Marathon - tick!

Marathon - tick!

(POST FROM 2015)

Great - finally knocked a Marathon off the bucket-list. I turned 30 last year, and I used to feel like this would be a good milestone by which to set myself some challenges.

I didn't manage most of them, but I think this is normal. I had hoped to run a marathon, be engaged, to have learned a new language, become self-employed, to have written a book, to have started a new band... the list goes on.

My target of a marathon by age 30 was challenged by an acute bout of ITB Syndrome, which made it impossible to manage more than a shuffle and climbing stairs was suddenly a struggle. This was of particular annoyance because commuting in London, whether by train or by foot, you are expected to keep pace with the crowd or you are just taking up room. Suddenly I was the slow-coach I used to tut and scoff about for costing me precious seconds on my way to the office.

So I made an appointment with the physiotherapist.

Physio: "Do you run?"
Me (with a proud grin): "Yes. I run, and I am training for the Edinburgh Marathon."
Physio: "Well there's your problem."

Right. I had assumed she would take one look at my toned quads and my exceptional balance when standing on one foot and deduce that this injury was just a sign that, if anything, I was just training a little too hard. Running a little too fast.

Me: "Well what what you recommend in order for me to run this marathon then?"

What proceeded was a rude awakening.

Physio: "You are too weak in the major muscle groups...you have over-trained without properly stretching/strengthening...you are imbalanced...your trainers are too worn...you are not getting any younger..."

Great. Invincibility evaded me once again.

The following year I started a new marathon training schedule after:

- A few months of regular pilates
- Squats, lunges and deadlifts at the gym for glute strengthening
- Planking and other core excercises for core strength and balance

After all that, and the resulting weight-loss, I arrived at the line at the Blackpool marathon 2015 and came away with a respectable time, no injuries and a smile on my face!

Take-away from this - cross-training is key, and running alone is not my friend!

Vegan for January?

Can I go Vegan for January 2016? So far so good... 

This Christmas just gone was my first spent at my new In-laws' house in Lancashire, and in typical fashion when we celebrate anything, the wine flowed like beer, and the food...oh the food. The Coopers' know how to cook, and how to enjoy it.

Despite one moderately strenuous walk in the lake district, my belly grew, my metabolism fell, and falling asleep in the wee hours after plenty of beer, wine, Aperol and port became the norm. 

First world problems, I hear you exclaim! Yes, we are unbelievably lucky to be able to live like this, and I have had a really special Christmas with my new family.

However, I have a half marathon booked in for March, and then the Blackpool marathon in April. I've got an extra stone of weight I'm carrying around and I have barely started training. Shit.

So, I wonder, what would be a quick way to whip my body into shape and gain some much needed focus upon returning to London this week. Well, my wife and I have decided to try going 'vegan', or 'plant-based' for January. (Well, from the 4th onwards after some meat-based activities with family we couldn't rearrange).

Monday the 4th was our first day, and I started with:

Breakfast: Weetabix with almond milk. Herbal tea.

Snack: Carrots.

Lunch: Hummus, pitta....carrots.

Snack: Carrots.

Dinner: Buckwheat risotto with roast beetroot, broccoli and tahini dressing.

I was tired last night, desperate for some cheesy fat and some crispy crunch, though I fell asleep quite quickly. There's enough left over for today, so today's meals will look something like:

Breakfast: porridge with bananas, almond milk and honey.

Snack: Coffee

Lunch: Buckwheat risotto with tahini dressing and pitta.

Snack: Carrots

Dinner: Potato and spinach curry with cauliflower rice.

Let's see how this goes for January, and whether it helps/hinders my running program.. A good friend of mine, and talented runner, swears by beetroot for endurance and oxygen uptrake (I believe there is evidence for this in studies), so if I feel good I may try to keep the beetroot in regular rotation..

I listen to plenty of podcasts (as I'm sure you do) that extol the virtues of a plant-based diet. Rich Roll is the main one I listen to, and some of the info he shares does seem to have hit home. I mean if this guy can weigh 300 pounds and gorge on nothing but plants, this guy can win 50k races munching on nothing but leaves, and this guy can compete against meat-eaters in the super-macho MMA circuit, perhaps I can improve my 5k time and get a sub-4 hour marathon consuming non-animal calories ?

Going into this, I can say that I know I am very unlikely to pursue this as a permanent life-choice. I really, really, REALLY enjoy eating cheese and, from time to time, meat. I also can't see how I would spend so much time with my friends and family, while eating so differently to them.  

The animal rights perspective also affects me somewhat - I am certainly shocked by what I hear on PETA adverts and other documentaries. Because of this, I already try to limit the amount of meat I eat, and focus on buying quality produce - especially after seeing films like Forks Over Knives and Cowspiracy.

I wish you could have seen me in 2008, at University, where my diet consisted of beer, kebabs, chips and worse. I'm miles away from that today, but I am still boozing much too much. 

So I'm going to quit the booze for January too!

Gulp.

A note about Jordan.

A very good friend of mine, has been sent by the UNHCR to Amman, Jordan.

His work as part of the UN refugee agency coordinates efforts to protect people uprooted from their home countries, by war. In this case, the majority of the people he is working with are from Syria.

I was lucky enough to fly out and visit him at the end of last year.

In his short time working in Amman and visiting refugee camps near the Syrian border, he has seen first-hand the suffering and poverty inflicted by war upon the refugees pouring out of Syria while rebel groups, carrying arms purchased from arms dealers in nearby middle-eastern countries, fight to overthrow Bashar Al Assad's regime. The UNHCR website suggests that roughly 350'000 people have fled Syria, with another 1.5 million people displaced internally.

According to my friend, the abject refusal of local police forces to patrol one refugee camp in particular, Za'atari, has led to a mafia-type rule, in which the more entrepreneurial among the population pay protection money to a ruling class in order to trade from within the camp. The main artery running through the camp has been dubbed the "Champs Elysées", by UN workers.

He tells me that apart from the hard work of aid-workers and the United Nations, the ingenuity of the people living in the desperate conditions of Za'atari has shone in this (rapidly less) temporary civilisation. They tap into local electricity supplies, set up sweet stalls and shisha bars, and trade resources where possible. 

For the most part Za'atari is set up and supported by humanitarian organisations, the French, Moroccan and Italian military; UNICEF have provided education, and also vaccinations to people at higher risk of measles, Gynecologie Sans Frontières attend to mothers in labour, and distribute contraception.

I imagine that the aim is to help keep the people as safe and healthy as possible until it is safe to return to their home countries. Even under the most hopeless of circumstances, the ability to survive, and to establish some sort of order within the chaos is still present among the displaced populations who have made it to Jordan.

Though he is still finding his feet in his new middle-eastern surroundings, my friend is incensed by his mission, I look forward to hearing more. I'm encouraging him to write, and "vlog" about his experiences working out there, as I am sure most other people would be interested in hearing about his adventures.

Opinions of the county vary among the aid workers I met there. One joked that the only difference between Jordan and a glass of milk is that, given time, the milk will develop a culture.

As for me, my impression of the country was a calm, moderate mixture of all the cultures surrounding it - Iraqi, Palestinian, Kurdish and Syrian influences abound, with plenty to see once you leave the capital.

We hired a vehicle and took in the Dead sea; the city of Madeba, which Moses once took with his army; the lost city of Petra; the desert and bedouin 'villages' of Wadi Rum. It was quite a tour!

I was ill only once, following a little sit-down snack with a bedouin chap and a bowl of desert temperature babaghanoush, hoummous and bread. I was the only one who ate with him, and the only one who couldn't leave the toilet alone later that evening.

I would recommend this country if for nothing else but to get a brief glimpse of middle-eastern life, islamic culture, and to visit the lost city of Petra. It's £50 well spent and is truly a wonder of the world.

Back to running chat now.

Cracked it?

I once sprinted home from a bar. I turned a final corner, out wide, passing parked cars one by one. Next, a door to one of the cars opened, which I fell onto at full top speed, the corner of the door got me right in the man-boob. I fell down, chest bleeding, and the only think I could think to do was get up, shake the man's hand and apologise, before heading on my way again.

What the fuck.

Running these days is far less painful, and though I still sport the scar which I apologised for, I've upped my running to 4 times (or roughly 15-20 k a week) without injury. I love doing it too.

Seriously, it's taken a year and a half of running more or less every week (to two weeks!). I've experimented with routes, a bit of nutrition here and there, and entered a few races. Nothing special, no better, or faster than anyone else, but I'm enjoying it more than ever.

As a result I've lost about a quarter of a stone in weight and after a horrendous hill (or Primrose Hill, which is about as much of a vertical challenge as I have in West London) I can recover on the move. And I enjoy it. I think that's tangible evidence that running is worth the slog.

So, next is the BUPA Great North Run. Half-marathon in September from Newcastle to South Shields.

I'm running three times during the week, completing a 5k circuit as quickly as I comfortably can, and then indulging in slow long runs on Sundays. Peasy.

I've tried getting into fads and diets. That's a lie, I watch videos about fads and diets. The truth is, I don't like being told what to do over the internet. And neither should you. 

However, there are some very successful runners peddling all sorts of ideas on diet, training regimes and footwear.

Stick to whatever works for you. These guys are running serious mileages, in places I would dream of running. Yet some of them are raw-food vegans, barefoot/minimalist runners, in their early twenties, late forties, all smashing their personal goals and getting people out onto the pavement to run:

Anton Krupicka - Hipster, minimalist runner from Boulder, Colorado. Prolific trail runner - cuts the soles from his running shoes. He's been running marathons since 12 years old, and now runs 100 mile races like I waddle to the fridge in my dressing gown.

Mike Arnstein - fruitarian millionaire jewelry dealer from New York. Check this little hardass out, competing in this year's Spartathlon. Oh, he only eats raw fruit and veg, and runs 15 miles to his office each morning, and 15 miles home. 30 Bananas-a-day.

Scott Jurek - Another spartathlon veteran who seems also to be on the raw vegan diet, smashing 50-100 mile races around the world, and has just released a book about his life through the lens of eating and running.

Barefoot Ted - runs long distance races in sandals. Co-owner of a company producing minimalist running sandals, with Scott Jurek.

Kilian Jornet - mid-twenties running up and down mountains, champion mountain and endurance runner.

DurianRider - (Harley Johnstone) Cyclist, runner and possibly triathlete - video blogs about the benefits to your body and mind to be had from a high carb raw food diet. I don't think I'd want to try the diet , but he's great entertainment.

Otherwise, it's Friday night and I need to sleep.

May the least committed win?

"In any relationship, the least committed party wields the most control."

So says my bitter yet philosophical younger brother.

Not where running is concerned. I have great weeks where I fit in 2/3 short speedy 5k runs Monday to Friday  and then a 10 mile long run on Sunday - feeling powerful and fit!

The long run may not have been possible had I not been out three times during the week. In fact, when I don't exercise for a few days on the trot, I get tense, stiff, and the next run is an absolute lung-splitting nightmare. I put it off, and begin to dread it, but by putting it off I control when I have to face it, right?

Once I bite the bullet, it is as if I forget how to run, I am instantly out of breath, heavy, and ready to pack it in after 15 minutes.

Lacking commitment is laziness - I know it..

It's easier to slack off, procrastinate, but eventually forcing yourself out of the door in your best Lycra - you realize how many steps back you just took during that week off.

Ah but that post-exercise rush feels so good ! I vow to be out here again in a day or two..

The easy way out of not achieving a half, or even a full Marathon, this year would be to commit myself less. I would then be in control, wouldn't I? Why wait and see whether I can handle the training, I could throw in the towel now and take control over the end-result immediately.

Bullshit! 

Being in control of my targets this year, is about getting off my ass and getting it done.


"In any relationship, the least committed party wields the most control.". I don't think so. If we control situations passively, not committing, never risking a result, we lose everything in the end.

I prefer:
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

Schedules? Pphh.

I was out three times last week. 

Out drinking? Nope. Not touched the stuff at all since last weekend. Last weekend I was in Edinburgh with my brother and his other half, one thing led to another and we drank rum cocktails until 1am followed by a session of FarCry 3.

This post 5k drinking session was somehow forgotten by the time I wrote my last blog. But I managed to keep off it this week and ran 3 5k as fast as I was I could..not record breaking times but I felt better the more I ran.. I need to remember this feeling next time I 'forget' to run for a week or so. The longer you leave it, the harder that first one will be!

Today I went on a 'long' run, around Hyde Park, 8k and it was awesome. I think doing difficult short runs during the week, where you push yourself and get home knackered and out of breath makes the long weekend run something of an indulgence.

I mean you struggle around the same old route trying to beat your last time, sucking in freezing air and trying to force negative thoughts out of your head before they take root and force your legs to stop. Then, on sunday, you pick a route past some decent sights, and run at a very relaxed pace - perfect sunday!

Signed up for the BUPA Great North Run this September - first half marathon ever... proper training will begin soon!

BUPA Great Winter Run (5k) - Edinburgh

Hello 2013, you big ball of elastic bands.

Dipping my little toe into the year was to run the BUPA Great Winter Run around Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat.

 

I did my best to avoid too many boozy days and nights over Christmas as this little 5k was on my mind. Given the distance from home, the price of the plane ticket, and the fact that I had boasted frequently that I was aiming to equal or beat 20 minutes, I at least tried my best to get prepared mentally, despite not having actually run for a week prior. Tapering for the race? Sure, that's what I'll call it.

A jog-about to warm up, some stretching and I was penned in with the Pink group - those who predicted times at the slower end of the results. I positioned myself in front of the 50 year old ladies who looked like they were at the beginning of their 2013 weight loss programmes, and behind a couple of younger more determined runners who blocked my way to the front.

Then ensued the customary warm-up dance led by a fit young girl doing zumba moves to an LMFAO song, and looking around I was not the only one who feels too self conscious to copy the routine. I can barely dance at 11pm with 3 pints in me, let alone at 10:30 am dressed in Lycra and a giant name badge. There was no room to move anyway, so I just stretched out my quads and worked my shoulders and ankles.

The announcer also decided to let us know that this was the hardest 5k we could have chosen this January as the first half is all uphill, though the second half is all thankfully down.

My plan then was to take the first half easy too conserve energy, and then fly down the second-half, overtake everyone and get to the finish in record time..

I was out of the traps at a conservative pace but even this left my pink compatriots behind, so I concentrated on holding a steady pace up the first half of the race and look forward to the staggering views over Edinburgh that Arthur's Seat has to offer.

I would recommend anyone starting out with running, as I am, to participate in these types of races. If anything it is a perfect opportunity to watch some really talented runners in action (usually from behind), and also be heartened that you are struggling alongside thousands of others - after only 1k I passed people in the next faster pen in Green badges who had slowed to a walk already. This is perfectly acceptable and reminds me that people of all abilities are out there either simply for their own benefit, and raising money for very worthwhile causes.

Thanks to a few weekends in December scampering around in Burnham Beeches, which is very hilly in parts, I was up to the 2.5k mark without any issues, feeling great, and ready to fly down the descent. I'd spotted a stocky chap in minimalist shoes getting away from me slightly on the way up so I weaved around a few groups and caught him up. As we turned a corner the route opened up over Edinburgh once again and the slope dropped, so I let my legs open up and carry me down as fast as I could. Past minimalist guy, past a load of sweating meat-heads who had run past me on the way up - feeling great I got to the finish in 24:38. Not matching my best of 23:59, but not bad considering the climb that was required at first.

Positives:
1. Feel great about the experience, already planning my next race.
2. OK time.
3. Had the opportunity to watch some very talented runners compete in the cross country competition later in the day.
4. Running in a new environment is uplifting - especially in such a stunning setting as Edinburgh.
5. All my running clothing is by now well worn and battered - making running in them as comfortable as a booth to myself in a fish&chip shop, wearing nothing but a onesie.

Negatives:
1. Entry to the race + plane-ticket = expensive.
2. Didn't prepare enough for the race - must begin to train properly!
3. I think not warming up enough makes me constricted and slow..
4. Too many late nights prior to the race.
5. I need to mix up the music on my running playlist as I have begun to associate a couple of the tracks with difficult runs, it brings me down during the race.
6. Asked for a large t-shirt at the end. Idiot - they are always too small, and then shrink further upon washing - XL next time!

Playlist: Shallow Bed - Dry the River