Moving up a gear!

Well despite the weather I've had a good weekend of training. It started with the parkrun on Saturday morning a 5km (3.1miles) time trial run in the garrison. So after a 2 mile warm up with the comedy guru of Southend Mr Gary Jackets I reach the start line with 81 other people and a dog.
I took a nice and steady approach to it and after the first loop Gary told me I was about 16th. So I gradually upped the pace a little bit and picked the runners off through the next 2 laps. By the time I reached 200m to go I was just outside the top ten so I went into what I thought was a sprint finished but looked and sounded more like a bulldog waddling along. With the line in sight there was only one man and his dog in between us and despite my bulldog efforts I got pipped at the line by them both! After the exhaustion of the parkrun I did a 2 mile cool down back home with the guru. As it turns out I finished 10th in 21mins 10 secs which is a new PB.
Sunday was an early start which was mainly down to Isabelle (my youngest) wanting to get up at 5am. I was out of the house about 7.30 and the first quarter of a mile was ok until I turned a corner and then it hit me! The strongest wind I've encountered since trying to cycle through Glen Coe! There was no let off with the wind for 8 miles it was hard work but the best thing about running into the wind going out is that it's behind you on the way back which it was and pushed me all the way home. So 16 miles completed in 2hrs and 15mins the first of the bigger runs but this is just the start. This month has been good for mileage with just under 150 miles completed and still 5 days to go.
I even managed to get home in time to take James (my eldest) to one of his friends 5th birthday party, fortunately I didn't seize up although I did have you keep hitching up my compression tights that I had on under my jeans!

It wasn't just the training that I upped a gear it was the sponsorship too. Although this is still quite slow at the minute I have the whole year to go so plenty of time, although it would be good to get all the 12 events sponsored and I only have 2 at the moment.
But despite that I received 3 raffle prizes over the weekend. First is a signed Northampton Saints Rugby shirt and a signed rugby ball courtesy of my old friend Mr Paul Pollock and Northampton Saints Rugby Club and second is a LAS victory cycle helmet (rrp £95) from Gary Hughes at www.chickencycles.co.uk
Thank you Paul and Gary for the donations. I will be looking to do the raffle early next year so if anyone has anything or any contact that would like to donate anything for the raffle prize or knows of anyone who would sponsor one of the remaining 10 events please let me know.

So what does this week entail? More of the same really running and begging for sponsorship.

The big 100!

Well the training is going pretty well at the minute. Its the first time I've really started to track all the running that I've done and to my surprise last night when I logged my run I found that I had completed the big 100 miles for the month and only 20 days had gone!
So with an average of 5 miles a day being completed I know I need to kick on more which can be tough going especially when the weather is so cold and wet.
This weekend I'm aiming to bang out a 16 miler which will be my biggest run since may this year.
The great thing at the minute is that I'm still motivated to train and I know I'm going to have some dark days but so far so good which is a good job really as its only 8 weeks until the first event!!!

Back in training!

So after the first weekend off in several weeks I was back out and running tonight. A total of 8 miles done today which takes me to just under 100 miles for the month! The weekend off was a welcomed break but now I really need to start picking up the training.

Along with the training I need to start picking up on the fundraising. I've potentially got a comedy night lined up but I need to confirm the date. Fortunately I know the guru of comedy for Southend so I'm hoping for a great line up! More to follow.

6th Challenge confirmed

With the entries only opening yesterday for the Wiggle Dragon Ride I had to be quick to get an automatic place which fortunately I did.

For information on the ride go to - http://www.wiggledragonride.com/index.php

I had made contact with the race organisers several months ago to find out about when the entries would open and last night I received an email from Jeff Jones to say that he'd seen I'd got a place which I thought was really nice of him.

So now the first six challenges are in place and entered only 6 more to go with the entries opening in the new year.

Good news about the ankle niggle is that it has pretty much cleared up although it hasn't hindered my training. My weekly mileage is now starting to increase with over 40 miles covered last week.

I've now started the push on the sponsorship and have my first 2 companies on board as I am trying to get each challenged sponsored for £150.

So thanks to Toggshop and The Training Room who have confirmed their support for my challenge and more importantly Springboard Opportunity Group.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to my wife Veryan, for her continued support looking after the kids while I'm constantly out training, so thank you and as I've said I will take you away in December to make up for it although I probably won't be able to walk by that point!

I also want to say well done to Veryan and my sister who both completed the Leicester half marathon a couple of weeks back in under 2 and a half hours, awesome effort. My sister has now got the running bug and has signed up to do the Shakespeare Marathon in April so I will have some company and support as I try to complete my sixth marathon in six days, welcome aboard sis!

Finally happy birthday to my little girl Isabelle who turned 1 on Wednesday, the last 12 months have flown by and it won't be long before we all go out for a family run!