Year of the Diet: Marathon

Showing posts with label Marathon. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Wednesday Weigh-In 30 July

Did you miss me?

It has been a bit of a prolonged absence from the blog. More than 50 days away and probably lots of questions about what has been going on. In that time there has been the World Cup, a trip with the family to Disneyland Paris, the start of an interim promotion at work, a birthday, a wedding, my eldest finishing Reception Year at school and my youngest deciding that partial lower limb paralysis was not going to stop him getting vertical.

Who is a clever boy then?

I've not spent a great deal of time thinking about my weight. Until the last few days I've done very little exercise either, with my 6 week gym membership expiring with little usage. All the while my wife has been very proactively dieting and doing incredibly well. I'm very proud of what she has achieved to date thus far and only wish I had been more supportive in recent weeks.

I wouldn't say that I've been in self-destruct mode, but I've definitely not been at my best on the eating front. I'm carrying a bit more lumbar than a few months back but things could have been a whole lot worse. I briefly touched 15st a couple of weeks ago which I can't say was a tipping point, but has prompted some corrective action. Spending a few days with Mickey Mouse certainly helped as there is a hell of a lot of walking involved going round the park day after day. The prohibitive cost of food meant I was restricted to the picnic prepared every morning, cutting out top up snacks. The walking and hot Parisian sun certainly helped to burn the calories.

This week I've started to turn my attention back towards exercise. I signed up some time ago for the Royal Parks Half Marathon in October and it has dawned on me that it won't be long before that comes around. Barring a handful of sessions on a treadmill in my short lived gym experience, I had not run since my half marathon back in March. Knee and back injuries, apathy and the lazy lure of summertime have put paid to my fitness levels, and when I embarked at the weekend on my first parkrun since February it showed. I recorded my second slowest time over the 5k distance and it was one hell of a struggle.

Slow Slow Slow

Still, it was a starting point to move forwards from. My first meaningful run in months, exhausted from the week away. Probably a bit dehydrated. Lots of excuses I could draw upon, but ultimately down to my inactivity in recent times. With the cobwebs shaken and the body given a rude awakening to the concept of exercise, I felt better for it. Last night I went for another run and it was easier. Still a lot of mileage to cover in the next couple of months to get me race fit.

Tuesday night action

So where do I sit on the weight front. Better than expected to be honest. I'm approaching my 6th wedding anniversary and I'm virtually 1st lighter than the day I got hitched. The 14st target remains aspirational and not altogether out of sight, and with the upcoming surge in training I should be able to shift a few lbs without having to starve myself in the process.

Content

Onwards and upwards then. 73 days to go until I run this Plenty of work needed to get me to the finish line.

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

The Kindness of Strangers

Since entering the bloggersphere some time ago, I've been pleasantly surprised by the level of support that exists. For all the talk of social media trolls, and lets be honest the abuse thrown at the likes of Stan Collymore goes beyond the pale, I've found the world of blogging and Twitter to be full of people who want me to do well.

In recent weeks, I've hooked up with a #WobblesWednesday collective of bloggers who are trying to do something about their weight. I love the encouragement that everybody gives to one another, leaving comments on blogs and interacting through twitter. The number of positive messages I receive for my weigh-in articles provide added incentive to do well. Until now I've very much dieted alone; now it feels like I've got a mini-community rooting for my success.

Away from the dieting, I've received kind words in support of my running exploits. Since exchanging tweets relating to parkrun, we've continued to interact, culminating in mutual sponsorship for our forthcoming runs. The fact that somebody I've never met wanted to help with my fundraising efforts is quite incredible. I wish them all the very best as they prepare to tackle the London marathon in April.

While I'm on the subject of sponsorship, I've been touched by the response to date. People who I've not seen for a very long time have shown immense kindness. My great aunt and uncle on my father's side who I have not spoken to for years got wind of my half marathon plans in a Christmas card from my mother, and put a cheque in the post. I've received donations from people connected to my time short time in Swansea some 12 years ago. A guy I knew from school added to the sponsorship pot, saying he found my blog inspiring, and he was trying out my spinach and chorizo salad for lunch. All relative strangers, all incredibly generous.

My blog has even found an unlikely source of support. Author and former Conservative Party MP Louise Mensch took an interest after I responded to some of the posts on her JoyHacks website which explores personal happiness and well being. A few tweets from Louise's account made a noticeable increase in traffic to my blog. I don't necessarily agree with or endorse her often outspoken political views, but we share a lot of common ground on fitness and health. Besides, anybody with close connections to Metallica is alright in my books.

Do read @bigfatrebel blog, http://t.co/TnRpCpxJd3 he left a comment on our latest http://t.co/kVe5amHcKT - showing difference therapy made
— Joyhacks (@joyhacks) January 15, 2014

Of course it not just strangers and people from my past whose support has helped my dieting and fitness kick in recent times. My loved ones, friends and colleagues have all played their part too, not least my wife who has taken charge of the boys on Saturday mornings since July, while I've been improving my performance over the 5k distance. I can't thank everybody individually, but would like to offer a collective Cheers.

Just under 7 weeks to go until I run 13 miles. With the kindness of strangers, as well as the support and love of my nearest and dearest, I've nothing to fear.

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

I am Karl Pilkington

Tonight I learned a valuable lesson to take forwards with my half marathon training. Essentially I know nothing about running and I am an idiot.

Yes I am

Why do I think this? Well, to date I've been making things up as I go along. A bit of running here, a bit of running there. I've not followed any particular plan or schedule, and have just been getting by on my own instincts. When I wasn't feeling 100 per cent a couple of weeks back, I listened to my body and held off on the training front. So far so good.

On Sunday I ran 10 kilometres. I've never run further, and so by default that was my long run for the week. If you look through simple training plans, such as this one following a long run should come a rest day and then an easy/recovery run. Yesterday I rested. Today I should have been a recovery run. Only I knew better and had greater ambitions. I wanted to raise the bar a bit higher and get up to the 8 mile mark tonight.

I felt pretty fresh and had no ill effects from Sunday's exertions. But it soon became apparent that my body wasn't up to anything challenging this evening. Unfortunately having set out for a long run, this epiphany occurred only after I had run 4 and a half kilometres away from the house. Clearly a ploddy run around the block would have served me better tonight, rather than find myself a long way from home. The journey back was a patchy mix of walking and running. My apps tells me in total I ran just over 7.5km which is still a good workout, but well below what I was aiming for.

So today I've learned that I don't know best. I'm going to formalise my training schedule and listen to the advice of people who know a lot more about this running lark than I do. I've still got 7 and a half weeks to get this right, and I will.