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Training for the 2010 London Marathon: Week 1

posted in Keeping Fit, London Marathon 2010

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The first four months of this year are going to be nearly entirely focussed on getting fit enough to run the Virgin London Marathon on April 25th. I’ll be running for Shelter, the homelessness and housing charity, and my fundraising will be getting underway in earnest in the coming weeks. To keep me motivated and track progress I’m going to be recording my exercise regime and thoughts here until the big day.

This week
I’ve been hampered a little by a tender achilles tendon in my right leg. Contracting this injury in 2007 put me out of the Great North Run, so this time I’m determined not to aggravate it. With this in mind, other than following the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate) philosophy, I’ve changed my workouts, switching to low-impact Body Pump classes and rowing instead of running.

Body Pump is essentially weight lifting to music, aiming to improve core strength. If you’ve ever seen one of these classes you may be mistaken in thinking they are an easy option. With the right weights though, these are pretty bloody tough work. The sheer ridiculousness of doing bicep curls to the sound of Bon Jovi with twenty other people (and the peer pressure) never fails to amuse and motivate.

I also discovered this week that I’ve gained 12lbs in weight since September, not all of which can be muscle, so I’ll be looking at my diet to cut out a bit of the fat.

• Days to go: 106
• Eating: porridge
• Listening to: the slightly marvellous Running Trax compilation by Ministry of Sound
• Sleeping: lots

Sweating through early summer

posted in Keeping Fit, London

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The weather’s hotting up, the running’s been continuing and I’m making reasonable progress, having run 61Km this month in all kinds of weather. The low point was a particularly windswept 7k in Finsbury Park in which I got absolutely soaked and shat on by a bird with greeny-coloured poo.

Today’s run was the longest so far – a 9-miler around Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill. All felt good, but the strength of the sunshine and the 22°C heat left me sprinting for the shade and wondering how those folk running ultramarathons in the desert cope. It’s surprising the difference even a couple of degrees makes.

Right. I deserve cider.

Running through the night

posted in Keeping Fit, Life

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At midnight on midsummer’s night, I’ll be attempting the midnight sun half marathon in Tromsø, inside the Arctic circle. The sun will hopefully be shining. There will only be a few hundred other people running. We may have to run across a runway.

Inspired by David’s marathon blog (and success!), I thought I’d post up a few thoughts here in the run up to the race. This will be my second half marathon – I completed my first in Windsor last September in lush, green, sunny and sweaty circumstances. It was a moving experience – reaching the finish line to the sound of Fleetwood Mac was euphoric – so much so that the following 10 minutes is some sort of endorphin-fuelled blur before being fed some Guinness.

Training began in earnest a couple of weeks ago, and immediately I started I succumbed to pesky chest-infection from hell. Things have picked up again though now I’m better and last week I managed a 4k, 6k and 10k set of runs as well as a rather misty Body Pump class.

So it’s onwards and upwards for the next 6 weeks or so – with sporadic progress updates here. In the meantime, Mr Jones and his knees are taking part in the Helsinki half marathon this weekend – and he needs your sponsorship goodness!

How to: revive a washed iPod shuffle

posted in Keeping Fit

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I nearly cried when I found my iPod shuffle had been through the washing machine with my skanky gym kit. When it came out I could hear soapy water sloshing around inside it. Big sad face. However! I am now a happy gym bunny and my iPod shuffle is well again. Here’s my advice for those in a similar situation:

• Don’t plug your iPod shuffle in!
• Bury it in a bag of rice for a week or so
• Plug it in to your computer
• Voila!

God bless electronics, and Mr Heathcote who, if i remember correctly, suggested this marvellous method. More tips and tricks over here.

London 2012: it’s all crazy paving and death

posted in Design, Keeping Fit, London

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I’m no artist, and design is not my thing (this site is testament to that), but in the craze over the 2012 olympics logo (which looks like our old patio on speed), people might overlook the fact that the London 2012 landing page is even worse. It’s a complete horror featuring an eye-bleeding swatch of web-safe-but-not-really-safe colours alongside fonts you wouldn’t expect anywhere other than on a printed suicide note.

Conversely, apart from a quiet mention of the new logo in the news section the main London 2012 site fails to have any serious, strong branding anywhere in sight.

Slightly related:

• Guardian (2004): Olympic games may not benefit London
• Guardian (2007): Olympics are costly, but regeneration is priceless
• Diamond Geezer: “Don’t worry, we’ve checked that the final logo passes all known quality thresholds”
• B3ta: It’s amazing what you can do with no proper image creation software

58 minutes and 31 seconds

posted in Charity, Keeping Fit, Life

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Will and Simon pre-run, on Flickr.

Is officially how long it takes a Simon to run 10 kilometres in Hyde Park on a Sunday morning. It was tremendously hard going – I found it difficult to deal with the adrenaline ups and downs caused by the volume of people inflicting lime green and bright orange abuse on my eyes. My pace was, as a result, somewhat erratic.

My spindly legs are only just returning to normal now, after a day or so of walking around the office in a penguin-like fashion, but it was completely worth it: you’ve helped me raise a whopping £405 for Fairbridge through my justgiving page, and there’s still time to sponsor me if you haven’t already. Thanks so much for all your support. You can also sponsor the mighty Will – who ran a clear six minutes faster than me – here.

If you’re bored and eagle-eyed you can try to spot me finishing in the throng of people here, or check out my split times. Technology is fantastic! I think I’ve definitely caught the running bug, so I’m going to be busy plotting my next few runs…

Educating my muscles

posted in Keeping Fit, Life

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Three months ago I decided to put myself through 10,000m of bewilderment by signing up to Nike Run London in Hyde Park. Funny how time flies: the run is next Sunday. My weekly training regime has mostly consisted of:

• 2 runs per week around the leafy parks of Ealing, becoming progressively more lengthy
• 2 hour-long sessions of impossibly difficult weight-lifting to the sounds of the B-52′s with a group of predominantly female colleagues (and they all lift heavier weights than me)
• the odd game of squash (during which I squeal like a girl)

If that wasn’t enough of a body shock, I also scraped together enough pennies to buy a package of four training sessions with personal trainer Venus, who is possibly simultaneously the most inspiring and most evil woman I’ve ever encountered. During my first session with her I felt nauseous within about 20 minutes of relentless skipping, squat jumps, box jumping and bunny hopping and punching and shaking and sweating to death. During the first hour-long ordeal I experienced a range of emotions more extreme than anything before. It got worse before it got better, too.

After all this hard graft I’m confident that 10km is within reach and I’ll manage to hopefully complete the distance in an hour or less. It’s been great to be getting fit with a goal in sight, and now I need a little help from you guys. I’m hoping to raise �250 for Fairbridge, a great charity which supports young adults to whom life has so far dealt a raw deal. If you’d like to sponsor me, you can do it all online via my justgiving page. I’ll be eternally grateful.

Of course, pictures of next Sunday’s race will be up on Flickr shortly afterwards.

Keep on running…

posted in Keeping Fit, Uncategorized

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In a slightly rash move, I’ve just signed up to take part in the Nike 10K on October 8th. I’m on Team North (because we all know that North is best) and I’ll be in the second wave. Now I just have to get fit enough to actually run it…

Thirty-seven degrees celsius

posted in Keeping Fit, London, Uncategorized

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Is what they’ve forecast for Wednesday. I am concerned. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced temperatures hotter than inside my own grumpsome, turbulent body. What will happen, I wonder? Will the tiny air-con units give up the ghost and cause mass hysteria? Will I involuntarily climb into the fridge? Will I pop?

It’s a worry. Especially as I have agreed (in a characteristically feeble attempt to augment my Mr Muscle physique) to attend yet another Body Pump. It’s the only exercise class in West London where you can simultaneously heave hefty weights and relive the pain that was Drop Dead Gorgeous by Republica…