Morning...

It's the weekend! YAH!

But no one bothered to tell the magpie family that live in the garden. They have one baby (which is obsessed with our rabbit), and man is it loud! The trouble is they wake up as soon as it's light, and start kicking off around 3.30am. This isn't normally too much of a problem, but with the hot nights we have been sleeping with the windows open - so the beaky alarm woke us all up.

I decided to head out about 8.00am - it was already hot, and the run was quite an effort :-/ but I enjoyed the chance to put some miles under my trainers. I managed a 10K. I really have got to buckle down now and put in some serious training over the next month before the half marathon.

Hope everyone has a good weekend, We're off to a behind the curtains day at the theatre with the small person :-D

YUM!

Worm
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Hot off the corner of my pad :-P

It's all about MEME

Read this meme last night (thanks Becks) and thought it was one of the best ones that i've seen, so here goes.

What you do answer the previous question to the one being asked :-D

Q: Your name?
A: ...

Q: What's your favorite subject to blog about?
A: JoggerBlogger

Q: What do you wish you blogged less about?
A: Running

Q: How do you spend your working day?
A: Moaning about my ankles hurting

Q: What's your secret shame?
A: Sitting at a Mac doing graphic design

Q: If you had a windfall of £1,000,000 how would you spend it?
A: Going to Disney theme parks

Q: Describe your "look".
A: Chilling out with all my mates

Q: If you were invited to a ball, what outfit would you arrive in?
A: Longhair and stubble

Q: And if you're just pottering about the house?
A: Open white shirt and a tux

Q: What's the biggest lie you've ever told?
A: Nothing, I look great naked :-P

Q: What's the best way to get popular in the running scene?
A: Not saying "Yeah, your bum does look big in that!"

Q: And the best way to make enemies?
A: Start a blog and run loads

Q: When you meet up with running friends, what do you talk about?
A: Slag people off behind their backs

Q: What other blogs do you enjoy?
A: Running, aching legs, aching feet and trainers

Q: What's the best way you've found to get to sleep at night?
A: jogblog and running susan

Q: Finally, what's the one thing you'd attribute the success of your web site to?
A: Go to be late and very tired

The wrong trainers gromit....

The lunchtime dynamic duo reconvened today :-) The temperature has dropped slightly so it's bearable to head out at midday.

But being a right Muppet, I packed everything apart from my running trainers DOH!!

I decided to head out in the trainers I was wearing (a pair of Nike Air) but we only did 2.5-3K as I didn’t want to make my ankle any worse :-/ Still it was a good little run and I really enjoyed being able to have a chat, even if it is harder to run and talk as I can never remember to breathe correctly.

Got home from the hospital (he seems to be getting better still :-P) to find that I have been posted an application form for the London Marathon next April. Now what should I do? I wanted to enter it this year (but was unsuccessful as it's a ballot system), but I'm not sure If I want to do it next year - then again I'd love to do a full marathon... any advice?

For once in your life won't you just listen to me!

That's what my ankles have been telling me the last few days. So instead of ignoring their advice I did indeed listen to them and had a 3-day break from plodding around the tarmac.

I have decided that my ankles don't really appreciate long runs every week, so I'm going to be sticking to 3-6-10-15K runs and save the longer ones for a splurge or race :-)

Got my butt out of bed and went for a cheeky 3K this morning - and bonus! It rained; I love running in the rain when it's hot!

Update 2

Just got back in from the hospital. They have him back up a normal ward already :-D
He looks pretty good as well (for a man thats just had all that work done).

Operation update

The operation went well, only a couple of complications. He is still in ICU and will be for a day or so and then hopefully back up to a normal ward tomorrow.

They had to take all his stomach and a bit of his oesophagus, it was a really big tumour :-( and they have had to take extra to do tests on - we will find out on Friday (more waiting).

Fingers crossed until then :-P

Hopefully going to get out for a run (even if its only a mile) later - to clear my head.

No run today

No run or fun today - Mostly waiting around in hospital waiting for Dad to go down for his operation. Back home at the moment (looking after the small person), while he is the theatre :-( it's a long 7.5 hours... fingers crossed.

No Robin, but plenty of forest.

Yesterday at work I decided I’d like to do a long run today, but not around the same old places that I normally run. So with that in mind I set off this morning packing my camera with me for the 30 minute drive to the home of Robin Hood, Sherwood forest. Changed in the car park into jogger mode and headed out.

I ran through the visitors centre and passed the café, people were sat outside gawping at the odd sweaty bloke running past as they dug into their 10 o’clock pasties (and not even a greggs in site).

I ran down to the ‘Major Oak’ the tree that Robin Hood was meant to have lived in. I must admit I feel really sorry for the tourists that travel all the way to see it. The tree is in a right sorry state, propped up on sticks and filled with green plastic to stop it falling over. The only thing that matched the tree for rubbish tourist attraction was the ‘Automatic Outlaw’ machine. LOL! Funny, you put your money in and get a modified parking ticket that says Robin hood on it. Talk about stealing from the rich…

That said though the forest itself is beautiful :-P

If you ever think about coming to see Sherwood forest I recommend bringing your trainers as it’s a spanking good place to run, I had the best run ever this morning. I have been converted to trail running, I love it! You can’t beat running around off road, apart when after an 1 hour 15 minutes you realise you don’t have a clue where you are, Ekk! Carried on running and headed towards the sound of kids playing - phew!

All in all I did a good 12-13 miler, which I think is about 20k. The weather has changed completely now and we are in the middle of a thunder storm.

Well that’s it from me - let me know if you like the pic’s. I hope you all have good runs this weekend and JogBlog’s leg gets better.

Kilometres ran today: 21K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 27K

Automatic Outlaw

Automatic Outlaw
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Yeah it's automatic all right - takes the money right out of your pocket and repays you with a crummy sticker :-)

Pathway2

Pathway2
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Barking up the wrong tree

Barking up the wrong tree
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Don't forget the sun block.

Lady bird

Lady bird
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Look up

Look up
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

I'm the size of an ant :-P

Jurassic park

Jurassic park
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Watch out for the T-rex.

More logs

More logs
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Someones been chopping the trees down...

Pathway

Pathway
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Sticks and stones

Sticks and stones
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Pick them feet up!

leaf

leaf
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Shady.

Snake

Snake
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

SSSHHH don't wake it up.

Ferns

Ferns
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Out the way... coming through

Major Oak

Major Oak
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Careful now - don't knock it over :-( poor thing.

Scary tree

Scary tree
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

This tree needed to be behind a fence - caution I'll eat 'cha

Trying to get back in the groove

Haven't felt like running this week - due a number of things :

1 - All the crap news that I’ve had.
2 - Being home alone (I can't get over how blue being left with my crazy girls has made me feel).
3 - It's been so HOT!

The trouble with not running is that when I don't go out all, I can think about is running. I worry about how unfit I'll be, how much I'm going to struggle on my next run - then to make matters worse I’ll start to go over the routes that I run in my mind...

So I set my alarm to get up and go for a run - but I didn't sleep well so knocked that idea on the head with a bang as my little plastic wake up call screamed at me to get out of bed.

But I made sure that I packed my training bag so I could get out at lunchtime. MISTAKE! Yesterday was the hottest day we have ever had over in the UK, but thunder and rain rolled in last night to cool us all down. This morning it was still very mild :-P ideal for a run I thought! Working inside what best is described as an aircraft hanger with no windows etc I still thought the weather was the same as this morning. NOT! I went out and did the hardest 6K I have ever run. I never get cramp but had stomach cramp all the way round. When I finished I looked like I had been in the shower wearing my kit :-X yum for my fellow workers (I bet they are glad that we have showers ;-) ).

The temperature was 28°C or 83°F way too hot for me! Hat's of to all you nutters that run in this heat every day :-)


Kilometres ran today: 6K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 6K

The worst e-mail I have ever received...

Today an e-mail dropped in to my inbox it read:

Dear Rich, I have been trying to get in contact with you via your mobile
phone. Please can you call me as soon as possible, on the house phone, which is *********.

My mobile had not had any missed calls - I think that they had been trying to contact me on my old number.

Alarm bells started ringing - I hadn’t heard from Paul for about a week and a half. I rang, and was hit with the news that Paul had passed away.

I have known Paul Coggan for around 10-14 years and he was and always will be an inspiration to me. He was a fantastic writer specialising in historic warbirds, via his own magazines and books also contributing monthly to other publishers magazines.

Whatever life through at him (and in the years I knew him it threw a lot) he continued with a positive attitude and made the best of the situation - above all he was a great friend.

Paul you will be missed so much. My love and thoughts are with you and your loved ones.

Long run :-P

Everyone has left me for the week and gone to the coast! :-X

So I had no excuse for not doing a long run - I managed to put in a 20K :-)

To make it a bit more interesting I even managed about 5K of it off-road, the only trouble is I’m paranoid about my ankle - so it was rather slow going on the trial part of my route.

The weather is amazing :-) and even the local farmer had gone out of his way to help make my run more pleasant - he is growing carrots (well I think that’s what they are) and has got a enormous hose thing pumping water high into the air, very refreshing as I jogged down the side of the field.

With the weather being so nice Preston is coming over and hopefully we will be going off down to the river...

Kilometres ran today: 20K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 43K

Exotic birds and other stuff...

How comes when you have a day off work your stupid body wakes up at six still! I was looking forward to having a little bit of extra shut eye - but my brain wasn’t!

After 30mins fidgeting about and I decided I might as well get up an go for a run (I have to admit I am addicted again). The weather is so good at the moment, sunny but not blood boiling hot :-). Those bleak cold, wet and dark winter morning runs seem like a life time ago… but I bet they will be back before you know it.

Now down to the exotic bird action ;-) When I was jogging up the lane there was a bird sat down in the road eating something. I thought that it was a Thrush as we seem to have a few of them about at the moment. But as I got closer it jumped up and flew past me, it was one of these - cool :-D sorry for being an anorak but I love birds of prey.

Kilometres ran today: 5K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 23K

Mouse pad doddles...

Skull and Bones
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Up and at 'em

Got up and went out for a run at 6 this morning :-)

Kilometres ran today: 10K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 18K

Hello :-D

Had yesterday off running - got up this morning at 6.00am and went out for a Jog - nice it was to!

Reason for not running yesterday was that Dad had to go in and stay over night at the hospital for some major biopsies... The ward was grim. Some wacko had tried to overdose at the prison and was 2 beds down chained up to a bored prison officer (good use of tax payers money!).

The Sh*t news is that the cancer has spread to his diaphragm :-/ Sh*t.com
So we don't know now what the 'F is going to happen - he was meant to have his stomach removed in 2 weeks time, but now who knows! I HATE CANCER!

Kilometres ran today: 8K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 8K

Detox update

I'm bored of the detox - the eating clean side is easy and I'm going to carry on with it for as long as I am running. It's the not drinking side that is doing my head in - I’m going clean until Thursday then I'm going to have one day off a week, and have a drink :-D.

Got up at 7am and went for a run, a lot cooler today - and windy but still had a good run. Managed to put in 10K so this week I've done 38K :-)

I am going to push this to 40K next week and see what happens.

Detox day: 21 (-2...ohps)
Kilometres ran today: 10K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 38K

Late to bed and early to rise makes you…

Knackered - then it’s time for your 7 o’clock morning run. To add to the fun the knob jockeys next door decided to host an after show party last night at 3am :-D.

Anyways enough of the moaning. The weather has cooled down a bit to make running really pleasant.

Also my ipod reminded this morning that xmas isn’t that far away - it played ‘Bing Crosby’ Let it snow, LOL! - I didn’t even though that I had it on my Mac, so remember to get your shopping done before it starts getting busy.

Off out now to a living museum - hopefully will have some funny pictures to post later…

Detox day: 20 (-2...ohps)
Kilometres ran today: 8K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 28K

Not much to say...

...But it's only the Bl**dy weekend :-D.

Is it me or has this week been the longest week ever!

Got home late from work for a change, and went out for a quick 4K :-P Has any one seen the new pirates of the caribbean film yet? want to try and get to see it asap.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.


Detox day: 19 (-2...ohps)
Kilometres ran today: 4K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 20K

Run forest run!

Bit of a dash. Left work late, then the trek home on the M1 was joyous - just for a change it resembled a car park :-/

Got in and went for a run - did 4K but decided to put in some speed work. So every other lamp post I ran as fast as I could - then slowed down for the next one and repeated all the way round, felt good running fast (well fast for me) instead of plodding, even though i felt a bit like Forest Gump as I ran past pedestrians.

Hopefully going to get up early and do a pre-work long run, we’ll see…

Detox day: 18 (-2...ohps)
Kilometres ran today: 4K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 16K

Happy Birthday...

... To me :-P

As of today I've been running for a year, well I have occasionally stopped for work and a drink ;-)

I can't believe how quick the year has gone! It's been an up and down year in running.

The highs
Getting fit and finishing my first half marathon and all the 10k's that I've been in. Running with friends (not often enough). My ipod shuffle :-). But the biggest high...this blog - I really enjoy keeping it up to date and also the great motivation from the comments i receive from the people that I have gotten to know on-line via it.

The lows
All the injuries and the shoe inserts that I now have to run in (they feel like that you are running on concrete). Running in the bleak dark cold wet winter weather. Swallowing lots of hot flies - and CANCER!

As it's one year in, here’s five slightly interesting facts about me:

> 1. I’m a graphic designer who loves to draw
> 2. I used to weigh 18.5 stone :-/
> 3. My favourite ride in world is "The Tower of Terror"
> 4. The best advice I have ever been given is "live within your means to fulfil your dreams" :-) keep it simple.
> 5. I'd rather be surfing.

See you next year - if my legs haven't dropped off.

Detox day: 16 (-1)
Kilometres ran today: 6K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 12K

Gloomy

Gloomy
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

:-)

Hot again :-P

WOW! just got in from a lunch time run with Preston...ekk! not that sunny but really hot!
Tomorrow I WILL get my butt out of bed before work - running in the heat is to hard.

Detox day: 15 (-1)
Kilometres ran today: 6K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 6K

Lame.com

Well it's been a rubbish week for the miles :-/ It's not all been my fault though - 2 days was lost due to work.

But the most important thing at the moment is spending time as a family. With the operation around the corner we are making sure we make the most of the time we have, the operation carries a big risk with it :-/ but it's either that or 1-2 years before the cancer wins.

Only did 3K today - headed out about 3 o'clock and it was way to hot for me. Came back and had a water fight :-) which was great! I lost though, due to my puny 42pence ASDA water pistol against the hose (sorry for all people in the south of England) that my daughter was armed with :-)

Need to get all my runs in next week before work - I'm going to do 40-50k! Need to get some miles behind me.

Detox day: 14 (-1)
Kilometres ran today: 3K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 17K

Look Up

Look Up
Originally uploaded by jogger164.

Made me jump in York castle museum :-P

Hot,hot, hot!

It's been a hot one today :-) Just got back in from a scorching day at York and headed out for a quick one the block (3K).

Plenty of sad faces outside the local pub - checked the scores on-line when I got back, England are out of the world cup. Sorry to hear it Preston :-(

Going to do a 10K in the morning - but I'm well down on what I wanted to do this week. I will have to shift it up a gear next week!

Detox day: 13 (-1)
Kilometres ran today: 3K
Kilometres ran this week so far: 14K