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.

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.

Another one bites the dust (but not the biggie)

Weeks to go: 11
Current weight: Haven't the foggiest, not near my scales again this Sunday!
Total lost so far: 15 pounds (judging by last week's measurements)
... hmm, don't screw with the programme

Yep, sad to say that I missed two out of four of my runs last week. The first was wholly explicable as the weather was terrible and I'm not a member of a gym either, so I couldn't make it up. The second was, I'm almost ashamed to admit was half down to a belated Burns Night celebration and half down to a miscalculation of when the England v Italy rugby was kicking off.

However, yesterday saw me run the furthest I'd ever managed in one go with a pavement-pounding 21.5km in 2 hours dead. Perfect conditions running from Brighton seafront to Shoreham and back and in less time than I ran the Eastbourne Half Marathon last year. Hence I'm fairly confident that I'll beat last year's time of 2 hours 6 minutes. Three weeks to find out, so watch this space.

Okay, now for the admission: Saturday's lack of training was also possibly due to some pain I've been having in my legs which I found out is due to the type of training and also the fact that I'm quite the lump. 'Medial tibial pain' can affect soldiers and athletes when they increase their training intensities in much the same way I've done. And running on unforgiving surfaces like pavement only serves to exacerbate the problem. This isn't 'shin splints' as you might think as it's in a different part of the leg, but suffice to say I've been using plenty of ice after running, massage and stretching all my muscles out to make sure that there's no unwarranted tension to make things even worse.

Lesson for us all there, I think. Always worth paying attention to the little niggles and aches if they remain for longer than a few days after a run. I know I said that sticking to a programme was best, but it might just be the right thing to miss the odd session if a pain or strain takes a little longer to disappear. In the long run (pun almost certainly intended) it'll mean more consistent training over a longer period and ultimately the difference between a good race and poorly executed one.

Happy running, relaxing and injury management. Weight report next time. Promise.

Getting started (or falling at the first hurdle)

Running is not easy. Or at least not for someone of my particular bodymass.

For the last few years I've entertained the idea of running the London Marathon. Not least because it is the World's biggest and technically the original, but because it is also practically on my doorstep. So for 2009, I was lucky enough to get a place through Leonard Cheshire Disability (www.lcdisability.org). Also, at the time (October 2008) I happened to weigh 16 stone 2 pounds in weight. So:

The pledge: Run/finish the London Marathon and lose 30lbs in the process

20+ years of playing rugby have taken their toll on my knees and ankles, so the weight loss is basically to minimise any additional impact on these vulnerable joints. And while the 16 week training regime prescribed by the good fellows at the Marathon doesn't kick in until (thankfully) after the new year, I have at least started to try the running.

And so far I've been attacked by a dog and lost valuable training time to a stomach bug. More of which next time. Happy running.

Please sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/stuyeomans