so let me go far....

54 days to the big day and training is really beginning to bite. I’ve been tracking my running properly since 2008 and I now several thousand miles all neatly logged on Runkeeper (3530 miles, to be precise….which is further than the distance from Nottingham to New York. In fact, on my current mileage, I would have passed through Manhattan at some point in early January). It now seems that I’m breaking records every week: most mileage in a month, most miles in a week, longest distance, most time taken, most calories burned…. I did fourteen miles yesterday, taking me over the 40 mile mark for the week. My programme will see me undertaking a 20-22 mile run at the end of March, but in terms of weekly mileage, it’s not going to get much heavier than this.

Good.

Strange though it might sound, I’m actually enjoying the runs themselves, but they’re dominating my life. If I’m not actually doing one, then I’m thinking about the next one. I’ve never exactly had a crazy nightlife, but these days I’m so tired all the time that if I’m not actually asleep on the sofa, I’ve just given up trying to stay awake and I’ve gone to bed. Eight hours sleep is pretty much my minimum requirement at the moment….although lie-ins have become a thing of the past as it seems so much easier to get my long weekend runs done in the morning than let them hang over me for the rest of the day. I won’t lie to you: the thought of getting this marathon done and then being able to think about something else is becoming very appealing indeed.

Mind you, I suppose I shouldn’t grumble. A couple of years ago, I wasn’t actually sure if my body would allow me to run much more than six miles every again. The prospect of a half marathon seemed like an impossible dream when I was struggling to make my way around a single three mile run in a week. My body has been pleasingly resilient to the increased mileage. I was worried about the prospect of slowing down to run at my wife’s pace, but actually taking pace off the table and leaving only (only!) the mileage to worry about has been a real gift. It makes me chuckle to think that, in the past, running a half marathon would have been worth a couple of days of self-congratulation and a couple of days off running. Nowadays, I think nothing of running fourteen miles on a Sunday and heading out on the Monday to do a cheeky little six-miler (even if I did manage to fall over tonight after five miles, thanks to my dropping left foot and an uneven paving stone on Trent Bridge....). These miles won’t run themselves, you know.

Fundraising is going pretty well at the moment, but we’re still some way off our target and anything you can give will be very much appreciated.

Our sponsorship page is here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/TCMS

Maybe you could sponsor me to stop talking about running all the time?

fuel burning fast on an empty tank.....

Something odd is happening to my running.  For the first time in a long time, it's not something to moan about either.... I seem to be getting faster.  Not just faster in the sense that I'm coming back to my old form after a long spell of struggling with injuries, but actually faster.  I running as consistently fast now as I think I ever have.

I'll give you an example: last Friday, I nipped out of work at lunchtime to do a quick run.  I was tired because I'd been running the night before, and although this was supposed to be my day off, I'd promised my running buddy that I'd go out with her.  As it happened, she wasn't able to make it, but I'm an idiot, so I went anyway.  It was a nice day, but I set out into a considerable headwind, and the whole 3-odd miles felt like a bit of a slog.  Nice enough, but not quick... and then I looked at the stats.  I ran the whole 3.35 miles in a little over 26 minutes at a pace of 7.53 mins/mile.  I think the fastest pace I have ever run over any distance is 7.59 mins/mile, and that was about four years ago and something of a struggle (I remember it well!).  This one didn't even feel that fast, but I ran that route about three minutes faster than I ever have before.

It wasn't a one-off, either.  Every single run I have done in the last couple of weeks, including a couple of 7/8 milers, I've been averaging something like 8.15 mins/mile, regularly dipping under 8 minute/mile pace.  I'm definitely getting quicker.

It might be something to do with my new trainers - with the much lower heel.  Apparently, they encourage a mid-foot strike, which takes less energy and allows a higher cadence than heel striking.  Maybe that's made all of the difference.  Maybe it's made no difference at all.  It might be because I've been getting more early nights (which, now I think of it, might be caused by all this running). Whatever.  All I know is that I running further than I have in a year and faster than I maybe ever have.  Whatever is the cause, I'll take it.

At the start of the year, I set myself the seemingly unattainable task of running 600 miles over the course of 2014.  I managed around 400 last year, and even in a good year that seemed like a lot.  Well, there's a lot of year to go, but before we've even got to the end of February, I've tracked 115 miles.... I might be able to do this thing!

Why?

Well.  Just because.  Do I need another reason?

but you know it might be different in the New Year....

At running club last night (5.25 miles on a glorious, clear evening) I was asked to fill out a little card with my running ambitions for 2014.

I'm not really into this kind of thing.  I don't do New Year's Resolutions and I seem to have managed without making too many daft commitments at this time of the year up until now.  January is dark, cold and miserable.  Why would you want to give up something you enjoy or start doing something you don't enjoy now?  As you might imagine, the gym was really busy as I arrived to go running, and almost everyone looked bloody miserable about it too.  Why not wait until it's warmer and a bit less depressing?  These cards are basically a form of running New Year's Resolution, albeit most of the bumper number of attendees at the first evening running session of the NewYear - maybe twice what we were getting during December - looked a little bit happier on average than the gym bunnies trudging into the building.

Most of the other cards I saw being filled out were either commitments from people determined to run 5km without stopping all the way through to the other end of the spectrum with people wanting to run marathons.  I'm not sure if I'm ever going to run another half marathon, never mind a full.  I don't currently dare run much over 6 miles for fear of hurting myself again.  If I learnt anything at all last year, it was that I'd much rather be able to run 3 miles than no miles at all.  My half marathon personal best of 1:51:59 isn't under much threat just at the moment.

I had a little think though and decided that I would put something down.  I wrote that I was going to keep running no matter how I felt physically and no matter what the weather throws at me.  I'm damned if I'm going to give this up easily.  My body has started to seem a bit fragile over the last twelve months, but I'll not go down without a fight.  

After a little more thought, I also put down that I'd like to run 700 miles throughout the whole year.  This number wasn't entirely plucked out of thin air: my Runkeeper stats told me that I covered 471 miles last year (that's about 50 miles a month with a big drop off between March and July because of my injury problems).  In 2012, I did better, managing 667 miles (with a peak of 83 miles in August in the run up to the Robin Hood).  I'm not sure I'll scale those heights again as I'm no longer sure that my body is capable of it, but I reckon 600 miles is a reasonable target and 700 isn't entirely out of the question.  Who knows?  Maybe I will enter some races after all.  I should be able to manage the odd 10km.

All sorts of things could happen in the next twelve months, but it feels good to have a goal.

And yes.  I am aware that perhaps this is a manifestation of some kind of mental illness.  

*shrugs*

Could be worse, right?

skin tight....

At the end of this evening's 5.33 mile run with Running Club, as we were both stretching off, a girl told me that she always thought I looked really un-aerodynamic when I ran.  My running gear did, anyway.

I looked down at myself.

As usual at this time of year, I was wearing a pair of compression leggings/tights with baggy shorts over the top, as well as a very fetching long-sleeved fluorescent green number with scotchlite strips that reflect light.  Not very stylish, obviously, but fairly functional for a run in the gathering gloom of a pissy Autumnal evening.

She went on: "Why do you wear those big baggy shorts?  You should just run in the lycra."

At this point, I had to laugh.  There are guys who will run in skimpy, figure-hugging lycra.... but I'm definitely not one of those guys.  I own more lycra than is probably healthy for any man, but it's all worn as an under-layer..... It's just not outerwear.  It's something of a point of principle for me that I wouldn't inflict the sight of me running clad only in lycra on anyone.  "To be honest", I replied to this girl, "aerodynamics aren't really at the forefront of my mind when I go out running".

Besides.  I really wasn't feeling it tonight and the whole thing was a bit of a slog.  Whilst it's true that I ran past her in the final mile of the run on Monday (prompting her to remark that men were simply better built for running than men, prompting me to reply that she was about 30kg lighter than me and therefore had a lot less to carry around), I'd run the entire distance tonight approximately 20m behind this girl and getting no closer.  Quite where she'd had an opportunity to assess the aerodynamism or otherwise of my running kit, I don't know....

I suppose I should probably be flattered by the attention, no?  After all, who doesn't love a bit of lycra porn?

Anyone?  Anyone? Bueller....?

I'm lost but I'm hopeful, baby....

As a runner, I often wear a lot of lycra.  I assure you, this is not just for reasons of pleasure.  I'll have you know that it's a very practical material.... Anyway.  One of the difficulties with lycra - amongst its many, many advantages - is that it doesn't have many pockets.

When I run, although I don't often take too many things with me, I do need to carry a few bits and bobs: my iPhone I carry in a case that I wear on my left arm.  It tracks my runs and it holds my running playlist, so it's pretty much essential, but I've got that covered.  I also need to carry a key or two: my door key and occasionally my car key.  When I'm out with running club, I also need to carry my gym membership card, my running club loyalty card (I'm due a t-shirt next week!) and maybe also my cash card.

Now look: I don't want you thinking that I'm one of those guys who goes out running in a pair of lycra shorts that don't leave a great deal to the imagination.  No, I'm afraid I'm far too demure for that and I will always - always - wear a normal pair of shorts over the top.  Most of these shorts have pockets, but not ones that you would entirely trust to hold a house key or a cash card.

Pretty tedious story so far, right?  Oh, I assure you, it only gets duller from here.

So I was looking for a storage solution for my stuff when I was out running.  I don't really want to wear a fanny pack around my waist, so I was looking at little wallet-type things that you clip onto your shoes.  I don't entirely trust a velcro fastening for this kind of thing, especially not on the part of my body that moves the most when I'm out running, so I was specifically looking for one with a zip fastening.

I found one from an Amazon vendor (who turned out to be Sports Direct) for 79p (plus postage) and everyone was happy.  Especially when they also sent me one of those huge, chavvy Sports Direct mugs  into the package for free too.  I had a bit of bother with the courier, but 79p and a free mug, you know?

...except that, when it turned up, it had a velcro fastening.

I'm sure it's fine, but I find myself intensely irritated by the whole thing.  The whole deal cost me less than a fiver, but I wouldn't have bought the damn thing at all if I had known it didn't have a zip.  But at the same time, it hardly seems worth the trouble to send it back as my time is worth more to me than the hassle of packing it up and returning it.  I'm not going to use it; I'm not going to return it.  And all because they couldn't be bothered to get their product description right.  Grrr.  I've emailed them, but I don't really expect that a company like Sports Direct will be much into goodwill gestures.  Have you ever seen Mike Ashley?  Plus, they advertise their actual shops as offering 24 hour delivery - presumably meaning their website.  Am I the only person who finds that irritating?  Surely, even if their website was available 24x7 - which it won't be - they will only actually deliver when the postal service and couriers are operating, right?  And who would want a parcel delivering at 3 in the morning anyway?  Or am I over-thinking this?

So.  Wrist wallets, anyone?  Zipped, obviously.

It's a thrill a minute reading this blog, innit?  Bring on the book deal!

join our club....

What was it Groucho Marx said? 'I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members'. Well, I’ve joined a running club.  I don't think they're all that choosy about their membership, to be honest, but I've joined anyway.

Saying that I've joined a club sounds a bit grand… when in fact all it is really is a free thing organised by the branch of Sweatshop that sits inside the gym where I go swimming. Two or three times a week, they get people together of all different age groups and abilities and we all go out for a run. There’s a beginners group, designed to take people up from about 2 miles to about 5 miles over several weeks, and there’s an improvers group. We do a little warm-up, get told the route and then everyone runs at their own pace and no one gets left behind. That’s it.

I do a fair bit of running already, of course…. Anyone who is lucky enough to be my friend on Facebook can tell you that much as the only posts I ever put up there are the ones that my running application posts automatically…. But I’ve been feeling recently that I’m a bit stuck in a rut: I run the same routes; the same distances at about the same pace every time; on top of that, I feel like I’m getting lazy: I’ve cut down the running that I’m doing at work from about 4 miles a session to about 3.25 miles and I’ve started making excuses to myself about the problems I’ve been having with my knee, my fatigue, the dragging of my left leg and so on and so forth.

It’s just not good enough and I wanted to shake things up a bit. I don’t want to be making excuses, I want to be pushing myself.

So I joined the running club.

I’ve been twice this week, and instead of the 6 or 7 miles I would have managed in total if I was following my normal routine, I’ve done 11 miles… a 5 miler on Monday and 6 miles on Wednesday, on each occasion running further and slightly faster than I would have done on my own. It’s hard work, but it’s also fun. They’re a friendly bunch, and it’s good to be running around other people who you can use to help keep your pace up or as a target to overhaul.  Yeah, I'm tired all the time... but at least it's a good, honest kind of an ache and not the weasley kind you get from MS.

So help me, I’m even thinking about running the half marathon again in September….. I must have a short memory. It hurt like hell last year.

The club has a loyalty card too. After 5 weeks I get a snazzy yellow running club t-shirt!  Mmm. So stylish.... should go nicely with all my lycra.

There are only two rules to running club.
1. You do not talk about running club
2. No smoking.

I know, I know... I need a new gag.  Last time, I promise.