Happy 2017 everyone! So, I made it through Christmas and am now 3.3kg heavier than 1 month ago. I suspect that the damage from my excessive chocolate/turkey/whisky/beer diet would’ve actually been considerably worse had I not managed to get so many runs in!
To add some context – I work in the events industry and in the 2 weeks running up to Christmas I was at about 8 Christmas parties of varying descriptions. This included a day watching the darts at Alexandra Palace where I behaved like a university student for a day as well as numerous bad nutritional choices such as vodka luges, jaeger bombs, espresso martinis and about 10 kilos of late night pizza from various dubious establishments. Obviously, this is AWESOME but I am a giant man-child and lack the ability to either abstain or leave early – it’s just too much fun! Now, obviously most of the other runners training for ultras etc. take diet a lot more seriously, but for me running is fun (OK, therapy and fun) and if I had to stop going to parties or eating the things I like then I suspect it would become more like a job! So I continue to get fatter and simultaneously try and run further and further too!
So, now we are in 2017 let’s get to the big goal – Endure 24! I want to run 100 miles in the allotted 24 hours. About 15 people manage this every year and I am far from elite so this is obviously a challenge! I’ve been upping the pace and the distance on my treadmill sessions and I managed a cheeky 9 miler on the 30th December at about 5am. It’s an amazing time to be out and running and I’d thoroughly recommend giving early morning running a try to the other brave insomniacs (parents) out there. It’s sometimes a bit spooky but I have to credit the guys at Unilite for their head torch as it does make things a lot easier when you are carrying a torch with the power of a small lighthouse on your head! I’m still keeping up the weights and my goal is to get up to 5 times training a week by the end of Jan with 2 of those runs being 10k plus. To do this I need to get up at 5:15 every day! This gets me out on the road and back home by 6:30 – this fits with my lifestyle and family and leaves me clear weekends for family time. This isn’t really a training plan or a New Year’s resolution, but it’s what I need to do. If I can’t be bothered then I have no chance at my 100 miles so I just need to suck it up!
So tomorrow is my first day back at work and I’ve optimistically laid out my running gear for the morning – hopefully I can avoid the snooze button! The fact I’m sat typing this whilst waiting for my pizza to cook and drinking a JD and Coke… probably isn’t the best preparation…
25 November – 3.29 in 30 93.5kg
29 November – 3.29 in 30 96.3kg
1 December – 3.29 in 30 94.4kg
4 December – 6.20 in 52
7 December – 2 in 20
9 December – 1 in 10 97kg
11 December – 3.72 in 30 91.4kg
14 December – 3.39 in 30 94kg
23 December – 3.49 in 30 93.6kg
28 December – 3.48 in 30 95.3kg
30 December – 9.1 in 91 95.3kg
31 December – 3.29 in 30 97.2kg
2 January – 3.73 in 30 96.8kg