Christmas and New Year

Well it was an amazing Christmas with my sister and family, quiet cosy and really pleasant. Training and my health was always on my mind throughout whilst eating everything in sight. New years resoltutions arent really a big thing for me as I am always changing and challenging myself and my discipline. I would like to lose some weight though and I know this is just a case of not eating so much, i am a glutton at the table and there no denying it, put it in front of me and i will eat every last crumb. The craving for something sweet is always there after eating so i must eat a tangerine or something rather than a ferrero rocher!

I will be off to Thailand soon for a holiday and to basically take Nam home, she will be going to help her sister with her new born, then going back to studying hairdressing in time to come back here and hopefully be able to work and get a bit more settled. I will miss her hugely and i am already secretly pretty sad about it as she makes me smile every day. I will be putting in the mileage running which will take my mind off of it.

I would like to apologise here to Kylie (and also to Kevin for being pissed about too) who seems to have got the bad end of a few decisions at the poker lately, i was going to phone her but i think she is right in a lot of ways and really, no matter how much i can or cant explain, it "seems" pretty clear from her end that we let her go with a hidden agenda. A sequence of decisions whilst the club being very quiet in hindsight were a bit "hasty", and whilst having two less staff and Stuart deciding that it was so quiet that he should take the last 4 or 5 weeks holiday owing to him left us crawling back to Kevin asking at the last minute if he could work, and Kylie not getting the chance to fill in where she should of been asked to. Sorry Kylie. If you read this, I/we had no intention pissing any one around, it just turned out like that. I wish you a Happy New Year and great luck in your new job.

I have tried to arrange my running this week around the festivities and not use them as an excuse. I changed my weekend run to Saturday last week instead of Sunday and did a gym treadmill run during the week to get the "sprints" in, i did this in favour of sprinting in the dark in the evenings for fear of 16 stone of clumsyness hitting a tree root or uneven pavement at supersonic speed and damaging the street!

I did a great 8 mile run with Kevin last night, a real nice jog up to and around Harrow in the rain, most of which i dont remember as we were too busy chatting like a couple of old biddys, then a nice bit of chicken and cashew nuts and rice, and a few deserved fosters and some hyper turbos round 19s. Why is running in the rain so relaxing? it really clears the mind. Today im recovering (from the fosters and the run), I started to watch "The Kings Speech" with Nam until I realised she was asleep!

Here is the Harrow run:


Dont forget to donate to fight against lung cancer if you can afford to here Fullers Triple Crown

I am in the process of listing some great new briefcases and faux leather briefcases for 2012 on the website, does anyone still use a briefcase???
Briefcases and Leather Briefcases

Grim, done it and got the Tshirt....literally!!

Poor Natalia, I was like an army sargeant pushing her constantly, she took it well and kept on plugging along, at one point i thought she was gonna tell me to stick it up my ars but she didnt. It was really funny when she did the "Mum, i need a pee" after 5 minutes, a quick shake behind a bush and back she was. Kevin ran off in the 1st 30 seconds as we hung to the left to wave at Nam, despite our agreement to run together.

The photos of Natalia and I on the internet are funny, i am grinning in every photo, sado-masochism i think, as i wasnt enjoying it THAT much!

We completed the run in 1 hr 50 mins, cold, dirty but exhillarated, here is the Garmin details, average heart rate was 144bpm and the max was 170. The total distance was 13.61km.

I pulled one of my quadriceps the week after and then decided to take a week or so off, feels better now. Done a couple of 5 milers this week to get back into it, good for the brain too as i was getting a bit low and lazy.
Next stop, the reading half marathon, please be sure to carry on supporting at:
http://www.justgiving.com/FullersTripleCrown/

Training, THE GRIM CHALLENGE 4th December.

Please follow this blog and keep up with my dilemmas!
We are 16 days to my 1st challenge "The Grim Challenge"
8 miles running, wading and crawling on the army testing ground in Aldershot. Should be fun, i think im about ready after a couple of weeks off with a chest problem. I have just started to split my running up now into different formats, it will hopefully go like this:
Sunday: long run marathon pace
Monday or Tuesday: Easy recovery run
Wednesday or Thursday: Interval running with sprints, jogs and fast walking
Thursday or Friday: Hill running

Given what ive been reading about marathon training, they all suggest these different formats to hit different areas of running health namely, strength, power, stamina, anerobic and aerobic fitness etc (dont quote me on these!)
Please remember to help the fight against lung cancer by donating whatever you can afford here:

Here is my last training session, a few sprints and looking at the heart rate and then it tapering off it seems to hit the spot for the purpose:



And my last Sunday run, up to 13km, there are a few stops, evident from the heart rate as we ran the 1st few miles with the girls who werent quite up to it.



On the whole, i am happy so far and feel i have laid a decent foundation to start some serious mileage after Christmas to aim for the marathon. I still cant honestly imagine running 26 miles, i can imagine most things, being a human, we are built for foresight and to see consequence. I just cant see me running 26 miles, it seems a bit much and a bit optimistic.

Other than running and working at the poker club ive been putting together a new section/category on the website to try and cover the Christmas present dilemmas, what do i buy for £10 that uncle, aunty, friend etc for Christmas?..... Wallets and Purses

8 miles to Watford, hangover cure!!

Played poker Saturday at 19's, (£50 + £50 double chance) came 4th and got money back + beer money! gave out a few fund raising cards at the tables, most of which stayed on the tables and i think the dealers kept thinking they were playing cards waiting for the players to check, raise or fold!

I knew that i was going to run a nice long 8 mile+ run on Sunday morning, and I knew that after mentioning to Nam (my girlfriend) that the poker would finish early and that i was up for "going out", along with the 3 hours after starting the tournament she hadnt yet turned up, i WOULD be going out. 3 hours "getting ready" means that I am obliged to make an effort too to "juggle everything" and get my dancing shoes on.

At 12.30am we went to Watford, parked in the "long term" car park and had a boogie for 3 hours then got a taxi home.

10.30am Sunday morning, after playing "catch up" to get in the dancing zone the night before with bottles of stella for 3 people, and having a "subway" foot long (whilst Nam insisted on McDonalds) I didnt feel the greatest. Dehydrated to the point of thinking my tongue was gonna fall off, i set about standing at the sink drinking as many pints of water as possible whilst waiting for the kettle to boil for my coffee.

8 miles to Watford on Garmin

We set off at 11.30am in a false mood of "lets do this", i told Nam that once we got to the top of Stanmore Hill, she could turn back and comfortably run home and know the way. At the top of Stanmore Hill, she suprised me no end. On we went for the long road to Watford, my motivation to her was that, "its on this road" albeit 5 more miles.

We arrived at Watford after approx 1.5 hours jogging, hit "pret a manger" hard for a joghurt/museli/honey pot, sandwich and a coffee and Nam insited on an apple pie from Maccy d's (all good sugar!)

SUCCESS!!! up to 8 miles on my Sunday run, the hard way.

Youtube video at Coventry GUKPT Poker Tournament, GREAT!!

http://www.justgiving.com/FullersTripleCrown
A bit of promo about the Charity and challenge, its really great that Phil, whos a really nice and always friendly guy did this for me. Some people are just "good" people!



http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com/en/Prizes/LiveEventBlog/

Getting Started.......

12/10/11

Fund Raising:

Started getting organised!! updated the just giving page with a photo, profile, goals and reason etc. Ordered 1500 business cards with challenge details on, including web addresses for challenge sites, blog address and just giving address. The business cards are going to be sent out to all customers of  my website 7bags and my new brands website Roamlite, as well as to customers of Amazon and Ebay. I struck a deal with Lawrence and Stuart to take 50p from all max raked pots at the poker club as donations, this will be matched by the winner of the said pots to make it a £1 donation....great! it will add up i am sure.

Training Plan:

I have downloaded and printed off 4 training schedules for the marathon, most are 16 or 17 weeks so i have a way to go before starting any of these, they all say that I should be up to the 10km mark on a Sunday run to start with. I am very confused as to the type off training i should be undertaking. Some say that i should just build endurance by focusing only on one pace runs of varying lengths 4-5 times a week whilst others say i should incorporate shorter faster runs, hill training and interval training. These all help add strength, increase lactic threshold (?) endurance and basically i think just improve overall capability by getting the body used to a variety of feats. I will need to join a forum to ask a few questions about this.

Weight, Diet, Supplements:

I am currently about 103 kg, just over 16 stone. This is a heavy lump to carry 26.2 miles to say the least. I class myself as pretty fit, i don't quite know the correlation between weight and fitness apart from my Uncle was a short fat bloke who was ultra fit and played squash for a county, and I can currently run 6 miles! My goal with weight would be to get down to about 95kg over the 6 months and keep the muscle that lies somewhere underneath the layer of blubber.

Several small problems with losing weight being that food is my passion, my missus is the best cook in the world cooking Thai food daily, and i am ALWAYS hungry. I haven't worked out the amount of calories burnt that will go into 6 months of a zillion miles a week running but i think it would be impossible not to shed the odd pound. I think as far as alcohol is concerned, i love my beer and feel that after a long Sunday run i deserve a few Fosters in the evening with Kevin and a bit of Poker Stars! I may consider abstaining a couple of months before the marathon to "go the whole hog".

I still have a few tubs of whey protein, I will be making a shake at bedtimes, more to give me the essential amino acids drip fed throughout the night, to promote repair and a hopefully more settled nights sleep. I have bought some Valerian root tablets to also ensure a good sleep to be taken at bedtime and some glucosamine and chondrisomething for my poor knees that are getting bashed up from the million "103kg x gravity x downward force lbs per sq inch x something x something" steps whilst running for 6 months. I am scared of over training as I am moody at the best of times, and from experience of over training before doing weights, i become an aggressive wreck and have found it is a huge negative trigger for a downer with my bipolar disorder. Any overly moodiness will mean stopping immediately for increased recovery time etc.



Here we go again... Fullers Triple Crown Challenge

FULLERS TRIPLE CROWN, THE challenge of my life! is:

The Grim Challenge 3rd December 2011 (run wade and crawl 8  miles off road) http://original.grimchallenge.co.uk/
The Reading Half Marathon 1 April 2012 (13.1 miles) http://www.readinghalfmarathon.com/
THE Virgin London Marathon 2012 22 April 2012 (26.2 miles) http://www.virginlondonmarathon.com/

Hello folks, here we go again! I have hit 40 this year and I feel I am getting more dynamic every year, i dont ever want to stop getting up in the morning feeling that I need to do something more. There really isnt anything i like more than to push, myself especially with a multitude of benefits,  The challenges are getting harder, and the stakes, ever more serious as i test my will power, physical ability and "dedication" (cue Roy Castles "theme tune lol")

I have always been quietly confident in most things, this is very very different, my confidence will ONLY come from building it up from the long hours that I must put into training for this. Training text book style using schedules and guidance from the internet.

I must say that when Roy Castle guaranteed me a place in the London Marathon and I got off the phone, tears came to my eyes, i think with happiness as it was the day after my Mums anniversary of her death to lung cancer. I felt that I had to do it (much like Chief playing poker with an "up and down straight draw (gutshot)), and that I have committed to another time consuming project/challenge that will be life consuming for 6 months. Relying on BiPolar energy works great in a lot of parts of my life, this, there is no cheating. If you dont train for it, you just cannot complete it, simples!

PLEASE donate whatever you can to Roy Castles Lung Cancer Foundation here:
http://www.justgiving.com/FullersTripleCrown

Please follow my blog here as a kind of training diary, along with the ups and downs and brutally honest feelings of how I am getting on with juggling the training with running the websites, working at the poker club and trying to enjoy my greatest hobby, playing poker.

Fullers Triple Crown

Will update soon, had enough for 2nite!