Not so quick post

Just a quickie tonight; things are going well busy as ever well who isn’t these days.  Training is going well for Virgin London Marathon; I am keeping up with the cross training – strength on Mondays and yoga on Fridays (well most Fridays) I think for February I am going to double up on the strength training, I’ll let you know if I manage it. 

Fundraising efforts are going well; I now have a venue and date for my Charity Curry and Quiz night…drum roll please “Friday 1^st March at Hem Heath Cricket Club, Stoke”.  The Hem Heath Cricket Club have been great and provided the venue free of charge, however I still trying to sort out the food but I hope to get that finalised by the end of the week so I can announce my ticket price.  The next BIG thing I need to sort out is a quiz and a (free) disco/karaoke for the evening, but I am sure I will get that sorted (if you know anyone who might be able to help give me a shout). The cake sale at work is now also been arranged and I am hoping from both events I can raise around £1,000 so I am keeping my fingers crossed.  

College is going well I still have 3 outstanding assignments but I only have a bit more to do on one of them and other two are due the end of February, so plenty of time.  We have just started our new semester and two new models; Training and fitness for sport and exercise and Physical activity, lifestyle and wellbeing both seem fun and it looks like our assignment will be less wordy but I still think that they are going to be as challenging.  So watch this space

I am really happy the snow has gone, it was nice for a while but running in it was such hard work, I felt exhausted every time and there was no point looking at your watch as you just felt demoralised, anyway it is gone and the paths are clear again and I am start to try and get my speed up.

The things I am looking forward to over the next few weeks is:

• Saturday I am at the Virgin London Marathon meeting the experts (and maybe a little shopping)
• Sunday is the 1^st race of the season which is Alsager 5 then a couple of use from club are running back to Trentham for our Sunday long run 
• 1^st half of the year at Brigthon Half on Sunday 17^th February, hopefully it won’t run long this year.

Take care everyone and remember 

run like you stole something 

2013 One week in

It has been a  great 1^st week into 2013, with some annual leave I haven’t been to work since 27/12/2012 and it feels like forever :) Unfortunately that is all about to come to an end as tomorrow it is off to work I go, despite me having numerous chances to win the lottery things didn't work out :(

Oh well you can’t have everything, the extra few days have helped me get ahead of the curve on the college front and I am about 80% through my 3^rd assignment for antimony and physiology and this time it is all about the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system, which again has been very interesting .  On the sports psychology I have done some reading but officially we have not been given the assignment but I am going to do some more reading up on the formation of teams, team motivation and dynamics which should be fun. 

The training for the Virgin London Marathon is going well; I had a running MOT by Brian Cole, Sport Injury Specialist (check it out http://www.colestherapy.com/) and it looks like I am good to go, his take on things I have a good style (well I did wear my best shorts and Nike T) and I am pretty much in alignment only a couple of tight hamstrings and quads which he sorted me out for.  I have also booked in for a monthly sports massage just to make sure I stay in shape – as they say prevention is better than cure. My only worry now is raising the required amount; I have a good few different ideas in the pipeline but at the moment I want to allow people to get over Christmas so I am using this time to plot my strategy and get arranging some fundraising events here are some of my ideas;

• Coffee and Cake Morning
• Finish time sweep
• Curry and Quiz night – February 2013
• Sponsor a mile
• Pick my fancy dress costume (keep checking back for my options)

What do you think? 

I promise to keep you updated and for anyone local to Stoke on Trent and wants to come along to the curry and quiz night just let me know via email using the button on the right-hand side.

Better go, take care and look after each other 

Short stock take on 2012

Well the end of the year is upon us and what a year has been!!! I have been doing the usual runner calculations and thinking about my targets for 2013. 

Running totals for 2012

• Race miles 196
• 249 days running
• Miles for year 1815 (I didn't find daily mile until after my running year had started)
• Highest Monthly mileage 190
• Highest weekly mileage 48
• Races 21

Looking back there have been some great memories such as being 1 of 5,000 that took part in the Olympic Park Run in March. Running two 20 mile races; one I loathed and the other I loved, moved clubs to Trentham Running Club and met loads of new friends along the way.  Running the Wild thing in September with the new found friends. 

All of that was in between working full time and going back to college to study HNC in sport and fitness.

I started the year with the number 8 in my mind and I was going to:

• run 8 half marathons - I actually did 9!!
• get 8 PB - over achieved again
• volunteer at 8 parkrun - failed only achieved 3 out of 8 
• loss 8lb and keep it off - failed managed to lose 4lb and keep it off but christmas has not helped 

All in all it has been a good year and a fun year, I am looking forward to 2013 and the new challenges and distances. Take care everyone and have a great New Year’s Eve whatever you are doing