No Train, No Pain

After a very cold last couple of weeks, the weather, and more importantly, the temperature, have slowly started to improve. The sun might even make an appearance soon. Perish the thought. In a few weeks' time, I might even be able to venture out on a run without having to wear gloves and a hat!

So far, the training is going well. I'm having to sacrifice more of my personal time to be able to fit in some of the running. I woke up at 6am on Tuesday morning to go for an eight-mile run. After that, I showered, dressed, and was straight out to work, and seemingly managed to stay on my feet and awake for the whole day. Now I have to find some time this weekend to fit in a 15-20 mile run. Quite frankly, after a hard week slaving away at the office, I could do with a rest at the weekend. At least I can find the motivation to get out of bed and do something, which is more than can be said for my flatmate who struggles to emerge from his pit before 3pm.

It is now just under two months to go until the London Marathon, and also just under 60 days, so the pressure is mounting. For most first-time runners, this is where the hard work really begins; the distances of the long runs get longer and longer. I already experienced this last year and have completed a few long runs over the last few weekends over the last couple of months. What concerns me most of all is that it is almost a year since I injured my achilles tendon and I am desperate not to get myself injured again this year. Each time I go out on a run, I wonder to myself "is this going to be the run where my knees give in and I finally lose the use of my legs?"
The sad fact is that after many weeks of rigorous training, there is every chance that I will end up carrying a slight niggling injury, but it's how I manage that slight injury that makes all the difference. As soon as I feel that something is wrong, I'll stop running and as soon as I feel the slightest of injuries, I'll rest. It's just difficult knowing what to do when a slight injury comes along because you want to rest it so that it gets better, but you also want to train, for fear that going too long without running will impede your progress. So I'll try and come to a good old-fashioned British compromise by not over-exerting myself, but still doing plenty of training. With the Marathon being less than two months away, it feels like it's coming ever closer, but yet still feels like a long way away - plenty of time in which to get myself injured. Sometimes I wish the Marathon could be taking place this weekend so that I can get the bloody thing over and done with. I feel ready enough to do the 26 miles (+ 385 yards) now if it were possible.

The Ice Age Cometh

It is February and it is cold. The big freeze is tightening its grip on the country and here where I am, it is very cold indeed. It is -3°C tonight, and although I only really understand temperature on the Fahrenheit scale, I am reliably informed that -3°C is extremely cold. Not quite as bad as the extreme cold weather they've been getting on the continent, but still very cold.

I was in London at the weekend and did a 15-mile run on Saturday. A few hours later, it started snowing. A few hours after that, we had several inches of snow. It disrupted my journey home from Central London that night. The Central Line on the London Underground was suspended because of the snowy conditions and I had to take a bus home, a journey that took at least two and a half hours. Then, when I got off at the nearest bus stop to me (a mile-and-a-half away from where I live), I approached the taxi office to book a taxi for the rest of the journey home, only to be told that there wouldn't be any taxis available for 90 minutes. Frustrated, I walked home, trudging through the snow. So I'm exceptionally annoyed that my evening was disrupted by the snow. The snow also inconvenienced me on my journey back to Manchester the next day, which seemingly took forever and a day. 

The snow has also hampered my running progress because a similar amount of snow fell up in Manchester too, and it still has not completely melted away. In fact, some parts of the pavement where I live up here are still icy and snow-covered. Even if there were no snow, the sub-zero temperatures alone are enough to discourage me from venturing out for a short run.

After waiting (im)patiently for a few days, I decided to brave the cold and the ice and go for a run after work. I did six-and-a-quarter miles, making sure to watch where I was going, so that I didn't slip on any icy patches on the pavement. Fortunately the conditions weren't as icy as I thought they would be. It was still freezing though, absolutely frostbite and pneumonia-inducing cold. Wearing two layers of clothing while out running made absolutely no difference whatsoever. I cannot wait until the month of March comes along and temperatures begin to rise again. Not too much, mind you. I can't run in sweltering hot weather. I just need a happy medium. Lukewarm temperatures. No rain, no snow, only a modicum of sun.

Writer's Blog

Hello again.

I meant to update sooner but had a few problems with this blog. About this time last week, I tried to visit the blog so that I could write another post, only to find that the entire blog had been deleted because of "unsuitable content." I have absolutely idea what was meant by that because I cannot for the life of me recall uploading anything to the site that wasn't a long ramble about my training activities. I suspect that somebody might have attempted to hack in and upload something pornographic, but I haven't seen any evidence of this. Very strange.

Anyway, to restore my blog to its former glory and get it back on the Interweb again, I had to follow a series of complex procedures and reset my password at least twice. Due to a complete and utter lack of imagination, I was going to choose "penis" as my password, but a message popped up saying "Sorry, your password isn't long enough." So I changed my password to something more suitable, but then just half an hour ago, when I was logging on to the blog, I couldn't remember what it was that I had changed my password to. As a result, I had to go through another elaborate and protracted process to change my password again and regain access to my blog. Now that I have got back into my blog, I've forgotten exactly what it was that I meant to write.

The main topics were along these lines:
1) I have begun touting for sponsorship and have raised nearly £300 now, with a little help from my friends, colleagues, cousins and an uncle. Thank you to everybody who has donated so far. If you would like to sponsor me, you may do so here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/martinpampel 
Any donation will be gratefully accepted, no matter how small.

2) I haven't come up with an idea yet for a fundraising event to supplement the sponsorship forms/online sponsorship page. I have been meaning to organise some sort of quiz night but haven't made any real effort to get this off the ground. Quite frankly, it's hard enough finding the time and energy to run several miles, but I will get round to doing it. I just need some encouragement and a few friends to also give a couple of hours of their time to help me out with it.

3) My training is going very well so far (famous last words!) and I ran twenty miles at the weekend. I am being careful not to overdo the exercise.

4) I think that's it.