A few Musings from my diary

11:45 25/05/2015

  Bought a new MTB today from Oman Bicycle, fantastic service and very friendly, i will be  going out on it a bit later in a hope that it cools down first.

  Over the last few months as the weather over here has slowly gone from hot to OMG i can't breathe its so damn hot. i have realised that my slightly chubby North European body is not adapt to running in this heat and try as i may i just can't get in to any sort of  schedule. I have tried walk/run, just run, just walk  going long a few times a week going short everyday but nothing seems to work as the  aforementioned chubby body just gives in along with the head,
  So step back 2 weeks to Thailand. I'm sitting at a road side cafe eating my noodles and drinking my Leo and i can't stop counting the amount of cyclists pootling by, PING!!!!! if you can't run in the heat surely you can bike in the heat?  24Hrs later and i'm risking my life in Surat Thani rush our on my newly aquired white Hipster single speed and loving every minute of it. Again jump forward 2 weeks and here i am in    Oman with a new bike (that will stay over here) waiting for the sun to go down before i venture out. I will let you know how i get on  

12:49 27/05/2015

  So how did i get on? i got on just fine. Since my last entry i have been out on the bike 3 times  (still trying to maintain 5k a day). Cycling in Oman is a lot easier than cycling in Thailand or UK for that matter and having a MTB means you can stray from the beaten path, that actual means riding over waste land or very rocky desert, either way it's Fun and at the moment that's what this is about, trying to enjoy exercise like i used to and not dred doing it.
Anyway back to this 5k aday for 30 days, i have never been able to just exercise for the fun of it, i'm way too goal driven for that. so i set myself a goal of 150k in 30days (swim, walk, run or bike). this seemed just about hard enough in the heat over hear to push me but achievable enough to keep me interested. problem is the bike soon eats up the km's, as a result i am reverting back to an old friendly completion style.
     Each day you can either SWIM BIKE or RUN but it must be a minimum of  SWIM = 1.5k - BIKE = 15k - RUN = 5k. you can of course do more if you like but you must do the minimum, 30 days and i will see what my total is and if i missed any days.

 03:22 29/05/2015

Back in Brum, flew home yesterday morning arrived at home about midday had a bath and promptly fell asleep. now its 3:30am and i'm wide awake, You have to love your body clock!!!!, Anyway this means i missed another 5k yesterday but judging by the amount of sleep i had i'm guessing the rest was more important.
   i intend on cleaning the MTB today (it hasn't been cleaned since the Duathlon back in Nov 14) and hopefully get into a bit of a habit of going out on it each morning, i also need to take Gus out for a good long walk. He looks at me everytime i move in a 'are you leaving me again' sort of way.

15:50 31/05/2015

fantastic ride yesterday on the MTB. Pootled into town on the canal then followed the old Harbourne railway walk back up to manor farm then round the back of Bartley green Reservoir. it was rather chilly but i really enjoyed it.
    i had originally set myself a challenge of 150k in 30 days. i am now 9 days into the challenge and only have 10K to go. Time to rethink things slightly (But i have talked about that enough).

Mark

Unable to Sleep

Total Jet Lag.

    Arrivved in Oman at 10am went straight to the hotel and slept from 11am yesterday morning now wide awake at 3am (Muscat time). this meant that the 5k aday thing has been blown right out of the water, I,m still on track for 150k in 30days, So the best thing to do is just ignore the fact that i missed a day and keep moving forward.

   Decided to leave  the Hipster bike in Thailand for if i ever return so its hopefully now safely locked up in the container with all the other tools, i will no doubt forget about it over time and be nicely surprised when i return to Thai in a few years,

   Turned Outlook on this morning and the Calendar was nice enough to remind me that i should have been doing Outlaw Half next weekend. not sure how i ever thought i was going to train for a half ironman while travelling and working in the way i do, but then that's what the 5k a day was meant to be about, getting out and doing something no matter where i am in the world and what i'm doing.

   I have to drive up to Sohar on Tuesday to look at a new job that i will be doing in Aug and Sept. this will be a good chance to look for a bike shop and see about picking up a MTB for training on while here in the hot months. Sohar is nice, it's right on the beach but i noted that a pour 2 year old girl was swept away and drown from there last week, her poor poor parents must be distraught.

It doesn't take a whole day to recognise sunshine

It's been a long time since I attempted to blog. And in truth the last few years just haven't happened for me with regard to training and racing. 

Hopefully I will be able to explain why in future blogs but for now I just wanted to see if this worked. 

So goodbye for now. 

Mark 

The Day I Became AWESOME

The Longest Day

SWIM.

Picture the scene 1991. its 6am and I’m standing in a field next to a lake, I have been up all night ‘raving’ faithless are playing full blast on the sound system and I’m off my head.

Now jump forward 15 years. Again 6am in a field (well car park), again faithless on the sound system only this time I’m a lot more focused and there is a lot less of me about 4st to be exact, HOW MY LIFE HAS CHANGED.

I was worried about the, No actually I was petrified I was not going to make the cut off. But still in walked in to the water like a condemned man. And as the horn went off I thought oh well just swim and see what happens.

First thing I noticed was how warm the water was. Well it was in my wet suit. (We all do it) once I started and got in to a rhythm not a lot else happened. As I came out of the water I looked at my watch. 1:30hr I could not believe it. That must be wrong.

In to transition and I’m helped to change by a fellow B.R.A.T. also in there are Dave, and Ceri. Out to my bike and away at 1:40hr.

BIKE.

Rain !!!!!!! this was perfect cycling weather. Now what had I been told Do NOT go off too fast! Obey your HR and eat as much as possible. SOD THAT I’m flying this ironman thingy is a piece of …… that’s not how it went at all, I just tucked in and got my legs spinning and thought about getting to the first feed station. Soon enough I was there. Swapped bottles, grabbed 2 bananas and did not stop,

Its funny what you think about when your alone for 7hr on a bike, if I’m spinning at 90 r/p/m then times that by 60 then times that by 7 and I will have turned my legs 37,800 times by the time I get off the bike,

I was actually enjoying the bike until about 70 miles when I realised that for about 10 miles I had been chasing the bike in front, STOP RACING!!! So I got off the bike for a toilet break, that way I bike in front would go on and I could get back to my own rhythm, just as I get back on the bike . Someone passes me, Now I have a bike 100yds in front of me. NOT FOR LONG,   “stop racing”.

Once I reached 80 miles and the turn for home. I feel great. I’m boosted by seeing John and Sue Ward. And as I’m riding up the duel carriage way. Their car pulls up by the side of me and they spend the next 5 minutes lying to me about how good I look, Do they not realise I can in the wing mirror.

The last 12 miles on the bike is nothing but hard work, Mainly because I do not want to get of the bike and I certainly do not want to run a MARATHON.

But like all good things the bike soon comes to an end and I stagger in to T2.

I’m greeted by Paul RobertShaw (BRAT CHAIRMAN) who spend the next 10 minutes changing my clothes, covering me in sun cream and feeding me water and generally making me feel like a proper triathlete. He is only interrupted by Sharon running in to the tent with a tube of glide in her hand shouting “GIVE ME YOUR NIPPLES”. As I run out of T2 I’m greeted by a mixture of BVHers and runner world forumties. Who over the next 4:56 minutes are going to become one of the main reasons I finish.

RUN.

After having my bottle filled up. I’m off. I had a plan you always need a plan!! Run 10minutes walk 2 minutes. This lasts for 3 miles. Then it becomes 8 minutes run 2 minutes walk.  By the second lap its walk/run/jog for as long as I can manage. But most important is make sure I’m running whenever I see someone I know. I maybe  dying inside, but as long as they all think I look good.

Having completed the third lap shouted instructions for BELL and LOLO to be by the gate when I come back, I start the last lap, I am joined by Paul foot ( a fellow BVHer) who asks if I want some company, by now I had developed a new plan run for the count of 50 walk for the count of 50 and it was working was actually passing people. So I one thing  you all thought would never happen did…… I ran the last 6 miles and kept quite while someone else talked. Mind you it did occur to me that I had spent the last 13hr getting from A too B, thing is I had quite liked A and really did not see the attraction of B. 

At the last turn I do not know what happened but I got my second wind and started for home with a new, fresh pair of legs as I turned in to the field  BELL and LOLO were waiting and all three of us crossed the line together.

I had finally completed the journey I set out on 18 months ago. I was feeling tired but very very happy. 13:45:18

Now how could I shave 58 minutes off the next one…….

   

the Day I became AWESOME

SWIM.

Picture the scene 1991. its 6am and I’m standing in a field next to a lake, I have been up all night ‘raving’ faithless are playing full blast on the sound system and I’m off my head.

Now jump forward 15 years. Again 6am in a field (well car park), again faithless on the sound system only this time I’m a lot more focused and there is a lot less of me about 4st to be exact, HOW MY LIFE HAS CHANGED.

I was worried about the, No actually I was petrified I was not going to make the cut off. But still in walked in to the water like a condemned man. And as the horn went off I thought oh well just swim and see what happens.

First thing I noticed was how warm the water was. Well it was in my wet suit. (We all do it) once I started and got in to a rhythm not a lot else happened. As I came out of the water I looked at my watch. 1:30hr I could not believe it. That must be wrong.

In to transition and I’m helped to change by a fellow B.R.A.T. also in there are Dave, and Ceri. Out to my bike and away at 1:40hr.

BIKE.

Rain !!!!!!! this was perfect cycling weather. Now what had I been told Do NOT go off too fast! Obey your HR and eat as much as possible. SOD THAT I’m flying this ironman thingy is a piece of …… that’s not how it went at all, I just tucked in and got my legs spinning and thought about getting to the first feed station. Soon enough I was there. Swapped bottles, grabbed 2 bananas and did not stop,

Its funny what you think about when your alone for 7hr on a bike, if I’m spinning at 90 r/p/m then times that by 60 then times that by 7 and I will have turned my legs 37,800 times by the time I get off the bike,

I was actually enjoying the bike until about 70 miles when I realised that for about 10 miles I had been chasing the bike in front, STOP RACING!!! So I got off the bike for a toilet break, that way I bike in front would go on and I could get back to my own rhythm, just as I get back on the bike . Someone passes me, Now I have a bike 100yds in front of me. NOT FOR LONG,   “stop racing”.

Once I reached 80 miles and the turn for home. I feel great. I’m boosted by seeing John and Sue Ward. And as I’m riding up the duel carriage way. Their car pulls up by the side of me and they spend the next 5 minutes lying to me about how good I look, Do they not realise I can in the wing mirror.

The last 12 miles on the bike is nothing but hard work, Mainly because I do not want to get of the bike and I certainly do not want to run a MARATHON.

But like all good things the bike soon comes to an end and I stagger in to T2.

Testing testing testing

This is a test blog. Using the Blogger app. On my iPad.

Week 8/52

Mon - today was about very little time and squeezing a session in where I could. I had to pass the gym on the way home from Weston, it was about 8pm so I decided to give the HIIT another go. I did a 10min warm up on the treadmill as I was jogging along I spied a setting on the panel that said "Fat Burner" and thought I'd give it a go. I set the timer for 20min and the pace at 6mph and pressed GO! A min passed and all was well then the treadmill started to rise till my head my touching the ceiling. I had to maintain the same pace only now I was stimulating a fell race up the side of Cat Bells. Thankfully after 30 sec the treadmill dropped to somewhere near level and allowed my to recover, but then 30sec later you guessed it we were back off up the fells. This circle continued till my 20min was up and I looked like I had been out running in the famous lake district weather. This was the hardest session I have done since the last hardest session I had done and TBH I'm starting to count down to the next one. 


Tue - decided to rest today and visit Scunthorpe the birthplace and ancestral home of that famous ultra runner @Ogeerunner. I can see why he moved. Well to be fair all I actually saw of the place was an industrial estate and a building site. 


Wed - Beer and lots of it. twitter lets you get drunk with friends in an empty bar


Thu - rest day and just as well TBH 


Fri - wasted day driving to Essex just to sit around and wait for stuff to be ready. 


Sat - this morning was a Team not so gorgeous run at Sutton park with a guest appearance from Sid. And right from the off the air was thick with testosterone and abuse. Sid looked so comfortable clipping along chatting and humouring the three of us as we fire advice at him about 'going long' right from the first time I met Sid I new he would achieve his dream of completing the ironman and after today i am know he will not just achieve it but he will smash it. As for the other 2 members of our happy band of men. Jules is class runner, he trains properly he runs with ease and he has the potential to really blow his GFA apart everyone who runs with him can see this and comments on it, now if only he would start believing it then he would truly become as awesome as we all know he can be and Matt was there as well. 
   We ran the route the fastest I have ever run it. I'm happy with that.


Sun - 68min run along the canal with Sue and the dogs. Not fast but not slow either. I am starting to enjoy that hurt again, the one you get from moving forward just outside your comfort zone. I may even stick to this type of training for another week.