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

Related posts:

1. 20 Miles of Fun
2. Points of (Un)Interest
3. The Long Goodbye

My third attempt of the Reading Half Marathon certainly wasn’t my best.  I had a good first half and at the 10k mark my time seemed pretty good and I was at about the 58min mark.  However, the whole second half was much harder and I was experiencing some major tiredness in my legs and feet whilst running.  I had to stop and walk many many times during the second half and my overall finish time was more than 2 hours 16 mins!  Even worse than when I ran it for the first time.

My split times were as follows:-

5K – 00:29:20

10K – 00:58:33

15K – 01:32:26

20K – 02:08:24

When the pain was really bad I just kept focusing on getting finished.  Even if I had to walk the rest of the damn thing, I was going to finish! That is the one big positive out of all this, I finished it even though my body and brain were telling me I’d had enough.  For me it was a serious mind over matter moment.

I must admit that when I finished the run I was quite upset/disappointed with myself.  My wife was very helpful though and reminded me that I had finished the run in the first place.  That’s why everyone in the audience cheers so much, not just because they have family/friends running, but because they’re proud of all of us for doing it in the first place.  So, even though it was a “personal worst”, I’m proud of me for doing it as well.

The one big lesson out of all of this is that I need to train more.  I’ve been a bit slack lately and with a full marathon coming up in 7 weeks I just can’t afford to do that anymore.

Of course, this finish time and the pain has made me wonder how many days (kidding) it’s going to take me to finish the marathon.  The good thing about the marathon is that I don’t actually have any previous finish times to compare against in my head.  I just want to finish it… and I will.

So the main focus over the next 7 weeks is training and dropping a few pounds.  I think it was a combination of lack of training and being too heavy this time.  I need to trim down a few kilos in order to be better prepared for the full marathon.

Today I’m hobbling around and having a very hard time going up and down stairs.  My calf muscles and quads are killing me.  My quads!  Why?  Usually it is my hamstrings that are sore after running or training.

My wife was kind enough to give me a leg massage today and although it was an extremely painful experience (which I’m sure she enjoyed) it does feel a bit better.

I wonder if it’s safe to go to the gym tomorrow and do a little bit on the cross trainer…

Related posts:

1. 20 Miles of Fun
2. Woodley 10k and Injury
3. Chunky Virtual Runner dot com?

Front of the cottage

I’m really sorry that I haven’t written in a while.  Juneathon was going so well for me as well!  Oh well, there is always next year.

I’ve had a lot of things going on lately an my focus just hasn’t been on writing.  I’ve managed to keep running though and if you look at my running log for my virtual run across Canada you’ll see all of my runs there.  Because it’s been so long and so many runs I won’t sit here and type them all out for you because it’s boring reading and boring to type all of it.

Moving

We have moved to our new place and it is one of four cottages owned by nearby farm.  Ours is semi-detached (to the another cottage of course) and that means we only have one neighbor.  The new house is near the motorway but we don’t really mind at all.  We’ve been there since 1st July and we’re loving it!  The outside of the cottage (grass, borders, trees, outbuildings etc) were/are pretty run down but we have done a lot to them already in the couple of weeks we’ve been living there. 

It took a couple of days to mow the whole lawn because the mower was cutting the grass so short the bag kept filling quickly (the mower wouldn’t go any higher – it was a gift from friends).  Unfortunately the mower broke before we could even finish the lawn so we decided to go and buy a new one which finished the lawn nicely.  Now it seems like the grass has all grown back already!  If it is nice this weekend I’ll be out mowing again…

Gate & back garden

It took two days to move into our new house and all of our stuff fit perfectly.  We had a clear-out over the few weeks before moving anyway because we went from a four bedroom detached house to a two bedroom semi-detached cottage.  Thankfully the new house has the outbuildings so we had a place to store all of our crap!  Usually that is what people use their garages for in this country.

We rented a nice big VW van for our move and I was looking forward to putting my little boy’s booster seat in the middle and letting him come with Daddy.  He loved driving in the van so high up. 

I’ve put some photos of our new home on Flickr and you can find them by clicking here or by clicking on one of the photos on this post.

Lasers

“You know, I have one simple request…and that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads. Now evidently, my cycloptic colleague informs me that that can’t be done. Ah, can you please remind me what I pay you people for? Honestly, throw me a bone here…what do we have?” – Dr Evil

Garden facing cottage

We recently got a bit of money and my wife has said that I should consider getting laser eye surgery.  So, I went and booked my “free” consultation for Wednesday, 12 August 2009 in Reading.  To tell you the truth, I’m both excited and scared.  I’m excited about begin able to do things without having to wear glasses all the time!  To wear sunglasses!  To be able to see when I come into a warm building from the cold outside!  To be able to run in the rain without feeling like a blind man!  Oh the joy of it all.  However, I’m scared that I won’t be suitable and I’ll have been excited for nothing.  I’m scared something might go wrong (even though statistically this is slim).

I am interested in hearing from people who have had laser eye surgery or know of those who have had it so please feel free to comment or send me an email [jamie (a) thevirtualrunner dot org].  I’m using Optimax so if you have any information or experiences with them in particular I’ll be even more interested to know.

Stress

With a death in the family, my dad going in and out of the hospital and moving house; I’ve been a bit stressed.  I think this (along with my generaly laziness) has contributed to…

Excess

I’ve been over-eating quite a bit lately.  I think it is mostly comfort eating but it’s certainly making me fat(ter).  I haven’t weighed myself in quite a while because I’m afraid it will just confirm what I already feel.

I mowed the lawn too short.

I’ve decided that I need to have a bit more focus when it comes to running/training because I’m just kind of plodding along on some sort of virtual plateau at the moment and I need to boost things.  I’m thinking that maybe I should register for a half marathon in October somewhere so it will give me something to aim for and will give me a bit more focus.  Training for general fitness just isn’t doing it.

I wish I had the common sense and willpower to stop eating so damn much but I just love food… yummy!

Friends

It has been a good few weeks now since my friend Robby (he’s like my brother) finished his trek across the arctic with a team of dogs and I haven’t really heard from him at all.  Thankfully I got to speak to him a couple of weeks ago when he was at my parents place in Canada and I managed to track him down and speak to him again last night.  I’ve really missed the guy and I’ve been stressing about how he is and why I haven’t heard from him.  Turns out it is a perfectly legitimate reason, however it would have been nice if he had kept me in the picture instead of letting me worry.

He’s talking about setting up a blog himself over the next couple of months and it that actually happens I’ll let you know.  For now, I’m just glad he’s safe and sound and taking care of himself.

Related posts:

1. Juneathon – Day 15 – 19 (I’m here)
2. Friends & Family
3. Quarr Cottage & Coastal Visit

The run felt okay, even though I was really congested before I started.  The running helped clear my head and I went to work as well.  Generally I was feeling okay and also in much better spirits because I knew that I had maintained a head cold and it wasn’t going to progress to my chest (relief).

Today I’m feeling good again and still blowing my nose every few minutes.  No running today.  Today it is just me and my son (mummy is at work all day).

My son is currently covered in chocolate and playing with his wooden train set.  Bath tonight I think…

Tomorrow I’ve got my long run and I’m glad that I feel I can do it.  I want to keep up the weekly mileage.

The only thing I’m debating is where to do the run.  The weather currently shows that there will be heavy rain tomorrow (remember, I’m a fair-weather runner) but it looks like it doesn’t arrive until about midday.   What I might do is get up nice and early (I get up at 5:20am weekdays anyway) and see what the weather is like then.  If it looks like it is going to remain clear then I might head up to Dinton Pastures again and run around the two lakes.  Besides, the miles in the great outdoors will certainly be better for my training then miles on a treadmill.

On another note, I was talking to a guy at work (I don’t know his name because he works at the other end of the building and we met in the kitchen) and he was asking about my running (everyone at work knows I run because of previous charity drives).  It turns out he is a runner too and we have even been in a couple of the same events.  Small world.

I’ve also been on Runners World (.co.uk) a lot more lately to see what people are chatting about in the forums and there was one post that caught my eye:-

Is there anyone out there who has the same problem as me and can offer advice/help.

I am overweight and am too embarrassed to wear a vest or t shirt as my man boobs are all over the place when I run. I always wear a lightweight jacket or if the weather is too hot it stops me going running.

I have done a bit of researching and have come across compression vests and am thinking of buying one to wear under my t shirt. Anyone else tried these or know something about them, do the t shirt cling to them etc.

Any advice gratefully receive.

This is how I still feel a lot of the time now.  Even though I have lost quite a lot of weight since I also still suffer with the self-conscious crap from time to time.

Needless to say, he had many responses in the forum and the general consensus was the same from everyone: At least you’re running!  Keep it up!

Related posts:

1. Phase One – Completed
2. Good morning!
3. Juneathon – Day 6 & 7 (Running Again)

The muscles in my inner thighs were sore and my calves felt a bit tight as well. I plowed on and did 10.36km at a 05:47 (per km) pace. For you imperial minded people that is a 09:18 (per mile) pace.

My long run is tomorrow and I’m going to go for 18km (11.18 miles) again. Hopefully my pace will be about the same as my last long run which was 05:39 (per km) or 09:05 (per mile). I want to do the Reading Half Marathon in under 2 hours and I don’t care if I do it in 1 hour 59 mins and 59 secs! I’ve worked out that if I run at about a 05:38 (per km) pace or 09:05 (per mile) pace that I should finish in just under two hours.

I haven’t mentioned my weight in a long time but I will today because I went in to town to buy some new running shorts.

I was trying on some new shorts (I bought Nike) and I tried on a large for the first time in ages. I’m usually an XL and have been for some time (as far as I can remember). They fit. I couldn’t believe it. I tried on a pair of L shorts (waist 34/36) and they fit perfectly fine and even felt loose. Considering my waist was about 40/42 at it’s biggest, buying those shorts today felt amazing. Last time I weighed myself I was still hovering around 99/100kg (218 pounds).

Now for the push ups training that I’m becoming obsessed with…

You’ll see from my last post that the previous training session didn’t go well and I didn’t manage to achieve many of the goals for each set. This time it was different:-

Set 1: 25 (okay)
Set 2: 29 (hard, but I did it)
Set 3: 25 (hard, but I did it)
Set 4: 25 (very hard, but I did it)
Set 5: To failure (at least 36) – I only did 21

I wasn’t that bothered about the impossible 5th set this time. I thought “Screw it! I’ll just rest a minute and do another 15!”. And that’s what I did. So, I did the 36 but not all in one go. To top it off, I did two more sets of 15 with short rests in between. I was extremely weak afterwards!

As for non-running related matters, nothing much to report. My fiance and I took our son on a train in to town this morning (to get me shorts) and he loved it. We’ve taken him on the train a couple of times now and he just loves it. His little face just lights up.

I’m sure he won’t be like that when he’s older and if he has to commute to work every day on the train. Oh, how the enthusiasm will wain.

Related posts:

1. Still doing push ups
2. London Marathon
3. Running Again

• One-to-one coaching and support from one of three top coaches – Steve Smythe, GB Olympic athlete Liz Yelling or Nick Anderson
• Personalised nutrition advice from the Lucozade Sport Performance Team, as well as a four-month supply of Lucozade Sport products
• Entry and return travel to key warm-up events
• Opportunity to attend two hands-on training seminars with Liz Yelling
• Lucozade Sport Super Six adidas running kit (including trainers) and a state-of-the-art Garmin Forerunner 405
• A night’s luxury hotel accommodation, travel costs to and from London and VIP hospitality on race day

You don’t even need a place in the race (done by ballot); they can take care of this as well!

In return, I would have to commit to following a marathon schedules/training plan and share my experiences with Runner’s World for the duration of the project.

I entered on the 7th and decisions were going to be made by today… I’ve heard nothing. Oh well. Life goes on!

My current training is going okay, however I did some speedwork on Wednesday which consisted of 1 min fast run, 1 min slow recovery jog, 2 min fast, 2 min slow, 3 min fast, 3 min slow, 4 min fast, 4 min slow, 5 min fast and 5 min slow (30 mins in total). I had a 10 minute jog to warm up and some stretches beforehand.

The next day (Thursday) my achilles on my left foot (it’s always my left foot) was kind of tender again and stiff, which means this injury of mine isn’t going to go away anytime soon! I took a day off from training on Thursday and stayed at home. I have always continued to do stretches for my legs of every shape and size as well as strengthening exercises and I’ll keep doing these.

I don’t want it to get so bad that I need physio or anything because I’ve been to physiotherapists before for other things and they seem to make them much worse before they make them better! I don’t have good experiences with them.

Ran today (an hour – 10.3 km) and will have a long slow run on Sunday.

My weight is still hovering around the 100.5 kg mark and I’m pushing for the big drop to the double digits! I’ll let you know when it happens.

Achilles/Calf Stretches

Step1 – Gastroc stretch. Lean into wall, keeping affected leg back straight, heel on floor and turned slightly outward. Stretch should be felt in calf.

Step2 – Soleus stretch. Similar to above with affected leg back but knees slightly bent; lean into wall until stretch is felt in lower calf.

Step3 – Achilles tendon stretch. Stand with toes on stair, heels off the edge. Raise up on toes, then down as far as possible. Return to starting position.

Related posts:

1. Track Session
2. No Running!
3. Back at it!

Related posts:

1. Chunky Virtual Runner dot com?
2. See ya New Brunswick!!
3. Day of Rest

If you’re wondering how I track my distance and route; I use my Nike+ sensor (with my iPod) to log the distances and Google Earth to map it out. First I do my log so I know my total distance to date. Then, I map out the path on the roads on Google Earth to find my exact(ish) location. Seems to work pretty good for me although the Nike+ system under-cuts my mileage most of the time.

I completed the Mortimer 10k without too many problems, however the whole last couple of kms was uphill! What a pain (literally) that was. It was good though and worth the whole £6 I paid to do it…lol. I’ll definitely do that one again next year. Now I’m just waiting for my finish time to be put up on the website. I know it was 57 mins but I don’t know the secs yet. I’ll update the site when I know.

I’ve also updated my events page and put in some planned runs/events for 2009. Take a look.
On another note, I’ve decided that I’m going to give Nike trainers (sneakers) a break. I’ve been running in Nike shoes since I started and I’m beginning to wonder if they might be part of the reason for my occassional heel and leg pain. Regardless, I’ve decided to try Asics shoes and I will buy a pair over the next month or so. This will give me time to put some miles in them before the Reading Half-Marathon so I can determine whether they are any better or not.

Weight: 225lbs (102kg)

My girlfriend/fiance and my daughter were looking at old photos the other day and they commented about how much weight I’ve lost. It was nice to hear and made me feel good. I’m looking forward to going down to about 210lbs (95kg) in time for the Reading Half-Marathon. I’m confident that I’ll be able to achieve my sub 2 hour time at that weight and with the right amount of training.

Related posts:

1. Running Logs
2. Moving the blog
3. Slow Train to Painville

As you can see I haven’t been writing that often and I do apologise for that. I did explain in my very first post that I’m not great at remembering to do things. This site can be testament to that sometimes. In fact, I’m also guilty of not updating my mileage on hear more regularly and I will resolve that today.

The running is okay at the moment, even though my mileage is way down to what it was and I’m also feeling a bit sluggish. I’m slowly building back up again to around 40km +/- per week until after Christmas when I’ll build up again in the run-up to the Reading Half-Marathon. I’ll also be starting a reduction in calorie intake over the next couple of weeks to get my weight down. This will allow me to acheive my goal of a sub-2 hour race in March.

You may have noticed if you looked at “My Events” that I’ve got a race/event this weekend in Mortimer. I’m really not mentally prepared for it but I want to do it anyway. It’s not going to be a PB as far as time goes but it will give me the kick up the backside I need at the moment. I love the feeling of a race and how it makes you push yourself that little bit more. And, it’s a great feeling to cross the finish line whether you come in first (I’m assuming as I never come close to first place) or last (more likely).

I’ve been thinking about posting my weight on here on a regular basis as a motivator for myself to see the progession as it reduces. So, to start off:

Weight: 227lbs (103kg)

I’ve gotta go update my current running log on this site and my current location on the map. I’m pretty sure I’ve run right through my old stomping ground of Fredericton, New Brunswick by now.

Related posts:

1. See ya New Brunswick!!
2. Full of Crap
3. The Running Continues

I went for a run yesterday. Yeah it was only an easy run for about 6.5km but it was nice to get the legs moving again. My biggest concern during the run was my achilles on my left foot cause it still doesn’t feel quite right. More stiff than anything. I’ve continued to stretch it out and do strengthening exercises so I’ll just build up gradually again and see what happens.

Today also marks the day I begin my big weightloss task. I’m happy that I’ve shed about 2 stone (28lbs) since I started all this running but I want to drop it even further. I really want to do the Reading Half in under 2 hours with no probs and I will have a better chance of achieving my goal at around 15 stone (210lbs) or even closer to 14 1/2 stone (203lbs).

The mileage goes back up and the calorie intake goes down. No problem. I already eat all the right things, I just eat too much of them… lol.

I’ll let you know how it’s going.

Related posts:

1. Mothers Day and the See Food Diet
2. Juneathon – Day 10 (Living Away from Family)
3. DOMS and a Lesson Learned