Spurred on by a conversation this afternoon, I’m going to try and tick another thing off my list by saying no to things this week.
This ‘thing’ was created because I would say ‘yes’ too much – to a fixing something, or to buying something or to organising some event. I’m just really bad for agreeing to do stuff.
So for this week, unless its to do with business, its going to be a ‘no’. Gulit-free no …
Tomorrow is the traditional Late Spring Bank Holiday Monday that the annual Cheese-Rolling Festival at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire takes place.
The sad thing is, due to health and safety reasons, it looks like the 2011 is going to be cancelled (similar to the 2010 event). The police are worried that people will break their legs because they’re running high speed down a hill. Which … when you think about it, is sensible. Especially considering the cuts that the NHS are facing at the moment. Continue reading
Last sunday morning, I, along with thousands of others, got up for 8am to run 13.1 miles in the Half Marathon bit of the Edinburgh Marathon Festival.
I have to say, compared to last year, this time round was a very different experience. Definitely less pain this time round.
Last Year: Chris Hoy Half Marathon 2010
Last year, I started training just before New Year and discovered how much I loved running in fresh-fallen snow (no, really, its awesome, if you haven’t done it before, make sure you get ready for it this winter). But by the time mid-April came, my knees were in a pretty bad shape. In my eagerness to ensure that I ran all the way, I had over-trained a little bit too much – regularly doing 30-40 miles a week. In the lead up to it, I relaxed a little in the hope that things will heal and get better. It did. Sort of.
In the race itself, my right knee seized up after mile 2. Not wanting to give up, I just hobbled and did my best to keep on running. It was a sorry sight. All I thought about for the next 4 miles after that point was 1) how much pain I was in and 2) how much I would pay for painkillers. (Pitching workshops that included phrases about paying for ‘painkillers’ took a whole new meaning.) After mile 6, the knee finally loosen up. Miles 10 – 13 were a real struggle: I remember having to pinch myself occassionally so that pain signals were diverted from my feet to my hands. Still, I finished in about 50 secs outside what I thought I would do.
This Year: Edinburgh Half Marathon 2011
This time round, I only trained 4 weeks prior to the race. Granted, the biggest advantage from last year is that I’ve dropped at least 10 pounds since then, so running on the knees was much less stressful.
In the weeks leading up to it, I followed a similar pattern of training from last year: short, medium, short, long runs. I tried to up my mileage to around 20-25 miles per week. Here is roughly what I did:
Week 1: 3, 5, 3, 7 miles
Week 2: 3, 6, 3, 9 miles
Week 3: 4, 8, 4, 11 miles
Week 5: 3, race
Despite the different race, the course itself was pretty much the same as last year. This time, there was no overtraining, and it was all good until about Mile 12, which was the real “plod, plod, plod” moment. I struggled until I could see the finishing line, and got an extra boost when I saw Sicknote who waved me on finish.
I managed to knock 5.5mins off the time last year.
The marathon …
This week has been a week off. The plan is to train in cycles – going from 13 miles to 20 miles, then a little time off, then go from 20 miles to 26 miles. Why do it in chunks? Well, I find that running long distances is partly about mental state and concentration (i.e. preparing yourself for it) and also about not over-training. In other words, I need to put in the long runs, but I don’t want to go overboard either.
Incidentally, I’ve been following the training plans from A Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer - which is highly recommended.
After signing up to the Loch Ness Marathon and somewhat panicking after realising I should have looked at the height profile of the course before signing up, I started training last week.
Turns out that it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
Really. It wasn’t.
Not sure why, but despite struggling to run a mere 6.5k when I was in Austin, its not much of a problem at the moment. I’m counting myself very lucky.
So like a fool, I decided to sign up for the Edinburgh Half Marathon. My sister will be running too. As well as a fellow run2see team mate.
Look forward to seeing you there! 
After being swamped at work and various other side projects, I’ve unfortunately neglected my 30 before 30 list for a bit. No fear – I’m back on track by signing up for the Loch Ness marathon on 2nd Oct. It might be a month after my 30th, but figured its best late than never!
When I was compiling my list of 30 things to do, part of the emphasis was to do things that were quirky and different. By this I don’t mean doing something that was slightly different, but things that were really out there and unusual because I think everyone needs an adventurous side to them. If anything, the principle was that it would help me to be more creative by experiencing things that I normally don’t experience.
One of those things is Extreme Ironing!
Extreme Ironing – what and why?
Contrary to popular assumptions, the sport didn’t involve doing all your ironing at once, but instead, involves extreme sports enthusiasts ironing up various mountains, under-water or even skydiving. By its very nature, it’s supposed to be an oxymoron: combining two things that normally don’t go together – the thrills of mountain climbing and the mundaness of ironing – to create a shock value. And it is this surprise that most people get when hearing it, which makes it something that sticks in people’s heads (see Chip and Dan Heath’s book on Why Ideas Stick). Continue reading
Number 13 on my list was to take a martial arts class.
Although I’ve played rugby for 10 years, I’ve always thought that martial arts was of orders of magnitude more aggressive and harder. Part of this image has been constructed by people ‘casually’ mentioning that people have broken necks or even died from Judo competitions (incidentally, this is mostly from people being thrown and breaking their necks – eek). So taking a martial arts class was something that I never thought I would do.
Thankfully, to help encourage me along, one of my rugby friends – Emma – offered to take me along to a Judo class (the other option apparently involved a cage). Emma had ‘played’ judo for a number of years and a fully signed up member of the black-belt club; but she had taken some time off the mat and hadn’t practised for a while. She signed us up to a class taken by one of her former coaches.
We turned up, to what was a room under-the-stairs of Meadowbank Stadium. It was padded on the floor and on the walls.
First thing was to get warmed up. So running around the room to begin. Then we progressed to a lot more rolling and tumbling – starting with doing forward rolls up and down the hall; wheelbarrows; leapfrogs and more rolls. We then moved onto practising a particular type of throw – which I could just about get the first two steps of, but shifting my weight quick enough to get a foot sweep was definitely a challenge.
Then we split into pros and beginners. We learnt about arm locks, throws and a hold with the two other beginners.
Judo was deinitely fun and I want to have more time to be able to do something like this on a regular basis: it gave me a chance to switch off. We’ll see how the best of the year pans out!
So, its been just over a month since I first made my 30 things to do before I’m 30 list. I’ve been talking about it quite a bit and generally, people think its a great idea. In fact, another one of my friends has just started her list too before her birthday.
I thought I would give a quick update to let you know where we are:
1. [completed - 2/9/2010]
2.
3. Ride a motorbike
4. Go rock climbing
5. Visit New York
6. Dye my hair - I’ve been talking about how I should go about doing this. The opinions differ from sensible colours like “brown/purple” to “if you’re going to do it, go blonde or bright blue”. Still haven’t made my mind up. But one thing is for sure. Looks like I should get it done professionally.
7. Write a poem and perform it at an open mic night Continue reading
