Just Keep Swimming

I’m nervous, the music is blaring, I’m sweating and trying to copy a series of dance moves; but I can’t do the moves and instead it looks like I have lost all co-ordination. I wished I could say I was incredibly drunk and I was trying to dance in some random nightclub, but I am actually in a ‘Total Body Conditioning’ class. It feels like whilst I perform my dance warm up moves- completely out of sync by the way- that the instructor and the rest of the  people in the class are staring at me in disbelief, but I am happy. I am able to exercise again with only a very slight feeling of pain in my calf, and for me that is a huge step in the right direction.

Long Road to Recovery

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth- Mike Tyson.

This quote pretty much sums up the situation I am currently in; I am injured and haven’t been able to run properly for the last three weeks. Tyson’s quote- for me sadly- is an appropriate follow up to my last post in January. Up until the second week of February I had been following my marathon plan perfectly. In fact January for me had been one personal best after another, culminating in a great run at the infamous Parliament Hill cross country run on 30^th January where I started to realise that I may have a certain aptitude for running in mud.  This was probably more to do with my rugby days than actual running ability, but who knows. The following week I felt pretty tender; not surprising really after completing the Parliament Hill course and the next day doing a 20 mile run. However I thought it was just the deep ache of marathon training starting to kick-in and anyway I had the Watford Half Marathon to prepare for. So I told myself all I had to do was get to Thursday night and then I could rest for a few days before tackling Watford on 7^th February; but as the week progressed a niggle in my right calf wouldn’t  go away. I pushed on though and felt slightly apprehensive about Watford.

New Year, New You…or just another fad

Me at a Cross Country Race

I have been taking a long time to think about what I want from 2016. January always seems to be a strange month; a mixture of everyone full of good intentions, trying to get through the hangover of Christmas and waiting for the first paycheque of the year to tide them over from an expensive December. It may be a cynical way to look at the year, but it’s not helped by the range of diet books promising to help you become a new improved version of yourself. I’m not disputing whether these diet books help or not, I’m not qualified to make that decision, but I always find it fascinating that these books are launched at this time of year. It seems we go through a ritual each year of saying that we are going to finally change all our bad habits and become a new person.

National 3 Peaks Challenge

With 2015 drawing to a close I am noting some of my other achievements besides marathon training. One of these happens to be the National 3 Peaks Challenge (N3P), which I did on Friday 21^st August to Saturday 22^nd August this year. What makes the N3P so exciting and daunting at the same time is that it manages to combine sleep deprivation, a real endurance challenge for any type of person, extraordinarily beautiful scenery and driving across Britain like a madman all in the space of under 24 hours. This blog is about my experience of the N3P and what my tips would be to people attempting it.

On our way to Fort William to scale Ben Nevis

Humbled by Bournemouth

Enjoying the seaside

A photo posted by Edward (@uncertainrunner) on Nov 22, 2015 at 2:58am PST

I have been doing a lot of thinking since my last post, as I wanted to really reflect on what happened at Bournemouth. I think my initial reaction to not getting under three hours at Bournemouth was one of trying to look at what I did wrong. Now that I have had time to think about the race I see it in a much more positive light and feel like even though I did not get the time that I aimed for, I did well under the circumstances. So really this post is about how I viewed my race with hindsight. Inevitably my new job has conspired to stop me from posting twice a month, as I had originally planned, but I am still happy with posting once a month. When things calm down at work I aim to try and keep to writing two posts a month or even just updating things about myself on my blog. 

Battling with Bournemouth

This blog post is going to be one of two parts about Bournemouth, as to cut a long story short, things did not go according to plan with how I had envisaged. I will discuss that in the second blog post, but in this one I want to talk about the race and how it went. It is still quite ‘raw’ for me as it is only a week since I ran the Bournemouth Marathon. So if there is anything that comes across as me feeling sorry for myself or like I am moaning then forgive me. It’s simply me trying to describe how I felt at the time.

For Whom Bournemouth Tolls

So I think it has been over a month since I have made a post, and this in turn throws out the intention of my last post- namely to post more consistently around once or every two weeks. However I have been very busy over the last month, so my lack of writing has not been in vain. I successfully completed the National Three Peaks Challenge, upped my mileage before the Bournemouth Marathon, recovered from injury, started a new job, replaced my Brooks Ghost 7s and ran the Ealing Half Marathon. So it has been a packed month between August/September to say the least. Being this busy has taught me the importance of thinking through what my blog posts should be about and keeping the word count well below 1,000 words.