year-old doctor, which I'm not.

You know predictive text on mobiles and how 'awake' and 'cycle' use the same keys? I found out that 'rejection' and 'selection' also used the same keys. This was discovered when telling friends about my Marathon rejection. Fascinating, I know.

Anyone still awake? On my slow but sure recovery from calf muscle tear (and training for 10 mile race) I devised some very exciting runs that threw me out on the Thames right opposite Craven Cottage. I did this run twice, once for about 6 miles and once for about 7 miles. The first time was very exciting - the floodlights were on and it actually spurred me on from an extremely slow plod to just a fairly slow plod. That run, however, took me onto Putney High Street with far too many people including a lot with a 'Why should I get out of the way for Plodder?' mentality.

The other CC run was disappointing as the floodlights weren't on and you probably wouldn't have seen them anyhow as there was very, very thick fog. The bad news was that you could almost taste the fog as it holds the pollution near ground level and doesn't let it dissipate into the sky around you, the good news is it makes running along the towpath very exciting as long as you don't let your imagination run away with you. For some reason the tree branches dipping into the Thames looked like fingers. Possibly.

Between Christmas and New Year, including a long run on Boxing Day from Teddington to Mortlake via Hampton Hill and Kew, I did 2 runs of a distance I hadn't previously tackled. About 8.5 and 9 miles from memory and whilst I felt exhausted I felt I had made good progress in my preperation for today's 10 mile race and, more importantly, had absolutely NO problems with my calf. Running slowly in a straight line seems to be fine although I'm holding off playing football for a while as twisting, turning, sprinting(ish) and stopping may be another matter. Speaking about the 9 mile race, it was New Years Day and I was knackered, wet and just generally apathetic about running. Becky pushed me out of the door saying things like - 'You'll be glad you did it when you get back' and 'You need to prepare properly for the 10m race'. She was, of course, right on both counts.

Today I did a 10 mile race. We'll gloss over the fact it took 2:00:55 and instead dwell on the fact that it was VERY hilly, windy, muddy, cold and about as different from running on the pavements of South West London as is possible. Once again I have to report absolutely no ill-effects and a small sense of pride that less than 11 months after belatedly taking up running I'm able to run 10 miles without walking. I'll put my trumpet down now.

Somebody said to me once that she didn't feel she'd given her all in a race unless she felt physically sick at the end. I'll admit to putting on 'a bit of a sprint' but that's about all I'm prepared to 'give' at the moment.

Finally, a question:

How do I get faster?

1) Take an age reducing drug

2) Get new knees, back, calves etc.

3) Lose a lot of weight

4) Train more

5) Train differently (speed sessions etc.)

6) Do weight classes again to make me stronger

7) Don't bother. Just keep plodding and measure improvement by distance I'm able to run rather than speed.

I think 3, 4, 6 and 7 as a start.

Happy New Year again and don't forget www.justgiving.com/johnlowit