The Ricky Hatton diet plan

So I was all geared up to get home, don my running tights and hit the mean streets of west London then I receive the text! It's my beloved, Sharon "George staying at mums, fancy a drink". I decide to say no and continue with my training plans and begin to text back. Then I am attacked by a very strange form of dyslexia, as I go to type "No thanks, need to train" my fingers hit a strange sequence of keys that spell out "Great, see you in the Vic just after 6", before I know it I have hit send and my fate is sealed. A couple of hours later I am sitting on a bar stool in my local supping a pint of Guinness, Sharon next to me drinking a small carafe of white wine. After a second drink we head for home. In my head I justify these actions by deciding my muscles need time to re-energise and obviously Guinness Is Good For You.
For those of you now worried about my commitment - I have paid for my indiscrection with a 5 mile early morning run this morning in the icy pouring rain. As I reached mile number 3 I passed the Princess Victoria and curse the hold it has over me!

A man, a bike and a shed....

Last night's training was an hours hard cycling on the exercise bike. So on returning from work it was on with the padded pants, workout vest and fleece and down the garden path to the shed. Sky Sports News on the TV, heater on and off I go. After about 2 minutes two feline faces appear at the shed door mewing to be let in. I think "what would Lance do?" then carry on cycling ignoring their sad little faces. After 10 minutes they realise there's no hope and trot off back to the house. After about 15 minutes the shed and myself are very warm so it's off with the fleece and I manage to turn the heater off with a flailing leg. 25 minutes into the ride and I'm up to date with all the sports news so off with the TV and on with the music, oh the joy of the remote control. As I push on I sense that I am being watched, looking through the shed windows I spot my neighbours children staring at me from their bedroom window probably wondering what the hell I am doing in a freezing cold shed making the windows steam up. For the last 5 minutes I up the intensity and almost tip the bike over with my exertions, dangerous business this. As the 60 minutes ends I do a 5 min warm down then it's fleece on, lights off, alarm on, shed locked and back down the garden path

Cold, damn cold

Apologies that there have been no entries for a while I have a plethora of plausible excuses - children with chicken pox, no sleep, busy at work and many many others I will save for a later date! Training is still progressing, the shorter runs are getting easier, the exercise bike sessions are getting longer and my motivation is on the up.
Last night's short run around the infamous Shepherds Bush circuit was for the majority without incident. Wood Lane is now fairly busy until 10pm due to the shopping hell which is Westville so I found myself in the road a fair bit dodging buses and bikes. I continued Rocky-style in the road coming along Uxbridge Road avoiding hoodies, mad drunks, an emptying mosque and a queue to get into Bush Hall to watch some wishy-washy, vegie-eating folk singer. The hardest part of the run was not the crowds, not the cold, not the smells but having to run passed my local, the Princess Victoria. I could actually hear the Guinness calling me and sobbing as I ran passed and ignored it's mermaid like song. After just over 4 miles I arrived home to the smell of steamed sprouts, I knew I should have done another mile. I warmed down, tripped over Boogie the cat, had a shower and settled down with a bowl of pasta and salmon.

And he's off...

The good news is the leg is much better, the bad news is it's not good enough to run on yet. However I have managed to "procure" a decent exercise bike from friends Pat & Nic who are moving to Cambridge - cheers guys, so the cycling has now started and it hurts. I'll get home tonight help Sharon get George and Claudia to sleep then it's off to the shed/gym/office for one hours cycling and some upper body weights. I'm around the same weight as when I started training for the last marathon unfortunately I think a lot of the leg muscle has dissappeared and reappeared as a layer of fat around my stomach. This means as well as training I am now starting a healthy(ish) eating plan and cutting down on drinking. Now I remember why I said I'd never do another marathon!

Training has started......nearly

Right, I have my marathon place, I have my running kit, I have my blog, my JustGiving site, I have my motivation........

.......and I have an injury.
About 2 weeks ago my left leg swelled adly above the knee, after a visit to the GP, a visit to A&E and several needles in my leg the swelling has gone but the knee is still slightly painful. I have a physio session tomorrow and hope to go out for my first official "training" run on Sunday. Last year I picked up injuries toward the end of training and ended up running with a stress fracture. This year I am being clever - going to have all my injuries now! Hopefully my next post will be describing how the training run was a piece of cake and I feel great.

The man from FLM he says....

Last Thursday the doorbell rang and the postman handed me a package. It contained a rejection letter from FLM and the consolation Fleece of Failure. So my only option was a charity place like last year but I wanted a charity that I had a link to not just a large charity that afforded lots of places. Then it came to me, last year my friend Pat-Rick had mentioned a charity he was associated with - BabyLifeline, a unique national charity offering loving care and support to pregnant mothers and new born babies all over the UK. Unfortunately BabyLifeline was not successful in receiving any marathon places. I mailed BabyLifeline's founder and enquired whether there were places this year - after a 15 year wait the charity had finally been successful and had received 5 places. I have now reserved one of those places. My motivation is higher than last year even, I am now running for a charity that really needs funds, one that I can really support (particularly as we have a 9 week old baby - the gorgeous Claudia) and one that I have a personal connection with. Let the training commence.