Well hello once again, over 3 weeks since I last blogged, seems to be hard work actually finding the time to keep you all updated. With the May bank holiday I have found a spare hour to rest up and inform you of my activities over the past few weeks. Quick one of the fundraising, currently raised just over £660 since the beginning of the year. Speechless with this amount, I still want the £1000 mark but it's just been fantastic seeing everyone getting involved. I mentioned it last time, but people I have never met have been donating and its such a great feeling. Keep up the good work and I will make sure after my cycle trip I will run more miles than I ever have done.!I want to dedicate this weeks blog to everyone involved with the big C. Whether you are going through treatment, been through it previously or know some that is going through the struggle. They say 1 in 3 of us end up having cancer, that statement is quite true. When I was younger I didn't real think that many people had the horrid disease, as you grow older you realised that it is everywhere. Within my close family, there are 5 of us and me and my mum have now both had cancer of different sorts. Extended family my Grandma died of cervical cancer before I had the chance to meet her and my Auntie has just finished treatment for breast cancer.
My grandma who was called Dorothy (Dot for short), from what I know was a great woman. She died very young when my dad was only 15/16 years old. I can't even start to imagine what it would be like to lose your mum at such a young age, especially at the time when you are growing up and you know exactly what is going on. Without her strong presence from such a young age, my dad has gone onto do great things and should be proud of everything he has achieved. As well as raising 3 children and looking after us for the past 20 years or so, that has not been the easiest job to say the least. He's done alright I'd say.. Especially when I was ill, he was like my personal chef for 6 months plus, making sure I was eating the right things. I know there are a lot of factors that help you through treatment, but diet is massive in my eyes. If he wasn't there waiting on me I would definitely not got through it as easy as I had done. I would definitely not have eaten as well, which that would have caused lack of energy, which makes you tired, results could have been drastic. I remember on time at The Christie, a young man that was on treatment, his dad made him microwaved prawns. My dad strongly advised him not to give them to his son but he was told they were his favourite. Literally the day after the young man was taken in ill and he was taken into isolation for about 3 weeks. Which being on your own during chemotherapy and feeling worse that you would have already is not good. So I am lucky my dad wasn't a complete tool!!!
My Auntie as well as my mum, both who are sisters, have been going through treatment for cancer over the past few months as well. My auntie Angela was diagnosed with breast cancer a good 8 months ago and my mum with breast cancer a couple of months later. Angela has gone through hard times with chemotherapy and has finally had her last session of radiotherapy last week - Which is great news all round. As she lives in Wales I haven't seen her, but my thoughts have been with her all the time. I'm not really a religious person, but I have said a few prayers for her over the past few months as we did have a few church sessions at Brownedge together when I was younger. Can't say how glad I was to find out she had finished treatment, it will not be a slow recovery and the main aim will be to get back to full health and crack on with life! To hear my Auntie had cancer last year was heart-breaking, was completely out of my control and all I could do was wish her well. Always knew she would beat it as she is part of a strong family.
After my auntie was diagnosed, my mum and 2 other sisters then went for tests to see if it ran in the family. Unfortunately for my mum once the test had come back she was also diagnosed with breast cancer. Due to the testing though they had caught it really early. She still had to go through an operation and radiotherapy though to sort it out. It was lucky that she went for tests as another few months down the line I wouldn't like to think what scenario she could have been in. She dealt with it all so well, never moaning about treatment once, just getting on with life in general and never letting it get her down. Great credit to her for that, must have been where I got my fighting spirit from when I went through. She'll never know how much I love her really - now she has an iPhone 5 though she can read this blog, well if she figures it out :) You realise as you get older family does mean everything, don't get to choose them but they'll always be there for you.
I briefly want to mention a few things about a young lad call Ben Ashcroft (hope you do not mind) - I had read up a few things recently about him and his journey and I have never met any person that has inspired me more. Ben has been diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer and has pledged to run a marathon a month, unbelievable scenes Jeff. I met him at the weekend and what a guy. I clocked him before the race and he gave us a smile, he then made the effort after the race to come over and have a chat. He was the happiest person at the event and every credit to him on all he has and will achieve in the future. People moan about such little things and this just makes you realise how precious life is and how he is living it to the full. Before the 5k race at the weekend, he had already run 11 miles... How he does it is beyond me but it's just great to do. Please have a look on facebook for him and all he is doing - 'Ben Ashcroft' is the name and 'Bens Bowell Movements' is the page on facebook. He's done such great work so far and will carry on to do so. So please have a look at what he's doing. If you read this, then go and have a look. Go on.... I've even put it in bold so you can carry on reading and easily find it on your way back. Ben - I have 238 runs left for the year, feel free to join me on one, or should I say it'd be a pleasure if you did join me!!
Time seems to be flying by at the moment, it is now only 36 days until the LeJog team set off on our epic cycle journey of the country. The trip begins on Friday 12th June in Lands End and we will finish on Sunday 21st June in John O'Groats, only 1000 miles in ten days. Throughout April the training has been taken to a whole different level, both in distance and intensity. We have avoided the flats and targeted the hills of Lancashire, Whalley Nab is now our second home. There is the one hill that is about 0.7 miles and the elevation of the climb rises to about 27%. It is only a short distance but is hard work to keep pedalling with that gradient, great training though. I don't think we will encounter anything as steep on our trip, Dartmoor (Cornwall) and Shap (The Lakes) will offer us a different challenge as these range from between 5-15% gradient but over distances of 10-15 miles at a time. This will be a massive test, really believe we are preparing in the right way though. 
Since the beginning of April I have covered 847.8 miles on the bike, 1678.5 miles for the full year. This just shows how much effort has been put into the last 5 weeks, the last thing I want is for me to struggle fitness wise as it will be my own fault if I haven't prepared properly. Within the 847.8 miles, I have travelled to Everton with Steven Willetts. He is raising money for Everton in the Community which is a great charity. We had a meeting with one of the ladies there and she had nothing but praise for what we was doing and really wanted to help us in any way she could, great to say. On our way home we met one of Steven's favourite players, Raheem Sterling of Liverpool FC. We stopped for a photo with him and to be fair he was a nice lad and wished us well. Since we met him though, they have lost 2 out of 3 games and he hasn't played the best. Maybe he took our advice and he is on his way out and signing for a bigger club. As we are on countdown now, we literally have another 4 weeks of intense training to make sure we are prepared. We have planned a 100 mile route around Lancashire, taking in some massive climbs on the way. 100 miles being are daily average, this will just give us the mental edge knowing we can complete the distance and the climbing challenges as well. At the end of May we will be taking part in the Le Petit Depart cycling event. This follows part of the first route of Le Tour de France, covering 80 miles with about 5000ft of elevation, this will be a good ride out 13 days before we set off. On top of the cycling we will need to sort out the finer details in the next couple of weeks, making sure we have covered every scenario and are prepared as possible. Bring it on, I cannot wait to get to Lands Ends and get amongst it.!
With all the cycling activities, I have still been carrying on with my main task for the year of running every day. I am still really enjoying this, it is hard work with the cycling but all my hard work is paying off. I have now run 358.5 miles in the 124 days from the beginning of the year. This is an average of just over 2.8 miles a day, not too bad considering the amount of miles on the bike. Like I have previously said, after June I will aim to get this back to at least a 3.1 average. I haven't missed one day as of yet and there is no intention of this, it would take something serious for me to miss a day now.
I have still been taking my running seriously though, as I have joined Red Rose Road Runners and the running season has started, I have found it hard to keep away and had to take part in a number of events. I have still be involved in Cuerden Valley parkrun every Saturday morning, find it hard to miss this now, I'm addicted. Still not been able to beat by PB of 19.40 but I am hunting that down this weekend. For the past few weeks I finally decide to have my turn in volunteering and giving back to those that have wished me well. I ran the course setting a pace of 25 minutes and then for 22 minutes. I can't say I am the best pacer, but I ran with Scott Nickson who has embraced Parkrun as well and cannot seem to get enough. With his previous time being 22.10ish, he made it round this week with a time of 21.16, absolutely smashing his last PB and will now aim to push below the 21 minute mark. Glad I could help Scotty boy, always tell people they are behind so they push on... great tactics.
I have also taken park in few more running events including the Wray 10k. Wray being situated near the lakes and was a hilly course. I set off with a first mile of 6 minutes, but was soon regretting this, the next 3 miles was pretty much all up hill and this took it out of me. My 2nd mile was 7.20 and this set me back with the time I was after. I did finish strong and ended up with a time of 40.04, I really wanted below 40 but I have learnt now to pace myself a little more at the beginning of races. Following this I then took part in the Vernon's 5k series, there are 4 races throughout the summer in which I am looking to run as fast as possible and try to set PBs over the shorter distance. My first attempt went very well with me setting a new 5k PB of 18.26 which I was delighted with, beating my last PB by 32 seconds. I finished 15th out of 85 in this race, 16.02 was the winning time. I know I will never get to that sort of standard, in my head though I want to get at close to that as possible. I have only been running 6 months and don't even get chance to rest, so who knows once I can actually just focus on running.
On the 4th May I travelled to Avenham Park to take part in the organised 5k event. Have to say it was a great atmosphere on the day with a fun run taking part before the 5k run. There was a mixture of club runners taking part as well as people that came out just to have a good time and enjoy the run itself. All the familiar faces were at the front, once again I know I cannot keep up with them but I felt good and thought I would try. I ran my first mile in 5.35, followed by 6.27 for the 2nd, 3rd was 5.51 and finished with a strong sprint for the remaining 0.1 mile to finish off the 5k. I set myself a new PB again of 18.19, taking 7 seconds off from my previous time from the week before. I finished 12th out of 387, 1st place being 16.16 - So I am only a couple of minutes behind those faster runners. My plan is to set small targets and slowly aim to get below the 18 minute mark. Hopefully this will come, considering I was running 22 minute 5k's at the beginning of the year I have come along way.Still amazes me how far I have come since the beginning of the year and how fit I have become. Once I have finished a run it literally takes me seconds to recover. A good example of this is I ran a half a marathon Tuesday night after work in just over 1 hour 40 minutes, average pace of 7.40 /mi - I wasn't even out of breath. Yes my feet and legs did tire but nothing too major. The day after I wasn't even aching, now if I did a half marathon last year, I would have been aching for a good 3/4 days at least. So my body may have it's tired days, but overall my health and fitness is improving all the time.
Up to date I have covered exactly 2037 miles from the beginning of the year, from Preston to Tenerife is 1900 miles, so this just shows the work I have put in so far.
Thanks for reading once again - hope you have all enjoyed yourself. If you are not into running, I recommend you give it a try. You can soon become addicted and improve your lifestyle in many ways. If you hate running and can think of nothing worse, then fair play to you if you read my blog :)
Thanks to everyone that has donated and please share - I am after raising as much awareness as possible for my challenge and others as well that help great causes.
https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/
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