A charity element added to the running – please donate

I’m still sore and still haven’t taken any ibuprofen for three days and so this morning’s run saw me take a go-slow around Tooting Common.

I’ve also signed up to go and visit the sports injury clinic at Crystal Palace next week to see if they can do anything to get rid of the tightness in my calves – all this running over the last six months has really taken its toll and I’m considering dropping the 22mile run I have planned for this Sunday as training for the Brighton Marathon on April 18 and just do a regular three miler instead.

The amount of mileage I’ve put on my total in the last two months has been pretty high thanks to my adding a marathon into the middle of it all and my legs could do with a week off long Sunday runs. If it makes me finish Brighton a little slower, so be it.

What I have done though is finally add a charity element to my running – if Im going through all this pain, hobbling around South London and on my travels, someone should see the benefits.

I’ve chosen two charities to benefit: one at home and one abroad. Both are ones I care about and I hope that by splitting the proceeds evenly, people will be touched by one or the other if not both.

From a home perspective and as a Leeds United fan, I have chosen Candlelighters - a children’s cancer charity based at St James’s Hospital in Leeds.

Candlelighters is also the chosen charity of Leeds Fans Remembrance – a fundraising effort to recognise the 10th anniversary of the senseless killing of two Leeds fans, Chris Loftus and Kevin Speight, while they were following the team in Turkey on April 5, 2000. LFR has been set up by the families of Chris and Kevin.

The other charity is the Waterside Charitable Trust and I have to declare a personal interest: my father-in-law, Eric, is one of the trustees. The WTC raises funds for health, sanitation and education projects in the slums of Kisumu, Kenya’s third largest city.

The area the WTC works in is called Obunga and, having visited, I can testify to the poor conditions people live in there: shanty houses, no running water, no sanitation, high incidences of HIV/Aids and other communicable diseases….

The WTC has attempted to correct some of that by installing public toilets and shower blocks, building a community and health centre, funding education for youngsters and helping set up small businesses so people can help themselves. They are in the process of planning a new youth centre in Obunga alongside their partner UK charity, the Hunslet Club.

If you do think either of these charities are worthwhile or want to support my running efforts, please click on this link to my Virgin Money Giving Page.

I know charity fatigue is an issue so to set the ball rolling, I’ve sponsored myself to the tune of £100. Please pass on the link to your friends and keep coming back to 1095miles.com to see how much I’ve raised and read about me moaning about my aching legs!

Click here for a Google Map and full details of today’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 558
Miles to date: 734.94

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Really, really painful

So the results are in for Sunday’s Water of Life Half Marathon in Marlow and I actually finished in 173rd place out of nearly 500 runners… not a bad effort I suppose in only my second ever race but I still feel a bit disappointed about it.

That disappointment had nothing on the pain in the my legs when I woke up this morning – I almost reneged on yesterday’s decision to stop the ibuprofen for a while it was so bad. Instead though, I lathered up the legs in Deep Freeze gel, put on some pressure tights to help stabilise the legs and get the blood pumping and set off on what can only be described as a shuffle through Norwood and back. My time was a shamefully bad 15 mins a mile.

What I’m hoping is that with no ibuprofen masking the pain, I’ll move within my limits for a few days, giving the legs a chance to settle down a bit. This Sunday is my longest pre-Brighton marathon run (22 miles) and I really want to be able to do it.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 555
Miles to date: 731.94

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

Tight legs see the tights return

I woke up this morning with very, very stiff legs after yesterday’s Water of Life Half Marathon.

One of the things I noticed when running yesterday is that the constant tightness of my legs may have actually changed my running style. I now tend to lean further forward when running as it seems to alleviate some of the pressure, but it concerns me for two reasons. One is that it looks bloody stupid, like a chicken running really quickly, the other is that it may actually be doing even more harm.

So I looked up some information on running technique and made a point of doing today’s run super slow but making sure my running style was super right: eyes forward, shoulders relaxed, leading leg falling just under my body weight…

I have also decided to ditch Ibuprofen for a while. When you run, the muscular pain that comes after is down to micro tears in the muscle that are then repaired with new cells by the body, making the muscles stronger. While ibuprofen reduces the swelling in these areas and relieves pain, some studies show that it actually hinders the repair work meaning that muscles may not come back stronger from minor injuries. I’ll see how it goes.

Other than that, I have reverted to tried and tested RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation): I came back from the run, jumped in a freezing bath for ten minutes, have stuck some compression socks on and am now laid with my legs up in front of the fire…

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 552
Miles to date: 728.94

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

Six months done and the Water of Life Half Marathon

And they're off

So now I’ve done the extra day to make 183, I’m definitely more than half way through the challenge… Hurrah.

In that time, I’ve ran 725.94 miles, almost 177 miles ahead of my orginal three mile a day schedule. I’ve ran for more than 100 hours solid and my heart has beat more than a million times on runs!

As part of my training for the Brighton Marathon, I had the Water of Life Half Marathon booked in today…

And he's back

It’s held annually and excellently organised by Purple Patch Running and raises money for water projects in Africa, it also takes place by the side of the Thames in the stunning Buckinghamshire countryside at Bisham Abbey, the national sports centre.

Laura and I were up early this morning to get there, the drive over was pretty easy, less than an hour, the sun was out after the little bit of rain last night and there was a real family atmosphere about the event with kids races while the adults were out. Despite following the same schedule as the last time I ran a half marathon in Portsmouth last month though, I wasn’t feeling too grand at the start. I put most of it down to the fact my legs were feeling pretty stiff from the week’s runs,  nerves, a little trepidation about the course which was, ostensibly, all off road, the fact I’d hardly slept last night and a slightly dodgy tummy from yesterday that had left me feeling dehydrated.

The post-race rubdown

After just a mile, I was already starting to feel like deciding to run it was a bad idea and two miles in, when we had to start criss-crossing the river via a series of bridges with steps up and down, I was convinced it was a bad idea and decided to slow down and just enjoy the scenery, which was amazing.

By half way though, I began to perk up and started making some inroads on people in front of me, passing a few of the 600 or so people running and completed the second half of the race at a much faster pace, even with enough energy for a sprint finish to leave the few people around me behind.

My 1:53 time was no where near my 1:48 PB from Portsmouth but I put that down to the bridges, the number of gates we had to open and close on the way, the mud and the fact that my first half of the race was rubbish. Still, I was glad to finish pretty high up – Laura reckons top 100 – so not too bad an effort after all.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 12.96
Target: 549
Miles to date: 725.94

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

Nearly half way and the hydration pack test

Serendipity strikes again… As part of my training for the Brighton Marathon, I’m running the Water of Life Half Marathon tomorrow in Bisham Abbey. By total fluke, tomorrow is also the day I pass the half way stage of my 365 day challenge. To date I have ran 182 days consecutively and tomorrow takes me over the magic 183 mark – a nice way to celebrate I hope.

As part of my marathon training plan, I’ve also been looking into how to stay hydrated on longer runs and so this week I bought one of these Innov-8 waist hydration packs.

As opposed to backpack hydration systems, this sits around your middle in a bum bag with the liquid inside, sitting in the  lumbar of your back, supposedly making it easier to carry. A pipe comes out that when you bite on it, it releases liquid for you to drink.

I took it out this morning to check out whether it was worth trying in tomorrow’s race but soon came to the conclusion that it’s not… for one thing, you have to pull it all quite tight to stop it the water inside from splashing around, for another, finding a place to put the pipe is quite complex.

At first I had it coming through the inside of my tee shirt and out of the neck but soon got fed up of it flapping across my face with every step and ended up pulling it out and tucking it in the belt itself.

Given it carries two litres of liquid, it’s also bloody heavy… I’ll definitely use it on long training runs but for racing it’s out… There should be enough marshalls on the race itself to keep me hydrated.

See you at tomorrow’s half way point.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 546
Miles to date: 712.98

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

Trying to plan ahead to the upcoming races

After yesterday’s mammoth, I left it till the early evening to go out and run today, which is a shame as after a lovely sunny day, it was getting chilly again.

I decided to run Streatham Common to get some hills back into the training and actually felt surprisingly good though, naturally, a little stiff. At about 1.7 miles I had a bit of a scare when my right knee just locked up but I stopped for a minute, stretched it out and it was fine. Cramp around the knee? That’s a new one.

I’ve also not mentioned much about nutrition on here (other than the occasional hangover run!) but I am trying my best in the run up to the upcoming Water Of Life Half Marathon at Bisham Abbey this weekend and the Brighton Marathon in five weeks. One of the things I have introduced after most runs is a smoothie: half pint of milk, a banana, punnet of blueberries and a scoop of Maximuscle Promax protein shape all go into the blender… I figure it’s got carbs, protein and antioxidants in spades and doesn’t taste half bad either.

I’ve also been indulging in my running consumerism ahead of the race. With the sun out yesterday, i had a few of those bits where when you walk or run past a fence, it has a strobe affect and no I’ve ordered some cheapish running sunglasses from Wiggle to try out… I also ordered a hydration pack that stores about 2 litres of fluid in a bum bag with a hose to drink from during long runs.

I’m not sure how much use it will get but running with a bottle, either in hand or in a belt is a pain. The hydration pack should, theoretically, sit in the lumbar of the back making it easier to carry. I’ll let you know how it fares when it turns up.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 531
Miles to date: 697.56

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here