Over £200 for Helen & Douglas House

Thank You!!

Thanks to everyone who has sponsored my daughter and me to do the Santa Fun Run in aid of Helen & Douglas House on Sunday.

So far I've raised over £200 for this great cause. That's fantastic, everyone has been very generous.

Pictures to follow next week!!

Protein diet!

Out for a slap up meal tonight at La Fontana in Hanney, courtesy of the project I've been on again this year...
After frogs' legs to start, I followed up with a massive T bone steak. Now that's what I call a steak!! I need to up my meat intake, it's good for building up my muscles (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

I've run a marathon!

Since I bought my new running shoes 5 weeks ago, I've run 26.2 miles in them! That's after this evening's 0.8m run in 7m21s, which I ran in reverse (anti-clockwise) for a change... All I need to do now is condense 5 weeks' running into 5 hours, or less, and that's it!!

Snap...

Having had a very late night last night (and those uni kids really ought to know better on a shool night), I decided on a slightly shorter 0.7 miles, and did the same route I ran last Tuesday in the same time.

 

Back to 0.8 miles tomorrow & Friday, then a mile on Saturday and the 2 mile Santa Fun Run on Sunday!

Darker the trotter...

I had to tread carefully this evening, as it was very dark for my run, which I only did in 7m59s. Still, since I was dashing in from work, eating and dashing straight out again to go to Unitruck, I was glad I still made myself go out for my daily lap.

Tomorrow is officially a day off, but I might squeeze a quick trot in if I can!

7m47s

The 0.8 mile circuit was a bit slower this evening. I think I set off too fast, wanting to get it over in a hurry and ended up taking longer!

3 miles again, and not out of breath

I ran three miles again today, and it seemed to get easier on each one. I was even tempted to do 4, but didn't want to push myself too far today, especially since my times were a bit down on last week.

Mile 1 - 11m09s
Mile 2 - 12m28s
Mile 3 - 12m00s

It's the 2 mile Santa Fun Run next Sunday, so I'll be doing my "long" run on Monday instead (having a few days off work).

Brrr

In spite of the cold today, I went out for the 0.8 mile lap, and did it in 6m59s. I was hoping to go for a long cycle ride, but the gloomy weather kept me indoors. I dusted off my stepping machine and did three 10 minute workouts on that instead.

Ock it's a broad brickt moonlickt nickt tonickt

with apologies to any Scots who are reading this!

I thought I'd be able to run my new daily lap quicker than yesterday, since it's a lot easier to see the pavements this evening, but it took me a whole 5 seconds longer (7m24s)... oh well - better luck tomorrow (in the rain?!).

 

Sponsorship is flowing in for the Santa Fun Run, we're up to £80 so far, and still a week to go. So please feel free to sponsor me - anything at all will help such a good cause. Thanks!!

6.55mph

Today I started my new daily 0.8 mile lap of the village, in 7m19s which is a quite reasonable 6.55mph (that's a marathon in 4 hours).

Mind you it is dark and wet, so I expect to do better on Saturday when I run it in daylight!

Ho Ho Ho (again)

My suit (for the Santa Fun Run) turned up today. My wife says I look dashing but I'm not convinced! If you'd like to sponsor my daughter and me to run the 2 miles in a couple of weeks, please do!
The page for this is at http://www.bmycharity.com/ulenandlauren/

Today I tried out a slightly longer route for my "daily 5 minute" run, upping it to 0.7 miles and I did it in 6m45s. Tomorrow's a day off (as was yesterday tsk tsk), then on Thursday I've sorted out a better route at 0.8 miles which I hope to stick to for a week or two and then I'll be aiming to do a mile a day from December onwards.

Back in training (21 weeks to go)

After a few days off (due to an annual hospital check-up), I was back in training yesterday. I ran my 5 minute lap again in er... 5 minutes.

Today as it's Sunday it's back to the "long" run. I wanted to do 3 miles, and decided I'd do at least 2 and see if I felt up to the 3rd. Which I did!

32m35s was just a bit better than last week, but on the whole fairly consistent:

Mile 1 - 10m01s
Mile 2 - 11m11s
Mile 3 - 11m23s

I may extend my daily run tomorrow a bit, and soon will be running at least a mile a day.

~10 minute mile

I did a mile this evening in 10m09s ... That's just a little off my top target time, and a bit different from the 12 minute miles I was running last month!

Ho ho ho!!

If you're in Oxford on Sunday 2nd December, why not pop along and watch the Santa Fun Run in aid of Helen and Douglas House?




I'll be there with my daughter running the 2 miles through the streets of Oxford, though you'd be hard pushed to recognise us as we'll be running along with 600 other Santas!

3 in 33

I've finally made my target of running 3 miles in one go, that I've been building up to gradually for the last few weeks.

It's a little milestone on the long route to the 26, but I was quite chuffed to have done it. And yes, it felt good!!!

 

Mile 1 - 10m24s

Mile 2 - 11m23s

Mile 3 - 11m13s

 

Total 33 minutes. Averaging 11 minute miles would be a sub 5-hour marathon which is my "2nd" target.

 

Target 1 - just to finish (however long it takes!)

Target 2 - to finish in under 5 hours

Target 3 - to finish in under 4½ hours

Target 4 - to do it in 10 minute miles, so about 4h20

 

A marathon in 4 hours 9 minutes?

I ran a mile again today in 9 minutes 31.94 seconds which at that pace would be just over 4 hours for the whole marathon - which is under my target time!

 

Tomorrow I shall up my "distance" run to 3 miles (more likely at the 11+ minute per mile pace).

ZzzZzz

It's been a long week. Went out for the usual 5 minutes again yesterday, but today's a day off. Not great as I should be running off the calories from my lunch - "The Columbo Sandwich" - a steak & salad doorstop!

Training in the winter sucks; it's cold, dark, windy & wet. Time to get my home gym sorted...

Getting better

I did my 0.6 mile run again this evening. And I wasn't that tired out after it. I've decided not to time myself this week - so I can see my times come down next week, when I'll be upping the distance.

Back to the short runs

After a day off yesterday (having been off out early to see this lot), I went out for another 5 minute run this evening.

It seemed all too easy - so perhaps I'll need to add a few extra hundred yards tomorrow...

A marathon in 5 hours

I went out for a "long" run today for 2 miles again. I did the 1st one in 11m38s and the 2nd in 11m33s. If I can train myself to keep that pace up for 5 hours - then that's the marathon done! If I can do it in 5 hours then I'd be very happy - as finishing it at all will be brilliant. But the thought of running for 5 whole hours still seems very daunting!!

Next Sunday I want to up my weekly "long" run to 3 miles...

Breaking the speed limit on a bike (well almost)

I cycled 9.74 miles in 41m53s averaging 13.9mph. Downhill into Shellingford I reached my top speed for the ride - 29.6mph going into a 30mph limit...

In another few weeks I may even be able to break it! Although I'd still have to go some to beat my personal best of 37mph (downhill into Oxford when I was about 18).

 

Tomorrow I shall practise a longer run. 2 or maybe even 3 miles.

4m38s

It's much easier to run in daylight!

 

Off for a bike ride in a bit to get a more sustained cardiovascular workout.

5m06s

Ran round the 0.6 miles the other way this evening for a change.

Back to 30+ minute exercising at the weekend...

5m11s

That makes my average so far 5m4s - or a mile in 8½ minutes when I'm back to running miles.

A suffusion of green

Having chomped up another kilo of carrots yesterday for my daily half-litre of carrot juice to take to work, I decided to have a go at the apples that were turning every so slightly wrinkly in the fruit bowl.

I quartered, de-stalked and de-cored 8 apples, and then let them loose in my juicer. This produced 2 glasses of an interestingly cloudy green drink, quite dissimilar to the apple juice that you'd buy. Of course the difference is that apple juice is pressed, so just the juice is squeezed out of the fruit. It can be quite sharp. I was pulverising the flesh and the skins, so I ended up with a much more subtle-tasting drink. Not so thirst quenching, yet much more flavoursome (imho). And then when I cleaned out the pulp it was very very gloopy apple purée (quite unlike the dryish remains that carrots leave). My wife pointed out that this was just like the kind of baby food that comes in jars. Perhaps I ought to start a sideline in producing foodstuffs? How about The madasaboxoffrogs tasteless gloop company...

 

4m59s

I went out for my new daily "5 minute" run again yesterday. It's good, once I get over the feeling that it's hardly worth going out for such a short run. Ideally I should be doing half an hour of exercise a day, right?

Running for 5 minutes every day is actually really good though. It's something I can do every day, even if I'm not feeling like a run. I know that such a short run is not going to last long, so I have no excuse not to get out running every day. And because I'm not running for a couple of miles (or cycling for over half an hour), it means I have plenty of time to juice up some more carrots!!

 

Back to the bike and a longer run at the weekend, but for now - the new daily run is now a regular part of my get-fit programme.