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!!