That Friday feeling...

Today was spin off the pain Friday, I’m not 100% sure that this is quite what happened this Friday but none the less I was there at 6:30 in my seat and pedalling hard for an hour, today however I was lacking in energy and it showed, I tried to push it as much as I could but the energy just wasn’t forthcoming, but I pressed on and ended up having an okay session and even got on okay with the dreaded track 5, although I did slow at one point through track 5, and found it hard to catch up again, but managed it… Just!

I put this low in energy down to 3 things...
     1) I did 10K yesterday for the first time in my life, gotta sap a little energy no?
     2) I didn’t have a proper dinner last night, it was just two cheese rolls and a hand full of crisps!
     3) I had a late night…

Well actually when I say I had a late night, and my other half will be chuckling at this no end, I mean I didn’t get to bed until about 10:30ish, since I started the training I have been more inclined to get to bed at 9:30ish, this is so I am asleep by 10 and getting my 8 hours in before I have to get up at 6… last night it just didn’t happen, this is my excuse anyway and I am sticking to it… although to be honest I had been looking forward to this evening when I could stay up as late as I want, although right now bed is starting to call, and it’s getting to loud to ignore for very long, but we will see!

Once spin was over I was bubbling away in the Jacuzzi as usual, and today I was enjoying it even more than usual I really had that Friday Feeling, not only had I finished a full week of training, every day for 5 days, it’s also the end of a working week, so pretty sweet day really, I was so pleased with what I have achieved this week, going to the gym every day and still managing to run 10K in just over an hour for the first time ever, I think that’s a good week… well done body, and well done brain for the motivation, We start it all over again on Monday :)

So this evening I have been making an Amaretto and White Chocolate Cheesecake, no it’s not for me to stuff over the weekend all myself it’s for me to take to a party tomorrow where I hope to feed it to some un-suspecting people then pounce on them for some sponsorship money for my Marathon, and this brings me to an interesting point, I am running the London Marathon in aid of Asthma UK who for the last 5 years, have supported a number of projects through the Challenge Fund, which has awarded grants to healthcare professionals and community groups or individuals for initiatives that will identify, develop and promote good practice to improve the lives of people with asthma, to see what else they do and how they help Asthma sufferers visit them at http://www.asthma.org.uk then pop along to my Virgin Money Giving page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnClitherow and sponsor me to run the Virgin London Marathon, or if you would prefer I can pop along and see you and take your money in person?! Choice is yours :) (Not giving is not an option, and I will be “Sendin round da lads” if you don’t, please note for those whom it may interest I will ensure these lads are not at all attractive and will just look like large club bouncers) Fank Youuu!

Until next time,
Jay (Red John).

10K Done, and i'm still standing!!

I was late again this morning *Shock Horror* so didn’t settle onto the treadmill until about 6:55, but undeterred I started to set-up my run.

I decided at this point, that as I was running late I would limit my run to 1 hour as opposed to 10K, and of course 5 minutes on the end for a cool down, so I began to run… I was fine for the first 10 minutes, and up to quite a pace, just under 11 KPH, but I soon realised this was a hard pace to sustain, luckily the training music I had piped into my brain slow just ever so slightly that I was about to drop to 10.5 KPH doesn’t sound allot but boy did it feel it, again I was okay until I got to my 4km, at this point, I felt the need to slow a little more and came to a fast jog, I only stayed here for a minute however and soon upped the pace again as frankly I got a little bored, well at this point the people I was watching outside doing their Boot Camp looked like they were standing around just drinking water, as opposed to the dramatic throwing of tyres that had been going on up to this point!!

So with the music in my head and the gym around me blocked out I carried on running at a steady 10.3KPH, I ran on without to much problem until I got to the 6.5K mark, things started to hurt at this point, mostly my feet, but also muscles, it is rare for my legs to ache WHILE I am running so this for me was a first, but then running 10K and even running for an hour are a first for me, so I am not surprised… I pushed on through, the Boot camp were a welcome distraction, watching them hoist heavy things around and run up and down seemed to keep me entertained, and the music I was listening to by AudioFuel kept me focused and with it, I was refusing to give up.

I got to 9K, by this time I had been staring at the screen the whole way through the last K and had thoughts of hitting the “Cool Down” when I got to 9K, but some little voice in my head said “No, do it, keep it up, keep going, this is the first of many small goals, don’t give up” so with 9K on the clock and about 3 minutes left, I upped the speed just a tad and turned the music up, I blocked everything out, all that mattered was running till that treadmill slowed down, all that mattered was doing the best that I could I was losing myself in the moment, totally…

Next thing I know there is a beep, and I slow, to a gentle jog… 9.7K at this point, I still had 5 minutes of “Cool down” I knocked it upto 6 minutes and 3 of those were a jog, so over the 10K mark I jogged just as the machine beeped and slowed to a fast walk, I had done it... 10K in 1 hour and 5 minutes… not bad for an overweight asthmatic who only gave up smoking 2 weeks ago and has never run 10K before, and never run for 1 hour before… and to be only 5 minutes off reaching the goal my PT set is an amazing feeling, so hopefully over the next three weeks I can work on making this run more stable and make my body more accustomed to it so I don’t even have to slow down once, and come off with less hurty feet :)

Sadly all of this losing myself in the moment, and the fact I needed to spend a LONG time stretching to ensure I didn’t make myself cease up totally meant that a long shower later and I ended up being nearly ½ hour late for work… Oops… so to compensate I was at work until 5:30 today as opposed to my normal 5:00.

As for my body, I seem to have fared very well, I have the odd ache but nothing serious, and no joint pain, but feet hurt a little, and I did have a blister or two. So all in all good… tomorrow is a spin session which will give my legs a rest, apparently… but we all know from last week that whatever it does, it does seem to “Spin off the pain!” so if I wake up tomorrow a little achy the spin session followed by my bubble in the Jacuzzi should get rid of that, and finish off the weeks training nicely!

So why am I mad enough to run the London Marathon I hear you all ask, well I am running to raise money for Asthma UK, who among many, MANY other things organise the ever popular Kick Asthma Holidays, Asthma UK's week-long Kick Asthma adventure holidays are for children and young people with asthma (and other related conditions). Combining physical and social activities such as abseiling, kayaking, discos and quizzes, with educational sessions that teach the youngsters more about how to control their asthma, the holidays give kids a great confidence boost and parents the chance to relax for a week, to find out more, and what else Asthma UK get upto pop along to http://www.asthma.org.uk and once you have and want to show your support pop along to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnClitherow and sponsor me to run the London Matathon 2012.

Until next time, hopefully still not aching!!

Jay (Red John).

Psyching up for the first long run…

Well yesterday saw a very successful Spin session in the morning, With the usual side order of banter… Sadly Track 5 seems NO easier at all, well I say that I was able to stick with it a little more this time without slowing down, so maybe it is getting easier?!

As usual post Spin I was found bubbling away in the Jacuzzi happily chatting to others who have completed the Marathon, I am starting to feel more and more like I could actually do this, a good thing I suppose seeing as I have made that commitment J

I did also have a little more exercise last night, that of cleaning a swimming pool, it’s harder work than you might think but for some strange reason I really enjoy it, so Spin done, and pool clean… and I ate mostly salad stuffs… can’t be bad!

Today I hit the gym a little later than usual, I was a little slower getting out of bed and pouring coffee down my throat than usual, not sure why but I think as I didn’t have a specific class booked at a specific time I was just being a rebel, so I arrived a whole 15 minutes later than normal and began a full resistance workout, I started on the treadmill just to warm up, then it was legs, arms, lunges, more arms, chin ups, the dreaded plank (Holding your body still for 30 seconds like that, my god… sweat was pouring off me) then I had a short jog / cool off on the treadmill, and did many stretches, this was to try and stop the aches and pains I felt last week, so far it’s worked with the exception of a small dull ache in my Glutes and stomach area. But by this time I was still 15 minutes behind, but I still managed to cram in a little Jacuzzi and a steam!!

So this leaves me ready for tomorrow… and psyching myself up for the first long run… I am hoping (but am not guaranteeing) that I will make 10K and I am interested to see how long this takes me, seeing as my goal is to do it in 1 hour in 4 weeks’ time… I intend to do one of these long runs once a week, so this will be my first of 4 before the next re-program, when the PT will no doubt ramp the sessions up even harder.

I was just discussing the 10K run tomorrow with a good friend, we came to the conclusion that to do this before work and that early in the morning I was mad, and that I would probably die (yes we are a little dramatic) however then more seriously we were discussing how much I was going to ache all day Thursday no matter how much I stretched, she then told me that the secret to not aching is to have an ice bath straight after to get the lactic acid out of your muscles, Oh course, me being me immediately poo’ed on this idea from a great height, to then be presented with this link http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/treatment_room/features/newsid_3097000/3097114.stm detailing how and why this works and that she is correct (As women always are) She is likely reading this now chuckling to herself, I did however say that 10K or 40K I would not then put myself through the torture of sitting in an ice bath until as the link above suggests “Your legs go numb” ho hum.

So for tea tonight I will be having Sausage and tomato pasta, notice how I am stuffing in the Pasta the night before a long run, I figure I will need the energy.

Over to the business bit, there will be no jokes about plugs tonight (I feel I need to get this one a rest for a little while, or at least until I can think of a few more anyway). So I am running the London Marathon for Asthma UK who among many other things are pioneering a new Asthma and Allergy friendly certification program, Asthma UK will award this certification to products that have been subject to rigorous independent scientific testing to verify their ability to help people with asthma and associated allergies restrict the number of allergy triggers they come into contact with, this type of work is fundamental to people who are trying to live with asthma and can make their everyday life easier to deal with to see what else Asthma UK do take a peek at their website http://www.asthma.org.uk and please sponsor me whatever you can to help, my Virgin Money Giving page can be found here http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnClitherow or if you would prefer to give me the case and add your name to an old fashioned piece of paper, let me know and I will swing by and collect ya money!!

So until tomorrow when I blog how I get on with my first 10K, or at least as close as I get to it this time!!

See you all soon,

Jay (Red John).

Nibble, Nibble little fishy's‏

Well hello,
So Monday, and after a weekend of staying off the exercise as instructed, unless you class some walking to the buffet table from my seat and back again at a party exercise, I did as I was told.

I did actually venture to the gym on Sunday, but this was not to work out, more to sit and bubble away in the Jacuzzi, although it wasn’t exactly warm, so the steam room and the hot coffee warmed us up afterwards, and while I was sitting there sipping my hot latte, I thought… Why not give those Gurra Ruffa fish a go and get a pedicure, so I wandered off to reception to enquire, no more than 5 minutes later she said “See what’s it like and stick your hand in” all these gentle little fish swimming in every direction you can imagine like they didn’t have a care in the word, my fingers broke the surface of the water and almost immediately they swam to nibble… this intrigued me even more, so money was on the table, I collected my coffee and positioned it aside me, sat on the seat on the edge of the tank and dropped my feet in… well what a feeling, it’s kind of a cross between a tickle that doesn’t annoy you and a 9V DC current across your skin (Come on we’ve all played with those batteries), not only is it a nice feeling, it’s also relaxing just sitting watching the fish, especially with a coffee close at hand J And feet removed feeling much softer and happier, and was much easier to run on this morning, however, there is still allot of work to be done on them so I may go for an old fashioned pedicure next, just use the fishies as a maintenance and relaxation thing.

Slightly off course there, but all relevant, I need my feet in good condition to take to the roads, nothing worse than running on a painful foot!

Well now to the training, It’s the start of my 5 day program, and having sat thinking about it at the weekend (probably while being nibbled) I decided that my idea of “Hey I will run my first 10K on a Monday and all Mondays from this point forward will be known as LONG RUN MONDAY!” was a silly idea, mainly because I have been instructed on a long run day not to do any resistance training on my core muscles at the same time, or even on the same day if I can help it, this would have meant if I ran today, then did Spin on Tuesday followed by resistance on Wednesday, as Friday is a spin day I would have ended up doing resistance training on Thursday making it two days back to back, perhaps not the brightest idea I have come up with… So today I did some resistance training, with a good splodge of running, mixed up with a Jacuzzi (Sounds like baking a cake really doesn’t it) so Tomorrow will be Spin, Wednesday I think Resistance, Thursday a LONG run (Eek) and Friday, Spin… let’s see how I get on, sounds like a full on week… and I feel a pasta night coming on Wednesday in preparation for my Thursday run.

Interesting point that raises… I haven’t yet started that Training and food diary, perhaps tonight is the night?

Another “off point” note, I discovered today that my gym have a new treadmill, apparently you can play Solitaire on it… When I commented “HOW… Running fast, poking screen” I was informed that for safety it cuts off the game when you get close to 7KPH (a fast walk really) and thus is pretty useless for me, not that I can play Solitaire anyway, but it made me chuckle.

Ooh… Did I mention to, I lost 1lb last week, okay not ground breaking but a good start I feel lol, that’s 1lb less to drag around 26.2 miles J

So then, what do I do with my iPod at the end of a tough workout… I plug it in to charge… (Know where this is going?) Here comes my “plug”…. I am running the Virgin London Marathon to raise money for Asthma UK, who among many other things fund research into all aspects of asthma, from scientific studies into the biology of our lungs, through to the creation of new treatments and investigating its causes, many of which are still unknown, to find out more and what else they get up to, visit http://www.asthma.org.uk and once you have seen the amazing work they do and want to help pop along to my Virgin Money Giving page http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnClitherow and sponsor me to run the 26.2 Virgin London Marathon!!

I thank you,

See you all here soon,

Jay (Red John).

Spin off the pain for Friday!

Yes it’s Friday that magical glorious day is upon us, and come 6am I was dragging myself out of bed, getting my gym kit on and ready to set off to the gym for my spin session, I arrived a few minutes late so didn’t get my “usual” bike at the front of class, I find it easier to concentrate at the front, firstly you get to have a friendly banter with the instructor and the other regulars, and secondly you are not so aware of the other 20 or so people in the class behind you, but alas I was a little later than usual, so I gravitated to the first bike I saw, set it up and sat down.

Session starts, and my legs warm up and my aches and pains from the previous day start to wear off, or rather work off, just as I had hoped, however it soon became apparent that I had a dodgy bike, oh yes there is always one, it was working fine, but I didn’t like the loud clicking noises it made as I peddled fast, and I couldn’t work out where the noise was coming from, so fearing that the seat would suddenly give and slide all the way to the bottom with a huge bump followed by me in a heap on the floor I quickly detached myself from the bike  and headed for another free bike that happened to be in the second row, passing other regulars there was the usual banter and jeers of breaking bikes I quickly set it up, strapped on and off I went. Simple? No… come the end of the first track I reach for a drink and where is my bottle… on the other bike! Now I know I am a natural blonde, but I didn’t think I was this bad!!

So anyway, long story short, after collecting my bottle and re-seating myself I managed a really good workout, although Track 5 is still killing me, and seems to tire me out for the rest of the session… so I need to work on that but otherwise all good, and legs feeling much better.

After the spin session and a chat with a few people about Marathon Training I headed down to the Jacuzzi to bubble away, and knowing my muscles had been tight and taking advantage of the empty Jacuzzi I did a few more stretches in the warm water to help alleviate the pain, no pain no gain right?!

So this brings us nicely to the end of the first week of training, I will be weighing myself tomorrow (it’s always on a Saturday morning, before breakfast) and may even blog results, if they are positive but seeing as I have only been on the Marathon drive for a week I should imagine there will be little change.

I have also decided that Monday is going to be the first “Long Run” day, so come Monday morning I will be heading into the gym at 6:30 and doing nothing but running, I intend to do 10K and I hope It won’t be too much over an hour, this way I know that I am on track to reach my 10K in one hour goal that the PT has set me, so fingers crossed… But rest assured, you will know when I know!! I also figure that this is a good idea as I have another spin session on the Tuesday, and thus if my legs are a little achy and stressed I can “Spin off the pain” I like that, that can be my new saying… I’m gonna spin off the pain :)

Right… got a joke for you? What’s white and has three metal prongs, one longer than the other two?! That’s right A PLUG!!

So here it is… I am doing all this for a reason, to raise money for Asthma UK, something I myself suffered with as a child, please sponsor me (go on that joke alone was worth some money if only to shut me up) whatever you can, you can find my donation page here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnClitherow and more information about what Asthma UK do here: http://www.asthma.org.uk/ so please give whatever you can to this wonderful cause and help people fight Asthma and give them a better way of life.

Laters,

Jay (Red John).

My legs are killing….

6:30 this morning I was off to the gym again to set about doing my new program, my god it is hard going just as I thought, I ran a total of 5K and at quite a pace to, and my legs are now killing me, well not my legs as such but my Gluteus Maximus muscles… that’ll be the lunges then!

Mental Note: Do however ensure you have time to stretch properly, I think that would have helped allot this morning, don’t (as I did) get so into your running that when you slow down and come “out of the zone” you realise you are going to be late to pick up your colleague on the way to work.

But on a plus note I was trying out some new Audio for my running, by a company called Audio Fuel, they are amazing, you run to the beat of the music, the track I was using was between 165 – 170 beats per minute, this equated to about 11 KPH, so this is the rate I need to be running the Marathon at, and the rate I need to run at to hit my 10K in 1 hour, at this stage this is hard going, but I think in 4 weeks, the 10K in an hour will be a breeze, then we’ll up the KPH to bring it down to a nice 40 minutes to get my stamina up.

I am feeling very tired right now, so I think this week has taken it out of me a little, I have been to the gym all but Monday, I am a regular but not normally this regular, but I have allot to achieve so onwards and upwards, at least training this much means I can eat plenty of food… Yum!

Tomorrow is just a spin session so that should, in the words of the PT “Give my legs a rest” but whatever, what it will do is get my heart rate up, give me a great cardio workout AND flush any lactic acid out of my legs, and hopefully flush away the aches and pains, I’ll then go and sit in the Jacuzzi for a while :)

As the day goes on I am discovering there are things I cannot do, one of those is ascend stairs this is quite uncomfortable, the other is to walk normally, instead I seem to resemble a totter much like that of John Wayne, I am trying not to but the muscles are all pulling just so, but it’s apparently all good for me and in about 3 weeks’ time I will be like “What was all the fuss about” and ready to ramp up the plan again.

So time to watch a little Simpsons while the gym shirts go round in the wash, and then I’ll be ready to start all over again tomorrow!

PLUG…. PLUG… PLUG… PLUG… :)

Let’s all not forget why I am putting myself through this, not only is it a personal voyage of discovery and enlightenment to infinity and beyond (Sorry couldn’t help it) but I am trying to raise lots of money for Asthma UK, so please, PLEASE pop along to my Virgin Money Giving site that you can find here http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnClitherow and sponsor me, AND if you’d prefer NOT to do it online get in touch and I can take cash donations too!!

Laters All,

Jay (Red John)

The Re-Program…

Firstly some Wicked news, I have another donation… Big thanks go to Matthew and Elaine Todd!! If you haven’t sponsored me yet and want to get in on the act you can find my Virgin Money Just Giving page here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnClitherow

Well today was the re-program day… and boy it’s a tough program. It’s the normal warm up, a bit of plodding along on a treadmill, followed by a load of weight and resistance training to strengthen my core muscles, these include (among many other things) Lunges (with a heavy medicine ball) some kind of torture called chin ups, and two types of “The Plank” where you pretty much hold your body flat off the ground supported only by toes and elbows, sounds okay in theory but then when she is watching you and says “Don’t lock your knees like that it makes it to easy” you soften your knees and HELLO STOMACH MUSCLES you turn into a wobbly mess, struggling to hold yourself up completely flat, and she says “That’s it, hold it there for 30 seconds” OUCH!!

We also discussed my exercise program at the moment, she thought it might be a good idea to stop Body combat for a while as it’s a little heavy on the joints, she also thought it was Brilliant that I was doing Spin as “It’s great cardio but it will also give your legs a bit of a rest” has she not been in the same spin sessions I have?!

Then comes the running, I will be running too (Funny that) and here is the challenge or “Goal” she seemed to be wanting me to have a goal, and to be fair I do work best when I am given goals and objectives, I guess it’s the nature of a Project Manager, to have something to work towards, so my goal is, in the next 4 weeks (when I see her again) I have to be running 10K (6.2 Miles) in 1 hour, she will then want me to reduce this down to about 10K in 40 minutes. 10K is about quarter of the marathon, so by running this distance in 40 minutes I am running almost full tilt, this means that when I begin to slow down to my Marathon pace having been running this distance for this time I should then find it easier… I like her style of thinking, she is currently training for a half marathon to, so I think I have been placed with a good Personal Trainer.

So this 10K run has to happen about once a week, and I must be cautious not to over train, I will be training Monday through to Friday and having the whole weekend off, this is what I have tended to do anyway as I like the mentality of having a weekend off, although in reality weekends are usually just as busy as the week days if not more and thus I would find it hard to fit any gym in any way!

Now, after the many years of saying that you should never run the full distance and that everyone hits the wall, apparently this is not the case, they now say to be properly prepared you should have at least run the distance on treadmill so you can see how your body will react and also, hitting the wall or at least the effects of this are lessened if not removed by correct hydration, hydrated or not I think by the time I hit the 20^th mile I am gonna want it over sooner rather than later, but looks like we will factor in a 26 mile run on the treadmill about 4 months before hand… just after Christmas then!!

Other than that, she has asked me to keep a diary, what I eat and when, and training diary and basically see what “Fuel” my body works best on, We also discussed diet a little, lots of wholegrain, and I will need a fair bit of carb and protein, so wholegrain pasta is in, homemade wholegrain pizza topped with tommy puree, peppers and grilled chicken… is in, Cake is out… hmmm anyone ever made a wholegrain cake? And does Carrot cake class as one of my 5 a day? :o)

So then after my session I did the usual bubble around in the outdoor Jacuzzi before moving indoors, when I met some guys I chat to from time to time, and discovered that they have both run the Marathon in the past, they say the training is hard (Or rather a pain in the a**) but I will love it on the day, one guy managed a time of 4 hours 10 minutes, the other did 3 hours 50 minutes, they are really good times, the average is 4 hours 30 minutes, I was hoping to do it in about 4 hours, but we will see.

And so far today no biscuits, even though there has been a packet sitting on the side behind my desk ALL day I haven’t touched a single solitary cookie, custard cream, or jammy dodger!!

Time for the shameless plug again… so let’s not forget why I am putting myself through this, not only is it a personal voyage of discovery and enlightenment but I am trying to raise lots of money for Asthma UK, so please, PLEASE pop along to my Virgin Money Giving site that you can find here http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnClitherow and sponsor me.

See you all soon,

Jay (Red John).