Whenever I try to start being healthy, a chocolate bar looks at me and snickers!
Whose daft bloody idea was this any way? Which bright spark back in 2006 dreamt up the ludicrous idea of running ten marathons day after day, for ten days. And why? Where was the need for such a crazy notion? Even dafter is the idea to hold it in May, I mean May of all months. This means winter training, trudging along dark, cold lanes in at best, melancholy, brooding, dark days or just plainly bloody depressing weather, no sunlight to mention, just rain, hail, snow and icy biting cold wind. Some fiendishly clever mind, perhaps it was this Genius! – the Brain.
And then the penny drops, it really is all part of the master plan. Whoever thought of it was too cunning to mention, after all if you are committing to training over winter you ought to have the right mental capacity to see through the light sprinkling of showers we may or may not see in May (and yes in so many ‘mays’ it was deliberate). I bet Steve Edwards or one of those other hardy souls when they set their first steps forward on the Ten in Ten in 2007 they must have felt like the first explorers into a relative unknown. Someone asked me the other day, how do you train for something like this? I replied rather glibly, you can’t. But, on reading the other athletes updates and blogs (thank you for the panic inducing inspiration Richie Rex, Adrian Brooks, Paul Brown, Sean Warburton), it clearly shows you can. What you perhaps can’t prepare for is what we’ll go through mentally and emotionally, this is where I’d be happy to be Pinky (see link above).
Aly Knowles from Brathay rang me today (this blog is like a who’s who of name dropping) to see how I was doing. Training okay? Feeling good? Fund-raising moving in the right direction? So, my training (like me) is somewhat erratic, hence the title of this post. One week I’ll only get in 25-30 miles, the next 75+. You get out what you put in, said Aly. I’m desperately trying to move towards more consistency but I admitted ages ago I knew it would be tough, my hours at work are erratic and sometimes long. But, I am trying, I am trying my best. Do I give 100% all of the time? Nope. I’m not a machine. That said I have started listening to myself, I sleep sensibly (more than I have in the past), I drink and eat more consistently (although not as healthily as I should) and more importantly I really try to listen and learn. The last few weeks I’ve wrestled with comparing myself to others, to individuals more experienced, more dedicated and more decorated than I (bad week). Note to self though (or advice for anyone out there) stop reading Richie et al blog posts, just be the best version of you that you can be. I appreciate that someone out there won’t appreciate my condescension or cliché but it’s my blog so I can say what I want!
This week is a good week, I’ve put in quite a few miles, at this point over 50 (and the week is still young), I’ve weighed myself and I’m almost at fighting weight (9st 7lbs) and feeling quite chipper and pleased with myself. It was at a point in the conversation with Aly that if I felt like that when I complete the Ten in Ten perhaps I could take over the world. So what do you want to do tonight Brain…
“Same as we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world ….”
PS
I was out for a run out near home the other day and I spied across the dry stone wall into the lush green fields beyond, lambs gambolling away. It then occurred to me, who do they gambol with Ladbrokes, William Hill, Betfred but no, of course, they do the ‘Sheepstakes’!