Back in the Saddle and now comes the hard part

Morning all,

Once again, sorry for the lack of recent blogs, I was dealing with a 51.5 hour trip back from New Zealand and the associated jetlag. Yes, that’s right, 51.5 hours, including an overnight stop in a random city in Korea. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t manage to get round to any training during the trip and then gave myself a day off on Saturday to try and deal (unsuccessfully) with the jet lag.

However, come Sunday morning, there I was, in my Skins running tights (with shorts over the top – I am not a sicko), new marathon running socks (thanks Mum!), new running trainers (thanks Mum!), new bright yellow running shirt (thanks Mum!) and sunglasses. And I was off!

And it was wonderful. You see, although NZ is a country of great beauty, friendly locals (so friendly I married one of them) and a laid-back attitude, it is also a country of sodding massive hills. Now, I know the marathon is not going to all be flat, but it is also not going to be run on the side of a sodding mountain, with my start and end point somewhere near the top, meaning a nice downhill stretch at the start and then uphill all the way home. So it was nice to run around Stoke Newington, in the dry, on the flat and without massive humidity making every breath seem like hard work.

The only issue was the cold. It is summer in NZ and so coming back into the depths of winter was a bit of a shock.  Indeed, so much so that after around 25 minutes I started to get cramp and so slowed down a bit. However this just made the cramp worse and it was too cold to then have to walk home, so I just ran the final 20 minutes to get back to the warm! Overall I did 7.6km in 42 mins and 32 seconds which is not bad at all, although I did feel quite stiff for the rest of the day.

Back to work on Monday and I also hit the gym after work. I had intended to do a 10km run (as I set out in my new training plan) but I was still a bit stiff from the day before, so just bit a standard 5km in 27 mins and then used some weights etc.

Speaking of weight, my holiday does not seem to have done too much damage, with the gym scales saying I am now at 100.2kg, not too bad considering the lack of exercise and massive increase of food and beer during the holidays!

In addition, I have now set up my fundraising page here.  Remember, I am raising money for the Willow Foundation, which provides days out for terminally ill young adults.  To date, Willow has provided more than 8,000 special days for seriously ill young people. For some pretty amazing example of what the money they raise is used for, see here.  So please please please can you help me reach my target of £1,600 and help Willow to help those who need it. Cheers.