August and September update
Well.... welcome back! I am slowly trying to catch up with my activities over the past few months. My intention when I started my blog was to keep up to date with all my activities as and when they happened, unfortunately due to the high amount and lack of free time I have fallen slightly behind. Before the end of the year I will make sure I am back on track.
Anyhow, with July over it was time to push on for the next few months, I definitely kept myself busy. August was a good month for me, pretty quiet but I had a lot planned. I had signed up to my first marathon which was scheduled for the beginning of October. Before this mammoth task, I had planned in Tough Mudder and a small matter of a charity boxing match, which was another event I could tick off my list for 2015. My main issue was trying to manage the training right and keep up with the intense training without injury. I didn't really have any main targets for August, I just wanted to embrace the fact I was in a position to push myself physically and mentally, to see how far I could go.
August was a slow start really, the first week of the month I had only covered 13.3 miles, it did take me to 568.5 miles for the year, this was slowly creeping up towards the 1000 mile mark which was always good. My first real event that I could push myself in was my weekly parkrun, I was hooked. In mid July I set a time of 19:17, which I really wanted to beat and push on towards the 19 minute mark. On the morning on the 8th August, up to about 30 seconds before the start, I was eyeing up a first place finish. Last minute though Andrew Benson and Andrew Newton strolled to the start line, with them both hitting sub 19 every week, I knew my chances had gone. It wasn't all bad as I knew a fast pace would be set, I wasn't wrong. They both set off very fast, I kept up for about 400m and then they disappeared. I was running well and felt good despite the faster start. I managed to maintain my position in 3rd and finished with a time of 19:12, 5 seconds off my PB, delighted with this once again. It was only small margins but I was getting quicker, great news.
Once I was done in the valley, it was then onto the football. The host for the day was Steven Willetts, fitness fanatic who had raised a lot money for Everton in The Community both past and present. Everton had been kind enough to invite myself, Ste and Jordan to the opening game of the season vs Watford. Ste already being a season ticket holder had given up his seats on the day to come and sit with the boys. Before the game we was taken pitch side to watch the players train and to have our photo taken with one of those massive cheques you see. It was brilliant, always wanted to hold onto of those massive cheques, now my dream had come true. Ste had raised just short of £2000 for the charity, what a great amount of money in less than 6 months. Jordan had raised over £1000 for the LeJog event, with a total of over £10,000 for the previous 18 months, what a guy! We obviously watched the game afterwards which ended up in a 2-2 draw. The Everton fans were hostile from the beginning, at half time boo's rang around the stadium. After a poor summer in the transfer market and a poor first half, the fans were making themselves known. It all ended well with a Kone equaliser and everyone went home pretty happy. Great pies from Goodison as well, I will hand that to the scousers! It was a great day and thoroughly enjoyed being pitch side and soaking in the atmosphere, plus it was great to be rewarded and shown some gratitude for the hard work all 3 of us had put in over those 10 days.
The day after on the Sunday, I thought I would try out my first long run. I didn't have any sort of distance planned out at all, which isn't the best preparation for marathon training. I set off at 10k pace, after about 6 miles I still felt pretty fresh, so I extended this to 13 miles. After a brief stop for a water refill at my mums work place, I thought I would push myself a bit further. With it being one of the hottest days of the year it was a pretty stupid idea, that is me all over though. I went through New Longton and then onto Walmer Bridge. About 15 miles in my legs started giving in on me, my only issue at this point is that I was over 8 miles from home. It seemed a great idea at first, the logic of running out of the way so you have to run back sounded brilliant, not after 16 miles. All my energy had gone and it was so hot, I had to run home, no other option about it. I plodded on, walking in stages. I eventually managed to get home after 23 miles of running, which took me about 3:12 in total. Even though I was shattered, hungry, probably dehydrated, in my head my marathon training was pretty much complete. I had covered the distance I needed to, 12 week plan sorted in one day, so naïve, what a stupid way of thinking.
The next 5 days I was just recovering from my longest run to date, as I hadn't eaten properly or rehydrated I was feeling it. I was physically and mentally tired, for the first time in the year I couldn't be bothered running. I did my mile a day, only covering 5 miles in those 5 days put my average well down. 226 days of running, I had covered 599.9 miles, which averaged at 2.67 miles a day. As I had holidays planned and knew I would have the festive period coming up, I needed to up my game if I wanted to reach my 1000 mile target. Once again, Saturday morning had arrived and I was back in the valley chasing another PB at Cuerden. I was pushed hard this week but came away with another PB of 19:03, so close the sub 19 target I had in mind. Over my previous 5 races I had PB'd 5 times, with results of 3rd, 1st, 1st, 3rd and the most recent of 2nd. Cuerden isn't classed as a race but it is a great way of monitoring your own progress. I was determined to get below the 19 minute mark in 2015, only time would tell if I could achieve this or not.
Approaching the end of August it was now time for a well deserved break, turning 27 on the 23rd August, I had booked a few days away in Amsterdam to celebrate in style. For the 2nd time this year I was going on holiday, half of my suitcase consisting of running equipment, luckily enough lycra is only light weight. Having been Amsterdam a few times before, I knew for a fact that running would be hard work, mainly due to all of the cyclists I would have to avoid on the way, honest. Having already run in England, Gambia, Wales and Scotland in 2015, Holland would be the 5th country I would be running in on my challenge. Always nice to mix it up a bit. Having an early flight, I arrived in Amsterdam at about 8am, check in at the hotel was mid-afternoon. There was only one option, get into a bar, get into my lycra and go for a run. It was short and sweet, a quick 7 minute mile in the sunshine and it was time to hit up Amsterdam for a quiet birthday weekend. In the 4 days I was there, I only covered 4.3 miles. It was my birthday weekend and I was having a break. I have to admit that the celebrations made the running hard work, especially on the lungs. It was another country ticked off the list and another few miles in the bag, was now back to reality and to try and get focused again. So come the end of August I run for 243 consecutively, covering 623.5 miles over the 8 months, averaging 2.56 miles a day. It was good, but the total wasn't going up as fast as I would have liked.
So September had finally arrived and it was a big month ahead. I was still on with boxing training which was tiring but great work. Twice a week, consisting of circuit training, sparring and every exercise you could think of. As the weeks went on the training got harder, I was getting fitter and was getting used to the exercises, it didn't get easier. Once you got used to one thing, they would mix it up. In the long run it was only going to be good for my running. Most of the sessions started off with 10 minutes of the dreaded stairs. Five floors, up and down until you was blowing fro every angle. This was only the start, it was then followed by 2 minutes on the bags, throwing combinations. The 1 minute rest in between the rounds consisted of 10 press-ups, sit ups and squats. By the time you had done these it was time to start the next round. This went of for 4-5 rounds usually, proper work out to say the least. Once that was done, it would then be time to swap over and do some sparring. Same amount of time for the rounds, with the same exercises in between. This was a killer, throwing punches at the end was hard work, great training with great intensity!! Loved it. We would then probably finish with some more circuits such as sit ups, planking etc. I will talk more about the boxing soon and fight night. If you want a perfect press up technique, check out the guy in the red ;-).
My next official event was the Red Rose Road Runners Interclub, which was 4.2 miles through Worden park. It was the first interclub race I had been to and all the big boys turned up to show me how to run properly. I made a vital mistake at the beginning of the race by not getting to the front, with it being a narrow start I couldn't get the positioning I had liked. After about the first mile it opened up a lot but by this time I was way behind the front runners. I still pushed hard though as a settled into a good pace, I finished in 36th place out of a couple hundred with the time of 26:00. It worked out over 6:00 /mi which wasn't the fastest I had ever run but I really enjoyed it. A few days later it was then onto the parkrun in the valley once again. I'll admit I wasn't the freshest this week and wasn't putting in enough training to deserve a good run. I still completed the course in 19:49 which I was happy to be running sub 20 constantly, finishing 3rd wasn't too bad either.
Another excuse for running slower than usual is myself and Pete had booked in for the Wigan 10k for Sunday 6th September. I had run a few 10ks in the past and it was one of the distances I knew I could massively improve on. Having run an 18 minute 5k, my PB time for 10k was 38:53, I knew I could do better than this. The event on the day was really good, turning up early they had bands on and a lot of other entertainment. The fact the Wigan 10k was teaming up with the charity for Joining Jack made it even better and for such a great cause. If you haven't heard of the charity before then take a look at what it's all about. http://joiningjack.org/ Well lets get onto the race, with there being around 2000 people on the day, I found it hard to get a warm up done due to the lack of room. So I just decided to get the best position and get to the front of the pack, using my first mile as a warm up. I was really up for the race on the day, even though I was feeling a little tired. My aim for the race was just to beat my previous PB, which I was confident of doing. I set off at a good pace, covering the first mile in 5:51, probably a bit too fast of a start but it give me ground to slow down. I felt good and pushed on as usual, my next 2 miles I covered in 6:05 and then 6:12. Crossing the 5k mark I knew I was up on my previous best, just had to maintain the pace. I did start to slow soon after, my next three miles were 6:22, 6:25 and 6:14. With less than 400 meters to go I was definitely on for a PB, with a strong sprint finish I gained about 5 places and finished with a time of 38:29. Delighted to get a new PB, I am never satisfied with myself and there was slight disappointment that I couldn't get closer to the 38 minute mark. In time that will come, for now I had reached my target and comfortably beat my previous time, finishing 43rd out of 2000, I could not complain. Pete also reached a new PB for the day with a time of 44:22, smashed his previous PB. For an event I would recommend the Wigan 10k to anyone, great organisation throughout and the atmosphere was the same. The band situated at the DW stadium took your mind off the running, even if it was only for a short amount of time.
Over the next week I took things pretty easy as I was gearing myself up for Tough Mudder on the Sunday, still continued with my mile a day. If you don't know already then Tough
Mudder is a team-oriented 10-12 mile (18-20 km) obstacle course designed to test physical
strength and mental grit. Tough Mudder puts camaraderie over finisher rankings and is not a timed race but a team challenge that allows participants to experience exhilarating obstacles throughout. On the day we have a team of 4 for the day, myself, Pete, Alex and Danielle, great team. We had all been building up for this event for a good few months, great that it had finally arrived. We all had our own individual fears before the day, mine being heights more than anything. I knew I was fit enough to complete the course, it was more of a challenge to conquer a few fears and to help each other through it. The scariest thing was signing a waver before the race, pretty much signing your life away. If you died on the course, it was your own fault. Saying this, we was only on our 2nd obstacle of the day and one girl was being assisted by the paramedics with some gas and air. We found out at the end she had broken her leg. At the time it was an eye opener for what could actually happen if something did go wrong, instead of breaking our legs we proceeded to help each other over three 8 foot walls, easy. Throughout the day we all manned up and conquered our fears, the worst one for myself was the arctic enema. It was 6 foot drop into ice water, then having to compose yourself to get under the tyres in the middle, submerging yourself again. Then dragging yourself out at the end still in a state of shock. After I went under the water the first time, I came up struggling to breathe, gasping for air. I had to take a good 10 seconds to gather myself
before submerging again. This wasn't any better, I managed to scramble out at the end but my body was in shock. I was literally uncontrollably shivering and my breathing was short and sharp, gasping for air pretty much. Only way to sort this out was to get running and get warm, it was horrific! Only took a few moments to get the blood pumping again before we was onto the next challenge. On the day there was a load of obstacles that tested your physical and mental strength. The final obstacle finished the day off in style though, titled 'Electroshock Therapy', pretty much explains itself. 10,000 volts running through the wires was enough to put me on the floor. I only made contact with one at the end, it put me face down into the floor within a second. There was no real pain, just one hell of a shock.
Pete has managed to explain everything I wanted to say in the photo, good modelling Pete. Anyhow Tough Mudder was a great day out and it pushes you to conquer your fears, whether that is heights, water or mud. The fact there are 100's of other people helping and encouraging you along the way makes it so much easier to complete the obstacles. Main reason is people are waiting for you to get over that 10ft wall and you don't want to hold them up any longer, so it hurries you along without too much thought. If you haven't done this before, I recommend it big time, make sure you work on both fitness and strength if you want to complete all of the obstacles.
Moving back onto the running, I have to say September was a pretty disappointing month for myself. I don't really know what it was down to but I didn't cover anywhere near the miles I wanted to. With my boxing match at the end of the month I think a lot of my focus went into the training for this, which definitely didn't help my running. I was getting fitter on the circuit training side of things, my running seemed to go a little down hill though. After TM I only covered 19.3 miles in 11 days, an average of 1.6 miles a day wasn't acceptable really. However on Saturday 26th September I achieved another PB at Cuerden Valley parkrun, beating my previous time of 19:03 by 3 seconds, 19:00 was the final time. I genuinely thought I had gone sub 19 on the course for the first time, it wasn't to be. I was delighted again with a PB and first place finish as I wasn't run well at the time, still a little disappointed that I couldn't push myself that one second faster, in time that will come. With the correct training, diet and frame of mind I real want to smash that 19:00 mark, only I could put the effort in to achieve this.
Moving on from the running, it was now onto the boxing. From the beginning of August I went through 8 weeks of training and pushing myself to the limit to get as fit as possible for the fight ahead. I had been training with around 20 local lads from Preston, it did start at around 40 but a lot dropped due to personal circumstances and the fact they didn't want to
get punched in the head repeatedly. This was part of the challenge for myself, never being in a fight before, I felt I could hold my own in the ring and I would never give up. If someone was going to beat me they would have to knock me out, or for the referee to stop it of course. Training with the same lads each week was brilliant, especially as you got to know people more and more throughout the weeks. The hard part was knowing you would have to fight one of those people and when it came to the ring it was you verses them. We had the weigh in earlier in the week at Glovers bar in which we found out who we was fighting and had a friendly face-off. It was a good way of doing it as it then only left you 4 days to prepare yourself for who you was going to fight on that weekend. I was chosen against a guy called William, out of the 20 or so lads in the gym, I hadn't even considered I would be fighting him. I don't know the exact weights but we must have been pretty similar to get paired up, he definitely had the height and reach advantage on me, well from what I could see. That was it, it was on, I had my opponent and it was time to focus for the Sunday night.
Sunday came round very quick, as ever before the boxing a went and did my mile run, took it nice and easy to save the legs of course. Of course it was very clever of me running hard the previous morning at parkrun, where I really should have been taking it easy, I didn't like taking it easy though. All the fighters had to arrive for about 2pm on the day, potentially a good few hours before you would be fighting with the first fight being at 4.30pm. Not knowing when I would be fighting until I got there, I made sure to pack a lot of food to keep
me going. On arrival all the lads were buzzing as we walked around Lava Ignite which was the venue for the night. Having the ring there and the seats set up for the audience made it sink in what was actually going to go down. It was predicted that 500 people would be watching and that to myself was a big number of people and definitely got me a little nervous even way before the fight. It was then time to go and have a medical which every fighter needed to pass before they could fight. Being nervous my blood pressure and heart rate was a little higher than normal but no need for concern.
After the organisers had explained all the rules for the night they then told us our fight numbers. Out of 19 fights, I think, I was scheduled for number 11. First fight being at 4:30pm, it meant I had a good few hours to kill before I was on. This wasn't a bad thing as I had a lot of time to prepare, eat the meals I had prepared and to sit down and enjoy some of the previous fights. The first fights got under way and it definitely got the nerves going, the night started with some female boxing which I have to say was a good tactical fight that ended in a draw. After this it got serious, some of the big hitters came to the ring and punches started to fly. With the UWCB safety came into it, so head guards were worn for every fight. Still, some of the punches that were connecting looked horrifically good, it was what we was there to do and I enjoyed watching it. Time was soon passing as I sat with my family and friends for the first few fights.
Before I knew it 5/6 fights had finished and my fight was getting closer. I headed up to the changing rooms after one of the fights to just check my phone and really just to waste ore time. As I remember I wished the next boxer good luck, not knowing at the time it was my opponent. I wasn't thinking and didn't even have it in my head that I would be fighting any minute. A minute later, still with me being in the changing rooms, my music came on and my name was announced. Honestly the next couple of minutes I don't really remember, the fact I had at least another hour to my fight, I hadn't even started to prepare mentally or physically. It was on, my music was playing and I had to get down to the ring. No warm up or anything, I was panicking, rushing to actually find some head gear and gloves to fight with. After a minute or so I had my gear sorted, or so I thought. I got down to the ring and had forgotten the most important part to take part in the event, my gum shield. So now being in the ring with 100's of people looking at me, already being late, the cigarettes and alcohol song by oasis already being on the second verse, I had to leave the ring to go back up the stairs to get my gum shield. Looking through my bag frantically, I was shaking, my head was all over the place. I mean 8 weeks of training and preparing myself and now I was panicking and having to rush about for my fight, definitely not the best preparation.
Anyhow, there was nothing I could do about it and I headed down to the ring to a pretty subdued atmosphere, I had kept the crowd waiting longer than expected. Into my corner I went, a few wise words from the corner and it was fight time. No idea what my corner said to me, in one ear and out of the other. The referee then called us up, explained the rules again, touched gloves with my opponent and the bell rang. Three rounds of 2 minutes scheduled for the fight. Gloves up, my opponent touched gloves again, which caught me off guard. With my hands down I received a barrage of punches to the head, a good two or three connected and I was rattled. Luckily I remembered to keep my guard up so absorbed a lot of the punches with my gloves. Being hit got me started though, as I came back with a good flurry of punches which definitely got the fight going. I don't really remember the first round at all, it was very even in my eyes. I did however get caught with some big right hands with shook me, I tried not to show it though. It was pretty even I thought for the first couple of minutes, I wasn't boxing as planned though. I had been dragged into a fight from the start and pretty much forgot everything I practised, which was so disappointing. The bell rang at the end of the first. I had it even, admittedly I got caught far more often that I had planned. I wasn't using any footwork, very flat footed and was open to receiving punches. I felt ok as I went to my corner, legs felt pretty tired and I was breathing heavily, I knew I was fitter than him so I just had to stay in the fight for fitness to prevail. The corner spoke well to me, asking me when I was going to start boxing. A part from that I don't remember what else they said. When I was sat down I didn't feel like any adrenaline had kicked in, the panicked start didn't set me off well at all.
The second round was here, into the centre of the ring to touch gloves and it was on again. We both set off very well, landing some very good punches and boxed a little better. However I was getting sloppy, I was able to take the punches he was landing but I was taking too many. We had practiced for weeks on defence and keeping your guard up. This was slipping down as I got tired, halfway through the round I was caught with a big straight right hand on the button, maybe followed by a second. I saw stars and my natural reaction was to take a knee, otherwise that could have been game over. Facing towards my family and friends, I took a quick breather and was back up on my feet. The fight was started again but it was short lived, the next 30 seconds I thought was even again with both of us exchanging blows. I had gathered my head and was getting back into it. Soon after I was caught with a good few punches and the referee jumped in to stop the fight. I couldn't believe it, wasn't expecting the stoppage at all. If anything I was feeling the best I had since the stoppage. I couldn't argue, the referee's decision was final. I was gutted. I genuinely felt that if I got into the 3rd round I would be able to get the better of him and win the fight. It was my own fault, not protecting myself ultimately cost me the fight as I received far too many punches.
Even so, I was always in a position to throw back, my opinion will never change and the fight should have carried on. Every credit to my opponent, he got stuck in to me from the start and took advantage of my poor defence. He was a good winner and came over straight away and said it was a great fight and loved every moment of it. Even though I got beat I loved every minute of it as well. Typing this two months after the fight, I am still annoyed at it. I wanted to have the whole experience from the ring entrance, to the fight, to possibly winning. I definitely got a fight but missed out on the other two scenarios. I really do wish I would have had my time to prepare, have a proper warm up with the trainer and to get my head on for the fight. I needed that time before, even with running, I have a routine. I use past experiences and thoughts to get up for events, consider myself lucky to be in certain scenarios. I didn't get that with the boxing and that is the only regret about the night, suppose there is always next time. Overall it was a great experience and really glad I took part in it. A great amount of money was raised for Cancer Research before and on the night, I think just our group raised just short of £7,000 which was great going. If you want to take a look at the fight, if you haven't already seen it, please take a look at the first link below. Thanks to my family and friends for coming to support me on the night, wouldn't have been the same without you all there.
With September coming to a close, I was approaching the final 1/4 of the year which left me with 95 days of running. My story up to this point can be seen in the link below, my friend at uni put together a video of my events so far, if you haven't seen this please take a look as he has done a great job. I will be back with another blog update soon which covers my first marathon and other events so far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvDbLhEqRjo
Summary - Running
January - 31 runs - 116.8miles.
February - 28 runs - 85.3 miles.
March - 31 runs - 71.5 miles.
April - 30 runs - 59.4 miles.
May - 32 runs - 90.2 miles.
June - 30 runs - 32.5 miles - (LeJog month)
July - 34 runs - 99.5 miles.
August - 31 runs - 68.3 miles.
September - 30 runs - 67.7 miles.
Total - 691.2 miles.
Summary - Cycling
January - 211.9 miles.
February - 378.3 miles.
March - 240.5 miles.
April - 360.1 miles.
May - 446.8 miles.
June - 1075.8 miles.
July - 180.8 miles.
August - 141.9 miles.
September - 104.8 miles.
Total - 3603.5
Thanks to everyone that has donated and please share - I am after raising as much awareness as possible for my challenges so far and for the rest of the year.
https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/
You can also contact me or follow my journey with the details below.
Facebook - Karl Michael Hodgson
Twitter - @teddyhodgson
Instagram - teddyhodgson
Strava - Karl Hodgson
July Update
Welcome back, again. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy. I have kept this blog a little shorter as the last one took me over 20 minutes to read, harder task than completing the events.
On Sunday 21st June 2015, I had completed my toughest challenge to date. Cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats in 10 days, with no support throughout the full journey. It was an unbelievable experience and I would recommend it to anyone. Yes it does cost a lot, takes up a lot of your time with training, it is well worth it though. I have memories over those 10 days that will live with me for the rest of my days, money cannot put a price on that. Arriving in John O'Groats was a feeling I can't really explain, just a massive adrenalin rush that I had only experienced a few times before. Now this challenge is over, I am now in search of a few more challenges to keep the blood pumping, I think I may have found a couple to keep me occupied which I will now go through with you. Of course they are all part of my year to raise as much as possible for charity, which is going very good so far.
Up to the 21st June 2015, I had cycled 3070.5 miles and run a total of 446.7, totalling 3517.2 miles. To have covered this amount of ground in less than 6 months I was over the moon with myself and my achievements so far. The Amazon River is just short of 4000 miles, so I wasn't too far off that milestone. From Preston to New York, it is 3300 miles, that had already been ticked off. Seeing it down in writing makes me think how far I have actually travelled, hard to put in context. Anyhow, I could feel myself getting fitter as the weeks went by and by the end of LeJog I felt the fittest I had ever been. Not denying I wasn't in need of a rest, I was, but this wasn't an option at all. This thought had been eliminated from my head earlier on in the year, giving up at any point was not an option.
With the cycling done, it was time to focus back on the running as my main goal. Wanting to take the fitness I had gained from cycling and to use it to good effect. Staying in Scotland for a few days after the cycling, I had a couple more runs in which to take in the great scenery of Aviemore and Edinburgh, we had returned to Edinburgh to celebrate our achievements in style. In Aviemore I stayed up late and went running at about 23:52, completing a 7 minute mile before the stroke of midnight. Then once the clock turned 12, I went and did another run, meaning I was now free for the day to go and enjoy a few drinks without worrying about having to get my running shoes out at any point, for a good 36 hours or so at least. The few drinks turned into a full on session, ending up in a student bar at 3am drinking all sorts... Only problem was I was dressed for an occasion, not a Scottish student bar. All good fun though as you can see from the photo... Ste's shirt (on the left) was buttoned up at the beginning of the night, not by the end of it.
Once the night out was out of the way it was time to go home and start settling into the real world again. Arriving home on Wednesday 24th June, if was time to rest up and prepare for a few events I had scheduled for the following weekend. Over the next ten days I covered just over 14 miles, nowhere near the distance I would have like to have covered, however I was listening to my body and I definitely needed a rest and to refuel for a few days.
My next event soon turned up and It was back to Cuerden Valley for early morning parkrun. Last time I had ran this was on the 30th May, with it now being the 4th July, I hadn't been involved for 5 weeks and I was missing it. I knew I had a lack of running fitness but I was feeling good. My overall fitness was through the roof and with a good week of short runs I was up for beating my previous PB of 19:28. It had taken me 2 months to achieve this time so it wasn't going to be an easy task at all. Arriving in the valley I was greeted by the usual crew who wished me well and congratulated me on my recent achievements. This put me in a great frame of mind for the run ahead. The run had arrived and I set off at a fair pace, after 2 miles I knew I was up on my previous time but had to keep pushing. I was in 1st position from the start and I sometimes find it hard to run with no-one directly on my shoulder. I did keep my pace up and pushed hard up the last hill to get a new PB of 19:24. It was only 4 seconds off but to be the 1st finisher and to PB as well it was a great return to the valley and did my confidence a lot of good. As I hadn't been focusing on just my running for a good few months, it was great to be progressing and was excited for what was to come.
Once I was finished in the Valley is was them time to prepare for my 2nd race of the day which was the Lostock Hall Carnival 5k. With this pretty much being my home turf I couldn't miss it. Even though I had run hard in the morning I was still hopeful of achieving a good time and carrying on the good work. With the race starting at 12:45, I only had a couple of hours to get home and fed, then back out again. It was a hot and windy day, great conditions, except for it being hot and windy. At the start line there was a few fast people lined up next to me, so I knew I could start fast and hopefully try to keep up with the leaders. Running through the streets of Lostock Hall with 100's of people watching I think I had a bit too much adrenalin for the first mile, completing it in 5:37. For the 2nd mile it was then back into the wind and I could feel my energy draining after a start that was too fast for me. I was hoping I could maintain a good enough pace but my 2nd mile was 6:06 and slowing. 3rd mile was consistent with my 2nd with a time of 6:07, which I knew wasn't enough to come close to my PB of 18:01. As always I finished strongly on the home stretch in front of the crowds, ending up with a time of 18:28, which works out 5:57/mi. My final position was 5th out of about 80 people, which I was more than happy with. My first top 5 finish, yes it wasn't my fastest of time, considering I was still recovering from the morning run I was impressed. I learnt a lot in this race about my pacing as well, trying to keep up with the faster people was silly to start with. At this point I had only being running 6 months so I will still learning with every run I did. I have also learnt to make sure I wear longer shorts when people are taking photos, the arm/leg tan from my cycling just looks ridiculous!!
The weekend over running wasn't over, Sunday has arrived and it was time for the 'Trawden 7' which was part of the Grand Prix for Red Rose Road Runners. So I was never going to miss this event and points were up for grabs. Being honest I was tired before this race, waking up that morning my legs felt heavy and I was feeling a little drained. Think half of it was poor hydration after the running on the previous day, only myself to blame for that. The fact in was my 186th straight day of running may have had something to do with it. As always my good friend Pete was taking part in the race, this was out first off road race so think we was both a bit nervous of what was ahead. We had heard the terrain was tough and a good few hills to tackle, nothing like a good challenge. It was a good turn of for RRRR as always, great to run for a club in which you are guaranteed some support along the way, before and after also. Anyhow, race time had arrived, a little later than planned which meant I had to warm up twice, not the best preparation. Before the race they said there was a prize for the first person to do a lap of the field then exit the field first, so I knew it was going to be a fast start. I definitely set off to fast again and after 1 mile my legs were giving up on me and I knew there was a tough course ahead. I covered the first mile in 6:20 which was roughly my 10k pace, with it being on grass to start and slightly up hill I should have taken it steady, I didn't and it showed. I gradually started to slow which I wasn't used to, it was now turning into a mental challenge. My 2nd mile was 7:16, followed by an 8:42 for the 3rd. Yes it was uphill from 1.5 miles and a climb of over 300ft, but I was struggling. Hard to admit but I walked for about 10 seconds, then questioned what I was doing and quickly got my legs going again. The next 2 miles didn't get much better, 7:46 and then 7:49 for the 5th. Think I was struggling with the terrain, having to carefully watch your footing for every step definitely slowed me down. In the back of my mind I was thinking I need to avoid any sort of injury as I did not want to miss a day of running for any reason. for the last 2 miles we ended up back on the road which suited myself and I started making ground on a lot of people. Finishing with a 6:28 and 6:21 mile, overtaking a good 20 people in the last mile was a good feeling for myself after a poor race compared to others.. Overall it was a good race and challenge for myself, biggest test I had had for a while on the running side. I finished with a time of 51:01 which works out to be 7:13/mi, not my fastest run but in a way a very satisfactory run. 186 runs on the bounce and 476 miles covered after this, the total was creeping up towards 500 which was a mini target of mine.
For the next week my short term plan was to rest up a little and prepare for another Saturday parkrun. I mixed it up with some fast single mile runs and a couple of slower 5k's. Come the 11th July I was now up to 488.6 miles and approaching my 192nd run. On the morning of parkrun I was feeling good and ready for the challenge of beating my previous PB. It was my 28th time down in the valley and was loving it more than ever. Once again I set off at a good pace and was faster over the first mile than my previous week. All I had to do was keep it up and finish strongly which I did. Finishing in first place with a time of 19:17, taking 7 seconds off last weeks time. Was well chuffed with this as it seemed my hard work was now starting to pay off and I was getting fast over the shorter distances. After the run it was time for a brew and cake in the barn, which happens every week. To my surprise I was given the award for park runner of the month, which got me a pair of trainers of my own choice from sweatshop. I was delighted and pretty speechless really. Pita Nadine, CV parkrun director announced it and said some really kind words. One stat which she brought up was the fact I had been to parkrun 28 times, of those 28 I had PB'd on 14 occasions. My first run was on the 25th October 2014, finishing in 23:12 and not being able to run all the way round the course. 7 months later, I had improved dramatically knocking off 3:55 over the 5k course. Works out pretty much 45 seconds fast per km, not bad going really. Even though I was running the fastest I had ever run, I had to start somewhere, just takes a bit of commitment and you will see results like myself. The team at Cuerden have a lot to do with my progress, I can't name everyone as there are so many people. From week one of me turning up, the encouraging and positivity received from everyone was inspiring. Without knowing it, the runners, volunteers and organisers help you a long the way. I cannot praise them enough and I have a lot of time for everyone involved in such a great event, Pita, Ray and everyone involved, you can be proud of the set up you have and please don't change the way you all are. Thanks for the trainers, they set me up well for the rest of the year and would certainly help me complete my challenge.
For the next couple of weeks I now had to focus on training for a half marathon which was scheduled for the 26th July in Lancaster. I had only ever completed 2 half marathons before, one being the GNR which I ran with my friend in about 2 hours 30 mins. The most recent was early in 2014 which I completed in 1 hour 47 mins, with literally no training. Over the next 15 days I covered 43 miles averaging 2.8 miles a day for that time. This took me to 534.7 for the year, this was still leaving me with an average of over 5k a day to reach my target of 1000 miles for the year, so a lot of work still needed. The day had arrived for the Lancaster half marathon, once again Pete Batts was great company for the day and we was both encouraging each other to take part in races we would never do. As well as it being my first real half marathon, it was also Pete's. I know he was as nervous as me but was going to be a good run. I was feeling good before the race and was running well and was getting used to pacing myself over longer distances. My aim for the race was to maintain a 6:40/mi pace which would take me under 1:30:00, I was hoping to beat this time and run hard for the full 13.1 miles. Setting off I took it quite easy and ran within my comfort zone as I didn't want to make the mistake of setting off too fast again as I had done in previous events. At the half way point I was in a good position covering the 6.5 miles in 43 minutes, I knew if I could keep that pace up I would definitely beat my target and maybe scrape under 1:25:00, asking a lot of myself with this. I kept pushing on and slowly started to take over a few people which was driving me on even more. I was averaging 6:30/mi and was comfortable with the speed I was at. I was now running my own race, there was no-one in front or behind that I could see, so it came down to the mental battle again of keeping those legs going. I pushed as hard as I could in the final part, crossing the 13 mile mark I knew I was in for a sprint finish to get below 1:25:00, it wasn't to be though. My final time was 1:25:12, which I was delighted with. This was my first half marathon that I had properly raced in and had beaten my expectations by a long way.
To top it off I finished 6th overall, this didn't cross my mind until I had finished and realised there was only 5 people sat down after the finish line. My overall fitness got me through the race and helped me achieve a really good time. I don't have Pete's time to hand, but he finished really strongly and completed his first half marathon a lot faster than he thought he would. Overall the day and race was brilliant, good racing conditions with a flat-ish course, bar the steps over the train tracks... if it wasn't for them I could have squeezed under 1:25:00. I will have my time again though when I can focus properly on the distance and see what I can achieve.
My next event soon arrived on 2 days later on Tuesday 28th July. It was the last race of the Vernon's 5k series which was a fast course, little hilly to start with but you could make some ground up on the 2nd half. I had previously ran this course in April, with a time of 18:21. I had also run the 2nd race out of the 4 in May with a time of 18:19. Unfortunately I missed the 3rd part as I was cycling, so I was up for running the course hard to make up for the loss. Plus to keep up with the sequence of beating my previous times. Even though I had run the half marathon on the Sunday, I felt really good and had no aches or pains. With a previous PB of 18:01 at Catforth which is a flat course, I was hoping to push hard to get near that time. With Vernon's being a little more undulating, I knew if I could get close to that time then I would be soon dipping below the 18:00 mark for 5k. After my warm up and stretches it was game time. Once again the turn out was superb, with a good turn out you always get the very good runners. You can look at it in two ways, either you'll never catch the front runners, or you can continue to work hard and close the gap, 2nd option is the one I am looking at, slowly but surely. To the race, I had made sure I was near the front the start with as every second would count. It was a very fast start and the leaders seem to pull away from the start, but they was in sight so I was happy and was maintaining a 5:45/mi pace for the first 1.5 miles. With this all being up hill it was now onto the 2nd half and to try and keep the pace up. I was being pushed all the way by some good runners which helped me a long. Approaching the 3 mile mark I knew I was up on my time but I was just focusing on a strong finish. As I crossed the line I stopped my watch bang on the 18:00 mark, with race timings and the exact results only coming later on it was a tense wait. I received the results later on and my time was 18:01, a joint PB. I have to admit I was gutted as I really thought I had a PB in the bag, the fact I had beaten my previous race time by 18 seconds I was still delighted with this. I finished 12th out of about 100, which was also good news, I know I need to cement down some more top ten places.
With July now being over, I had successfully ran for 7 months straight, which included 217 individual runs in the 212 days I had run so far. My total distance for running so far was 555.2 miles, averaging 2.55 miles a day. It was really good going so far, achieving things I never thought I would and felt I could get stronger as the year went on. I still had a lot of hard work to do and another 5 months of running to complete. With 153 runs still to go, I had to step it up and start averaging around 2.8 miles a day until the end of the year to reach my target of 1000 miles. Without the running I had also cycled 3356.8 miles for the year, without this my running average would have been higher, all part of the challenge!
Hope you have enjoyed the read so far, I shall be posting again soon and will eventually catch up on time. In the next episode there will be a special boxing addition alongside some marathon talk as well, so don't be going far :)
I have noticed recently I have had a good reaction to my blog from all over the world. I have had views in Spain, Sweden and even as far as South Korea.... Seriously. So if you are reading this and I don't know you personally, it would be great if you could comment, hope you're enjoying yourselves. Until next time....
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Update from the before the LeJog trip
Welcome back! It has been a good few months since I last blogged, so thought I should get off my arse, stop being lazy and start typing. I must warn you I have a lot to update you on, so probably best getting comfortable, I'd get a brew if I was you.
Anyhow, when I last left you it was the 7th May, seems a long time ago now. Most of you have been following my journey with my running/cycling but I shall go through the finer details just to make sure you haven't missed anything... Did I mention I run?
Throughout the month of May and into the beginning of June I had to focus most of my energy into cycling in preparation for my Lands End to John O' Groats trip. However I still got involved in a few running races when I got the opportunity, didn't want to miss out on anything. The cross training on the bike definitely built up my fitness even if it did take quite a lot out of my legs when it came to running. On 17th May I took part in the Worden Park 10k and finished with a time of 38:53, this was one second off my PB but was still happy that I was able to run a similar time. A week later I ran the Vernons 5k in a time of 18:19 which was my joint PB for a 5k race, finishing in the top 10 of a race for the first time, very satisfying indeed.
Saturday 30th May I got involved in 2 runs, as it was 9 years ago to the day I had my first chemotherapy session, so I was determined to run harder than I had before. First of all it was my standard Cuerden Valley Park run on a Saturday morning. Not having a new PB for a good 6 weeks was getting to me, but what a day to set a new PB. I ended up with a time of 19:28, taking 12 seconds off my previous best. It was then a case of feeding up and preparing for the evening race which was the Catforth 5k. I turned up and my frame of mind hadn't changed, I was setting off as fast as I could and hoping I could maintain the pace. It was a hard, fast run but again I set another PB for 5k with 18:01, knocking 18 seconds off. During both of the runs I was tired and blowing hard, the inspired mood that I woke up in that morning there was no way I wasn't setting new PB's. So overall I was really happy with the days achievements, considering it was my 150th consecutive day of running and cycled over 2000 miles in the year before these events. Really shows what you can do with a little motivation and focus...and fast moving legs.
I managed to have a good 12 hours rest after the 2nd race before I was on my bike cycling through Yorkshire with fellow LeJog team member Steven Willetts - Excuse his stupid hat.... The event was the 'Le Petit Depart' which was 80 miles, about 5500ft elevation and took us through parts of last years Tour De France. It was a great day out, a part from the rain and 30 mph head winds pretty much all the way through. With the LeJog trip only 12 days away this was a great test for us both. Ste performed very well on the day and think this is where I first really noticed his improvement and how he had taken his cycling to the next level. Really annoyed me, he had trained for it, flying up the hills he was. It was good to see though as he had really put a lot of effort in over the previous few months. Probably the last positive thing I will mention about Ste with me now moving onto the LeJog trip ha-ha. With the LeJog trip only 12 days away, I used this time to feed up and have as much rest as possible. In the lead up I was running just over 1 mile a day and only cycling to and from work, didn't want to burn out before the trip.
Lands End to John O' Groats
I tried cutting the LeJog story down, I have a little, but your in for a long read :) Enjoy!!
So the trip had finally arrived, over 2000 miles of cycling preparation, mixed in with over 400 miles of running, surely it was enough training to see me through the toughest adventure to date. One of my biggest fears leading up to it was the possibility of over training and taking on too much at once. That I suppose is part of challenging yourself and why we was doing it for charity. To test ourselves physically and mentally and to push ourselves to the limit, bring it on.
So we set out to Lands End on Thursday 11th June, hiring a van was our means of transport to get down to the far end of the country. We had prepared all of our equipment, I say prepared, looking back at it now we should have really thought through the trip a lot more. This in fact made it so much better. Myself and Ste had chosen to take panniers attached to the back of the bike, Jordan selecting to carry his equipment on his back, commitment. Between the 3 of us we was carrying around 30kg of equipment to keep us going for the 10 days. This included inner tubes, pump, puncture repair kit, food, drink, gels and so much more. We may have taken a little too much to start with but I would have rather had it that way.
So we arrived at Lands End at about 17:40, after setting off from Preston at about 08:15. Nearly ten hours, it should have taken us 7 hours tops. This was a sign of what was the come, think we had a good 3-4 coffee breaks on the way, spending too much time at each stop. The problem we had is the van hire place closed at 18:00, so we had to abandon our equipment at our first B&B, along with Jordan. We then raced back the hire place to just make it in time. After that was sorted, we had received a text from Jordan saying 'Barbara' had made him coffee and cake, we rushed back to join him as the opportunity of cake was too good to miss. So the night before we went out for a nice meal and chatted away about what was ahead of us. We was all excited yet nervous to get under way, the fact we was all doing it for charity gave us fighting spirit as we was raising money that would help out people in the present and future. As like every other day I went for my daily run, by the time we was back at the B&B it was 21:30 so it was a late run considering we was scheduled to be up at 6am the following day. I did just the mile as I wanted to rest as much as possible. We all settled in bed at about 10.30, I had my own room that night and was looking forward to a good nights sleep. I found myself awake at 1am still, the noise coming from the other room indicated Jordan and Ste weren't sleeping either. It was lights out not soon after though then the day was upon us.
Day 1 - Lands End to Launceston
So the day had arrived, we had prepared for this for a good few months and now it was here. My alarm went off at 6:00, I was out of the door ten minutes later tackling my daily run after less that 5 hours sleep, not the best preparation. I did the mile in 8:26, nice and steady, with nearly 100 miles to cycle I did not want to push myself. The main thing I noticed in the morning is that it was raining, windy and the visibility was shocking. Not the start I had hoped for but we had prepared for maybe a day or 2 of bad weather at the beginning. As I arrived back, Jordan and Ste were both up getting prepared. We sat down for breakfast at about 7am, literally ate as much as was supplied for us. At that time of the morning it is hard work eating, you have to force food down knowing that you will need the energy throughout the day. Come about 7:50, we was all ready, bags packed, bikes loaded as we headed off towards the Lands End Sign. Was so much talk over the months about this moment and we was there. Even though the weather was bad, the short 4 mile cycle to the sign was brilliant. We had been dropped off at the far end of the country, aiming to cycle up to 1000 miles through 3 countries. At the sign we spent a good 10-15 minutes taking photos and taking in the views, there wasn't any views. You could barely see the sea and the cliffs behind. The memory of being at the sign will stick with me forever and it was such an overwhelming feeling even before we had set off. We had agreed before we set off each day we had to make a motivational speech, day one was my turn. I rallied the troops and just reminded the boys why we was here and the lives we would be changing, In hard times to dig deep and to consider how lucky we was to be able to attempt to cycle to country.
We made our way to the start line near the sign, seeing the finish line next to this was a little bit daunting but did not dampen spirits at all. So that was it, strava had been started and we was officially on the trip of a lifetime, mental. We had heard rumours that Cornwall was hillier than Scotland, I wasn't having any of it, well until we set off. As soon as we set off we was faced with the rain, wind and hills that just seem to come out of nowhere. The attitude we had though was 'you don't go up hills, you go over them. Plus what goes up must come down so taking in the down hills and enjoying them was the best thing to do. The first 60-70 miles went very well, only going off course a couple of times and making good ground up. With the weather beating down us we had done brilliantly. After passing through Penzance, Truro and Roche, we arrived in Bodmin at about 72 miles. We then had a dilemma, go down the B roads which would add time to our journey, or take the dreaded A30. We was told to avoid this road at all costs due to the speed of the cars on the road and previous accidents which have killed cyclists before. We took the safe route to start with but found ourselves way off route, we had basically gone 4 miles left to then come back the same distance arriving at the A30 again. We was now being properly tested for the first time, we was all cold, wet and hungry which isn't the best combination.We made a team decision to get on the A30 and take our chances as we still had nearly 20 miles plus to go and it was getting a lot later than planned. We set off close together but soon got separated but still within site of
each other. Words cannot describe what we went through for the next 15 miles, a good 1 hour 30 mins of just battling with against our minds and elements. Wind at about 20 mph into our faces, cars flying past as 80mph and lorries spraying us on the hard shoulder, it was crazy. On the hard shoulder we had to dodge debris, bumps, humps, grids, all sorts off rubbish. The image of Jordan and Ste in front of me will never leave me, Jordan with his aluminous cover for his bag acting as a parachute in the wind and Ste's panniers bouncing around. We took shelter for a few minutes on the A30 under an abandoned petrol station. As I was running low on water I had to collect some from a pipe coming down from the roof, I had no other choice. We fuelled up and laughed off the situation, with us now being soaked to the bone for a good few hours it was definitely started to change our frame of minds. We cracked on though, made it off the A30 at about 18:50 and we was only about 5 miles away from the hotel. As we was getting excited and the sun came out, I was hit with a puncture which took me a lot longer than I thought to change. 5 miles left though, it was only going to take us 20 minutes, this wasn't the case. As we was being directed to the hotel with my Garmin device and following the purple line, it did everything but that. We end up off out bikes with a mile to go, rambling through some woods. Hoping it would bring is out near the hotel, it didn't. At this point my head had gone completely, it's such a strange feeling having your mind not able to make easy decisions. Ste gathered his head though and guided us to within 200 yards of the hotel. A quick phone call to the hotel and they guided us In the rest of the way. What a feeling it was to get to the hotel, wettest I had ever been on a bike ride, cold, tired and hungry. Until you have been through this I will never be able to describe it, you need to be there to experience it. We arrived at about 19:30, officially a 12 hour day. It should have taken us between 7-9 hours, we really couldn't work out why it had taken us so long. We was greeted by the 2 men that owned the hotel, they stripped us off, took all our clothes and offered to dry all of our stuff whilst we went and got showered and changed. On arrival Jordan helped himself to about 1kg of sweets that they had to offer. As we got sorted
they even offered to drive to the town to get us a curry, this delighted me. As with the day we had we had to refuel, this was such an important thing to keep the food and drink going in, otherwise it would cause issues in the near future. Showered, changed and well fed we all went and relaxed together to talk about the day. The A30 was the main topic, silly behaviour taking that route but we made it in one piece. Day one down with only 9 days left, that night was definitely and early night.
Summary
Miles cycled - 97.1
Total hours - 12:00
Hours on bike - 7:30
Hours doing other stuff - 4:30
Elevation gained - 6,400ft
Average speed - 12.4 mph
Max speed - 34.0 mph
Weather - Horrific for most of the day
Incidents - Punctures, getting lost, A30, abandoned petrol station and rambling.
Overall it was a fantastic day, 97 miles ticked off in the worst conditions possible. Morale was high for most of the day and we laughed most of the way. No injury worries at all and we all confidently covered the distance which I was very impressed with. Wow, sure I said I was keeping this short....I've only included a few details of the day as well.
Day 2 - Launceston to Chilton Polden
Day 2 was here, after only getting to sleep at about midnight, I was up again at about 06:30 to crack on with my run. The garden grounds covered about 15 square acres of grassland by the river, so It was a great way to start the day. Even though I was definitely tired it made it took my mind off having to run round a field. The mile I did in 8:50, I tried going faster but my legs didn't seem to want to. A lot was going through my mind to whether I would struggle today as we had about 85 miles to cover with a lot of hills and Dartmoor national park to tackle.
After a good hearty breakfast and a lot of coffee, we was set to go again. The hotel owners had been very kind and prepared us a packed lunch including the biggest Cornish pasty I had ever seen. This would definitely come in handy at some point throughout the day. We set off on day 2 at about 08:45, bags packs, gels and drinks prepared and ready to take on the day. Think it was Ste's turn for the speech, he raised morale ad told us to push on and we had smashed the first day and he was confident things couldn't get worst that the first day. He was right, we set off in the sunshine which was a great feeling. As soon as we left the hotel we was straight into a hill, we tickled this all the way up though and was beach cruising for the first 40 miles, taking in a couple of stops on the way. We was full of confidence but 40 miles took us over 5 hours 30 minutes to complete. This should have only taken us 3 hours with a break included. We cracked on though as we do and plodded on towards Chilton Polden. From the 40 mile mark though we took on 3 very steep hills over the next 13 miles, the gradient reaching 20% at some points. With the temperature in the high 20's we had worked out over such a short space of time. We had started to run low and water and wasn't coming across any shops to refill. Luckily enough we came across a house in which a kid couple and their daughter offered us a drink and to refill our bottles so we could carry on. The Cornish pasty came in handy at this point, fed and watered we cracked on. Still over 30 miles to go it was approaching tea time and we had some how managed to waste far too much time and it was then kind of a rush to push on and make ground up. We did make up a lot of ground but it was hard work after a very hilly start. We did get a bit of respite with some down hills, but with the tight, narrow roads it was hard to make up time and build up any sort of speed. The Garmin was also failing us, the route I had planned wasn't working out too well. It would take us down one ways, dead ends and farm roads that led to nowhere. This was very frustrating and really made me think we should have spent a lot more time and effort on planning the route. Anyhow, we didn't have much choice so we carried on with the Garmin with the odd Google map visit. We managed to arrive at the hotel for about 19:00, a lot later than planned again. This was something we really needed to look at as it was eating into our recovery time. Once again though it was a great feeling to have day 2 our of the way, we was conquering the country with relevant ease so far.
That evening though the mood changed a little bit. I was personally feeling fine and confident about the trip, Ste and Jordan though wasn't feeling the same. We sat down to eat and they wasn't hungry at all. Where as myself I had a starter and main. We couldn't work our what was going on, with 1000's of calories burnt hunger should surely hit but it didn't. After a bit of research we concluded it was due to adrenaline which avoided hunger kicking in. These are the only 2 pictures I have of the day, both during the meal... Sorry Ste, great photo. That evening in the room we was discussing the next day. I had suggested we take on Cheddar Gorge which was rated the number 1 climb in the country. I didn't receive the best reaction from the boys, but they came round to the idea. Hunger did eventually kick in and the take away pizzas got eaten, was happy to see and I was slightly worried them both not eating properly when they should be. The mood in the room was still great though even though we was facing difficulties with the route and duration of our days.
Miles cycled - 82.6
Total hours - 10:00
Hours on bike - 6:47
Hours doing other stuff - 3:13
Elevation gained - 5,571ft
Average speed - 12.2 mph
Max speed - 36.5 mph
Weather - Sunny all day, too hot at times. Would rather this than rain and wind.
Incidents - Taking too much time, over confident with the amount of time we had to complete the day. Eating pattern all over the place for the boys.
Day 3 - Chilton Polden to Hereford
Well day 3 was upon us, with already cycling 180 miles in total, we had another 90 mile day ahead of us. As ever, I was up at about 06:20 taking on my daily run. I have to say it was getting harder and harder as the days went on. I only did the mile this day, in a time of 8:35. It was hard as we was set on a main A road so had to move a side to the early morning traffic/lorries etc. However it was a good warm up and worked up my appetite for breakfast. After the previous night with the 2 boys not eating well, I wondered myself how they would get on, plus I was also thinking about my body and how long I could keep going for. Even though there was slight concerns we was all in good spirits and couldn't wait to set off. The sun was shining which just made the days so much better and didn't need to worry about getting the waterproof gear on.
So we set off heading towards the village of Cheddar, there was a bit of nerves with regards to Cheddar Gauge and how much of a climb it would be and could we handle it on the 3rd day. Of course we could handle it, we was the LeJog 3 and we battled on through to Cheddar. On the way to Cheddar, we took a wrong turning and we had to stop for a moment to figure things out. As Jordan was leaning on the fence of some old ladies front garden, he proceeded to fall through it and break it. In utter panic we cycled off like naughty school boys... looking back we should have left a note or confessed to it. Either way, it was a funny moment. We arrived in Cheddar after about 1 hour 30 mins of cycling so we was making good ground again, seemed to be the case in the mornings. I have to say I was delighted we went this way. With the sun beating down we approached the gauge that definitely looked like a scene out of Jurassic park. It was moments like this that make me think how lucky I was to be taking on such a challenge and seeing what I was. Ste, with him getting a reputation for being the king of the hills smashed it up to the top of the hill whilst me and Jordan took it easy. The gauge lasted for a couple of miles and we got to about 19% elevation, but this was easy for the boys now, just tickled it all the way up. With only a small breakfast that morning I was now hoping we could eat soon, we had to cycle another 10 miles to find a café. We had coffee as per usual and a sandwich but it didn't seem to touch the sides, could have carried on eating all day.
We cracked on and headed towards Bristol which was an absolute nightmare. With a couple of events on during the day, we found some roads closed, so we was mounting gates, walking across rivers. With panniers and bags it was hard work and quite frustrating. It was also the time I realised that my garmin device was sh*t and it kept going wrong, making things more stressful than they should have been. We got through Bristol eventually, by this time though I was tired, hungry and very moody. I wanted to stop asap to refuel as it was silly to carry on. We cycled for another 5-10 miles before this happened. A few words was said between me and Ste at that time but we laughed it off. I wanted to eat, he wanted to get to the Severn bridge. He offered to pull over to eat, then I said no. Weird how the mind works when you're tired, hungry etc. Once we stopped it was all fine again. After a bite to eat and a drink we was ready to cross the bridge into Wales, big moment. Before this, Jordan raised spirits my pleasuring a twister, perfect action he had as well.
So another hour wasted at the café, we set off again. We thought we was making good ground, we was 7 hours in and had only covered 45 miles, we should have been 60-70 by this time. We approached the Severn bridge within the hour and what a moment it was. We had cycled over 200 miles through England and now it was our chance to enter Wales and take this on. Having only been to wales twice before, I didn't know what to except with regards to the hills, views etc. As you can see from the photo it wasn't the greatest view at first, it definitely improved though. We crossed the bridge and celebrated with a gel, we still had 40 plus miles to go until we reached our destination of Hereford. Once we had entered wales the route got a little easier. We took a few of the bike paths and the main A roads which helped us cover a little more ground. We was still lagging behind again, after setting off at 08:00 we arrived in Monmouth at about 17:30, with still 20 miles to go. We was on the last leg of the day which definitely helped, it was hard mentally gearing yourself up for another session in the saddle after already cycling 75 miles. We set off to Hereford an hour later after a nice Lasagne and coffee again, definitely needed. Setting off together Ste soon pulled away from me and Jordan as hills seemed
to creep in a little more, just what we wanted. Wales was such a beautiful place, cycling through forests and beside rivers took your mind off the pedalling, well for a few minutes at least. On a long ride even the smallest things can take your mind off what is ahead. Jordan hadn't struggled up to this point but I could see he was starting to tire. I stayed with him and we helped each other through the valleys of Wales. About 10 miles from the hotel, Ste had well gone so me and Jordan stopped for a snack and a photo opportunity. We found a sign on the way that indicated how far we had come and how far we had to go. I loved this, just showed how far we had already come and was great for motivation. Still with 629 miles to go it was a moment for realisation of the task ahead and to enjoy the fact we had smashed through England and would be in and out of Wales within 2 days, easy! With 10 miles left and making contact with Steve, we would meet him at the hotel as he was slightly ahead at the time. So we tickled it to the hotel and Ste had checked us in and sorted us right out. On the way he had got lost a little cycling round the Hereford Tesco car park for 5 minutes, glad he was safe and well and didn't have to tackle any youths on the way, especially not in spandex. Once we settled after another tough day, we headed into Hereford for a well deserved KFC, more calories the better, plus chicken is a great source of protein to repair those leg muscles we had been hammering. This day had definitely been the toughest for myself so far, with having to deal with directions through Bristol, getting lost, also being hungry and tired. It tests your mental state at times, having the determination to push on and get rid of all the negative thoughts creeping up.
Miles cycled - 93.9
Total hours - 12:23
Hours on bike - 8:06
Hours doing other stuff - 4:07
Elevation gained - 6,067ft
Average speed - 11.6 mph
Max speed - 38.9 mph
Weather - Another sunny day through the welsh countryside. So much more enjoyable in the sunshine, helps with the sanity.
Incidents - Pretty successful day except for getting through Bristol, was a nightmare.
Day 4 - Hereford to Liverpool
With 270 miles cycled and having crossed the Welsh boarder, we was now preparing for one of our longest days. Our aim today was to tackle to Shropshire hills and get to Liverpool. Robby Garth and his Mrs had kindly invited us to stay for the night on our way through, greatly appreciated as we was looking forward to relaxing and heading back into the North West of England, home turf at last. Before we got their we had over 100 miles to cover and with it being the 4th day the tests just seem to keep coming.
Planning on setting off earlier to be the rush hour traffic didn't go to plan, after a massive full breakfast and our usual messing about in the morning we was ready to go at about 08:00, still not too late but with 100 miles plus we had to get moving. Once we had got off the main roads and through Hereford it opened up for us and we was just following the one road which was mainly flat. With the odd break here and there, once again we thought we was making really good time. However, we had covered just over 40 miles in 4 hours before we stopped for lunch. The weather and company was brilliant, our spirits were still high as we soaked up the sunshine. By this time, 3 1/2 days in our leg and arm tans had started to look a little ridiculous. After a nice lunch we cracked on to Shrewsbury, the busy cities seemed to cause us problems though. With my garmin still playing up, Ste took charge with google maps and guided us through the city, even though it was a right pain. One way streets, people, traffic, hard work. We made good ground once was out of Shrewsbury, we stopped about 5 miles after to recuperate. I remember all 3 of us standing on a quiet road having a wee, contemplating life and what we was doing with our lives. Having covered over 50 miles, we pretty much still have half way to go, meaning it would be a late arrival in Liverpool. Setting off again, I think I lead us down a wrong route which added more miles to the journey. We arrived in Wem at about 3:40, having stopped for another hour we was only setting off just before 17:00. At this point we had pretty much another 40 miles to cover.. My head went a little bit again as Ste just seem to keep having a go that we had gone the wrong way and blaming the garmin, which I was in control of, so he was blaming me in my eyes. There was nothing we could change about the scenario so I was just hoping he'd be quiet and get on with it :) Think the fact I was hungry again put me in one of my little moods!
Differences put to one side, Chester was our next target. Only way we was going to make up any good time was to get on the A roads, which I absolutely hated. No enjoyment to cycling at all, no conversation and nothing to take your mind of it at all. Watching and listening to cars whilst for 2-3 hours was no my cup of tea at all. This was a massive test for myself, it was boring, I didn't want to be there. I would have rather taken an extra hour on a country road, simple fact we had to make ground up meant we had no other choice. After a couple hours of gruelling cycling we hit Chester, it was 20:00 and getting late. After another short stop we headed on to Ellesmere port in which we had to get the train to Liverpool, to then cycle another couple of miles to Rob's house. Up to arriving at the train station I had clocked up 107 miles and definitely our longest day by far. What a great feeling it was arriving at the train station, it was pretty much another day ticked off and 4 days of constant cycling over. A little problem I encountered was shifting my bike through the station with my panniers on. The straps had come a little loose and was becoming a pain. As I went up the escalators holding onto my bike, both panniers fell off and rolled to the bottom. Was a funny moment waiting for them to meet me at the top. After tackling Liverpool we had finally arrived at our destination, a lovely greeting by Rob and girlfriend Nikki. They welcome us in with open arms and had a pasta party prepared for us. It had been a long day and we had only arrived at about 21:45 after setting off at 8:00, we still hadn't improved on taking our long coffee breaks. As I hadn't been on my run already, it was after 22:00 by the time I had my running shoes on. I was delighted though as Rob had offered to come with me which helped me a long massively. We had a nice little catch up, talked about politics and that whilst Rob took me on a route round the docks. Was hard work running after a long day on the bike, with running you use different muscles groups so was good to give the thighs a rest. Once the run was over I got stuck into the Pasta and other treats on offer. After a great evening and pretty much back on home turf, it was time for a shower and bed and to relax. As rob had sky, I hadn't watched any TV for a few days, the late night women's football got the best of me and I was up until at least 02:00 watching this, not the best preparation but with Preston on the cards tomorrow it was all good.
Miles cycled - 107
Total hours - 13:30
Hours on bike - 7:20
Hours doing other stuff - 6:10
Elevation gained - 4,000ft
Average speed - 14.3 mph
Max speed - 37.1 mph
Weather - Sunshine all day - If it wasn't then god only knows that that day would have been like.
Incidents - Long day, Wem, Rob and Nikki's wonderful pasta dish. Garmin Edge needed throwing away, soon.
Day 5 - Liverpool to Preston
With literally about 4 hours sleep, I was up again at about 06:00. Rob had kindly offered to wake me up and go for a run with him before work. It was great to have a company early in the morning whilst the others slept, plus it took my mind off having to actually run. My legs still felt fine after 4 days of cycling/running and it had definitely helped that I had trained intensely for the trip. Me and Rob did a loop around the docks again covering about 1.5 miles, longest run I had been for the few days. So thanks Robby G for helping us out with the 2 runs, also the Weetabix afterwards as I was starving after the early morning run. Thanks to Nikki as well as I had never met her before and she welcomed me in and let us make a mess of their flat, sorry about that :) We with Rob and Nikki leaving for work it was up to the boys to sort ourselves out. Today was the big day, charity day. We would be visiting our chosen charities, except for mine as it was adding an extra 40 miles to the trip which we didn't want. Plus we was heading home, so we thought we would make most of the rest time.
First stop was at the home of football, Goodison Park, the home ground of Everton FC. To remind people Ste's chosen charity was Everton in the Community, which helps in changing peoples lives in the local community. The trip just seemed to be getting better and better with different scenarios arising each day. We set off from Robs place at about 8:30 with a quick 30 minute cycle to the ground. On arrival we was clapped and cheered in by some good friends of Stephen who were also Everton fans. I was thoroughly excited for the morning as we would be going into the ground and getting onto Everton TV. I have to thank Ste's friends for coming as it was a great welcome and made us realise again the task we was taking on and how far we had come already. So Everton TV came a long and did a short interview with ourselves, mainly Ste which I was happy about as I didn't interview the best and they cut my section out, luckily enough. After we'd had the interview and a catch up it as time for a trip to the Everton café for a bite to eat. Not before there was a small matter of changing Jordan's inner tube. Some how he got a flat tyre within the stadium. We changed it then shortly after we heard a loud noise. The new inner tube had blown leaving a hole in the tyre that wasn't going to last too long. We all chipped in, got the puncture repair kip out and glued a few things to the inside of the tyre which would keep it going until we got home, well we hoped that.
With yet another delay on which should have been the quickest day of that trip, we finally got some breakfast which Corinne had kindly paid for us. Nice bacon and egg butty and a brew and we was ready to head back to Preston. We headed for Southport first of all down the coast, I had in my head I wanted a KFC so the boys humoured me and joined in with the chicken fest. We was literally beach cruising all the way to Southport on the flattest route to date. As we had already cycled to Goodison Park in the past, we knew the route for the first time which took a lot of street off all of us. Another sunny day and home was closely approaching. From Southport we only had 20 miles to cover, flat all the way home with the sun out again, perfect. Even though he had planned this leg to be a short day it didn't turn out that way. To cover over 40 miles it still took us over 6 hours in total, we wasn't learning. As we headed back into Preston we all went our separate ways and would be meeting again in the morning. The day wasn't over for Jordan as he had still to visit the bike shop for a new tyre and to also visit his charity. Jordan's chosen charity is the Space Centre in Preston. Their aim is o provide a place where those with physical, learning or emotional difficulties may more easily acquire skills and enjoy experiences usually denied them. It is a great cause and I know Jordan has done a lot of work with them in the past and scheduled for the Future as well. He was greeted by friends and family and he said he was moved by how many people turned up to support the cause. As you can see by the picture, this is Jordan relaxing in one of their new ball pools, really enjoying himself. I have to say arriving back on home turf and back in Preston was superb. As I got home my parents had done me a nice selection of food, chicken, pasta, you name it they had it. Which was great, I literally spent most of the afternoon just feeding up. Was good to see and hear people tell you that was you was doing was amazing and put things into perspective. Yes we had arrived in Preston, but we wasn't even half way through the journey yet. We had covered 424.7 miles in the 4 1/2 days, with a potential of at least 500 miles to go as well. After already covering the distance, the LeJog 3 was going strong both physically and mentally and was more than prepared for what was coming our way. Next stop was the north of England and eventually onto Scotland which was unknown territory for us cycling. After a nice relaxing evening catching up with friends ad family, it was time for an early night. Saying that, it must have been 02:00 by the time I was asleep. It was having the home comforts that kept me awake plus the thought of the next 5 days.
Miles cycled - 44.1
Total hours - 6:30
Hours on bike - 3:10
Hours doing other stuff - 3:20
Elevation gained - 600ft
Average speed - 13.9 mph
Max speed - 29.1 mph
Weather - Sunshine all the way - Beautiful cycling conditions.
Incidents - EITC, Everton TV, great welcome from Ste's friends, Jordan's exploding tyre. Late start as per usual and taking too long to do things, not improving at all.
Day 6 - Preston to Carlisle
So the alarm went at 06:30 on day 6, being at home I was awaken to the smell of bacon and lots of other meat. My dad had prepared me a nice fry up which was well needed. After only a few hours sleep again I felt tired today. My muscles and legs felt fine, I just felt a bit drained. I should have really been better with my sleeping pattern, it hadn't helped with the long days and limited rest time in the 5 days prior to this. Day 6 was a big day, we had a few other people coming a long with us on our adventure. We all met at Avenham park in Preston at about 08:00, we was welcomed by Pita, Steven, Damo and Alison who I work with. It was good to see their little faces as well as Mr Wheeler making an appearance. Was a nice tough that they had made the effort to go out of their way to come and meet and greet us. We was also met by the one and only Ste Galloway and Cheezy who would be travelling with us for the day. The company was greatly appreciated as it would surely break the trip up for us having new faces about.
We eventually set off towards Lancaster at about 08:30 with the full crew. We was on our way to meet Dave Francis as well who would also join us on the leg. We collected him about 10 miles in just after Preston, in which in then started raining. After 4 days of sunshine we had taken to weather for granted, so it was time to get out the waterproofs again. Making good ground up, Cheezy took the front as we headed down the A6. As he was also training for an Ironman at the time, he was as fit as he had been. For a good 5-10 miles he had his head down going for it, I had clocked we was averaging about 18 mph for the distance. Considering we had been averaging between 11-14 mph on previous days this was pretty quick. Lucky enough he eventually slowed down and we grouped up again. We had covered the first 27 miles to Lancaster in less that 1:45, averaging more than 15 mph which was good going. For the day the LeJog 6 and we making really good progress. In Lancaster we had stopped in an old church that was luckily enough serving coffee and cake, well needed as we had covered so good ground. Seemed that with other people with us, we would take less time on coffee stops, this wasn't the case. We had a good 45 minutes which I did enjoy as it meant I wasn't being rained on.
Next stop for the boys was Kendall in which our new travelling members would be turning back round, or so the said. We made up some ground again in a good time, averaging over 15 mph again, I was half thinking would this early pace eventually catch up with me. I forgot to mention earlier, Ste Galloway, turned up with a mountain bike, Patrick trainers and a Man United bag to carry his stuff. What a man!! We stopped off in Kendall just under 2 hours later, soaked to the bone from the rain it was nice to get off the bike and have a well earned Pasta break. During dinner the lads had decided they didn't want to turn round, they wanted to carry on the trip with us to Carlisle, which I though was great on their behalf. They would then get the train back at the end of the day. #commitment
Setting off into the rain after dinner, it was then possibly the biggest test of the trip so far. We had 'Shap' to deal with, 10 miles of gradual incline, I was also told that once you was on the way to the top it had it's own weather. Part of cycling I had grown to love is taking on challenges like this, pushing yourself to see what you can achieve both physically and mentally. After an hour of constant cycling we had finally got up to the top of Shap, we had gained over 1300ft of elevation such a short space of time. We all made it up safely with no troubles. Only minor issue it was raining on and off, so one minute you'd be cold, next it would be sunny and you'd be sweating. One of the best climbs I have done to date with such spectacular views over the area. There was no time to waste though, the fun part was ahead. The fact we had climbed so high, it was time to go down the other side. The top speed I had clocked was about 35 mph but it felt faster. With 10kg of equipment strapped onto the back of the bike it was a nerve tester as some times you would feel the back end just wobble. The adrenaline and little bit of fear is what makes cycling so good. Without risk there is no reward. Making it down the hill without pedalling was great, had to make most of those scenarios as they didn't come around too often.
Our next stop was in the village of Shap, we stopped off at a café for coffee and cake again. Thinking we still had part of Shap to do at the time, the owner told us we had conquered it which was met with a great cheer from the boys. Confidence was now sky high, already covering 60 miles we had 30 miles left which was mostly down hill. I think this is the point in which I made my first mistake. I should have had something proper to eat in the café, but only had cake. I was feeling hungry for proper food but there was none to offer. I wasn't complaining at the time when I was scoffing my face with cake. Anyhow, we set off again for a nice and easy 30 miles into Carlisle, it proved the opposite for myself. After about 10 miles my legs started to go, the strong head wind and lack off food I was definitely feeling the worst I had felt over the 6 days. We plodded on though even though I was struggling at the back, the lads helped me through it stopping to let me catch up. Even though this didn't seem to help at the time, there's nothing worse than them stopping, as soon as you arrive heading off into the distance again. It's a strange feeling knowing you are putting everything into pedalling but there's no power being generated. About 10 miles to Carlisle and was struggling and my mood started to change, I just wanted to sit down and eat. Jordan got me through this, he said, ' let's go and bonk together'. Bonking being the cycling term for having nothing left and hitting the wall either physically or mentally. Lucky for me it was only physically, there was never for a second I thought I wouldn't get to Carlisle, is more when than if. After an hour of watching Ste Galloway's constant pedalling, we had made it! What a day it was, such a test of mental toughness for myself and hopefully I would learn from the day. Every credit to the boys coming with us and helping us through it. Still can't get over Ste, he didn't stop pedalling all day. As a cyclist, not being clipped in to your pedals is hard work. He did Shap and nearly 100 miles like that, every credit. We hit our destination for 18:45, so it was another long day. We stopped at Pizza express, refuelled and said farewell to the lads that would be getting the train back to Preston. The day wasn't over for us just yet, we had another couple of miles to the hotel. Once we'd arrived I did my mile straight away it just over 7 minutes, I was quite impressed with this. Cutting things short, we had a mixed evening. We had worked out that our next day we was scheduled to cycle over 120 miles. The way we had been in previous day we wouldn't have made it. With some good work from ourselves and Ste's mate. We managed to re-route down the East coast of Scotland instead of travelling over to the West coast through Fort William. Looking at it now, what a great decision. So another day down and we was flying. Ste has still going strong and didn't seem to be struggling at all. Jordan had his moments, but overall he seemed to be getting stronger as the trip went on. Couldn't really say much for myself as I had properly had the worst 20 miles on a bike in my full career ha-ha. It was now time for a well earned sleep and I was in bed for a good time which I was happy with. Great work overall and definitely a day I will not forget.
Miles cycled - 96.7
Total hours - 10:00
Hours on bike - 6:48
Hours doing other stuff - 3:12
Elevation gained - 4,000ft
Average speed - 14.1 mph
Max speed - 35.1 mph
Weather - Mixed conditions, raining to start with. What else do you expect up north?
Incidents - Steven Galloway in general. Cheezy's Ironman pace, Shap and bonking (nearly).
Day 7 - Carlisle to Edinburgh
So it had arrived, day 7 out of 10, the day in which we hit Scotland. Our final country of the tour, all we had to do was cycle through Scotland and we had finished. Easy!!! That morning we all woke up fresh and had a great breakfast prepared by the hotel, except the more up north you get, the stranger the scrambled egg seems to become. After planning on setting off really early, me made way for the Scottish border at about 08:30. We tickled the English boarder for about 10 miles until we reach Longtown. From nowhere, there it was, 'welcome to Scotland'. Another great feeling and was celebrated by the way of us. Lucky enough there was a lorry pulled over next to the sign so we could get some proper photos. You can see by the smiles on our faces that we ere all delighted to have come this far. We had covered about 530 miles so far still with 4 full days of cycling left, so it was time to get our heads down again and make some ground up. As we had changed the route the previous night, it worked out we had a good route. All we had to do was to follow the A7 pretty much all the way to Edinburgh. We didn't know if the A7 would be a busy main road or not, it turned out to be pretty quiet which made it so much more enjoyable. It was just the 3 of us with 90 miles of road to cover in the day, easy... It wasn't really. Even though it was a great road to cycle on, hills just seemed to appear round every corner. Nothing too steep in elevation, but just gradual climbs that tested your stamina and ability to keep your mind focused. Nothing much went on throughout day 7, it was a day to make up ground and get to Edinburgh in good time for a well earned rest. Like every other day we set off really well and covered a lot of ground in the morning, the afternoon always seemed to be a different story. Setting off at 08:20 we arrived in Edinburgh at about 21:30. We had covered 97.6 miles in just over 13 hours. Yet again only spending 7 1/2 hours on the bike, 6 hours having our coffee and lunch breaks. 7 days in and we wasn't learning at all, the longer we spent out and about the less time we would have to rest, eat and sleep to recover. The day was a great day, it was the first time I had been to Scotland so it was good to take in all the views.
Being on the bike, you didn't miss anything at all. It is definitely the best way to see the countryside hands down. Once we had arrived in Edinburgh we stopped off for a well earned Franky and Bennys, this meal included dough balls, Pasta and a lot more. A short while after we headed back to the hotel to get some rest. With me no getting up early and doing my run, I had to force myself into my trainers again and get my legs moving. Delighted to say Jordan joined me on this run which helped me massively. I would never say it but I was struggling for the motivation this evening and he got me going again. We covered a mile in 7:20, I was impressed Jordan kept up with me, but he getting fitter and fitter on the trip so nothing was stopping him. It was nice to finally get back into the hotel room to snack and get a good nights kip. No matter what we seemed to go through during the day, come night time we always found the time to have a laugh about something and to tell each how good we was doing as a group. 7 days down, 619 miles covered and we were stronger than ever going into day 8.
Miles cycled - 97.6
Total hours - 13
Hours on bike - 7:30
Hours doing other stuff - 5:30
Elevation gained - 5,000ft
Average speed - 13.0 mph
Max speed - 30.1 mph
Weather - Mixed conditions, sun, touch of rain and windy at times.
Incidents - Beautiful scenery through the first stretch of Scotland. Realising Ste was definitely the king of the hills. Jordan stopping off at a sweet shop that seemed to get him through the 2nd half of the day with ease.
Day 8 - Edinburgh to Newtonmore
On to day 8 and it was ready to go again. Once again I preferred to have the extra 10 minutes in bed that doing my run, I always seem to regret it after 100 miles on the bike. Today was a massive day, we had over 100 miles to tackle and heading into the highlands of Scotland. After a bit of breakfast we set off at 08:15, later than planned once again but this was the norm now. It wasn't the sunniest of days but certainly wasn't cold. We set off down the coast of Edinburgh down the beach front and it was a great way to start the day. The most entertainment of the day came in the first 10 minutes of the morning, we thought we had a good route planned out, we hadn't. The shortcut we tried meant we had to carry our bikes up several sets of stairs, which in cleats wasn't the easiest. We had rambled for 5 minutes then returned to cycling. Within moments we was going through a ginnel which was a tight squeeze and we had to slow down. Ste went first but forgot to unclip, so in slow motion he went to put his foot down, unfortunately he didn't manage it. Man down, straight over on his bike, he was helpless. Bike led on top of him with equipment as well, we did check he was ok, once we knew he was me and Jordan did have a right good laugh about it. Just what we needed to set off the day - sorry Ste. After the commotion we headed off again to cross over the Queensferry bridge which offered some great views over Edinburgh. As I'm not the biggest fan of heights, the 10 minutes we spent on the bridge I was in the middle of the path trying not to look down, was a great opportunity for photos to take my mind off things.
After the brief stop, it was on and upwards towards Perth. Perth was 40 miles into the trip were we stopped off and had a nice lunch. It was when we sat down we had realised what we had in store for the rest of the day. 40 miles in and it was already 14:20 by the time we was setting off again, still with about 70 miles to go. What was we doing? I know me and Jordan was discussing our top 3 films and deciding which Kanye songs were his best. Ste wasn't happy with us, I now realise why. 70 miles left to cover, crazy! With our serious heads on after lunch, we set off again towards the town of Pitlochry. Pitlochry was 70 miles in to journey and we had arrived there by 17:30. Jordan had done really well so far on the trip, but he needed some serious time to gather his head. Having something to eat in a local pub, Ste spoke to his friend who questioned why at 18:15 we was still in Pitlochry. We still had 40 miles to go and without realising possibly the hardest climb I had been on to date still ahead. After Jordan had eaten his Ice cream and downloaded something to listen to we set off again at about 18:30. As we was now deep into Scotland, stops and shops were hard to come by. The next town we had in sight was Dalwinnie which was 30 miles away, up hill. Setting off I have to say I was getting tired and this was by far the toughest leg of the trip. With main A roads, head winds and a gradual up hill climb, we all plodded on and grafted like we never had before. I was lagging behind for a bit for Jordan and Ste slowed down to keep me in view. We carried on slogging, heading further up hill we started to see snow on the hills. With it getting later in the day it also began to start getting a little colder than we was used to. After over 20 miles of graft all 3 of us seemed to want to pull over at the same time. We did, taking a good 10 minutes break that was well earned. The next leg is when we turned from boys to men. Already covering 85 miles on the day and cycling for the previous 7 days straight, it was now time for us to step up and test ourselves like never before. It was now 19:00 if not later in the evening, 25 miles to cover and not a shop to be seen anywhere. With limited snacks and water we had no option but to crack on and get to our destination of Dalwinnie in which we could at least get refill with food and water. Heading uphill again, we cracked on. Tired legs, tired minds, you could tell. The slightest of comments seemed to set us off laughing. Everyone has had it when you are lacking in energy and you feel shaky, we was literally cracking up. Another 7 miles of climbing up hill and we had reached the summit, great feeling as we could now cruise towards some food.
We approached Dalwinnie in high spirit hoping to get something to eat and a drink. Arriving there was a complete different story, Dalwinnie wasn't a town at all. There was nothing there a part from a mine and some street lamps, the thought of food had been snatched away from us in a matter of seconds. Still with over 10 miles to go to reach the hotel we had to man up and get on with it. We headed downhill towards Newtonmore, with the time of day it was we knew the hotel wouldn't be serving food so we started to worry about what we would do. After another 45 minutes of graft, the time being 22:00 and it being dark, we arrived in Newtonmore, there seemed to be nothing there, I could feel my heart sink a little bit. I had worked the hardest I had ever done, 40 miles without food, climbing over 1000ft within 30 miles, I needed some food. From nowhere we saw what we thought was a café, at that time of night and being out for nearly 14 hours, we wasn't actually sure. We got there and luckily enough it was a late night diner but it was just closing. We had a chat with the owner and he happily offered to make us steak pie and chips, which he did. The mood was lifted straight away, plus the achievement of covering over 110 miles on our hardest day, over the moon. At the time we hadn't realised how far we had come and how much of a climb we had been on, but I will tell you now it was the hardest part of the trip, yet the most memorable. I know I could speak to the boys about the trip and it would always end with a conversation about day 8 and how we broke the back of Scotland.
For myself there was no time to rest, it was time to go and find the hotel and go for my run. I left the boys in the café and they followed shortly after. It was approaching 23:00 and I needed to make sure I got my daily run in, it was the closest I came to missing it. Delighted to say the hotel was superb when I arrived, they quickly showed me round as the boys turned up and put their bikes away. In a joint decision we decided to request a later breakfast of about 8ish and have a nice lie in and recuperate. Would that be a decision we would end up regretting?? Anyhow, at 23:11 on day 8, I finally went and got my mile out of the way, it was cold and dark as I headed out into the Scottish highlands. I managed somehow to squeeze in a 6:52 mile, think I just wanted to get to bed and settled... Wasn't the most comfortable of run with eating 20 minutes prior to this, you do what you have to do though. After this it was a case of a quick shower, bite to eat and a hot chocolate and a laugh with the boys before bed as always. 8 days completed, 729 miles on the bike, we had overcome the most difficult parts, are so we thought... bed time and a well earned rest before we made our way up to the far north of Scotland.
Miles cycled - 110.2
Total hours - 14
Hours on bike - 9:05
Hours doing other stuff - 4:55
Elevation gained - 4,800ft
Average speed - 12.4.0 mph
Max speed - 31.8 mph
Weather - Mixed conditions, sunny, colder as we went up into the mountains.
Incidents - The Highlands of Scotland, scenery was epic. Hardest and longest climb of the trip, turned us into men.
Day 9 - Newtonmore to Dornoch
So it was here, the penultimate day of our 10 day cycle. After the accomplishment of the previous day, we decided to have a lie in until about 08:30 which was by far the latest we had stayed in bed until. It was good to be able to catch up on sleep as we had been living off pretty much 5-6 hours sleep a night at tops. Had a great breakfast, full fry up, then cereal/yoghurt on the side. As we only had 80 miles planned for the day, we was nice and relaxed and took it easy. As time went on we started to regret the decision before we had even set off. The way out previous days had gone, even if it did turn out to be 80 miles it was still going to take us 12 hours with all our stops and coffee breaks!! Spirits were still high as we was nearing the end of our trip and we had conquered the hardest parts of Britain. It was around 10:15 that morning before we had set off, so a very late start.
After leaving Newtonmore, we headed off aiming to get to Inverness in a few hours which we had down as about 35-40 miles away, this would leave us in good stead for the rest of the day. However, without knowing we set off down the cycle route to avoid the dangerous A roads, so from the start we was already adding time and distance to the journey. There was stunning views from the start, I had really started to take it all in now as the trip was coming to an end. It was slow going as usual, we stopped after 2 hours with only covering 22 miles, it was happening to us again. It was 12:30 with 60 miles left, or so we thought. After a short break (1 hour), we proceeded towards Inverness. Before we got there we had to tackle a good few hills and a bit of off road cycling. On the way we reached the famous 'Slochd Summit' which was 1315ft above sea level, from here the day was pretty much down hill, which was a great change. After the break and off road cycling, Slochd Summit was only 34 miles into our journey and it had taken us 4 hours. We decided at the top to have a look at the route and see what the score was. After mapping it, it turned out we still have another 65 miles to go and It was already 14:00, we had to get a move on.
We certainly did that, as we was at the summit we cruised downhill for another 15-16 miles. It was probably the most enjoyable down hill section of the trip, reaching speeds of 40mph plus we was racing each other down hills, one person would go to the front, seconds later someone would be flying past you at a greater speed. This went one for about 20 minutes until we hit the A road to Inverness. It was great to reach such high speeds and reserve some energy for a change, not having to grind up hill for hours. We finally reached Inverness at 15:40, which was 50 miles into the journey, only half way in. Being too confident as always, we spent 1 hour 40 minutes eating and relaxing.. Even on the 9th day, we still hadn't learnt, putting ourselves under needless pressure to get to our final destination. As always we got our heads down and tried to make some ground up, the next 20-30 miles was easy going except the odd killer hill thrown in out of nowhere, reaching up to 20% gradient which took it out of the legs for sure. We made up some decent ground and reached the town of Tain at about around 21:50, so thinking about it we hadn't really caught up much ground as we had a good 40 minute break again to get some well needed food. As we approached Tain with about 10 miles to go to our hotel, you could see the clouds brewing ahead. By clouds, I mean there was a storm brewing and we was heading straight towards it.
Before we got to the bridge crossing over to Dornoch we stopped and had a quick photo opportunity, the first time in 9 days we had seen a sign for John O'Groats which was such an immense feeling. This didn't last long at all as we proceeded to get battered by the incoming rain and wind. I had never experience anything like it at all, we was crossing the 1/2 mile long bridge and I couldn't see 20ft in front of me. We had our heads down just peddling against the elements, yes we had water proof gear on but this made no difference at all. Soaked to the bone with still 30 minutes of cycling left with darkness setting in. With about 2 miles to the hotel we pulled in to another abandoned petrol station to take a bit of shelter. With everything being wet, we all became very cold and tension ran high. Ste asked me to look at my phone for directions, I simply responded get your own phone out. The tone I responded to him though was horrid with such an attitude. Luckily enough Ste wasn't being a cretin and managed to get us directions to the hotel. We set off into the dark and battled on for another couple of miles. We arrived at the hotel at about 22:40, cold, wet and in need of some warmth and shelter. The last 10 miles was so challenging, more mentally than physically. The fact we had an 80 mile easy day, turned out to be a gruelling 100 mile cycle with the worst finish to a day we had had. On arrival it was brilliant, Jordan literally barged into the B&B without knocking, forcing his way in. It was brilliant to see, he was polite though. As I was locking the bikes up, I had fallen through the decking in front of the house but came out with no injuries luckily enough...
The host of the B&B was brilliant, set us up with 2 massive beds that had electric blankets and heating as well. It's a good job we had the heating, otherwise all of our equipment would have been soaked the next morning. So it was a case of unpacking everything and getting everything on the radiators, good times. As the boys got settled in, I dried off and got my running shoes on, it took a lot of will power to do this as I felt like knocking it on the head. I had to sit down and talk myself round to going, I was so close to leaving it but that voice in the back of my head forced me out. It was another late one, 23:10 as I set off, was a hard run as it was dark, cold, wet and downhill for 1/2 mile, then I had to run the 2nd half back up the hill to finish. I completed the mile in 8 minutes 48 seconds, slowest of the trip, delighted I went out and did it though. Once I had finished I went and caught up with Ste and Jordan who was showered and changed and in their comfy clothes. As I had decided to pay for my own room I had left them with it and said night before the last day. We had all agreed it had been an epic trip so far and we was looking forward to finishing the trip the day after. As I had my own room with my own TV I did a silly thing and was awake until about 02:30, was just thinking of how far we had come and reminiscing of the earlier days. Have to say I was happy with how it had all gone, on the other side I was quite upset to be approaching the end of the trip of a life time. On and upwards heading towards the final day with about 80 miles remaining, John O'Groats was in tickling distance.
Miles cycled - 100.3
Total hours - 12:30
Hours on bike - 7:33
Hours doing other stuff - 5:03
Elevation gained - 4,326ft
Average speed - 13.3 mph
Max speed - 40 mph
Weather - Sunny to start with, horrific storms by the end of the day, character building.
Incidents - Another great day, grafting through Scotland and getting the thick of its weather as well. The bridge crossing towards the end is like nothing I can describe. Falling through the decking, close call.
Day 10 - Dornoch - John O' Groats
Well.... it was here, the day we had all be waiting for had finally arrived. Months of training, hours and hours of saddle time on the bike and pounding the pavement all lead up to this final day. We had travelled 829 miles so far in 9 days, 8 1/2 days of cycling if you take the charity day out of it. We had all gone through the emotions and dug deep at different times and supported each other all the way. Through the hard times of hunger, sleep deprivation and the sheer wet and cold. We had battled through the blistering heat and hills of Cornwall, marched on through the welsh border and broke Scotland in the matter on 9 days. The achievement so far was epic on it's own, we just had the last leg to complete our cycle of Great Britain.
Sunday 21st June 2015, the date had been in our minds for a long time. Now we was eating breakfast getting excited by the fact the day had arrived and we would be completing the trip of a life time, it was going to be an emotional one. We had learnt from the previous day and got up at a good time for the last day. There was real hope around the breakfast table that we could make up some really good ground and complete the last day within a good time... Yeah right, it was never going to happen. After a good feed we got changed into our lycra and packed our bags for the last time. I don't know how the boys were feeling at the time but it was definitely an emotional time for myself, not that I would ever show it. Just the fact I was 85 miles away from the far North East point of Scotland, having started at the far South of England. We had got there using pretty much just our legs, amazing really.
So we gathered outside the B&B once we was all ready to go, one final speech from all of us. Wishing each other a safe final journey and to take in the last day and realise what we was doing and why we was doing it. The fact we was changing our lives and changing others at the same time, all 3 of us doing it for different reasons, different charities, all with the same target outcome. We had put our body and minds through so much, it was all going to be worth it. We also had to lovely thought of finally meeting Ste's parents, Tony and Diane. They had been travelling through Scotland for over a week and had agreed to meet us in JOG in their campervan. That on it's own was a big enough reason to get on the bike on the last day, Tony Willetts home made bacon butties on the BBQ, bread buttered by Diane, beautiful.
So day 10 was here and we was setting off at 09:15, reasonable time for ourselves. The weather was very overcast and rain was scheduled throughout the day. After the episode of the night before, last thing we wanted was rain and wind and we wanted to be able to enjoy it as much as possible. Either way, there would be nothing stopping us from reaching out destination. Setting off we was met by great scenario and beaches down the east coast, I hadn't really taken in too much scenery but I would be today. After about 20 minutes cycling we ended up taking shelter for the first time. The heavens had opened already after only a few miles, so we decided to take cover and stay dry. It passed shortly and we decided to man up and head out again. After 12 miles and an hour of cycling we stopped off in Brora for a quick break, 40 minutes. The routine of wasting time had continued as expected. 3 scones with butter and a brew later was heading out again. We decided to get our heads down and push on, which we did. We next stopped after another 25 miles in a town called Dunbeath, pretty much the only place that we saw that had a restaurant there. It was well needed as I was starving for a change, we had just cycled up hill for about 10 miles into the heavens, I was growing to love hills and it mixed things up a bit, flats just seemed to be quite boring if there wasn't a view. Having done 37 miles, we was half way to JOG and the dream was coming closer. Had a nice last supper with the boys as that would be the last sit down meal with just us 3 and our bikes. Roughly 870 miles completed, we only had to get through another 35-40, it seemed so straight forward. The sense of achievement was growing within the group and confidence was flying.
Heading out again into the open Scottish highlands, the rain hadn't appeared again but the wind had picked up a lot. We didn't have too far to go but into a head wind it was going to make us earn our reward on the last day. Even though we had just had a really good feed, I felt my legs were tiring, I wasn't worried about the situation at the time, but should I have been? With another 20 miles to the next stop, this was going to be one of the hardest legs of the trip. Over the next couple of hours we spent a lot of time separated, going up hills we all had different speeds. Being on my own I genuinely started to lose the plot. Noticing that cows always win in a staring contest and will always watch you until you have disappeared out of their view. This actually had me laughing to myself at one point, this is when I knew for the first time that my head was going. I couldn't keep focused, yes I was pedalling but it was getting harder and harder by the minute, the head wind wasn't helping at all. After a long slog we reached the final town of Wick before we moved onto JOG.
Stopping off again we got some cake and a brew again, it wasn't enough for me. I had to raid my supplies eating a good few chocolate bard and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. I remember looking at Ste's empty plate that had a little bit of cake left on it, I was even eyeing this up. At this point my legs had gone, my head was on the verge and I was nearly on my way to bonking. In cycling terms this basically means you have no more to give, even if you want to your body/mind just doesn't do the work you want it to. I think the boys had clocked on to this and definitely made fun out of the scenario. It was taken in good spirit as we had only 17 miles to JOG. Back on our bikes we agreed to stay together for the last stretch, this idea lasted about 20 seconds. My legs had gone, I was still doing about 14-15 mph but the boys motored off at about 18mph, I just couldn't keep up. We cracked on pushing through the mental/physical pain barrier, I had to dig deep, reminding myself why I was doing what I was doing. Being able to find that inner strength is the difference between carrying on or giving up. I had cycled so far, another 17 miles was nothing. As we proceeded onto JOG, the boys did wait up for me every couple of miles for a bit of morale support. They knew I was bonking though and reminded me of this at every chance possible, it was funny, I had cycled for nearly ten days and my legs decided to give up on me on the last leg of the trip. I think it must have been my head telling me I had finished, just a little too early.
Getting closer to LeJog, the excitement had clearly set in with all of us, we had all become quite giddy in anticipation for the big finish. Only problem was the weather was also about the set in, the wind hadn't died down all day and you could see the rain heading our way. We hadn't done too bad in Scotland really, it was just one final challenge we had to take on. So after making up so decent ground, besides me not being able to go top speed, we had only 5 miles to go. We had a quick break, I even had an energy gel, desperate times for myself. Ste had made a phone call to his parents to inform them of how far away we was so they could be prepared for our arrival. Tony and Diane would be waiting at the famous JOG sign which would be our final destination, unbelievable scenes on the cards. One last push, on our way again, we set off as the LeJog 3. Staying together, praising each other of how well we had done and it was a once in a lifetime experience that we had completed together, we would always have that bond with each other now. Only a couple of miles left, there was one last hill, it was only a 300ft climb, the state I was in it looked so much worse than that. Now the rain had set in, it was pretty much blowing sideways and it was freezing. This didn't bother us, full speed ahead, or more like Ste and Jordan waited at the top for me to catch up.
It was then onto the home straight, one mile to go, the coastline and the North Sea was approaching fast. The next few moments I really don't remember, it was pretty much just a blare, a great blare though. We came over the last hump and there it was, the Jog sign with Tony and Diane's massive umbrella waiting for us. 10 days of cycling, 903.9 miles covered, 3 countries conquered and we was here. We cycled down to the sign and just dumped the bikes. Ste was straight into his parents arms whilst me and Jordan hugged it out. The excitement was a bit overwhelming for all of us. I cannot really describe the feeling, the pictures I think do a job of that. I would compare it to maybe scoring a goal but that feeling lasted a lot longer. For 5 minutes we danced around the sign, hugged and kissed each other, a lot more went on but I cannot remember at all. I didn't know what to expect as we completed the challenge, but for that few moments we was on top of the world and I doubt there will be many occasions in which I have the same feelings as I did. Seeing Ste re-uniting with his family was a big one as well, just shows how important family is and they will be there for you through the bad time, but most of all the great times. Such a touching finish to a great trip. If I had written this blog straight after the trip, I would remember a lot more of what went on.
Once the emotions had died down, and the fact it was too cold and wet to celebrate outside anymore, we went and had a coffee with Tony and Diane, catching up and talking about anything and everything. Whilst the adrenaline was still flowing, I put my running shoes on and went on my daily run. Only the mile for this one, I did it in just over 6 minutes, I was still high on life so this was I think the best run of the journey.
Miles cycled - 74.4Total hours - 9:35
Hours on bike - 5:48
Hours doing other stuff - 3:47
Elevation gained - 3,955ft
Average speed - 12.8 mph
Max speed - 36.2 mph
Weather - Rain wind, wind, more wind, wind and then rain to finish it off.
Incidents - Great final day, scenes of joy at the end that I will never experience again, yet will stay with me forever!!
Just a quick summary of the trip, I mean quick as well. 3 friends, literally dropped off at Lands End, on our own with no support ,would cycle the country for charity. We had no real experience with bikes, yes we had all cycled but maintenance wise we didn't have a clue. So with one bad outcome, our trip could have been over. This didn't put us off, this made it more of a challenge if anything. Being naive we hadn't planned to trip at all, we relied on a garmin device and google maps to do the work for us, which looking at it, it served us well. The trip was made so much harder without any support, so many little things over the journey added time on to every day. Even nipping in to the shop for supplies, we would have to lock up our bikes, or take turns going in. Stopping for food, same scenario with this. We would have to wait for food and drinks to be served, making breaks so much longer than we had planned. Filling up water bottles, having to wait in queues as a lot of bathrooms only have warm water in them. Finding places to eat was also hard work, especially in Scotland and quite a lot down south. Cycling for 20-30 miles without seeing any cafes etc was hard work at time, the general public always helped us out in times of need. Drying clothes, getting wet gloves on and off, getting your phone out, being cold, being hot, getting lost, rain, head wind, punctures, no food, no water, moods, hunger are only a small number of challenges we had to go through throughout the 10 days.
Just want to give a bit of credit to Ste, Jordan and anyone else involved. The trip was a once in a life time experience and I wouldn't change anything about it. Couldn't have done it with 2 better blokes. They both helped me a long in bad times, humouring me when I was in my moods and pulling me through the most difficult times. They have both raised a massive amount of money for their chosen charities, over £4000 in total between the 3 of us. Would like to thank Ste for all of the training cycles we went on and for all the great support leading up and throughout the trip, plus any previous stuff you've been involved in ;-) Jordan, I would like to apologise for under estimating your mental and physical abilities, the 4 months rest you had before the trip, I thought it may put you in bad scenarios throughout. I was completely wrong, you got better and better as the days past and every credit for cycling the country with limited training. I will never doubt you again my friend :) I cannot praise these boys enough. Ste, you falling off your bike will stay with me forever. Jordan, your handy work on the twister still makes me chuckle. LMFAO.
Final Statistics
Days cycled - 10
Miles cycled - 903.9 - Same distance as travelling to Sweden, Poland and Hungary from Preston.
Hours on bike - 69:41:23
Elevation gained - 44,719ft - Mount Everest in 29,000ft above sea level, so we have cycled the equivalent of 1 1/2 times up the highest mountain on the earth, in 10 days, with no support
Thanks as always to everyone that donated and encouraged us through the trip, there are far too many people to list. Everyone and Red Rose Road Runners got involved and wish us well. Graham Snape as well, got behind us throughout the trip and I don't think he'll know how much of an atmosphere he created. He had us laughing and making us realise how hard we was all working over the ten days. So thanks for the support Graham, top man!!!
I will continue my blog soon, updating you of what I have been doing over the last few months, specifically from what I have done from the 21st June onwards. Will get this to you ASAP. Best get writing again :)
Thanks to everyone that has donated and please share - I am after raising as much awareness as possible for my challenges so far and for the rest of the year.
https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/
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August was a slow start really, the first week of the month I had only covered 13.3 miles, it did take me to 568.5 miles for the year, this was slowly creeping up towards the 1000 mile mark which was always good. My first real event that I could push myself in was my weekly parkrun, I was hooked. In mid July I set a time of 19:17, which I really wanted to beat and push on towards the 19 minute mark. On the morning on the 8th August, up to about 30 seconds before the start, I was eyeing up a first place finish. Last minute though Andrew Benson and Andrew Newton strolled to the start line, with them both hitting sub 19 every week, I knew my chances had gone. It wasn't all bad as I knew a fast pace would be set, I wasn't wrong. They both set off very fast, I kept up for about 400m and then they disappeared. I was running well and felt good despite the faster start. I managed to maintain my position in 3rd and finished with a time of 19:12, 5 seconds off my PB, delighted with this once again. It was only small margins but I was getting quicker, great news.
Once I was done in the valley, it was then onto the football. The host for the day was Steven Willetts, fitness fanatic who had raised a lot money for Everton in The Community both past and present. Everton had been kind enough to invite myself, Ste and Jordan to the opening game of the season vs Watford. Ste already being a season ticket holder had given up his seats on the day to come and sit with the boys. Before the game we was taken pitch side to watch the players train and to have our photo taken with one of those massive cheques you see. It was brilliant, always wanted to hold onto of those massive cheques, now my dream had come true. Ste had raised just short of £2000 for the charity, what a great amount of money in less than 6 months. Jordan had raised over £1000 for the LeJog event, with a total of over £10,000 for the previous 18 months, what a guy! We obviously watched the game afterwards which ended up in a 2-2 draw. The Everton fans were hostile from the beginning, at half time boo's rang around the stadium. After a poor summer in the transfer market and a poor first half, the fans were making themselves known. It all ended well with a Kone equaliser and everyone went home pretty happy. Great pies from Goodison as well, I will hand that to the scousers! It was a great day and thoroughly enjoyed being pitch side and soaking in the atmosphere, plus it was great to be rewarded and shown some gratitude for the hard work all 3 of us had put in over those 10 days.
The next 5 days I was just recovering from my longest run to date, as I hadn't eaten properly or rehydrated I was feeling it. I was physically and mentally tired, for the first time in the year I couldn't be bothered running. I did my mile a day, only covering 5 miles in those 5 days put my average well down. 226 days of running, I had covered 599.9 miles, which averaged at 2.67 miles a day. As I had holidays planned and knew I would have the festive period coming up, I needed to up my game if I wanted to reach my 1000 mile target. Once again, Saturday morning had arrived and I was back in the valley chasing another PB at Cuerden. I was pushed hard this week but came away with another PB of 19:03, so close the sub 19 target I had in mind. Over my previous 5 races I had PB'd 5 times, with results of 3rd, 1st, 1st, 3rd and the most recent of 2nd. Cuerden isn't classed as a race but it is a great way of monitoring your own progress. I was determined to get below the 19 minute mark in 2015, only time would tell if I could achieve this or not.
Approaching the end of August it was now time for a well deserved break, turning 27 on the 23rd August, I had booked a few days away in Amsterdam to celebrate in style. For the 2nd time this year I was going on holiday, half of my suitcase consisting of running equipment, luckily enough lycra is only light weight. Having been Amsterdam a few times before, I knew for a fact that running would be hard work, mainly due to all of the cyclists I would have to avoid on the way, honest. Having already run in England, Gambia, Wales and Scotland in 2015, Holland would be the 5th country I would be running in on my challenge. Always nice to mix it up a bit. Having an early flight, I arrived in Amsterdam at about 8am, check in at the hotel was mid-afternoon. There was only one option, get into a bar, get into my lycra and go for a run. It was short and sweet, a quick 7 minute mile in the sunshine and it was time to hit up Amsterdam for a quiet birthday weekend. In the 4 days I was there, I only covered 4.3 miles. It was my birthday weekend and I was having a break. I have to admit that the celebrations made the running hard work, especially on the lungs. It was another country ticked off the list and another few miles in the bag, was now back to reality and to try and get focused again. So come the end of August I run for 243 consecutively, covering 623.5 miles over the 8 months, averaging 2.56 miles a day. It was good, but the total wasn't going up as fast as I would have liked.
So September had finally arrived and it was a big month ahead. I was still on with boxing training which was tiring but great work. Twice a week, consisting of circuit training, sparring and every exercise you could think of. As the weeks went on the training got harder, I was getting fitter and was getting used to the exercises, it didn't get easier. Once you got used to one thing, they would mix it up. In the long run it was only going to be good for my running. Most of the sessions started off with 10 minutes of the dreaded stairs. Five floors, up and down until you was blowing fro every angle. This was only the start, it was then followed by 2 minutes on the bags, throwing combinations. The 1 minute rest in between the rounds consisted of 10 press-ups, sit ups and squats. By the time you had done these it was time to start the next round. This went of for 4-5 rounds usually, proper work out to say the least. Once that was done, it would then be time to swap over and do some sparring. Same amount of time for the rounds, with the same exercises in between. This was a killer, throwing punches at the end was hard work, great training with great intensity!! Loved it. We would then probably finish with some more circuits such as sit ups, planking etc. I will talk more about the boxing soon and fight night. If you want a perfect press up technique, check out the guy in the red ;-).
Another excuse for running slower than usual is myself and Pete had booked in for the Wigan 10k for Sunday 6th September. I had run a few 10ks in the past and it was one of the distances I knew I could massively improve on. Having run an 18 minute 5k, my PB time for 10k was 38:53, I knew I could do better than this. The event on the day was really good, turning up early they had bands on and a lot of other entertainment. The fact the Wigan 10k was teaming up with the charity for Joining Jack made it even better and for such a great cause. If you haven't heard of the charity before then take a look at what it's all about. http://joiningjack.org/ Well lets get onto the race, with there being around 2000 people on the day, I found it hard to get a warm up done due to the lack of room. So I just decided to get the best position and get to the front of the pack, using my first mile as a warm up. I was really up for the race on the day, even though I was feeling a little tired. My aim for the race was just to beat my previous PB, which I was confident of doing. I set off at a good pace, covering the first mile in 5:51, probably a bit too fast of a start but it give me ground to slow down. I felt good and pushed on as usual, my next 2 miles I covered in 6:05 and then 6:12. Crossing the 5k mark I knew I was up on my previous best, just had to maintain the pace. I did start to slow soon after, my next three miles were 6:22, 6:25 and 6:14. With less than 400 meters to go I was definitely on for a PB, with a strong sprint finish I gained about 5 places and finished with a time of 38:29. Delighted to get a new PB, I am never satisfied with myself and there was slight disappointment that I couldn't get closer to the 38 minute mark. In time that will come, for now I had reached my target and comfortably beat my previous time, finishing 43rd out of 2000, I could not complain. Pete also reached a new PB for the day with a time of 44:22, smashed his previous PB. For an event I would recommend the Wigan 10k to anyone, great organisation throughout and the atmosphere was the same. The band situated at the DW stadium took your mind off the running, even if it was only for a short amount of time. 
Moving back onto the running, I have to say September was a pretty disappointing month for myself. I don't really know what it was down to but I didn't cover anywhere near the miles I wanted to. With my boxing match at the end of the month I think a lot of my focus went into the training for this, which definitely didn't help my running. I was getting fitter on the circuit training side of things, my running seemed to go a little down hill though. After TM I only covered 19.3 miles in 11 days, an average of 1.6 miles a day wasn't acceptable really. However on Saturday 26th September I achieved another PB at Cuerden Valley parkrun, beating my previous time of 19:03 by 3 seconds, 19:00 was the final time. I genuinely thought I had gone sub 19 on the course for the first time, it wasn't to be. I was delighted again with a PB and first place finish as I wasn't run well at the time, still a little disappointed that I couldn't push myself that one second faster, in time that will come. With the correct training, diet and frame of mind I real want to smash that 19:00 mark, only I could put the effort in to achieve this.
get punched in the head repeatedly. This was part of the challenge for myself, never being in a fight before, I felt I could hold my own in the ring and I would never give up. If someone was going to beat me they would have to knock me out, or for the referee to stop it of course. Training with the same lads each week was brilliant, especially as you got to know people more and more throughout the weeks. The hard part was knowing you would have to fight one of those people and when it came to the ring it was you verses them. We had the weigh in earlier in the week at Glovers bar in which we found out who we was fighting and had a friendly face-off. It was a good way of doing it as it then only left you 4 days to prepare yourself for who you was going to fight on that weekend. I was chosen against a guy called William, out of the 20 or so lads in the gym, I hadn't even considered I would be fighting him. I don't know the exact weights but we must have been pretty similar to get paired up, he definitely had the height and reach advantage on me, well from what I could see. That was it, it was on, I had my opponent and it was time to focus for the Sunday night.
Anyhow, there was nothing I could do about it and I headed down to the ring to a pretty subdued atmosphere, I had kept the crowd waiting longer than expected. Into my corner I went, a few wise words from the corner and it was fight time. No idea what my corner said to me, in one ear and out of the other. The referee then called us up, explained the rules again, touched gloves with my opponent and the bell rang. Three rounds of 2 minutes scheduled for the fight. Gloves up, my opponent touched gloves again, which caught me off guard. With my hands down I received a barrage of punches to the head, a good two or three connected and I was rattled. Luckily I remembered to keep my guard up so absorbed a lot of the punches with my gloves. Being hit got me started though, as I came back with a good flurry of punches which definitely got the fight going. I don't really remember the first round at all, it was very even in my eyes. I did however get caught with some big right hands with shook me, I tried not to show it though. It was pretty even I thought for the first couple of minutes, I wasn't boxing as planned though. I had been dragged into a fight from the start and pretty much forgot everything I practised, which was so disappointing. The bell rang at the end of the first. I had it even, admittedly I got caught far more often that I had planned. I wasn't using any footwork, very flat footed and was open to receiving punches. I felt ok as I went to my corner, legs felt pretty tired and I was breathing heavily, I knew I was fitter than him so I just had to stay in the fight for fitness to prevail. The corner spoke well to me, asking me when I was going to start boxing. A part from that I don't remember what else they said. When I was sat down I didn't feel like any adrenaline had kicked in, the panicked start didn't set me off well at all.
