KungfuMonkeySlayer

I like compresion gear as it helps recovery, makes me perform for longer and looks pretty cool too !

The newly formed Team Sky who have entered into the tour de france definately gets my support, which uk olympic champions it stands a good chance of success

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/gallery/2010/jan/04/team-sky-bradley-wiggins-cycling?picture=357609857

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Team-Sky-Squeezes-Into-First-Place-In-Tour-Down-Under/Article/201001315527896?f=rss

Just found this video from the speedo Facebook page and thought i’d add it to my blog before I forgot about it!

OMG what a day, 26 miles of pure Brighton enjoyment (well kinda)

On Sunday 18th April 2010, I took part in the first Brighton Marathon.

Race Preparation

I ate a tonne of pasta the night before, then woke up at 6am to eat my pre-race breakfast (which due to the fact that I often comment about dieting etc I will list out here) – my breakfast was .. Red Pepper Omlette (made with 2 eggs) with Red Onion a sprinkle of cheese, two slices of toast (brown wholemeal bread) and a glass of juice.

I have to say given that I’ve never really prepared for any pre run (the night before), especially by eating maybe twice the amount of pasta I would usually eat the day before and waking up 3 hours before the event to eat (to give time to digest your food) really did give me a nice steady flow of energy.

Once at the event I ate a banana an hour before and drank 500ml of fluids and I have to say that at no point during the race did I ever think i was low on energy. (I took the opportunity to take water and sports drink at every occasion) and also took two gel packs, which I took at 19 Miles, and 23.

Enough about breakfast! The Brighton atmosphere was amazing, it felt great having the streets of Brighton for us to run on, traffic free. The route covered lots of ground and the weather couldn’t have been better. (no mega winds and cloud free sunny day). Special thanks to everyone at the start, the people who supported on St James’s street and kemp town, the supporters at Ovingdean, especially the supporters at New Church Road – it was like a party there! and the people who came to the finish – it made it a really amazing day. Oh and lets not forget the organisers and the volunteers – thank you for making it happen.

The route and the journey

Given that only 2 weeks ago I had a knee injury I was quite wary at how I would hold up. Originally I wanted a 3′30 – 4h time, but given some concerns I thought I’d start off with the 4h pacer, who I happened to know – I followed that for the first couple of miles, then concluded it was actually a bit slow and my regular pace was infact faster, so shortly after North street I decided I’d break free and keep going on the knowledge that if I started to fail I would be passed by the pacer and I’d know that I was slowing down. So off I ran, I thought the small hill of St James’s street might challenge me but it didn’t really – I think running at an incline of “7 out of 10″ for most of my indoor training probably helped there, the run down to the seafront was good too – the course narrowed a bit and it was a little bit annoying having people tire and not having sufficient space to overtake (leaving you waiting for a slot to overtake). But thats all part of a race!

Then we ran down to St Dunstens and left to the school which slightly surprised me as I hadn’t realised quite how far away from St Dunstens it was, but none the less I passed it ok. Then back up hill towards Rottingdean and then back along the coast toward Brighton again. The pace was good, back to my norm, and I clocked an okay 1′58 odd time at the half marathon point. (which considering I had a slower than normal start was pretty good). I felt pretty good probably until the 20-21 mile mark, where my knee then suddently started to give way a bit, so hoping I could ignore it I tried to run keeping my leg quite rigid, which probably made me suffer afterwards. That kept me going until the power station (which caught me by surprise as I expected to do a 180 turn, instead of going right into the power station grounds). Managed to more or less keep going out of shoreham, and then just around the lagoon felt a massive urge to stop (argh!).

Not to be dettered, you can’t do 24 miles and then give up – i did my fastest power walk I could do and walked to the end. Thanks to all the support who cheered my name, “keep running”, or “c’mon there’s only 2 miles left you can do it”, it was all positive, I tried so many times to run as its quicker than walking but it just hurt and made me feel like I was about to collapse, so I carried on walking until the finish, where I gave a tiny burst of hobble mixed with a jog for the final 20 metres or so!

It felt great to finish.

It wouldn’t be right without a few grumbles!

My only grumble is with the timing systems, according to the web site on the day and the iphone app, my time (chip) was 3h59′36, however now ( a day later ) the web site its 4′01′xx why is that?? bit annoying, I quite liked the sub 4h time and have screen shotted the iphone app. Its a little annoying when you’ve said what your time is, to then go back and say er, actually it wasn’t !

Anyway a great day, and I’m pretty stiff from it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kungfumonkeyslayer/sets/72157623883328566

If you read this and would like to donate to the NSPCC please visit my just giving page http://www.justgiving.com/James-Lever-Brighton-Marathon-18-Apr-2010

Today I participated in the Great South Run, a 10 mile race around historic Portsmouth.

The day was hot but with some really cold wind. A crazy morning wake up of 6.45 am in order to depart at 7.30 to drive to Portsmouth to park on the common.

The route was far more windy than I’ve ever ran previously and I found that running with lots of people is actually quite distracting and people are constantly trying to fill the space, as well as the fact you need to overtake people when they eventually tire.

The first mile was slower than I’d expected, I was aiming for a bit faster but everyone in front wasn’t going quite as fast and there wasn’t really any room (nor did I really have the inclination) to overtake.

The rest was fairly routine, the constant pull between pushing yourself further and wanting to stop but I made it to the 9th Mile only to be pushed back massively by the strength of the wind. Its was pretty strong and some people actually stopped.

I pushed onwards and didn’t manage to increase my pace for the final 200m! I completed in 1h16′25, and came in 1082 out of 21,000 (see http://www.nike.com/europerunning/grs/index.jsp?runner=825655&rid=140), which I’m delighted with.

I was slightly shocked to see a few people in absolute pain who collapsed either just before or after the race finish line – its just crazy how much people push themselves, I hope I would never push myself such that I needed medical attention on the finish line.

Good day

A while ago I was tempted by the take part “aquathlon”  which was a 400m sea swim followed by a 5k run. After attempting sea swimming as a taster I knew the sea swim part was going to be hardest but i had hoped that it wouldn’t be as difficult as it actually was!

I was part of 51-55 people and they all looked way fitter than me (well, most of them anyway), slightly dis-organised and lack of knowledge about where everyone needed to be, but we all got ready and then set off.

I kept back and attempted to swim towards the 1st bouy, which appeared to be quite a long way, i was swimming front crawl as that is by far the best stroke for the choppy sea, but soon lost my strength and soon was oftertaken, I managed to reach the bouy, and then aimed for the next one, which appeared to be getting further away every stroke.  But .. I kept on and made it round the course back to shore. I was the 2nd from last to get back from shore, but had the slowest change ever so was the last to get running!

The run was okay, if a little up hill and I managed to overtake a few people during the run.

It was significantly harder than I expected but was quite challenging, so assuming you’re up for it then i’d recommend anyone to do it – but do practise front crawl first!

During my Hypoxi Sessions I met up with Johnny a personal trainer, he was involved in rigging me up to the machine and talking me through the diets etc. After the Hypoxi I agreed to have two sessions a week for a month with Johnny and since then I’ve never looked back.

I became more energetic, had more motion and generally felt a lot fitter – I’ve paid for gym memberships before and subsequently not gone through lack of progress or motivation but this is personal – if you dont go your letting yourself down and your trainer down and that for me was enough to stick at it.

I would definately recommend that a professional personal relationship to training has to be the most effective way of weight loss i have ever encountered