Ran the Reading 1/2 marathon the other weekend. Thick with snow on the way down the A34 and then upon arrival in Reading it was wet, windy and flipping cold. Lisa was brave enough to stand in the elements and wait for me (she should have been running but wasn't well) and I crossed the finish-line after 1hr 49mins. Not the fastest of times but a pretty decent one.
Last weekend I headed to WMSki for the first time. The last couple of summers I have been wakeboarding at Hardwick Park behind a boat but that lake doesn't open up for another month and closes quite early in tee year, so I thought I'd give cable a go. Hey, it was quite a bit of fun. Bloody cold, again with snow coming down as I drove there but I quite enjoyed it. Didn't hit any of the obstacles but played around for an hour or so. Eventually I had to give up as my grip and fore-arms eventually gave-up.
The problem now is, do I return to Hardwick later in April or buy and pass and go completely cable this year? A cable pass would allow me to get wet as often as I could get to the park (18+ miles away from work and 35+ miles away from home), while Hardwick would at most be a once per week 15min session (15+ miles away from work and 10+miles from home).....what to do?
Boat or cable, I'd love to be even remotely close to this level.
All sorts of bugs flying about at work (some of them very unpleasant and involve the sufferer being unable to leave the smallest room in the house) but so far I seem to have avoided all of them. Still, I can't help but feel that something is lurking in the background.
The sun came out in the week and so I dashed home from work to go for a run. A nice 6-miler but I am very aware that it's only 1/10th of the distance I'll be running in a couple of months. Still, the Reading 1/2 is next weekend and that should be a decent old run.
The run next weekend and then I'm back at the wakeboarding.....Yay. I'm hoping the weather will have improved as we have more snow on the way this weekend and I don't want to be hitting the lake with -2'C temperatures.
The summer holiday to Scotland is starting to look brilliant. OK, we aren't going to get the sunshine and temperatures that I love but there's a wakepark close to where we're staying and the mountainbiking looks brilliant. By the sounds of things, it is sounding as though I might not survive the 2-weeks north of the wall.
I think in prep, I need to hit Afan a few times...
Only a couple of weeks to go until its the Reading 1/2 Marathon. Shouldn't be a problem, so long as I have shaken off the last of this man-cold that I've been suffering from. Popped out for a little 6-mile run earlier and it was like running with cotton-wool in my lungs.
Got to get my arse in gear and book a session at the cable-park. Milton-Keynes is open most weekends now (once the ice has either been cleared or melted) and WMSki opens either this weekend or next. Fingers crossed that the sun actually starts to come out and defrosts the water.
My ankle is feeling a lot better (which is why I decided to go for a run) and I have a hotel booked at the Brighton end for my London to Brighton challenge ( www.justgiving.com/nicksrunning100km ). The manager has upgraded us to a family room as it has a bath and HE has decided that I will need a soak when I arrive in Brighton ---- what a really cool guy (www.avalonbrighton.co.uk).
Think I'll give WMSki a crack next month. My lake (I know it's not my lake) doesn't open until April and Tom is away on his travels, so I'm not going to get any boat time for another couple of months.
Rather than MiltonKeynes cable park, I have only just realized that WMSki is only about 35-miles away ..... I could be there in less than 60-mins.
In other news, my ankle is still a tad swollen and sore. Been laying-off the old training for the last few days in the hope that when I hit the gym tomorrow it'll feel a load better....it just feels weak and I'm a tad freaked that I'll go-over on it again.
On the running-front, the hotel is booked in Brighton for my London to Brighton Challenge. I'd love to get into Brighton in time for a beer but the closer I get to the 100km challenge I get, the more I fear that a pint might not be on the top of my 'to-do' list .... which is why we have booked a hotel in case I am in serious need of a bed.
How bloody ridiculous; it's been ages since I actually surfed and I managed to have developed a decent case of pterygium (in both eyes). The only up-side is the fact that the other name for pterygium is 'surfers eye'. At the moment and hopefully for the future it isn't affecting my actual sight and it's just a case of something a tad annoying.
What is it....
Repeated exposure to UV, glare, wind, dust, seawater, and sand can cause damage to the conjuctiva (a clear mucous membrane on the eyeball’s surface). Over time, these irritants can result in degeneration of the collagen fibres that make up this conjuctival membrane. To make matters worse, yellowish and thicker fibers grow in its place — not exactly attractive. This new membrane (called a “pterygium”) grows from the bottom, nasal corner of the eye in a triangular or winged shape with the long corner pointing toward the cornea. If allowed to progress, the pterygium can warp the surface of the cornea and even block light from entering the eye.
How does it feel...
Dry and itchy eye (yep)
Burning sensation of the eye (yep)
Persistent redness of the eye (a little)
The feeling of a foreign object in the eye (yep)
Eye inflammation (yep)
Bloody tears (hoping I don't get this one)
Blurred or otherwise impaired vision (this would be annoying)
Hey-ho! There's not a lot I can do about it now. Apparently you can have surgery (yuck) but it's likely to reoccur soon afterwards. Think I'll just get Lisa to train me in the correct way of using eye-drops (that's the best & easiest treatment) as I seem to have real issues using the little plastic bottles - apparently dropping the fluid in from about 20cm away from the eye isn't the way to do it (that would explain why I seem to get more on my face than in the eye).
Think I'll go wakeboarding asap to get help cheer me up. In the meantime, check this great little vid out - about Surfers Against Sewerage and what they do & why.
Sometimes it feels as though Lisa and me are the only ones in the UK that love a spot of snow. After a few days of doom and gloom about 'yellow snow' warning (I don't think they're warning us of the same thing I've always been wary of) and then a few red warning, the amount of snow that actually landed was a bit of an anti-climax. Still, it was enough to create chaos and have a bit of a play in.
In other news I'm just about maintaining some sort of training routine for the London to Brighton 100km I'm doing in May. I need to hit the road and get some miles under my feet but the general training is going well. I have the Dursley Dozen in a couple of weeks and by all account that's a gnarly old run - x-coutry and a lot of hills.
Water-wise....I feel as though I'm actually starting to dry-out. It's been months since I've been either in the lake or in the sea. Aaaaaaaagh!
In order to stay sane I've been bouncing around the web as usual to find the best vids online. Cheers to Billabong for this one ...
Received a letter from the Bone Marrow folk earlier in the week and it looks as though I'm not longer required. Hopefully that simply means that they found a donor closer to the Dutch recipient. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed that I can't do something as cool as donate my marrow to someone (& effectively save a life) but on the up-side, I guess I no longer have to worry about a trip to the hospital and a portion of my hip being chiseled out, getting in the way of my 100km run training.
Also, I can now go back to giving blood - I was not allowed while being on the list to help someone.
If you ca, are able to or willing to give it a try, check out BLOOD and give a bit of time to maybe safe a life.
I'm sure it's not just me but where the hell did the end of 2012 go?
Christmas and New Years have been and gone....thank god. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the entire experience. I like the time off but not the enforced celebrating - yes, I'm a Grinch!
Now that it's 2013 I guess I'm going to have to step up my running training. I have managed to get some training in-between the drinking and eating but I just know my next gym session is going to be a painful one. When people question my upcoming 100km run (London to Brighton) they're a little confused about a couple of things - why & will I make it?
Why .... needed a challenge for 2013 and 100km for Hospiscare (yep, I'm also raining sponsorship I'm afraid) for seemed like a good idea.
Will I make it .... yes I will! To be a running entrant I have to complete the 100km in less than 15 hrs. I'm hoping to get it done in about 12hrs. 100km equates to about 5 1/2 marathons and with a short break for fluids/food every 25km I should be able to get it done in my 12hr target. Although saying that, my 1/2 marathon time is usually just between 1hr 45mins & 1hr 50mins, so maintaining that pace for 5 times the distance is going to be the biggest challenge.
In other news, it seems to have been for-ever since I got wet. No wakeboarding since the end of the summer and even though I took my boards down to my mums over Xmas, I didn't get the chance to get to the surf ... I did get to the beach but on the wrong side of the coast & only to walk the dog.
The only thing keeping me sain are my small pile of DVDs and the joys of youtube etc.
My last update was me going on about the little bit of snow we get and the road system collapses. I was actually thinking or rather hoping that with the first sight of snow, we could end up with a white Christmas. Looking at the weather for the next week and it is looking pretty un-festive (weather-wise). According to the Met-Office we could see temperature in the double figures. What's that all about at the end of December?????
One more week at work and then we'll be heading down to Devon for a few days. It's going to be mostly jammed with family stuff but I'm taking the boards down so that I can sneak off to the beach for a bit of cold water surfing.
Talking of boards....just grabbed myself a spot of old-skool skateboard hardware. Oddly, as a kid I didn't have one of these (my mates did) but I instead had something made of a sheet of aluminium. An aluminium deck makes for a very smooth ride but I lost so many chunks from my shins when things went wrong.
The Shaper from Crayfish Films on Vimeo.
As part of my bouncing around the web I came across this classic piece of (modern) surf history. Well worth a watch and I'll let you come to your own conclusion.
I love when England gets the slightest hint of snow and there is complete travel chaos. I say England as Scotland in places gets some proper snow and they manage to deal with it. Here it seems that the further South you go, the less able they are of coping with a mm or so of the white stuff. Woke up this morning to a very light covering of snow (resulted in a low level of excitement) and thankfully my journey into work was pretty event-free but check-out the news and look to the South and 2mm of snow closed airports, schools and roads. Apparently you couldn't pass a lamp-post that didn't have a car wrapped around it. Not a rant or a complaint but rather a simple observation.
Not really related to the snow but the cold weather has made we dream about sunshine, water and surfer. Bouncing around the net I came across this beautiful little movie .... very dreamy, cool and beautifully shot.
Well I'm now past the half-way point of my week off and I can announce that I have done bugger all. No real surf to speak of (so I'm not going to be driving to the coast) and the wind has picked up, so the cable park is far too choppy to be worth getting wet for.
In tech news, the new GoPro3 came out. I could quite happily pass on the gadget but I soooo want the lifestyle depicted in their promo YouTube clips.
Finding everything very distracting at the moment. Off to see the bone marrow folk in the morning for the last batch of blood tests to ensure that I'm still all good and healthy. The blood package arrived over the weekend and it looks as though the guy/girl I'll be helping is a Dutchie.... my bloods will head over to a doc in Amsterdam. This is all very cool.
The running and training isn't going so well though. I'm worried about getting a cold and screwing things up but I need to get to grips with things and hit the gym. I'll run that way tonight.
In slightly more random news, I'm starting to become very aware of the fact that this weekend is going to be the last wakeboarding weekend at the lake until April next year. I'm going to have to start hitting the coast again for surf. Oddly I haven't hit Woolly all that often this year and instead have spent more time at the lake. Although I'm loving this river surfing lark ... trying to think of the closest river that could make trying thins actually a possibility.
Don't forget to check my justgiving page out - click here
Just a quick update to keep you in the loop. As well as deciding to run the equivalent of two and a half marathons in a single day (to raise funds for hospiscare - click here to support me) earlier this week, I have just found out that I am a match for someone who needs a batch of healthy bone marrow. Off to get the final session of blood tests done on Wednesday. Fingers crossed it just confirms the match and then I can get to helping someone out.
Getting my head about the run was distracting me already, so the very cool news that I could help someone with my bone marrow is mind-boggling.
Anyway, need to head over to Hospiscare to collect a training t-shirt and say hi to teh fab folk over there.
OK, I like to push myself from time to time but I think this is going to be my biggest challenge to date. In May next year I'm going to be running from London to Brighton in under 15hrs. That's 2 and a 1/2 full Marathons or 5 1/2 Marathons in one go.
I've been running 1/2 marathons for a few years now (did the Great West Run about 5yrs ago as a challenge) but 13.1 miles is as far as I have ever run - in training I rarely run over 5 miles.
I'm not just doing this as a challenge but also as a way to help out Hospiscare. Hospiscare are the guys and girls who looked after dad through out his years fighting against cancer(s) and then the people who in his last moments of life helped us let him go. They will always have a place in my heart and an organisation I will always have time for.
Bugger, so that'll be the end of the summer then. It's not been the sunniest one but it's definitely had its highlights.
Did the Cotswold Tri this morning, For some reason the weeds freaked me out a tad in the open water swim and it took me a few hundred meters to gain my composure. Still, even taking that faff into account I was pretty pleased with my 1hr 20mins.
Camped over night so I didn't have to rush with the early morning start. My pitch was close to the end of the lake and as a result I have a cracking view of an excellent full (blue) moon (see above).
Another
Spotted this great little film on Vimeo the other day....well worth a viewing.
I think sometimes we underestimate the value of water. I don't mean those stupid prices some people pay for bottles of water that have been packaged and transported half-way across the planet (when there is usually perfectly good water from the tap - I talking about the Western world/UK). What I'm talking about is the economic value of water - whether a lake, waterway, river, pond, canal or ocean, these bodies of water are huge generators of revenue. Globally the surf industry alone is estimated to generate over £13bn ($20bn) per year. You add in the other contributing industries/sports and you get an idea of the financial input water has to give. However, as our demands on water increase, so does the competition for it (use and not consumption). As yet, no one has put an economic value on their water. Maybe it's about time governments did. At lease that way they could then make sound economic judgements and cost/benefit analysis when making policy decisions involving water.
Should you agree, then now is the time to take e-action. Get the UK government to at least notice that water is a valuable economic resource and as such should be treated with the financial respect that other resources are given. Initially the result might be in a all-party discussion but ultimately it would be just amazing if this lead to new legislation being introduced to protect this valuable resource and revenue generator.
This guy hasn't surfed in the ocean for 6yrs now but gets his surfing stoke from North American rivers. I think it's brilliant and another demonstration of how we get our stoke in different ways.
It's summer over here at the moment but looking off the balcony you wouldn't really think so. We had some excellent weather the other week and at one point the lake hit the barmy temperature of 24'C. Wakeboarding and wiping out was actually a pleasure....shame it's dropped into the mid-teens again now.
Well, technically I'm on my summer break now but I'm not getting a lot done. Lisa is getting me involved with the little ones she's nanny for as often as possible. Yesterday morning was a swim and then lunch back here. Today I'm being left alone but tomorrow we're off to Blenheim Palace for a spot of jousting. Obviously we're only watching.
Once this weekend hits, there should be plenty of time to hit the lake, drive to the coast & even try a cable-lake out (think that's Monday). I'm sure we'll even get the mountainbikes out. Not forgetting my Sprint Tri in about 3-weeks. Until then I'll just stay stuck in front of the TV watching the London Olympics .... come on Team GB.
Bouncing around the web this morning I spotted a great video link (via the lovely Finisterre people). Two guys enjoying the water as it should be done....enjoy.
A slight rant....
Almost got into a grump with a friend from work last night. Out for a few beers and she's still a smoker. Apart from them blowing smoke in my direction I have no objection to folk smoking but it's the idea that they think it's ok to drop their butts on the floor. As a vegetarian (her not me) I would have liked to have thought she'd have had more respect for the environment (make no mistake, I'm no hippy but have a healthy respect for the environment). She was neither concerned about the visual impact of the her habit (apparently used cig-butts are too disgusting and she wouldn't want to carry them about) or the longer term pollution - they don't actually degrade but rather break down into smaller particles & then enter the living eco-system. An estimated 1.7 billion pounds of cigarette butts gum up the world's
waterways a year, delivering nicotine, heavy metals, benzene and other
carcinogens, along with plastic fibers. No wonder many ducks and geese
seem cranky. All that nasty stuff in those filters can also enter our
drinking water supplies, where it can be tricky to remove (think of
second-hand pollution). I'm sure I've mentioned this to her a bunch of times now but all she's done is offer her waste to me ... oddly, I wasn't up for that (yet). A couple of times a year I hit the beach with SAS to tidy up other peoples mess and when I'm on the beach on my own I'll regularly pick up the rubbish that folk leave behind. No wonder our coastline & oceans is in such a mess when intelligent people add to the chaos simply because of a simple lifestyle choice.
There are loads of options out there and a few years ago I even got my old dad a personal butt bin from the good guys at SAS. Still, there are other folk that offer a solution - Portable Ashtray Solutions.
Well, we had our 10th wedding anniversary party at the lake. The weather almost conspired against us but I think we got away with it (almost). Most of our friends and family made the journey to come and celebrate with us (thanks guys & girls).
A great time was had by all (even with the slightly damp weather) and the 4hrs of boarding and ringo's went all too quickly. A few folk found a new sport, some reminded themselves how much they enjoy skiing & others realised that being towed by a speedboat really isn't for them. The ringo's were great fun and with a few of the guys being towed, Tom & Chris were really out for blood ....only one of us took a tumble the entire day (congrats on that Tony).
The BBQ was a cracker and much beer & cider was consumed. The only lesser point was trying to organise folk & getting them on the lake on time .... organising adults is hard work - they don't listen :)
A brilliant weekend.
Later in the weekend when most of the guys & girls had gone, Tom took me out in the boat, while Chris showed me how it should be done .
Well, that's pretty much the Jubilee weekend done & dusted. Got to feel for the guys and girls who had their street parties on Sunday. Wow, it didn't half piss-it down ALL day. We popped out for the bun throwing and James May but after 1hr in the torrential rain, even with our full wet-gear we were ready to head back into the dry.
Monday was the day we joined in with the celebrations and after a busy day of wakeboarding and generally making the most of the extra day, we headed to the Park for an evening of big screen entertainment with the masses (well, those masses that had bought tickets). It was actually a bloody good evening, with some great entertainment and a fab position in-front of the enormous TV.
The only down-side to the entire weekend has been waking up this morning with a disproportionate hang-over. I can admit that the box of Italian Pink Pinot Grigio was not a good drink choice.
I think I'm finally shifting the virus that completely knocked me off my feet the week before last but if it wasn't for a little bit of sunshine I caught at the weekend I'd look a complete mess (as it is, I don't look as bad as I can ---- according to Lisa).
Last weekend was a cracker. Didn't have the energy to stay awake much beyond 9pm but a couple of days at the lake were worth the effort.
Off to the lake again later this morning. Still feeling crap and the sun seems to have vanished (rain clouds waiting to hit) but it should be a good session as the winds are pretty light. Lisa is also going to give it another go. She tried the year before last but found her slow progression frustrating.
In slightly related news, I have the Blenheim Tri next weekend. I haven't trained in 2-weeks due to having that bloody virus. I fear next weekend is going to be a painful one. I'm not even sure I remember how to swim!
One video that has been making its way around the net is....
A short film from the locals POV in Croyde, Woolly etc (well done Guardian).
