2008 Roundup....

I think its safe to say that 2008 has been a painful year, both my injuries are on going but as you can see from the figures below it doesn't seem to stop me (well it doesn't hurt when running/cycling its only when i stop it bl00dy hurts). Not done as many events this year as i would have liked but the highlight was the 6633 and I'm very much looking forward to going back in 09.

During 2008, well 10 months of it (I've had 2 months of little or no training due to injuries) my GPS tells me that I have spent just short of 400 hours of my life running/walking/cycling about 3200 miles (the actual figure is higher as i have not GPS'd all activities)

Looking forward to 2009, as mentioned I've got the 6633 (352 miles in the Arctic) in March, then in May I have a place in the Grand Union Canal race (147 miles non stop from Birmingham to London), and then if all goes to plan I want to have a go at the Tooting Bec 24hr race (to see how far i can run round and round a 400m track in 24hrs), and of course i will have to defend my team title at the Brecon Ultra....

Festive greetings to everybody except a certain dog owner and a driver in Chingford

A eventful bike ride today, firstly a very excitable dog took quite a fancy to my ankles and managed to pull me off the bike, the owner had absolutely no control of the dog, it only let go of my ankle when it noticed a couple of swans and decided they were more interesting than me, a few choice words to the owner and i was back on my bike and peddling rapidly off in the opposite direction, then a narrow miss when a car pulled out of it's parking space on Chingford High St. almost had me off. Its quite amazing how many people don't see a 6ft bloke in bright red or orange top when I'm out running or cycling...

How Good is That

by Jane Tomlinson, what a amazing book and what an amazing woman, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2000 she went on to do among other things run several marathons, do a full iron man, cycled from John o' Groats to Land's End, cycled from Rome to Leeds, a MBE and a CBE, the BBC sports personality of the year award and the subject of this book cycled from San Francisco to New York, over the last few years she raised nearly £2million for charity....unfortunately she lost her battle to cancer in Sept. 2007 - i think for next years 6633 ultra i will be raising money for her charity (http://www.janesappeal.com/)

A bit of this and a bit of that

A bit of a mixture this week and i done plenty of walking, cycling, cross training, weight training and running this week, even though i have been in San Diego everything but the walking has been done in the gym at the hotel (one of the benefits of 24hr access to a gym), the down side is that my leg has been sore all week to the point that it was too sore to run on Thursday, went for a walk instead and as usual once it got warmed up it stopped hurting, roll on the 9th of Jan when i back to the specialist to see what can be done about it.

Even going on holiday is a marathon

well a marathon journey, London to Newark (New York) 8hrs, 3hrs delay in Newark, Newark to San Diego should be 5hrs eventually took 10hrs, because of the head wind we ran out of fuel(!) and had to stop in Phoenix and then continue on to San Diego, total journey time from door to door was 24hrs, to make this post running related my ankle is quite sore after being wedged into a plane seat for all that time but after a walk this morning all seems fine.....

A rest full week

Well after last weekends Brecon Ultra i have had a rest full week, a couple of short walks on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and a hours run in the pouring rain on Saturday. Next week I'm off to San Diego for the week so hopefully their will be plenty of running by the sea, walking and training in the hotel gym.
Looks like I've made a good decision not to do the Round Rotherham today, the weather looks like its going to be even worse than it was last year and that was pretty grim...

Everybody's a winner...

Us ultra runners are all winners, but this weekend i was an actual real proper winner, as a last minute replacement in Team Spock, Steve E, Cookie and myself were the winning team in the inaugural Beacons Ultra, on a personal note i finished 14th out of 65 starters and considering the pain i had in my right hip for about half the course i was well chuffed with a time of 9hr 58mins on quite a tough course....Injury update:- ankle took quite a battering and is a little swollen but will be fine in a day or so, groin didn't hurt at all (even I'm beginning to think its might be all in the mind), right hip pain is a new one to me which probably slowed me by at least an hour, will see what effect a couple of days rest has and take it from there.

Matt and the Likeys boys and girls put on a great event and i'm looking forward to defending the team title in next years event.... http://www.beaconsultra.com/

Just go and see the man in the back of the lorry

Yesterday i had the MRI scan of my troublesome ankle in the back of a lorry!! (best i explain - the lorry was a mobile MRI scanner used by the NHS), today i had the ultrasound scan of both the ankle and groin.
You don't get to see the images from the MRI until you see the consultant but i was shown the ultrasound images the good news is that ultrasound man was unable to see any obvious problems, the bad news is that if the consultant also can't see anything then we are no nearer to finding out the cause, that said the ultrasound man did say that for my ankle a image was a much better way to diagnose the cause.
I see the consultant in Janary so will continue to train and put up with the post training pain....