I spent last week in Lanzarote. It was very hot. Despite this I managed to get out on two mornings (it should've been three but I still reckon I did well). The main trouble was that you have to get out before 8am otherwise the sun just makes it too unpleasant to run. I'm not sure the locals are ready for the sight of a 130kg paleface trailing beads of sweat behind him as he pounds the pavement. I have made a top purchase - a pair of round-the-back-of-the-neck bluetooth headphones. This eliminates the trailing wire and hence improves my aerodynamic profile - I'm with David Brailsford on this one; it's all about percentages. I got out again on Easter Sunday despite not getting home until 3am the night before - two main observations: firstly it's much colder in Lincolnshire than in Lanzarote; secondly the running is definitely easier. I'm almost up to a full half hour without a break now although still limited to around 6.5kph. My legs don't seem to go any faster - I'm not getting remotely out of breath anymore but stepping up the pace is proving difficult. I was out this afternoon and did just over 2 miles and I think I'm starting to lengthen the paces a little so maybe there is progress. I certainly couldn't have run 2 miles straight 2 months ago. I'm beginning to think that running the entire distance in September is not that unrealistic after all.
When returned home I was greeted with my Woodhall Spa 10K number and chip. This is all getting a bit real now! Just 41 days until I run 10K and my current distance is sitting at just under 4K. Need to keep up the training - no time for gaps now.
Apologies if the blog is a bit random and disparate this week - nothing exciting has happened or occurred to me since the last entry but I feel the need to keep things up. My good friend Angela has just completed the London Marathon in just over 6 hours so very well done her (she only really started running about this time last year and has come through several injuries). I don't think I'll ever do (or want to do) the full marathon but the thought of running half marathons in different countries is actually quite appealing (not least because it's a good excuse to go to those countries).
According to Prince on a track that came on the iPod today, it's flyer to be hungry than fat.
If only someone had told me before.
I could've been so fly.
So, with 139 days to go:
Longest sustained run: 27 minutes
Musical highlight: Bloc Party
Weight: Slightly up (damn you Spanish cuisine)
Confidence: Increasing
Urge to kill:Minimal
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Monday, 7 April 2014
Don't push too far
It's a month since my last post but fortunately that doesn't mean I haven't been training. I've been doing at least 3 sessions a week and am close to being ready to go for a longish run (by which I mean half an hour without stopping). That should form the jumping off point for training for 10K which I need to be ready for by 1st June when I shall be attempting the Woodhall Spa 10K. It was the Lincoln 10K yesterday which I did briefly consider entering but it just comes too soon in my schedule and I don't want to demoralise myself. That said I was reassured by the amount of people doing the run/walk thing - I have calmed myself about the half marathon that if it comes to it I can do a run/walk and still cover the distance in a reasonable time. No - the reason I haven't blogged for a while is because I haven't been able to think about anything funny to write, so don't hold your breath!
I guess I'll discuss running instead. My wife did the Lincoln 10K yesterday in 1hr 40sec (the winning time was 32:10 which is just plain wrong). I reckon I'm aiming for a time of around 1hr 15min in June and possible 3hr 30min for the half marathon - I'm not quite at the Elite level yet! I did the Sport Relief 3 mile run as a run/walk and was in quite a lot of pain afterwards although felt surprisingly good the day after - my body is obviously becoming finely tuned (albeit in B fat major)!
One of the key things when running is the music - running is an incredibly boring occupation. I've never found it useful to run with others; partly because they're always much faster than me and partly because I prefer to just get my head down and pound the pavement. This is where music comes in - when I did the half-marathon all those years ago my Walkman batteries ran out at about 5 miles which made for a very bleak finish. I can't remember what I was listening to at the time - probably Fantastic by Wham.
I'm currently trying to put together a play list which will get me through just over 3 hours of running. I'm after a mixture of uptempo songs (to revive me) and songs which run more or less at my pace - I was a little disappointed to discover that my running pace exactly matches T'Pau's classic "China In Your Hand," a song about Mary Shelly and Frankenstein! I will be running at Frankenstein's pace. Maybe I should hire a mob to chase after me waving pitchforks and torches?
Even more disappointing is the occasional unexpected song - I'm not sure how I've come to have the current mix of songs on my iPhone that I have but it seems to include the soundtrack from Mamma Mia amongst other things - I'd rather eat my legs than listen to that. Truly horrifically a song came on today to which my initial reaction was "nice one - this is pretty good," only to realise half way through that it was a track from High School Musical! So as I bopped to the top completing my 2 x 8 minute run:
Distance covered last month: 27.86km
Musical highlight: Blister in the Sun by Violent Femmes
Weight lost: Absolutely f***ing none! Not fair.
Urine: Still smelly (see earlier blog if you're confused by that one)
Pain in ankles: Lessening
Breathlessness: Lessening
Urge to kill: Moderate
I guess I'll discuss running instead. My wife did the Lincoln 10K yesterday in 1hr 40sec (the winning time was 32:10 which is just plain wrong). I reckon I'm aiming for a time of around 1hr 15min in June and possible 3hr 30min for the half marathon - I'm not quite at the Elite level yet! I did the Sport Relief 3 mile run as a run/walk and was in quite a lot of pain afterwards although felt surprisingly good the day after - my body is obviously becoming finely tuned (albeit in B fat major)!
One of the key things when running is the music - running is an incredibly boring occupation. I've never found it useful to run with others; partly because they're always much faster than me and partly because I prefer to just get my head down and pound the pavement. This is where music comes in - when I did the half-marathon all those years ago my Walkman batteries ran out at about 5 miles which made for a very bleak finish. I can't remember what I was listening to at the time - probably Fantastic by Wham.
I'm currently trying to put together a play list which will get me through just over 3 hours of running. I'm after a mixture of uptempo songs (to revive me) and songs which run more or less at my pace - I was a little disappointed to discover that my running pace exactly matches T'Pau's classic "China In Your Hand," a song about Mary Shelly and Frankenstein! I will be running at Frankenstein's pace. Maybe I should hire a mob to chase after me waving pitchforks and torches?
Even more disappointing is the occasional unexpected song - I'm not sure how I've come to have the current mix of songs on my iPhone that I have but it seems to include the soundtrack from Mamma Mia amongst other things - I'd rather eat my legs than listen to that. Truly horrifically a song came on today to which my initial reaction was "nice one - this is pretty good," only to realise half way through that it was a track from High School Musical! So as I bopped to the top completing my 2 x 8 minute run:
Distance covered last month: 27.86km
Musical highlight: Blister in the Sun by Violent Femmes
Weight lost: Absolutely f***ing none! Not fair.
Urine: Still smelly (see earlier blog if you're confused by that one)
Pain in ankles: Lessening
Breathlessness: Lessening
Urge to kill: Moderate
Sunday, 2 March 2014
Melting - Oh, What a World!
The ancient Greeks knew a thing or two about Medicine. Hippocrates was a major figure in the founding of what we would nowadays recognise as the principle of medical ethics. On that subject it's worth pointing out that doctors do not take the Hippocratic oath any more and haven't done for quite some time - for one thing it specifically prohibits assisting in abortion.
Another thing the Greeks realised was that you could tell a lot about the health (or otherwise) of an individual by the makeup of their urine. You know those little plastic strips your nurse sticks in your wee; the ones with loads of little coloured squares on them? Well, the colours change according to a whole range of things in your urine - its pH, sugar content, protein content, presence of red or white blood cells, presence of nitrites (a good indicator of infection). This in turn can give hints as to diseases going on in the individual. The Greeks didn't have such test strips unfortunately and so had to rely on something a little simpler - smell and, yes, taste!
There are a variety of conditions which can manifest as increased urine production. This is referred to as diabetes - the word diabetes simply means a condition of increased urine output. The Greeks recognised two forms of diabetes, classified according to the taste of the patient's urine. If it was a rather watery, tasteless urine they called it Diabetes insipidus. We now know that this rare condition is due to lack of, or insensitivity to, a hormone produced but the pituitary which promotes concentration of the urine.
The other form was Diabetes mellitus in which the urine had a sweet, honey-like taste. Mellitus is a Greek word meaning of, or pertaining to, honey. Of course we now know that this simply reflects an increased glucose level in the urine of people with increased blood glucose; a condition which in the long term increases risk of heart attacks and strokes and much more besides.
About a year ago I noticed my urine had adopted a rather unpleasant smell - similar to, but not quite the same as, when you eat asparagus. It persisted a rather long time and I did begin to wonder what it meant. Now some of you may well have gone to your doctor about this but I know that going to your doctor because your wee "smells funny" is simply challenging them to make up an explanation that you'll buy! Anyway it went away after a while and I thought no more of it.
Until about a month ago when it came back again. It was only then that I made the link with exercise - this time last year I was training; then there was a bit of a gap and now I'm training again. A little bit of research and I discover that this is a recognised phenomenon. The smell is ammonia and it reflects the switchover of your metabolism to a catabolic state (i.e. you're breaking down your protein and fat energy stores to provide fuel for increased activity). In other words, as I exercise I'm burning up my own body and peeing the results down the loo!
I'm melting.
This has to be a good sign.
Stepped up to some rather longer running sessions this week which is proving hard but Prince is seeing me through the dark times and I've lost a little weight for the first time since I (re)started.
So -
Distance covered last week:Approx 10km run/walking
Weight:133.6kg (0.8kg down from high point)
Musical highlight: Hello by Prince
Watch this space.........
In the meantime you can support me (and my wife and my friend Stu) by donating to Yorkshire Cancer Research at www.justgiving.com/fatrich
or by texting LUMP99 £x to 70070 (where x is the amount of pounds you wish to give).
Thank you all.
Another thing the Greeks realised was that you could tell a lot about the health (or otherwise) of an individual by the makeup of their urine. You know those little plastic strips your nurse sticks in your wee; the ones with loads of little coloured squares on them? Well, the colours change according to a whole range of things in your urine - its pH, sugar content, protein content, presence of red or white blood cells, presence of nitrites (a good indicator of infection). This in turn can give hints as to diseases going on in the individual. The Greeks didn't have such test strips unfortunately and so had to rely on something a little simpler - smell and, yes, taste!
There are a variety of conditions which can manifest as increased urine production. This is referred to as diabetes - the word diabetes simply means a condition of increased urine output. The Greeks recognised two forms of diabetes, classified according to the taste of the patient's urine. If it was a rather watery, tasteless urine they called it Diabetes insipidus. We now know that this rare condition is due to lack of, or insensitivity to, a hormone produced but the pituitary which promotes concentration of the urine.
The other form was Diabetes mellitus in which the urine had a sweet, honey-like taste. Mellitus is a Greek word meaning of, or pertaining to, honey. Of course we now know that this simply reflects an increased glucose level in the urine of people with increased blood glucose; a condition which in the long term increases risk of heart attacks and strokes and much more besides.
About a year ago I noticed my urine had adopted a rather unpleasant smell - similar to, but not quite the same as, when you eat asparagus. It persisted a rather long time and I did begin to wonder what it meant. Now some of you may well have gone to your doctor about this but I know that going to your doctor because your wee "smells funny" is simply challenging them to make up an explanation that you'll buy! Anyway it went away after a while and I thought no more of it.
Until about a month ago when it came back again. It was only then that I made the link with exercise - this time last year I was training; then there was a bit of a gap and now I'm training again. A little bit of research and I discover that this is a recognised phenomenon. The smell is ammonia and it reflects the switchover of your metabolism to a catabolic state (i.e. you're breaking down your protein and fat energy stores to provide fuel for increased activity). In other words, as I exercise I'm burning up my own body and peeing the results down the loo!
I'm melting.
This has to be a good sign.
Stepped up to some rather longer running sessions this week which is proving hard but Prince is seeing me through the dark times and I've lost a little weight for the first time since I (re)started.
So -
Distance covered last week:Approx 10km run/walking
Weight:133.6kg (0.8kg down from high point)
Musical highlight: Hello by Prince
Watch this space.........
In the meantime you can support me (and my wife and my friend Stu) by donating to Yorkshire Cancer Research at www.justgiving.com/fatrich
or by texting LUMP99 £x to 70070 (where x is the amount of pounds you wish to give).
Thank you all.
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
The second child
I've often wondered about people who have more than one child. Except for those with twins, triplets or morelets - I guess they had little choice in the offspring number game. No, I mean people who have a baby and then another. They go through the trauma of childbirth (I'm assured that men can reproduce the pain of this by grabbing their bottom lip and dragging it over the top of their head to the back of their neck) and are then presented with a frankly useless, mewling, bottomless moneypit of a creature. I used to look forward to being on call! If it all goes as well as it can then by about 4 months you've managed to get some sort of routine going which allows you to get something resembling a night's sleep but you can kiss goodbye to going to the pub, pretty much anywhere of an evening and everything you used to associate with fun in your former life.
And then - a year or two later - they do it again! Just as things were beginning to resemble normality! Even weirder are those who wait 8-9 years before doing it again. I've noticed a similar phenomenon amongst people I'm proposing unpleasant medical investigations for - if you say it's in the next few weeks they pull a funny face and suddenly decide the symptoms they've had aren't so bad after all but if you say it's in 2 years they say fine! No problem!
My conclusion - if something is sufficiently far removed in time from your current position, either forwards or backwards, you are able to block out all the unpleasant things associated with it. You forget how awful it is to have a baby. You don't worry about the unpleasant test because it's not for a while yet.
You happily agree to run a half marathon in 18 months.
Only now it's just over 6 months.
Bugger.
Now it gets real - the registration is in. The charity website is up and running (Yorkshire Cancer Research - like normal cancer research only better). It's happening ladies and gentleman. The fat lad gets fit from now on.
SO, Fat Run version 3.0
Weight:134kg (I know!)
Distance run last week:precisely nil (unless you count the mad dash to the station to get to London on Friday so I could visit Marco Pierre White's Steakhouse)
Current confidence level:High (it's still over half a year away)
Please visit JustGiving to donate
or text LUMP99 £X to 70070 (where X is the huge number of pounds you wish to donate)
Thank you
And then - a year or two later - they do it again! Just as things were beginning to resemble normality! Even weirder are those who wait 8-9 years before doing it again. I've noticed a similar phenomenon amongst people I'm proposing unpleasant medical investigations for - if you say it's in the next few weeks they pull a funny face and suddenly decide the symptoms they've had aren't so bad after all but if you say it's in 2 years they say fine! No problem!
My conclusion - if something is sufficiently far removed in time from your current position, either forwards or backwards, you are able to block out all the unpleasant things associated with it. You forget how awful it is to have a baby. You don't worry about the unpleasant test because it's not for a while yet.
You happily agree to run a half marathon in 18 months.
Only now it's just over 6 months.
Bugger.
Now it gets real - the registration is in. The charity website is up and running (Yorkshire Cancer Research - like normal cancer research only better). It's happening ladies and gentleman. The fat lad gets fit from now on.
SO, Fat Run version 3.0
Weight:134kg (I know!)
Distance run last week:precisely nil (unless you count the mad dash to the station to get to London on Friday so I could visit Marco Pierre White's Steakhouse)
Current confidence level:High (it's still over half a year away)
Please visit JustGiving to donate
or text LUMP99 £X to 70070 (where X is the huge number of pounds you wish to donate)
Thank you
Sunday, 15 September 2013
Can I Get A Rewind?
OK - so the inevitable happened. No blog posts for a few months does, unfortunately, mean no runs for a few months. Life has been pretty hectic - planning for a mahoosive barbecue party in August did kind of take over (and a few tins of Cornish Rattler meant that most of the party remains a bit of a haze, although I'm pretty sure I broke my collarbone!). Two weeks' holiday (cruising the Med) was lovely but unfortunately there was not much chance for running; the ship did have a running track on the top deck but unless you were up at 6am you had to spend most of the run avoiding deck hands mopping the deck, early sunbed reservers and people out in the designated smoking zone (through which the track went). That said, I did manage two sessions but this I'm afraid represents my only running since the end of July.
As I write this I'm watching the Great North Run which does mean that my target is now officially a year away so I guess I ought to start taking it seriously. This week is it!
So - to reboot:
Start of Week 2.1 (for computer OS numbering geeks):
Weight: Not telling
Exercise: None for a while
Feet: Still hidden from view!
As I write this I'm watching the Great North Run which does mean that my target is now officially a year away so I guess I ought to start taking it seriously. This week is it!
So - to reboot:
Start of Week 2.1 (for computer OS numbering geeks):
Weight: Not telling
Exercise: None for a while
Feet: Still hidden from view!
Monday, 17 June 2013
Viral haemorrhagic fever sucks
It's been a tough week this week. I began to feel a bit achy on Sunday and by bedtime had a raging sore throat and spent most of the night sweating and shaking (steady!). Monday morning felt worse and really shouldn't have gone to work but frankly it's a disaster if I don't! Managed to take Tuesday off and stay in bed and started to feel a better by Wednesday. Despite my early fears of Ebola virus it seems it was just a cold. I have been coughing up good volumes of sputum however and was quite breathless at times. All-in-all there was no way I could have exercised. A shame really as I was looking forward to seeing how I coped at a slightly lower pace. I've just spent the weekend on call - really not sure I want to be doing 56 hour shifts of on-call as I get older but the upside is no opportunity for ale which is all good for the weight loss.
So today I've done my first exercise for over a week. I've decided to for it and step up to the next week's programme, the one that was scaring me a fortnight ago. Anyway, despite still having a good chesty cough it seemed to go OK and, most importantly, I got through it without having to give up. Another "fear" conquered, and I've now managed to run for 6 minutes non-stop at 7kph. I reckon this will be my half-marathon pace so am aiming for a time of 3hrs. Just 2hrs 53mins to go!!
Weight-wise it's been a bit of a milestone week as I got down to 127kg, representing a stone of weight loss since this whole thing began. This morning I was 126.5kg! I've enjoyed watching England limping through to the ICC Champion's Trophy semi-final but I fear South Africa or India will prove a bridge too far!
So, end of week I've lost count
0km run
126.5kg (over a stone down)
Don't know when I'm going to get all the work I need to get done done over the next few days. Probably shouldn't be writing blog entries!
So today I've done my first exercise for over a week. I've decided to for it and step up to the next week's programme, the one that was scaring me a fortnight ago. Anyway, despite still having a good chesty cough it seemed to go OK and, most importantly, I got through it without having to give up. Another "fear" conquered, and I've now managed to run for 6 minutes non-stop at 7kph. I reckon this will be my half-marathon pace so am aiming for a time of 3hrs. Just 2hrs 53mins to go!!
Weight-wise it's been a bit of a milestone week as I got down to 127kg, representing a stone of weight loss since this whole thing began. This morning I was 126.5kg! I've enjoyed watching England limping through to the ICC Champion's Trophy semi-final but I fear South Africa or India will prove a bridge too far!
So, end of week I've lost count
0km run
126.5kg (over a stone down)
Don't know when I'm going to get all the work I need to get done done over the next few days. Probably shouldn't be writing blog entries!
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Making your mind up....
It's been a good learning week this week. As you may or may not know I'm repeating a week from the programme, having the found the previous week too hard. Today I decided to do my run outside rather than on the treadmill. It has been an interesting experience - obviously I'm tracking the run with some smartphone software. Although the time has been the same I've actually covered an extra 0.5k compared with the treadmill programme - turns out I run slower and walk faster. I was running at a pace that felt comfortable today, one I think I could run a half marathon at and it turns out it's 7kph, not the 8kph I've been trying to do on the treadmill. This would work out at a 3hr time for the half-marathon which I'd actually be really pleased at. Two lessons - run outside wherever possible; run at 7kph on the treadmill.
Have also enjoyed the random iPod today - highlight was probably Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Live) - poor old Ozzy; still sounds good but can't quite hit those high notes any more! Have also been enjoying Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys, an album I can recommend to anyone.
Spent the weekend clearing out the garage and have managed to fill an entire skip; there's so much space in the garage now I reckon you could get a car in it! Weather seems to be trying to improve so it's all looking up.
So here it is - end of week whatever!
Weight 127.5kg (over a stone lighter than on New Year's Day 2012)
Ran 7.25km
Drank some beer and champagne
Planning on more outside running!
Have also enjoyed the random iPod today - highlight was probably Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Live) - poor old Ozzy; still sounds good but can't quite hit those high notes any more! Have also been enjoying Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys, an album I can recommend to anyone.
Spent the weekend clearing out the garage and have managed to fill an entire skip; there's so much space in the garage now I reckon you could get a car in it! Weather seems to be trying to improve so it's all looking up.
So here it is - end of week whatever!
Weight 127.5kg (over a stone lighter than on New Year's Day 2012)
Ran 7.25km
Drank some beer and champagne
Planning on more outside running!
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