Slow and steady wins the race

So I haven't blogged for a week, since my last blog I have done 3 runs. The first was my usual 3miler last Thursday. I set off and felt strong for the first 2 miles, then for the last mile the ankle pain kicked in again, I did run through it ... just!

By this point it was clear that I was going to have a few days rest, conveniently the weather was superb! I did nothing at all remotely resembling exercise on Friday Saturday or Sunday. Also I had a bit of a realisation on the old beer front, surly If i had a couple of beers this wasn't going to scupper my marathon chances? I found myself sat on the stray in the blazing sun with the boys, the beer was flying round and everyone was having a whale of a time, apart from me. I wouldn't say that you or I need to have a drink to enjoy ourselves, that defiantly isn't the case, but at that point in time all I wanted was a nice cold beer and when I really thought about why I wasn't letting myself have one it all seemed a bit redicoulous. The key here is moderation my friend!

Any how I ended up having about 6 bottles then about 4 pints in town and wobbled home and fell asleep!!

So after a few beers and BBQ's (I behaved at the BBQ's and only had 1 burger or a bit of chicken) we come to Monday, my second run since we last spoke and after 3 days rest for me. I set off early Monday morning, the weather was still grand and I was feeling good after my long weekends rest. Off I set with the intention of doing my normal 3 miler. I decided to slow my pace down to about 9min/miles from 8min/miles. Slow and Steady wins the race!

Almost exactly half way round my 3 miler I am at ASDA in the centre of Harrogate and I turn back on myself and run back home on a different route. However I felt really good, no niggles of pain at all AND i was really enjoying myself, so i cracked on into town. I ended up running 6 miles in just a smidgen over an hour, not a quick pace I know but I felt great after.

That afternoon I went up to Saltburn with the parents and the Mrs. lovely afternoon and we ended doing a nice 5mile stroll down the beach, so that day I had carried my self 11 miles, good times.

I took this picture while we where there...

Naturally I had a rest day in Tuesday and that brings us to last night. I got back from work and got my running gear on, at work I had mapped a nice new 5miler that took me down to Knaresborough back up to Starbeck and back to mine. I was really looking forward to it, but a little bit nervous, I couldn't decide which way round to run it! It was a lot more hilly than any of the other runs I had done, but it seemed either way was going to be a bastard! Off i set to Knaresborough first, I wont bore you with an account of the entire run, it had it ups and downs but in the last 2miles I really started to settle into it and felt really comfortable, so when I got about quarter of a mile from my house I turned round and started running the other way!

I felt brilliant and wasn't ready to stop, I knew I had loads left in me. I ended up running into the centre of Harrogate, anyway it ended up being 10 miles when I got home, and I didn't stop once :)

Here is the route...

Things are looking up, I feel a lot better than I did last week, and I have learnt a very valuable lesson .... Drink Beer!

:(

On Monday I did as I was told and I rested! Nice steady day at work and I did sweet F. A. in the evening just sat in front of the TV.

Yesterday was a short 3 miler, I was nervous all day after Sundays episode! After work I went home made myself some tea and got my running costume on and off I set, all seemed well to begin with, a bit of a niggle in my right knee but nothing unusual, then after about 2 miles it really started to kick in, the same pain in my left foot/ankle.

I forced my self to run round and comlete the run, which I did but with a shit pace of 9.18. It felt really slow though, I didnt enjoy it :(

As soon as a stop running though the pain stops.

Here is a video of the run...



I've got a new camera as the GoPro had to go back, as you can tell it isn't quite as wide angle!! I will endeavour to point the ting at my face rather than my neck in the future!

Aslo the weigh has stopped coming off, I've only lost a couple of pounds since last Monday, I cant get my head around it because I am not doing anything different?!

This morning I went to see Nathan at B Physical who has given me a load of injury prevention exercises to do, hopefully this will help!

Anyway, thats all for now, as you can probably tell I am getting hugely frustrated with it at the moment...

disaster weekend!

This Weekend and has not been ideal!

As you know I broke myself last week so I missed my short 2 miler on Friday, On saturday I felt great, it was supposed to be a rest day but as I had missed the day before I headed out to do the same 3 miler I did earlier in the week.

I set off and felt really strong, I pushed on for the first mile that is pretty much all off road track through trees, It felt great and for the first time I felt like I could really press on and concentrate on achieving a decent time rather than just getting back to the house alive!

I was constantly focusing on my pace, if I felt my self slowing I was pushing on to keep the pace up, when I got to Skipton Road I felt like I was practically sprinting, It felt amazing! From there a flew down Bilton Lane and back to mine, hauled the brakes on and went to press stop on my phone to record all the information about my run, route pace time etc and the screen was blank, the f**ker had crashed! I was so pissed off! ...punching fences pissed off!

So you will have to just take my word for it, I ran 3.2 miles in 14min...

Saturday night Lizzie and I headed round to a friends house for dinner/piss up. We had chilli and wedges etc, I managed to stick to just a ladle of chilli so it wound up being quite a healthy tea! Had a cracking night, one of the lads brought round the most incredible 3l bottle of whiskey, but I managed to be a good boy and stayed off the  booze, we stayed round there until about 2am and I didn't have a drop of booze and had a whale of a time, this was quite a mile stone for me.

Sunday however was a disaster, after my fabulous run the previous day I decided to up the anti and go fro  5mile run despite my program telling me I was due a 'long' 3 miler. I set of and straight away felt a nasty twinge in my left foot/ I thought it was just going to be one of those things that i could just run off, so I cracked on for the first mile. When I got to town it was still hurting and over the next mile and a half I slowed to a limp and was in agony! Im not ashamed to say I called my mum and asked her to pick me up from town! I was pissed, really pissed I thought I'd done myself some proper damage.

As I said last week I am so scared of injury, I want this so bad now, I want to stick my fingers up in the faces of all the people that laughed at me and said I wouldn't be able to do this! F**K YOU! I am going to do this!

I woke up this morning and my foot felt fine, today is a rest day and I am going to do exactly that! Also this morning I  had an appointment at the gym for a sports massage, got up bright and early to get to the gym for 8:30 but then spent 20 min sat in the bloody traffic! Massage wet really well, I feel great now, Ill let you know how i feel tomorrow, I was warned that I might suffer some bruising!!

bendave x

Smashed In

No blogging yesterday, I'm feeling a bit smashed in at the minute, I pushed myself too far on Wednesday with my fatlek training, maybe the big willies in the changing room had something to do with it? I don't know, but by Friday I petty much could have done with a pair of crutches. I sacked of my 2miler last night.

One of my biggest fears with this whole thing is injury, I often think about what would happen if I lost a couple of weeks training due to injury or even worse fell while Im out running and broke something, it wouldn't take much to end this thing! I'm on the mend now and might try go out later, if not defiantly tomorrow.

Another thing that is trying its hardest to make me miserable at the minute is my f**king wisdom teeth. I am currently 25 years old, I have managed with the teeth I've got for quite sometime now, I must say I have never particularly struggled with chewing things up so why now in my mid twenties do I need some more teeth?! Clearly there is no room for them else I wouldn't be in so much pain! I feel like a pubescent boy again, with any look I will be able to grow some proper facial hair soon... another inch wouldn't harm either.

If you haven't had your wisdom teeth through yet, get ready! I currently can only open my mouth wide enough to just be able to slide a spoon in there, rubbish! This week I have mainly been eating soup and smashed up chicken breast with salsa, I've been weighing myself and I don't seem to be loosing any weight, which i find strange. maybe I need a big poo?

Unfortunately the camera has had to go back so their will be no vlogs for a while.

In a bizzle x

Teeth and Willys

Yesterday I woke up in tooth pain which is never a good thing, Ill be honest I've ben very lucky with my teeth, never had a filling or a had one out. Its my wisdom teeth giving me jip, I best wind up as wise as Socretes or this wont have been worth it.

Yesterday morning I had my gym induction all went very well, like a proper keen bean I went back last night to do my Fartlek training, here are my instructions...

• Warm up with 5 minuets of light jogging


• Run for 4 minuets, jog slowly for 1 minuite. This is one cycle.


• Repeat for the prescribed about of time.


• On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 is a very fast run, 1 is a leisurely stroll) aim for a level 7 to 8 on the runs


• Cool down for 5 minuets of light jogging.


Now here is my problem with the above "10 is a very fast run, 1 is a leisurely stroll) aim for a level 7 to 8 on the runs)" What is  fast run?! is Usain Bolts sprint a fast run, or is the run when your trying to catch the last of McDonalds breakfast a fast run?

What ever it is I clearly got it wrong, I only managed 3 cycles and nearly passed out. The thing with treadmills is you have to press a button to slow down, if you don't press the button and slow down it hurts a lot and people laugh, I know because I've done it before. With this in mind my technique to keep going was to not press the button and not slow down. It worked, I didn't slow down but i did nearly kill myself and I ran to the point that if I didn't press the stop button i would have been dead.

This is something I think I need to discuss publicly ...  changing room etiquette. It is something we have all had to deal with, what level of naked ness is appropriate in a public changing room? I like to opt for this approach - I will undress normally as if I where at home but with an important difference, I will face away from the centre of the room, this does not mean I will hide in the corner or press myself up against the wall, just face away from the majority of people, this is for my benefit and everyone else's. Once I am undressed I will either get into my gym cloths or trunks quickly and efficiently. Or if I a about to embark in a journey to the shower I will wear my towel on my way, remove it for the showering process then pop it back on again on my way back to my clothes.

This is I think is normal practice for most blokes. I'll just point out I understand it is slightly different with groups of mates including sports teams but we wont go into that.

I think I behave in this normal manner because I have a normal sized penis.

The thing is I have noticed something, the flaunters, they like to get undressed as close to strangers as possible take as long as possible to get undressed and then when they are completely naked they want to lengthen that time as much as humanly possible...  walking to the toilet then to the drinks fountain then back to their locker, cant that wait until you have got dressed?! All of these guys have one thing in common, they either have 3 foot cocks or just what I can best describe as a mole hiding in a bush.

The only other public place I can think of where it is socially acceptable to get your genitals out is a urinal. But when you visit one of those you don't leave your wanger hanging out while you go wash your hands, of if the phone rings answer it and wonder round the toilet in front of 10 other blokes with your cock hanging out, so why do it in a changing room?

There was a bloke with a 3 foot cock last night and he waived it around right in front of me the entire time i was in the changing room, i didn't enjoy it.

This morning I woke up wishing that i hadn't have pressed the stop button, my mouth has got a lot worse, i cant open my mouth, this should help with the diet some what though.

The obvious thing to do was to call the dentist and get him to sort it out, so that is what I did, I gave him a holla to book my self in and he has very kindly shuffled his diary around and managed to "squeeze" me in a week today?! Wanker!

Gym

Yesterday was my 'Rest day'. We had an Ont' Sofa session in at work, I got home about 9ish, and really wanted to go out for a run, so I did!

I ran 3.2 miles in 26min (8.1min/mile)  I ran the first mile a 7.2min/mile the third a 9min/mile and the third a 8.3min mile then really slowed down for the last 0.2 miles. That is my quickest run yet and i felt as solid as a rock, really enjoyed it!

I've got Fart Leg training tonight, I think its when you run fast then slow then fast again and slow and fast then slow and fast again, should be laugh.

Also I've joined a gym...

I went this morning for my induction with a bloke called Paul. Im going to have to be nice to Paul because I gave him a link to the blog, maybe if i slag him of Ill know If he's actually read it next time I see him? He was a Twat. He wasn't really, lovely bloke he's done a program with me. In a nutshell its high intensity interval training, we did it this morning felt really good and I'm aching now so it must have worked. Feel like a bit of a fanny doing all this lying down and thrusting bullshit and chucking around 6kg weights but I trust him, he's the professional!

I can't wait to start chucking some big weights around soon though.

I'm off back to the gym tonight for my Fart Leg training, its just 20min then I'm going to go sit in the sauna and stream room to make me feel good and because I'm posh like that.

My weekly program is filling up now, here it is in a simple form ...

Monday: Gym (HIIT) + Recovery
Tuesday: Gym (HIIT)
Wednesday: Run (short)
Thursday: Fartlek/CrossTrain (Gym)
Friday: Run (short) + Gym (HIIT)
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Long Run

I also had a look at the intermediate marathon training schedule last night, its an 18 week program and it says you should be running between 20-25 miles a week comfortably to do it. That gives me 7 weeks to get to that level. The program is more intense and the idea is that opposed to my current program that is designed to just get you round the course, this intermediate one is to get you round in a half decent time.

Maybe I am being a bit over ambitious, but we'll see!

Swinsty

Last night I did my first 3 miler, Craigy boy kindly offered to come on this run with me, I'm glad he did to be honest! He kept me going when things got tough. He didn't have to say anything, it was just the fact he was there, after all I'm a bloke and I didn't want to look like a fanny so I cracked on! Over all really enjoyed it, it's beautiful up there, it also helped that it was a lovely sunny evening.


Craig has offered to run all of my  training runs with me, what a f**king legend! I know it will really help me out, hopefully in time I should be able to get him in shape too ;) if you read this cheers bro!

To be fair apart from going up the hill at about mile 2 i found it alright had a smile on my face most of the time and felt like I could have kept going when we got back to the car. BRING IT ON!

Here is a VLOG of the run...

All in all I am really enjoying my training, the only thing I am still struggling with is food. I don't mean food in general, I am eating. I'm just not eating what I want to! I think about it nearly all the time. (sad sad b*****d) As I have mentioned before my diet used to be shit! Where my office is, within 200m in either direction there is a Fish and Chip Shop, a Chinese, Pizza take away and a  Butchers that sells pork pies that taste like Zeus himself has made and deli that sells dangerous cheese melty things. So Lunch times tend to be a right laugh!

The problem is that for the last 3 years I have eaten what ever I want whenever I want, if I fancy Fish and Chip I'd go get some along with a bread bun and a large battered sausage, If it was McDonalds a specified meal just wouldn't do id have to have at least two burgers. I just used to f**ing love eating!!

I still do, I just cant as much!

The water thing is going well, Im necking 4l a day without to much trouble, its costing the business a fortune in water cooler bills! I've taken up weeing almost professionally frequenting the toilet at least once every 5 minutes!

I have included this picture to give you an idea of how much I am weeing...

Catch up soon! bendave x

14 Stone 8

Not much to report after Saturday, felt like a bit bit of a plum after telling people I went on a bike ride and they replied "oh the acorn ride?" which was, incase you don't know, a 100km charity bike ride. 100km ... are you joking me?! Thats 6 times as far as my little ride!

On Sunday I did nothing. Went into town and had a nice chilled out afternoon at the Vally Gardens watching some great live music, then  we had a meeting at the pub with the rest of the marathon team. Again no beer for me, just water (rubbish).

There are 8 of us going to the New York together all running for St. Michael's. We've got some great fundraising things going on over the next few months. Ill post more details up when I know more.

So the weight, I weighed myself this morning and have lost 13 pounds in my first week, which understandably I am over the moon with! I now weigh 14 Stone 8 with  BMI of 28.4 . This also means I am no longer obese (just overweight).

Im off to run round a reservoir tonight, Ill let you know how I get on tomorrow!

8 and a half pints!

After my run last night, I nipped down to good old Christie's for Joe's birthday, I've decided I'm not going to drink for now, however I realised last night that the pub is w**k when you cant drink!

Also I purposely stood outside with 'the smokers' for a while to test myself, I didn't want one, not even one tiny little bit. WIN.

Yesterday there was a lot of talk about drinking lots of water so today I thought I'd give it a go, I have been instructed to drink 4l of water a day?!  Its funny though, 4l is 8 and a half pints, I never used to struggle with them!

This is what 4l of water looks like ...

Thats 20 cups!

Anyway I cracked on this morning by drinking 1l before I left the house, I honestly think i would have found it easier to neck a pint of my own p**s! Anyhow I got it down me and headed off to see our lass at the hairdressers for a trim, had a load lobbed off (it'll make me run quicker).

Then I headed down to the studio to do some filming, drank a load more water and did a lot of weeing.

Then This afternoon I decided that although it was a rest day I wanted to get out for some exercise so I headed of for what i thought would be an easy 10 mile on the push bike ... it wasn't!

I was absolutely f**ked when i got back, I've got to run that in a few weeks! B***CKS!

I took the camera, this is what happened...



Tonight Im off to a house party, usually for me that would entail a box of Stella and 20+ fags, then ending up in town getting myself in trouble and a kebab on the way home, sounds bloody perfect! ... but not tonight, I'm going to be a good boy!

bendave x

Here is my first VLOG I'm not going to put one up for every run, what I will probably do is film all sorts of different aspects of the training and diet and try and make them a little more entertaining ;)

Hope you like the cheesy New York Title!

So ... yesterday was a rest day, still feeling under the weather a bit. It says I should do some gentle sporting activity on my rest days like walking. Walking is boring.

So i went shooting guns instead!

This is me shooting a gun, proper good day out, really enjoyed myself, but I'm not sure I burned many calories!!

One of the biggest problems I face during the day is I'm constantly thinking about food, ALL the time every time I look out of the car window there is a picture of some scrummy food! It doesn't help when these wankers are texting me all the time either...

I would generally say I find quitting smoking easier than sorting my diet out. Quitting smoking is easy, i used to do it all the time!

In all seriousness I haven't really struggled this time, the first couple of days  I had a few hairy moments but today and yesterday I haven't really thought about it. I think if you really don't want to smoke and you can man out the first couple of days anyone can do it. For me the biggest problem has always been the anticipation of not smoking in the run up to quitting but once you do it, it'll be easier than you think.

Not eating on the other hand is shit, I want cheese and fish and chips and pizza. Instead for my lunch today i had mackerel and spinach. **yawn**

So after my days shooting i went home and sat in front of the telly and blew my nose all night, I really wanted to go out for a run though which I suppose is a good a thing, Im starting to look forward to my next run, which is tonight!! The last 2 miler then we are up to 3 miles COME ON!!!

Jason has lent me some shit dance music to run to so hopefully this will spur me on too...

Also i have been kindly lent a GoPro camera, if you don't know what one of these bad boys are it looks a bit like this...

The idea is i will wear it on my arm along with my phone my 'Map My Run' on so i can film bits and pieces out while I'm running, hopefully this will keep me occupied on the longer runs and enable me to post some funny videos on here of me blue in the face looking like I'm giving birth to a baby rhino.

Also I've lost 8 pounds?! I've worked out that if I carry on loosing weight at that rate I will weigh 0 by race day ... Brilliant!

Anyway over and out for now.

hurty legs

So since i posted the blog yesterday afternoon it has had 524 views, I'm quite happy with that, but doubt it will continue at that level!

Yesterday afternoon I started to feel really shit, blowing my nose, flu type symptoms, just basically felt really drained. We had an Ont' Sofa session in the studio last night so didn't leave the office until about 9pm, this isn't unusual at all so i think I will be doing a lot of my runs in the dark!

Anyhow, when I got home the last thing I wanted to do was go out for a run, I did consider f**king it off but then I remembered about the blog, how would it look if I didn't run my second run on the program, so I pulled my crap old school PE shorts on along with my ill fitting George T-shirt, pulled on my cap plugged in my ear phones and off I trudged into the pissing rain!!

The first mile and half felt great, but then the cramps in my calves kicked in, its a pain I've never experience running before, I don't know how unusual it is, maybe its because I'm hauling all this extra weight around, but ill tell you what it really hurts!!

I very nearly had to stop and walk for a bit.

In my training scedual it says that there is nothing wrong with regualr walk brakes, I have decided to ignore that peice of advise! Surly I'm better off pushing through and running all the way round?

I've got one more 2miler left then we up to 3miles and I'm quite looking forward to it!

Thanks for all your comments on Facebook and encouragement, it really does mean alot to me. Im trying to sort out a camera that i can take with me on my runs to make the blog a little more interesting, but in the mean time you will have to put up with my crap grammar and spelling ;)

Blog entry number one!

So here it is blog entry number one! I have just spent a bit of time setting the site up, you can see at the top I have a few pages explaining who I am and what this is all about, a page for my runs and schedule, a page about my weight loss and a page about St. Michaels who I am running for.

So in a nut shell here is what is happening...

I have signed myself up to run the New York Marathon on the 4th November 2012, the only thing is I am currently clinically obese weighing 15 Stone 7 with a BMI of 30.3 and extremely unfit! I have just packed in the fags, currently on day 3. I have pretty much sorted my eating out and I have just started running.

I have started this blog to share my story, I hope that it will help me along my way giving me the extra encouragement I will defiantly need, and I also hope you enjoy reading it! Please do leave comments!

Anyway have a look around at the different pages and Ill be back tomorrow after my next run!