Weigh in (48)

I know I know I know, how long has it been since the last post (cue the bugler)? Sorry fellas, it has been a busy week of it all in all, and a bit disjointed at that; plus I have been doing battle with the slideshows and up until tonight was on the losing side (SOOOOO many google hits containing instructions on how to do it; exactly the same number of hits where those instructions DO NOT WORK, AAAAGH!). However I am happy to report that it looks like the tide is turning, and there should be head on, side on and miscellaneous piccies up shortly (then all I have to do is work out how to insert video on this thing and I'll be sorted; shouldn't take too long.....you are prepared to wait until about 2018 for that aren't you?!!)........

Weigh in (47)

Distance trained so far...........(107.5 miles)
Back to earth with a bit of a bump this week I'm afraid; a total of three pound on, weighing me in at a slightly heftier 16 stone 8 pounds. Boooooooo hisssssssssss!
Surprising you might think; considering that somewhere in there I did that Great Manchester run thingy (I really didn't want to talk about it, I like to keep things like that quiet; but there you go, you forced it out of me. It was 10km don't you know?!!). Then when you include the facts that since the run I have been eating like a bit of a trog, suddenly it starts to cross the border from without to within the realm of possibility..........

The Countdown...........the run!!! (part 1)

Yes ladies and gentlemen....and Wee Ali (ooooh, I'm gonna suffer for that one); it's one down and two to go! What follows is a true account of the hours leading up to the start of, the Great (and of course as I was in it, the GREATEST) Manchester Run 2012.......
True to plan, I was sat in my jim-jams polishing off several bowls of pasta and cream cheese on Saturday night; I also managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour.........really I did! Slept pretty well too. I tend to be very lucky in that no matter how stressed out life can be, it rarely interferes with my ability to get a good night's kip. Sadly, when waking up to the dulcet tones of Aled Jones (on Radio 2; not sat at the bottom of my bed) I realised all was not well (nothing to do with Mr. Jones I would like to stress). I won't - for which you will be eternally grateful, I know - go into the gruesome details; but a combination of nerves and overdoing the pasta had my guts in a right state. Now, I am far from an expert in such things, but I don't think this is the best way to start a running day; do you??! (no jokes about 'the runs' please!.....oops, too late!).........

The Countdown........DONE!!

I'll blog properly later - honest! - as I am in dire need of a bath and a Chinese takeaway; but suffice it to say that I DID IT! I'VE DONE IT! I DID THE DO! DO IT I DID!.....you get the idea?!

Time I would have been ecstatic with.......1 hour, 15 minutes

Actual time......1 hour, 6 minutes, 48 seconds.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo chuffed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Countdown.........let's do this thing.....

Well here we are; the night before the new 'phase' of this challenge begins. I would have liked to have been a little lighter at this stage, but slimmers can't be choosers eh (see what I did there!!?)? So, in the knowledge that in less than 20 hours I will be crossing the start line, am I nervous?.....hell yes, am I scared?......well, I'd be lying if I said no to that one, am I excited?.........another hell yes.
I guess it's the unknown quantity which most worries me. How am I going to feel on the day, and more importantly how am I going to take to the tarmac, when most of my training runs have been in the gym? I have lost count of how many people have told me 'it's much easier on a treadmill you know?!'; (I'm sure they think it's helping; but when you think about it, it really isn't. This is certainly one of those 'even if you have reservations about whether he can do it, keep it to yourself and give him belief' situations) I am aware of that - and it is the chief source of my concern on the day - really don't have to be told. Anyway, rant over............

D.I.Y S.O.S (Sobbing.....Outrageous Sobbing)

We all know that we need to drink plenty of water; dehydration is a bad thing right? We also know that if you do a lot of exercise, you will have to take on even more water as you sweat it out, right? Well, let me post a warning to you all......if you decide to sit down and watch an episode of DIY SOS (particularly this weeks), treat it as a run and have a bottle of water at your side; as unless you have as much sensitivity as a lump of coal you are going to need it. I confess that I can be a bit of a crier. Whether at the end of a good movie, a good book, or of course a good TV show; I get so caught up in it that the empathetic joy and grief becomes pathetic sobbing. But I defy you to watch last nights episode and not be moved by it..........

The Countdown........sponsorship.....

For all those reading who have put their hands in their pockets - or in this day and age, their fingers to their keyboards - and sponsored this not-so-fat-man in Sunday's run; it is so much appreciated. I've not done a sponsored anything since running ten times round the primary school playing field, so am a bit rusty in the art of asking people for their cash (feels a bit weird), but you have come through in fine style! I confess that a tear has come to my eye (was chopping onions at the time....honest!) at the number of people who have offered their support. As I write, the donations are not yet over. I've still to 'gather the data' of the offline donations from work colleagues and the badminton posse. It's so exciting!!.........

Weigh in (46)

Distance trained so far..........(98.1 miles)

This week might well have been a banana skin, with the focus entirely on this Sunday I really haven't been paying much attention to what I have been scoffing. Positive then that I have lost another pound! (actually 0.8 pounds, but good old rounding down eh??!). 16 stone 5 pounds; a new all-time fat man to fit man low! Not a huge amount, I know; but who cares?! This challenge has already been going for nigh on a year (that long???!), so if I haven't learnt patience by now I never will. I am now a pound closer to where I want to be, and a pound further away from what I was; and that is - again - to be celebrated.
Considering I pulled myself out of the men's singles club championships which were last Friday for fear of injury (no exercise that evening, unless you count pushing the remote control buttons? no? didn't think so.....worth a try.....), and only ran 3km last night as part of the pre-run gentle exercising week, I am actually pleasantly surprised by this week's result..........

The Countdown.......Further Treadmill Tips (part 2)

The final piece of advice I offer concerning the treadmill - besides the exploding shorts, the joggers nipple and the chub rub - has a post all of its own, and comes under the title of 'speed, and pretty girls.....' which, although a possible alternative title for a George Best biography, is also a trap waiting to catch out any male who wants to show off. Take heed!!
Let's be honest here, running without moving anywhere is an unnatural phenomenon; and it takes some time to get used to said phenomenon to avoid it becoming a phenomenfalloff. Even once the initial adjustment is complete, I am wary that things you can get away with during a normal moving-forward type of run, ought not to be risked. At 5km/hour and above (brisk-ish walking pace) all I can do is run; if anything as adventurous as taking a drink is attempted, I risk all manner of calamity, the end result of which will generally be flying off the end of the thing. This cautionary note forms one integral part of the ensuing story..........

The Countdown........Come in number 36274, your time is up!!

I've mentioned previously that there are certain moments when reality strikes, moments which act as a reminder that the theory of what I am doing is going to become fact. Gaining a place on the Manchester 10k was one, similarly for the Great North. I've just had another, when an A4 envelope plopped on my doormat containing instructions for where and when to show up a week on Sunday, the timing chip to attach to the running shoes and, my race number! 36274, which for a race with 40,000 runners is probably going to just about where I will finish; just ahead of the guy with the deep sea diving suit on, and the fella who is doing it on his hands. Ironically I will also be finishing the race on my hands.............and knees........!.........

Weigh in (45)

This is getting boring now. Whatever happened to the days when I used to lose weight only to gain the week after. At least there was a bit of variety; now it's just weight loss, week after week........YAAAAAAAWWN!!
Yep, you guessed it folks; another pound off and it's down to 16 stone 6 pounds (for those who love nits to pick, I have actually lost 1.4 pounds as I am 16st 6lb dead (not dead as in dead; dead as in with no remainder (unless of course we are talking about the second decimal place; in which case......oh crap......see what all that nitpicking has done? Now I've got to finish with three closed brackets.....I hope you're proud of yourselves....)))........
I am a bit surprised, as I've not really been pure and saintly this week (no change there then). You already know about the Chinese takeaway the evening after Weigh in (44), and since then it has been a night out at the Whitefield end of season badminton league dance (meat and potato pie with mushy peas, followed by carrot cake and washed down with a couple of beers) and a Saturday with my Mum, lolled in front of the FA Cup final (Marks and Spencers finest chuck-in-the-oven stuff.......

The Countdown......Peter Blaydon

Distance trained so far........(87.5 miles)

I'm not embarrassed to admit that I am a big fan of the BBC dramatisation of 'Pride and Prejudice'. There, I've said it. Granted I don't get damp over Colin Firth diving into a lake and looking a bit...damp, but the romantic in me loves the storyline; except for the end when everybody dies of typhoid (I may be kidding, but on the off chance that someone reading this does not know the story, I don't want to spoil it any more than I already have...anyway.....back to the point).
One particular line which has stayed with me from that series (and I assume the book although I have not read it) is not one which immediately springs to mind. It occurs when Darcy is relating the true course of events and dealings between his family and Mr nastyboy Wycombe......

'my own, excellent father died five years ago........'

When I first heard it, the line struck me; it struck me on each of the subsequent 300 DVD viewings of the series, and it stays with me. 'My own, excellent father....' what a brilliant four words. Words which sadly not all of us are able to truthfully utter, but words that mean so much to me as my late father was indeed excellent. So excellent that I am running the Great Manchester 10k in his name.

I have found myself doing the write-something-then-delete-it routine several times at this point (I have even previously deleted the 'write-something-then-delete-it' line!) as it is difficult to know how to talk about the man, the gentleman, the father. Do I talk about generalities, when he and Mum managed to raise six extremely accomplished, respected and ultimately 'good' children? Or about history, how money was on more than one occasion extremely tight, so much so that they regularly had to hide from the coal man as they did not have the money to pay him? No, a blog is personal; therefore the stories must be my own...........in no particular order.......

Weigh in (44)

Distance trained so far........(75.7 miles)
Three weeks on the bounce baby!! A grand total of one pound off, leaving me at 16 stone 7 pounds. Okay, strictly speaking I have only lost 0.6 pounds, but the rules of rounding down account for the rest (it can work against me too, so give me this one; pretty pleeeeease!). It represents a new all time low for Fat Man To Fit Man, not to mention an all time high for me! Only two more weighs in (weigh ins?) until the big race. It would have been nice to have broken the 16 stone barrier by then, but it looks like I will cross the start line a few pounds shy of that target. Having said that. plenty of pounds are likely to be shed on the run itself; so the 22nd of May weigh in should be a good 'un!......