Six Weeks of Eighteen

Ok - so much for keeping a training diary. That would be monumentally dull anyway. Am six weeks in to my eighteen week programme and have to say I'm not finding it easy. I think this is for several reasons.

1) The Weather - it is fabulous isn't it, but it isn't great for running 12 miles in (my longest so far this year). Totally energy sapping and slows my times by around 30s/mile
2) loneliness - have usually had some running chums to do my week day runs with (and occasionally my weekend ones) and that adds a big incentive to going out there. Am doing all my running solo at the moment
3) charity - between the last two marathons I raised about £4000 (I think that's about €37) and it was a strong motivator
4) the race itself - we're still umming and aaahing about whether to go to Berlin, so the race might not happen at all. Might be a trip/holiday too far in 2009.

I'm training as if I am doing the race, but it does make things harder.

Have five miles to do today and it looks like another scorcher out there. On the plus side I'm getting a nice tan.

Off to Leeds on Friday for the weekend and then next week - Blur. Looking forward to that but have recently been listening to their albums intensively. They were mostly a singles band, weren't they?

Have tickets for Placebo in December and am looking forward to that more. Their new album, battle for the sun, is fantastic.

Additional note:

Going Around Again

So 18 weeks of obsession starts here.

In 126 days the plan is that I'll be in Berlin and will be running another Marathon. Skipped London this year after a double in 07/08 and now those familiar jitters begin as I start to track against this programme that i've followed a version of each year.



They say there is a degree of "body memory" that means that each year it gets a little easier to hit those long runs. With two marathon experiences under my belt, one good, one bad, I'm hoping for more of the former. Am going to start to work towards diet changes over the next two weeks (less beer and chocolate, more fruit, nuts, birdseed and porridge) and the programme starts with a relatively gentle 24 miles/week but it ramps up pretty smartish.

I'll probably post a fair bit about the highs and lows for my own therapy - not for anyone to read it. Am also tracking my training here at a brilliant UK running site called Fetcheveryone where my username is also sinj.

Not a great start as I'm still kicking a tickly cough into touch, but will have to do, and am not going to start dropping training in the first week.

Chocolate and Almond Syrup cake and Family Parties

I made THIS to take up to my inlaw's Ruby Wedding Anniversary and it was GORGEOUS.

Is quite involved but the end result is one of those puddings that:
a) goes further than you think it will as is very rich so only small slice required
b) is memorable. Really very yummy (tastes like a giant Jaffa Cake with extra magic yumminess).



Possibly the main reason I was please was that IT ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE THE PICTURE when I had finished. My cooking usually has the "big mac" effect - ie the picture on the menu and the food that is delivered bear little resemblence to one another.

Recommended.

So yes - Ruby Wedding party involved travelling to Leeds and back in 24 hrs (440 miles) with party in between. Big family gathering, and first of its kind for a good few years with an excellent turnout. Bro-in-Law cooked 11 Tapas dishes in 2 hrs - dazzling stuff and it was all delicious. Downside was having to drive back last night so not being able to partake in the fizz, etc on offer.

Got a 5-miler in along the canal (one of my regular favourite Leeds runs) to keep up my xmas challenge with Rob (who can get the most in before Jan 4th race)...

Christmas do on Wednesday (24 people) that I've organised so that could all end in tears (it usually does).

eurghy

lawdy do I feel eurghy today.

perhaps my body is rebelling as I am not eating or drinking enough in December. Normally by the 11th I'd have had a few xmas evenings out and eaten a fair quantity of mince pies.

I have a night planned for tomorrow so hope an early night and sleep will see it off.

A big store that isn't woolworths is also closing down, and I spent my lunchtime queuing to get in, and then queuing to get out (ie pay). Nightmare. Got some cheap xmas stuff though so just about worth it. (was The Pier by the way).

Have signed up for the Tadworth 10miler on January 4th to blow away the Christmas cobwebs. Only 700 runners (so a bit different to the 25000 at the Great South Run) and they'll probably be tough club runners so might be quite challenging! 2 laps in and around Epsom Downs race course...

Flying. Not Flying.

Very briefly. This is my brother is a room with a big fan.

fun i think - yah?

Light at the end of the Tunnel

2008 has been different, from a work perspective, as I've been part of a team who have been funded, skilled and targeted to deliver something worthwhile - and we've succeeded. Saying that, it has been exhausting and we're not quite over the finish line yet (project end is 10th December).

It certainly proves the point that if you want to do something properly you need to assign adequate resource and incentive to do it, rather than our traditional approach of expecting the same few faces to take on more and more work. I wonder, when the project is over, and with these difficult times restraining recruitment/contractors, whether we will return to our bad old ways...

The heating at the office is bust, so we're wrapped up warm. A nice run round Richmond park at lunchtime helped the circulation a bit.


Have plans for 4 little socials between now and Xmas day so that should help us to hop skip an jump along to the holidays.

After all these years I'm watching "Band of Brothers" as it is being repeated on BBC and we're storing them up and watching when we can. Solid, serious, impressive and sobering like so little telly is. Lead Balloon continues to be just right too - not too cringeworthy, but cringeworthy enough. Putting in an offer on a house, just because he went into an Estate Agent's to ask to use the fax machine. And Magda is priceless. "You bought a house?". I guess you have to have seen it.

A group of us do an annual "top albums of the year" poll and there's been loads of great music this year - having real trouble whittling it down to 10. If you haven't heard The Stand Ins by Okkervil River you should make the effort...


Am trying to have a week without bad food and booze before the Christmas onslaught. Have also accepted challenge from Fossy of "who can do the most miles in December" followed by a race on Jan 4th (The Tadworth Ten).

Pub Quiz on Thursday - huzzah!

What a difference a day makes...

The sun is streaming through the window, the sky is blue and my diary has 90 minutes blocked out at lunchtime for a run. I'm finally rid of the snot'n'chokes and feeling really quite human. This is the first year that I seem to have avoided a chest infection after my "octobercold" and that's just great.

Been listening to Mark Morriss' (he of the Bluetones) solo album this morning for the first time, and it is amazing how music can transport you into the past. We saw him at the black sheep bar in Croydon last year doing a solo spot and he rattled off a few of these new tunes. The minute I heard them on the album they came ringing back from that night, which is testament to the quality of his tunesmanship methinks.

Anyhows - a busy day ahead where I must internally repeat by mantra (without moving my lips) "Do not kill the stoopid people, Do not kill the stoopid people"...