Everything was going well and we flew to Canada as planned.  However, the second or third day there I started sneezing a lot and I thought it was just allergies (my sisters have pets).  Nope.  Full blown cold kicked in and I was seriously congested in the sinuses.  No problem I thought.  It’s “above the neck” so I’ll continue on like normal.

By Saturday I was feeling pretty rough and wasn’t sleeping well.  I was sticking to the plan though and drinking lots of fluids to stay hydrated for the marathon the following day.  I even went to collect my race pack from the race expo on Sat afternoon/evening.

Sunday morning, coughing and exhausted.  I couldn’t do it.  I was too ill and I was scared to put myself through about 5 hours of running whilst being ill.  To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.  My friends jokes of calling me a “real virtual runner” didn’t help much either.

So, that was it.  I was a virtual runner with a bad cold, race number, timing chip and new t-shirt but no completed marathon.  To top it all off I’ve been raising money for charity and I feel as though I’ve let people down.

Put it all together and I’m on a bit of a downer at the moment!

So, what am I doing to sort all of this out and get back on form?  I’m thinking about it and I haven’t decided yet.  I’ll do one of the following:-

1. Register for a new marathon in the autumn and use the time to get in even more training and raise more money for charity (although I’ll feel as though I’m putting things off).
2. Do my own “virtual marathon” by completing 26.2 miles myself and documenting it using my Garmin Forerunner and video.  This means I would need to attempt the distance over the next couple of weeks.  Probably on a Sunday around Reading, Berkshire.  The downside to this is that there is no medal and no finish line.  Will I still feel the same completing it?  Or am I just doing it for the sake of doing it?  A guilt marathon.

I’d be grateful if any of you out there could comment on this post and give me your thoughts and opinions on what you would do in this situation.

As for running, I went and ran for an hour this morning and it was the first time I’ve run in about 2 1/2 weeks.  My hip flexors were a bit sore afterwards but it felt okay.  I’ll probably push the 10k running for the whole week and do a bit most mornings in order to get myself ready to plod around the Bupa 10,000 in London this weekend.  I’ve got my race pack through and it’s a great event to do.  I certainly won’t be getting a PB this year but I’ll still get the medal.  I love the medals!

Once I’ve done the 10k I’ll give you a write up about it and let you know what it was like.  I’m supposed to have a VIP pass to the elite/celeb area before the race so who knows who or what I’ll see!  I’m taking my wife with me because I’m rubbish at spotting anyone famous!

Now, you may or may not be wondering about the title of this blog.  I mean, to say “full of crap” kind of indicates that I’ve lied about something.  But I haven’t.  “Full of crap” relates to the ridiculous amount of food I ate while in Canada.  There is nothing to do where we were.  Fredericton, New Brunswick is a beautiful city in Canada but it’s boring!  So, everything seemed to revolve around food and eating out.  To top it all off, I missed a lot of foods that I used to eat when I lived there so I felt I had to try as much as possible.  Bad idea.

The flight home was a bit uncomfortable and my wife and I thought we may have to book extra seats; one for each butt cheek.

To make myself feel a bit better I went on a (kind of) liquid diet for a couple of days.  Man, it felt nice.  All I ate was cereal for breakfast (I know it’s not a liquid but I need some fibre and stuff.  Most important meal of the day!) soups, yoghurt, smoothies etc.  No more bloated feeling!  All ruined today with a massive feast of delicious burnt bbq meaty goodness.  Damn.

Tomorrow the liquid diet starts again.  It’s a nice cleanse for me and I’ll probably try and do it for the whole week.  At the end of the week I’ll assess how I feel and decide whether to continue.

Yours sincerely,

Fatty Chubberson

I’d firstly like to apologise to both my readers for not posting anything in some time.  I’d also like to apologise to myself for not having the motivation to just get off my backside and get out there running.

For the past few weeks I’ve done nothing but sit on my butt!  Yes, I was ill for a couple weeks out of that and I also had a bout of food poisoning, but there is a major laziness element at play too.

I’ve found it hard to get motivated when it comes to running and I think that the motivation will start to return.  In fact, it started to return last night when I was looking online at future runs/events.

My wife, my son and I are travelling to Canada this year (we have a house-sitter – all you would be robbers) in May for a couple of weeks to visit family.  Whilst we are there an event will be on that we took part in in 2007 – The Fredericton Marathon. 

The Fredericton Marathon is the name of the event, however there is a 5k, 10k, half-marathon and a full marathon to take part in.  We did the 10k a couple of years ago and it’s a small event but all flat because it’s in a river valley.

I was/am intending to do the Brighton Marathon on 18 April, however because of the lack of training going on at the moment I don’t think this will be realistic (do you?).  So, I’m thinking that if I get off my backside today and start running again that I can be ready to plod through my first marathon on 9th May instead!  In Canada!  My home country!

I was originally motivated to do the Brighton Marathon but it’s waned somewhat… not sure why.  The thought of doing the Fredericton Marathon has filled me with a new sense of motivation and also I think it’s fate that I’m supposed to run it!  It’s 17 weeks away which means I’ll have more time to train and get around the course too!

As for all of you and this blog… I will start boring you with my ramblings again.  Whether or not you read them is up to you!

Bring on the training!!

I decided to take the advice of Highway Kind and not stress about the lack of running at the moment.  My lungs don’t feel the greatest (although they are much better) at the moment because of the cold I’ve got and I don’t want to strain them or me.

So tonight I did more push-ups whilst my 2 1/2 year old son looked on.  5 sets of 20 this time; surely that counts as 100 push-ups?  I doubt it.  I think they need to be consecutive.

I have decided that I am definitely bowing out of the Dorney Dash 10k tomorrow and I’m having another day off from running.  Sunday I’ll give it a go again at ye ole gym on the treadmill.  That means tomorrow I’ll have to do even more crunches and dips in the evening.

Also, I just thought I would say why I don’t run in the evenings (not that you were wondering - it’s volunteered useless information for you).  The only real time I have to go running is early in the mornings before my wife and son get up (weekdays) which is why I go running at around 06:00.  This is because my wife works most weekday evenings (but not all) and goes to work when I get home from my work (child handover takes place).  On the weekends my wife works almost all day Saturday from about midday to around 21:00 at night and it’s just me and my son… the boys chillin.  Sunday mornings are our family days when we are both at home and I go out for a run around 08:00 in the morning usually so I can finish in enough time for us to to whatever we have planned for that day.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

If this keeps up I’ll be doing hundreds of push-ups for Juneathon instead of what I really want to do… running!

Anyway, this evening I used my trusty coffee table (it’s a big chunky wooden one) as my exercise point.  4 sets of dips (feet on sofa and hands on coffee table) and three sets of crunches (legs on coffee table) as follows:-

Dips:  20, 20, 20 & 20 (My arms were killing at the end)

Crunches:  50, 50 & 50

At the moment I’m hoping I’ll be able to go for an easy run tomorrow and help clear my head a bit.  I’ve also got the Dorney Dash on Saturday morning but because the weather is predicting heavy rain I might give it a miss.  I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to events in the pouring cold rain and also I’m just getting over this cold and don’t want to push it.  So, I’ll see what the weather is like on Saturday morning and I’ll make my final decision then.

My mate Tony wants to go for a run with me at Dinton Pastures on Sunday, however the weather for Sunday is predicted as heavy rain again.  That means I might have to forego a run at Dinton and head to the gym and the trusty treadmill instead.  Again, it depends on what the weather is really like.

I’m not too bothered about missing the Dorney Dash as I’ve got some other runs planned over the coming months:-

14/06/2009 – Wargrave 10k
28/06/2009 – Sam Run
05/07/2009 – Tadley 10k
19/07/2009 – The Grant & Stone Wycombe 10K
23/08/2009 - Everton 10k
06/09/2009 – Peppard 10k
27/09/2009 – Mortimer 10k
11/10/2009 – Henley 10k

That’s 8 runs and because they are all 10kms it should be relatively simple to build them all into my weekly running schedule.  I generally run more than 10km on a Sunday anyway and this way I get more medals to add to my collection.  I love the medals (crazy eh?)!

I hope the illness subsides enough tomorrow for me to run!  Now I’m off to read some other Juneathon blogs….

At this very moment I am able to breathe through my nose but the pain in my sinuses is unbelievable. I’ve never had anything like it before.

Regardless, this evening I’ve completed yet more push-ups to ensure I haven’t missed a day of Juneathon. 5 sets of 15, 20, 20, 20 & 15. I also started to do some crunches and managed two sets (50 & 30) but my head was pounding too much by that point.

I’m hoping the ability to breathe through my nose remains for the whole night so I can actually get some proper sleep and perhaps resume a normal non-cold lifestyle.

Colds Suck.

I forgot to mention in previous posts that I have got a stinking head cold at the moment.  Thankfully it isn’t in my chest, but it still sucks.  I woke up just after 04:00 this morning with really sore sinuses and I couldn’t sleep anymore.  What sleep I did have wasn’t that great either because of the hard time breathing.

I meant to mention yesterday about the push-ups and how they helped to relieve the congestion… for about 5 minutes.

Anyway, I do not want to have a day where I don’t do some sort of exercise for Juneathon so I did a wimpy three sets of push-ups again (15 each).  I didn’t go running this morning; running was the last thing on my mind.  Sleep was pretty much foremost.

I’m going to bed exceptionally early this evening so I can get up, run and go to work tomorrow.  I’ve got a lot of things to do at work at the moment and I really don’t need this day off rubbish.