A warning before festivities begin....

With thanks to SV

Muscles that hurt

Not ALL points shown are painful

Shamed by my inability earlier today to identify the muscles that are giving me "gip" after yesterday's Insanity workout, you'll be pleased to hear I've spent some productive time on-line researching muscular anatomy, and am now able to elaborate.

(I'm not seeking sympathy, mind. This post is simply to satisfy those of you who enjoy a bit of armchair schadenfreude.) 

Rictus Abdominis ("Abs"), Clavicular head of pectoralis (upper "Pectorals") and Deltoids - all mildly uncomfortable

Latissimus Dorsi ("Lats") - middling uncomfortable

Adductor Longus ("Adductors") - middling uncomfortable

Gluteus Maximus ("Glutes") - very uncomfortable indeed whenever I sit down or climb stairs

Semitendinosus ("Hamstrings") - very uncomfortable indeed whenever I bend over (feeding the cat used to be easy -not now!)
Like steel hawsers at all other times

So, now you know.

Hungry birds

At lunchtime I ran 9 miles through the parks: St James' Park, Green Park and Hyde Park, up to the  end of the Serpentine and back.

This photo is of early Georgian terraced houses (built in 1720-1725) on Lord North Street, leading to St. John's church.

Harold Wilson lived in this street while he was Prime Minister in the early 1970s. During this time it's claimed he was burgled by renegade MI5 officers.

In the 1980s Jonathan Aitken, MP and Cabinet Minister also lived here. Before he went to prison, that is.

Westminster Abbey from Westminster School

From Westminster Abbey I entered the parks.

Hungry moorhens

Hungry swans

"Not photos. Food!"

At the end of the Serpentine

Looking across the Serpentine toward Kensington Palace

Memorial to the 55,573 people who died while serving in Bomber Command 1939-1945

Back at work I told my friend Nick that I would have done a fast run, if I hadn't had to stop to take so many photos. For some reason he wasn't convinced.

I think the above photos prove my point, don't you?

Ouch ouch ouch

Today I'm walking like John Wayne after a full day in the saddle. My hamstrings and glutes are the worst, along with lots of other bits I couldn't even name.

Time for a short lunchtime run. Kill or cure.

So, what’s the training plan, Stan?

Shaun T - Mr. Insanity

It seems to be generally accepted by people who know a lot more about these things than I do, that the best form of training for endurance sports is to do lots and LOTS of that specific activity. So for example the best training for a climbing trip is to climb as much as possible. In the case of marathons, there’s no substitute for getting the miles in.

People do complete marathons without running a lot for for weeks beforehand, but that usually means a slow time - and quite a lot of suffering during the race. I want to enjoy the day!

My training for previous marathons involved running 5-6 days a week, and building up the distance of the weekend run little by little each week. This time, daily running doesn’t look feasible: over the last year or so my right knee has started to complain if I run day after day. The knee isn’t a problem on longer runs - just so long as I take a day’s break between them. I’m going to take advice about how to sort the problem out, but I’ve come to terms with the thought that I’ll probably need to limit how frequently I go running this time. It also means I may have to accept a slower time on the day.

If I can’t run so much, how to start to get race-fit?

Between January and March 2013 a couple of friends and I put ourselves through a 60-day fitness workout programme called Insanity. It’s an intense - but highly effective - cardio/resistance fitness routine (or “total body transformation system” as it’s makers call it - how very American!) at the end of which I was really quite fit.

(Of course, pretty soon afterwards, my training Switch turned to the Off position again and in no time was Mr Couch Potato once more).

Anyway the plan at least for the next month is to alternate running one day with an Insanity session the next, to build toward fitness as quickly as possible, while I try to sort out my knee.

Which brings us to the fun bit: this morning I did my first Insanity workout for months. It was 40 minutes of “Plyometric Cardio Circuits”, involving (after warm-up) a series of sets of hard 3-minute circuits each followed by a 30 second “break”, then repeated. I had very low expectations about how this morning’s session would go - and wasn’t looking forward to it much either - but in the event it went OK … until the final set of “Level One Drills” brought on a full-blown nausea attack and I had to slack off. Mmm - nice.

I am going to be so sore tomorrow. But at least I have a training plan, or the beginnings of one.

A Christmas lull - and a New Year's resolution

Not much running was done this week. I had a cold and cough over Christmas, recovering only to be able to do 5 miles around Clissold Park today. It was slow - I've had too many roast potatoes - but the park was cold and beautiful, and the run helped clear out my lungs.

Clissold House

Also, the first 50-mile milestone in my training was reached!

Hungry moorhens

Now it's time to "up the ante". So - I'm making a commitment, here and now, that on 5 January I will give up smoking - at least until after I run the Marathon at the end of April.

Any support people feel able to give would be much appreciated, and will really help motivate me to give up and stay off the cigs.

As an added inducement to visit my Fundraising Page, I've posted up a new embarrassing photo. It's a cracker.

Miles run in week 4 (17 weeks to go): 9.8
Total miles since I started running again: 56

A bit more pace

Still slow, but my pace is picking up a bit now.

Notice the ghostly blue figure at about 1.75 miles. Spooky, huh?  I swear I only noticed it after I took this image for the blog...

All thoughts are now turning toward Christmas. A few years ago on Christmas morning, a friend and I took my sister's dogs out for a run in the Suffolk countryside not far from her house, while my sister and partner prepared lunch. Without consulting my sister we decided to take the dogs into the marshes near Dunwich - a lovely area on the Suffolk coast, about as far East as you can get in England - but boggy.

It was a beautiful blue winter's day for a run. As we ran down the raised wooden boardwalk into the marsh, the dogs had a great time bounding through the bog on either side.

The dogs we delivered back to my sister were completely covered in mud. Plastered head to tail. Oops.

Burning the candle at both ends

Yesterday I met up with a very old friend and his daughter for an evening of laughter and general carousing. Work is mad-busy at the moment - I'll spare you the details - and so it was good to forget all about it last night.

After a night of behaviour perhaps unbecoming for a man of my years, I got home at 3am this morning. Why is it that when you meet up with old friends from Uni, the years are stripped away and you behave like a 20 year old again? Anyway, I'll spare you the details of that, too*.

Today, feeling rather "tired", I reluctantly went out for a run. 10 miles: down to the Regent's Canal, which I then followed toward Limehouse Basin and back. I felt much better afterwards, if a little weary.

I love running by water.

Miles run in week 3 (18 weeks to go): 18.3

Total miles since I started running again: 46.3

* Instead, here's an account of an epic pub-crawl in 1647.

Update 22 December: Here's a short blog post about what it's like to spend Christmas living on a canal boat, by The Great Wen.

Lentement, lentement, en attrape le singe

At lunchtime I squeezed in my standard 5K river run but with an extension: from Lambeth Bridge down to Vauxhall Cross on the south bank, then over Vauxhall Bridge and back via Milbank - what I call the "Spot the Spook" extension.

My running is still slow, but energy is returning and I'm getting a bit quicker day by day.

From Blackfriars Bridge along the Embankment, with old St Paul's School on the right

Whisky, and running the Parkland Walk

Every so often I meet up with a couple of friends for a whisky tasting. Yesterday afternoon it was their turn to come over to my house.

It was billed as the "Dad Noises Session": its objective being to taste whiskies tasty enough to cause at least one participant to make involuntary Dad Noises.

So, after their young child had been put to bed and we'd eaten, we settled down to taste a few single malts.

I'm pleased to report that the objective of the session was met, and early on in the evening - not in the event by a Dad at all, but by a Mum. Well satisfied, we continued to sip whisky and chat until 02:15 in the morning.

A few short hours later I dragged myself outside and ran 7.3 miles along Parkland Walk and back, a tree-lined path which follows the route of a defunct railway line between Finsbury Park and Highgate.

Miles this week (week 2 of training): 13 (only 2 runs this week, work has been bonkers)
Total miles run since I signed up for the Marathon: 28
No. weeks left: 19

Thanks to jazzpianofingers for the Dad Noises idea

5.8 mile park run

Terrible photo, but it gives an idea of what the day was like. London can be stunningly beautiful on days like this.

Embarrassing photos

I made a commitment on my Fundraising page that I would change my photo every so often.

I'm already a bit sick of the first photo I put up, of me looking sulky in 1985, so I've posted another one up. Have a look if you fancy a laugh.

(Good crop, though.)