My first 17 miles

Yesterday we ran 17 miles.

It is almost impossible to believe this as I year ago I completed my first 10km run and then had to spend three days on the sofa recovering. Of course I felt a little sore yesterday and a little hungry but overall I was fine.

Running 17 miles is as much about the mind as the body and an important mind-set is critical. Yesterday I was tired, had a headache from work related stress and was in a bad mood but my mind was focused on the run and getting the job done. I ditched my watch, loaded up with gels and told myself: this is your time, make the most of it.

At ten miles I was feeling relatively fresh and content. I had really zoned out and was not thinking of anything special. I let my feet move in their natural rhythm, let me breathing calm down to something sensible and just enjoyed the run. At fifteen miles I was a little hungry but when we completed the magical seventeen miles it seemed that the run was over all too soon and that I still had some miles in the legs (which surprised me as Trevor had beasted me the day before with circuit training).

I am realistic to know that there are many more runs to do and challenges ahead but as we go into this week’s rest day I am feeling slightly more confident.

21st December 2011

A lot has happened since my last blog. It's an interesting time of year with everyone trying to get ready for Christmas, party's everywhere and training sessions being missed, it's all part of the Christmas routine........

For Philip & I no such luxuries training has to be the priority and therefore will not be missed. So with that in mind, since my last entry on the 14th, we have completed a 15 mile run (Philip's best by far, mindset was right and everything went to plan). This was followed by an
hours worth of cross training the next day, then a rest day with a short run on sunday.

Then this week so far we have run 8 miles on Monday, 1.5 hrs of circuit training Tuesday and about to go out on a 17 mile run ( Philip's furthest distance, without driving)

I will report back on how it goes..

I have already done 4 miles today with another client.

Then a relaxing cross training session tomorrow and then I'm away for Christmas and New Year, family duties, but no rest. Trainers and Kettlebells will be put in the car, hopefully to get some cold weather training ( especially as I'm in Slovakia)Philip has his own detailed daily routine to follow so no excuses for the intensity to drop off.

When I get back in January it is all very imminent, 8 weeks to go......

I still question "how did I get roped into this challenge"

Till next time

Trevor

Philip's Update

Training is now becoming very serious.

My life now consists of nothing more than training and trying to spend time with my family.

Since I returned from the US, last week, I have run

2 x 7 miles
1 x 4 miles
1 x 14 miles

And am about to leave for my first 15 mile run in a few hours.

Trevor still has worries about my fitness, mainly as after 13 miles I seem to struggle and is really pushing me. I have worries about the mental toughness needed to grind out the miles and this is leading me to hit the books on mental toughness, preparation and such things.

I am sure that I will be ok as each run is stronger and I feel fitter. The mind is slowly being dragged by the body now which is really the reverse of what we need. However, I feel that come next week when I have 17 miles under my belt I will be there mentally and ready to rock. Today, to see if it helps, I am going to listen to music all the way around.

My desk at home now resembles a war-room. There are notes on gels and when to use them, bits of paper with companies I need to contact for sponsorship scribbled on, a chart of the weather in Siberia and any number of inspirational quotes.

The next 12 weeks are going to change my life and by the time we get on the plane to Russia I will be fitter, stronger and more determined than I have ever been. I just hope that this is enough.

14th December 2011

14th December 2011

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks since my last entry, but life has been busy.

Philip is back from the USA now and training has stepped up in intensity. I have written a 7 day week training program for him right up to the Marathon ( which really is not that far away)

On his return Philip had to hit the ground running, which meant a 1 hr circuit training session, then rest day followed by 7 mile run then 14 miles the next day. He is coping well at the moment, but longer and harder days await..

The weather has been kind in training so far but colder and wetter weather is on its way..

Will keep you up to date on training

In training
Trevor

Philip's Update

Whilst Trevor is pushing the boundaries of good taste I am contemplating joining a Tai-Chi class.

A few days ago, on another continent, I did a nice solid nine mile run. My run took me through some of the richer parts of New York and then into some of the less rich parts (where I certainly picked up the speed). It was a nice soothing run and the weather was beautiful. I only planned to do eight miles but ended up doing more as I got slightly lost. It did, however, give me a good opportunity to clear my head, and work off some of the Thanks Giving turkey.

Today, in a very barmy part of Asia, I was out for gentle run as the sun began to rise (jet lag is a terrible thing….). I did not try to push it, just let the feet work and the mind unwind. It was warm and calm and serene – everything Siberia probably will be (with the exception, that is, of the temperature).

As I came back towards the hotel I stopped to watch a Tai-Chi class in the park. There must have been about 30 elderly people going through some of the most fluid and serene motions I have seen for a long time. It was beautiful to watch and looked like a lot of fun. I wonder if I can ask them to join in tomorrow morning?

Trevor's Update

A week has passed since my last entry. A lot has happened since then, training has resumed and I feel much better for it. Head is in the right place now.

On Saturday just gone I took part in a charity Zumba class in aid of our charity, as you can see from the picture I took it very seriously, the things I will do to help raise money for the charity.

The class was very good and my thanks go to Sue who put the class on.

We will be looking to do another one in January as well, although I’m not sure of what I’ll have to wear to that one……

My mind has turned to more training now with Philip, who will be back in a weeks time. Training will be upped in intensity with a mixture of running and cross training, and some long circuit training session, I need to be able to push Phil to his limits and then beyond.

This marathon will be extremely tough on the mind and body so the next couple of months will be tough but fun as well

Regards
Trevor

Thanks Giving Turkey Trot

I really don’t understand Thanks Giving.

There seems to be a lot of hype and build up, not least, or so it seemed as I passed through The Twin Cities, the moss mobilisation of about ninety per cent of the population with multiple suitcases. However, the day itself, seemed to be a lot of sitting around watching James Bond films and waiting for the turkey to cook. Clearly, I need to investigate this further as I am obviously missing something.

However, I did learn an important lesson on Thanks Giving…that of humility.

I registered for the local Turkey Trot which was occurring for the 34th consecutive year. Though billed as a ‘run for fun’ (as American’s don’t get the concept of a Fun Run) it still looked like an interesting proposition. Six-thousand runners, a flat five mile course and a great opportunity to gently poke some fun at the locals. The distance was a little strange being not quite a 10km and not really a long run. I was too long for speed work and too short for slowness. So as I lined up on the starting line I had no real game plan other than to get the job jobbed and head back from turkey.

Being halfway towards the back I missed the singing of the National Anthem and the opening bars of Chariots of Fire but as soon as the gun fired I was off muscling my way through the crowds. It took some judicious use of shoulders and elbows to get away from the main pack and find some space and within about a quarter of a mile I had picked up some pace and was feeling good. The weather was perfect, the sky was blue and there was a lovely vibe about the race.

My first mile was really quick (7min 52) and I was feeling really great when three old ladies ran past me discussing how best to cook mash potatoes with marshmallows. I shook my head, checked my pace which was still sub 8 min miles and watched them zoom off into the distance.

After that I was really furious and pushed myself. Racing over 5 miles is very challenging for me as I had no idea of pace and so I just went for it. The first four miles were ok but the last mile was really beginning to hurt. I pushed myself as hard as I could and crossed the finishing line on 41mins 16 seconds, which I was mightily proud of.

Whilst I tried to catch my breath (and not throw up), my wife wandered over and asked how things went.

‘Oh, it was a great run,’ I told her through gulps of air, ‘I was like a lean, mean, English running machine…totally kick Johnny Foreigner’s butt out there today…’

‘Really?’ she replied, ‘then how come that guy pushing his baby stroller came in about three minutes ahead of you?’

Which kind of took the fun out of the day.

But I did get a nice t-shirt….so it wasn’t all bad…I think.

Training in the USA

My ice run was cancelled today when I realised that my hotel was on the edge of a highway and that running would have put my life at risk. The lake that I planned to run around had bizarrely vanished and been replaced with a Wallmart.

Instead I asked the hotel to find me a gym and after a few phone calls I had the keys to a local sweat-box that I could use whenever I wanted.
It took me a few attempts to drive there (and I apologise to the very pissed off truck driver for almost running him off the road) but once there I was pleased to see that there were quite a few people working out.

After warming up I loaded up the bar for squats and did my first warm-up set. As I put the bar down and took a deep, happy breath a young guy wandered over and tried to engage me in conversation…however, I don’t speak Middle America and he soon left me, clearly thinking that I was some kind of retard. Later, when I was doing front squats a young girl came over to ask about the exercise (or at least that is what I think she asked as I could not understand a word she was saying). She too soon wandered off and went to confer with the original guy. There was lots of shaking of heads and shrugging of shoulders which clearly led me to conclude that they considered me a dullard that didn’t even speak English.

Later on, after a most pleasing workout, I went to a local bar for dinner. This again was less than successful and it was only by employing a man from Kansas that I was able to order dinner and avoid expiring from hunger. Middle America, it seems, is not my cup of tea.

Trevor's Update

Even Personal Trainers Struggle (Sometimes)

An insight of how Personal Trainers struggle as well, the last 3 weeks have been tough for me personally. I spend all my days motivating clients and classes, making sure they eat correctly, train in the right manner and that they are mentally strong for their challenge.

This is a job I would not switch for anything, I love being able to help and share my knowledge, and to see client achieve their goals.

Occasionally the demons hit us Personal Trainers and this is what has happened to me the last 3 weeks, my training has been poor by standards, the odd session here and there. I have lost the mojo, I have forgotten that to keep my fitness is as important as anything else.

My focus went towards the 16hr UltraRow that Phil & I completed, an amazing distance was covered of 174K and then I need to recover afterwards as well, then I picked up a niggling cold, not bad enough not to work but annoying enough to stop my training, on top of all this I have been decorating at home and that became a focus and not my training.

As any of my clients know you need a kick up the backside occasionally and I got mine yesterday, I had my body measurements done, 4 cms off my chest, 1.5cms off my arms (BUGGER NOT GOOD)

Or words to that effect were uttered.

My mind is now switched on and the training back in gear as of today, 5 weeks to regain those losses.

Three and a Half months to the Baikal Ice Marathon, I need to be in the best possible shape I possibly can be and I need to get Phil in the best possible shape that he has ever been in……

Trevor

Run America

Training is now taking place on the other side of the pond…

Today, I was up reasonably early and running around Long Island. It was a beautiful, late autumn day (or fall as the locals like to say…) and I went out to stretch my legs a little bit. Not being overly familiar with the area I kept the distance reasonably short and worked on the pace. It was, all things being equal, a lovely way to start a Sunday and added another 5 miles to the total.

Later, feeling overly virtuous, I went shopping and bought three new pairs of running shoes. The slightly weakened dollar and some cheekiness on my part made the prices very attractive and I ended up paying the same price for three new pairs of shoes as I did for the last ones I bought in England – which did make me wonder why more Americans aren’t out there pounding the streets on a regular basis.

Tomorrow, I have the first ice run planned and then it’s back to New York for a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, which at least will give me some kind of bragging rights.

Post Ultra Row

We completed our Ultrarow yesterday…

Firstly, we need to say thank you to the everyone who supported us, Clare and Kerri from Iain Rennie, Richard from the Fitness company, the local press and radio who covered the event, everyone who came by to say hello and encourage us and, most of all, our wifes – Jana and Katie, who suffer on a daily basis with our training.

The row itself was a fun, if somewhat demanding, day. I soon realised that the best way to deal with it was to go to my happy place and zone out. I sang songs to myself, tried to recall poems I had read and made mental list of things I need to do in the coming few weeks. The kilometres soon zipped by.

The day was broken down by small milestones – Ali bought us some jelly babies, I had a long hot shower, we ate some cake and we watched the daily ebb and flow in the gym.
When I finally got home, I had a long hot bath and then cuddled my son on the sofa. We both woke up around 2am and I had to wake my wife up to take him upstairs as I was so sore.

Today, my arms are a little sore and I am tired but I am ready for training again on Thursday

The next day

Day After the 16hr UltraRow.

Feeling very tired today, woke up ok but am going down hill very quick, packet of chocolate biscuits have not helped and I now feel worst than I did.

Back to the row, we did amazingly well with a total distance of 174.2k, which between the two of us s a very good effort.

Philip did amazingly well and was very consistent throughout, I was fine until about 21/2 hrs to go, when my right knee decided that enough was enough. This made rowing very difficult for me, in the end I put my right leg on a medicine ball to the side so that I could keep it straight but still go backwards and forwards, this helped and I was able to continue,
although stopping was never a question.

I have not added up the amount raised yet but would like to say thank you to everyone who had a guess on the sweep stake board, this money will make a Hugh difference for Iain Rennie Hospice.

Now to look forward to a double Zumba class on 26th November, lots of training for the marathon and then the marathon

Trevor

Trevor says..

Nearly 7 hours in and now questioning why 16hr? Legs are getting heavy, calfskin are getting tight and as for my bum!!!!!!

But it's all for a great cause and will make many lives that little bit better during very tough times and that is what drives us on..
We have done amazingly well, at the moment up to 77,000m so not bad and still 9 hrs to go, although the pace will slow.

Two Hours in

Two hours into the row and it is beginning to hurt.

We are both beginning to zone out a little and just go with the flow. The distance is stacking up impressively and are amused by the number of people who have come into the gym to work out and more or less ignored us (hello, folks, we are wearing red t-shirts and are in the middle of the gym…)
I am using the time to think about the big issues, such as what I can eat next, why my bum has gone numb and how many people we can bully into giving us money….whilst Trevor seems to be currently in a very happy place….and I can barely imagine what he is thinking about (probably getting me to do some burpees in the rest periods….)

Its fourteen hours to go some please come down and support us.

5th November

The next run.

After Philip s 14 miler last week, back to a more comfortable distance this
week, 8 miles, only because we have a 16 hour Ultra row on Monday in aid of our charity Iain Rennie Grove House Hospice Care, so certainly worth a shorter run.

We started off nice and steady and held this pace most of the time. Philip has taken notice of my moaning about running single file on country roads and stayed where he should be, a lot less dangerous.

The weather was kind, no wind and no rain this combination makes for
happy running.. Well certainly in my book, although I know the bad weather will come, then it's grit your teeth time and get on with it..

Back to today's run, everything is good and I managed to push Philip to a quick last mile of 8.08 which was very good..

Looking forward to the row on Monday and then next weeks run.....
Trevor

Running Shoes

I have just had an email from a supplier of running shoes to the British Army…

When I explained what we were doing in Siberia the response was, ‘oh, that sounds tough…and we don’t think many people would undertake this….,’ which worried me a little as if a supplier to the British Army thinks that we are nuts it is probably time to check wills and life insurance policies.

However, they have made us a very kind and generous offer for shoes which we will be taking up and it is nice to think that the technology that has been field tested by our troops around the world will get put through its paces in Siberia.

Curl like a girl

Another tough day…

Combining a 6 mile run with a chest and biceps work-out was never going to be a good idea but I just about survived and am already planning a ten-mile run for Saturday.

The run was particularly unpleasant. However, I did manage to do a very quick 6 miles (52 mins 22 seconds) and was then somewhat deflated by Trevor’s inability to comprehend that this was the second fastest I had ever run this distance. A long and complex discussion took place about the validity of claiming a PB against a 10km race….but which time I had the bar loaded up and was trying to bench press successfully.

I worked through the chest workout with gritted teeth and then threw myself into the bicep part of the workout. I hate biceps. Mine don’t seem to work and I curl like a girl. There is no slow build up of burn when I train biceps and it goes from ‘this is ok,’ to ‘oh, my god, I am gonna cry, this hurts so much,’ in a few reps. I have christened this day’s training as Not Leg Day. However, I made it to the end of the session ok and was soon back at home, sitting on the kitchen floor feeling like I had just had nine bells kicked out of me. It took me about an hour to take off my t-shirt but after some food and some water I was soon back to feeling just moderately sore and unhappy.

An inspiring yoga session today…

After yesterday’s little trot I was surprised that I could walk today and more than surprised that I had a fantastic yoga session.

I find Reas’ philosophy creeping into my life and found myself telling someone last week, ‘you have all you need for success…’ and then realising that this was a direct quote from the sweaty, tough workouts that make Sunday morning so much fun.

Today was a really basic, very tough, intense Astanga session. There was enough room in the class to spread out a little but still enough people to really get that unique vibe flowing (and the floors and walls soon dripping with sweat…). It took me some time to warm up and ease out the kinks but now I have mastered the concept of expecting nothing from the session and letting the breath lead I am opening up new realms of pain and suffering (or to paraphrase Murakami, ‘pain is inevitable…suffering is optional…’).

I am now ready for the training to begin, again, at 6am tomorrow.

Today's Run

A massive jump up in distance this week, due to Philip being away four weekends before Christmas and also as we are doing an Ultrarow on the 7th November, 16 hours on a rower...

Anyway back to today's run, the aim was 15 miles, in the end we did 14.3, further than Philip has ever run. Having deposited water around the course off we set, steady and comfortable, except that Philip can't run in a straight line and kept wanting my space......
.
Everything was going really well until we hit mile 13 then Philip hit the wall, but determination and guts he finished the last bit, I take my hat off for that.

This was a big jump up in distance and Philip did really well, he was disappointed at the end for suffering the last bit, but you learn from this and he will be stronger next time..

This run came earlier in the training plan than scheduled so GOOD WORK PHILIP, keep running.

As for me I thought I deserved a glass of wine and chocolate... ( well even Personal Trainers are allowed a life:)

Trevor

14.3 miles - 2 hours 22 mins

You know that you are making progress when you get back to the gym after a little run and everyone is rushing around trying to give you energy drinks, jelly beans and gels in case you suddenly drop dead.

I kind of felt sorry for Trevor this afternoon as he looked so worried that I was about to keel over and die whilst he had barely broken sweat (this guy is not human – or at least cut from a different cloth then myself). However, what Trevor has yet got a handle on is that by the time I got home, had a long bath and a gallon of fluids I was already working on the next run. What went well today? What went wrong today? What points can I learn from this and how can I improve next time. I had made of list of positives and learning points so that next time I head out it will be smarter. I am never going to be a great runner but I have to play to my strengths – that is my analytical skills, my ability to analyse things and most of all my sheer tenacity.

So, pragmatically…

It was the furthest I have ever run. It was 13 miles of relative pleasure and then a mile and a bit of exquisite pain. You play the odds and this is a result. It was a run where I learnt the importance of gels, the importance of digging deep and the sheer magnitude of the run. If I had not gone out today with a huge degree of respect for the distance I would have been even worse – so this is all something which goes into the planning and strategy for next week.

I leave the hard planning to Trevor but I still take a lot from my own notes – which now run to pages. If I can run close to 15 miles I can run 26 and a bit. I don’t think it will be easy but it will be the ultimate test of my mental tenacity which I think is worth the pain alone.

Friday 28th October

One of the many benefits of being a Personal Trainer is that you get to do your training runs with clients, although as I am finding they all tend to be within a 2/3 day period.

Never mind they are all useful and various paces so that helps my training...

Back to my morning run with Tracey this morning, it's 6.00am, dark, misty and not very nice, I think it's cold, leggings, long sleeved top and jacket, Tracey is in shorts and jacket,10 mins into the run she is complaining of being hot and jacket off.

At the start Tracey says, needs to be a slow one today, which is fine, but Tracey saying a slow run and doing a slow run are 2 different things, off we set, I'm constantly trying to slow the pace down, the only time that happens is when Tracey has her obligatory stop to re-tie her shoe laces, every time........

The pace is constantly getting quicker and quicker, until the last mile until she is now tired and moaning at me to slow down (the cheek) its my job to control the pace.

Good run done, 4.5 miles, feel better for it.

Back to the gym, quick shower then onto training Philip, it's chest and bicep day, his favourite ( not ). Really good session for Philip much better with the weights.

I am now looking forward to 12 or 15 miles with Philip on Saturday.

Everything is coming round so quick, it's only 10 days to our ultra row on the 7th November, and then only 4 months to the Marathon..........

As they say onwards and upwards..

Sympathy for the Devil...?

6am and the alarm goes off.

I roll out of bed to some polite encouragement from my wife of the ‘turn that bloody alarm off…’ ilk and almost fall down the stairs. I get dressed with eyes closed; running shorts, t shirt socks and swear loudly. It’s dark and cold outside and my bed is warm. Not a tough decision really. It’s time to run.

Ten minutes later I am in the gym and on the treadmill. I don’t usually train indoors as it is a good way to get injured but I am tired and cranky and miserable and simply can’t face a run around Bicester in the dark alone.

On goes the IPod and up goes the speed. I start with some James Brown, then onto some Sandie Shaw (which, to be honest, is worth getting out of bed for alone) and then work through some Madonna, Kings of Leon and some Bowie. You got to have Bowie when it gets tough…in fact, I bet I Paula Radcliff sings Jean Genie all the way around on her record breaking runs. Then it’s in to the home straight and Sandie Shaw is willing me on with her seminal cover of the Rolling Stones classic….

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste

To which I always add…

Because all this running has laid me to waste...

An hour later I am standing in my kitchen, coffee in hand, stretches done and I have to admit that I feel great.

Trevor's Saturday

Saturday 22nd October

It was with joy that I sprung out of bed at 5.45 this morning, meet Philip at 6,30 in the dark and had a joyous 9 mile run, taking in the daybreak and sunshine, finishing at 8.00am to then go to work…….

That is how it should have read, in reality it was a bit more like the following...

It really started a couple of days previous when we were arranging the 9 mile run on Saturday, the time was getting earlier and earlier, due to Philip’s commitments and then mine and we ended up with a start time of 6.30am.

On the whole that is fine, except that I had a small accident the gym on Thursday, I had been talking to Joanne, and giving help (I think that was what she called it) on her routine for her up coming Pole Dancing final. At the end of this I left, only to return to find Andy in there as well now talking to Joanne, anyway they suggested that I try one of the Pole moves, which obviously I did, with scant regard to the fact that I have a marathon and charity Ultrarow coming up. I did the move, not very elegantly, anyway, 3 hours later my back was hurting, by the following morning my back was really stiff and I struggled out of bed. Frantic calls to Paul Skidmore, who is excellent at sports massage on Friday morning and luckily he was able to see me that afternoon. Ninty minutes later I was not cured but feeling better and reassured that I had not done anything too stupid and that I should be able to run the next day.

Come Saturday morning, alarm at 5.45, go to move, oops still stiff as a board, too late to cancel Philip, so with the knowledge from Paul saying you will be fine, I carried on, a bit stiff but able to jog. Philip had seemed to have lost his pace from previous weeks, where we have been averaging 9.15/9.20 per mile, Philip thought today would be a good day to run a bit slower, about 9.53 pace.

Not sure if my back will thank him, I will let you know.

We have been blessed with lovely weather so far, it does make training that much easier, I know we have a lot worse to come.

Today Philip has also informed me that he will be away 4 of the next 8 weekends, so it looks like a lot of long runs during the week…

In the mean time KEEP RUNNING…..

Trevor

Away with the Fairies (9 miles: 1hour 28mins)

Today, we discovered a fundamental flaw in my running…after a few miles I am away with the fairies and forget what I am meant to be doing.

When we got back to my house this morning, on a crisp, beautiful autumn morning, Trevor looked at me worriedly and asked, ‘why so slow today?’
I had to explain to him that although I am a bit tired I am not injured, I am eating ok and that I had found the run beautiful (especially the first mile and a bit in the pitch black…). The problem, from Trevor’s point of view, was that after about five miles I had wandered off to dream land and the pace had dropped significantly. Words like lack of focus and gormless dreamer were not mentioned but they were certainly implied.

Once I have found my legs and my lungs and got them working I find it very hard not to wander into my own private land. I sing songs to myself, I recall whole chunks of books I have read, I make plans for the day and talk through my problems and worries – the running almost seems to come second. However, it seems that I need to keep focused and make sure the pace doesn’t drop (and my argument of Siberia is a bloody long way to go so we best take it slow and enjoy it seems not to hold water..) or I fear that my future holds endless sets of burpees and an annoyed Trevor.

However, just sometimes, when we are out and the sun is just rising and the whole of the world belongs to us I am going to slow the pace down, take in the beauty of the day and store it away for when we are out on the ice and it is cold, tough and miserable.

Katie Says....

I have become a Siberian widow…

Over the last few years I have become used to my husband’s somewhat bizarre lifestyle. I no longer worry when he calmly declares over dinner that he is off to North Korea for a few days, or has a meeting booked somewhere in the Balkans and may be home sometime next week (invariably hungover and looking slightly sheepish) or finding him skulking about the house in the middle of the night with a scotch in his hand and his beloved Miles Davis on the stereo. However, Siberia may well be the final straw.

I don’t mind that he now owns more lycra than me (at least we haven’t seen the hand knitted cardigans yet this winter…), or that I can not get near the washing machine for sweaty gym kit or that he goes out before the dawn several times a week to train with Trevor but I do object with how he passes through the house and simply strip mines it of food. He no longer eats but denudes the place of calories.

For example, the other night I cooked a delicious meal for him. I gave him twice what I had and within thirteen seconds he was licking his lips and looking longingly at mine (even the dog knows better than this…). Twenty minutes later he is back in the kitchen and pounds of qunioa, porridge or barley is disappearing into his bottomless pit whilst I have to hide anything I might potentially like to eat later before that too vanishes. If I am lucky I hear: too much fat or too much salt and know that there will be something left for me when he has finished. Last Saturday I noted, with a degree of awe, that he had seven meals and still he went to bed complaining of hunger.

For me, at least, the race can not come soon enough or else Sainsburys will soon be delivering food by the pallet load.

(Post script - made a mistake tonight - cooked low fat banana bread....which lasted a whole five mins...)

Trevor's Update

Now I’m not as amusing as Philip at writing these Blogs, but I will tell you straight...

Its Thursday the 20th October, I have had another tough week of training, I also had a massage with Paul Skidmore at The Fitness Company on Monday (although after my hamstring felt as if I had tweaked it, it feels ok now).
I’m sat here writing this, my shoulder hurts, my back aches and I feel tired (even PT’s are allowed to feel tired). Anyways, enough sob story, just to let you know what is planned this weekend. I have a quick 4.5 miles tomorrow morning followed by weights later, also I get the pleasure to train Philip.

Then at stupid a clock on Saturday morning we will have a 9 mile run ( at the moment it will be cold, good practice I suppose).

Another blatant plug to raise money, Philip & I are doing a 16hr rowathon on Monday 7th November at The Fitness Company, this is to help raise the money for Iain Rennie Grove House Hospice Care Charity, come along on the day and support us, 16 hrs.’ is a long time, also pop into the Fitness Company and have a go on the sweep stake board to guess how far we will row on the day, £2.00 per go, £50.00 to the nearest choice and the rest of the money to charity,

Legs and Arms

Yesterday, I had a beast of a work-out.

By the time I had finished training my legs and triceps, which is my favourite workout, I staggered out of the gym feeling weary and sore. It was a wonderful feeling. It is a sweet mixture of pain and pleasure which means a job well done (both from Trevor and myself) and a few days of soreness to come. These days always take me back to the core reason why we are doing this: because we know that sometime in the future we wont be able to do this and that each rep, each curl and each mile we run will help change a few lives.

Over the last few weeks we have talked a lot about the marathon.; the distance, the pain, the relentless training but we have not lost our sense of wonder that we will soon run across a frozen lake in Russia. Our wives may well divorce us, our toe-nails may well turn black and we may be permanently sore but at the end of the day people will benefit from this.

I think that above all this keeps me sane.

Up with the Larks

Even the birds weren’t up when I hit the gym today.

Trevor was on full form and had me working my shoulders and back. This is a killer work out made worse by Trevor throwing in some new exercises and sets. It is a brutal way to start the week. However, I never complain as it would only fall on deaf ears and I am secretly happy to be up with the larks and feeling the pain. The rest of the week simply goes well after this.

I could never be a personal trainer. I could not get up at dawn on a regular basis and motivate people. Trevor does not let this bother him and always has a word of enthusiasm, some tips or a pithy put-down. It makes me think that he isn’t quite human…

16th October 2011

Another hard week of training,( I must remember to thank Phil for this idea of running Baikal Ice Marathon )

A good week of training with weights, followed by 4.5 miles with a client Friday morning, then 9 miles on Saturday morning and then a 10K race at Blenheim Palace today with another client.

Good to be getting the miles in.

Back to today’s race, Phil was also at Blenheim as I had suggested that he did it as his training run this weekend. He gleefully accepted as it was a shorter run then he was meant to do…….

There was a lot of talk from Phil that he would be a lot quicker than me and my client today, and although he set off a lot quicker than us (we also had to stop and help a lady who had tripped over my clients foot and gone flat on her face) QUESTION:- when in a race, when you overtake people why is it necessary to cut directly in front of that person as soon as possible…. I just don’t get it..

Sorry for the ramble, back to the race, around half way we found that Phil was only 40/50meters in front of us at this stage I don’t think he knew we were there, so we just quietly closed the gap over the next few K, until he could hear me, after a few words of encouragement from me (something along the lines of “move your arse you should be further ahead” Phil speed up.
Although at this stage my client got a second wind and we caught Phil up, with only 250m to go.

At this stage Phil swore at me and said that I was not passing, not very friendly I thought…., So with 50m to go I thought I would ease pass him, I’m sure I heard a few rude words being uttered under his breath… Maybe they were congratulations????

It was a great race, Phil did have a good run, although beaten by me, with my client 1 m behind him (she did amazingly well)

So far with training the weather has been very kind…..

I thinka glass of wine is deserved tonight and then the training starts again Monday morning at 6.00am

Speak Soon

Trevor

Duck Curry

Ok, let’s be honest, Blenheim is a super place to run.

I am just back from a 10km race at Blenheim Palace and I have to say that it was thoroughly enjoyable. I am not talking about how well the race was organised, how beautiful the grounds of the estate looked as the mist burnt off, or how great it felt to be out racing friends on a Sunday morning but what Jana said to me just before the start of the race.

I adore running with Jana as she is always so committed and always digs deep on runs even when perhaps she would rather be home. It is for these reasons that I am under oath not to repeat what she said. However, I can broadly hint that it involved a duck curry and her bowels…and made me laugh so much that I was still giggling at the 7km mark.

The race itself (and no, Trevor, you are wrong, it is always a race….) was beautiful. I was quite a long way off my personal best and crossed the line in a perfectly respectably 53 mins 34 seconds, which was about a second behind Trevor, who had run up behind me with 500m to go, and hung there goading me (he probably will claim that this was encouragement but I think we are back to the old argument of semantics – he says undulating, I say: bugger this, its hilly, let’s go for a pint…)

Aside from being such a pretty run it was also nice to take some time to do something fun as the training is becoming, by necessity, increasingly less fun. Driving home I had to smile again as I thought: well, that was only 10km. I have to do some serious miles next weekend…and then remembered that a year ago the furthest I had ever run was to the local pub for last orders.

6 miles...

I was up and running by 530am this morning

There is something somewhat disturbing about running so early as there is limited street-lighting and I am often reliant on my flashing arm bands for guidance. It does, however, force you to slow down and focus on technique as one false step could see you falling off the pavement.
It was a slow, painful run but it did help clear my head. There is something almost elemental about being out, alone, with nothing to do except let your mind unwind and come to its own natural conclusions. The miles do not really fly by but they skip along at a pace which gives the perfect thinking:sweating ratio.

Once home, it was time for some stretches, some coffee and a shower. Then as I stood in my kitchen, drinking strong coffee, a warm glow of smugness that all was well with my training.

Legs and Sprints

It was leg day today.


I love training legs. In fact, let’s be honest, now, who cares about biceps or a barrel chest when you have good legs? No woman is ever going to have her head turned by a massive pair of guns or a 52” chest…..

Ok, so maybe I am wrong, but there is something awesome about loading up a bar with weight and banging out sets of squats until the cows come home. It is such a basic exercise but such a powerful one and I am always surprised at the number of people who don’t squat correctly…top tip – they are called sissy squats for a reason…

Trevor also threw in some triceps today as he doesn’t like me coming out the gym dripping in sweat and smiling. My wife always likes this as she says my triceps were the first thing that attracted her to me (and there was me thinking that it was something to do with my winning personality or that on the night we first met I was drunk as a lord and knocking back key-lime martinis…)

Straight after the weights it was onto the treadmill for sprints (note: Trevor has banned me from the treadmill as it's way too easy to get injured running on it, but he gave me special dispensation today as I had a pretty sleepless night last night and would probably have got lost if I had been allowed to run outside…)

I don’t like sprint training. No one does. It’s painful, and dull and pretty demanding. However, it seems to reap spades on race day so I grit my teeth and do it. Today I simply had to listen to some music and turned the IPod up full volume. I threw on some James Brown, some Janice Ian, some Freezepop and finally some Grease, because, after all, grease is the word…

As I left the gym I felt a certain degree of smugness as I don’t have to sprint until next week again…

Monday: Shoulders

It is 7am and I am back from the gym.

I am enjoying a few quiet moments, to stretch, to think, and to just be calm before the week begins.

Today we worked shoulders, which is always a nice, tough work-out and by mid afternoon I will be struggling to move or cook dinner. That, to me, is the mark of a good workout.

Today’s work-out was hard and cathartic. It is nice to set up expectations for the week, both physically and mentally and it is also nice to know that the rest of the day is my own and does not need to involve marathon demands. Though, of course, almost every waking hour is spent worrying about diet, training plans, muscle aches and fund raising.
However, I will now put those thoughts aside, drink some coffee and wait for the day to begin.

Yoga

I am now back to yoga classes.

I have been struggling with a small injury (Ha! I am finally a runner…) for the last few week’s and this is totally self inflicted. I had not been warming down properly, not stretching as much as needed and neglecting yoga. There is a simple rule in my life: neglect yoga…get injured.
But now after much time spent on the treatment table and some sessions with my foam roller I am back at classes and loving it.

Once again the true sound of my yoga practise is me at the back of the room grunting and groaning and swearing whilst the rest of the class bind effortlessly.

Our inspirational teacher has taught me that I need to leave the ego behind and expect nothing from my yoga and this has opened the door to some amazing practices which have not only cleared the mind but strengthened my body and led me happily back to fitness.

My wife, as ever, is tolerant, of my training though she refuses to engage with me until I get home from the early yoga session on Sunday morning. She would never admit it but yoga has made me a better person and for that we must all be happy…

However, last weekend when I returned from class buzzing like I had just ingested a whole bunch of Class As she did point out that I was the least likely yogi in the world (apparently my shoulders are way too broard…). She then went on to point out that at the last race I did she could easily pick me out of the crowd as I least likely looking runner in the pack (apparently my shoulders are way too broard…). I then suggested that perhaps I looked more like a body builder which at least put a smile on her face and uncontrollable giggles which went out for most of the afternoon.

8 Miles....

I am noting a sudden lack of compassion on Trevor’s part….

Last week we took off like an amphetamine charged rabbit and this week he complained (somewhat bitterly and at considerable length, I thought) when after a mile I broke into song…

It's twenty five miles from home
Girl, my feet are hurting mighty bad
Now I've been walking three days and two lonely nights
You know that I'm mighty mad…


After that he stepped up the pace and did not catch my next song…

Sometimes I just feel like, quittin I still might
Why do I put up this fight, why do I still write
Sometimes it's hard enough just dealin with real life

Which was a shame as I have been saving 8 Mile for our first 8 mile run.

The miles continue to build, the reality is beginning to sink in and I am spending more and more time in my record collection for the next song….

But I do indeed take my hat off to Trevor. The training is going well, I
am injury free and not hating the training too much.

For such a busy guy he gives his time and advice so freely that I feel the best way to repay this is to make every session count and give it 100%...and, of course, keep singing…

Philip

8 Miles

Just returned from our 8 mile training run, completed in 1hr 14 mins, ave pace 9.20 per mile, good steady pace. Philip is now getting to know the Bicester area, slowly as I'm sure if I went quicker he would be lost and properly end up running twice the distance (will have to remember that), after last weeks training run of 7 miles where he said I was unsociable
and all he saw were my heels, I tried to run by the side of him, this lasted a couple of miles then we were on country roads so he had to run behind me, although at times he couldn't see my heels cause he was too far back.

A very successful steady start to our training and things are going well and the weather is being kind, hopefully it will last.

It's now time for a soak in the bath, relax and a day of training on Sunday...........

Think I have decorating to do, how did I commit to that......

Bye for now

Trevor

Update

It’s been a while since I posted an entry on the blog, but just a quick catch up, training has started in earnest for Philip & I now, with weekly long runs, a speed session and a steady run, along with gym work and classes our workload has increased in the last month.

The Baikal Ice marathon now seems very real and is only 5 months away.
I have taken care of the training plan over the next few month, and as long as everything goes to plan we will arrive for the marathon in great shape, Philip has started to moan about the training already, claiming that in our last training run he only saw the heels of my shoes, he must have good eye sight because it was 5.45 in the morning…

We have planned a 16 hour row at The Fitness Company to help raise money for Iain Rennie Hospice, this will be on Monday 7th November, come along and give us some support, we will be starting at 06.00 and finishing at 20.00 so plenty of time to pop in, come and have a guess at how far we will row, £2.00 per guess, £50.00 to the winner.
Trevor

Rest days

Rest Days

The last ten days or so I have been under strict instructions to rest.
I had picked up a few small niggles and compounded with some late nights, early mornings and the stress that comes with imminent fatherhood I was pretty exhausted. I had forced myself through the last few workouts with more determination then enjoyment.
Resting is hard….

Aside from the extra free time I have had on my hands (and training takes up on average three hours each day) it has been strange not to have the washing machine constantly on, food cooking or my mind focused on what activity Trevor had lined up for me next.

Typically, I caught a cold. I felt listless and overwhelmingly tired. I sat on the sofa and looked longingly at my kettle bell. I drove past the gym and felt a degree of sadness which is somewhat bizarre and I had Paul manipulate my limbs in an increasingly painful series of sessions. I was even so bored that one afternoon I cooked a series of high protein meals to put in the freezer.

Tomorrow training starts again and I am raring to go...

Sponsorship Hall of Fame: Yaktrak

Sponsorship Hall of Fame: Yaktrak

We have now added Yaktrak onto the Sponsorship roll of honour.
Not only did the fantastic people at Yaktrak (part of the Specialist group) send us two pairs of super duper gripped shoes for our run but they threw in a couple of pairs for us to auction to. For this generosity we support you – just as you will be supporting us as we run across the ice.

My mum had a pair of these awesome shoes last winter and declared them perfect for getting around the frozen wastes of Kent. Where I was slipping and sliding all over the place in my boots she was as nimble and as secure as you could possibly hope to be. Aside from running I see a massive potential for these shoes and would encourage anyone who hasn’t got a pair, or perhaps has an elderly relative, to rush out and get a pair now – they do, I think, make excellent presents.

Yaktrak, we offer our gratitude to you. For taking the time to give me a call, to offer words of encouragement and for such generosity we are deeply humbled….

my wife is also pretty happy as she thinks the chances of us completing the run without broken legs is now significantly improved….)

Sponsorship Hall of Fame: Travcour

Sponsorship Hall of Fame: Travcour


Those ever so nice people at Travcour have agreed to sponsor Trevor and I for our Russian Visas and we are overjoyed. This is a fantastically generous donation as the visa for Russia is super expensive and time consuming to obtain.

I have used Travcour for years and the many stamps in my passport are a testament to their swift and efficient service…they have got my visas for jollies around Africa, Asia and even my visa to China last year when my paperwork was a mess and I was running around panicking. It has always been a pleasure to use them as they take care of all the footwork and stress and I really happy to point people in their direction for visas, travel documents and legal services….

Travcour joins our Sponsorship Hall of Fame and will receive an official thank you photo from the race which we would like to think they will display in their offices….

Travcour (UK) Ltd have been helping the traveller since 1985. We have over time developed good working relationships with all the Foreign Embassies and Consulates as well as most tour operators allowing us to offer you a visa service which makes it faster, easier and a more secure way of obtaining your travel visas. We make sure that you have the latest visa documentation as well as up to date visa information. Travcour (UK) Ltd also offer a fast UK Passport renewal service as well as legalisation of documents, visa authorisations/invitations, birth, death or marriage certificates, meet and greet at airports and a delivery or collection service. As we pride ourselves with being the cheapest travel visa and passport agent on the market today, should you find another visa agency cheaper for obtaining your visas or passports, we will not only match their price but better it regardless of whether you are applying for an India visa, Chinese visa, Russian visa or a British passport.

Massage

Massage

Today was a change of pace and I found myself on Paul’s treatment table..

Paul is an outstanding therapist but I hate going to see him as it normally means a long lecture about not having stretched properly and ninety minutes of pain as he manipulates me back to health. His treatment table is as important as the supplements I am shovelling down, the weights I am lifting or the beastings that Trevor keeps dishing out.

Today was a painful session and Paul may as well have just hit me with an iron bar or stuck a red hot poker up my….well, you get my drift….but my knee feels a lot less sore and I now have much more mobility.

I also learnt that ITBS is one of the leading causes of lateral knee pain in runners. The iliotibial band is a superficial thickening of tissue on the outside of the thigh, extending from the outside of the pelvis, over the hip and knee, and inserting just below the knee. The band is crucial to stabilizing the knee during running, moving from behind the femur to the front while walking. The continual rubbing of the band over the lateral femoral epicondyle, combined with the repeated flexion and extension of the knee during running may cause the area to become inflamed.

Although interesting and likely to win the pub quiz at some time in the future this was not much comfort and I did apologise for yelling, ‘get the **** off me your insane lunantic…’ at Paul several times as he pummelled my leg. He took this in his stride and shut me up by jamming his thumbs into my calves until I screamed like a girl and begged for mercy.

Running, as I have often said, is never fun and always painful.

I highly endorse Paul and can hardly wait to be back on the table in a week’s time….

(well, half of that is true…)

Yoga

Thursday night is yoga night

A lot of people raise eye-brows when I mention yoga but it is an essential part of the training and one of the hardest work-outs. A lot of the class have come to yoga through injury or martial arts and it is interesting to see perceptions fall aside and be replaced by a real passion for yoga.

Our teacher is an inspirational teacher and I often find myself mulling over his nuggets of wisdom and using them in other aspects of my training. This combined with the hard physical practise that is yoga gives an additional dimension to training (and the ability to do hand-stands on a whim comes in handy more often than you would reasonably expect…)

From my limited understanding of yoga everything stems from the breath and controlling this. Once you master this and remember to listen to the breath a whole new world of physical practise opens up (though true yogi may counter that I have this in reverse). Many times, whilst out grinding out some miles, I have gone back to this thought, listened to be breath, and felt the tiredness slip away.

However, most yogis I know don’t take themselves too seriously as illustrated by the joke told to me at the last yoga work-shop I went on:

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, "My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I'm constantly falling asleep. It's just horrible!"

"It will pass," the teacher said matter-of-factly.

A week later, the student came back to his teacher.

"My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It's just wonderful!"

"It will pass," the teacher replied matter-of-factly.

Burnham Beeches Half Marathon: 2 hours 6 mins

Today I learnt an important lesson – the day you stop respecting the distance is the day you end up on a track in Buckinghamshire wishing for a swift and painless exit from this terrible world.

Burnham Beeches Half Marathon is a wonderful race. It is well organised, friendly and quite pretty. However, it is still a half-marathon and quite hilly too (running folk refer to this as undulating and I swear that the next time I hear someone utter this word I am going to jump up and pound them to death with my ASICS yelling….’it’s hilly ************). So, my lack of sleep, my overall cockiness (‘I’ll just batter this one out in under two hours…’) and those aforementioned hills really kicked the stuffing out of me. Today’s result definitely reads: Burnham Beeches 1, Blazdell 0.

I was going great guns till at eleven miles my legs decided to give up, my head went all swimmy and I had the overwhelming urge to find the nearest pub and drink my own body weight in beer. Whilst I was giving myself a stern talking to and trying to dig deep into my energy and mental reserves I was overtaken by a speed walking pensioner, a barefoot runner and three beautiful girls who looked appalled at my sweaty unattractiveness and made some, quite frankly, inappropriate accounts about my bottom. It is this side of running that I find so annoying. There I am, deep in blood and guts territory, giving it 100% and looking hugely unattractive and I get abused by a possee of young whippersnappers whose make up has not even run. It did make me wonder why they were racing on such a lovely day and not out rioting somewhere…

If it had not been for Sean who was there screaming abuse at me for the final mile, and the fact that I had friends out running still (and whom I wanted to impress) I would still probably be running now. I crossed the finish line, almost told the marshal to shove my medal where the sun don’t shine, poured a bottle of water over myself and collapsed into a messy, sweaty pile. To be honest I could have found so many better uses for 2 hours and 6 minutes (like cleaning the cat litter box, learning a new language or building a model of the Taj Mahal from beer cans) and I was more than a bit disappointed with my time. Upon further discussion with Sean (a perfectly annoying time of 1 hour 25 minutes) I decided that, all things being equal, I was happy to have survived.

Later, after some food and a long soak in the bath the enormity of what we are planning hit me and if was only the promise of frozen yoghurt from my wife did I come out of the cupboard where I had hidden. Siberia, it seems, has already given me the finger and thrown down the gauntlet…

My poor arms

Training today hurt….

Chest and biceps is, I think, a man’s workout and thus I hate it.

The first few exercise were incredibly painful and although Trevor has not been loading the bar of late it was still a brutal way to start the day. Things went rapidly downhill from there and successive exercises became harder and harder until we hit the biceps part of the routine.

Biceps are a part of a training routine that most guys love. Grab a bar, throw on some weights and pump out sets of curls until your arms are smoking and your t-shirt no longer fits. However, I loath them and my granny can probably curl more than I can. I try to visualise my arms exploding (a la Arnie) but all I get is a constant message going from my guns to my brain saying, isn’t it leg day yet…someone once told me – you build a foundation from the ground up and ever since them I have really hit my leg work-outs hard.

After the work-out I went home, made a protein shake and sat on the sofa feeling quite despondent (I couldn’t even play Playstation as I was in so much pain…). By tea time my arms were still aching so I gave up on the day and retired to the pub (for a diet coke....)

Philip

Training and Charity Update

Although Philip and I have started training for the Baikal Ice Marathon a little while ago, it is suddenly starting to become a bit clearer with the enormity of the task ahead.

My job as Philip's Personal Trainer is relatively simple, ie to make sure that he and I are in the best possible shape for the marathon, no mean task as Philip has not run a marathon , let alone on ice.

We still have time and Philip's training is going really well, a PB at Tenby 10K recently with Burnham Beeches Half Marathon this weekend. Philip’s dedication to his training and to taking rest day as scheduled are testament to his determination to completing Baikal Ice Marathon.

Now the other side of this challenge is to raise £10,000 for the Iian Rennie Hospice at Home Charity, to me this is a bigger challenge than running the marathon. We will be holding an auction later in the year which we hope will be a big success and also doing some crazy challenges, (to be decided and ideas welcome), it will raise money to help us achieve our targets then we are up to most challenges.

So far everything is going well, Philip is on a rest day, so enjoy, as tomorrow we have training and on Sunday a half marathon (must find somewhere to run on ice) .....

Trevor

Rest Day

Being a rest day I took a long walk before breakfast in the Italian Alps where I am currently staying.

I have been training hard of late and want to be well rested for my half marathon this weekend so the walk was a perfect way to start the day. Once back at the hotel I dived in the shower and begun the morning ritual of massaging my muscles and identifying any aches or niggles. The water was steaming hot and I spent longer than normal luxuriating in the fact that I had some spare time

When I finally got out of the shower I was a bit alarmed to see that the bathroom floor was about an inch and a half deep in water. I did my best to mop it up with a towel but as this didn’t seem to be too effective I thought that I should get dressed and ask the maid for a mop. However, as I opened the bathroom door I was greeted with a sight which looked like it had come straight from the Sorcerer’s Apprentice than a small hotel in Italy and stepped into the main bedroom which was at least three inches deep in water. My jeans were soaked, my suitcase was more or less floating around the room and worrying sparks were coming from my laptop (my phone, of course, was floating happily on the eddies as since I have that new bomb proof case it is indestructible – come a nuclear war the only things left will be cockroaches and my IPhone).

There was not a patch of dry carpet, water was trickling out under the door frame and the carpet made a horrible sucking sound with every step. I quickly squeezed water from my clothes, throw on the least ruined jeans and threw the rest into my suitcase.

When I got to reception I looked a sorry bedraggled mess. The receptionist took one look at me and did her best not to giggle, which made me feel even more miserable, so I pulled my best, ‘oh this happens to me all the time…’ face and said, ‘You know, I think there is a leak on the toilet in my room…’ tossed my room key on the desk and hustled out of the door.

Tenby 2011 – 10km

Finishing Time: 51:46

It is hard to write a report on a run when all you remember is the pounding of blood in your ears, legs that felt like lead and a long, hill climb towards the end. However, I do remember one of the most pleasant finishes to any races I have run, which took me down Tenby’s main street, through cheering crowds and across the finish line where a brass band was playing.

The course was less than inspiring and seemed to take in most of the town’s less pleasant outskirts, a housing estate and the leisure centre. However it was superbly well organised and the marshals were excellent and made the race even more enjoyable.

My own time was 3mins 9s better than my personal best and, despite crossing the finish line looking like someone had thrown a bucket of water over me, I was fantastically happy. I remembered to do my stretches at the end, changed into my race T-Shirt and went away elated. It seems that the hard work done, especially the sprint training, is beginning to pay off. It is on days like this that I can almost understand why people pulling on running shoes…

-Philip

Dedication to Training

31st July:- Phil's wife Katie has persuaded him that they need a weekend away this weekend, but knowing that he has a run to complete on Saturday or Sunday as part of his training, he finds a location that has a 10K run on the Sunday.

The location is Tenby a beautiful part of the country, but before they can depart on the Saturday Phil manages to fit in a Boxercise class first.

Off they travel to Tenby later that day, for what is sure a quite day as Phil knows he has a 10K the next morning, Phil jokes about setting a PB to me over the phone. Later on Sunday I get a text from Phil saying what a great run the 10K is and that he smashed his 10K PB and ran 51min 46 secs, which is 6mins quicker than his previous best. What an awesome run Phil’s dedication to training and sticking to the plan is really working.
I think they did get some time to relax!!!!!!!

-Trevor