the second weigh-in

so, my training story for this week is very simple (choose your language) xejn/nothing/nada/niet/neinte/rien and whatever other word or phrase may come to mind connected therewith ('sod all' is one that comes to mind).

the reasons? one hell of a working week and a weekend away from the house

you can imagine that my expectations for the weigh in weren't at all high - i was just hoping and praying that I hadn't put any weight on - so stepping onto the scales I was very pleasantly surprised to find out I'd lost a full kilogram this week (2 pounds plus change) - 1kg down, 9-10 to go!!

hopefully next week the result will be even better

General descriptions and the 5th March Weigh-in

As you may or may not know, endurance events are not particularly designed for short, heavy-set ppl but rather, usually, tall, rangy, relatively skinny ppl without too much muscle bulk.

The fact that I'm 5 foot 7 (that's approximately 1.7m for you metric ppl) and weigh 90kg (that's 198lbs) isn't therefore particularly conducive to endurance events. Add to the fact that my knees are made of rubber, my ankles are not particularly flexible and I'm flat footed and you have the perfect endurance tri-fecta ... the answer I get when specialists ask me what sport I've taken up and what are my goals is usually "really? that may not be the best of ideas!" My response to them? "Well, that's the way it is, let's see if we can do something to make it more comfortable"

My body is adapting, slowly, with much grumpiness and fighting (in the form of injuries that plead with me to stop training), but I'm getting there.

The weight is obviously another factor, and something I am going to have to be careful about and monitor closely as part of my training regime. I must admit that this will bring out my ill-discipline to the nth degree. I'm not good at dieting, or watching what I eat (except as I scoff it down) so weight loss is no easy matter.

I will therefore be aiming to post (either on a Friday or on a Saturday) the results of my Friday morning weigh-in. The aim being that publicly announcing it to the few people reading this blog might shame me into doing something more about things.

So here we go, yesterday - 5 days after the half-marathon and a 5 day trip to Malta in which I carbo-loaded, generally ate like a pig and then failed to exercise until today (my knees and feet were recovering) my results are:

5.03.10 - Weight:90.0kg (198lbs)

I have a body fat measurer thingy on my scales which I do not know how to use yet. I will endeavour to learn and will post those results also.

My aim?

To be under 80kg by 25th July 2010 - that's under 176lbs.

10kgs/22lbs to go - let this facet of the journey begin

Malta Half Marathon 2010 - 28.2.2010

This was meant to be one of my two 'A' races for 2010 and the lead-up to it was less than positive. Since the first week of November I have had a total of 4 injury, illness or pain free weeks for training. In the meantime I've been plagued by injuries to both feet, the shoulder, various illnesses and when the injuries decided to absent themselves, foul weather - including snow, lots and lots of snow.

So I rocked up to Malta on Thursday with very few long runs under my belt - one 16km run (which happened exactly 1 week before the race), two 12-13km runs, two 10km races and a few more 5-10km runs in between, and from all I'd been reading that wasn't really enough to prepare for my first half marathon.

The weather in Malta was absolutely glorious - mid twenties (celsius - IN FEBRUARY!!) sunny and some wind. It wasn't exactly the weather I'd been training in - temperature hasn't gone into double digits in a long while here and I've been training outside. IN order to get used to it, I made sure I went out for a couple of runs (a 5.5k run on Thursday and a shorter 3.5k run on Saturday).

Choosing to have an early night on Saturday night (and an alcohol free few days in Malta) I set the alarm for 6:30 to have time to fuel up and get to the start line well in time (the race was due to start at 10am).

I tossed and turned for a number of hours before finally settling down and sleeping - and sleep I did, so soundly that I totally missed my 6:30am wake-up and woke up at 8:05 instead. Panicked to high heaven I had two slices of toast with strawberry jam and got dressed. Headed to my parents' house and hitched a lift to the start line.

At the start line I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a number of friends/acquaintances were actually racing also. One in particular, Nicky, chose to run with me - to be honest I was a bit concerned as he is obviously fitter than me - and the company was welcome.

We started at the back of the pack, running at my pace (not Nicky's) through Rabat and down to Mtarfa and Ta Qali. The going was fairly smooth and though we started at the back we were overtaking people relatively regularly. At around 9k Nicky chose to up the pace and head off ahead - I was on my own but going at a steady comfortable pace that I knew I could keep. The first real inclines wouldn't hit until about 12k into the race so I was very concerned about not blowing up before the hills hit. Just after Nicky headed off I ran past my parents and my wife, waving and taking pictures just past the Corinthia Attard lights on the Mriehel bypass.

It was really nice to see friendly waving faces at that point. The Half Marathon closes a number of main arteries (which the runners need to cross) and many of the drivers stuck in that traffic were not appreciative (in the least) - I got sworn at, and told to "go run somewhere else". It was funny, and oh so typical ... but mostly funny, Nicky and I had a good laugh.

The inclines hit at about 11.5k and I was very pleased that although I slowed down a little bit, I didn't stop to walk. Refuelling regularly (with gels and water/powerade) I kept going The hurt was increasing, the heart rate drifting but I was still going. With 5k to go the last incline was over, one 200m downhill and 5k of flat to the finish. The heat was sapping, the sponges really helped and I must admit I chucked more water over my head than I actually drank but it all really did help. I ran out of gas with 1 mile to go. I tried to up the pace to keep up with two people who had just overtaken me but had no more left to give. I kept pace but couldn't up it.

In the last 100m I had a decision to make ... sprint to the line and cut maybe 5-10 seconds or coast in and smile when crossing the finish line. I went for option 2, coasted in, smiled for the finish line photo and picked up my medal.

Loved it ... every minute of it, the pain included. Would I do it again? At the drop of a hat ... will I do it again?? Most definitely!!

I'd recommend this event to anyone -
my time? 2:15:57 Official Time, 2:15:10 Real Time ... what's the difference? I don't get it ... so I choose to go for the 2:15:10 - my Half Marathon Personal Best

I'm hurting now - the legs are really really heavy - but it'll pass - and the training will start again for the next event. More soon.

New Beginnings

As you can see I have been incredibly remiss in updating my blog - yes I know, shame on me and all that.

In view of my blogging inactivity I have decided to alter the format somewhat ... I will be updating the blog less regularly than I used to. I'll post some training logs, weight tracking, some other musings, thoughts or messages, and I wanna post, above all, race reports ... the first one will come soon.

In the meantime, training has been a bit of a nightmare. A combination of weather, sickness and freak injuries has seen me training much less than I would have wished or hoped for so I find myself, at this stage in the 'season' or rather pre-season - still under prepared, and in need of a lot of work.

Feel free to keep me company as I get as much of that work done as possible.

Withdrawal Symptoms and Project Halves

My 2009 season is over and I'm getting some serious withdrawal symptoms. My coach has ordered 2 weeks no training, so obviously because I can't do it, I'm thinking about it all the more and finding it really odd that i'm not 'allowed' to do anything. Coach's reasoning is correct though. I've put my body through an awful lot these last 6 months and so I need a bit of rest and recovery before it begins again. And it will indeed begin again.

I had blogged a while back that my target for 2010 was training for and completing an Olympic Distance triathlon (ideally London). BUT the plan has now changed and I've become a bit more ambitious.

I have 2 'A' race plans/ambitions for next year ...

1. the Malta Half Marathon (February 28, 2010); and

2. the Antwerp Half Ironman (August 1, 2010).

The aim is to finish both ... I haven't got a time in mind for either but crossing the line in both would be absolutely incredible.

Training starts on September 13 ... the fun and games will start soon!