Good intentions & nut roast.

Tiz the season to suffer enforced, over-commercialised, Christmas related things... This week was no different for me as it was for many a household across the land and saw a blur of activity in the Baldy household...

For me, Monday set the tone for my training for the rest of the week - out of sync, wet, & crammed in whenever a convenient gap appeared in the day... Struggling to figure out how and when I could fit in a run without getting soaked in the continual deluge of rain that seems to be landing on the South West I hit upon what Baldrick would call "a cunning plan" - run to Keynsham Leisure Centre and then go for a swim! Donning a running coat over the top of my tri-suit I put in a fairly brisk, but damp, 5-mile run, before meeting the delectable Mrs C at the pool. My idea of putting in a big swim session was scuppered by a broken thermostat. The water temperature was stuck somewhere between balmy and, er, well, balmy really... Seriously, I've had colder baths. The first thing I said to Mrs C when she got in the pool was "Can you pass the soap?" After 20 lengths I was actually sweating in the pool! We called an early end to the Swim and took breakfast in the excellent Pomegranate Cafe before final preparations were made for the imminent arrival of the in-laws...

With dreaded inevitability, Christmas Day duly arrived. Now, I'm not going to dwell too much on this particular day, as I've already made my feelings and thoughts clear on this, the most stressful day of the year, in previous blogs. Suffice to say that I found the food, wine, gifts, & company of the in-laws to be most agreeable; whilst the nut roast and seasonal episode of Doctor Who can only be described as most excellent. I would like to point out that although I did a lot of eating, drinking, & expanding of the waistband, I didn't use the festive season as an excuse to wimp out on my training. So early on Christmas morning I was up and out of the house to put in a joyous 8 mile run. Strange how you don't see kids out on brand new bicycles on Christmas Day anymore... All I can say food wise is that Mrs Baldy did us proud & Sainsburys Nut Roast is awesome...!

Kid weaving around on new bikes were ten-a-penny on Clevedon promenade the next morning. Added to bewildered adults, rampaging toddlers, and effing stupid people with those bloody dangerous extendable dog leads, warming up for the Clevedon AC Boxing Day 4 Mile Race was like dicing with death...! My schedule stated that on Wednesday I should run 8 miles. As the Boxing Day Race fell on a Wednesday I had to ensure that I put in a 2 mile warm up before racing the 4 miles - then running another 2 miles as a warm down. Warm up completed (by getting away from pedestrian hazards near the sea front) I duly ran the race at 5:59/mi pace and grabbed myself a new PB with a time of 23:48. Happy as a porker in the poo. This time was taken off my GPS watch as, when I checked, the chipped race time couldn't tell me my finishing position. After completing the warm-down I checked on my position (31st out of 669 runners) and was told that I'd finished as the 5th person in my age category, thereby winning a prize. Ninety minutes later, instead of being well on my way home, I was stood in the Angel Inn as the prizes were being dished out. Now this leads me to a gripe... I hate it when race organisers are half way through giving out the prizes and somebody who failed to put their age on their entry form pops up & says "Hang on, I'm in his age group & I was faster than him..." thus causing a sudden scratching of heads and reshuffling of prizes resembling a chaotic game of pass the parcel. This is exactly what happened to me. Dagnammit. I was therefore demoted from 5th to 6th position and, instead of collecting a prize, over an hour & a half after I could have gone home I eventually left the pub empty-handed... And in a bad mood. And it was raining. Again. Seriously, if you are incapable of filling out an entry form properly then you don't deserve a sodding prize, no matter how quickly you can run...

On Thursday the in-laws went home (great company, but their absence does allow me to once again use the bathroom without the need for shutting the door first) and I went back to work again (in the bloody rain) although, on the plus side, that did mean that I got the opportunity to get in a swim at lunchtime. Thankfully the pool heating had been fixed and I was able to get in 36 lengths before calling it quits. Or murdering two old grannies who thought that they had every right to do the 'old-biddy breast-stroke' in the fast lane. I do have to keep reminding myself that the aim is become a proficient swimmer and the cross-training that swimming provides is there to help me become a better runner, not the other way around. I really do find an internal dialogue going on in order to get me to stop swimming. I can't run efficiently if I'm tired from swimming...

And tired I was the following day - so much so that I cut the evening run down from 9 miles to a mere 5.5, declared Saturday to be a rest day, and decided that as I will be on call over the New Year period we'd better do New Years Eve a few days early... Off we traipsed to first the Jolly Sailor in Hanham, then on to The Colliers in Kingswood for a spot of cheap Wetherspoons beer bashing. The walk home was slightly fuzzy, as was my sense of direction. Strangely I also developed the ability to walk into inanimate objects. Obviously, once we creep into January dropping a training session due to lethargy is certainly not going to be an option that I'll be able to take. But come January, with the temptation of seasonal foodstuffs & alcohol removed from my grasp, my eyes will become firmly fixed upon the task in hand.

Sunday morning I was up early to meet up with JaykeeBoy for a pre-arranged 16 mile run, with 8 miles at my marathon pace(6:40/mi).  MrsC was joining us on her bike; just as she has for nearly all of my Sunday training runs since I took up this long distance running lark. She gets exercise, I get company, and she's brilliant for pacing, towing me up hills & blocking road junctions so that I don't have to stop or change pace to cross a road... Anyway, it just so happens that Jaykee & I are both working from the same training schedule, although he's a week ahead of me at the moment as he's factored a weeks holiday into his. However, as he also happens to be a stronger runner than myself he said that he'd be happy to run with me as he'd be able to pace me for the tempo section of the run. Conveniently I overlooked the fact that the last time he had paced me for a run was the 2012 Bristol Half Marathon when we went off too fast and I had to fight off both a stitch & stomach cramp before collapsing over the line.
A clap of thunder & a torrential downpour greeted MrsC as she opened the front door to cycle to where we were meeting Jaykee. Two minutes later I walked to the car in a light drizzle. After meeting up with Jaykee at 7:30am, we set off for our run just as the light drizzle petered out... After running 4 miles from Brislington and through Keynsham, a short spell of drizzle greeted us just as we approached Bitton Station to get onto the Bristol-Bath Railway Path.  Once on the path we headed towards Bristol and quickly picked up the pace for the tempo section of the run. I must say that it was nice to see so many other of our fellow club runners using the path, from those gathering at Bitton preparing to run off-road, to those who had met up at Warmley Station for their traditional Sunday long run... After another 3-4 miles I was beginning to struggle with the pace. I think Jaykee realised this, dropped in beside me and started chatting. With the conversation flowing (as well as it can when you're running) my mind was taken away from the task in hand and I found that I was able to quite comfortably run at pace & not dwell on the fact that my body was hurting and that it wanted to stop. After a planned detour to avoid a partially flooded Staple Hill Tunnel MrsC was forced to drop out with a puncture whilst Jaykee & I, after checking that she was okay, continued on our way. One of my biggest achievements in life is teaching her how to fix a puncture. We thankfully dropped off the pace once we'd hit the 12 mile mark and, with quickly stiffening legs, jogged through the Old Market before turning for home and following the river back towards Brislington. The rain started once more as we climbed the hill to the finish point, unbelievably we'd managed to complete the run without getting the drenching we'd expected...

I say that, but upon arriving home I encountered my poor wife, drenched to the skin and wringing her socks out on the front doorstep. Apparently, after fixing her puncture she'd turned for home only to have to cycle through a torrential hailstorm!! Jaykee & I hadn't gotten wet and she'd gotten absolutely soaked! Poor sod...

Weekly totals:

Run miles: 57.28
Swim lengths/metres: 90/2250m
Sit-ups: 80
Press-ups: 160
Cycle miles: 0

The (not very) Christmas Special...

The imminent arrival of Christmas is giving me a headache. Not metaphorically, but a proper full-on headache that feels like it's a proper banging hangover; only I haven't been drinking... Even though we're "not doing Christmas" this year; we are still doing it. It's the same as every other year, just with no decorations. All the associated food, drink, peace, goodwill, and over-commercialised crap that walks hand in hand with the 'festive season' is still here. And it's this that is giving me a headache. I really would like to pull the duvet over my head, curl up into a ball, and like a hibernating bear in need of a good dump, only surface when nature necessitates. Only I'm not allowed... So the only way I can 'de-stress' is to put my running shoes on & head out of the door. Lucky for me then that training started again this week...

So, here we go then. A stone over raceweight (I'm not going to tell you what my ideal raceweight is, just that it's a stone less than I currently am and with the festive season almost upon us there's little chance of shifting much of it any time soon...) and, by my standards, I feel pretty unfit. That being said though, the first week of my eighteen week training schedule for the 2013 Virgin London Marathon is complete! Hurrah! The thing is, with the sole exception of 'Triple Tuesday' - run before work/swim at lunchtime/run after work - I haven't really felt as if I'm in training again, although I have seemed to be a bit more lethargic than usual. Even though during my 'downtime' period I reduced my weekly mileage to a 'ticking-over' level and only raced short distances, preferably off-road, it does feel as if I didn't actually slow down, which I most definitely did. I know I did because I can already feel myself inwardly groaning at the prospect of double figure mileage runs. In the rain. That and the fact that I ate too much cake.

So what did my 'Advanced Marathoning Training Schedule' tell me to do this week? It told me that on the very first day of my schedule I should - rest. Rest? What the hell have I been doing for the past six weeks? Pushing a bed from Lands End to John O'Groats? Rest...? Sod that... Oh, hang on. No; it says 'rest or cross-training'. Now that's more like it... Cross-training; non-impact, non running, and not pushing yourself too much. I can do that... Swimming it is then. Just a few lengths of the pool during the lunchtime. Simple... How many lengths? Sixteen... No, thirty two... Okay, I actually did fifty. I'd never swum that many lengths in one session before. So, on Day One of my marathon schedule, on what was officially a 'rest day', I swam a distance PB. Oops...
But what of 'Triple Tuesday' I hear the voices whisper in my ear..? Well, like the terrain of many a training run, it consisted of a down, an up, and another up... The 'down' wasn't dragging myself out of bed at 5:30am and going through my usual press-ups/foam roller/sit-up/plank/press-ups routine; I do it every other weekday so why should this day be any different? No, the 'down' came after that routine. It was donning the head torch & reflective clothing dragging myself out of the door to run a very cold and damp 5.5 mile loop at an average of 7:30/mi... The first 'up' of the day came as I swam my 52nd length of the pool. Yes, the very next day after setting a distance PB in the pool, I set a new one during a coaching session. Nice one you plonker... And the second 'up'? Well, it wasn't much but it really shouldn't have happened. A busy afternoon at work meant that I had no time to eat then get to the Whitehall Track, so I opted to run a reverse of the mornings 5.5 mile loop instead. Somehow, I don't know how, I managed to run it 82 seconds faster than I had twelve hours earlier, at an average pace of 7:16/mi..!!! So, my first 'Triple Tuesday' resulted in 11 miles run in roughly 80 minutes and a new distance PB in the pool. If I'll still be that pleased with 'Triple Tuesdays' in 18 weeks times, however, remains to be seen...
I managed to fit a 10.5 mile run in on Wednesday whilst, on Thursday, I put in yet another lunchtime swim & then, after donning the reindeer costume once more, I split my evening run into two parts - the first half at pace & the second part at a pedestrian pace during the Running Clubs annual Xmas Lights run. It's amazing just how tacky some people can make their house look when they buy every decoration from Poundland... It's also amazing how many people stop and stare when somebody dressed as a reindeer goes charging past them...
Friday saw a good hard 8 mile lunchtime run, taking in the hills around Compton Dando and going up Peppershells Lane (affectionately known as 'that f**king steep hill') followed by a post work swim of 50 lengths.
Sunday saw the longest run of the week with an easy 15.35 mile loop out to Keynsham & back whilst taking in a fair chunk of the Bristol-Bath Railway Path. The strange thing about this run was that, even though I knew that I could do the distance, mentally I struggled to get out of the door to do it. I think that once you've finished work in the build-up to Christmas the body would much rather stay in bed or sit in front of the telly eating cake rather than getting out in the cold wind & rain... But complete the run I did. At an average of 7:31/mi It wasn't the best run I've ever had but there's plenty of time for improvement & stamina to build. An evening out with She-who-must-be-obeyed (consisting of an easy 22 length swim and 4 games of badminton, of which she won precisely none of them) brought the weekend to a nice relaxing end. Well, for me it was relaxing. I can't vouch for the Wife. Living with me must be like having to live with somebody stuck in fast-forward mode...

At the risk of sounding like some anorak wearing nerd, I log details of every run/swim/cycle that I do, such as how I felt during the run, distance, time, average speed per mile, & calories burnt, in a training diary. I was encouraged to do this by my last running Coach, Oirish Ron, when he coached me to run sub-3:30 in the inaugural Brighton Marathon in 2010, and it's something I've done ever since. The diary is nothing special, just a bog-standard black WH Smith A5 week-to-view diary. Until this year that is... My better half was doing a spot of Christmas shopping this week and asked me if there was anything I needed. Yes, says I, can you get me a bog-standard black WH Smith A5 week-to-view diary please? What did I receive? Exactly what I asked for - a bog-standard WH Smith A5 week-to-view diary. However, the word 'black' must have gotten lost in the ether of cyber-space... I am now the bemused owner of a a bog-standard purple & pink WH Smith A5 week-to-view diary. I despair. The only thing missing is the glitter and pressed flowers..... Larry Grayson would love it.

Oh yeah; you can now follow me on Twitter @baldypetesblog

For those of you that don't do Twitter, it just means that I can now 'tweet' banal crap to the world at large in 140 characters or less. FYI the statement 'I effing hate Christmas, wake me up when it's all over' is only 54 characters long. Which means that there's plenty of scope for me to say where I'd like Santa to shove a mince pie or two...

Weekly totals:

Run miles: 60.6

Swim lengths/metres: 206/5150m

Sit-ups: 672

Press-ups: 384

Cycle miles: 0

And don't forget - the best thing about Christmas Day is on BBC1 at 5:15pm...

The end of the holiday...

I've been looking at the London Marathon training schedule before me (literally before me as it happens, as it's pinned up above the computer) and am now wondering how I'm going to fit some of the sessions in... Changing my rest day from Saturday to Monday may cause a bit of initial confusion, but not as much as having to do longer runs than I'm used to on both Wednesdays & Fridays. Tuesdays seems to be my most mental day - start the day with a 10K run, a 3/4hr coached swim session at lunchtime, and then speed work at the Whitehall track in the evening... But why the change in schedule? Well, for the last 4 marathons (Edinburgh, Wolverhampton, Rome, & Snowdonia) I've mainly followed a Runners World Sub-3hr training schedule - with a few alterations to fit in races. Whilst all of the Marathons, with the exception of Snowdon, resulted in a Personal Best time, none resulted in the magical sub-3hr mark being achieved. So, after talking to several sub-3 runners from the club, (and actually listening to them) I decided to change to an 18-week schedule from a book called , 'Advanced-Marathoning' by Pete Pfitzinger & Scott Douglas, which is affectionately referred to as 'The Bible' by many runners. For a serious long-distance runner the book is nothing short of brilliant, even though it is aimed at the faster marathon runner and those with the time & energy to commit to a 55-85 mile a week schedule... Luckily for me my schedule will max out at about 70 miles per week. This, it is hoped, is enough to see me safely under the 3 hour mark. You see, the thing is that, running isn't something that you can 'bluff'. You can't put in just a few token jogs then toe the start line thinking that you've done enough work to get you round. It doesn't work like that. If you don't train properly then the Marathon will chew you up, normally between 17-20 miles, then spit you back out again.
Train properly, focus mentally, eat a healthy diet, & get plenty of rest and any race distance is achievable.

Saying that, this was my last week of 'rest & recuperation'... Now, I know that, a bit like a kid with ADHD who's had more than his fair share of E numbers, I struggle to stay still at the best of times, but since completing the Snowdonia Marathon I have been taking it easy. Well, easier than usual...
I've had days where I haven't done any exercise (yes, that is true), I've eaten far too many chocolate biscuits, Jammie Dodgers, veggie breakfasts & portions of fish & chips. In addition to my usual gallons of black coffee I've also drunk a lot of Peroni, Moretti, Exmoor Dark, and  Moramari Sangiovese Rubicone. Alongside my early nights & early mornings I've also had a few late nights & late mornings, I've had seconds at meal times & large slices of cake. And now, as from Monday 17th of December, I've saddled up the horses and climbed back on my old training wagon again. Now, that doesn't mean that from hereon-in I'll be nil by mouth', especially over Christmas, but it will mean that I will have to be much stricter with what I eat. Sensible sized portions, no second helpings, no dipping into the biscuit/cake/sweetie tin in the office, nothing deep fried, the occasional small piece of cake, plenty of fruit, and after Christmas - no alcohol. Can't 18 weeks seem like a long time..?

So, how does one spend the final weekend before resuming training? Why, by over-indulging in the company of family and friends of course! Friday night involved a meal with the folks I play badminton with of a Sunday evening. Of course, alcohol played it's part in proceedings with a few too many pints, glasses of red wine and, strangely, glasses of amaretto pass my lips. Suffice to say that the morning saw me nursing a rather sore almond flavoured headache...
Now, I know it may not be everyones idea of indulgence, but I am a man who is easily pleased (ask the wife) and enjoy the simple pleasures in life, and whenever I need to just let myself unwind I like to head for Broadway in the Cotswolds. Luckily, this is a location that is easy for us to visit as it also happens to be where the in-laws live. It just so happened that this weekend was Muvvers birthday so a visit was in order... So, with an overnight bag, and some off-road running kit packed for Sunday morning, the wife got behind the steering wheel of the car, I got into the passenger seat, closed my eyes and tried to sleep off a bit more of my hangover and off we went up the M5. That evening, to help Muvver celebrate the passing of another year, we descended upon a lovely newly opened Italian restaurant called Prego whereby I discovered the best vegetarian lasagne I have ever eaten. If you go to Broadway then eat here. End of...

Early Sunday morning I was up, dressed and out the door for my favourite run - a 5 mile looping off-road run up towards Snowshill then up to Broadway Tower before dropping back down to the village. The overall length of time that it takes me to run this route is unimportant, especially when you take into account the lung-busting 677m ascent in just over one mile... On a steep descent, however, it can be a bit fast & furious and Sunday was no exception where I averaged 4:45/mi on the way down!! Fact of the day: The Tower is also the mid-way point of Stage One of the Cotswolds Relay. It stands at the top of Fish Hill which, at 1026ft is the highest point of the northern end of the Cotswold hills, and, after Cleeve Hill, is the second highest point of the Cotswolds...
After a wash, change, and breakfast back at the Out-Laws, we headed to the Regal Cinema, in nearby Evesham, to watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Not only does this happen to be a brilliant film but the recently refurbished art-deco Regal Cinema is exactly how I remember a cinema used to be in my youth. Tasteful decorated with marbled floors in the entrance foyer, good views, and lush double 'love seats' in the balcony... A balcony! The last time I sat upstairs to watch a film in the cinema (I think it was to watch ET) you were still allowed to smoke up there..! The town of my youth, Keynshams, had it's very own 'flea-pit' of a cinema, but it was nice to be able to cast my mind back to my youth to remember such hysterically funny (at the time) life-affirming moments such as opening the fire-exit doors to let in your friends for free, letting moths loose in the cinema so that they would fly up to the projection window & cast huge shadows on the screen, and, best of all, pretending to be sick in the balcony & emptying a can of soup over the people seated below..!! (I still cry with laughter thinking of that one...)

So, here we go then, let the training commence. Onward, ever onward... Straining upon the start. The game's afoot. Follow your spirit, and upon this charge, Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!

Weekly totals:
Run miles: 31.5
Swim lengths/metres: 146/3650m
Sit-ups: 640
Press-ups: 320
Cycle miles: 0

Thirteen monkeys & one fast reindeer...

When does a passing thought become an idea? When does an idea become a plan? When does an addiction for running get out of control?
Why can I never focus purely on a goal? Just one goal. Focus on something, see it through, move on to the next thing. How hard can that be? Well, if you're me then it's nigh on impossible as I set targets that extend far off into infinity...

Run the 2013 London Marathon. There's a goal & a focus. That was easy... Then what? Well, after London, I'm going to do a couple of Triathlons. There's another goal... Okay; that's two goals... Then, after I've done those then I'll focus on training for the 2013 Abingdon Marathon... Okaaay... That's three goals then... Anything else? Yeah, then in January 2014 I'll jog around the Gloucester Marathon with my mate as part of my training for the Shakespeare Marathon in Stratford-upon-Avon... Then, in December 2014 I'll run the Pisa Marathon & spend Christmas in Tuscany... Sounds nice. Then... There's more? Then I can just keep going and going. Howabout a marathon a month? For thirteen months...

I should never have listened to that episode of Marathon Talk (the worlds best podcast for runners) where they interviewed Steve Edwards... Who? I hear you say... Steve Edwards is an ordinary bloke who happens to run marathons. However, Steve has, so far, run 500 marathons and finished every single one in less than 3hrs 30mins. You can see his results here. He also happens to hold the record for the highest number of marathons run in a single year - 76!!! Now, 76 is actually more than the number of races I will have competed in during 2012; and that figure should, after my last scheduled race of the year (Clevedon Boxing Day 4 miler) stand at 62...
SO, bear with me here, if 76 marathons is possible in a calendar year then surely it shouldn't be too difficult for me to run one a month, should it? Obviously I'd have to race a lot less than I have done in the past few years. I'd still do the Bristol & Bath Half marathons, Bourton, Bristol & Evesham 10Ks (Keynsham would have been on this list but it's been cancelled indefinitely), and the Bitton & Bridge Inn Pomphrey Sports 5Ks, but, obviously, I'd have to be very selective about what else went in to the schedule...
Is it possible for me to run 13 marathons in 13 months? The answer is, yes. It'll take a bit of planning & a couple of the marathons may have to be at places I'd already run, but it is possible. So, for the time being the plan is there, the outline has been sketched, some pencil marks have been made. There is plenty of time for me to fill in the details, underline a few points, and draw a doodle or two of genitalia in the margins...

An aching shoulder made it's presence felt during my swim sessions this week, whilst a day off work on Wednesday began with a 10.6 mile jog into Bristol city centre & back then lunch with an old friend before I took a deep breath to dip my toes into the purgatory that is known as 'Christmas shopping'. Hell on earth I call it. Why do people feel compelled to buy so much crap that they wouldn't normally cross the street for? Humbug. And don't even get me started on the whole drunken 'office Christmas party' scenario (which I endured this week) the concept of which is completely beyond me. It leaves me cold inside and all I seem to do is wonder just how quickly I can go home without appearing rude. This year I put the spoon back in the bowl after my last mouthful of pudding, stood up, grabbed my jacket from the back of my chair, said "goodbye" and was out the door before the DJ was able to play Slades 'Merry Christmas Everybody' for the hundredth time this week...

Really, training wise, all I managed to do during the week is run as long as my asthma permitted & struggle in the swimming pool the rest of the time. The reason for backing off the running was simple - I'd managed to slip over on some sheet ice on Thursday and land on the small of my back. Painful at the time and just plain annoying after that, but every now and again a sharp twinge would catch me...

Saturday saw me at a GAAA Cross-Country League fixture in Tewkesbury, struggling to run through the most horrendously muddy course I've ever encountered league fixture. The only reason it wasn't as bad as the Sodbury Slog is that we only had suspect mud (some of it was green) to squelch through and, thankfully, didn't have to wade through mud filled streams as well!! Energy sapping is an understatement. Struggling with back ache I took it slower than usual, maintaining a steady pace & resisting the urge for any sprinting. After the race I struggled to talk for a while & swallowed some Ibuprofen at the earliest opportunity. I really cannot remember the last time I was that exhausted after a race. I even fell asleep in the car on the way home. Good job that I wasn't driving...

Sunday was 'Christmas Cracker' day in Weston-super-Mare, whereby over a thousand people turn out to run a 10K race along the beach as far as Uphill, before rounding the Hospital and heading back onto the beach to finish at the pier. To say I wasn't 'feeling it' before the start of the race was an understatement. My back was still feeling pretty sore after Saturdays cross-country, I still felt pretty tired, and the cold wind was making my breathing pretty laboured. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a festive bag of chocolate money... The race is pretty unique. There's not many times in your life that you will get to race against Santas, Fairies, Snowmen, Elves, & assorted tinsel clad nativity characters... Sure enough, from the moment the race began, the headwind was a problem for me - unfortunately the reindeer costume I was wearing acted like the worlds biggest windbreak & I had to work hard just to maintain a forward momentum!! By the time I'd completed the second beach section and headed through Uphill, towards the Hospital, I was completely exhausted, my breathing was ragged, and my back was aching terribly... The funny thing is that not many people passed me, even when I felt as if I were going backwards whilst trudging through treacle, which indicated that it wasn't just me suffering from the headwind. I passed the golf course, back onto the promenade heading towards the pier for the finish. At the SeaQuarium we hit the beach for the final time, although, due to the wind blowing in from the Bristol Channel, it felt like hitting a brick wall..!! Digging deep in the hurt locker I found the energy to keep going forward only being passed by those sprinting to save face by not being beaten to the line by a bloke in full reindeer attire... I crossed the line in 40:31 completely and utterly spent...

Now, the secret to the Christmas Cracker is simple. When you finish the race, don't stop for a chat etc. - get off the beach, back to the race HQ, collect your race t-shirt/mince pie/baggage, and head straight for the showers. The queues can be horrendous (and the showers have been known to run out of hot water) so getting there asap helps to avoid looking for a space to change, waiting for a shower to be free, and/or freezing your nuts off if you're a bloke / other bits if you're not. The queue for coffee afterwards can be pretty dire too but that's something you have to expect from a race that is so popular that it sells out year after year...

So, my plan for next week, outside of work, is to get in a bit more rest & recuperation, only a few runs, a bit of swimming, a couple of bottles of Moramari Sangiovese Rubicone, some good food, good company, spending some time with both friends & family, a mug of Horlicks every evening before I go to bed, and, of course, effing & blinding to all within earshot about how much I can't stand Christmas and telling the wife exactly where I'd like to stick the tree (if we were to have one)... Humbug!!

Weekly totals: Run miles: 40.09  Swim lengths/metres: 124/3100m   Cycle miles: 0

The name's Grinch. Baldy Grinch...

Odio Natale. Yep, I hate Christmas. With a vengeance... Christmas just isn't Christmas anymore - especially when you start getting the season of goodwill rammed down your throat whenever you go shopping at any point after mid-October... If you think about it, as far as the shops are concerned, Christmas lasts from mid-October until early-February; meaning that there's only eight months when it isn't Christmas. There's barely enough time for them to flog Easter, Summer, Halloween, & Guy Fawkes to death before it's Christmas again... Seriously, being forced to listen to Paul McCartneys 'Wonderful Christmas Time' or Jona sodding Lewies 'Stop the Cavalry' whilst trying to shop for things that you normally buy but are now only available in gift packaging for double the price, in October/November, is enough to make me want to drag the manager across the shop floor and bludgeon him/her to death with a fibre-optic dashboard Christmas tree... Then you daren't put the telly on for fear of being force fed tinsel bedecked banal television programmes that are dumbed down to the lowest common denominator (I'm pointing the finger of blame in Simon Cowells direction) or the normal programmes have a special guest/celebrity Christmas special which is never as good as the normal episodes (the obvious exception of this rule, is of course, Doctor Who. I mean, yes, it is a Christmas special, but Cybermen, flying sharks, killer Santa's, evil snowmen, or the Titanic nearly crashing on Buckingham Palace, are everyday occurrences to a man like the Doctor...) And the food & drink that's consumed!! There's a reason that the gymnasiums & running clubs are all packed to the rafters in the new year. Fact of the week: there are over 200 calories in one Asda mince pie & over 250 calories in a Sainsburys one...)  And breathe...

It's been a fairly quiet week in the Baldy household. Monday saw a heavy pool session & my penultimate Beginners Italian evening class (twelve weeks worth of lessons & I still struggle to put together a coherent sentence; although I can count to 20, conjugate some verbs, and ask where the bathroom is). Tuesday saw a tough swimming lesson which left my right shoulder in a bit of a mess followed by a good stretch of the legs at the Bridge Inn Pomphrey Sports 5K where I recorded a finishing time of 18:45. A slow time by my standards but my Pomphrey times are a good 45 seconds slower in the Winter series. It must be a sub-conscious worry of stepping in a rogue dog turd in the dark that slows me down... Wednesday saw me complete a lovely cold lunchtime run of 6.5 miles in just under 45 minutes, leaving the evening free for me to go to the Bristol Hippodrome to watch the Welsh National Opera production of 'Cosi Fan Tutte'. (I wasn't enamoured by this opera, but Saturday nights 'La Boheme' was absolutely amazing. I cried.) Thursday consisted of sandwiching a visit to a deep tissue sports massage between two 10K runs; whilst Friday saw me back in the pool to crack out 50 lengths.

Friday evening, however, consisted of fish & chips followed by more beer than is good for me. I rounded the evening off with my first ever 'Jaeger bomb' then must have left all my memories of the evening in the Wetherspoons because I'll be damned if I could remember more than a few fragments when I woke up the following morning... There's a reason, apart from marathon training, that I don't drink. I get drunk quickly but seem to have a great capacity to carry on drinking. Ergo I'm fairly well on my way after a few pints, but I'll still try to each double figures. All this means is that for most of the next morning I will feel as if I've just eaten a dodgy Heston Blumenthal creation... Thankfully, Sundays race meant no weekend drinking & then, after that, I'm on call at work for a week, so I won't be able to drink anyway. I intend to use next week as an opportunity to get my eating & drinking habits closer to what they will be once my marathon schedule begins. Hopefully it won't be too much of a shock to a body that has very quickly adapted to poor diet & alcohol.

And so to Sundays race: The Bromham Christmas Pudding Run. It was, I was informed, a flat & fast 10K race, consisting of two laps of the village of Bromham in Wiltshire, where all finishers receive a small Christmas pudding... It sounded a good way to near the end of my racing season, so I entered along with a couple of fellow BRR members. After a stressful journey (we didn't know how to get there, I couldn't get Google Maps to work on my phone, and our driver, JaykeeBoy, could have done with taking lessons from the White Rabbit). Jaykee, Helz, & myself used the jog from the race HQ to the start-line as a warm-up, and, thankfully we arrived with a few minutes to spare.

The airhorn was sounded and we were off! I kept the leaders in sight for the first mile before I suddenly hit a problem - fast rapid breathing + cold air = asthma... Bugger. I looked at my Garmin GPS & saw the reason why I was struggling - I'd completed my first mile in 5:55. I've gone much faster before, but never in such cold air. I dropped the pace slightly as my breathing deteriorated into 'squeaky toy mode' and was instantly 'chicked' as the leading lady went past me... Double bugger. The countryside scenery was pleasent enough but now I had to deal with the hypnotic lycra-clad posterior in front of me. It's a hard life innit? Another couple of kilometres further on and I now developed a stitch in my side and a tightening of the chest, so I dropped my pace a little bit further, settling into a more comfortable 6:10/mi, and, instantly, the second lady came past my shoulder. Ooh, more lycra... I passed the 5K halfway marker in 18:10 (37 seconds faster than I'd managed in the 5K race earlier in the week) and knew that I wouldn't be able to repeat that split for the second half. I just focused on maintaining a regular breath, fighting the urge to stop and use my ventolin inhaler, and just maintaining a 6:13/mi pace. I ran alongside a runner from Chippenham Harriers for a while, both of us bemoaning the headphone wearing idiot who had ignorantly cut in front of us, thus causing us to have to momentarily alter our pace, as we entered the village for the final time. I managed to catch up and pass the hypnotic lycra-clad posterior with about 500m to go and was able to push on just enough without the pain in my chest getting worse, and crossed the line in 24th place with a time of 38:18..!!

After a quick chat to several other runners, including 'lycra lady' & Jaykee (who had finished as first MV40 in 7th place), and cheering Helz as she crossed the line, I used my ventolin, reclaimed my bag, picked up my Christmas pudding (288cals) and got changed. Within fifteen minutes of crossing the line my breathing was back to normal and all chest pains & stitches were completely gone. It just goes to show what a fickle, yet fragile, thing the human body can be...

An evening training session in the pool, a game of badminton, and a couple of pints Ringwoods Best Bitter in The Ship Inn, Keynsham, seemed an almost leisurely way to round off the week...

In next weeks BaldyBlog: There's the unveiling of the '13 monkeys project' and the Grinch endeavours to be the fastest reindeer/moose in W-s-M in exchange for a race tee-shirt and mince pie (probably containing in excess of 200 cals).

Weekly totals: Run miles: 29.8  Swim lengths/metres: 151/3775m   Cycle miles: 0

Athletes Trenchfoot

Strange to think that a viable alternative to getting soaked whilst out for a run is to head for the swimming pool instead...

It's been a strange week. Torrential rain & gale force winds struck the Bristol/Bath area, water levels rose, rivers burst their banks, drains couldn't take the volume of water that was flowing, trees blew over, and work went onto a 'war footing'... Essentially that meant that the volume of work, enquires from the public, & out-of-hours emergencies went through the roof, and I was placed on-call for the grave yard shift of 1am-9am... The knock-on effect of all this was that training/keeping fit suffered. Training runs had to be altered to fit in with time scales, some running routes had to be drastically altered to avoid flooded areas (sometimes in the middle of the run), and the local swimming pool, handily located almost next door to the office, through necessity, became the training venue of choice.

One run that did happen was an off-road run of silly proportion. A work colleague had entered this years Bath Hilly Half Marathon (it's hilly, muddy, frantic, dangerous in places, exhilarating - I finished 5th last year) but had no off-road shoes. Desperate to try them out I agreed to take him for an off-road run one lunchtime. The original route was quickly abandoned when I discovered that large parts of the route, along the river from Keynsham to Hanham, were under water. Not to be deterred I improvised a route across flooded fields to Meadow Wood which got sillier the wetter we got. Splashing our way around the wood, scaring the wildlife (we saw deer) and getting muddier with each passing moment - all with Cheshire Cat grins on our faces. On the way back to the office we decided to cut through Keynsham Memorial Park and ended up wading, thigh deep, in the flood waters. As Mr T would say "I pity you fools".

But, back to the swimming. When I was a kid I hated swimming in the pool. Whenever my mum would give me a pound to go to the pool I used to buy 10 Players No.6 cigarettes & a bag of chips instead. I learnt to 'swim' by splashing about in rivers with my school mates. Consequently I never learnt to swim properly. This is what I've been learning to do in the local pool. So far, so good, and I'm definitely improving. Which is lucky because I also entered next Mays Westonbirt Sprint Triathlon - just a mere 4 weeks after the London Marathon. Obviously the words 'rest' and 'recuperation' don't exist in any dictionary that I've ever seen. I may even squeeze in a couple more over the summer months... And the requisite 16 lengths needed for a sprint triathlon that I mentioned last week? This very evening I broke my PB for the distance again with a time of 9:44. The first time I've ever recorded a sub-10min time. Chuffed is an understatement...

Wind, rain, & mud came, once again to the fore on Sunday. Although it wasn't raining, the Brent Knoll Race was a very wet & muddy affair. I'd originally planned to run this with AT aka 'Squeaky Pip', the Warmley Ironman, but on the day he decided to spectate/support at the Bath Hilly Half, leaving just 4 Bitton runners to face the climb up the 137m knoll. Fact of the day: The word 'knoll' usually means a small hill or hill-top. The name Brent derives from the olde English word "brant" meaning "steep". In plain English it means bloody steep hill covered in mud. (Last time I did this race it actually meant bloody steep hill covered in snow & ice...) Anyway, 'running' to the top of Brent Knoll, from the BASC in Burnham, was a torturous affair with runners grabbing handfuls of mud, grass, fencing etc in order to help pull themselves up some pretty muddy slopes. I reached the peak in 23 minutes and, as always, the view from the top was exhilarating. There was, however, no time to sight-see as I knew that I had a suicidal downhill to run. The first section of downhill was, well, scary. I scree-scrambled sideways until gravity took over & I fell, sliding past a surprised Bristol & West runner & nearly crashing into a race marshall. Quickly back on my feet & running as fast as I dared I did a quick headcount of the runners in front of me and reckoned that I was in 7th or 8th place. Pushing on I gained on the runners in front, catching up with them as we traversed a stile at the top of the second, and steepest, decent. Dropping down to a crouch I started to slide down the hill, picking up speed, trying not to crash into the runner in front. Once I got myself into a position where I thought that it was safe to get up & started running, I did so. Big mistake. Gravity hadn't finished with me & I began to almost sprint down the hill. Until, that is, I hit a large tuft of grass and took off into fresh air. I flew past one runner, hit the floor, and bounced past another. Coming down again, this time I affected a barrel roll, came up on my feet and carried on running. It must have looked damn impressive because later, after the race, one of the guys I passed complemented me on my downhill technique. I think he may have been taking the piss... Anyway, back on fairly level ground I pushed on as hard as I could. Another quick head count: 5th? 6th? No idea; just keep running. We went over a bridge & a guy from Clevedon went past me. I tucked in behind him & we both passed a runner from Langport. We turned into the penultimate section of the race, heavily rutted farm tracks full of water and heavy clay mud, and caught up with a runner from Nailsea RC. Nearing the end of the tracks they slowed to traverse a large boggy section. As they did so I accelerated and splashed my way through the middle. Right, now, push as hard as you can you bald bugger... I kicked hard as we entered the final section, a grassed field. I could hear my better half shouting at me to keep going. Why do people always shout that at runners? Do they think that we're going to stop to admire the scenery? I turned the final corner, crossed the finishing line & fell to my knees retching from the effort. Then some bloke is asking if he can have a photo of me with a couple of other runners for the local paper. Why? I asked. "So we can get a photo of the first three across the line", he replies... Hang on, first three? Wow, I don't think I've ever been top three in a race before. Fastest in my age group, yes, but never third overall... And the moral of that story is that even when you're long in the tooth and short of hair, sometimes you can still surprise yourself. Even if you are caked in mud...

Weekly totals: Run miles: 23.41  Swim lengths/metres: 193/4825m  Cycle miles: 0

Postscript: An old drinking buddy/Gashead friend of mine, Dan H, has launched his own blog charting his aim to run a marathon before his 25th birthday in 2014. I have suggested the Gloucester Marathon to him, offering my support if he needs help with getting himself marathon fit etc, and promised him that, if he wishes, then I shall run it with him and treat it as a long training run before my own Spring marathon... You can follow Dans quest at On The Road To Running.

That was the week that was...

In writing a diary/blog I could, in classic Bridget Jones stylee, write my weight & consumption of cigarettes/alcohol. That'd be easy - Cigarettes: None since December 2009; Alcohol: I've now run out of both red wine & all the bottles I've won at the Bridge Inn 5K series; Weight: Nowhere near race weight, but then again I'm not surprised as a) I'm not in 'training mode' at the moment & b) I'm still sampling the delights of food that I can't/won't eat when in 'training mode'. Although, saying that, two vegetable pizzas & a load of garlic bread in one sitting was just being greedy...

This past week I have been still exercising (well, it is an 'addiction') but the emphasis has been on enjoying myself & having fun... Strength/endurance came from slotting some runs in during my lunchbreaks, such is the beauty of flexi-time, a 10miler on Wednesday & a 7.75miler on Friday, both of which took in the sights, delights, and hills of the Compton Dando area (including the infamous Peppershells Lane). I also included a run in the dark on Tuesday. Wearing a headtorch, hi-viz & off-road running shoes I ran from Netham Lock to the Lock & Weir. In the dark. Along a wet, muddy, slippery, footpath. Next to a river. In the dark. I must need my bloody head read... (I'll probably do it again this week).
I've also managed to fit in a few swimming sessions, either at lunchtimes if I'm not running, or after work. From being a virtual non-swimmer a few months ago, I am now strong enough to swim about 30 lengths of front crawl. 32 lengths is roughly half a mile so I am rather chuffed with what I've managed to achieve in such a short space of time... On Tuesday I managed to get my 16 length PB down to 10:32, then followed this up with a 10:18 on Sunday. Why 16 lengths? Because that's the number required in a sprint-triathlon...

Saturday saw me enjoying a leisurely cycle out to Bath, along the Bristol-Bath Railway Path, with my better half, and enjoying a coffee and a CHICKPEA & potato pasty in Baths Abbey Courtyard. I write chickpea in capital letters as when I put that on FaceBook the predictive text informed the world that I had betrayed my vegetarianism and was eating a chicken pasty...!! After a salivating visit to Total Fitness we cycled home along the hillier road that leads through Kelston village - just so I could 'dance' on the pedals on the uphill sections & power through the downhills. Well, who isn't a big kid at heart?

Sunday saw a return to the mud, this time, alongside clubmate MG, to the beautiful Wiltshire village of standing stones fame, Avebury, a a race that has long been on my 'to do' list - the Avebury 8. Luckily for us runners, the course took us away from the village, the tourists and the hippies trying to connect with the cosmos through the power of the stones, and out into some lovely countryside on what turned out, after a cold, frosty start, to be a wonderfully sunny morning. Lots of mud was to be found, along with plenty of puddles of freezing cold water, in a race that fulfilled all my expectations. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. For once my asthma didn't rear its ugly head & I surprised myself by finishing in 7th place with a time of 53:43.

All this on a 'quiet, non-training week'. Next week? Probably more of the above...

An incredible wheeze...

Sometimes I find the human body to be a strange thing...
I've had asthma since I was knee high to a grasshopper but I've always, through a mixture of luck & prescription drugs, been able to, nore or less, keep it under control. There are times, however, when the pollen count is high, when the temperature suddenly drops, when the air is hot & dry, when I cough too hard, or for no obvious reason at all apart from the moon & tide are in alignment with Gallifrey, and it's at times like that that I almost sound like I'm back on forty cigarettes a day. Either that or a broken squeaky toy... Just ask my mate Andy who once thought that there was a steam train chasing him up & down hills at the 'Dundry Thunder Run'...
Over the course of the last week I have discovered that my body is strong but the lungs are weak. Twice, on two seperate runs, I had to stop and use my ventolin inhaler. That in itself is unusual - but the first time was on a fairly flat 6.5 mile run on a lunchtime, and the other was during a 4 mile 'easy run' on Thursday evening!! This really annoys me because I know that I can, and have, run race after race with no breathing difficulties whatsoever...
Why can't I buy a new set of lungs on Amazon? Preferably a set that don't come with a raspy wheeze setting...

It's about time...

It's a blog. It's a training diary. It's both of these things, but most importantly this is the diary of a journey. What could be simpler? Probably a lot of things but, then again, I never seem to be one to take the easy option. Just ask my wife…

I really want to use this blog to document a journey through time. Not in a Doctor Who sense, obviously. The only way I can become a madman in a strange blue box that seems bigger on the inside is to throw my toys out of the pram in Ikea. No, I mean a journey through time that takes me from now (November 14th 2012) to a specific point in time (slightly before 12:45 on April 21st 2013) and a specific place (The finish line of the Virgin London Marathon on The Mall).

Now, why might this be interesting? Well, it might not be, but at least by writing a blog about my journey I will be able to vent my spleen upon the interweb of cyber space… And what's with the specific time 'slightly before 12:45'? Well, look at the photo. This was my third attempt to run a sub-3hr marathon & the chip-time was 03:00:30. Good if you like symmetry in numbers, but not much cop if you were desperate to go 31 seconds quicker than you actually managed (or 1.19231 seconds per mile if we want to get really anal about it). My previous attempts at the magic time barrier had both been in 2011, firstly in Edinburgh (03:04:41) and then in Wolverhampton (03:04:16). As my marathon debut, in London in 2007, resulted in a 04:58:09 finish, the turnaround is nigh on miraculous... 

So... My London Marathon training schedule begins in 19 days time, on December 3rd, just 36 days after my last marathon which was in Snowdonia.

So until then I'm making the most of my 'recovery' time. I'm eating & drinking what I want; beer, wine, pizza & chips, (all a massive no-no for me when I'm marathon training) are back on the menu. I'm running for fun, not to a schedule, so certain distances & terrain are no longer a requirement. Speed is unimportant, unless it's one of the 7 races that are dotted around my 'month off'. And I'm swimming a lot more - after London I aim to lose my Triathlon virginity, but that journey may have to become a postscript...