Royal Parks Half Marathon - 10/10/10

Training going well and I’d taken this race seriously unlike last year when I’d trained up to about 8 miles and no more. That said, given the “bigger picture” (VLM) I said I’d run round with a friend who hadn’t run much recently due to wedding, honeymoon, new house and new job. Pretty good excuses.Met a neighbour whose wife was going to drive up to town. She did. We left at 8 and arrived at 8.15 (for a 9.30 start). Nearly punched someone in the car who said to a mate of his “Why did you put 2.30+ on the form? You could do that going backwards” Grrrr.

I’ve been late for a couple of races and it’s mega stressful so I’d much rather be early. Gave me a chance to wander round and chatted to David (school dad who’s run with a few Fetchies before – this was his first half), Chris (ex school dad), Nick (another school dad, he commentates on rugby and was doing the warm up introductions on the stage), Siamese Pete (definitely met him before but where?) and finally met up with ocean at about 9.25. By then I’d realised that I was garmin-less. I’d left it in my bag which had been handed in about half an hour ago. Oh well – might be quite liberating to run without it.

After some banter which involved David’s friends admitting that they thought the Fetch Everyone on my shirt meant that I was running for a dog rescue charity, we were off. Taking it slowly. Very slowly. At mile 1 I asked ocean what the first split was and she said 11.42. Whoops. How did that happen? That should have given me an indicator of what was to come. Saw Running Beer and NBFS at three different places along the route. Waved to lully, pete and shouted at gojosiego who was ultra focussed and ignoring/didn’t hear me. This was my race to try Lucozade (think of the share price) jelly beans just before the water stations. Don’t think they had an effect on me either way to be honest. Couldn’t quite stomach the Percy Pigs and chewy snakes they were handing out later though.

At about halfway I “dumped” ocean and strided off into the distance. I felt good. I had energy. It must have been the energy I’d saved in the first half. It lasted half a mile. Then I slowed down. And down. And down. My final splits were 1.12.58 and 1.21.11.Becky and the girls said they’d meet me by the Percy Pig station at 11.5m. They didn’t. Bus problems. Amazingly met them in the home straight. By accident. That cheered me up as did RunningBeer demanding a sprint finish. Not today. Normally but not today

So finished in 2.34.09. Despite claiming to all that I wasn’t interested in PBs it was disheartening to finish so far out. Got some lovely suppotive texts though. Much appreciated.

Here are my 5 half times for comparison:

Royal Parks Half Marathon, 10 Oct 10 2:34:09, 11:46/m

Royal Parks Half Marathon, 11 Oct 09 2:29:13, 11:23/m

** Reading Half Marathon, 2 Mar 08 2:17:02, 10:28/m **

Ranelagh Richmond Half Marathon, 13 May 07 2:20:05, 10:42/m

Reading Half Marathon, 25 Mar 07 2:22:57, 10:55/m

Got my bag and walked to meet Bex, the girls and some friends at the Diana playground. Lay down. Couldn’t get up again. I’ve possibly done something to my right leg/hip but we’ll see. Got a “non sporting” physio tonight.I was talking about VLM 2011 with David and Bex and repeating the same spiel “Not worrying about time but would like to get between 5 and 6 hours”. To which Becky replied “6 hours – hardly worth doing if you’re going to take 6 hours”

I won’t tell you what she said about walking through the water stations!Anyhow – that was a FLAT half and I’ve got a HILLY one on the 31st. Eeeeek. RunningBeer is doing it with me and we’ll see who comes last.It’s all hours on your feet and in preparation for a bigger event next year. Oh yes.

Virgin London Marathon 2011

I'm in!!

First I've got to do the Royal Parks Half Marathon on 10th October 2010 and then I'm doing the Barns Green Half Marathon on 31st October 2010.

I also need a target or two to keep me going until the middle of December which is when the training proper starts for 17th April 2011.

I'm going with the F.I.R.S.T. marathon beginners program which concentrates on speedwork AND long runs

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone.

Going to definitely update this more often in 2008 which in turn will make me get off my bum and do some more running.

Other New Years resolutions to follow.

New Year's Day 10k in Hyde Park tomorrow and not going to worry about getting a PB - just going to have a good run and then watch Fulham v Chelsea after the game.

Happy New Year

John

A brief update

It's October and I've not updated this site since March. Very remiss of me.

All I can say is that since I started running soon after my 40th birthday in January 2006 I've done:



5k race x 5
5.6k race x 1
10k race x 4
8.2m race x 1
10m race x 5
Half marathon x 2

Lined up in the next 6 months are:
8m race x 1
10k race x 2
10m race x 1
Half marathon x 1
16m race x 1

PLUS

I've applied (2nd time) for the Flora London Marathon - eeek

A more interesting update to follow soon - probably

You think it looks bad now …..

..... you should see it on.


They claim it’s XXL but it feels like an L or even an M. Bits hanging out the sides that definitely shouldn’t. The current Mrs L bought me a vest a year or two ago, it wasn’t a good look at all. Neither are hats but that’s another (and only marginally more interesting) story.

Anyhow, 13.1 miles, what’s that all about? I’m doing the Reading half-marathon in just over a week and whilst I wouldn’t use the word confident I know that I can do the distance although the time may not be very impressive.

SPONSOR ME NOW BEFORE YOU FORGET!

The last race I entered into went pretty well. Bramley (nr Reading) is a lot flatter than Tadworth (nr Epsom) and as such I managed to get my time down from 2 hours (very, very, very slow) to just under 1 hour 45 minutes (just very, very slow). These times are for 10 miles by the way. I’d set my Garmin to bleep at me and shout ‘SPEED UP’ if I was going slower than 11minutes/mile and ‘SLOW DOWN’ if I was going faster than 9 minutes/mile. For the first mile whilst the Garmin was ‘sorting itself out’ I must have given a very good impression of someone playing space invaders as it couldn’t make its mind up what was happening. After that it was annoying and fairly vocal (if that’s the right word) but I think the constant warnings improved my run slightly.

One of the reasons I’m currently ok with (and almost looking forward to) the half-marathon is the long runs I’ve been on. Apart from 2 x 10m races this year I’ve done an 11m adirun and a 12.5m run last weekend. The adirun was brilliant, as it always is, and you can always find someone to run with and talk to while running, although it’s not a skill I’ve perfected due to my solo dark runs with just my mp3 player for company. It’s very organised, they have helpers at the front, middle and back and there’s biscuits, bars and tea at the end as well as a massage if needed. Having done 3 of these (5m, 8m and 11m) I’ve ditched them temporarily as a few of my fellow Fetchies organise Sunday morning runs in either Bushy Park (Teddington) or Richmond Park which start at 8am so I can do 12.5 miles very slowly, have a cup of tea and a bacon sarnie and still be home by about 11.15.

Last weekend 6 of us met up at the Bushy Park main car park (by Diana fountain) and set off together through a bit of Hampton Court Palace, over the main road and along the river from Hampton Court towards Walton. I’ve never run here before although the Kingston run in October did go over Hampton Court Bridge before heading towards Scilly Isles, Surbiton etc. The weather was perfect (although did get very hot later) and the scenery was gorgeous. There’s nothing to beat running along the river in my opinion and when the nights get lighter I’ll be doing a lot more of it. While I only ran with people for about 5.5 of the 12.5 miles (4 at the beginning and 1.5 at the end) it wasn’t a problem. People need to go at their own pace and be neither hampered nor unnecessarily stretched by others and I like to feel I can run just as well (or do I mean badly) with others or on my own. The one problem with my towpath plan is the cycling community who think they own it and in my opinion need taking down a peg or twelve.

Other recent good news is the other week, the day before Bramley, Rosie (nearly 6) expressed an interest in running with me. We went to Richmond Park and ran together, very slowly, along the running track that goes all the way round the park doing 3 x 200 metre jogs (approximately) and then running back without stopping. I had to stress to her that the greater the distance the slower you should go to conserve energy as she wanted to sprint off quickly. The good news is that she really enjoyed it and we plan to make it a regular activity. Becky didn’t get into the Moonwalk this year so may do one of these 5k race for life things. I think quite a large percentage of people do these as a run/walk exercise but she seems fairly determined to run it all so watch this space.

Juggling work, family and running wasn’t difficult enough so in an attempt to further my career I’ve started CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) which involves lessons for 2 evenings a week and no small amount of homework. I may have to cut down the running a bit or just organise myself a little better. Just realised I forgot to add FFC into the whole juggling equation. Oh well.

Why blog? Isn’t it incredibly egotistical?
The reason I’m doing this is three-fold:
1 – I enjoy running and feel I’m improving but I’m not a natural runner/athlete by any stretch of the imagination so I do thrive, to a certain extent, on encouragement and the more people who know about my running, the more encouragement I get to carry on. Sounds a bit strange now I’ve typed it but I think it’s correct.
2 – I always feel I have to aim towards a goal i.e. a race or else the likelihood of me packing it in would increase greatly. Entering a race is also a good opportunity to raise some money for a charity that I wouldn’t do otherwise. If people have bothered to sponsor me, I like to tell them how I’m getting on.
3 – I think it will be fascinating to look back on these in a few years when I’m either 28 stone wedged into a chair somewhere or a world class athlete with new knees.

Other random odds and sods:
- Got lost in Chiswick doing an 8.5 mile run in the rain. I love running in the rain. Got through the creepy dark part of Chiswick, turned right at Barnes Bridge and ran along the railway for what seemed like hours. Found my way back onto Barnes Bridge and Robert was indeed my mother’s brother.
- Did 174 miles last year (took August off for hols and November off for injury) and have already done 117 miles in less than a third of the time

Last call for sponsorship

Anyone recognise this picture?

I was running there about 2 days after this picture was taken (not by me, by another local runner who can be found on Warrior Women ) but not on the day of the snow. Not bloody likely. I can barely walk in the snow let alone run. Walking to Barnes Bridge took about 3 times as long as usual due to a fit(ish) 41-year-old walking like an incontinent 83-year-old with dodgy ankles.

January has been an excellent month for many reasons:

- My fund raising total for CLIC Sargent (for Reading half marathon) has gone up to nearly £400
- My mileage for January was the most I’ve ever done in a month. About 52 miles if you include the 10 mile race I did on 7th January. Which I have. Obviously.
- My New Years resolutions held up very well. Watched far less telly and went to bed a lot earlier. The telly being out of action for just over a week obviously helped but I’m going to try and keep to these resolutions for a bit longer. The only thing I really missed was Match of the Day although that situation may change when Lost returns.
- I found 2 new and indeed exciting ways to train. More of which later.

Before I forget, websites you need to look at are as follows:

http://www.warriorwomen.co.uk/running-routes - Good running routes involving Kew, Barnes, Hammersmith and Chiswick bridges

http://www.therunningdan.com/ – Someone trying to run 26 marathons in a year, raising money for Parkinson’s disease. Amazing. I think he’s currently on 3 down, 23 to go.

Ok, so they’re the only two I can think of so far but Volzy and News Biscuit are always good for a laugh – see links in far column.

'If you want to win something, run 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run a marathon' - Emil Zatopek

That’s surely rubbish. The second sentence should read half marathon and the first sentence is just plain wrong. I could never win 100m race unless the other competitors were under 4, over 88 or didn’t have the required amount of legs. Even then it’s no certainty.

Something quite exciting going on at the moment, or at least from now until the London Marathon are Adiruns. These are basically organised runs ranging from 5 to 17 miles with free advice before, during and after the run, people to run with, drinks and ……. I’ll let them explain it.

Sweatshop is proud to have teamed up with adidas to provide newcomers and first timers with guided training runs from a selection of our Sweatshop stores. These runs are designed to provide runners with little experience the opportunity to train in a friendly and fun atmosphere, perfect for building up your mileage and preparing for what might be your first ever 10k, half Marathon, or Marathon. Click here for full details of all Sweatshop adiRuns.
In addition, Sunday morning runs will be staged in partnership with our original Sweatshop Teddington store from nearby St Mary's College, Twickenham. The running in this area is fantastic, and our guides will take you on runs of varying pace around the beautiful Bushy Park, the adopted training home to several of the World's best Kenyan runners, and the year round home to 320 friendly deer!
Sweatshop adiRuns are organised by an experienced team especially for the first time Flora London Marathon runner. These are perfect to help you grow in confidence and fitness as you approach the big day and, you couldn't be in better hands!

All completely free!

The first one was last week. I spent a lot of my youth in Bushy Park and almost as much climbing over the walls of St. Mary’s College, playing football/tennis without permission, being chased by a scary man with an Alsatian and climbing back out. It was nice to be there legally for a change.

The run was good. Only 5 miles but a great deal different to usual as it was in the day and I decided to ditch my ipod. Talked to a few people as I ran (not easy, the talking that is) and it seemed that all of them were training for the Marathon. Not for me quite yet, I’m more than happy sticking with the half for the moment. Highly recommend the adiruns to one and all and there’s always experienced runners at the back and front to help if needed.

I’m doing the 8 mile run this Sunday – wish me luck.

Before last weekend’s run a gentleman by the name of Bud Baldaro gave out plenty of titbits of advice for the first time marathon runner. All done with great humour – I think the words “lunatics” and “nutters” were both used more than once with reference to anyone who has ever run or wanted to run a marathon.

A key thing he said was that if anyone only had time for three runs a week they should do:
A long run
Tempo running
Interval session

The way I understand it is a long run is a run of probably more than 10 miles at whatever speed you fancy just to ‘get the miles in’. A tempo run is a shorter run at a strict, and indeed fast, pace and an interval session involves running at a certain pace and then resting for a specific time before repeating the procedure.

With this in mind, I drove down to Battersea Park on Wednesday to use their running track. From http://www.runningforfitness.org/ I knew what a 41 year old male who wanted to do a 10 mile race in 1hr 45min (hilly Tadworth was 2 hours) should do to increase their running pace – don’t forget I’m on a very slow plod at the moment and wanted to get that up to a medium plod. Speaking of pace – Runners World do pacing at certain events which consist of people holding boards saying I’m running a 9 minute mile pace and those runners obsessed with time, beating their personal best etc. can loiter around the pacer for the duration of the race and guarantee the time they wanted. They do this for 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 minute miles and the next category is run/walk. Ahem. Some of my runs fall just short of 11 minute-mile pace but I’m CERTAINLY NOT A RUN WALK!! Cheeky bu**ers.

So there I was, on my own, Battersea Park, cold Wednesday night timing myself to do 4 laps (1 Mile) in under 9:33 then 3 minutes rest before doing it again. And again. And again. 4 miles in total, 4 reps of 1 mile. First one was easy – no ipod again, watching the rugby training, trying to avoid the footballers juggling on the track. I felt like I was cheating having the 3 minute rest. That was just the first time. Between the 3rd and 4th rep I was very happy to have the rest. I did ok time-wise but definitely room for improvement and I hope to make this a regular weekly part of my training if time allows it.

I’m still looking for sponsorship – go to www.justgiving.com/johnlowit or click on widget (!) at the top right of this blog

As far as training for the half marathon is concerned it’s all going well, I’m following a RunnersWorld training plan, feeling fit and confident of completing 13.1m. It’s not going to be fast and it’s certainly not going to be pretty and the general thought on these big races (mainly marathons but I’m applying it to half marathons, because I can) is the frst time you should JUST GET ROUND. You’ll be certain of getting a personal best and can attempt to improve from there.

Three final thoughts - one running-related and one not.

1 - I’ve started running late, I’m heavier than I should be and my body isn’t in quite as good a nick as it once was (!) so I’m not going to see a rapid improvement in speed but I can increase distance which is what I’m trying to do.

2 – Very refreshing running without an ipod and makes you appreciate your surroundings much more

3 – For people of a certain age, do you remember staying up till midnight to watch the ‘Thriller’ video on C4? And now you can access all the music/videos you want instantly. Bizarre. See the bottom of this page for my current favourite song/video.

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

One thing I definitely WON’T be doing in 2007 …..

… is the 2007 FLM (that’s the Flora London Marathon) as I got my rejection letter, magazine and 'fleece' today. The one option I have left is to get a guaranteed charity place by raising approximately £1,500 but I think I’ll leave it until next year. The most I’ve run is, let’s not forget, 8.2 miles so I need to build up my distance slowly whilst avoiding injury.

I will however be there on 22nd April opposite Embankment tube station handing out jelly babies.

The road to recovery is going very well. Did a 2.5 mile run-walk last Thursday with the proviso that I could stop and walk whenever I want to. I think I ran a lot less than I could have done purely because (and this is psychological as most things are running-wise) I had it in my mind that it was fine to walk. So I did. Far too much.

Also did a couple of 1.5 mile runs ( my usual route – chip shop and back) which were bloody hard work. I feel my 2nd run was slightly easier and faster than my first but I’m not sure, at this early stage, how much my fitness has deteriorated in the 5 week lay off period. I’ve been told that I can build up to my October fitness fairly quickly as I’ve got a base fitness that will return. Does that make sense?

Also used my Garmin (see previous posts) on thee 1.5m runs so typed in my ideal pace and it told me how many feet ahead or behind my ‘virtual partner’ I was. Quite brilliant and exactly what I need. Shame the batteries ran out in the middle of run 2.

** FULHAM 2 – ARSENAL 1 **

Where was I? Knees and thighs ached a bit both during and after runs but calf muscle seems to be absolutely fine. Touch wood.

Healthwise the following is happening:
- I’m seeing a podiatrist who’s making special things for my shoes as I pronate (or over-pronate, I forget) on my left side which may or may not be down to an ankle I broke playing keepy-uppy 9 years ago.
- I’ve cut down on snacking both to, from and at work and walk instead of catching the bus every night.
- I MEAN to walk up and down stairs at work instead of getting the lift (especially from floors 11 to 7 and back again) but haven’t quite managed it yet more than once or twice.
- I really, really wish that I made more (or indeed any) effort with sport and fitness when at school, college and my extensive beery football-based bachelor days. Still, better late than never.

Just found out from a neighbour that there’s a 10 mile race locally in March (Chiswick, Richmond) – a perfect distance and will help with my half-marathon training. That makes it 3 10 mile runs and a half-marathon planned in 2007 so far. Double eeek.

3 slightly random points:
1 – Anyone want to go and see Lily Allen with me in 2007 in Hammersmith? Don’t really want to go on my own but will if I have to.
2 – Found a very, very funny website in the style of ‘The Onion’ but far funnier. www.newsbiscuit.co.uk – brilliant AND started up by a Fulham supporter.
3 – Some people say “Do one thing everyday that scares you”. I say “NO”. Why do you think it scares you in the first place? Trust your instinct, that’s my advice.

My wife has just pointed out what a very good influence she has obviously been on my health and fitness (on the basis that she wasn’t there at school, college or those long gone beery-football days). Fairly true.

A fortnight of two halves ....

….. is how to best describe my calf muscle tear recuperation. The first week or so it felt like nothing was improving at all, probably not helped by a) going in to work the day after it happened and b) abandoning my crutches on day 3 and walking like a penguin which as you’ll know not only looks stupid but can also lead to hip alignment problems .

The second week was brilliant. My boss adopted his normal attitude of ‘take as much time off as you need’. In all honesty I’m not sure whether that means they can or can’t do without me but I took him at his word and did a lot of physio (both land and water) and I think got the rest/exercise ratio about right.

Now abandoned my crutches, driving again and I’ve been told to do some cycling although this hasn’t quite materialised. Generally feeling very positive although wish I had a firm time scale as to when I could run/play football.

As far as future runs are concerned I’ve cancelled the December 10k (shame as I was looking to beating my 2 unbelievably hot, extremely slow summer runs) but have decided to do the January 10 mile as a run/walk exercise and not worry too much about time. This may change nearer the date (7th Jan) so we’ll see.

Still hoping to do the February 10 mile and the Reading half marathon (March) but also applied for the FLM 2007 (that’s Flora London Marathon to the uninitiated). My main reason for applying was to build up credits so that in 5 or 6 years I’d get a GUARANTEED place without having to go down the fundraising route. I’ll find out in the first week of December whether I’ve got in or not but according to various running forums my cheque was cashed on the 2/11 (bad luck) as opposed to the 31/10 (well done).

FLM options:
If I’m in – pretend I’m injured and get a guaranteed place for next year OR run it without raising money OR run it for charity
If I’m not in – see how we go with the 10m, 10m, 13m and perhaps choose another marathon later OR run it for a charity having promised them I’ll raise £1500 for them beforehand.

Difficult to make any kind of decision when injured.

When Becky was pregnant I couldn’t help noticing how many pregnant women there were ‘out there’ – it’s the same with runners. In my current state of infirmity (infirmness/unfirmness??) I’m seeing runners at every turn. Very frustrating and mildly upsetting but as the current governor of California once said ‘I’ll be back’. He also said ‘Hasta la vista baby’ but as I’ve no idea what that means it would be inappropriate to comment.

One last ramble. Whilst my running has taken off and many people have kindly commented on my weight loss I do feel it could be a lot better. The eating danger times are mainly on the way to and from work when buying a newspaper and sometimes at work in the middle of the afternoon but I blame my work colleagues for that one. There’s also the small issue of getting a bus when it’s not absolutely necessary. I’m going to try and cut all of these out with IMMEDIATE effect. That’s right IMMEDIATE effect.

And finally – does anyone know how to get rid of wiry grey hairs from head, ears, nose and eyebrows. Not for me you understand, I’m asking on behalf of a friend.

Put me on the injured step ...

… Although you may have to carry me there!

Ok, let’s go back nearly 3 weeks. Playing football on a Thursday night, as I do, I suffered what I thought was ‘severe cramp’ at about 9.15 and therefore had to go in goal for 45 minutes depriving the others (average age about 40) of their rest time in goal.

Wasn’t sure if it was as a result of not warming up properly, just bad luck or something that had been ‘waiting to happen’. I’m quite good at warming up properly since the GGS 2005 – you’ll know that as the Great Groin Strain of 2005 - that had also been ‘lying in wait’ for a while but decided to wait until the Father’s race at Sports Day to come out in all its glory. So to speak. Hence the constant use of, bordering on addiction to, my magic pants or MP as they’re known the world over.

Anyhow this severe cramp took about a week to disappear, after which I thought I’d, after warming up properly, do a couple of very short (1.5 mile) runs. All well and good so I booked into the Bushy Park Time Trial for last Saturday as I wasn’t needed for ballet delivery. The BPTT is just a short friendly 5k race around the park in Teddington where I’d spent a fair part of my childhood either on foot, bike or with a ball.

The week was going very well from a purchasing point of view as well. The website ‘Fetch Everyone’ about which I’ve previously ranted produce a fairly lary red and yellow running shirt upon which I could iron John L and use as my ‘race shirt’ (not forgetting I’m supposedly in a 10k, 2 10 mile and a half-marathon race in the next 6 or 7 months). This arrived last Thursday.

I’d also taken delivery of a second hand Garmin (very cheap and basic one) which tells you how far you’ve run and at what pace etc. All things that you could do with Google maps and a stopwatch but also has this very exciting feature.

I quote:

Working out with the Forerunner 101 means you're never alone in your personal training, because the unit provides a "Virtual Partner™". This unique feature allows you to set your training goal by configuring your Virtual Partner's pace and workout distance. You'll get a graphic perspective of your performance by viewing your pace in relation to your Virtual Partner's pace, so you can always see at a glance if you're keeping up or falling behind.

See told you it was good. In English that means you set your pace and it bleeps at you if you’re going too fast/slow and displays some exciting graphics. I think. For reasons that will imminently become obvious I haven’t tried it yet.

Anyhow this is all sadly irrelevant. My cramp of two weeks previously was my calf muscle tightening up nicely and after 10 minutes of last Thursday’s footy I was running for the ball and thought someone had kicked me in the calf. No one there. No one anywhere near. The calf muscle had torn and I was in a fair amount of pain. In the next 24 hours I did 3 stupid things:

1 – Played on in goal
2 – Drove home
3 – Went to work on Friday on two crutches so I could not only tire myself out by hopping downstairs to get lunch etc. but also cram my leg under a desk instead of raising, extending, icing etc.

The whole thing is made all the more annoying because I’ve never felt fitter in my life. I am also getting very jealous watching other people running – bizarre behaviour for a couch potato of almost 40 years standing, I mean lying.

Anyhow I’ve had 2 sessions with the physio (all on land) with another 3 more booked in (all in water) so the secret is to be patient and not reckless. Not at work this week, on strict raising and icing duties as well as becoming addicted to Deal Or No Deal which is in essence one of the most ridiculous programmes on telly hosted by the eternally annoying Noel Edmonds (he who brought us Blobby).

Although I’m stating the bleedin' obvious, if anyone was thinking of going to www.justgiving.com/johnlowit and sponsoring me for the Reading half-marathon I suggest they keep their cash in their bank accounts for another month or two until I know what I’m doing.

13.1 miles - am I sure?

I've done it. I got a bit carried away with the 8.2 mile run last weeekend and after booking a couple of 10 mile runs in the New Year I've also signed up for the Reading half-marathon. I'm raising money for CLIC Sargent (Cancer and Leukemia in Children) and will be doing a sponsorship 'push' in the New Year as part of my 'hassle people once a year' pledge.

If you want to be ahead of the pack then you're more than welcome to go to www.justgiving.com/johnlowit and get in ahead of the crowd.

That's all really for now

Ever onwards

Not entirely sure where to start on this one. Did the 8.2 mile run on Sunday (Kingston) and it was brilliant. Been dreading it for months , then feeling confident about it after doing a couple of 6/7 mile training runs, then back to dreading it after doing something to my back last weekend although Becky thinks that was purely psychological. Not convinced myself but I do know that there wasn't so much as a twinge in either my back or my knees for the duration of the race.
Had a massage immediately after the race then met Andrea (who did the 16 mile version) and Neal (who had to pull out after 9 due to injury) and then Becky and the kids for lunch.

In my post-race euphoria I've now fine tuned my running plan to include a couple of 10 milers in early 2007 with my ultimate 2007 aim being the Reading half-marathon in March (I'll be raising sponsorship money but not until 2007 as promised). Eeeek. I've applied for the London Marathon but almost definitely won't get in. Let's cross that hurdle in early December when the ballot results come out.

Pictures of the run are at http://www.sportcam.net/site3/public/results.php?bib_number=&family_name=lowit&event=645&search=1 and for once I may actually place an order.

Quick note about ipods and whether to use them in a race. YES. If someone wants to chat then take them off and don't use them at the beginning or the end when there's likely to be a crowd but for the boring middle bit I think it's a good idea. Glad that's sorted.

There's a website I told you about last time called http://www.fetcheveryone.com/ which basically combines all the training/running statistical analysis you could need/want with the usual forums concerning training/racing and general running talk. It's very light hearted but has helped me enormously and I'd definitely recommend it to everyone. One of the stats it churns out are your best times for 1 mile, 2 miles ..... 8 miles (in my case) and the same in kilometres. When I start running again, at the weekend, I'm going to try and beat all my previous records starting with the 1.5 mile run to the chip shop and back.

The only other thing to report is I may be famous soon. Becky and I went to see Russell Brand in Shepherd's Bush on Monday night and I got called up on stage so he could ring a massage parlour on my mobile phone! It was recorded for his Xmas DVD so if a) they think that bit of the show was funny and b) they're not recording Tuesday and Wednesday nights then there's a chance (slim but a chance) I may be featured. Not sure I'd show the kids/parents the DVD as the language is a bit colourful at times.

Little Britain on Saturday night and I'm sitting at the back!

Running in the rain ...

... is, bizarrely, a revelation. Strange that someone who has run over 120 miles this year has only just experienced running in the rain. Especially in London. Apart from puddle dodging it was both refreshing and cool.

Anyhow, enough wittering.

Not nearly as scared of doing this 8.2 mile run as I was 3 weeks ago. This is mainly due to stepping up my training recently. As well as doing 3.3 mile runs twice a week with a gang from work I did a 4.75 mile run about 10 days ago, a 6 mile run last weekend and have planned, with the help of Gmaps, a 7 mile run on Friday. A light run at the beginning of next week (probably 3 miles) and I'll be 'as ready as I'll ever be'

Plans for the future include a 10k in December just to keep my hand(!) in and I'm looking for a 10 mile run in Jan or Feb next year as my next goal is going to be the Reading half marathon which comes highly recommended by almost everyone who knows about/has experienced it. I will be hassling for sponsorship for this but not until next year as promised earlier. Probably going to raise money for Clic Sargent (Cancer and Leukemia in Children) - unless anyone has any better ideas.

Not too much else to report, listening to Lily Allen in the car, Ricky Gervais et al. on the Ipod-a-like and have discovered a new running website which has all the usual forums and lots of exciting statistical analysis. It's at www.fetcheveryone.com. All three of these are, in my humble opinion, quite brilliant. Perhaps I'm just easily pleased.

Next post will be after the Kingston run - 8.2MILES, THE FURTHEST SO FAR - so wish me luck.

Please sir, can I have some more?

Don't get me wrong I love 'Oliver'. The 1968 film that is. Don't know about the Dickens book or even the recent film but the 1968 version with Ron Moody, Oliver Reed et al. is in my opinion a classic with a very, very scary villain, loads of charm and some impressively big tunes which are show stoppers both visually and aurally.

That said, if I never hear 'Consider Yourself', 'Food, Glorious Food' or 'You've Gotta Pick a Pocket or Two' again, it'll be too soon.

Rosie, my 5-year-old daughter had seen a production at school and had fallen in love with it, or at least as much as a 5-year-old can. They're famed for their fickleness you know. Best friends change from one day to the next never mind musical tastes.

If you're lucky I may get to the point sometime soon.

We were about to drive from New York (actually New Jersey but let's not split hairs) to Cape Cod, a drive lasting anything between 4 and 8 hours depending on how many times you stop. We knew it would take nearer 8 as Jessie (3) is a very poor traveller, a fact borne out by her being sick (in my hand, since you ask) on the way home. We didn't pack any cds for our hire car. Something had to be done AND QUICK.

Oliver was bought in Borders in Manhattan and played again and again and again and again (possibly 10 times in total). Rosie's favourite track was 'I Shall Scream' - she wasn't alone.

The USA trip was excellent and any flight security fears were unfounded. The car hire was quick and easy and we were made most welcome by Helen and Hillie in Jersey City.

Reasons for doing no running at all in Jersey City:
Very bad at running in unknown places
Too many roads to cross (each 'block' lasts about 5 houses and knew the chances of me getting run over were high)
Wasn't organised enough - don't forget I prefer running in the evenings so it has to be after kids have gone to bed and before supper.

Cape Cod was very pleasant with a slightly artificial feel to it somehow. Beaches were varied but mainly good and food likewise. Food highlight for me was lobster. There are those who can be very happy picking at a crab/lobster for hours and hours and there are those who think the effort put in is in no way matched by the food they get out. I, and my father amongst others, belong to the former.

Reasons for doing no running at all in Cape Cod:
Very bad at running in unknown places
Wasn't organised enough - don't forget I prefer running in the evenings so it has to be after kids have gone to bed and before supper.

Should have run in Cape Cod. Looked like a perfect place to renew my fitness regime but basically was what people in the know call 'a bit rubbish'

Now I'm back and I've got this run in about a month. It's 8.2 miles in Kingston. To put it into perspective it's almost 1/3rd of a marathon and 1/3rd more than the greatest distance I've covered so far (10k). Eeek and double eeek. Now wish I hadn't entered it. I MUST stick to 10ks for the foreseeable future and then possibly progress next year (after I've done 6 or 7 of the little beauties) but I got a bit carried away web-wise after I had done the first 10k.

Training at the moment is basically along the lines of the plan I set out in my last posting. Couple of footballs, couple of runs and a body pump (weights) class somewhere in the middle. Last night's class can still be felt in my arms and shoulders so it must be doing some good.

Runs this week were 1.5 miles on Saturday and 3 miles on Monday with a possible 2 miles this Friday coming and 4 miles on Sunday. I know the distances are a bit sad but I'm trying to slowly work up to the run without pulling/straining/snapping anything.

One last thought. I've detailed the reasons for doing this run before many times but at the moment, even after the holidays, I feel pretty good. Stomach feels flatter and I have loads more energy both when racing the kids and playing my Thursday night indoor footy.

Which is nice.

Attila the Hun

Let's talk degrees. We all know that a 2:2 is a Desmond (Tutu) but did you know that a 2:1 is an Attila, a 1st is a Geoff/Damian (Hurst/Hirst) and a 3rd is a Douglas/Thora (I'll leave that one for you to work out)

Anyhow, I FINALLY managed to get the inevitable and somewhat anti-climactical 2:1 the other week. Many thanks to loads of people for that but mainly college mates and Becky for immense support and encouragement without which I'd be scuppered. Completely. Now for that pay rise.

Just got back from a week abroad (there's a location clue above), which was highly enjoyable. Food, booze and company were very, very good. Weather was temperamental and house excellent (especially swimming pool), although I could have handled slightly fewer mosquitos. Did no running due to immense hilliness but a bit of swimming when weather permitted.

Finished off my "First Marathons: Personal Encounters with the 26.2-Mile Monster" and started "The Non-runner's Marathon Trainer". Both pretty good if immensely American which can grate slightly. More of my running aims and aspirations later.

Before I went away I had a pretty good weekly running/fitness schedule going which went as follows:

Monday
Lunchtime run with Garry and Tim for 30 mins/3 miles (roughly) along Grand Union Canal by side of office. Very pleasant route although a couple of bridges too many possibly.

Tuesday
Weight training class at work. One of the many training programmes I looked at said that if you're stronger you will be able to cope with the latter stages of races much better.

Wednesday
Lunchtime footy at work (outdoor)

Thursday
Evening indoor footy

Friday
Same as Monday

Saturday or Sunday
3m run (to be increased)

This schedule is slightly hypothetical at the moment as I haven't managed a week with everything due to other commitments but it's certainly the aim.

There's also the Saturday morning 'army thing' - see http://www.britmilfit.com for details. They've just started one in Richmond Park so I need to go and have a look really. Nothing ventured etc.

Still got 8 mile run in October in Kingston with Mark H, Alma, Andrea and Neal and possibly doing a 10k also in October - http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/s-10k%20Run - in Regent's Park but I've got to check it doesn't clash with a party.

The very vague fantasy I've got (no, not that one) is to do a half-marathon in 2007 and a marathon in 2008 but realistically I'd like to stick to 10ks for the moment until I feel more comfortable with them and then progress.

Off to Cape Cod soon where I hope to do some running. Looking forward to the holiday immensely but three things concern me about it:
1 - Will miss start of footy season
2 - Will miss end of BB7 (although it's descended into a complete farce at the moment)
3 - Current flying/security/hand luggage nonsense.

That's it really except for one final thing.

You know when you go away for a week and you expect loads of things to have happened while you 've been away but none ever do. WRONG! Nice shiny new benches at Barnes Bridge BR station. In just a week as well.

Amazing.

Race after race after race ....

I’m currently in an interesting period of the year.

World Cup 2006 is over, Fulham’s relegation season yet to start.
Maths project handed in, results (if I haven’t got a *:* I’ll be puzzled and annoyed in equal measures) not out for a couple of weeks
Maths teaching nicely fizzled out
Holidays (three weeks in August) very soon

AND

No more races until October but it’s a biggie (8.2 miles or 13.1k) so I’ll have to start training properly and soon

As Becky pointed out I’ve done a lot more races than actual training recently for one reason or another which probably isn’t good for a slightly overweight 5th decader like myself. Let me rewind quickly to approximately 9 days ago:

The British 10k

If it was cheaper, chipped and there was more water both en route and at the end I’d definitely do it again. The route was excellent taking in Piccadilly, Pall Mall, Embankment, Blackfriars, Westminster Bridge and Whitehall. Due to sheer number of runners it took me about 35 minutes to get through the start line (next to Hard Rock Café) on a very hot day, at least as hot as the Capital run, so some of the promised water stations were empty. Luckily I carried water with me or else it could have been dangerous, especially the complete absence of fluids at the end of the race.

From a personal point of view I finished in a slightly quicker time than the last run (1.18.20 rather than 1.19.00 from memory) although still way slower than what I think I can do. This was achieved without walking (although plodding incredibly slowly for large portions of the race) and being extremely sensible about running in the heat as I knew some were worried about me keeling over.

For a large portion of the race I had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. The angel sounded a lot like Becky and was saying “Don’t run, there’s no need, take it easy, it’s hot and no-one will think the worse of you if you walk” whilst the devil was saying “Don’t stop, don’t walk, keep running, remember how annoyed you were last time when you walked 2k.”

I think I reached a decent compromise and had there been water waiting at the end it would have been a good, enjoyable race. Actually, no, that wasn’t the only thing – they posted a “400m to go” sign near the finish line. I say near, it was almost a kilometre away. Very annoying for those who like to put in a bit of a spring towards the finish line. Luckily it didn’t affect me in any way whatsoever!

Two other slightly disconcerting things were
– lack of ipod. It’s ok when there’s a crowd geeing you on but on the many quiet bits of the race I could have definitely used some stirring music
– people calling me ‘fatman’. OK so most people shouted “come on John” as I had my name on my t-shirt but because I was wearing my fatmanwalking.com t-shirt (for the very last time I might add) people were shouting “Come on fatman”. Not an ideal situation.

4 days rest later and due to my over eager planning, Thursday was the day for the 4 man GSK team to run the JP Morgan Chase corporate challenge or something similar. Except it wasn’t. Due to half-year end it was only Tim and I who set foot towards Battersea Park.

Apart from someone ‘accidentally’ knocking over my half-pint of Pimms ir was an immensely enjoyable evening. OK, we could have done with some of the corporate hospitality being handed out by some of the bigger teams being diverted our way but I managed to make do with about 6 bottles of water, a banana and 3 t-shirts. Easily pleased, that’s me.

The race itself was very, very crowded so unless you were right at the start you were unlikely to get anywhere near your personal best. It was 5.6km (3.5 miles) which was a very pleasant, doable distance although I’m beginning to get a bit of an issue with walkers. Not only do they get in your way (can’t they go to one side) but also, as I may have mentioned a couple of hundred times before, put the following thought in your head – “Go on, you can walk, they are”. The only other gripe with this run is that the route snaked by (and practically caressed) the finish line whilst still being about a kilometre from the actual finish. You could hear people being congratulated over the tannoy AND EVERYTHING. Cruel.

I wanted to do the race in under 40 minutes (did it by 5 seconds) and Tim completed in well under 30 minutes.

Next run is this 8.2mile Kingston October race – EEEEK – so I’m going to take a step back and train specifically for this race and no other. I’ve got 3 months to do it in so I should be ok. I think. This week consists of outdoor runs, treadmill sessions, weight training session and a work footy session.

Onwards and upwards

Anticipation

It's a big week in the running world next week with my British 10k (got the hat AND the t-shirt) on Sunday and the JPM Chase 5.6k on Thursday. Despite doing very little training since Hyde Park I'm looking forward to both as a result of a very, very good 40 minute treadmill session yesterday.

Or at least I was looking forward to both until ............

THE BLOODY WEATHER FORECAST

Apparently it's going to be another very hot weekend. Aaaarrggghhh. Does anyone know any rain dances?

My tactics for Sunday are as follows:

Start slow
Start in either the 50-60 min pack or the 60-70 min pack so I don't spend the first kilometre weaving in and out of people
Not worry about the time
Finish it

Ideally, of course, I don't want to walk any of it but if it is as hot as last time and it's a choice between walking or lying on the ground struggling for breath I'll take the former. My priorities have changed so much that I'm even thinking of leaving the new flash stop watch at home. Maybe.

With a sort of reversed, warped logic I'm planning big changes from next weekend onwards including changing my eating habits, going on a strict training plan geared towards the 8.2 miles in October (it's actually geared towards 10 miles but I'll adapt slightly), running with boys from work every Monday (hate running with other people although as I've never tried it ....), doing a class in the work gym with the rather dodgy title of 'Body Pump' which is basically a lot of weights work (I read somewhere that this will help your overall strength, especially at the end of races. Makes sense really).

That's it really, quietly confident about next week and thanks for the £1,078.72 from the BUPA Capital run. I've taken the link off for now.

Plodding on

No excuses for carrying a bulky water bottle on races now.

The main news to report, and you know this already, is that my near final total (still a couple of stragglers to come, possibly) is £1,008.38. Not bad for an hour’s work. Many thanks once again to all (and indeed sundry) for stumping up their hard-earned cash.

Further proof of my participation can be found by going to http://www1.sportcam.net/site3/public/browse.php?event=673&competitor=cf0f3e96-4b3d-4d54-9428-9b3da3a6c7c3&mode=full. Not sure I’ll order any prints at their exorbitant prices but they make interesting viewing.

Speaking of cash, as we were a minute ago, this whole sponsorship thing is very tricky. Who do you ask? Can you hassle them? Why do some people ‘pledge’ by email rather than going directly to the website? I appreciate that sites such as justgiving.com have made the whole process much easier but I’m very glad that, following my ONE sponsorship run a year rule, I don’t have to go through the begging process again for another 6 months at least.

Nothing much has happened since the run about 10 days ago. The only exercise I’ve taken has been a fairly hot and immensely enjoyable game of indoor 5-a-side last Thursday. I was due to do a run on Saturday night but, having spent a day with the girls, returned home exhausted and fell asleep on the sofa just after Brian McBride (one of only three Fulham players representing the mighty whites at this years World Cup) got elbowed by an over eager Italian defender.

Hoping to get at least 30 minutes on the treadmill at work this afternoon as last night I increased my ‘organised runs to do by the end of 2006’ by 50%. I’ve now got 3 little beauties of varying scariness lined up. They are as follows:

http://www.thebritish10klondon.co.uk/

This is the British 10k run on Sunday 2nd July at 9.35am (please don’t let it be hot). The website will give you all the details you need. Currently doing it alone (although possibly with a neighbour) and my reason for doing it is very, very simple. I want to do a 10k without walking. I honestly don’t care if I do it in 1 hour or 1 hour 30 as long as I run (or plod) all the way round. It is however in under 2 weeks so I need to get back into training pretty damn soon hence treadmill this afternoon.

http://www.jpmorganchasecc.com/events.php?city_id=10

This is the JPMorganChase Corporate Challenge on Thursday 6th July at 6.45 pm which describes itself as a 5.6km run-walk in Battersea Park. I’m doing this with Garry, Anthony and Tim from work and for some reason we’ve all set ourselves target times. From memory their target times are something like 22, 23 and 24 minutes! Mine is 33 minutes which won’t be easy at all. Should be interesting.

http://www.humanrace.co.uk/festival/index.html

This final one is a bit scary. It’s an 8.2 mile race along Kingston on the morning of Sunday 8th October. In an example of running before you can plod I booked into this ages ago as I thought it would be a decent step up from the BUPA Capital 10k also giving me 4 months extra training. I’m now dreading it but have persuaded Mark H (in my mobile I have numbers for Mark A, Mark H, Mark N, Mark R, Mark S, Mark C and I thought John was a common name) and Alma to join me whilst Andrea and Neal will be doing the 16 mile version on the same morning. Nutters.

Sweaty doesn't even begin to describe it!

Me and Sir Richard of Bacon