March - Action packed!

Hello

Sorry for the slow post on this one. This month was always going to be a hard one as so many of the weekends I had things on, and weekends are prime training days for the longer runs. Much to my surprise though I managed to get a grand total of 12 runs in. However first the more exciting things. My friend Alice from Uni who now lives in Mexico popped over to the UK to have a blessing ceremony for her recent marriage to Hiro. This took place on St Patrick's day hence the great picture of Alice at the party afterwards. It was great to catch up with people and thoroughly enjoyable!

The following weekend I went up to Bonny Scotland to see both my Scottish cousins (Stephen & Judith) as it was Stephen's 21st birthday and another friend from Uni (Jemma). Aberdeen was great and Glasgow was full of surprises as I found out it had an underground especially designed for small people (or wee people in Scottish)

For the final weekend Stephen came down to visit me as he wanted to see a Bolton match and it was his Uni Holidays. We managed to see the mighty mighty Bolton wanderers make a bit of a meal of the game, but eventually win 1-0 against Sheffield United! Lot's of excitement as we were sat near the away fans so lots of "friendly" words flowed between the empty 8 seats separating us!

Back to the training though, a good month and I managed to get three Eminem (8 mile) runs in
6.2km
03/03 - 31:20
10/03 - 27:57
15/03 - 28:59

10km
02/03 - 53:26
05/03 - 51:21
06/03 - 52:20
09/09 - 53:34
25/03 - 49:39
28/03 - 50:32

13km (8 miles)
11/03 - 1:03:05
13/03 - 1:03:10
19/03 - 1:00:19

Anyway, next month I'm hoping to get a few cross country runs in to try and reduce the pressure on my knees. There's no trouble with them currently but I don't want to wait till there is so it would be great to run on some soft turf :) I've bought an OS map centred on South Stockport so in theory I should know where all the public footpaths are!

Cheers

Andy

Fun in the Sun on the menu for 2009

Hello,

Just a short blog entry, but last week I got my confirmation through that I currently have a place on the 2009 Marathon des Sables. It's fairly daunting at the moment as there's an awful lot of training I've got to do, and its a long way off so I'm trying to keep calm about and focus on the events I've got before it. Briefly though, the MdS covers 243km/151 miles (in sections similar to 25, 34, 38, 82, 42, 22 km) run over 6 days (7 for some) - equivalent to 5 1/2 regular marathons. This takes place in the Sahara dessert where sadly you have to carry all the stuff you need on your back but water and a tent.

A fair bit of preparation will be needed by me for this even forgetting the running bit, but it should be an experience and a half.

Cheers

Andy

February - A good month to be born in!

Hello,

Well this month has been eventful. At the start of the month I had a dull ache on my left hip, after a series of runs it hadn't gone away and as it had been hanging around for a while I started talking to some of the veteran runners at work. The advice was to get it checked out straight away by a professional. So I did. Off to a local sports physio in Stockport I went!. A first for me so I didn't know what to expect. After a thorough examination I was diagnosed with Trochanteric Bursitis and I also had a really tight Iliotibial band on my left leg... none of which I understood at the time! To cut to the chase though, the prime suspects for this are that it turns out I have one leg longer than the other, and low arches. After some sports massages, anti inflammatory gel, heel raise and low arch support in my running shoes, things seemed to get better. I think only the long run will tell though.

My training for this month was good, especially considering the injury. I upped the distance to 10km although I did reduce it after my injury was diagnosed temporarily.

6.2km
03/02 - 26:50
07/02 - 27:12
14/02 - 27:20

10km
04/02 - 50:29
06/02 - 50:13
17/02 - 50:04
18/02 - 50:46
20/02 - 50:16
27/02 - 48:18

The last run I did push a little on, but I still had a little left. For March, I think I'll just consolidate this months work and if I'm still feeling well, maybe try an 8 miler in the last week of March.

Andy

An Inconvenient Graph

Just following on from a post on Pie's blog about global warming. Here is the clip from "An Inconvenient Truth" with the graph in that I mentioned in a reply. Says it far better than any words of mine could...



I have the DVD of "An Inconvenient Truth" if anyone who hasn't seen it wishes to borrow it.

January - The start of the hill climb!

Hi,

At the end of December I set myself the target of doing 8 training runs this month. I didn't manage that sadly. I was on course to achieve this and then a combination of not taking the opportunity early enough in the day to go for a run, and then getting rained off, and a bizarre short term injury (I think I slept on my back funny) stopped me.

Its not all doom and gloom though as it was still a good overall month

6.2km
03/01 - 27:41
07/01 - 27:11
10/01 - 27:06
13/01 - 26:21
14/01 - 26:26
16/01 - 27:13
28/01 - 25:50 - New all time PB

I probably pushed a little too hard on the last run, as its not a good thing to come back from time out and push so hard you get a PB as the odds of injury are high. I think I was lucky this time as it does not appear to have had any ill effect.

My left hip is still aching sadly. I think I'll invest in a new pair of running shoes as I've read that this should be one of the first things you consider when niggly injuries start happening and I've had my current pair for a year now. It's a shame as they still look in good condition, but that doesn't mean the shock absorbent properties are still good.

For February my aim is to complete a few 10km runs as well as some 6.2km ones. I'll set the target of 8 runs again as I've got quiet a few busy weekend and I don't know if I'll get as much time as I'd like.

Cheers

Andy

And so it begins (again)

Hello!

Well hello to 2007! In between the 2006 Great Manchester run and December 2006, I'd done very little jogging. My exercise ended up being limited to football once a week and several swimming sessions. I eventually stopped the swimming sessions as the water seemed to wreck my throat and nose for a couple of days after each sessions, which was not the most fun (I guess its something they put in the water).

As December 2006 started I felt the need to get back out there jogging. At this point I'd manage to hit an all time high of 12 stone in weight, and put this down to the lack of daily walking now that I only have a 3 minute walk to work. This isn't too great running wise, as it's at least half a stone more than last year, and carrying half an extra stone around doesn't help you when you're jogging!

So with a little reluctance, I started my running up again. The point of this first month's training is to purely get my body use to running again. I kept track of the time, but that wasn't the focus, just the number of times I got out. This months training times are below:

6.2km
09/12 - 29:22
12/12 - 29:33
23/12 - 28:22
26/12 - 28:03
29/12 - 28:56
30/12 - 27:16

Overall I was pleased with this months training. I didn't start at the beginning of the month, and with Christmas and New Year I could easily have found excuses to not do many runs. By the end of this, the old ache had just started to come back in my left hip. I'm not worried about it at this stage but will keep tabs on it and start searching the running sites for info if it persists.

For January's runs I'd like to set myself the target of getting 8 in total done. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll try and get a 10km in by the end, but distance and speed are not my targets at this stage in the training, just the number of runs.

All the best for the New Year to all, and for those of you starting any New Year exercise regime up, good luck.

Cheers

Andy

Stack 'em high, Sell 'em cheap, and be dammed with the consequences

Hello

Well October is almost over, and an interesting (or lucky) month it's been in the world of Nuclear power. Australian Prime Minister John Howard seems even more intent then our own Mr Blair at ramming Nuclear Power down the throat of the voters. Not content with just that, but Australia has recently signed a £100 million a year deal to sell Uranium to China.

It was a particularly bad month (well I'm hoping this isn't normal at least!) for the mighty US of A on the Nuclear Power front. In just October alone, it had to shut down 3 reactors scattered round the country in Phoneix, Dallas and Surry (Virginia).

St Peterburgs reputation as a tourist destination could have been somewhat tarnished if one plant in Russia hadn't been shut down also.

Thankfully, whatever those foreginers can do, we can do right here in the UK too. We managed two fairly serious incidents in the UK. Perhaps the most worrying line from the report being "The company said at the time that it was unlikely to carry out inspections and repairs at all the units simultaneously because of a lack of manpower."!!!!! Perfetic. Strangely I heard nothing through the UK media I watch/read about this.

And my point? Just that Nuclear power plants will malfunction, and that we're totally reliant on the safety systems to work(or in the case of Forsmark-Sweden shut down on my last post about Nuclear power, a rather quick thinking engineer who overrided a safety system!) or massive consequences will happen. A bit different to if a coal plant burns down or a wind turbine breaks.

Cheers

Andy

(Not so) Great Britain

There's been an unusual amount of press coverage on how Brtiain compares with our European neighbours recently. I thought I'd sum it up below:

• Britain is now the fattest nation in Europe
• Britain is now the most debt ridden nation in Europe (and by a long way at double the European average)
• Britain is the most wasteful nation in Europe

Now to get one of these could just be one of those things, but to get all three... well it has to speak about some core fundamental problems that the average (though not every) British person has?

So I wondered what it was? My first thought was "Laziness", that explains fat and wasteful easily, but debt ridden? I wasn't convinced it explain that. My next thought was "Selfish", that explained wasteful and debt ridden (I deserve a new sports car), but not fatness so well.

Then I struck upon "Impatient"

• Most bad foods are quick foods whether they be chocolate bars or microwave meals. Your average Brit can't "spare" the time to cook a proper meal regularly as there's so much on TV to watch!
• Waiting 6 months till you can actually afford your next major purchase, rather than simply adding it to your credit card and getting it now, is simply to long for your average Brit.
• Your average Brit doesn't think twice about the wasted energy used simply to save them spending 3 seconds to turn the TV on and off or driving to work 3 miles away when there is a bus every 15 mintues.

Which leads me to my last question. Are you an "average" Brit?

Nuclear Power – The wrong answer to the right question

So it seems in the wonderful democracy that is the UK, that Tony Blair has single-handedly reversed the Labour parties original policy on Nuclear power, and now wants to introduce a fresh phase of Nuclear power plant building. No need for consultation with the voters, the usual tried and tested tactic of release Tony’s officially opinion before the report is finished and effectively spike it will do. Mind you the report was written with the help of some not so unconnected third parties, so it looks like Tony had all bases covered on this one!

I feel there is a lot of rubbish talked about nuclear power. The biggest problem the Green argument has is the apparent logic behind the “Nuclear power doesn’t release CO2 so is therefore a green energy source and needed to meet our Kyoto target”. So I’ve put together my thoughts on the matter to share with the world.

So does Nuclear power release Greenhouse gasses?
Not an easy one to answer. However one thing that should certainly be taken into account is total cost throughout its lifecycle. I read in the Ecologist that during construction each Nuclear reactor releases 20 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Nuclear reactors are obviously specialist pieces of equipment, with Japan being one of the few producers, and shipping a Nuclear reactor from Japan obviously uses a lot of fuel up! Also, because of the risk of the plant having a Nuclear meltdown, they tend to be built in remote places, like in the highlands of Scotland, which generally means loads of infrastructure needs to be specifically created.

CO2 is also released during the mining and refining of Nuclear power. Nuclear fuel rods are made by smashing up rocks which contain trace amounts of Uranium. Anything greater than 0.02% of Uranium per ton is considered good. This expends CO2 obviously, and has the minor side effect of some of the radioactive Uranium being released into the air in dust particles… so that’s all right then.

Most Greenhouse gases however are released during the conversion & enrichment process. Here, dangerous chemicals are used to purify the yellow cake ore to produce the high concentration of Uranium-235. Half a tonne of fluorine is used to turn one tonne of Uranium into it’s gas form which is part of the process. The global warming potential for Flourinated compunds is a not so insignificant 10,000 greater than CO2! Oh dear!

So does a Nuclear power plant release less than more traditional power stations? It’s hard to sum up really. The general consensus seems to be they release less, but the ways in which Nuclear power contribute towards global warming are much more hidden and complicated that I certainly don’t believe when combined with the other downsides that it is a better option than traditional forms of energy generation which you know where you are with.

Energy Security of Nuclear Power
“Ah, but Nuclear power is a more secure energy resource!”. Is it though? I read in the Ecologist that the spot price of Uranium has risen by 600% in the last four years! It makes sense, with Japan, Canada, US, China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa all increasing their nuclear capacity, demand has increased, which leads to price rises. So what about future supply of Uranium then? Australia has the worlds biggest reserves (40%). However, Australia has shown a lack of will to turn there country into a giant Uranium mine, and presumably worried about radioactive pollution have banned any new mines from opening. So what about the rest? They are divided handily into two camps. We have countries like Canada(3rd), South Africa(4th), Brazil(6th), Russia(7th) and the US(8th) of stable countries which are all increasing their own number of nuclear power stations, so presumably will be using their own Uranium rather than buying it from other countries, and so may have less to export in the future. The second group, is full of unstable countries such as Kazakhstan(2nd), Namibia(5th) & Uzbekistan (9th). All personal opinion of course, but it’s not a recipe for stable prices in my book, and it's important to note that the extreme start up costs of Nuclear commit you to using it for 60 plus years to get your return on investment, and who can predict what shape the political and world situation will be in 60 years?

What about the waste?
Well the UK government is big on irony, and it doesn’t come much bigger than two recent announcements in what can only be described as “joined up government” at its best. The first is that Tony wants his legacy to be new Nuclear power plants. The second being that according to our own government department responsible for dealing with radioactive waste, it will take 40 years to find a geologically stable place to bury our current waste, some of which has been sitting around in leaky tanks for 50 years or more! All for the bargain price of £70 billion (equivalent to cost of building 140 new super hospitals). And who pays for this clean up, well of course, it's the tax payers! Brilliant, not only have they already paid once for Nuclear power on their electricity bill, but they now get to pay twice for it! How very efficient we are! Just imagine what a £70 billion investment into renewables would bring? There'd be no need for the next generation of Nuclear power plants to be built as we'd have so much being generated from renewables that would easily make up the lack of future Nuclear power contribution to our energy mix. So Emperor Blair is proposing to continue this vicious cycle of Nuclear power sapping investment away from truely Green methods of producing electricity; he's such a forward thinking Prime Minister after all.

Recent Problems in the Nuclear Industry
Surely all the bad press about Nuclear accidents is all in the past now right? I mean, they been running them for so long that they’ve sorted out all the “little” problems by now? Well the answer is of course no. Sadly there’s no such thing as a fool proof design. Combined with the fact that humans don’t always do what they are told. Throw in the pressures of shareholders wanting large dividends and private Nuclear Power plants are under pressure. Some recent examples of problems are:

• 4 nuclear plants in Sweden shut down due to a defective part being installed in 1993 and not being picked up in over a decade of “maintenance checks”. Strangely I found very little main stream media in Europe reporting this! Particularly the route cause! Of course, Sweden took the bold step in a referendum in 1980 to phase out Nuclear power… yet another field where their bold and decisive vision has put them ahead of the UK with it's stradle every fence possible and leave the decission till it's an emergency policy.
  
• That other high-tec, style conscious country in the world known as Japan also seems to have had recent troubles with nuclear power.
  

So there's two major incidents in just August 2006 described above, and those are just what I know! So with our Government record on major infrastructure projects do I have any confidence that we can do better than other leading countries... do I b#llocks!

So what can you do?
If you object to New Nuclear power stations being built, there are a few easy things you can do?

• The first is to sign the online petition for Europeans against Nuclear Power.
  
• Probably the most important thing you can do though is to email your MP expressing your concerns about the issue and that you are against it. So who is your MP? You can find out here, and it includes a handy bit where you can send them a message over the net.
  
• You can switch your electricity supplier to a green one like Good-Energy or Ecotricity that do not buy wholesale electricity from Nuclear power stations thereby reducing the economic demand for it, whilst also increasing the demand for renewables
  
• Finally, you can reduce your use of electricity by having energy saving lightbulbs, switching off Hi-Fi’s/TV’s when you leave the room, and generally not wasting it.
  

Anyway, I hope this post has given people something to thing about.

Cheers

Andy

Great Manchester Run 2006 Special

Hello,

Well I can't believe how quickly the jog blog has come full circle. Its hard to believe that it is now a year since the last time I ran this event. Time does seem to fly!

For those short on time my results for the race are below:

Forename(s) Surname Race Number Time Overall Position
Andrew Shirres 1347 41:01 446 out of 19771 who finished

This year the overall position also includes the Elite athletes (Male & Female), as well as Elite Athletes with a Disability. Needless to say I'm incredibly pleased with this time and position and whilst I was expecting to beat last years time of 45:20, I was not expecting to beat it by so much as this was an improvement of 9.5%!

Anyway, back to the start for those who have a bit more time to read....

The signs looked good. There were four waves in this years race, so that should space people out more and avoid traffic jams. I was in the first wave which should put me ahead of some of the traffic also. To top it off, Manchester's weather was behaving as it usually does with a light drizzle which would hopefully keep me cool on the way round to. The build up was the usual exciting affair with a good banter present among the fellow runners. Mark, Big Pete and Marple Phil were the runners I knew starting with me. I'd worked out the interval times I needed at each kilometer for 43 and 42 minutes finish times. I thought I'd aim for the 42 mins on the basis that if I failed I'd still have a chance of getting under 43.

The gun went, as we finally came to the start line, the adrenaline kicked in and the excitement of the event lifted me. For the first 100 metres it was more of a speed walk than a run, but it quickly cleared and I started threading my way through the crowd. I remember getting to the 1km marker around 3:40... whilst this was great on one hand, as it was quicker then what it should have been of 4:12, it did mean there was a risk of me burning out. I wasn't to concerned though as I thought I always slow down in the second half so building up a bit of slack would help.

As the race progressed, we headed onto the A56. The traffic was heavier than I had expected given the four wave system, but it did seem a little less than last year. Around the three kilometer mark I had a bit of an accident whilst overtaking fellow runners. I saw a stretch of clear road on the grass verge on the left of the A56, heading towards I had to weave around a few runners, and just as I hopped onto the verge it was at that point I saw an advertising board facing sideways with the pointy end looking right at me!!!! I managed to react just in time to avoid a full on collision, which at the speed I was running at would have probably taken me out of the race. I did end up smacking the side of the boards though but came away thinking that only my pride was bruised by it as I powered on.

Just as I got to around Man United's Old Trafford, I looked down at my rights hand which was starting to tingle. To my horror, I noticed that it was actually taking the colour of the Man U home strip... with a blood red tinge all over it. A quick check and I noticed there was a small chunk of flesh missing from my thumb, sucking it didn't help to much (except later I found out I had then smeared bits blood onto my face!). Anyway, thankfully it started to heal a little and stop bleeding shortly after this, which was reassuring as I couldn't afford to lose any as I needed every drop to carry oxygen to my legs to keep them going!

Around the Old Trafford/ Salford Quays area I didn't spot any kilometre markers so I lost track of how I was progressing. I could see Marple Phil ahead so I knew I must be doing well as he had joined a Harrier club down South and got some very good times. I'd totally lost track of Mark and Big Pete though. The water station was a great relief to see as I was able to wash my right hand of all the dried on blood that was caked on it, and I took a couple of mouthfuls for good measure.

As I got back onto the A56 for the return stretch I was in a fair bit of pain. My breathing was heavy, my left hip was playing up again and my right thigh felt sore. It reminded me a little of one of the Herbie movies where Herbie (the car) was literally falling to pieces on the last lap of a race and the passengers had the welding iron out trying to mend the car on the go!

Somewhere between the 7 and 8 km mark John and then Charlotte ran past me on the opposite side of the A56 heading toward Old Trafford (about the point where I'd so skillfully run into an advertising board). They'd started in the second wave which is why I was this far ahead of them. My breathing was becoming more laboured and I was also starting to scare fellow runners with my unintentional deep groaning... I heard angry shouts of "So your the g#t who keeps ringing me late at night!" from behind but luckily my legs were in better shape than his :)

As I passed the 8km mark I thought I'd up the tempo. I didn't have anything left in the reserves though so I'm not sure how much faster I actually went. As the 800 metres to go sign passed I threw caution to the wind and really started upping the tempo. About 100 metres to go I kind of ran out of energy but there was some other chap with me who managed to keep me going till I crossed the line.

I was exhausted after crossing and staggered to the goody back point and picked mine up. Bumped into Mark who'd finished with an incredible time of 41:07. There was no sign of Big Pete, though I'd no idea if that was because he'd finished ahead or behind. Mark helped me hunt down the St John Ambulance van to get the cut cleaned with some antiseptic and a plaster put on it. After sitting down for a while and getting cleaned up, I found out why my right thigh had been hurting as this had a graze right across it. This, along with a bump that has developed on my left arm now that I'm back home has reminded me that unlike Arnie Schwarzenegger, I can't punch through metal or walls! Anyway, after sitting in the ambulance getting cleaned up (it wasn't that bad) I felt much better and went outside and into heavy rain and bumped into Mark, Dawn and Big Pete (who'd smashed his time from last year and managed 42:30). Not wanting to stand in the rain we went into a nearby pub and Dawn being the only one with any money on them, shouted us all to a drink... thanks Dawn.

Anyway, the event seems to have got bigger this year, so who knows how big it will be next year. The rest of the Rangers and supporters also finished with great times to, and when we all met up it turned out that Charlotte's brother at the young age (compared to old farts like me!) of 17 managed a time of 52:39 (a very promising future for running giving his late entry and so less then ideal build up). Mini also managed a good time of 56:51, but more importantly had been the running partner for a new runner this year and helped Charlotte out with her training which contributed to her getting a great time of 1:10:02, so well done to both of them, the very definition of teamwork! Russ has my vote for Run of the Day with an incredible time of 59:38, which when you consider that in January, if he'd run 2 km he would have been close to needing life support, is an out of this world achievement. John managed 1:09:35 and so achieved his goal of beating last years time. This is despite spraining his foot during the event, and so he showed incredible guts to carry on going. The surprise entrant, Ann-Marie, was also running for her first time and started her training from scratch also. She did herself proud also and managed 1:24:55, and along with Russ, they both raised over £500 each for charity! Last but by no means least was Marple Phil, who we later found out had an incredible time of 40:01 and rightfully deserved the crown of fastest runner out of our group... those Harrier training sessions really paying dividends!

Everyone enjoyed themselves, and we topped off the event with an all you can eat Chinese which was lovely. I'm hoping to be back at next years event, though I think I'd struggle to knock much off this time unless I started taking it really seriously and joined a running club or something!

Over and out

Andy

May - The calm before the storm?

Well Aprils training had been great, and the date of the Great Manchester Run was getting closer. I was aiming for some fast training runs this month... but events would conspire against me.

10km
02/05 - 46:25
05/05 - 47:54
10/05 - 44:45 - MU - new course PB - new 10km PB
13/05 - 45:03 - MU

After my training run on 5th, my left hip felt worse than usual. It had not felt "normal" for a few weeks but I'd been able to run on it OK. So I gave it a few days rest and by the time the 10th came around it felt much better. With hindsight, doing a MU run straight after a rest for a minor injury wasn't the most sensible, but I got round in a new PB so didn't think too much about it. However following up a few days later with another MU was probably the nail in the coffin. I should point out my hip felt OK when I attempted my run on the 13th, but half way round it started to cause me a bit of pain.

The pain went away the next day but it didn't quiet feel 100%. I sacked off any idea of trying to get another training run in and instead looked for exercise which was gentler. Swimming was what I chose. I quickly found swimming to be an entirely different beast, and my honed running muscles, and healthy heart and lung proved to be of very little use to me in the water :( In all fairness, the last time I'd been "swimming" was during Euro 2004, and that was more of a laugh around the pool sort of affair. Ignoring Euro 2004, it could well have been the first year of Uni... that was over 6 years ago! Anyway, it certainly got me tired, and didn't shock my joints and hips too bad so it was good fun... maybe I'll look to turn to swimming after the Great Manchester Run as I've certainly got a lot to improve on in this area.

So now it is the day before the run, my left hip does not feel "normal", but it is good enough to get me round in a good time. I doubt it will affect the time much at all. It might add 20 seconds on looking at the last MU I did, so I'm not worried. The time I will be aiming for is 43:30. This is based on the fact that my training course is harder than the Manchester Run. Last year my Manchester Run time was over 2 mins quicker. I doubt it will be the same margin this year due to diminishing returns, so I've knocked 1 and a bit minutes off my best training time. I do think though that after I've finished the run, my hip will be giving me a large amount of jip... so if you see me hobbling for a few days you'll know why. It also means the odds of me missing the first match of the new footy season have increased... but there's still hope it won't .

Last but not least, a special good luck has to go to three runners also taking part tomorrow. Russ, Ann-Marie & Charlotte! It will be there first time running this distance under race conditions, and they started from scratch at the beginning of the year, so have had a big hill to climb to get to the 10km standard. Good luck also to the rest of the Rangers taking part also... May the Braeburn's keep you from eating a nasty Golden Delicious.

Andy

April - It's now or never!

Hello all,

At the end of March I'd finished at a level where I'd completed a number of 10km runs, got my body use to the distance again, but not necessarily got my body the best foundation for it. I had however got the distance sorted so what was left to focus on was the time!

I'm no expert runner, but in my experience I've found decreasing your time harder than increasing your distance. With this in my mind, I knew I had to increase the number of runs from the previous month, whilst also looking at reducing the time. I've noticed two important things with my running

1) From my experience, I've not found it possible to treat every run as a potential PB (Personal Best). Achieving a PB puts a lot of strain on your body, and causes a certain amount of damage, which is not always healed by the time you go for your next run.

2) Performing a none PB doesn't leave me exhausted or really challenge my heart, and so whilst the general health benefits are undeniable, the effect on reducing my time significantly is!

What I needed was a balance between the two, so I came up with what I termed "Managed Uncomfortableness" runs (MU). These are runs that I'd only attempt when I was feeling good, where I'd push myself much harder either by sprinting certain sections, or just raisng the pace throughout. In reality, I'd be in pain for about 3/4 of the course... needless to say I didn't look forward to them :(

My aim for this month was to achieve ten 10km runs... and here are the results:

10km
01/04 - 50:56
02/04 - 53:17 - At this point I'd done three back to back 10km runs including the previous month!
05/04 - 46:39 - MU - new course PB
08/04 - 47:48

6.2km
09/04 - 27:32 - This was supposed to be a 10km run. However, just as I was getting near the 3 km mark, my left leg did not feel right. I decided to abandon the 10km and do a gentle 6.2km instead.

10km
14/04 - 48:41 - I left it a little to make sure my leg had healed properly... as the month went on I'd come to suspect that I'd not left it quiet long enough though!
18/04 - 46:06 - MU - new course PB
23/04 - 48:56
25/04 - 48:01
28/05 - 44:50 - MU - new course PB - new 10km PB

After the last run, I woke up on Saturday with an ever so slight strain to my left calf. Nothing major, but to be safe I layed off the running on the Saturday and Sunday. Looking back it had been a really good month. I'd failed to meet my target of ten 10km runs, but I had done ten runs, and it was only a worry of injury that had prevented me from making the final run, and it’s a choice I'd make again. I'd achieved three new PB's in this month, including a new 10km PB for any course. This was great as my training course was harder than the Manchester 10km due to the gradients of some of the hills (Old Jackson lane being my arch enemy!). The total distance run just this month was 96.2km, which is equivalent to running from Stockport to Nottingham... though it took me a month, and I didn't do it all at once!!!

As May got underway, I was left thinking that maybe I was just one month to slow to getting a truly great time for me. I’d already achieved my aim of beating last years time (albeit in a training run), and I'd certainly hope I could get under 44 mins on the Manchester 10km now, but could I get under 43? That would be a tough challenge when you take traffic into account on the Manchester run, but it was something to aim for... though I'd not achieved any of my monthly aims so far!

Andy

March - To re-start or to stall?

Hello hello!

Well after last months awful training programme, I started feeling the heat a little... if only due to the growing hypocrisy of trying to encourage my friends to train, whilst I sat with my feet up :)

I decided I had to raise the bar with my training as time was ticking and I'd done enough 6k runs to build my general fitness up, so I knocked the distance up to 10k and decided that this was the distance I needed to focus on. However, as I was just starting at this distance, the focus would be on the number of runs rather than the time at this point.

10km
05/03 - 56:37
12/03 - 51:52
25/03 - 49:56
31/03 - 57:50

The last run was a particularly bad one sadly. This was due to having the day off work, and slobbing about and not making any food. This meant when I started on my run in the late afternoon I was running off my pre-run booster of a few mini-eggs and a banana. This worked very well for two thirds of the course, but after I'd burnt them off, there was no food at all left inside me to burn, which led to a chronic collapse in performance for the last third. The legs really did refuse to obey, and they felt more tired then what they had during the Great North Run. I think this showed me just how important diet is for these longer runs.

Anyway, looking back at the month, I felt I'd managed to recover it a bit... but could have done more runs. If I'm going to get a better time than last year, I'd need to step things up as there wasn't enough runs this month to get much of an improvement... but it was a start at least and would stand me in good stead for Aprils. Next month would be make or break time I felt, and as I entered May, I felt the mental resolve was finally there again to get out and hit the streets.

Andy

February - Lent or gluttony?

Hello avid Jog Blog readers... or just bored souls

Apologies for not updating the blog in a while. I'd love to tell you that it is because of a lack of spare time due to training so hard, but as you'll find out, that would be a lie!

At the end of January, with only days to go, I left you with the "Cliffhanger" of whether I would last the reaming few days of my non-alcohol stint. Well sadly things didn't go according to plan, and I failed to make it :( I lasted till January 28th when I went to my cousin's 18th Birthday party. I had intended in not drinking at this, but when I'd seen how they'd gone to such a great effort to make me feel welcome by buying in some Guinness (I'm the only one in the family who drinks it), I decided the date was a bit academic and wasn't worth appearing ungrateful for the effort they had put in... never mind, there's always next time!

Anyway, onto the training runs in February... well... there weren't any! That's right, for Lent I decided to give up jogging, and descend into a party lifestyle. In the end, it just turned out to be a busy month for me. One weekend was taken up with my birthday (I'm now a quarter of a century old!). This was a weekend well spent in my books... action packed, with all you can eat Chinese, trip to Manchester, a couple of games of bowling, and an expedition to Staly Vegas with both Rangers and Uni mates. Another weekend was taken up round at Justin's new place which was fun. There was also a weekend spent on holiday in Bratislava. This was a fantastic trip. There was only three out of the usual four (Anton, Paul and myself.... Marcus Trescothick was absent due to high government workloads, well somebody's got to make sure that the next generation of kids understand the stats on Football Manager 2006!). Bratislava is a fantastic city, with some great looking areas, as well as some not so great ones, which by Western standards could look quiet intimidating. However, even in the not so great ones, we were made to feel welcome and I saw no trouble all the time we were over there. It just goes to show how true that old saying, "You shouldn't judge a book by its front cover!" can be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating throwing caution to the wind in unfamiliar countries, just that sometimes it's worth taking a step back and asking if there really is any evidence to be worried, and not going off appearances alone.

Anyway, to recap, February's training had been none existent, and so heading into March the thought did cross my mind as to whether I was putting enough effort in to deserve a place in the Great Manchester Run? After all, it didn't seem like it based on this month's performance. Would I be able to snap out of this casualness I had adopted towards my training, or would I be following the path of George Best into career retirement before my time due to a heavy party lifestyle? Only time will tell...

Cheers

Andy

New Year, New Training regime

Hello!

Well it's been a while, and a lot happened since the last blog. Halloween... Christmas... and New Year in Cork. December was a particular bad month for health, with lots of drinking on an epic scale. New Year was a particularly big session, and it meant that starting January, I wasn't in the best of states.

So, first things first, I thought I'd lay off the alcohol till early Feb and give my body time to recover. Second, was to start my training runs back up. Third was to sign up to the Great Manchester Run on Sunday 21st May 2006.

So how am I doing?

Well, I've still not had a drink, though with the speed dating and my cousins 18th this week, it will be the toughest test I've had.

I've signed up for the Manchester run, and am aiming to do it (injury, weather and traffic permitting) between 40 and 45 minutes

Finally, the training. Well for January, I didn't want to push to hard to soon, so I just did my medium 6km course, and focused on getting my body use to running it a couple of times a week.

6.2km
03/01 - 29:28
08/01 - 29:25
14/01 - 28:36
21/01 - 27:30
22/01 - 28:08
24/01 - 29:24 - late, very cold and after food!

Well, it's a start, and I'm happy with it. In February, I'll be looking to start including some training advice from various souces into my training plan, and we'll see what happens. For the moment though, the big question is if I can make it through to February without a drink!!!

Cheers

Andy

Great North Run Special - 18/09/2005

Hello, and welcome to the Great North special. Well this is what the whole nine months of training has been building up to.

Forename(s) Surname Race Number Time Race Position
Andrew Shirres 16015 01:49:49 4461 out of 38011

We stayed at Newcastle Uni - Castle Leazes. It was excellent value, we got a pasta party in the evening and a breakfast in the morning thrown in. There was even a quiz. All in all they made us feel really welcome.

In the morning, I had a light English breakfast, got my banana, and headed off to the start. There was a really good atmosphere at the start line, with the red falcons doing a formation parachute jump, the Ashes being displayed by Paul Collingwood and lots of people in fantastic fancy dress.

The starting gun went, and we were off! It was good to get underway after all the standing around! As we ran along I was dreading the image of Gateshead Stadium as this was the marker for the tallest and longest hill on the course. After about four miles I started going through a bit of a rough patch for a while. It was very hard to run at the pace that I was use to as there was just a sea of people as far as the I could see. There was also lots of short, steep, inclines round here. after a while I recovered and felt ready to step it up a gear, but still hadn't seen Gateshead stadium. I must have missed it as I ran across the Black Bull junction at the top of the course.

Somewhere around here someone was in an unfortunate state and an ambulance had to be called for them. Whilst obviously unfortunate for the person who needed it, it did clear a corridor through the crowds and I got in it's slip stream and got a half mile of uncrowded running.

I remember seeing the 10km marker and thinking back to the manchester run. I looked at my watch and it was something like 56 minutes at the time. Not the best really!!! But given how slow the start was it wasn't surprising. Somewhere round here, I passed the first army guy. Like Manchester, he was wearing a full pack so it wasn't much of an achievement.

Around the seven mile mark I saw an old chap who was doing remarkeably well. He had an England shirt on so I had a bit of a laugh with him that at least someone was doing the shirt proud! Ended up having a chat with him for a few minutes about Englands problems, then wished him luck, and then carried on.

Around the nine mile mark we were entering the housing estates of South Shields, and the locals were being really friendly. They had sliced oranges, ice lollies, biscuits... it turned into more of a food crawl!!!!!!!!!!

When I finally turned the corner onto South Shields sea front with one mile to go, I began to get quite excited. The end felt near, but the last stretch did seem to be the longest mile! I heard our support team near the pub at the finish line, but sadly didn't see them!

Anyway, I crossed the line in a time of 1 h and 49 mins and 49 seconds finishing 4461st out of about 50,000. It was a fantastic day and I've raised over £500 for the Biritsh Red Cross, so a big thank you to all the people who have sponsored me, as they managed to turn an event that would have only benefitted me, into one that will benefit many both in the UK and abroad.

Thanks very much all, I hope you've enjoyed reading the jog blog, I may restart it next year for the Manchester 10K, but I expect this to be the last post for a while!

Over and out!

Andy

Training for week commencing 04/09/2005

The first run of the week was actually the second leg of a back 2 back 8 milers (having done one the day before). Needless to say this was quite challenging and my time wasn't great because of the previous one. It was also the week that I increased the furthest I'd ever ran to 11.2 miles. All in all a successfull week!

13km (8 miles)
04/09 - 67:01

18km (11.2 miles)
10/09 - 89:46

After I'd run the 18km run though I felt I slight pull of my right calf muscle. This was a bit annoying as it meant I had to play it safe and have the rest of the next week off which was the final few days before the Great North Run.

Andy

Training for week commencing 28/08/2005

Well it's starting to get closer to the Great North Run now. The training needed to be up'd, but I did not have the time to go for a longer run, so just stuck to the usual 8 mile runs...

13km (8 miles)
30/08 - 64:25
03/09 - 64:20

The total distance I've run so far is 393.8 km.

Andy

Training for week commencing 21/08/2005

Joy of joys, the bank holiday weekend was at the end of this week! And this meant a trip to Madrid for me for a friends 40th Birthday. This meant that despite a promising start to the weeks training, I wasn't able to turn it into a hardcore running week with 3 runs. On the plus side it was a really great holiday and plenty of fun with far to much Tapas!!!

In other news, my exercise on the football pitch was getting better as Bramhall Rangers had won 3 in a row after this weeks game!

Anyway, back to the running! After not having made much of a breakthrough in my running times due to a general lack of energy in the last third of the 8 mile runs, a friend from work sugegsted something so odd that it just might work... Jelly Babies! Sure enough, no energy loss meant I was able to keep up my speed and get my best time yet over the distance! Obviously I would only use the best type of Jelly Babies which as everyone should know is Bassett's!

10km
21/08 - 55:34

13km (8 miles)
23/08 - 59:45 - New Personal Best!

The total distance now run in training is up to 367.8km

Andy

Training for week commencing 14/08/2005

Well after recovering from my mates wedding, I needed to push ahead with this weeks training as time was ticking away and the start of the Great North Run was getting closer! After my first run of this week at 8 miles I noticed my time was getting worse every time I attempted it. This was a bit worrying, as whilst I'm not that focused on the time, after three attempts, I wasn't expecting the times to make a nice graph showing me going slower! Thankfully the second run of the week changed that form thanks to a lot of grited teeth! Also the weather may well have played its part, as the second run of the week was in the not uncommon "Manchester Grey" type weather, whereas, the others had been in weather more at home on the Costa Del Sol! So I'm definitely hoping for a dry but cloudy day for the Great North!

13km (8 miles)
17/08 - 66:26
20/08 - 63:37

This brought the total distance I have now run in training is up to 344.8km. This is equivalent to running all the way from Stockport to Newcastle, and then back to Northallerton!

Andy