Work, family and a social life makes for tough training.

Jonathon Ross is still going...

The ability to continuously train and stick to a pre-planned schedule is proving to be difficult. With the best will in the world I have found that work, family and social life get in the way.

I had an army reunion last Friday in Chilwell, Nottingham. I actually stayed at the Village Hotel which I think Rory uses, but I didn’t see him there. It was a good day as I managed a short run and then an hour in the gym and then some time in the sauna. This was followed by a few Guinness’s in the evening and a lot of old war stories.

On Saturday night I had a cowboy fancy dress night to go to. Didn’t drink much so no real problems with a small 15 miler on Sunday. Today is Tuesday and I have 20 miles planned for this evening. I have to say at this point that since New Year I have had virtually no alcohol but I think sometimes a good blow out is justified....!

This weekend I have a 22 mile run planned for Saturday. This will be from Totton to West Moors in the afternoon. I then have a 40 mile run planned for Sunday. This will take in the delights of Hengistbury Head, Bournemouth seafront, Sandbanks, and the New Forest. This should be the test to see if I am ready. Bit late in the day if I’m not though!

I had found a training plan for a 100 mile run on the internet and sort of adapted it. The maximum mileage it recommended was 35 miles as part of the training. So I was a bit shocked to see that we were supposed to be at or above 40 miles. Panic did set in slightly at this point. I have now managed to sort of stop worrying. Surely I can’t be the only one having panic attacks; I’ve never had them before! I guess it must be the fear of not wanting to fail after such a big build up. Words of encouragement required please....

I wore a Camelbak last week for the first time on a 30 mile run. I found it more preferable than a waist belt. I was getting stomach aches from the belt, so have now ditched it and will continue with the Camelbak.

I did see Darth Vader briefly in the London Marathon, but not sure that was Spencer... Well done though for your fantastic effort, it looked extremely uncomfortable!

Hope you are all well.

Route Map et al

Message from the Editor:

Dear All -

Just a very quick note to do a couple of things:

1. Commend Spencer Rolls on a superbly valiant effort during the London Marathon. Despite not having Project 65 plastered over his chest, he still managed to get himself both on the BBC and in The Sun! I've also seen the Facebook pictures of his chafing - not pretty!!

Well done, Spence - keep up the good work and let your example be a shining light to all other runners in their sponsorship efforts!

2. To remind you all that there are now 5 weeks and 1 day till H-Hr. Rory reckons that you should be banging out 40 milers by now....! No comment on that as I was out of breath running for the bus this morning!

3. To point out that the route map of the run is now downloadable from the website at this address in a fantastic powerpoint presentation by Danny Greeno that was clearly worth waiting for! Please do promote this link when you do all you promotional work as it will benefit you to have people turning out to cheer you along the route!

4. To congratulate you all on your training, committment and sponsorship raising efforts. The final push is about to start, and if what I'm hearing is correct, there could a massive surprise in store for us all - no more to be said on that at the moment, suffice to say, don't give up... It will be worth it eventually!

Take care, and keep banging out the (s)miles!

See you at Woburn.

Ed

The Silver Surfer has had a tough week!

Doc Chalmers:

Just been one of those weeks. According to my wife I live on the 'edge' and by this she probably means the 'edge of sanity'! I’m currently feeling TATT (Tired All The Time) due to over exertion, and that message from R Coleman doesn’t make me feel that much better. Does he mean 40 mile runs or 40 mile total weeks training? To summarise one of those weeks:

HIGHS: The Mighty Mariners are pretty much safe unless we lose and Chester score 'shed loads' in their last match and we got Project 65 published in both local papers.

LOWS: Chased by cows when out running with my mates from 'Wolds Vets',; got totally frozen on Saturday doing a dock swim and had to help in rescuing an 'open water virgin' who had a bit of a 'paddy'; tried to find some soft ground for off road running in the afternoon when I’d thawed out but instead the bridal path I used was bone hard, heavily rutted and can best be described as a 'leg breaker'; a triathlon planned for Sunday as a bit of light relief was changed to a duathlon at short notice due to someone doing 'floater' in pool and hence water quality was somewhat suspect; tried to speak to Dan C in the evening about how his training was going and he had disappeared off 'clubbing'; and finally, there was the swim set today given to keep us quiet - a total horror with 3 lots of 100m individual medley swims as a small part of 1800m main set. The warm up/down was 650m.

Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned work!

But what the hell you’ve got to see the funny side, if the lows > highs this week maybe next week it will/must be better! Just 5 weeks to go and stay injury free. Weather picked up as I longingly look out of the window between seeing patients, so off on the bike for a leisurely spin this afternoon....

I know I can do it now...

Matt Barker back again after a blog break;

Having had a mad few weeks with work and family life I have now 5 mins to do a blog. Training is going well. I am not running as far as I'd like at the mo but I know I can.

Last Sunday saw me do 24 miles by doing 8 mile loops in the Hampshire countryside near my house, experimenting with food and carb drinks. I was attempting 40 miles but left it too late in the day and had family commitments but knew I was good for 40 as I felt fresh as a daisy at the end of 34 and not sore at all during the next few days.

I shall be doing the 8 mile loop again soon but will get more weekly miles in due to working the next 2 weekends. :-(

Echoing Jonathan's comments, my local British legion has been very helpful especially after I did a talk for them plus I am now approaching local businesses and have posters nearly everywhere in the local town. Sponsorship is slow but sure.

Not much more happening other than BBQs, running, eating, sleeping and working.

Catch y'all later with a more interesting blog next time hopefully!

A special kind of idiot!

The Project 65 Chairman Checks-in.

Dear All,

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the many wonderful posts on the PROJECT 65 blog over the last few weeks and I thank all the bloggers for lightening up my days at 'GCHQ'!

We are working flat out here to pull everything together to ensure the RUN TO PEGASUS is the great event it promises to be.

I'm sure you have all seen the numerous emails from me asking for various bits of info from you and I need to ask one final time for you all to confirm which ferry crossing you wish to return on:

• 2300 Saturday 6th June
• 1630 Sunday 7th June

For those of you who wish to return on the 7th I have a little treat for you. A lift back to the ferry port on genuine WWII vehicles!

We are also in the planning stages of a little soiree on the evening of the 6th. More details soon.......

I hope you are all training hard and well. A certain Mr Coleman from Nottinghamshire informs me you should all be at (or over!) the 40mile mark by now so best of luck with all that!

Please ensure that you are at Tarrant Rushton Airfield by 1200 on Thursday 4th June ready for the safety briefing and start of the run which will be accompanied by no less than 2 Spitfires, 1 Hurricane and a C47 Dakota!!!

If any of you have any questions relating to the run, please do not hesitate to contact us!
Information packs are in the post, FINALLY!!

Best wishes to you all. I look forward to seeing you at the start in June.

Danny Greeno
Chairman

Football and swimming in the docks.

Doc Chalmers is back in the running (or swimming);

It never ceases to amaze me how things happen. Both Dan Chico and I are starting to make a concerted effort on the fund raising. We have a signed Grimsby Town shirt (a definite must have item) and Dan then decided to e-mail all of the football league clubs to try and scrounge something out of them, using the leverage that our local club are helping. Surprisingly not a lot ensued except but we did get 2 directors box tickets from Hearts in Edinburgh!

Now the problem how the hell do we get a decent amount for these tickets since they are not flying off the shelves in Grimsby! I’m Scottish but as a Hibs fan I couldn’t face the humiliation visiting the directors box of Hearts...! For those who don’t follow football consider the Hearts/Hibs rivalry on a similar, but slightly more posh footing, as Celtic/Rangers! All helpful hints accepted..

We also have been targeting TV, radio and the newspapers. It was all nice and quiet till our 2 local papers (Grimsby Telegraph and Cleethorpes Chronicle) found out they had both been targeted. There is now ensuing an unseemly and childish race to see who can print our story first. Dan and I are looking on from the side with considerable amusement, and my mobile is in melt down mode as I get repeated phone calls/texts for photo and interview requests. I have to say though any publicity will do!

This weekend sees the first chance to get the wet suit out for open water swimming. Most people think I’m extra mad (i.e. worse than usual) when we swim in the docks. However, our local open water swimming club laugh at us soft and weedy triathletes - they turn up in Speedos, goose fat and 70’s style swim caps including the flowers, like my Mum used to wear!!

Fortunately, we haven’t had too many problems to contend with; the rats are scared so stay away from us, the swans don’t like us so only attack us if we get close and the locals reckon we do it for charity so hang over the edge of the bridge side waving notes to try and give us a donation!

Best of all if someone tries to commit suicide by jumping in the docks the rescuers get the “full monty” antibiotics, vaccines for everything - including things I’ve probably forgotten about. Oh, and we get a nice cup of tea!

Finally I emailed my swimming coach about the Project and asking if the masters would like to sponsor me. Turned up today for my scheduled swim at 06:00 and the masters traipsed by muttering I was 'bloody mad'. My coach was much more supportive than usual - she is looking forward to me running as she reckons when I finish it I’ll be so 'trashed' it will keep me quiet when I return and she won’t have to suffer the usual mild mucking about and cheek! She didn’t sponsor me though!

Nearly there now...

And he thought he was so cool!

Jonathon Ross is back on the case;

I read a brilliant quote this week, “Any idiot can do a marathon but it takes a special kind of idiot to do an ultramarathon”. Enough said!

My training routine was again disrupted this week. We went away to stay with friends in Newport, Shropshire for Easter. Our friends like to stay fit so I thought I’d see if they were interested in a few runs whilst we were there. Sarah told me in no uncertain terms, “Why can’t you leave it alone just for a week?” I did try and explain that training is continuous but it fell on deaf ears.

Whilst we were staying there they had a few guests over for a BBQ. I got talking to one guy who said he used to do a bit of running but not any more. I then proudly told him all about Project 65 and the distances I was running. He then told me that he used to run marathons and his best time was 2hr 48mins. Feeling somewhat inadequate I think I managed to change the subject at this point.

Last Tuesday I booked myself a sports massage. I’ve never had one before and thought it might sort out a few muscle issues I have. So I went to the clinic in Wimborne and met Hannah. After I had explained my woes she set to work. Pain, Pain, Pain with an extra helping of pain is the only way I can describe the experience. She said that she had found a few ‘knots’ that needed sorting. I didn’t realise she was going to sort them with a hammer!! On a serious note she was excellent. However I did leave the clinic walking like I had marbles in my shoes.

My training routine is definitely back on track now (until the next disruption). Fifteen miles last night was actually very hard and I ache this morning. Not really what I was hoping for. I have a few short runs planned for today and Friday then a 30 miler for Sunday. The route I have chosen is through forests, along a disused railway to Hengistbury Head and along the coast to Bournemouth and back home. Then I will do 15 miles on Monday. All being well this will be my routine up until 2 weeks before the event.

I little tip on sponsorship. Your local British Legion may allow you to put a sponsorship form up on their notice board. It has worked for me and attracted some quite healthy amounts.

All the best to you all, stay fit and enjoy the pain – after all, it is free!!

Feel bad after a race? Drinks calf's milk!

Doc Chalmers is full of beans and the joys of Spring;

I finally had to give in; I had been a bit concerned about my down loaded training schedule as it included no x-training and true to form having stuck to it fairly rigidly, my legs gave up. A quick visit to my own GP didn’t help much as I got the sensible advice to rest, oh yeah! Next stop, swimming coach who is also an NHS physiotherapist and a similar comment ensued, as a consequence out came the “Jacques Cousteau” style flippers for lots of leg drills!

I’ve already shown an element of dogged independence and active ignorance of advice (don’t do as I do, do as I say) so it was back to duathlons after an all too short a rest. Our first duathlon, a short 1 mile run, 10 mile bike and 1m run outing, was postponed due to fog descending to virtually zero visibility and even I’m not that mad so we sensibly retired to the pub for a pint and a chance to brush up on my pool skills. (In an earlier life I did get an offer from my University Medical Dean, either play pool as a pro or finish your medical degree... good decision?!)

However I was in fine form next week at the duathlon until the chain came off the big ring on the racing bike, went from 'flogging it' to 'prating' about at the side of the road in a flash. The most enjoyable bit was zipping along down wind exceeding the 30mph speed restriction through picturesque Wold Newton village with all its daffodils at the road side. Still, 34 minutes for 10 miles on the bike with a repair stop is OK. I suspect the alleged 5m 30s for the second mile run was a tad dubious so I guess my wife was having a 'blonde' moment while acting as timekeeper.

I also see we have some excellent words of wisdom regarding recovery from training. No disrespect as it all looks very good and technically 100% but recently in 220 Tri magazine an article said a milkshake and a banana were just as good after a hard race. I suspect the extra clever amongst us will realise the milkshake will have Insulin like Growth Factors and other interesting substances hence the muscle recovery/development/adaption.

My other non scientific trick is a big slug of that miracle fluid Iron Bru: useless for adaption but superb for hangovers and also feeling “pasty” after a race. Recovery is vital given the volumes we are doing and the golden time is that hour after finishing. If you really go for broke there are nutritional supplements (legal, clearly) that can be used. I even was a guinea pig for one of them; Neovite. This is dried cow colostrum i.e. first milk passed for the new born calf. It puts Marvel milk powder to shame on the “vile” front but it works. I regret it’s expensive and has the minor drawback of needing to come from BSE free cows! All in all, a bit tricky!

Anyway off with our local running club tonight for a quick 5m road race. I feel a leisurely cycle to/form the start is required.

Best wishes and see you all soon!

How not to do it!

The Project 65 blog editor thought he'd have his say...

Well, people, I think you are all completely bonkers.

Don't get me wrong, as an ex-Army officer myself, I understand and sympathise with the cause. God, I even did the FLM last year for one of the military charities and it practically killed me. Also note that I say 'did' not 'ran' - there is a reason for this.

It's not surprising given I did all my training on the dance floors of south-west London, showed up at the start having stuffed a kebab down between tube stop and line, still half-cut having not been to bed due to one of said dance-floors, and with the attitude of, 'How hard can it be for God's sake!? I am in the Army after all!! This is nothing in comparision to Sandhurst!!'

Six hours and twenty-fours minutes later, with burst blisters on both feet, feeling like I'd been kneecapped, bleeding nipples (and had been from about Mile 20), a raging thirst and possibly the worst hangover I'd ever known, I crossed the finish line in The Mall. I only narrow beat the street sweeper. Sandhurst didn't even register on the scale of pain.

So, now you've had the official method of long distance running (see Matt Furber below), I thought I give the antithesis... Let the above story, whilst vaguely amusing now in hindsight but not remotely at the time, be a sanguine lesson in how not to do marathon/ultra-marathon running!

However, I applaud you all tremendously for your efforts, big and small, and the committment that you will undoubtedly need to get round the 65 miles. I proved that you can just about get away with it for 26 miles, but there is no hiding in 65.

Collectively you have raised already a staggering amount, produced an unprecedented, and I would go as far as to say historic, collaboration between six military charities which normally are jockeying and vying for position, produced the best story of which I can possibly think to take to the papers to persuade the them to write about us, and given me some huge laughs with the entries to this blog..!

All I can say is please keep up the phenomenal work, keep pushing forward volunteers to Danny, and keep sending me press releases that I can correct for you and help with the publicity. Tell everyone you know about the Facebook group, this blog, the run and tell everyone to pass it on. Don't be shy in coming forward - you are all doing something amazing! Come to Woburn so that I can put faces to the names, and have a beer once you have finished your rather brief training run.

Above all though - keep banging out those miles! And that is from a seasoned marathon runner. Not.

Cheers

Ed

Carbs, protein and water!

Our man at Lucozade, Matt Furber, is back in the groove. This time it is post-run recovery. If you make it at all, of course.

Introduction:

The ability to recover fully from training and competition is important for all individuals. During periods of high training volume many people may train daily or even twice daily. Furthermore, there are a number of sports in which competition is divided into different periods providing short intervals for recovery, and there are other sports which require athletes to participate in different contests on the same day.

In such instances, recovery may determine the extent to which adaptations occur over time, whilst in competition it may define successful performance. Recovery can be defined as the period following exercise that allows the body (and its various components) to repair, regenerate and adapt for both short and long term gain. The three key nutritional areas for recovery include:

1. Carbohydrate to help replenish the body’s muscle glycogen stores.
2. Protein to stimulate protein synthesis aiding the manufacture and repair of muscle tissue.
3. Fluid and electrolytes to help restore and maintain fluid balance (hydration).

Carbohydrate:

The most important factor affecting the storage of carbohydrate as muscle glycogen is the total amount of carbohydrate consumed. When the recovery time between exercise is short (0-4 h) the immediate consumption of carbohydrate results in higher rates of muscle glycogen storage compared with delayed feeding. However, when the recovery period is longer, assuming total carbohydrate intake is sufficient; there is no further advantage of ensuring early carbohydrate consumption.

In these latter situations athletes can choose their preferred meal schedule according to what is practical and comfortable. Carbohydrate can be consumed as either a series of snacks or large meals, although more frequent intake of smaller snacks may be useful in overcoming the discomfort often associated with eating large amounts of bulky carbohydrate foods. When early carbohydrate consumption is necessary following exercise, consume moderate to high glycaemic index (GI) foods to stimulate the insulin response so critical to glycogen storage.

General recommendations for carbohydrate intake during recovery are provided below. However, these should be fine-tuned with individual consideration of total energy needs, specific training needs and feedback from training performance.

Current Carbohydrate Guidelines:

• Immediate recovery after exercise (0-4 h): 1.0-1.2 g/kgBM/h at frequent intervals
• Daily recovery: moderate duration/low intensity: 5-7 g/kgBM/day
• Daily recovery: moderate to heavy endurance training: 7-12 g/kgBM/day
• Daily recovery: extreme exercise programme (4-6+h per day) 10-12 g/kgBM/day

Protein

Protein is a key nutrient and its importance within the athletic diet has long been recognised, particularly in the area of recovery where protein is known to stimulate protein synthesis aiding the manufacture and repair of muscle tissue. Whilst the role of protein within the athletic diet is well established, there is some controversy regarding the amount of protein needed by individuals.

Currently, it is recommended that 1.2-1.7 g/kgBM/day protein is consumed (84-119 g for a 70 kg individual), with approximately 15-20 g taken within the first 60 min after endurance training. This protein requirement is generally met through the normal diet, although specialist protein products may be useful in the periods immediately after exercise to help promote recovery. More recently, it has become common place to consume protein in combination with carbohydrate.

Together carbohydrate and protein seem to have a larger effect on insulin, a key hormone influencing the uptake of carbohydrate in the muscle. The increased effect on muscle glycogen storage seems to be restricted to when carbohydrate intake might be below the threshold for maximal storage or feeding intervals are more than 1 h apart.

However, when taken together, it seems the effect on protein synthesis is greater following resistance exercise compared to protein taken in isolation. Consequently, it recommended that following high intensity training, or situations of high training/competition volume carbohydrate should be consumed together with protein. Consume 15-20 g of protein within 60-120 min of exercise, preferably in combination with 1.0-1.2 g/kgBM carbohydrate.

Hydration

The consumption of fluid before, during and after exercise is critical to help avoid dehydration and thus, the safe and effective functioning of the body. Following exercise, individuals should be looking to fully replace any fluid and electrolyte losses that might have occurred during exercise. This is best assessed by measuring body mass immediately before and immediately after exercise. For example, if you start exercise weighing 70 kg finish 69 kg then you have lost 1 kg in body mass as sweat (1 kg = 1 litre).

The main factors affecting post-exercise hydration are the volume and composition of the fluid consumed, whilst the aggressiveness of the strategy will depend on the amount of sweat lost and/or the timing of the next exercise bout. When rapid and complete restoration of fluid balance is necessary, plain water is not the ideal post-exercise hydration drink as it stimulates high urine flow and reduces the drive to drink.

Ideally fluids consumed in recovery should contain sodium as this the primary electrolyte lost in sweat, in addition to aiding the retention of ingested fluid, stimulating thirst and also enhancing the absorption of carbohydrate in the small intestine. Individuals are recommended to consume 1.5 litres (L) of fluid for each kilogram (kg) of body mass lost as sweat to help compensate for the inevitable urine losses that occur after exercise.

Hope this helps - keep on trucking!

Regards

Matt

Charming, to be sure!

Doc Chalmers warns of some the nastier elements of ultra-marathon running...

I knew I shouldn’t have tempted fate and had a medicinal tincture last week. The 'Mighty Mariners' are now only 1 point above drop zone and knowing our luck Luton will somehow beat the 30 point deduction and stay in the league. Fair play to them; they deserve it after winning the Johnston’s Paint Trophy and showing promotion form...!

Enough football though, I also have a confession to make that no training was done this weekend - the ultimate shame! Somehow Gary, a fellow triathlete, and I ended up going to London for our joint birthday treat. The treat however involved sending the girlies and kids to a show, paying the train fares, buying all the food and drink and generally being a 'skivvy' by lumping the cases on and off the tube etc. To make it worse, although we got upgraded by the hotel and given complimentary cocktails, the girlies snaffled that as well! Nice one sided birthday present then. (Careful you don't fall into the same trap as Jonathon below...! - Ed)

On a more educational and sensible point we have touched on having a workable plan for fluids/nutrition. To really worry us all, there are worse things than 'bonking' i.e. running out of 'oomph' on the run...

Blisters are trivial and troublesome but soaking your feet in strong tea or pathology specimen fluid, if you can get it, will harden them up nicely. The pathology specimen fluid is superb though slightly tricky to acquire unless you a doctor like me, stinks and may damage carpets/floor so strongly advised to take care and avoid the Mrs when using! While I admire our Spencer I think it might be a bit late in the day for the toughening up trick. And looking at his choice of gear and all it’s rubbing points, he’ll need to soak himself in it! When I did FLM I kept passing 'rhinos', not realising that there were 10 on the course that year and I got a wee bit disorientated!

'Joggers nipple' is no laughing matter either and the tell tale circles of blood on a running top have stopped many before. Even lumps of Vaseline or corn plasters don’t offer 100% protection so train in your gear, and toughen them up!

'Joggers trots' is a charming loss of orifice control and is bad at any time, sober or otherwise and especially true of bottom control. A liberal dose of Imodium may be required/advised prior to racing...

'Hyponatraemia' - While the last 3 have a slightly light hearted element this definitely doesn’t and can be fatal due to central pontine myelinosis. I’ve seen a study that stated 13% of Boston Marathon runners had low serum sodium. I read that it was low but fortunately not low enough to hospitalise. The cause can be excess sweat, excess water consumption or both. Basically the longer you are exercising the more fluid you drink and the greater risk. To make it worse early symptoms can mimic dehydration so the natural inclination is to drink more water and it is more prevalent now there is increased popularity in doing long-distance events. Even doctor’s aren’t immune from it - I know of one doing an Ironman event and she stopped for a toilet break. On leaving the toilet she was so confused and disorientated she didn’t know which direction to run! She finished but “fitted” shortly after finishing and spent 2 days in intensive care. Please be warned!

On that happy, chirpy, positive note, off on the road bike!

Keep on trucking...!

Jonathon Ross is now making excellent progress;

I was very pleased with the interview I did with BBC South Today. I was slightly disappointed that they didn’t show much of it, they also omitted giving out the website details (!) and how to sponsor us. They did however give Project 65 some good coverage. So I guess something is better than nothing.

Training took a bit of a hit last week. My planned 30 miles last Sunday never materialised. I had to work on Saturday with my brother. He is a tree surgeon and he needed a hand with some rather large trees. He actually didn’t need a hand at all because I did all the lifting while he climbed and just cut large pieces off each tree. It was also my wife’s birthday. So by way of compromise I took her out for the day on Sunday. That meant Monday night I did another 22 miler home from work. A much improved performance on last time, thankfully! I then ran into work the next day and felt fine. My knees were screaming a little but I guess that’s as expected!

I was away on a course in Easingwald, York last week. What a beautiful part of the country! Managed to get out and run a couple of short runs through some very picturesque woods. Then on Sunday I managed 27 miles and felt pretty good at the end. I think I could have gone on for a good few more miles. For the first time I had some recovery drink when I finished and the improvement it made to my muscles and general feeling was immense.

I have a day off work this Wed and have planned a 35 miler....

With a little over 8 weeks to go, I have said to Sarah that I must focus on my training and make sure that I keep Sundays free from now on. She is happy with this as long as I have done all my chores beforehand! Unfortunately she read my blog on the mothers day issue and my win – win situation turned into a lost – lost situation with no remission!! Ha ha!! Schoolboy error allowing her to read it!

On a personal admin front I am happy with the set up I have for running now. I have a running belt with water bottle and a small bottle for gel. The belt has a large pouch for food, money etc. I also carry a 500ml water bottle in each hand when I am running. This may not be that orthodox but it works for me.

Best wishes to you all - stay fit and focused

Any ideas on how to combat chafing?!

Our little Trooper gives his update to go with the picture below:

Another interesting week for the FLM training:

Not much to report on the running side. I still have a niggly groin issue (make all the comments you like) but I can still run (plod). On Monday I had the local papers in again for the FLM Stormtrooper run. It went ok. I found even more areas that rub in the outfit and it is not getting any easier to run with the full face helmet on.

Afterwards I examined the damage on the inside of the legs. Looks like I have been Paintballing. Never mind... rather find out now than later on!

Thursday was the first time out on the roads. A bit of a mixed reception really. On Thursday I train with a local running club (Sutton Runners). So it seemed a good opportunity to get the Armour on the road. The club liked it, which is always a good thing. I managed to get 2 of the girlies to tie my laces for me because I cannot bend over enough!! Then out on the road.

Road was completely different to the running machine. A bit more air movement so I didn’t heat up as quickly, but after a while I couldn’t see anything with the lenses steaming up, so going to have to look for a solution there. I did take out the lenses which improved much needed ventilation.

Running on the road caused many people to cheer, beep the old horn, stop and take pics, but the worse one was a group of kids in a car throwing things at me. Great huh, you try to do something different and someone is always there to mess it up!!

At the end... I discovered even more new areas of rubbing! So a big learning from all of this, is the old ZINC oxide tape. It’s great to stop the rubbing, but getting the b@$tard off is another thing. So any advice on that is greatly received!

Going to try for a 10 miler in it this week so I’ll let you know.

CWP

The Sutton Guardian Strikes Back!

Nut-job Spencer Rolls is doing things in a slightly eccentric fashion.
The article can be viewed here.

Nine weeks to go...

Rob Starbuck is counting the days.

9 weeks to go and all is well – we hope that is the cry from all the runners!! I noticed it was 9 weeks this morning and a mixture of nerves and excitement surged through my veins.

Project 65 represents a unique challenge, regular runners mixed with those who have an emotional link with the events of 1944 alongside those who feel compelled to stand up and meet the challenge head on.

9 weeks to go so by now we all should be able to do a 40 mile training run. Yeah, right, hands up those that are there yet?!? I plan to do a 5 – 6 hour training session this Sunday. Just now a case of working out the route and deciding if I can run with a ruck-sack full of food and drink!

Oh, the joys of a long distance runner !

God, I love sport!

The atmosphere in The Silver Surfer's house continues...

Well, it is a slightly better weekend this weekend. Grimsby (aka 'The Mighty Mariners') have won 3 in a row and move out of relegation places for the first time in weeks. I can hardly contain myself and indulge in a hopefully not premature medicinal tincture. Needless to say by Sunday normal service was resumed at The Silver Surfer's house. My eldest was still getting the 'deaf and dumb breakfast treatment' for omitting a Mother's Day present the previous week (the fact I’d skived off on a 3 hour run was fortunately overlooked!)

Her misdemeanors paled into insignificance when our chocolate Labrador decided that the recently delivered load of horse manure destined for the vegetable plot was a tasty snack or something to roll in! I was then instructed to dig the remaining horse manure into the whole vegetable plot completely and hose the dog down before even daring to think about pulling on my running shoes! 3 hours of digging and a soapy smelly dog wash later I needed a fortifying cup of tea. I then realised I still had my long run to do. As the old adage says 'no pain, no gain' so slow change and off we trundled. My youngest daughter initially decided she wanted to avoid the 'atmosphere' and join me, however 1 mile on the mountain bike was enough and she preferred the 'atmosphere' leaving yours truly to plod on for another 17 miles on his own.

I note another blogger will discuss recovery soon but we mustn’t forget even pacing for such distances. It is also helpful to assess the effort expended becuase if you 'red line' it you won’t be going anywhere! The posh way to do it is one of those clever 'Garmin' things. However they can be in the order of £400 for a super-duper version including distance covered, heart rate, cadence if on a bike, downloadable analysis etc. (though they are brilliant for personal usage).

Next, monitoring heart rate during exercise. Much cheaper but you need to do some simple maths to work out your training zones. I have an “idiots guide” if anyone wants it via Ed. Effectively this will help ensure quality training and avoid just “plodding” for plodding sake. Hence I didn’t feel too bad when I spat my dummy out and did that 10k recently as I still had some speed in my legs (completed at a smidgen over 7 min/mile pace)

The final and most entertaining way to asses pace and effort is to run and see if a) you can sing b) you can talk sentences c) you can talk words d) nothing, eyes on stalks e) blue/purple collapsed in heap at side of road. Obviously the running and singing version is close to the speed we will need in June...!

Possibly in better news, spring is here and the summer racing bike was dusted down, polished and serviced prior to the first 'duathlon' of the year (a run, bike, run combination event) The best bit is the last run off the bike, when your legs want to go in circles rather than running forward. The feeling is a bit like watching Mr L Majors running in the 6 Million Dollar Man series of years ago, oops showing my age now! The only thing is I don’t run at 60 mph, its just my legs feel like it, as they are completely 'wibble'!

God, I love sport.