Bloodsport vs Underseige

As Xmas approaches I must admit training has gone a bit downhill. Celebratory drinks and meals are giving me vital energy stores for the real training which starts in January. I just need to ensure the Xmas and New Year carbo-loading remains fairly calm. Sarah and I are in Hong Kong over this period so the warmer weather should allow for some training.

My brother and I are addicted to the quality movie offerings on ITV2 which usually dish up a variety of Steven Seagal or Jean Claude Van Damme blockbusters. The exception being other classics such as Cliffhanger or Roadhouse. The one thing I always wonder is who would win if they had to take on each other. Would the cook in Underseige destroy the undercover cop in Death Warrant?

This clip clearly highlights Seagals skills: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMu2xNBpyQc

Whilst this one shows Jean Claudes moves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOIJtS4gbaY

I would probably back Jean Claude as he has not put on 30kilograms like the cook has. I'll be giving myself a weigh-in after I get back from Hong Kong which I hope will not be too scary, and use that as a base to work from. Its always good to have goals.

Have a Merry Xmas and good New year!

Airport Hotels

I have been in Northern Ireland for two days on business. I stayed in a lovely hotel last night with a spa attached, fantastic restaurant, plush room, spotless bathroom and massaging shower. I am meeting some people tomorrow morning at the airport at 8am so decided to check into the hotel at the airport. The yawning gap between the two hotels is incredible. I know people always say airport hotels are a little shady, but I went downstairs to ask for a towel as my room did not have any, the tattooed 50 year old war-horse behind the counter said "Sorry its out"??? The heating in the room is not working so tried making a cup of coffee to warm up, but I think the coffee has been here a while as it came out like a sugar cube and has a slightly grey colour. I am very concerned about the full Irish breakfast included in the room charge!

On the training front my ankle is still giving me grief so the mileage has dried up. I cycled into work on Monday and the ankle felt fine although I think that had to do with the freezing cold weather and slight hypothermia. Planning on picking up the running again on the weekend if I survive the night in this place. If you never hear from me again you know I have died from being eaten by bed lice or choked on the black pudding and champ breakfast.

Engaged!

Well training has taken a back seat in the past two weeks. I wrote two exams last week with my last run being a 10 mile. I also damaged my ankle so exams were good timing to take a break. Sarah and I also took a mini-break up to Edinburgh for three days. We stayed with my Aunt who has a delightful flat. The saying "Its grim up North" certainly applied to the weather while we were there. It must be 3-5 degrees colder than London. Just as well Sarah did not suggest any outdoor running. I have a feeling Long -Johns would be required and I have not worn those since High School.

The big news though is on Tuesday evening I proposed and Sarah said YES! I realise a few of you are probably in shock. I know I was destined to marry into Royalty or become Anne Robinsons 5th husband, but Sarah it is. Hahaha, just joking. I think you will be more shocked she said Yes to me! More surprising to me was how smooth my plan went. I had to lie when I went to buy the ring, the hide it in my shoe in my suitcase on the way up to Edinburgh. Then transition it to my pocket and finally onto the table. Seamless. I am thinking of changing careers and moving into Choreographing... Picture below is the moment after she said yes! You can see I am in shock.
















So I suggested we run the Paris Marathon and have everyone in the wedding party either running or waiting at the finish line and we get married right there. NO was the reply I got. Still I am very creative so will think of another gem of an idea soon. Back to running this weekend finally. Need to put some more miles into my legs before the Turkey season kicks in.

Lightning legs no more.....

Sitting at home sipping on an Italian red from the Sunday Times Wine Club, on my own. Sarah has gone out with a friend she has not seen in ages to leave me to study at home. I have been studying for most of the day, apart from setting up a new DVD player and not left the flat. The problem I had though was running out of bread and milk at about 9am this morning. So not eaten much, until Sarah came home to drop her bags off. She brought with her bread from heaven and milk from a cow. I went about rustling up one of my favourite dishes, eggs Ala Campbell. Such a tasty dish with some scrambled "walk around the farm hen" eggs on hand made rye toast lined with Italian wafer thin ham and french mature cheese, organic Ghanaian tomato's on the side and a blend of proper greasy spoon red and brown sauce to top it all. Very tasty although not sure it should be a pre-run meal. Okay will use it for special occasions like when I cook Sarah a romantic meal accompanied with a bottle of South Africa's finest wine, Tassenberg available here for £5.95.










So Rocky did the trick, yesterday before setting off for Tooting Common I psyched myself up with my favourite and brilliant motivational speak by Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday. It reminds me of my Dad giving me and my team a lecture at half time during a football match, althought the effect was lost on 8 year olds. At first my shins felt like Stuart Pearce and Neil Ruddock had sandwiched me in a tackle, but after a while things loosed up. I intended going 12 kilometers and ended up doing 22 kilometers. Very proud of myself I got home, and had an early night. I woke up this morning and it felt like someone had removed my legs and used them to smash down a non-load bearing wall to make their kitchen and lounge a modern expansive studio style space, then reattached them before I woke up. Its been good for the studying as I have not wanted to do much walking about so been stuck at the table all day.

The weekend weather is looking a bit rubbish really as you can see on the right of the page, so might try do some running tomorrow when avoid the rain, wind and cold on Sunday and stay indoors. I also need to come up with a motivating, inspiring playlist for the iPod. I think that's what kept me going on my run yesterday. So any suggestions please let me know. Right back to the red wine and a toast to Scotland "Lets stuff the Italians!!!"

Eye of the Tiger...

I am off this week on study leave with exams on Monday & Thursday next week. So the house is spotless, the oven cleaned, cupboards re-arranged and now I can start studying. Just joking the work is going okay but its meant a lack of focus on doing running. I have done a few runs and went to the gym yesterday. Thought I would get there at about 11am and it would be quiet. Did not realise that was the same time the Steroid Squad worked out. Did some treadmill and machine weights all to the beautiful sounds of weights being dropped, faces slapped and guys shouting "you can do it Krzysztof, one more" and the cry of "Arrrggghhhhh" then some high fives and some low fives. It beat the day time TV in the gym.

Sarah has been doing quite a bit of training and did the Grand Union Canal Half Marathon on Sunday. She did a fantastic time of 1:32 coming third in the ladies race. A new personal best. The scary thing is I am meant to keep up in the marathon. So yesterday I went and bought myself some Powerades and a lot of banana's with good intentions of hitting the gym this morning. But started studying and before I knew it the day was gone. However I just pulled out the ultimate motivation weapon. Who can forget the warrior cries of "Adrian......Adrian!!!!" Yes you guessed it. Rocky Balboa. Have had the new movie sitting on the DVD player for ages. I finally thought it was time to believe again. I have just pulled out my old school grey wooly matching tracksuit. And tomorrow I am going to pound the roads for an hour or so. My iPod is loaded with classic tunes from the movie as well as other classics like Bros & Milli Vanilli. To quote Apollo Creed:


"See that look in their eyes, Rock? You gotta get that look back, Rock. Eye of the tiger, man." Rocky III

Steroids for Xmas?

Its been a busy week work-wise. Like all good retailers we launched our Xmas campaign about 8 weeks before the actual event takes place, so now our stores are all bright red, fake snowflakes on the windows, the credits song from Die Hard I (fantastic movie) playing in stores. “Oh the weather outside is………” Training wise its been a little lean this week. I did the 12km river run on Tuesday.

I cycled into work in bright sunshine, lovely day outside. The temperatures this week have been very pleasant indeed. The river run starts at Putney Bridge, you tear along the river front, round Craven Cottage Stadium, back onto the river, past the office of Betfair, then over Hammersmith bridge, back along the other side. I had real problems with the glare of the sunshine on that side. I might need to bring out the “Big” sunglasses to prevent me running into cyclists and other runners. You then run past all the rowing clubs, over Putney bridge and back to the office. It’s a pretty good route, except the last section where you have grumpy looking people in big dark coats waiting for delayed buses. They don’t take to well to a guy in a bright running top with “Eye of the Tiger” blaring through his Ipod prancing past them. The worst thing from my point of view is having to run a lot quicker when people are around so you look good.

Sarah has been doing some training this week but also had a pretty busy working week. She is running this afternoon so I am going to have to sneak in some training behind her back to try keep in touch. We recently ran a 10 mile race and she finished about 8 minutes ahead of me. My male ego is still recovering. I have looked into horse steroids and other performance enhancing products. I even emailed ben.johnson@idrankfromthewrongbottle.com but got no reply.

Off to a comedy club this evening to get abused by some hack who has nicked material from classic comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld. Prior to that, meeting my brother for a drink at Tiger Tiger. He asked me to mention him in this blog. He lives and works in Colchester, has been single for quite a while now and is desperate to meet someone. If you know of any single females who list freckles, curly hair, large ears and fake teeth please let me know and I’ll pass on his details.

Have a good weekend!

Now the Sun comes out!

Yesterday was our long run with the club. I woke up to a miserable looking day, no rain but it was threatening. We have joined the Wimbledon Winmilers who are a very friendly and welcoming club. Three groups leave at 10am, a 3 mile, 5 mile & 7 mile. For longer runs a group leaves at 9:30am. Sarah normally runs the earlier time so I decided to join them. Some very fit guys and ladies in this early group. We set off with most people doing between 11 - 15 miles.

I ended up running with an Irish student as we were both going at about the same pace. Had a good chat along the way about her Masters in Drawing she was doing. Felt good all the way round, the rain started coming down towards the end but at least it was fairly warm. Ended up doing about 11 miles.

Today is a rest day although on my cycle into work some guy on a very flash bike came tearing past me at a traffic light. I could not let this injustice take place so broke a few land speed records and got onto his tail and slip-streamed for a while which he did not seem to enjoy. So legs got a brief workout.

Happy with the weekly mileage I did - 32 miles. Just need to keep it up this week.

Get up, don't roll over

Friday morning and Sarah had just left for work, my body needed more sleep. But my mind wanted more running miles. Instead of rolling over I got up and cycled into work. Changed into my running shoes and did the 12km run along the Thames again.

Had some rubbing on the arches of my feet on Thursday's run and by the end of this run I knew I had acquired some blisters. Sure enough a big blister on each foot. Sunday is my long run day so I got some Compeed blister patches and now hoping they do the trick.

I have new running shoes which strangely I got from Harrods. Now before you start thinking I have inherited money or won the lottery, they ran a great promotion recently where you got a free pair of shoes with every pair you bought. So Sarah and I both got two new pairs each. I have always ran in Asics and up till now stuck with the 1100. But I upgraded to the 2120's. They feel a lot more structured and I am enjoying them so far. The blisters came from running in very cheap office socks. Not going to make that mistake again!

Today is a rest day, I am studying while Sarah gets pampered at a Spa for the afternoon. Looking forward to doing a longer run tomorrow, rain predicted.

Kick Start

Kicked off my training for the Paris Marathon this week. Only got into running about 16 months ago. Had done the odd 10km run once a year. Met Sarah who is an excellent runner and my girlfriend. She caused me to catch the running bug. Have done a few 10km, 10mile and 15mile runs and have now taken the plunge to do a Marathon. Paris in May. We are doing a half marathon in March in case your wondering.

We are doing the run ourselves but thought we would try and raise some money for charity anyway. So have setup a website to do so, raising money for Starfish, who look after orphaned children affected by Aids. http://www.justgiving.com/jasonsarah

I'll be updating our progress on our training in the build up to Paris through the winter months. We have joined a running club which should help keep us motivated.

Did a 12km run this morning along the Thames, very fresh and I was thankful I had some thermal wear on. Although it looks like I may need to get out the running tights.

I cycle to work and back so hoping that is helping the fitness as well.