A lull over Christmas

It's Monday afternon and I am hungover.......from Saturday Night.

I am getting old - although to be fair it's the first time I had drunk more than a few pints since September. I am also almost a stone lighter so have lost some capabilities to handle my drink which is clearly a good thing.

As I get fitter I will be able to handle less drink and therefore it's a decent upward spiral for my health.

I have managed to maintain my weight this week which isn't bad considering it was the works Christmas Party and I only went out 'for a couple'. Hence why this weeks post is called the lull over Christmas. I think I am going to enjoy Christmas, do a few gym sessions and a few cycles and just maintain my weight and then really push on in the new year. Especially when I know that this time next year it will be a dry Christmas for me.

I managed to cycle 20 miles last week. I am hoping to manage the same again this week.

Three weeks down

Going to have to start this weeks blog by being honest and admit that I haven't done any excercise at all in the last week. My throat still felt like a cheese grater and glandular fever was still making me feel very tired.

On the plus side I am down to 15st 2 now which means I have lost almost a stone since the end of September with little excercise. Another 2 stone to go until I am back close to my target weight. I am pretty confident of dropping down to under 15st over the next week with a sensible diet and some cardio excercise.

One thing I have changed is to stop drinking full fat soft drinks - there are a ridiculous amount of calories in them and I think this alone has made a big difference. I have also not drunk much alcohol over the last 3 weeks but this is purely by accident and not something I was aiming for. I know this is going to change drastically over Christmas though! Going to have to make the most of it as next Christmas I will be tee-total leading up the big race!

That Difficult Second Week

People always say that the second album is the most difficult for a band. Well in my case I wouldn't even have wrote enough songs for an EP.

In my second week of training for the marathon I got ill. My glandular fever flared up big time again. This meant no excercise and lots of rest. Even a week on from the day I originally got ill I have still got a sore throat.

I did achieve something over the last week though as I maintained my weight and managed to fit in 10 miles of cycling and a swim. Also my hamstring has had a week off excercise and feels a lot better for it.

I'm not sure when I will be back in the gym as excercise is a no-no until I am completely better.


Not much to write about this time but hopefull I will have put in at least one session in the gym. I also have my (hopefully) last physio session this week.

The First Week

Another day, another dollar. Or in my case pounds. 4 of them lost to be exact.

It's been a good week.

I have got a new training plan which has no running involved. Shock horror! A running blog which isn't going to mention running. What it does include is a lot of non-contact cardio work involving medium effort cycling, crosstraining and rowing. And also high-rep medium weight muscle excercises.

 I have managed to get through 30 miles of high intensity road cycling, 3 gym sessions and a swim this week. I have probably done more worthwile excercise in the last week than I have in the last year.

Unforunately, due to my hamstring injury I haven't been able to push myself as hard as I want on the cardio but I think at this stage better to be safe than sorry.

 To strengthing my hamstring I am using a wierd stretchy latex band.

 

 I find it strange that with all of the medical advancement in the world it's the really simply things which help the most.

Finally it looks like the marathon I am going to enter is the Gloucester Marathon in January 2014 giving me about 14 months to train. Fellow blogger and superior runner http://baldypete.blogspot.co.uk/ suggested it to me and nicely offered to pace it with me.

Here is to a good second week!

The Start

Ok....here goes.

I'm 24 in just over 3 months. Not that great a milestone you might think and in fact in the grand scheme of things it isn't. There is just one problem with turning 24 for me:

A marathon!

I once read somewhere that a man should be at his physical peak at age 24. I therefore promised myself that at the age of 24 I would run a marathon. I was 17 then and I now realise how fast time flies. I also realise how stupid I was saying that a) I would run a marathon and b) telling everybody I would run a marathon!

So to get me started on the trail of training for a marathon before my 25th birthday in March 2014 I decided to start a blog.

To give a back ground of my running history I have been running on and off since I was 17.

I have ran a few half marathons with a PB of 1.54.45 and a few 10ks with a PB of 49.59. I enjoy running and racing but I'm not very good at the training side of it. This will obviously have to change. If I am honest a flat 10k is my favourite race so a marathon is probably way outside my enjoyment levels.

My aim over the course of the next 15 months is to beat my PB's above but I only have one aim for the marathon and that is to finish.

At the moment I am really unfit and inured. I have a tear to my bicep in my left leg down to the ligament in my knee which has left quite bad scar tissue. I also have some nerve damage to the 4th disc in my spine following a tear to a muscle in my lower back. Both are fixable with physiotherapy which I am currently going through at the moment. These things I will overcome and are insignifacant to the glandular fever I have. I got hospitalised and therefore diagnosed with glandular fever a year ago and this has set back my fitness by a massive amount. In summer 2011 I was fit - working out pretty much everyday and at a fighting fit weight of 13 stone. Currently I am 15st 9 and puffing out my ass. It's going to be a long journey back to the weight of 13st while overcoming the affects of glandular fever which can be as severe as ME.

Well now you have had my life story I will move on and look to the future:

My aims over the coming months are to

1. Recover from injury.
2. Maintain a gym programme and running regime.
3. Eat healthily.
4. Cycle to work as often as possible.
5. Reach my fighting weight of 13st.
6. Reach a marathong weight of between 12st and 12st 7.

It starts tonight with a new training programme at the gym!