Month: January 2016

This morning, things didn’t get off to the most brilliant of starts.  Because I hadn’t plugged my trusty iPhone in properly to re-charge, it lost power during the night and consequently, my alarm didn’t go off at 5:30 when it was supposed to.  I woke up at 5:55 with a vague feeling that something was wrong.  No real harm done though, I got to the gym a little bit late, but shock horror, I wasn’t able to take a selfie because, you guessed it, my phone was dead (so dead in fact that even 15 minutes in the car on the way to the gym wasn’t even enough to wake it up).

No matter.  Some time ago I wrote about the importance of setting goals.  For some time I have been aiming to get a really good picture of the Moon and it has been challenging to see how much I can (or can not) achieve with my camera and a telephoto lens which I got for Christmas a few years ago.  Last year I aquired a reflecting telescope (being quite interested in astronomy) but struggled to find a suitable adaptor to connect my camera. (Its obviously satisfying to just look through the viewfinder but really great if you can capture some photographs).  After a lot of research, I finally managed to get a custom design 3D printed (FaceBook friends will recall I shared a picture of the design when it was produced a while back) and today’s clear night was the first time I have had a chance to try it out.

Suffice to say, I was really pleased with just how well it worked!  I was able to get some shots of the Moon with incredible detail and I can’t wait to try it out on other planets, stars and galaxies when I get time! It just goes to show that persistence pays off.

Persisting with my Marathon training, I have been really good holding off the running for the past couple of days, I am looking forward to parkrun tomorrow morning and plan to run the 4 miles to the start, should be a good warm up; I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Sometimes you pay a professional to tell you the blindingly obvious but it’s worth it because often you just need to be told.  This week I was reminded of the obvious but also given an insight that I really would not have found out on my own.

First, the obvious.  If you are doing more miles your are putting your body under a good deal of stress, this means it’s even more important not to over-do it.  The physio suggested that I reduce the number of running days in a week from 5 to 4, hence I found myself in the gym this morning carrying his next suggestion (rather than pounding the streets at 5 AM which I would otherwise have done).

It appears that my sense of balance needs some work; if I stand on one leg, look to the right, then to the left, it’s really hard to stay balanced.  What’s even more difficult for me is the “lateral hop” where you are supposed to hop sideways and retain your balance.  What he suggested is that I spend time practicing these excercises because if I get better at balancing my running will use up less energy and put less strain in my limbs.

My weekend long run is 15 miles and I am told that’s a good place to be at this point in my training.  Getting the right balance between training and rest together with working on my physical balancing skills may be what I need to make the difference.  I don’t need to run particularly fast to beat my marathon PB, I just need to keep up an even steady pace for the 26.2 miles.

Away from home again tonight and a 10 mile run along the Tyne. It was very beautiful along the riverside near the lit-up bridges this evening and the still waters made for crystal clear reflections. As for the run, I felt good and it was the fastest 10 mile training run I’ve done so far since I’ve “been back” (1:28:37). All I need to do is keep that pace up for 26.2 miles and I have my marathon PB cracked.

My physio says that I ought to cut down the number of days running as my mileage increases so tomorrow morning I’ll be heading for the hotel gym (there’s quite a good one hear at the Marriott Metro Centre).

So what’s the West Wing all about? Our new Newcastle office is based in the west wing of the building, hence the sign on the door. It just seemed a good backdrop for today’s selfie! (That’s all).