It's been a while

Apologies for the lack of activity folks but that's due to the lack of running activity. I've been abroad a couple of times in the last few weeks and so last week I only managed 7 miles but this week it's business as usual.

I forgot to weigh myself yesterday but I weighed myself this morning to find I'd lost ½lb which I am very pleased and surprised about. I went to go for a 3 mile run yesterday but was completely shattered after 2. I think it's because I tried to run a faster pace. I will see how I get on with my 5 miles today!

1st run for a while

Possibly the toughest run yet! I really suffered on the last 1½ miles of a 5-miler and ended up doing it in 55 mins. I was pleased with the first 3 miles all in under 10 minutes but then I hit the wall! Just under a week of doing nothing has really taken it out of me and so I need to try and make sure I don't drop off too much again!

Got 1 more run this week - tomorrow before something else on Thursday. Fri-Sun I am away again and drinking and eating bad so I will try and be extra good before then so hopefully I can stay the same again.

Latest weigh in

I weighed myself this morning after a week of not doing a lot in terms of exercise but rather a lot of bad eating and drinking and I was pleased to find I stayed the same. Today it's time to get back in to the swing of things and I am in a strange way looking forward to exercise again as it's been since Wednesday when I last went for a run.

Let's see what this week brings!

Bad few weeks coming up

I weighed myself again today and I lost ½ a pound which is ok - I did hope for more as I managed my 10k run but my eating wasn't the best and I had some beers last Friday so that's ok. I am also the lightest I've been for a few years so I can't complain too much. I am also under the 200-mark again which is good.

I am worried however how things will go in the next few weeks. I'm not going to run as much as I've got 2 weddings to go to and with weddings comes alcohol and I'm not willing to sacrifice that either at the moment. I like to enjoy myself and I feel like I deserve it so I just hope that I can recover the weight gain quicker once the weddings are out of the way. I'm also going to a festival at the beginning of June and so I can't wait until all that is over so that I can get into the swing of things.

Damn proud!

So 2 significant numbers to report on today - 10 and 100!

10 - miles I ran today!
100 - miles ran in the last 7 weeks!

I am very chuffed to reach what I believe is a huge milestone! I didn't run on Friday which was a bit naughty and I had 9 miles scheduled for today so I thought - why not round it up?? I also have a 5 mile route that I like and so I decided to run that route twice!

It feels so good to know I've gone from struggling to do 2 miles, 7 weeks ago to running 10 and feeling like I could have carried on if I had to! I want to thank you all for the words of encouragement and also the words of advice - it's helped a lot!

Onwards and upwards! I actually feel like I will be able to do the marathon now if I carry on training. That's the first time I've had that realization. Thank you all!

All the best!

Erik

Closing in on 100

I did the 3 miles today which felt good and I did it in 29:30 which is a decent pace and I was pleased with it. I couldn't have gone much faster. I've now got a total mileage in the last 7 weeks of 94 miles!! I will break the 100 mile barrier 1/3 of the way through my run on Sunday and that is an incredible and unbelievable mile stone in my mind!

Going further - again

So yesterday I had 3 miles scheduled in but as my mate Jamie was running with me I thought "why not do his usual route?" which is about 5 miles.

Halfway round I felt ok and we'd done the first 2 miles in 20-odd minutes so I suggested to go on a bit of a de-tour and run down by the canal/river. It was really nice and scenic but I definitely started to feel it in the legs after about 4 miles - we then had a 3/4 mile stretch of uphill running (which for some reason I find easier than running on flat) after which I was exhausted. We ended up doing 6½ miles in about 1 hour 8mins - just short of 11min per mile.

I was pleased as it was only 2 days since I did the furthest distance I have ever done and my knees etc. feel OK today. I will do the 3 miles penciled in for yesterday this evening instead - let's see how fast I can go!

2½ months - 1000 hits

A massive THANK YOU all for reading - it's providing me with plenty of motivation to keep going!

Thank you all for the positive comments too!

The difference is a year

So the local football team have a presentation do every May and it so happened that I wore the same clothes last year and this year and I think I can see the difference is my size from last year to this year. Judge for yourselves and let me know:

2010:

And then this year... 2011:

What do you guys think??

Week 7: Weigh in

Weighed myself this morning and I lost 1½ lbs from last week which is pleasing. Not quite enough to take me below the 200lbs mark but enough to take me to 200lbs exactly.

Let's hope I can have another good week and go below the milestone next week. I have a tough week coming up with a 9-mile run on Sunday. My knee is still quite sore from the run on Sunday so I'll see how I get on with the run today.

8 miles - really pleased

So last week (which finished yesterday) was a very good one in my opinion and I'm very pleased. The swimming was a disappointment but the running was more positive. The Friday run was supposed to be 3 miles but I went to run with my best mate (who's also running the marathon) for the first time to see how we kept pace together.

We had a similar pace and instead of the 3 miles, we did 4! Hopefully we'll be able to run the whole thing together.

And then yesterday I had the massive challenge of 8 miles. I drew up a route that was 8.2 miles which I thought was close enough. I also for the first time had some music whilst running and I think that made a massive difference, it really helped. I managed to do the 8.2 miles in 1h 28m which is just faster than 11min/miles and considering it was the furthest I've ran so far - I am really pleased!

Onwards and upwards :-)

Bad groin muscle

So yesterday I went for a swim and I was hopeful that I could do the full mile as last Thursday I only did about 20 lengths, then had to stop due to a painful groin muscle which doesn't hurt at all when I run. I managed 32 lengths before again having to stop.

It's really frustrating and I'm thinking I may do something else for the cross training next week rather than swimming just to rest the groin muscle for a couple of weeks.

On a more positive note - 900+ hits now, thank you guys for reading!

Erik

Week 6: Back in the swing of things

So after my bad weekend I'm back in the swing of things. I really suffered with my 3-mile run on Tuesday and it took me a long time - something like 33 minutes. I think it was a hangover from the weekend just gone.

Yesterday however, was a lot better and I managed to do my 4-mile run in 40 minutes which is my ideal speed and is what I want to complete the marathon in if I can. I'm hoping in a few weeks that I will be able to run even faster across these shorter distances and be able to keep the same speed for the longer ones. I got an 8-mile run to do on Sunday so let's see how I cope with that!

All the best

Erik

Slacking!

So I've had a really bad long weekend in terms of exercise and weight. On Thursday my groin muscle was hurting when I swam so I only managed 15-20 lengths before I had to give up. That's not the worst of it.

I went out and had a drink Thursday night and so wasn't up early enough of Friday and ended up skipping my run. I also had a drink Friday, Saturday and Sunday so 4 days in a row! I did do my 5 mile run on Sunday but I was aching the whole way round as I'd been drinking a lot the 3 days before.

The result is a 2lbs gain on the weigh-in this morning. Not very happy but expected and so now it's time to get back into the swing of things with a 3-mile run today. Let's hope I can loose that 2lbs to go back under the 200lbs mark.

Erik