Stomach bug

Without wanting to come across as someone forever making excuses, both my wife and I genuinely got hit by a rather violent stomach bug and it ruled me out of yet another weekend's training. In fact, it took such a swing at me that it caused me to miss my last day at work and cancel my leaving party! Without venturing too heavily into details, it took 3-4 days before you could say you felt better and left us both unhealthily skinnier as a result. Fortunately, we have a week to recover before heading back to work.

I did manage to fit in the following before the bug took over:

• 60 miles cycling
• 0.5 km swimming
• 5 km running
  

Another Sunday missed

No excuses this time, well, only lame ones. Lame in the nature of the excuse, nothing to do with not being able to run either. We went to a wedding out of town on the Saturday and I forgot to pack my running kit, so I decided I'd make the most of it and enjoy the bubbly. One slight consolation is that I exercised for nearly three hours solidly on the wedding disco dance floor!

Missing the Sunday long run aside, I cycled into work three out of a possible four days and sneaked in a couple of mid-week runs and a swim, so I'm not feeling entirely useless. In summary for the week then:

• 60 miles cycling
• 1 km swimming
• 8 km running
• No gym work...again 

The right time to kick into training hasn't presented itself yet. Plenty on in the calendar with weddings, announcements and changing jobs, it suddenly dropping to zero degrees outside (in October!) and then there's our son starting at the childminder's and deciding to come down with every bug possible.

It'll get easier I know, it already is. But I won't be kidding myself, training for London is not going to be straightforward, having to fit it in around looking after a baby and it coinciding with winter. Makes New York's summer training seem idyllic by comparison. But still, I figure that once I have a routine set and my body starts to recognise what it's supposed to be doing, aside from being woken up every 3-4 hours through the night, then the whole process will seem that much easier.

I strongly believe it's all about routine and sticking to it. Writing up what you're going to do, doing it and ticking the box to show you've done it. If you don't do it, write up why to remind yourself. Of course, don't be harsh on yourself either, as with everything, there's a balance to be struck.

Week missed!

It's Monday now and I'm feeling the guilt for not having gone for a single run in the last week. Until this weekend, I'd at least managed to run a long run every Sunday for the past 9 weeks, so I'm a bit gutted to have let it slip.

I did have an excuse, I woke up on Saturday morning with a fluey ache thing and the previous night's intention of doing some interval training amounted to nothing. Why it had to wait until the weekend to make its appearance, I don't know. Still, I managed to hold it together to attend a wedding in the afternoon and evening, an altogether new experience learning to turn down top ups of Moët and wandering and registered a rare alcohol free attendance to an otherwise indulgent and such an occasion.

Sunday was a better day for me, but still had to be kick-started with a lemsip, which doesn't mix well with running, so I made the decision that, this weekend, it wasn't going to happen.

Summary for the week:

• 40 miles cycling
  
• 0.5 hours swimming
  
• 0 miles running
• No resistance training
  

The Mogford

Another week down and another long Sunday run not missed. It was the week of the Asics Run Kingston race on Sunday, where you can either run 8.2 miles or choose the 16 mile double loop option, which is what I did last year, prior to running the NYC marathon. This year, I stuck to the 8.2 miles and I smashed my PB by nearly 5 minutes, despite moderate training of 1-2 runs per week.

I crossed the line in 57:21, although the race results tell another story. In fact, Mr Mogford crossed the line in 57:21 and Mr Moggs finished in 1:08:07. You'll just have to take my word, my watch and my iPod for it that, for that particular race, I was actually Mr Mogford. I don't know what happened, I guess the timing chips got posted out to the wrong people or something.

Anyway, I was pretty chuffed and now just contemplating what that means I have to try and run the marathon in. Of course, that's a different ball game and I'm not getting any delusions about how I'll fair at more than 3 times the distance.

In summary for the week:

• 40 miles cycling
  
• 1 hour swimming
  
• 8.2 miles running
  
• 4 hours shopping!
• No resistance training

Five in a row

I've just completed an 8.5 mile run in the pouring rain, a little taster for what training through winter for a spring marathon is going to be like. Of course, it's totally fine, it does make your step slightly heavier, but it can be quite refreshing too.

Since the Nike 10k race at the end of August, I've completed a run of at least an hour every Sunday, in an effort to build up a good base on which to start my proper marathon training. I've not managed to fit in much in between, but with six months to go, I figured I've still got time.

I had a first attempt at interval style training yesterday, running one lap of the local field, followed by a two minute recovery. I managed the following, loosely based on Yasso 800s:

• 2 x 800m at pace (approx. 3m 15s) followed by 2 minute walking recovery
• 2 x 400m at same pace followed by 1 minute walking recovery

My first goal is not to increase the pace, but to sustain it for longer and do 4 x 800m, rather than having to step down to the 400s. We'll see how that goes and take it from there.

In summary for the week:

• 40 miles cycling
• 1 hour swimming
• 18km running
• 30 min resistance training

A gentle week finishing in Bushy Park again

With the potential marathon still at least seven months away, I'm completely fine with putting in a gentle week, providing I still get the long run in. Ok, so I might have had a couple of beers this week too, but the two things I learnt, or decided to remember, from last year's marathon was not to let training completely take over your life and to build your training up gradually.

I ran 14.5k this morning, at a reasonably brisk pace. I felt a very slight niggle in the shin as I set off, but the pain soon dulled and I settled into an 8 minute mile pace for the 9 mile route. It felt fine, good even. But I'd stop short of thinking I could keep that up for any length of time, i.e. a marathon. Half maybe, but no more.

A bit of an update

It's been a little over five months since my last post and, although I've not stopped running entirely, it has been on the back burner while I've been getting to grips with fatherhood.

That all being sorted now, in so much as I'm coming to terms with life without sleep, I'm donning a new pair of trainers and slowly going to notch up the miles to prepare myself for a potential 26.2 mile jog round London next year. Fingers crossed.

I'm not feeling in bad shape this year. I've not been running much but I've kept up with cycling to work and have recently added a dose of swimming into the mix. And, on the odd occasion I've taken myself out for a little test drive, the outlook is not unpromising. In fact, I've clocked a PB for the 10,000m (in olympic speak) twice consecutively and am now down to 44'08".

So this weekend I decided to kick off my pre-training training, if you like, with a warm up 5k on Saturday and an 13.5km run through Bushy Park and along the river on Sunday. It's good to be back!

Another city. Another marathon.

On 26th April, I will be taking part in the 2009 London Marathon and running on behalf of Children with Leukaemia. Please help me raise money for this very worthy cause.

Inspired by everyone taking part in last year's London Marathon and suitably numb to the more painful memories from the previous year's NYC Marathon, I decided it was time to give it another go.

In April 2008, I approached Children with Leukaemia to ask if I could run for them in the 2009 London Marathon. They raise money for a very worthy cause, and one that is close to our hearts. I was fortunate enough to be offered one of their places back in August and have been keeping my running going since, although training in earnest didn't begin until January this year.

So here we are

Well, we're nearly at the weekend of the race and this is only the second blog entry. Compared with the amount of training I did for the marathon and the number of posts that produced, two entries for this sounds about right.

I dropped a 7 miler on Monday, been cycling to work and had a game of 5-a-side last night which, all in all, has left me stiff as a board! Two days' rest now until the race should see me fine though, so I'm not worried.

I always had 1:05 as a target time in my head. I won't pretend that'll be easy. In October I did nearly double the distance in 2:12 but was probably much fitter, despite the achilles injury I was carrying. I should finish somewhere below 1:10 and if I beat 1:05, I'll be dead chuffed and will donate another £10 to my charity!

At it again!

Not wanting to let Christmas and the winter months undo every ounce of training, I've decided to sign up for a couple of events in 2008 to keep things ticking along.

For now I'm sticking to running, but I've picked myself up a smart little bike so, who knows, perhaps I'll find myself on the starting line for a triathlon one day...

I really appreciate all the support everyone gave KIDS and me for the marathon, both in forms of donations and general encouragement and am hoping there's a little of that left in you to help me raise some money for Leukaemia Research, as I take on the Kingston Breakfast Run in March.

It's only 8.2 miles. I say only, in my pre-marathon days that would have still been a significant achievement but I'm hoping now it shouldn't be too taxing. That said, it does start at 7am on a Sunday morning, the 30th in fact which neatly happens to be our wedding anniversary, the first, arguably the most important, definitely one of those events you really mustn't forget. If I've gone and double booked our wedding anniversary, the very least I can do is to try and raise some funds for a very worthwhile cause.