Just keep going ... everybody gets better if they keep at it.

Never have I found the title words to be truer than in the last week. As you know by now, I tackled the Amsterdam Marathon on the 18th October, with the aim of breaking 4 hours. Well,, in case you've shied away from all of my social media accounts, not only did I break 4 hours, but also 3 hours 45 minutes, crossing the line in 3 hours, 44 minutes and 30 seconds. Here's a pic of me just about to cross the line

Quite an action photo don't you think. I'd started the day with a plan of maintaining 8 mins 30 seconds a mile, until mile 16 then seeing what I can do in terms of increasing the pace from there. Now, that would mean me running faster / further than I've done in any of my training runs, but, there's no point going quietly into the night is there ? The route is fairly flat, well, most of Holland is in all fairness. Takes us through the Rijksmuseum, into the financial district before heading out to the best part of the course (in my opinion). Around 7 miles running along the banks of the river Amstel, one things for sure, I know where the well heeled live out there, some very impressive houses on the riverbank. Little did I know at the time, but as I passed the 13.1 mile marker, I had just set a new PB for my half marathon ! The pace by this stage was 8 mins 15 seconds a mile and I was still feeling very good. So good, in fact that I decided to throw in a quick one at mile 17 and see how I got on. Well it was a sub 8 min mile, but it didn't last and I paid the price in the last 10K for that ( at least I think I did) ... at one stage I was on for a 3:41finish but I just didn't have the strength left to maintain the pace, something I will need to work on for the future. Anyhow, rounded the corner, to take us into the Olympic Stadium and then it was time to see if I could stretch my legs for the last 300m .. I did, sort of ... Now, you may notice from the pic above of some red spots on my running vest .. have a closer look at the photo below

Yep, I had the dreaded runners nipple ! So excited was I to get to the start line, I forgot to apply the body glide before I handed my bag in. It wasn't until mile 14 when I looked down and saw that I was leaking claret ... now, I can genuinely say, it didn't hurt, either at the time or when I had a shower, hard as nails from Taibach see ! Great race and lovely location, talked to some lovely people on the run too, hope to see you again soon if you're reading this !

Other training included club night on the Wednesday before the marathon, then going taper stir crazy I did a sneaky 3 miler the next day. Wednesday after the marathon was also club night ( I must admit I struggled with the speed work that night). Friday, I decided to try and run with a bit more weight than I've done recently. So I managed to get 7kg in my rucksack and headed off on a hilly 5 miler, just to see what it would be like. In all honesty, it went well, in fact, due to the amount of bouncing of the rucksack / weights digging into my back, at times I had to slow down to minimise the impact of the weights on my back ! 12 hours later it was time for the very first Swansea Parkrun, 5K, timed, and the best bit, totally free ... every single week .. how good is that, I can't say how good this is and that everyone should try it ... you'll be totally amazed at what you can achieve ! Anyhow, surprised myself with the early pace ( in fact it was way too quick !) but managed to PB my 5K time  (for the 5th time this year). Ok, it was only by 2 seconds but it all counts. Even better was the fact that it was so close on the back of the weighted run ... definitely doing more of both the weight runs and the parkruns. Here's a photo of me approaching the finish line of the parkrun !

Anyhow, enough of all that, onto the fundraising section. First a reminder about the fundraising night in the Old Inn, Penllergaer on the 14th November. It's shaping up to be a good evening, with some great raffle prizes and even better, blow your socks off, auction items ... see the lists below.

Raffle prizes include, (but not limited to), 3 months gym membership of simply gym with family pass to LC2, one of Richard Clarks weight loss books, a session of Reiki, male and female hamper of body care products from L'Oreal and more !

For the auction, these are the items I currently have up for grabs, if you wish to make a bid now, please let me know ... bidding online stops on the 14th at 5:00pm ... if you've bid online and its still the highest after the auction in the pub, the item is yours .. its that simple .. honest .. have a butchers at the list below ( there may be more as well !)

1. Signed football by the Manchester City squad - Sean McManus £40

2. Signed football shirt by the Everton squad - Joni lloegr - £50

3. Cowboy hat with about 40 rugby badges on (kindly donated by Casper) - Darren Thomas £30

4. Golf 4 ball in the Vale Resort, Hensol (kindly donate by Aspire2Be), the lakes course - Peter Jones £100

5. Framed & signed Ospreys away shirt 2010/2011 season (kindly donated by Becky Clark/ The Bank Statement) - Darren Thomas £60

6. Liverpool football shirt, signed by Glen Johnson (kindly donated by Steve Furnell)

7. Two gold tickets to see Ospreys v Clermont in the European Cup in January 2016, access to premier lounge, match day programme - karl angell £100

8. Man Utd signed shirt (2014/15 season) with photograph of squad & signatures to aid identification, along with certificate of authenticity.- Darren Thomas (bidding on behalf of friend) - £110

Once again, a reminder about the date in the diary draw ... simply donate £10 via this link, and pick any date from Jan 1st to Dec 31st ... put the date you've chosen in the text box and once I've sold all the dates, I draw one out of the hat and winner gets £300 ... clicky here

Finally, congratulations to all my running friends who've recently completed their own races, be they 5K or the Snowdon Marathon .. you're all an inspiration as far as I am concerned.

A few more words that we need to adhere to ... "Know your limitations, then go and defy them" ... that's what I intend to keep trying to do !

Well done if you've survived this far

Til next time

Fatboy

I'm going for a run, I may be some time .....

…. But hopefully not that long #sub4hr !

This is the last blog until I’ve completed the Amsterdam Marathon. When approaching races like this, I always, without fail, look back at when I started running and the progress that I’ve hopefully made. Back in April 2013 I was persuaded via a friend on twitter to enter the Cardiff Half Marathon in October of that year, the longest I’d run prior to that being a Swansea Bay 10K some 10 years earlier, and it has to be said, some 3 stone lighter. I didn’t really know what I was doing when I was training for this, other than trying to increase the distance I could run each time. No tempo runs, no fartleks, no hill work .. nothing, other than run and keep going until I couldn’t go any longer, which, typically, wasn’t very long anyhow ! I managed to complete the ½ in 2 hours 4 mins, my longest run prior to that race being 9 miles .. yes, the 13.1 miles hurt ! The following week I joined 3M’s Roadrunners, based in Gorseinon and its been relentless forward progress since ( barring a 3 month lay off due to a rotator cuff injury).

I get asked quite often what do I do when my training or a race hasn’t gone to plan, its been bad etc. I find the singularly most important thing is to always, without fail, look for a positive in every single piece of training that I do. Did I mention, WITHOUT FAIL ! No matter how bad the run has gone, no matter how bad I feel after it, no matter how far away from the training session goals I am, I look for and always find a positive, WITHOUT FAIL (I have mentioned that before haven’t I?). As an example, the London Marathon was not a good run, twisting my ankle at 8.5 miles in & having to run / walk /hobble the remaining 17 miles home ! The positives from that were that I finished it (where others may have pulled out) and that I was only 30 minutes off my PB even with a dodgy ankle. See, the power of positive thinking !

Anyhow, enough  of the rose tinted stuff, what’s happened since the last blog … quite a lot and all positive yet again … the first West Glamorgan Cross Country League fixture of the season took place at Llanmadoc in the Gower. It was our clubs turn to host a fixture so a lot of organising went on between some fantastic people at the club, the National Trust and others. Working nights meant I wasn’t really in the right place to run, but I did help man the cake stall and thanks to all the great people who brought cakes and then bought other peoples, we raised £240 on the day, between my charity and another club members, so £120 more for the cause, great stuff.

Runs over the past 2 weeks …. (all logged on Strava now, if you’re really that interested in looking at the splits and so on !)

18 miler along Llanelli coastal path, aiming to keep my heart rate around 145 bpm .. achieved the aim at a pace of 9’ 51 mins

Club race 5K race from Llanelli Leisure centre out and back, the day after an 18 miler, legs felt heavy, but I managed to beat my 5K PB by 5 seconds, lord knows how that happened ….

Hilly 12.5 miler, with 3Kg pack on my back at marathon pace, again achieved aim, pace per mile was 8’54 seconds -  with hills and weight on my back, very pleased with how that went.

Fartlek session along Llanelli coastal path, about 6 miles in total, 1 min effort, 1 minute recovery for 30 mins, peaked my speed at 5 mins 30 seconds a mile ( ok only for a minute but I felt like Mo Farah at one point !)

Gentle 5 miler after the previous days club training, 5.1 miles in total at a pace of 8 mins 19 seconds.

10K training run along Llanelli coastal path, not really pushing it and not paying much attention to time / pace, at least not until I looked at my watch after the 5^th mile. My pace for which was 8 mins … anyhow, I looked at the total time so far and could see that I was on for a PB if I pushed hard for the final mile and a bit. Last mile was completed in 6 mins 55 seconds menaing I PB’d my 10k time on a training run by 25 seconds … it’s strange how these things happen but very pleasing when they do !

So, what do I hope to get from the Amsterdam Marathon, well, my target time is to get under 4 hours .. anything better than that will be a bonus !

Fundraising continues with some very generous people out there donating prizes and money, they know who they are, thank you, all of you.

Quick reminder of the fundraising night being held on the 14^th November in The Old Inn, Penllergaer, Swansea. It’s shaping up to be a good night, got some great raffle prizes, and confirmed items for the auction, to date are

1.       Signed football by the Manchester City squad

2.       Signed football shirt by the Everton squad

3.       Cowbay hat with about 40 rugby badges on (kindly donated by Casper)

4.       Golf 4 ball in the Vale Resort, Hensol (kindly donate by Aspire2Be)

5.       Framed & signed Ospreys away shirt 2010/2011 season (kindly donated by Becky Clark/ The Bank Statement)

6.       Liverpool football shirt, signed by Glen Johnson (kindly donated by Steve Furnell)

There may be more to come as well …. If you’re interested in any of the items above, make a bid and let me know … also, if you have anything you feel like donating to the auction, again, I’d love to hear form you.

Once again, congratulation on surviving this far, the £10 date in the diary continues, if you wish to donate £10 for a chance to win £300, click on the link and enter your name and the date you want when you donate …. I’ll confirm that the date you’ve chosen is free (if not, you can chose another one) .. clicky here to donate http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/MdS-Madness

 

Finally, I have to share this photo, its of two members from the running club, one was helping the other achieve a PB in the recent Caridff Half, just look at the determination on their faces … fantastic team work … which reminds me, make sure you have self belief beyond reason, be your biggest fan and smash it !

 

 

See you after Amsterdam

Fatboy

Life is a journey, not a competition

Another two weeks and time for another blog. I have some great news to share with you !!

Counting all the money either already donated or pledged, we have now passed over £2,500 !!

I can't thank you all enough ... I'm amazed at the generosity of everyone who has helped me so far and those who continue to help. Prizes continue to be donated from some very kind businesses, for my fundraising night on November 14th in The Old Inn ( have I mentioned that before), we've even got afternoon tea for two at Morgans' Hotel in Swansea (that's proper posh that is like !). Sunday 27th Sept, we had a cake stall at Llanmadoc for the first West Glamorgan Cross Country race of the season and as a joint effort with another one of my running club friends we raised £240 .. so £120 for the cause made on a lovely day in the Gower, how's this for a view ?

 

I've also made excellent progress on the "date in a diary" raffle, where you could win £300, around 124 dates sold so far ... If you want a chance to win £300, donate £10 on my page HERE and in the text box type in a date you'd like from Jan 1st to Dec 31st .... once I sell the lot, I draw one date and that person wins the cash .. simple !

So how has the MdS training been going .. well yet again, it hasn't, as my focus over the past two weeks has been more on the fast approaching Amsterdam marathon on the 18th October .... determined to go sub 4 hours for this one and training is going very well. Another relatively low mileage week, with a couple of circuits sessions thrown in to help strengthen my running muscles and prevent injury ... it seems to be working !

A few short recovery runs in the streets near where I live, all involving hills .. as I can't leave my house for a run without having to tackle one ( or more ) without hitting one on the way out or the way home. Then a 10K from Killay ( note - that rhymes ! ) along the Dunvant cycle track up to Gowerton and back, again hills involved. Finally a 13.1 run up to the reservoirs in Velindre and back, even more hills involved in that one. I was planning on pacing the 60 minute group for the Swansea Bay 10K but had to take my daughter to Sophia Gardens to compete in the Welsh Karate Championships ( she got a Silver and a bronze too !)

Plan for the coming week is to hit another 20 miler on Tuesday with a short one either side before returning to work on Thursday.

A lot of people I tell about what I'm doing are keen to learn what it really involves and what will it be like living in the desert for a week. So I'll be going to incorporate a bit about what I'm learning about desert living into my blogs from now on.

This week, we have the question most people ask, 'what about going to the toilet' .. well there's a couple of options, one being the obvious 'behind a bush' (or whatever you can find) option. The race organisers do have some makeshift ones to use ... see the pic below ... I think I'll be going with option 1

In addition to the above, the next popular question is 'where will you be sleeping'. When I answer a tent, there's often a look of disappointment on peoples' faces, as I expect me to say 'under the stars' or some such response. I think that's because people have a preconception of what a tent is like ... well, these 'tents' are slightly different, here's a pic of all of them in the desert.

If you look very closely, you will see there are no side walls / doors to these 'tents' ! They are very simply constructed bivouacs, a far cry from the type of tent you get on a Canvas holiday as an example.

Finally, I cant do this blog without mentioning Saturday ... no, not the night shift I had to work, but the rugby match that was going on when I was in work .... this picture expecially for Mrs Harris

I read a post on facebook from someone who claimed "not to be a proper runner" who had just completed their first 50K run, a fantastic achievement in my opinion .... obviously, they now considered themselves to now be a proper runner .... my response was no matter how far or how little you run, if you run, you are a proper runner !

Very well done on getting this far yet again

Life is a journey, not a competition ... (apart from when the rugby is on natch )

Til next time

Fatboy

Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations

Two weeks have flown since the last blog .... in running terms the first week was a total rest week for me. That's right, I didn't run a single mile !

Was I injured ? No !

Was I suffering from a lack of motivation ? No !

Had someone stolen my trainers ? No !

Mainly, it was due to having to work ( I know I normally do a run between my day and night shifts, but I felt like I needed a break !) and going to Glasgow to watch my youngest daughter compete in the British Karate Championships in the Emirates Arena. An eight hour drive was certainly worth it, when, competing in her first competition at this level, she won Bronze in her category.

 

 

Anyhow, I felt refreshed after the week off, so Monday just gone, I tried out my new trainers, Brooks Ghost 7 (2 E width fitting), on a gently our long run , just under 7 miles, they felt good. I followed that up on Monday by going to our weekly circuits class in Olchfa School ... it was certainly tough but oh so worth it. Here they are ... that's me breaking them in up in Glasgow !

 

 

 

Wednesday evening was time for another one of our running clubs Grand Prix (there are 10 throughout the year, with you 7 best results counting for points. At the end of the year, there's awards, promotion and relegation, so it's taken pretty seriously !). Only a short run and fairly flat, 5K along the Gorseinon cycle path. How did I get on, only went and PB's my 5K time, 21 minutes 50 seconds .. get in !

 

Thursday daytime, I ran the half marathon route up to the lakes in Velindre again, legs were a bit tired and I really took my time, 13.1 miles in around 2 hours ten minutes. Saturday was deemed long run day ... my aim was to do a 20 miler, and for that to be around the pace I want to run in the Amsterdam marathon next month. Well, I managed to PB my 20 mile time too, 2 hours, 58 minutes and 30 seconds ... first time under 3 hours and a PB by over 13 minutes .... look at the splits too ! I was so pleased for a number of reasons. Mainly because I had hit my target, but also because I know there was more left in the tank ... even maintaining this pace suggests a marathon time of 3 hours 53 minutes or so .... think I may adjust my target time to 3 hours 50 minutes ! (But lets not get too ahead of ourselves eh !!) Grab an eye full of those splits ... very pleasing that I managed to keep the same pace more or less for the whole run ....

 

Two PB's in four days .... that break must have done me some good.

 

 

 From a fundraising point of view, its been a good couple of weeks too, several companies have generously agreed to sponsor me ... more about this in future blogs, similarly, a few more prizes have been donated for the fundraising evening in November (14th in The Old Inn - have I mentioned that before ?). Howeve,r if there are any other business owners reading this, and you'd like the chance to get your company name / logo on an item of kit please get in touch with me at tircoeds@googlemail.com

 

Camels ! what about them ? Well, I'm told if a camel catches up with you on the MdS, the MdS is over for you, they are the sweepers, and walk at a very leisurely pace ... anyhow, I found this on facebook, a letter on Viz comic

 

"If camels have to conserve as much water as possible for their epic cross-desert journeys, why do they spit at people who annoy them ? Surely, a kick in the goolies would be far more water efficient!"

 

Cant really argue with that line of thinking can you ?

 

Don't forget the "date in a diary" raffle, where you could win £300 ...If you want a chance to win £300, donate £10 on my page HERE and in the text box type in a date you'd like from Jan 1st to Dec 31st .... once I sell the lot, I draw one date and that person wins the cash .. simple !

 

Once again, congratulations for surviving this long ... and remember, difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations

 

Have a good two weeks til next time

 

Fatboy !

 

 

 



Strive for Progress not Perfection !

Strive for Progress not Perfection !

A very apt title as time has gone so quickly, I didn't realise that I failed to do my blog last week .... so here's the progress .... the timing isn't perfect !

Another good couple of weeks training wise ... and progress made on weight loss, which has undoubtedly helped me get the times I've been getting recently.

So lets start, almost two weeks ago, a gentle 5 miles recovery run at 8'44" a mile pace, mile long hill involved in this run up past 3M's ... I used to hate that hill, now, its doable in a decent enough time  last year I'd have to walk up the hill !)

Club night on the Wednesday, intervals along Gorseinon cycle track, then on the Friday I did the half marathon run up to the top lake in Felindre again,  weighted back pack natch (for all Gwlad online readers !) but a more sedate pace of 9'19" a mile.

One again work intervened, but on the Wednesday it was time for one of the clubs monthly races ... managed 3.5 miles at a pace of 7'11" !!! Just twelve months ago I was struggling to get under 9 minutes a mile, now here I am hitting just over 22 mins for 5K ... came 17 out of around 50 runners ... again when I started with the club, I was typically towards the bottom 10 runners !

Friday just gone and it was time to get serious, enough of these half marathons, 15.2 miles at a pace of 9'13" per mile ... to hit my target of sub 4 hours for the Amsterdam marathon I need to be hitting 9'09" .... the run included around 1500 feet of elevation gain ... something I wont have to contend with in Amsterdam, so I'm quietly confident of getting #sub4hr !!

Saturday (yes the very next day after Friday !), was the day of the village fete. A chance to raise some money, possibly make some useful connections and run on the treadmill for a while.

Here I am on the treadmill !

 

 

 

Started off thinking I would run for 2 or 3 hours, as I doubted there'd be much interest and I seriously doubted my ability to do any sort of decent distance given that I'd run 15 miles the day before. How wrong I was on both accounts - firstly, my fellow villagers were fantastic, donating a total of £177. Secondly, buoyed by their interest, I kept going for the full 26.2 miles (42.1 Km) in a time of 4 hours 15 minutes .... here's a pic of the treadmill screen !

 

 

 

 

So a total of 42.2 miles in two days ... I was very pleased with the effort over the two days .. in particular the marathon, as it was 9 minutes quicker than my best time over that distance ! Yep, I'd PB's my marathon time on a treadmill ....

 

This got me to thinking, what have I done since my first Marathon in November 2014 ... well, there was London, the Ultra Marathon, and 3 'training' runs over the same distance ... 6 marathon distance runs ( and further ) in 9 months ... I never thought I'd ever be achieving these distances, yet along with such frequency !

 

From a fundraising point its going well, I'm over my negativity from the previous couple of weeks .. a few worthy mentions here ..

 

Kit Sportswear in Ireland (run by a good Port Talbot man of course), for supplying me with my running kit.

 

The Buck Inn for providing a raffle prize for my fundraising evening, a meal for two and a bottle of prosecco

 

Ed Curnow of Yo-Cart for donating a fantastic prize to the same raffle; he has a waffle and frozen yoghurt business. He has given a prize worth around £150, which means he will attend a party or other event with his waffle maker .... you'll be able to eat to your hearts delight !

 

I've also made good progress on the "date in a diary" raffle, where you could win £300 ... I've already sold 51 dates ... just 314 to go !! If you want a chance to win £300, donate £10 on my page HERE and in the text box type in a date you'd like from Jan 1st to Dec 31st .... once I sell the lot, I draw one date and that person wins the cash .. simple !

 

Once again, congratulations for surviving this long ... and remember, your comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there - experience life !

 

All the best for this week

 

Fatboy !

 

P.S. In the village fete, we hired a pub ... yep an inflatable pub ... and here it is !

 

 

 





Of course it's hard, if it was easy, everyone would do it !

Of course, its hard, its supposed to be hard. If its easy, everyone would do it. Hard is what makes it great !

I eased off on the mileage this week, some short gentle runs, a circuits session and a half marathon training run .... this training malarkey is starting to pay off too.

First, Monday night circuits session in Olchfa Skool sports hall, led by Pilot Light from our running club. 45 second bursts on a number of stations with 15 second recovery. Exercises ranged from weighted lunges, push ups, ab crunches, shuttle runs to a new exercise for me. It was a bit like a burpee, in that you do a squat but once up out of the squat then its a jump over a small hurdle ... they've been christened "Herpes" and for my schoolboy sense of humour, that name kept me entertained when my lungs were crying out for me to stop. Followed up with some yoga type exercises at the end ... I'm about as flexible as a housebrick, so these types of moves don't come easy to me at all .... what looks relatively straight forward can be very painful, kudos to those who manage these week in week out !

Tuesday was spent recovering from Monday, Wednesday however, was a lovely warm day so we decided to hit the beach, Llangennith to be exact, who can resist these views eh ?

It was such a nice day, I managed a gentle 3 miler on the beach, all good practice. In the evening it was club night, which was a sprint session on the field next to Swansea Uni track .. like a billiard table the pitch was. Session was a 10 metre run getting up to speed, 30 metre sprint, focussing on form rather than all out speed and then a 10 metre slow down, followed by a recovery jog of about 150 metres. Of course, when I say the sprint was all about form rather than speed, that was the intention, however, when there's a few middle aged men next to each other the competitive spirit takes over, I think nearly every sprint turned into a race ... really enjoyed it but by god, my hamstrings were still reeling 4 days later ! Session ended with a cool down and more of the yoga type stretches we did on Monday. Thursday saw my youngest daughter, my wife and I embark on a gentle jog through the forest. this was such a nice thing to do, running along side my wife and daughter was a lovely experience. Now, I must say I was very impressed with what my wife, Lou, managed. As many of you will know, she had breast cancer last year, and had to endure chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a bilateral mastectomy .... so its knocked the stuffing out of her. She managed a mile, which may not sound like much but given the amount of treatment she's had I was very impressed with how far she managed.

Work interrupted my training for a couple of days, but on Sunday morning, before my 12 hr night shift, I decided to do a half marathon with a weighted backpack, only 3kg to start with.  I'm thinking the sooner I get used to running with 8-10kg on my back the better. The route was from my house, through the forest, up towards Velindre and then up the hills towards the lakes, all the way up to the top one and then back down home. Now, I decided to use my heart rate monitor as an indicator of  effort rather than just looking at my pace all the time (learning a lesson from my 10k PB from the other week !). Now, it was a nice run and it felt well controlled, a few hills got my heart up to 160bpm but in the main it was around the 145 mark. However, I'd made another schoolboy error in that I hadn't charged my garmin and the battery warning came up just after I turned for home so I had to disconnect the hrm. Obviously I had to have a peak at the pace and it was surprisingly quicker than I had done this route before. In fact, by the time I was hitting 10 miles I could smell blood ... it looked like another PB was on. Prior to this my fastest half marathon was last years Swansea Half in a time of 1 hour 58 mins and 40 ish seconds .... so despite it being a 'gentle training run' I decided to keep the pace going and see what I got. At 12.6 miles in my garmin died, but I knew I'd do the extra 1/2 a mile in the run back home ..... my final time ( allowing for 1/2 mile at the average pace for the whole run) was 1 hour 52 minutes 8 seconds .. I'd smashed the 1/2 marathon PB by over 6 minutes on a very hilly course with 3kg on my back ! This is the elevation profile for the first half of the run, the second half being the same but in reverse !

 

 

I thought I'd add this photo just because its a good one !

 

 

 

 

A quieter week on the fundraising front again, which is now starting to concern me ... however, that's my problem ... wrote about 40 emails to local businesses and now waiting to hear from them, just 2 or 3 would be good ! On a much more positive note, my mother in law continues to add her considerable amount of help, this time managing to secure two hampers of loreal products that I will be either be raffling or auctioning off ... here they are, one womens and one mens hamper !

 

 

Also, I've stolen another fundraising idea from one of my club members. I'm selling dates in a dairy for £10 each, once I've sold them all, I will pull a date from the hat and the winner will get £300 ! How does that sound .. a good way to help sponsor me and with a chance of getting a considerable amount of money back - lets see how it goes !

 

Again, congratualtions on getting this far, here's the obligatory plug for the fundraising page, click me, you know it makes sense

 

Final thought for the week - one day, you'll wake up and there wont be any more time to do the things you've always wanted - do it now

 

 

 

Fatboy

Relentless Forward Progress

Another great week training wise .. I'm slowly getting into the 'zone' !

Monday was my MdS training day with Rory Coleman (12 time finisher of the MdS & coached Ranulph Fiennes to completing this year) ... I figured if he can't guide me down the correct path then no one can ! I thoroughly enjoyed they time I spent with him and learnt so much about the correct kit to take .. more importantly what not to take and what not to do also. I'd urge anyone competing for the first time to spend time with him, it'll save you money and pain. Most valuable lesson of the day was how to tape my toes to avoid blisters .... tried it later in the week and it worked ! I should add that it was a 1:1 session .... once all the advice on kit had been provided off we went on a 26.2 mile run.

Now, I should admit I was very doubtful that I'd do the distance as the longest run I'd done since the ultra in May was a 13.1 miler about a month ago ... so hardly had the miles in my legs ... but what a enjoyable run it was ... not quick, as it was all about getting the pace right for out in the race, so it took somewhere around 5hrs 15 mins, maybe a bit longer ! Ran from near Sophia Gardens down to Barry and back .... managed it and my calfs felt better for it as opposed to worse that I thought they would !Home and walked the dogs a few miles just to help recovery and the same the next day.

Wednesday night was club night with 3M's - lovely session hosted by Alyson, despite the weather. Then along came Saturday - I was fundraising in M&P's open day .... I was going to attempt a 26.2 miler on a treadmill, the furthest I had ever run on a treadmill prior to then was 10K ! Must say a big thanks to all who gave so generously, especially this guy .... made the trip down from Rhos just to say hi .. legend !

 

 

And here's one of me in action too ! The keen eyed among you may realise that I'm wearing a cycling top not a running top .. NSPCC sent me that by mistake, but I couldn't not wear something with the name on when running for them ... it was warm (no where near sahara temperatures though !) ... no air flow through the top, I was gently perspiring, and had a little bit of a glow about me.

 

 

 

Now, in the past two weeks I've been trying to shed a few pounds, as advised by Mr MdS ... so I've cut out bread, potatoes, in fact anything white from my diet .. and obviously chocolate etc.... I've been very surprised by how quickly the weight has come down, from 14st 2lbs to 13st 6lbs this afternoon ! here's the proof  (picture quality not great )! I'd imagine running 66 miles in the previous 7 days helped a bit too.

 





Fatboys Fantastic Funders;

I have to say a massive thank you to everyone who donated so generously on Saturday at M&P's Motorcycle open day .... haven't had a great deal of time for anything else this week !

Again, if there are any businesses who would be open to sponsoring some of my equipment then I would love to hear from you.

Once again, well done on reaching the end, another plug click here to donate please !

Thought for today "the body wont achieve what the mind don't believe"

You know it makes sense

Fatboy