A week off!

I'm off work all next week, and a bit of the week after. My fiancé is taking the same time off, too. We have plenty of plans. Some fun (dinner dates!), some romantic (giving notice of marriage!), some inevitably tedious (Christmas shopping!). It's going to be a great week.

It gets more accurate every time I look at it.

And with plenty of free time, I'm hoping to get several good runs in during this abscence. A week off from work doesn't mean a week off from training. The best part of having this time will be the luxury of choosing when I get to hit the road/ treadmill. Avoiding the traffic? Yes please! No pedestrians cluttering the pavements and gazing over my shoulder at the bus? Go on then! A slightly warmer temperature for running? If you insist!

I don't know if I'll be updating this blog in that time, but there will definitely be regular updates on my Facebook profile. Ciao for now.

I would rather be in the warm

At seven fifteen this morning, I left the warmth and comfort of my home and set off on a run around the area. Holy hell, it was cold. Ice clung to car windscreens. Patches of frost lay strewn about the pavements. People huddled in bus stops wearing hats and gloves and scarves. The scent of de-icer filled my nostrils. The temperature hovered just below zero degress for the duration of the run.

Pretty good, all things considered.

Luckily, the agonies of being outside wearing skin-tight running gear fade away pretty quickly, once you get started. By the time I reached the bottom of my road, I no longer felt cold. (By the end, I could no longer feel my fingers, but that's about normal for being outdoors in freezing temperatures).

The thing that surprised me the most was how much it hurt to breathe. Inhaling deep gulps of cold air is pretty damn painful. Icy oxygen reaching the insides of warm lungs feels like someone jabbing at your throat from the inside. While this sensation does come to a pass fairly quickly (within the first mile or so), it feels uncomfortable for that length of time. Like, really uncomfortable.

So I finished the run and hopped in the shower and turned the heat up and felt my skin try to tear itself away from my body. Turns out that cold sweat, cold skin and warm water is the exact recipe to cause extreme pain. My chest and stomach turned bright red and it felt like dozens of needles were being driven into my skin over and over, all at the same time. Note to self: have a cold shower first and turn the heat up slowly.

Despite all the discomfort and pain and aches, I now know that it's possible to run in freezing conditions. This is good. I can hold onto this knowledge. My running gear does a damned fine job of keeping me warm in spite of the chill. I know I can do it - and my mileage is better than on the treadmill. If push comes to shove, I'll be out there in the dead of winter, panting and sweating while people watch, clutching mugs of hot chocolate and wondering why the hell anyone would be running in these temperatures.

Effing earphones

I have been through four pairs of earphones since this running adventure began six months ago. Four. Does that seem like a disproportionately high figure? I can't tell. It's not like I'm smashing my ears on the scenery as I run, either. I'm not a total moron... mostly.

Nothing this extreme, annoyingly.

Pair number one was a lovely set of Bluetooth push-in earphones with a small rubber grip to keep them from slipping out while moving. They were comfortable, the battery life was excellent, they were lightweight and never caused me any problems. Until the rubber cable pulled out of the right ear, making them unusable.


Pair number two was the same model, in a different colour. These were fine until sweat managed to get inside the unit and completely destroy the electronics, rendering them entirely useless.


Pair number three was another Bluetooth set I bought with the sweat problem in mind. They were cheap and - to their credit - they are indeed sweat-proof. However, that's the only positives I have to say about this pair. The problems are numerous. For starters, the volume, pause, phone, and skip functions are all on this little bar that hangs down from the right ear about an inch or two.

That's about six or seven inches

This should be fine, in theory, but when you run, this bar starts to swing. Get a good pace going and the control bar constantly slaps you in the chin. It's beyond irritating. The only way to counter this is to tuck the bar into your shirt, but if the wire is stretched, it loses connection and starts jumping through the songs. Plus it likes to randomly disconnect while you're running and if the bar gets caught in the collar of your shirt, the control can buttons can get completely jammed, meaning the volume raises or lowers or the songs start skipping entirely. There is nothing more annoying than having a song jump mid-stride. Plus the battery life is shocking. They need charging after a decent 90 minute run, or they'll cut out next time. This pair lasted only a few runs until the lower volume button got stuck. Thank goodness they were cheap.


The fourth and most recent pair was the wired set that came with my phone. It was fine - light, comfortable, and the control bar didn't move too much. The rubber grips had a tendency to slide out if sweat managed to get into the ear, but that was manageable. This pair broke in the gym last week when the bloody lower volume button got stuck, rendering them bloody useless.


So now I'm running with a very comfortable pair of wired headphones. So far, so good. And better sound, too... for now!

How long until this happens?

Forward always

With visiting family, seeing friends, and trying to sort out a million and one jobs at home this weekend, I barely had any time to squeeze a run into my schedule. Luckily, I managed to eek out a spare hour and run six laps of my home estate.

Seven miles! Not too bad for a lazy Sunday.

I'm getting fairly adept at running these shorter distances, but this is starting to worry me. I'm good at the first seven or eight miles, but after that I begin to struggle. What will happen to me on the day? What if I reach eight miles and still have a further eighteen to run on wobbly legs? What if I put all this time and effort into training and fail to get my body prepared for the epic length of the marathon?


Maybe I'm just worrying unnecessarily. Lots of people have pointed out to me that I don't need to run the entire marathon - walk is totally understandable and probably inevitable. I understand this, I really do. At some point, I'll need to slow down and walk part of the distance.


But I want to run that course as far and as fast as I can. I want to sail through the winding London streets and know that I did it. I did this. I went from couch potato to a marathon runner in less than a year. I can do it. I want to do it, crazy as that sounds. Yeah, I'm worried and nervous and all the rest, but I really want to do this. For me. For my fiancé. For Crisis.

Post-run selfie.

All I need to do is keep going.

How to start running

A couple of people have asked me (in whispered voices from under the shade of dark alleyways, well out of earshot of anyone else) how they could get into running as well. I haven't thought of running as a strange, confusing hobby since first stepping out into the bright May sunshine six months ago, so in this post, I want to talk about how you too can learn to lace up your trainers and start pounding the tarmac - or the treadmill. Where and how you train is up to you!

And you don't have to run alone, either!

It might sound weird, but the best way to get into running is simply to get out there and go. Don't make a big deal out of it - don't tell yourself that you'll start on Monday or something similar, because that will make it 'feel' like a bigger, more daunting task than it really is. Telling yourself you'll do it eventually is one way to ensure that you never get around to it.


An even better way to begin is to talk more short walks in the day. Instead of taking that quick five minute drive to the shops and back, why not walk there instead? You'll get twenty to thirty minutes of good, active movement and slowly build up your body's tolerance for exercise and exertion.


If you have an hour-long lunch break while at work, take a short stroll. I walk two laps of the estate every lunchtime. It's easy, gentle, and helps me to keep working toward my fitness goals (as vague and constantly-shifting as they are...) Plus, if you're one of the many people who wear fitness trackers and always strive to walk ten thousand steps in a day, forty minutes of walking will see you reach at least half of that. You can't lose. Walking is a good way to start. Plus, it'll help your legs prepare for the real exercise later on.


While you don't need any special equipment to start walking (besides something on your feet), you might want to consider investing in some decent shoes if repetitive running is the end goal. I'd recommend a pair of actual running shoes with good, thick soles and plenty of padding in the heel. Yes, they can be a little more expensive than regular trainers, but believe me, your feet will thank you!


Don't rush out and buy loads of expensive gear before you've started running. Start with good footwear and build up from there. You'll figure out what you need and what suits your style of running. I run with a good shirt (to avoid the cursed nipple chafe), loose shorts with zip-up pockets, sweat bands, and a bottle of water. Sometimes I wear a phone strap on my arm, it depends on which pair of earphones I'm wearing. But I assembled all this slowly, over time, after deciding what helped me and what didn't.


In order to begin running, I used a simple phone app, available for free on any phone store, Couch to 5K:

Just search in the store page

I've mentioned this one before a few times (and still haven't received any royalties, hint, hint) but it really is as good and simple as it seems. It's simple to use and user-friendly and definitely helped encourage me to improve my cardio stamina. In just nine weeks, I went from couch potato to running thirty straight minutes. Now I'm running for almost two hours.

If these pointers were useful, please let me know! Running is one of those challenges that seems really daunting, until you give it a try for yourself. After the first week, you'll be amazed at your progress, I promise.

Work on the core!

In addition to the usual running and attempting to train my legs, I'm also working on strengthening my core. This parts isn't too tricky - before picking up running, I had a fairly intense HIIT schedule that revolved around completing one hundred press-ups, squats, dumbbell lifts, etc.


At the moment, my aim is to run 2-3 times a week (as my work pattern allows), and complete a core workout on the alternative days. Weekends off - again, where possible. This is my current core program:

That works up a pretty good sweat. Throw in some dumbbell exercises using my incline bench, and that winds up to a pretty solid fifteen minutes or so. Even this small amount has helped enormously - my core is strong enough to run eleven miles, without leaving that horrible dull ache afterward.


I've now added a new part to the end of my workout:

HOW DO THEY DO IT? My core is pretty good, but I can't stay balanced! Even time my leg comes up, my head goes down. I try to keep pace with the girl in the white top, but I can't. They look majestic and energetic. I probably resemble a beached whale being electrocuted.

One less hero

Almost everyone who knows me knows that I am a massive nerd. I'm writing this at my desk, beneath a huge portrait of several iconic Marvel Comics characters. On my left is a Captain America mask. On the wall behind me is the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe collection on blu-ray, arranged in my preferred viewing order. To my right is large, loud, moving action figure of Rocket Raccoon who fires his blaster rifle when you flip the switch. Yeah, I'm a massive nerd and I love it. Some people ask me how I can still enjoy comics and superhero movies in my thirties. The answer to that question is this guy right here:

December 28, 1922 - November 12, 2018

Stan Lee. Even if you don't know who he is or what he did, you recognise his face. He's appeared in almost every Marvel movie and TV show in some capacity, and the audience always reacts loudest to him. Hell, his cameos are sometimes better than the rest of the movie (see The Amazing Spider-Man) and his positive, infectious charm and energy always radiate off the screen.

But today, Stan Lee has died. This man had a huge hand in revolutionising the entire comic book industry - a movement that is just now reaching the movie industry, too. He created, co-created, or had a direct hand in influencing scores of characters known and beloved around the world. Spider-Man. The Fantastic Four. The Incredible Hulk. The X-Men. Literally dozens of characters both big and small, well-known and not so popular. He invested them with charm, personality and humanity.

I'm not usually the type to care about the passing of somebody famous, but Stan's work had a genuine impact on my life. He made me believe in heroes. Not superheroes, but heroes.

The reason I've always preferred Marvel to DC is because Stan Lee chose to set his comics in the real world. While DC's characters inhabited fictional settings (Metropolis, Gotham, Bludhaven, Star City, etc.), Marvel heroes lived in real locations. Spider-Man slung his webs in New York. The X-Men battled Magneto on the White House lawn. Luke Cage defended Harlem. The characters existed in a recognisable and believable world - our world. But they had one thing that the rest of us didn't:

Courage.

Peter Parker isn't Spider-Man because of his superpowers. Peter Parker is Spider-Man because he chose to use those powers to make a difference. Reed Richards chose to use his unwanted abilities to make the world a better place. The X-Men swore to defend the human race, even though they were hated and feared by almost everyone they saved. But they persevered. All of them. They fought on because it was the right thing to do, no matter how hard or impossible it seemed.

I would not be doing this without Stan Lee's influence in my life. I would never consider running a marathon - far less to run it for charity - without Stan Lee showing me that people like that do exist. People who do impossible things every day. People who give their all for the sake of helping others. People who push themselves to the limit to change the world.

I'm not comparing myself to the characters he created (I'm not selfless, heroic, courageous or brave in any sense), but I try to emulate the examples he laid out. I try to be better because it's possible. I've seen it. I believe in it.

You know what shirt I wore to the gym a few days ago? It was this one:

No walls were crawled in the making of this picture.

I wore it because I needed to feel more encouragement. I needed some extra strength to face the treadmill and do what had to be done. I couldn't face it alone, so I wore the emblem of the bravest character who ever existed in all of fiction. Stan Lee taught me that heroes do exist. And their real superpower is inspiring others.

The greatest sentence in comic book history.

Excelsior. Thank you, Stan.