Six miles completed.

A visit to the physio triggered a revelation as I realised that the lower three vertebrae in my back appeared now to be moving. And not as one.. A most peculiar sensation after they'd been frozen together in a stony, and what would without intervention, have been an eternal embrace.

After the novelty of the Ricky Martin impressions had died down I set about the matter in hand, lengthening the previous best distance. The trouble was, all this new found pelvic freedom was playing havoc with my rhythm as it tickled and spasmed for the first half a mile.

Ploughing on I hit the natural pace (slow as mentioned) and I drifted off into the Ipod.

I called the endurance test to an end after six miles, as I was nervous of pushing too hard too soon. Sure enough the knees had taken a pounding, the protection has yet to fully build, but it took only a few hours to recover. Fairly pleased with that though.

I have learnt the following; 1) More running, more often, maybe less distance, is needed to thicken and strengthen my knees to stand a chance of 26 miles, 2) I am losing water, quite a bit of it, and will need to hydrate through the event, 3) If anything changes, socks, shoes, newly mobile spines, it upsets the equilibrium. Must be aware of all that..

Making headway

I was like a red missile, flashing through the sodium night. The prow of my Berghaus jacket (just above the Ipod pocket) cleaving the air as I charge relentlessly, cat like, into the darkness.

Well almost.

Having finished up work for a while I have time to train, and of course time to write this nonsense.

On the bright side, the blister has healed, and I've now marked out a 3 mile training run for my evening sojourns. Every other day this gets pounded, and by early next week I should be comfortably able to kick off the 4 mile attempts.

So less Powerplate and Body Pump, and more, well, running...

Stacy

Injuries slow progress..

"Activate your inner thighs". Can't get enough of this motivational bollockology.. Body Pump is curiously both the most humiliating, and the most entertaining class I've decided, so I'm going to forego the rest from now on.

However, some niggles recently.

I certainly felt a little "peculiar" a couple of weeks ago, and had to forego any attempts at running. Instead I had a few days off, but continued popping along to Body Pump.

Fortunately it did seem to either be a smidge of over exertion repaired with some rest, or maybe a virus. Who knows, but then along came the annual awards event for the racing club. The orange dickie bow fitted perfectly, but the suit was alarmingly tight - in fact there was some concern that the jacket button might have pinged off and broken a glass or two, in the manner of a gunslinger in a western saloon.

Of course a bottle or two of red on the table soon relaxed events, the button was loosened, and before we knew where we were it was Disco Inferno until the early hours. I was complimented by a fellow racer on both "rhythm" and "freedom", but given the alcohol consumed that evening I supect his judgement was impaired. Even so, I had to admit that, yes, I was rather good. Ahem. If the little arm wriggle is good enough for George Michael, it's good enough for me. Bed was reached finally at 4am, fully clothed, and the wine sought revenge with a headache which persisted all day..

Still, a sans John Sargeant Strictly Come Dancing Sunday evening forced me out for a run, and what do you know.. Once the lethargy has been overcome, the red wine and apparent lack of preparation resulted in another new record for distance. I should do this more often. The Ipod Nano suitably packed with motivational music helps enormously too.

No speed records will be set that's for sure, in fact I suspect it may not be regarded as "running" at all, and I was worried enough that it was merely a "mild lumber" to demonstrate it to my friend Brian, who deemed it "a gentle jog". Good enough!

Still, it's a real improvement and if I beat the man in the diving suit then I shall regard that as a result.

I'll now need to move away from the nursery slopes, and the 4 miles loop of Virginia Water now beckons..

However.. Nothing is that easy. For some bizarre reason I didn't notice a blister, or a bite or something. Who knows. Anyway, within 24hrs my foot had swollen up and a deeper wider blister formed around my little toe. Ouch. So the last 24hr have been spent with it airing, and hoping hoping that it recovered enough to resume gym work on Monday and hopefully a revised running route on Tuesday. Another weeks delay to the step up the ladder, and one I can ill afford.

Word of the week... S-u-p-e-r-s-l-o-w. As told by the mildly alarming instructor in this weeks "Body Pump". The (French we think) biologically perfect female specimen taking the class was strangely unattractive, and after due consideration it seems this anomaly comes down to her obvious ability to wreak physical havoc on anyone she chooses. Including me.

Today (Friday) will consist of RPM, which elsewhere seems to be termed "Spinning". I presume someone has trademarked the term. Anyway, it's cycling to you and me and I am told it is hard going - by 2pm I will know for sure.

As mentioned last week I popped down to Runner Need in Canary Wharf this week. As suspected not a great deal of their equipment was available in XXL, but I did come away with some running shorts (for wearing under trousers naturally), an Ipod holding arm band, some gloves since it's getting cold outside now, double lined socks and some nipple chaffing lubricant. I childishly stifled a giggle and couldn't resist.

Results so far..? Shirts appear looser, and certainly things are changing. Most tellingly the usual short runs (very short!) punctuated by rest periods are getting longer - in fact they've doubled. Before long I'm hoping for an unbroken run, but am keeping off the road running on a daily basis to try and avoid injuries. If I pick one up I'll be in real trouble for making next April..

This week has been a blur, and already I'd consider myself something of a gym buff. From the Power Plate, through Body Pump and into Body Attack I've done them all. Naturally I'm pretty stiff, looking forward to a night or two off and between now and Monday (Power Plate again) I'll get a couple of short runs in to see where we are..

For those that don't know Power Plate is a vibrating pad which (apparently) increases the intensity of all exercise performed on it. Basically you switch it on, stand on it and do your exercise, and that's it. It might be a gimmick, but it really hurts so whether or not it's down to the machine is pretty irrelevant I guess. The instructor kept on about holding my tummy in, until I told her it was in - about as far as it's going to go.. Monday lunchtimes will never be the same.

Body Pump is organized humilation for any rotund heterosexual male with a pair of milk bottles hanging out of his shorts, but hey, this is a good cause. Music pumps out at 100 decibels, while the instructor shouts motivational slogans at you straining with your weights. "Get ready to rip it up", "over the top", "max the envelope", "ride the burn", etc etc etc. I tried and failed in the most part, but am eager to repeat the experience next week.

The next entry will be about my visit to "Runners Need". A chain of shops I have no natural affinity towards, and one, frankly, I never thought I'd need to visit...

Stacy

Training starts here..

Have I gone mad?

37, grossly overweight and haven't run further than 50 yards in years (and that was more of a moderate amble for a train resulting in 30 minutes of profuse sweating, than a lycra clad sprint followed by a swig of isotonic liquid).

Now I find myself signed up to the London Marathon in 2009, running on behalf of the Anthony Nolan Trust.

The motivation, if I'm truly honest, probably has more to do with an early mid life crisis than uber generosity for the cause, but now I'm here it's clear the ANT do real worthwhile and lifesaving work, and more selfishly there's a challenge here of significant proportions but with an obvious pay back - how can I complete training and the marathon without losing some of the weight that's steadfastly stuck to my hips for far too long?

There is no turning back.

On the bright side my motor racing requires me to have a medical each year to maintain the racing licence and, aside the weight, there is nothing apparently untoward reported there. I also have a gym membership that needs more use, and a pair of running shoes which have yet to see much mileage.

So here we go.....