Keeping with the 80′s top cheese theme, I couldn’t resist the reference to the fact that I HAVE ONLY ONE MONTH TO GO!!!!

Oh crap. Oh crappity crap. This is getting serious now! Before I’ll know it I’ll be on the plane and the final preparations will be underway. Time to take stock of how I am doing.

Injuries

Good news is that my knee is a lot better and is coping with the running now.

Bad news is I have a problem around my calf muscle – outside of my right lower leg – that may have been down to the long run on Saturday. It wasn’t happy yesterday even after a few days’ rest, so restricted me to 3.5 miles. It feels achy and tight more than anything else, but could lead to further problems. Will see physio when I can next get an appointment.

I also still haven’t run successfully outside for a couple of months, so yet to be tested.

General Fitness

One surprise to me is how I’m coping cardiovascular-wise. I can think of only one run I’ve done where my chest was tight and I struggled to keep my lungs pumping. Sure, I haven’t exactly pushed myself in terms of speed, but I often have a feeling that I can run all day if my legs let me!

Lifestyle

Training can be delightful when all is going well. The achievement of a good training run makes you feel great for days after. Conversely, the pain and disappointment when times are bad really can get you down. Doing my legs exercises every day (and I mean EVERY day) in the morning is laborious and is time I’d rather spend in bed. Stretching, doing warm-ups and warm-downs around each run is also time-consuming. Meals have to be fitted in around runs. Hobbling around with an ice pack strapped to your leg becomes a common activity. Secretly cursing those around you with colds comes second nature as you seek to avoid any germs that might grow in some activity-stopping ailment.

But so what? Some people have to do these things even when they aren’t running a marathon. For some people, pain and struggle is part of their daily life that they have no choice but to do. I chose to do this, so I suffer the consequences. It helps to put things into perspective sometimes.

Confidence

I’m still very confident I can finish the marathon, as long as I take care of myself over the next few weeks. I might not reach the distances I wanted when first started or even with my revised schedule, given the recent leg problem, but I’ll do it. Based on my ’98 effort, I have the advantage of knowing that I can achieve something even if all logic says otherwise. It’s amazing how far the mind and body can go when pushed.

Charity

I’ve raised nearly £500 pounds so far for Dreams Come True. Am I happy with this? Yes and no. To those who have sponsored me – thanks, it means a lot to me. I’ve even had strangers sponsor me, as friends of friends, which is fantastic. But I want to raise more! I want £1000 and above, so I’ll be pushing it more and more in the next few weeks. I want to help those kids, and as much as £500 is great, four figures is much better and I think I can do it. Any ideas would be greatfully received, and if you’re reading this and haven’t donated, then think about getting that credit card out and clicking on the link below!

The Blog

Finally, I’m still enjoying doing this blog, although it takes longer than I realise to write each post! It’s good to know that some of you are regular readers, so shout-outs to my girlfriend Jus (who puts up with the noisy treadmill and all the marathon/injury talks), Big sis, my nephew Ryan, the rest of my family, Steve “ankle is crocked but I’ll make it!” P, friends who put up with boring sober Andy every weekend, work mates, and various Internet pals out there, all of whom have given me encouragement and will be foremost in my mind when I access the “people to think of to give me strength” section of my brain come the dreaded wall 18 or so miles in.

…Wooooooaaah livin’ on a prayer! Take my…………Ahem. Got a bit carried away there!

So what do these lyrics from the slice of pure 80s cheese have got to do with anything? Well, it’s in honour of me achieving a half marathon today.

13.1 miles is long way, and it took me a long time on my treadmill, but I wanted to prove that I could go this distance before New York, just as I did before London in 1998. Man, it felt good!

So how do I feel now? Tired, but more worringly I’m a bit bothered about my knee. I was wearing my compression socks to help with possible calf problems, but I think they’re a little too tight at times and they were hurting my right knee after about nine miles. That’s when suddenly you become a physio/doctor and have to diagnose your own pains whilst running. Is that a pain or a niggle? How long has it been there? Is it getting better or worse? Have I had it before? Does it hurt when I do this? Working out if it’s something you just get on with or something serious you need to stop for to prevent injury is key to training. Trouble is, ego and ambition tends to get in the way. I wanted a half marathon as an achievement; I also know that I can’t hide away from pain on the day – I have to know how far I can push things.

So right now I’ve got my leg elevated having iced it a few times already. Hopefully it’ll be fine and will survive until Monday’s short run. I’ll make it, I swear.

Shout out to my mate Steve in New York (the one who got me into this marathon thing in the first place) who took a nasty fall the other day and has a multi-coloured ankle right now. Next time you run in the dark, take a torch! Hope it improves and you get back on the road soon.

Finally, I have to mention the football that I watched whilst running. While Newcastle implode, Utd struggle on, and Arsenal’s first team embarrass themselves in front of their kids, I enjoyed another great derby victory as we beat Everton. It’s shaping up to be an interesting season…

I was up north at the weekend, which meant two things: rain and hills (I’m sure my friends would offer a third – gravy!) Rain I don’t mind, but I was advised to avoid hills for the moment as they could give my knee problems.

After my two good, small runs in the week I was feeling confident, but still nervous about running on pavement again. The last thing I wanted was another setback and enforced rest.

I was running in unfamilar territory, and I walked the first ten minutes up a gentle slope to somewhere a bit flatter and began my run as a slight drizzle came down. Pace was as slow as you like, but I was determined to do three miles, maybe even more if I was going well. A mile down, and things were going quite well. No real pain, although I did seem to be heading for a long but gradual slope, so I knew it would be a test. After another half mile, I was halfway to my original target, and thoughts of clocking up the 10K that Nike+ was encouraging everyone to run was entering my head, but I decided not to risk it, especially with more inclines ahead of me. And then it started to go wrong…

Once pain starts, you pray that it’ll soon disappear magically. When it doesn’t, you try to take your mind off of it and hope it doesn’t get worse. The back of my right knee was tightening up and not relenting. Not wanting to be left out, my left knee had started a pain smack on the top of the knee cap after every stride. Two miles out, scared of further injury, I stopped. Wet, in pain and a mile away from my destination I was in a little trouble.

I walked a bit, and it got better. I tried running again, but the downwards motion just made it worse. Disheartened, I trudged home under the grey sky.

Thankfully, the walk seemed to have done it some good, and the pain ended up not as bad as I feared. My left quad muscle above the knee was quite tight, but I hope it’s only temporary.

Once recovered, it’s back to the treadmill in a few days, I guess.

The Liverpool players knew they had been lucky to survive the Champions League qualifier against Standard Liege last night. Once again they put me through torture in Europe!

Part of me wasn’t too bothered if we’d gone out, strangely enough. The rationale was that a) if that’s the way we’re going to play then we’re going to struggle against the top sides and b) if we did go out we could concentrate on winning what I really want: the Premier League. But now that we’ve made it, that’s all gone out the window – bring ‘em on!!! We’re going to get better and going out the CL would have disastrous for our income, morale, manager…not to mention all the Utd taunts we’d get in a couple of weeks. No, thank you Dirk Kuyt. Let’s go for everything now, but for goodness sake let’s pass it around like we’ve played together before!!

So my focus is back on domestic footy after the distractions of Olympics and Euro 2008. This is where it all starts, although there’ll be a brief pause while we hold our head in disbelief, no doubt, at a close 1-0 over Andorra next week. Probably thanks to an own goal, too.

Of course, my true main focus is the marathon. I successfully completed two miles on the ‘mill last last night at pretty much a canter. No problems with general fitness, and knees felt ok, if still a little weak. Half an hour on a cross-trainer tonight also gave me a little more confidence. Saturday I’ll have to go out on the streets, up and down a little, so will have to see how that goes. The key right now to avoid problems is slow. Get the time in, but don’t worry about pace; right now, speed is my enemy, time is my friend.

I’ve had a week of my morning quad exercises, so this means it’s time for the ankle weights to come on to make things difficult again. When I say weights, I really mean two socks with a load of coins in, but they will do. A week later, I’ll add more. Brings a new meaning to piling on the pounds…

He’s back…hopefully for good!!!

Every day from Friday, I’ve been getting up and doing my inner quad exercises for twenty minutes. It’s actually quite painful and drags on and on, but it seems to be working.  Yesterday, I did about thirty minutes’ walking on the treadmill without much reaction, so I decided to risk a run today on it.

I’d spent a lot of time in the garden sorting out my new shed and the garage. I even cleaned the garage door to the garden for the first time in ten years! After a lot of shunting, cutting, lifting and cat poo (don’t ask) I decided that it was enough and time for my run. I relaxed for a while, though, in fear of pushing it. Sitting at a computer all day, not going to the gym, and not being into DIY, I can’t say my body gets constant exercise, so when I do perform a few physical tasks all sorts of little aches and pains come out. Maybe something I can work on after the marathon. Anyway, despite all that I decided to go through my stretches and give running another whirl.

Speed: 1.0. I started a slow walk as the treadmill struggled to keep a straight face my the feeble effort. So far, so good. Crank it up to 1.5. Another five minutes of feeling a fraud. 9:57…I’m about to run…9:58…what if my knee erupts in pain?…9:59…this could be a serious setback…10:00…warp factor 2…death or glory here we come!!!

And then I was running. Speed 3.0 – pathetic, but still enough to cause a jog. A minute down – I feel ok! Two minutes – I’m running, I’m running! Let’s do a mile! Fourteen minutes later, I was triumphant.

It felt damn good to be running again. My knees are still weak, but they survived this acid test. Hopefully tomorrow they’ll feel ok, and I can run again on Wednesday. It’s a small victory on the long road back. My training plan is in tatters. Preparation in pieces. What I can do before November 2nd is unknown right now. But I’m back and hungry for more.

On Thursday, I went to another sports physio recommended to me by my friend. Yet again, on the day I went, my knee decided to feel much better, but I went along expecting him to confirm the doctor’s diagnosis of an inflamed tendon.

Guess what? The doctor was wrong. This physio seemed to know exactly what I had from my description, even before he examined my knee. When he did, it confirmed it: Chondromalacia Patellae (or Runner’s Knee, if you prefer.) Very common with runners and preventable. He showed me a section in a book which matched my symptoms and even got a model of the knee out to demonstrate how it works and what my knee is currently doing. I was almost expecting an exam at the end.

With the casualness of a man who’s seen and done it all before many times, he stuck four suckers to my knee, connected to a multi-level machine which proceeded to work my muscles for twenty minutes with strange spasmic waves.

Simply put, my inner quad muscles are weaker than the outer ones, and so the imbalance is making my knee go up and down slightly off a vertical path. This is then causing friction, and then pain. As I’m left footed, my left leg is stronger, hence why the problem is just on my right.

So the good news is that he told me exact details of an exercise I have to do for twenty minutes every day that will strengthen these muscles. Hopefully, by the time the marathon comes they’ll be rock hard and ready for anything!

In the meantime, I can start doing a bit of running again. I did a bit on a cross trainer today to see how it went (ok, but a bit of pain) and will try a long walk on the treadmill tomorrow.

I’ll make it. The Force is strong with this one.

I’m going teetotal until after the marathon!!!

That’s two and a half months of no drinking. Not a drop will pass my lips until after I’ve run the 26.2 miles in November.

Farewell Foster’s. Bye bye Budweiser. Auf Wiedersehen vodka Red Bull.

So why am I doing this? Is it really going to help? Well, I think being sober is not going to hurt, and drinking isn’t likely to make things better. I need any advantage I can get right now with the knee injury, so if this can help even a little then it will be worth it.

It’s also a social experiment. It’s not exactly going to be a hardship for me, given the fact that I only tend to drink on a Friday or Saturday night, but I’ve never gone that long without a beer or two! Will I be able to stand my friends at 2am when I’m completely sober? Will I have less fun? I know I can barely cut it on the dance floor when I’ve had a few, on the odd occasion I get the mood to strut my stuff, so I definitely won’t attempt it sober!
Will it spoil my nights out? Will I bend to peer pressure? We’ll just have to see.

My knee is still painful, and although it feels like it’s improved with stretching exercises, ice and periods of elevation, it’s nowhere near ready for running. I’m off to see another phyiso tomorrow who will hopefully give me treatment rather than just more advice.

Meanwhile, have a drink for me!

I went to the doctor’s this morning after getting a surprising 9:10 appointment. He examined my knee by prodding and poking around, and after finding that I had very little pain with this, announced although I didn’t have a serious problem, I did have an inflamed tendon. Good that it’s been diagnosed, bad that I’ve got something I need to take care of.
So what can I do about it? Well, rest is certainly the key. No running for me for 2 weeks at least, I reckon, and certainly no 10 mile race in September. More weeks that I’m not available to run, so really limiting my build-up training with less than three months to go. But…I’m not giving up! No way. In fact, I still have a great feeling I’ll line up on November 2nd ready to give it a go. I’ll have a do at swimming. I’ll use a cross-trainer. I’ll cycle. I’ll stretch. I’ll take anti-inflamatories. I’ll wear my knee protection. I may even go for physiotherapy. The dream will still live on.

I’m up late tonight as wanted to watch the swimming, and I’m so glad I did! Rebecca Adlington swam a fantastic 800m freestyle, obliterated a 19-year old world record, won by six seconds and will take home her second gold for GB. And she’s still a teenager!!! Good going, girl. I’m just listening to our anthem as she stands proudly on the podium. Dame status will surely await you.

The other big event was half-man, half-dolphin Michael Phelps attempting to win the 100m butterfly. This time he wasn’t the favourite for it, and had serious competition from people who probably hadn’t swum as many miles as he had this week. This was a chance to equal Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds in a single Games, and with the USA almost guaranteed to win the relay to get his eighth, this was THE race he had to win if we wanted the clean sweep.
At the turn, Phelps wasn’t even in the top three. With 10m to go, his dream was over. He and his Serbian rival reached for the wall, and it was clear that Phelps wasn’t going to make it. I sighed as I watched his arms come out from each side making his last lunge stroke as Cavic was just inches away. And then the result came up: 1. Phelps 2: Cavic. History had been made.

But hang on a minute – that’s got to be wrong! Cavic touched way earlier than Phelps! Is something amiss here?? Wow – check the replay – Cavic glides the last few inches but is agonising too early as Phelps grabs the side just 1/100 of a second ahead. I just can’t believe I just saw that! Someone must have given him some invincibility potion as this man defies all logic and is unbeatable here.

Damn. Better get to bed as have to be up by 10:30 to watch the rowing. Great day ahead – footy season starts, not to mention the men’s 100m final. My prediciton – Bolt in 9.66 seconds. Why not? These Games are something special, after all.

As my knee was feeling much better, I decided I’d try another run tonight. Buoyed by the arrival of my funky new knee support, I was hoping for a pain-free run on the flat, at a slow pace, in the dry.

Well, I got the flat and slow bit right! It drizzled on my way back, but more importantly – and worringly – the knee pain is back in all its glory. Ha! Think you could start running again? We’ll see about that! It started so well, too, but eventually a niggle became a run-stopping pain. Back at home, I struggled down the stairs.

Well, I’m not defeated that easily. I could sit here and wallow in self pity and wonder how the heck I’m going to complete my training (which includes a 10 mile race in 3 weeks!) but I’m not. I’m tempted – it’s very easy to do – but I make a promise to you all right now that I’m not going to. I phoned the Bupa helpline for a bit of advice, and will see the doc soon to get a referral to get it looked at. The sports physio bloke that saw me last week didn’t seem to help as I have been doing my stretches and still I get pain, so I want someone to actually examine it now. In the meantime, it’s stretches, rest, ice, elevation, compression.

It will make it all the sweeter when I cross that finish line in Central Park. Then, Mr Right Knee, you can rest as much as you want.

It’s official: Michael Phelps is the Olympian with the most gold medals (11). Not bad by the ripe old age of 23!!
I wonder how many he can go on and get? I think he’ll get his other three later in these Games and achieve perfection here, before going on to London and beyond, picking up more.

I said a few days ago that Redgrave was the best of the best – well, Phelps has certainly caused a stir with the debate on who’s the greatest! Check out any forum on the Olympics and you get plenty of people backing either of these two, Carl Lewis, Daley Thompson and others. Anyone out there reading this want to send me a comment on their thoughts? It’s very hard to compare achievements, but I think in time we’ll look back on him and really appreciate what he’s done.
But enough about an American swimmer whose body defies all known science…

You may know that I have a bit of an astronomy fad every now again which leaves me gazing upwards hoping to catch the next celestial event. Mostly in the UK it’s cloud followed by more cloud, but sometimes we get lucky and despite living near some street lamps I do get the odd good view at night.
Yesterday was peak time for the Perseids so I sat in my kitchen and attempted to catch a falling star and put it in my pocket digital memory card.

The process goes:
Watch sky.
See a couple of meteors, confident that more will come soon.
Wait.
Wait.
Wonder what you’re doing in the dark staring into outer space as bu**er all comes along.
See a small one, and then set up camera.
Open shutter for 15 seconds and hope.
Complain at seeing nothing, and repeat.
Swear at the fact that in between the camera processing the picture and being ready for the next shot you see a brilliant one that would grace any photographer’s album.
Open shutter for 15 seconds and hope.
Complain at seeing nothing, and repeat.
Get bored/fall asleep/get pestered by the cats who are wondering what the heck you are doing and is it time for breakfast yet.

However…I did somehow manage to bag one!!! I didn’t see it at the time as I might have been looking at the camera, but it’s definitely one (and not a plane this time – I thought I’d got one exactly a year ago but was fooled ) Click the photo below and check out the bottom right. Small and a bit faint, but there’s The Plough and there’s a meteor streaking across the sky.

Got it!

I saw enough shooting stars to make several wishes, but chose to forgo that superstition. I believe you should wish things for other people anyway, as plenty of others need more help then I do. But if I was to have one little wish I could spend on myself this week, it would be to make tomorrow’s training session go well. Yes, after a break of almost three weeks from running, my knee feels good enough to start again. It’s not perfect, but I’ll give it a go. I’ll take it slowly and only a few miles. Blazing my own trail can wait for another, fitter day…