Blog :: The Armchair Athlete

The BIG DAY

27/05/2014 13:32

Well 'Marathon Day' came and went, so how did I do? I haven't updated this site much recently, mainly because I hadn't been doing much training and the last six weeks I did nothing at all. Having started off enthusiastically last August, by Christmas my motivation was waning. I decided to have a break and begin the marathon programme in the first week of February. It started off at a pace and the sessions and the distances increased rapidly. I started to get frustrated by a seeming lack of...

No Excuses

28/12/2013 19:30

Well no excuses. Well maybe a couple. The couple I used to justify to myself why I wasn't training. The thing is that since I started this whole marathon running madness I've been given all kinds of advice and read loads of stuff on the net. Your starting too early. you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to eat this and you need to stop that. I think I kind of overloaded on it and expected amazing results overnight. When that didn't happen it was easy to take any reason not to run....

Wanted Down Under !

11/10/2013 19:22

Wanted down under. Or at least my blogs are. Here I am thinking that nobody reads my ramblings but today I received an email from my wee pal Debs who I used to work with and who now lives in the much warmer climes of Australia. She assures me that working with me has nothing to do with her move to Oz. So Hi Debs, hope you and the family are all well and if you want to invite me out to train in the sunshine feel free! As my old pal Debs has rightly pointed out, it's been a couple of weeks since...

Fine Company

19/09/2013 23:39

Well fine company indeed. This is Kenenisa Bekele pipping Mo Farah at the line of the Bupa Great North Run last Sunday, followed very closely by the 40 year old Haile Gebrselassie. Well I'm sure they were glad to hear that I hadn't entered the race, I wouldn't want to embarrass them. I did however do my own 10 miler on Sunday morning and I was pretty pleased with my time. Like the Great North Run route my course had a couple of hills in it too and I completed...

Lows and Highs

27/08/2013 20:52

I know it's normally Highs and Lows but as I'm starting on a low we'll go with that. Following lasts weeks running mishap I ventured out on Saturday for my weekly cycle. I followed the same route as last week and spookily enough it took me the same time. I then went and played snooker for a few hours ate two hamburgers and then drank about 8 maybe even 10 pints of beer. The next morning I was scheduled to walk briskly for 60 minutes. Disillusioned by my apparent lack of progress I decided to...

No Pain - No Gain !

23/08/2013 14:00

We've all heard the phrase "No Pain No Gain" I've got a new take on that this week and it feels more like all pain no gain. Well that at least was how I was feeling each time I went to run intervals again. Now I'm only too well aware that the intervals I'm doing are not supposed to be difficult but believe me they are for me. The other day I went out to do what I thought was walk 5 minutes, run 3 minutes, repeat twice and walk for 10 to cool down. I stepped out of the door switched on the...

And The Pain Begins

18/08/2013 22:13

As I've already mentioned I've decided to start training now in a bid to get fit enough to complete a pre-marathon training programme. Week one which for me started on 1st August consisted mainly of lengthy walks, at least I consider them lengthy.... I basically did this walk four times the first week and towards the end of the week I tried a little jogging and discovered that I was even less fit than I thought. Week 2 This was basically a repeat of week one but having purchased my training...

Rash Decisions

05/08/2013 21:00

Be careful of having too much time on your hands. On Monday 29th July I was laying in bed watching TV and pondering what I could do to fill some time. It needed to be something that would give me a new interest, something that I could do on a regular basis, something that wasn't work or dealing with domestic issues or just plain boring. Then I began to wonder if I could become a local councillor so that I could put right all the things that I disliked in the community. I was pretty sure my job...

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