'Twas New Year's Eve And All Round The House...

It has been a little while since I last put fingers to keys and in the intervening much has indeed happened: we have made merry with the Christmas Bacchanalia and I have spent 14 hours, 3 minutes and 26 seconds running 97.5 miles to name just two, but as presaged by Alison, this week I will be mostly talking about the Brooks Serpentine New Year's Day 10k.

I entered the race back in October when I had finalised my training as it fell nicely at the end of my 10k plan and while Alison had already run her mid-way training race of truth just before Christmas, she saw an opportunity to take part in the craic and maybe set a new PB for the distance and that is why on New Year's Eve we were in bed just after 10pm.

We awoke bright-eyed and eager for the off on the stroke of midnight when Kent and London spontaneously performed a reenactment of Desert Storm. Lulled back to sleep by the shelling, gunfire and to the strains of avant-garde, abusive street theatre, I passed the time by imagining I was actually happily watching Jools Holland with a glass of fizz.

The race itself was, as the name suggests, run around Hyde Park and arriving with an hour to spare I was surprised how nervous I was feeling. We have both run a number of 10ks over the years and I am usually just excited - and also cold - but now there was a looming presence of expectation perched hawkishly over my peace of mind. The previous 3 months had been the most concerted training programme I had ever done and all the effort was about to be put to the test.

For the record, our previous bests for 10k were both set at the 26.2 Road Club's Valentines 10k held in Chessington every February and they were: Iain 53:42 set in 2007 and Alison 58:43 in 2012.

The park was very fresh and the hand dryers in the cafe by the Serpentine were being heavily used by the 500 runners who had gathered to see in the new year with their feet. As we queued at the start, the main distraction was Winter Wonderland which in my memory consisted of a Ferris wheel and three sorry-looking sheds covered in cotton wool but which now appears to cover 40 acres of mud with an enormous cash-cow collection of tenuous 'Festive' attractions and a talking tree. 

The course was reasonably flat (Alison thought it was hilly), there was a nice mix of competitors and as the race organisers had banned headphones, the entertainment was provided by hordes of tourists alternating between asking the marshalls what was going on and getting in the way.

I had planned the run at 8:19 min/miles and as is customary, despite experience telling me otherwise, I started too fast but as it was a 10k, you can sometimes get away with it and this was thankfully one of those occasions.
The Results:

Alison	56:25
Iain	48:46

So, Personal Bests all round, festive hi fives and here is Alison on the run in to the finish proving she clearly did not run fast enough as she is still smiling.

The down side of these results is that we had to recalculate our training paces for the next 16 weeks off the back of them and mine are just insane! 
More on that to follow.
Until next time, stay off the pies and please, everyone spend a minute doing this;
Iain

Lessons

Lesson #1

Big hill = shredded thighs

The huge green hump in the chart above was the middle section of my long run on Sunday and is Priest Hill joining Old Windsor and Englefield Green in Surrey. I felt I had no choice as returning the way I'd come meant a cross-country swamp dodge due to the effects of the flooded Thames and that wasn't much fun either. It really is incredible how doing something you're not used to despite all the fitness training, in this case running up steep hills, can have unexpected after-effects and as such I couldn't walk comfortably let alone do my swim yesterday. Lesson learned - hill running remains for loonies (and Iain) and London Marathon long-distance training MUST be flat.

Lesson #2

Artificial fabric running top = room-emptying stench

When Iain started shutting my Nike long-sleeved running top in the bathroom to dry alone I knew I couldn't wait for it to wear out before I replaced it so I am now the owner of two Smartwool Light long-sleeved tops. I wore one out on Sunday and can say that it's certainly warm and absorbent (see soggy post-run picture below), didn't chafe and doesn't smell bad so far. Merino wool has myriad benefits in a garment in addition to being environmentally sustainable so it gets the thumbs up from me.

A final thought and reference to my last post about doing our best to avoid Type 2 diabetes is that most things are ok in moderation so long as there's a balance:

13 Mile Run (approx. 1400 calories burned) = Alison Gets to Eat a Pile of Cake

Yum :) and thanks to everyone who told me on Sunday at the aforementioned cake-eating extravaganza at Great Fosters in celebration of Francesca's (Mark of TEAM!'s partner) imminent child-birthingness they've been reading our blog over the last few months. It's great to feel supported. x

Running For A Reason

Happy New Year Everyone!

At the time of my last post, I was finishing the first 50% of my training plan which culminated in a race-pace Half Marathon on the 23rd December. The following week provided a break which allowed the seasonal consumption of large amounts of protein, sugar and a bit of alcohol - I wasn't expecting this time off and I think I must have miscalculated my weeks somewhere - so that worked out quite well then! Today, stage two has begun with a 10K race in Hyde Park on which Iain will report shortly.


Half our time off over Christmas was spent cooking, eating and washing-up and in the other half we attempted the ambitious challenge of sorting out our spare room once and for all. We really know how to enjoy ourselves!
A chunk of the sorting was through things that came from Emily's flat and amongst them I found something so relevant that it needs to be shared.

In 2005, Emily applied and was given a Golden Bond place for Diabetes UK. Sadly she had to turn it down a few months later as she struggled to keep control of her condition under the demands of the training. 
Members of TEAM! will be familiar with the application form, and what follows is from Emily's own application to run from 7 years ago.

Why do you want to support Diabetes UK?
"Finding out that I had Type 1 Diabetes came as a big shock and my desire to run the London Marathon for Diabetes UK stems from a desire to turn diabetes into something positive for me. I want to prove to myself that having diabetes will not change my outlook on life. I am a positive, motivated and hardworking individual who loves to set challenges."

How will you fundraise?
"My idea of fundraising incorporates both raising money for Diabetes UK and raising awareness of Diabetes among those who choose to sponsor me. Therefore in asking people for sponsorship I want to highlight and educate them on current debates surrounding diabetes. A recent article in The Times suggested that 'one in ten Britons can expect to suffer from diabetes by 2010'. As a diabetic I feel that I have a duty to highlight medical concerns arising from high levels of obesity currently dominating headlines in this country. My aim would be to offer sponsors information compiled around a healthy lifestyle of diet and exercise. I want to highlight the consequences of poor diet and minimal exercise and offer alternative ways of living to ensure the individual strives to stay healthy. Alongside this I want to propel forward the active research into Type 1 diabetes that will have a positive effect on myself in the future. My fundraising message will be one of education and awareness. To do this I will present each sponsor with a fact sheet of information that encourages them to become more informed. This along with my sponsorship information I would send to all my friends and family and encourage them to pass it amongst their peers and colleagues. I would also advertise my marathon mission in the local shops and newspapers and wear a Diabetes UK t-shirt during my training to encourage people to enquire about my challenge thus promoting the cause and mission ahead."

Emily continued to apply through the marathon ballot and finally got a place to run in 2012 which she deferred to 2013. 

Aside from being a terrifically poignant reminder of my loss, here in her own words, Emily is telling us how she felt about diabetes. 
Emily had no choice in developing the condition and she knew very well how serious and impactful being a diabetic was. When she saw so many people taking their good health for granted; making and pursuing highly unhealthy lifestyle choices which dramatically increased their own likelihood of developing the condition, it caused her a great deal of sadness, disbelief and real anger that people could actively choose to increase their own risk of developing it.  
As all of TEAM! are helping to run Emily's marathon for her, here is the essence of her message from 2005 brought to you as I hope she would be pleased with:

Whilst we will all have been consuming a little too much over Christmas, and probably making the same old new year resolutions to lose weight, get fitter and eat more healthily perhaps we all ought to start keeping those promises. 
Diabetes as we have discovered is not a benign condition which can be swept under the carpet and the likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes is heavily influenced by your lifestyle choices 
It's serious shit: don't bring it on yourself.
Alison (and Emily)