Positively tropical (let's hope it comes back soon)

Weeks to go: 5
Current weight: 15 stone 1 pound
Total lost so far: 15 pounds
...am I destined to never go below 15 stone?!

Typical: the target of 14 stone was looking all achievable up til about 4 weeks ago when I first attained this weight. Now, after a series of self-inflicted injuries and poor self-control near a well-stocked fridge, I appear to have plateaued out a bit. But bigger picture: I still intend to finish the London Marathon and raise plenty of cash for Leonard Cheshire Disability (www.lcdisability.org) so PLEASE SPONSOR ME at www.justgiving.com/stuyeomans.

However, good news is that my hip and shin are both not quite as painful after yesterday's run than they were previously. I reckon that's a green light to start making the run's little longer, if not more regular. Accepted wisdom (i.e. the regime in Marathon News magazine) says that the longest run you do in your build up is either 20 miles (gulp) or 3 hours 30 mins (double gulp), what ever is the shortest.

Good grief.

Well, seeing as this should be done in the next week or two, the delay in my training means this should probably fall during the week between 30th March and 5th April. Time to plan. It isn't wise try to cram in lots of run-time between now and then, but other exercise will always help to maintain my fitness. The run time is what will count: so fingers crossed.

In terms of the tropical - that refers to the blazing sun of Sunday morning's run. Whilst the first 5 minutes were pleasant and meant I wasn't cold to begin with, it did mean I was a bit overdressed for the subsequent 42 minutes. Cue sweat pouring into my eyes and squinting into the harsh glare. Not great and a great reminder to keep yourself at the right temperature for comfort during exercise. That and a hat or sunglasses to make life even easier. Only reason being is that if you're distracted in any way, or suffering any discomfort, it takes an incredible toll on your mental strength to finish such a ludicrous distance. And I'm all for making life that little bit easier.

So, next time should have me finding out exactly how I feel after, say, 90 minutes of running and will be a fair indicator of how I'll feel for the longer run the week after. Wish me luck and, if you haven't done so already... please sponsor me!!

Happy running. And by the way, it's now freezing cold and chucking it down with rain now. Predictible unpredictibility of the British weather.

Happiness is a dry trail

Weeks to go: Just less than 6 weeks
Current weight: 15 stone 1 pound
Total lost so far: 15 pounds
... not panicking just yet!

Ahh, the warm sun beating down on your face, the gentle wind on your back, sheep's wool catching in your brake mechanism: nothing beats a mountain bike ride when it's not raining. Plus, it's a nice way to not pound out the miles needed for London Marathon training and weight loss without battering my recoving limbs.

And talking of which: the first foray back into running this evening ended with only a bit of hip pain but no shin splint problems - we're back in the game! Somebody should tell Martin Lel to up his training unless he wants to be hopelessly embarassed in 6 weeks time.

So, with luck on my side, a bit of insider knowledge about injury rehab and substantial analgesia, I should be on track to both finish the marathon and drop the weight needed to make sure I get a bit more sponsorship money!

Til next time, you followers of severe injuries and tales of blissful trail rides. Props y'all.

Back in the Game!

Weeks to go: 7
Current weight: 15 stone 1 pound (ooh, creeping down again, get in!)
Total lost so far: 15 pounds (techically back to halfway again)
...so let's get the running going again, shall we?

Well, not quite, but at least some kind of athletic adventure was undertaken at the weekend. Those of you paying attention (do keep up, please) will see that this past Sunday was the Kingswood Mountain Bike Duathlon run by the nice people at Ashford Triathlon Club. For the uninitiated, this involved 3km of trail running, 14km of mountain biking and then the same 3km trail run again. All in the brisk morning light of a March morning. And all done in 1 hour and 33 minutes. 72nd out of 122 - okay, so not world record breaking, but bear in mind that I haven't done much in the way of training over the last 3 weeks due to injury, so I'm happy enough.

Looking forward; my lack of half-marathon race in the build up to the big one at the London Marathon I'll be changing tack and doing the Paddock Wood Half Marathon on April 5th. And with that, I'll need something to distract me from the possibility of returning injuries and pain.

Something I've used for quite a while is music while I run. One of the most distracting things I used to hate when I ran without it was the sound of my own breathing. If I run at any pace at all, my big mouth makes a fair racket and as such, I always seemed to convince myself I was more tired than I really was. So the 'generic white MP3 player' is a great choice to mask the hurricane-like sounds of my gob and helps me concentrate on the run at hand; be it an easy jog or a fair paced aerobic threshold workout.

Research shows that the rhythm of the music you listen to as you run correlates closely with your footfall and therfore the pace at which you run. Obviously, my giant limbs rotate at a different pace to a tiny 7 stone woman, but you get the picture. Therefore, things like slower beats are better for the more leisurely plods and Hardcore Dutch Gabba is best saved for the lungbusting interval training sessions!

Me, I'm more a fan of the anthemic rock and indie, probably because of it's impression on me during my teenage years. Stand up those of you with any songs from the first Oasis album or Shed Seven on your running playlists! Unfortunately, most of that stuff is archived on tapes in the loft and not exactly transferable (for me anyway) onto the little white music box. But luckily, Kings of Leon are perfect, that and Bloc Party, The Fratellis, Feeder, Lostprophets, Pigeon Detectives. But to each their own.

On that musical interlude: Happy return-to-running! Same bat-time, same bat-channel next week, team.

...And back to starting from scratch again

Weeks to go: 8
Current weight: 15 stone 4 pounds
Total lost so far: 12 pounds
...well, okay, that's 'technical' loss of weight, but it varies daily.

Grr. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this but I miss being able to go out running. But after the first 6 weeks of training and building up to 2 hours plodding about, I didn't mind heading out into the inclement weather. But after 2 weeks of no running due to hip and shin problems, both the desire and conditioning have left me. What a pain.

However, seeing as it only took about 2 weeks to get into it the first time, I hold out hope of easing back into it. That and I'll be stuffed to the gills with pain-killers and anti-inflammatories, so chances are I'll be able to float around the London Marathon course in a psychedelic haze.

With only 8 weeks to go to the London marathon itself, the fundraising will really begin in earnest so if I see you about and you have yet to sponsor me, chances are I'll badger you to pledge whatever you can to help those at the Leonard Cheshire Disability and help me raise my target of £2000.

Right, so from next week, the training will be well and truly back on track so a proper update then. And fingers crossed the weight loss will be back on track so I can pick up the extra pledge moneys from you all. Happy pledging!