Great North Run 2015 Part 2

Hope nobody was holding their breath for part 2 but here it is...

What I would have written in this next part if I had completed it all in one go would have been something along the lines of coming up with a training plan and getting out there and running regularly with my new found motivation. However I can now write with the benefit of hindsight and it's not quite as positive as I would have hoped.

Good news: There has been some running

Bad news: But not much of it

I've been out a total of 2 times covering a massive 5.85 miles. Still trying to stay on the positive though I did a few laps of a local playing field and did a mile in under 10 minutes which isn't much compared to where I was a few years ago but at least shows I do have a little bit of pace in me. The scary thing is that my mile pace was 9:43 and I will need to be doing around 9:10 for the whole 13.1 miles of the GNR if I want to achieve my goal of running a half in under 2 hours. Being realistic this may not be achievable as I'm effectively a newbie again but I've got enough time to see where I can get to as long as I can remain motivated and stick to my training plan. Might have to sneak in another race or two in the build up just to keep me motivated, or to put it another way, to scare myself into training!

So, what is the plan?

Well it's actually plans in the plural at the moment as the GNR is still so far away. I've worked backwards from the date of the race and as my goal is to run under 2 hours I'm going to do the sub-2 hour plan that I used the last time I ran a half marathon, which was Silverstone in March 2012 which I did in 2:01:37. That's a 12 week plan so starting next week I'm doing a 16 week plan with a pace aimed at doing the half in 2 hours 15 minutes. Is it realistic to plan to knock 15 minutes off my time in 12 weeks? Maybe not, but then I may get under the 2 hours 15 minute mark anyway. Looking back at the predictions I made for the 2 half marathons I've done before both times I was quicker than predicted so you never know!

All that remains now is to actually stick to the plan, get some miles in and see how it goes. I'm currently toying with the idea of doing some before work running in the week as I'm generally knackered when I get home from work and have no desire to go back out again. Of course this will mean getting up earlier and I'm not a morning person but we'll see.

So that about brings us up-to-date. Hopefully I'll get a short run in on Sunday and then the training starts properly on Tuesday. Hopefully there'll also be some semi-regular blog updates on my progress.

Great North Run 2015

So, this blog may finally have found its purpose in life. I think one of the issues that I've had with not keeping this blog updated is that I didn't really have anything to write about. I liked the idea of having a blog but lacked the content to make writing one worthwhile. However, an unexpected email received last week could change all that!

Now, I've already given the game away with the title of this post so you've probably guessed that the unexpected email was one telling me I was successful in the ballot for this years Great North Run and have a place in the race on 13th September.

How and why would someone who has managed to run a sum total of 14 miles in the last 2 years be trying to get a place in the world's biggest half marathon I hear you ask.... well it went a little something like this.

Maybe it was the over-indulgence over the Christmas period, maybe it was having some time off of work and re-charging my batteries, whatever it was I had decided to start running again and was determined that this time I was going to stick at it. I knew I had it in me, I ran a marathon in 2011 so I was obviously capable of sticking at it (I ran 741 miles in 2011 which takes some commitment!)

So on 1st January I layered up put on the running shoes and ventured out for a chilly 3 mile run. It was hard work but it felt good to be back out there. The following Sunday while having some breakfast before run number 2 of the year I came across the fact that the ballot for the first lot of places for the Great North Run had opened. I was a runner again, the GNR is one of those races that, along with the London Marathon, would be on my bucket list, if I actually had one. So no time like the present, details entered and my name in the hat. And with that I went out and did 3 more miles. The biggest challenge I thought would be whether I got myself out of the door after a day at work and that's exactly what I did on 6th January with another 3 miles in the bag. And then..... well actually I'm not sure what happened but the running shoes haven't been out since. As easily as that I had thrown away the good start and the new years resolution and gone back to being my old unmotivated self. At some point in the intervening weeks I had an email to tell me that I hadn't been successful in getting one of the first lot of ballot places. "Good job" said the little voice in my head. "You were never going to stick at that running lark again". And that was that... or so I thought.

I do recall on that initial rejection email it mentioning that my name would automatically be passed forward into the main ballot but that was really the last I thought of it until last Wednesday. I was sitting at my desk at work and my phone buzzed to signal the arrival of an email. Not expecting anything exciting I had a quick look at the subject and then stopped in my tracks. "Your general ballot results" it read. Now back when I was seriously running my name was in the ballots for the London Marathon and GNR every year and there was something about the wording of the subject that didn't seem right. It seemed to suggest that there was something worth reading inside and so, with trepidation I opened the email, and the very first word told me all I needed to know.... "Congratulations!"

So, when I least expected, or even wanted, it, there it was, a place in GNR 2015. Once the initial shock had subsided my general feeling was that this could be just what I need. There's every chance that this may be the one and only time I get the opportunity to be a part of this massive event and I certainly don't want to regret not putting in the training and making it to the start line. And if that's still not enough motivation they charge the entry fee to your card straight away so it's paid for and it looks like you pretty much need to lose a leg to even defer your entry (maybe a slight exaggeration) so I might as well get my moneys worth!!

So, what next? Well right now the 5am start this morning for work has caught up with me so I'm going to make this a two-parter. To be continued...

Fail!

Well, what was a good start to the year didn't last long....

Last blog entry - 04/01/14...... FAIL
Last run - 06/01/14..... FAIL

In my defence (here come the excuses) work has been so stupidly busy that time at home has been spent doing as little as possible and the past few days I've been dying from "man flu" but all in all not a spectacular start to the year!

My only recent success was managing to go the whole of yesterday without finding out the result of the Colts/Patriots game so that I could watch the game when I got home from work with the excitement of not knowing whether we (Patriots) would win or not. As it turns out it was pretty obvious early on what the result would be but at least it was the right one and is promising going into the Super Bowl. Monday 2nd February has already been booked off work to allow me to attempt to stay up to watch the whole game live although I think the challenge may be me still being awake by kick-off... I'm obviously getting old!

In other news Anglian continue to cover themselves in all sorts of the opposite of glory. If I had actually managed to maintain any sort of regularity to this blog there would be several posts telling tales of the sheer incompetence of the company but suffice it to say a couple of months after having had new windows and around 5 subsequent visits there are still outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved including one window where we are on our third unit (original=damaged, 1st replacement=wrong size, 2nd replacement=damaged) and frame damage from the original installation. We're currently debating whether it's worth complaining again but they seem to be indifferent to say the least and even one of the engineers that came out admitted we won't get anything out of them and that they will just continue to come and "rectify" any issues over the life of the 10 year guarantee!

Trying to think of a positive note to end the blog on but seeing as the only other thing of any significance that has happened recently is the wife crashing her car and currently waiting to see if the insurance company will write it off or not I'm going to struggle for any sort of happy ending.

Things can only get better....

Sunday Run

So far so good with the running new year resolution, another 3 miles done this morning. Slightly slower than my first attempt but when you consider that my legs are still sore from the first run and due to the freezing temperatures I was doing a good impression of Bambi on ice at times not too bad!

My run today was fuelled by a boiled with "real" soldiers thanks to the novelty Christmas gift from my parents!

Not much planned for the rest of the day apart from a trip to the shop later to pick up some ingredients for the curry I'm making for dinner tonight. Another, unofficial, resolution is to start cooking proper meals again rather than relying on quick and easy options from the freezer. Already have a couple of meals in the freezer as well as I always cook double batches. Just go to hope my 4 year old will eat it as she's been getting really fussy later. We've had to resort to a reward chart for trying new foods although I haven't actually made the chart yet so that's probably another job for today!

...Hello 2015

Resolution Update:

I went out for a 3 mile run this morning. It was cold and windy and was a lot harder than I though it would be but at least I did it, got out there and took the first step of becoming a runner again.

I have updated my blog! Two days on the trot so that's another tick in the box.

Not much else to report, back to work tomorrow :-( but at least it's just the one day then the weekend again.

My next run will probably be at the weekend and my next blog post? Well, watch this space...

Goodbye 2014...

So, time for an update to the blog.... it's about time.

First the diet, I discovered that it wasn't very interesting blogging about not eating very much a couple of days a week (and it wasn't very interesting actually doing it either) although it did yield some positive results.

My last (pre-Christmas) weigh-in was on 20th December when my weight was 141.2 pounds, body fat 21.7% and waist 32.5". So that's 12 pounds lost, 4.7% reduction in my body fat and and 2.5" off my waist. Considering I lost motivation and didn't properly fast towards the end of that period I'm happy with the result and am now in the market for some smaller jeans!!

So, what next? I haven't really decided whether I'm going to fast in the new year after two weeks off for Christmas but I have decided that I want to start running again. Looking back at my training log the last time I ran was May 2013. I was sure that I had been out at least once in 2014 but apparently not so after 17 months of being a lapsed runner I really want to get back in the saddle (or at least into the running shoes) and get my fitness back to a level where I can start entering races again with an ultimate goal of running a marathon again one day.

I'm hoping that I can manage to keep this blog more regularly updated, hopefully with progress updates on my running and life in general but we'll have to see!

So for anyone that reads this, hope you had a great 2014 and here's to an even better 2015!

Happy New Year!

An Update

So just over two weeks into The Fast Diet and what have I learned, apart from that I obviously lack the dedication needed to keep my blog regularly updated!

Firstly, fasting at work is a lot easier than doing it when I have a day at home. In fact I barely even notice. It helps that I'm ridiculously busy at work at the moment so don't really have time to think about whether I'm hungry or not.

Secondly, grilled chicken can get boring quite quickly, and I'm only eating it once a week as the other fast day I have been cheating and falling back on using low calorie ready meals.

Thirdly, the weekly weigh-in/measurements have thrown up some interesting and unexpected results, which seems like a good time to move onto the results and due to my lack of updates there are two weigh-in days to cover.

The first week results were as follows:

Weight: 10 st 11.2 lbs / 151.2 lbs / 68.6 kg - Two pound loss :-)

Body Fat: 25.9% - 0.5% loss :-)

BMI: 23.9

Waist: 35.25" - Quarter of an inch gain :-(

So all good news except from the odd gain around my waist. Now wrapping a tape measure around myself probably isn't the most accurate of ways of measuring my waist so I'm inclined to put it down to variance in positioning of the tape measure as there has definitely been some weight loss!

Which brings us to the measurements from yesterday:

Weight: 10 st 11.8 lbs / 151.8 lbs / 68.9 kg - Gain of 0.6 pounds :-(

Body Fat: 24.3% - 1.6% loss :-)

BMI: 24

Waist: 35" - Quarter of an inch loss :-)

So initially disappointment as I have put a bit of weight back on but pleasantly surprised that my body fat has continued to drop. Now I know that muscle weighs more than fat and I would love to think I have replaced fat with muscle but the fact I haven't been exercising means I think this is unlikely. Also my waist is back to where it started or possibly there is just no change.

Bit of a mixed bag really, was hoping for another two pound loss so the gain was quite a big disappointment but softened by the reduction in body fat.

Going to stick at it though and see what happens and will try to increase the frequency of my updates!