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The Home Straight

I've become rather attached to my iPhone since I got one at the start of last year. One of the bad habits I've developed is a near pathological obsession with what the weather is doing. This becomes paticularly pronounced when I'm looking forward to doing something outside. Since forecasts are only accurate to five days ahead, I only really get excited about events when I know what the weather will be like.

Today, I got the first glimpse of what Sunday will be like in London. I had feared a late April heatwave following the extended winter, but it looks, for now at least, like conditions could well be nearly perfect. The maximum temperature could still be an issue though as it will be more than 10 degrees warmer than the vast majority of my training.

Weather worries aside, I am on the downward slope in anticipation of the race.  I will barely cover any great distance this week as I fatten myself up.  Alongside this, Jen has been helping me with making a last big push with the fundraising. I really have been overwhelmed by the response from the knitting community in buying the Ready, Steady, Go! patterns and yarn and in making direct donations. Without their help, I would undoubtedly have strugled even to make the minimum level of sponsorship. As it is, I'm up at 95% of my revised target with still more coming in. 

If you haven't done so already and would like to buy them, the patterns are available here:

If you would like the same yarns as I used for the samples, the Ready Red and Steady Saffron have both sold out, but there are still a couple of hanks of Go! Green available.

Upping the ante

It's now just under three weeks to go until the big day. I have done the longest training run of 22 miles in under 3 hours, so things are going well. More importantly, I have exceeded my initial target for fundraising. This has put me in a quandary: should I revise the target upwards, or should I leave it and have my Just Giving page continue to tick well over the 100%?

This problem, if you can actually describe it so, is due in no small part to the exposure my fundraising received last week after I was interviewed by Kate Davies. The response to readers of her blog has been nothing short of stunning. As well as selling patterns, I've received direct donations from all over the world. Truly the knitting world has come out in force for me.

So what do I do? When I was a child, the Blue Peter totaliser was an annual feature.  I seem to remember them having to replace it entirely one year as they were overwhelmed with milk bottle tops, or used stamps, or whatever it was they had the youth of the nation sending in. I think that maybe this is the way to go.

If you go over to my Just Giving page now, you'll see that I have not yet reached 100%. This is the revised target and another challenge to face. Can I, with your help, pull in another £1000?

Keeping Going

I am tired.

My training plan says that on some days, like tomorrow, I am supposed to run morning and evening.  When I chose the plan months ago, I presumed that, as I would be uber-fit, it wouldn't be a problem at all.  How wrong I was.

Last week I was subjected to a surfeit of knitters, so leaving the house twice was an escape from giggling, plotting and general cauldron stirring.  Between work and being away all weekend, I really have had a dip in energy.

However, I really can't grumble and moan.  Thanks to some truly generous donations, my fundraising has really picked up so that I'm well over the 50% mark with over a month still to go. This has encouraged me to get on with it, so it's on with the kit and out into the drizzle when I've finished writing.

Please do consider helping my fundraising, either by clicking through from the tab at the top of the page, or by buying the ebook of patterns, in support of the vital work of Refuge.

If Gregg Wallace was my life coach.....

... he'd be telling me in his usual understated manner that, "Weeks don't get much tougher than this!"  The fact that I've been getting imaginary motivational statements from Gregg should really be a warning sign that things have been far from normal.

Things have started moving apace with our other plans and so I'd been struggling to hold everything in my head at home and at school.  Imagine my delight therefore, when I received a message on Wednesday that OFSTED were coming in on Thursday and Friday.  Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of OFSTED has made claims about stress in teaching, or lack thereof.  The challenge of being judged on the basis of a 20-30 minute long observation with one class on one day of the school year is, to put it mildly, incredibly daunting.  In the event, the worry was unnecessary as I wasn't seen.  Frustrated doesn't even begin to cover it.

Naturally after a momentous week with very little sleep, I ended Friday with no voice and the start of a debilitating cold that brought with it the most wondrous cough that kept me awake.  Oh joy, oh rapture!  By Sunday morning, I was still feeling awful, to the point that I almost withdrew from the Wokingham Half Marathon.  Having trained hard for months, this was the first chance to run in an event this year and I needed proof that it had been worthwhile.  So I went down to the start in the pouring rain and freezing wind to see how I felt about running.

Adrenaline being the marvel that it is, I decided to really go for it and despite hacking coughing fits around the course, I managed to set a new personal best time.  It wasn't as quick as I'd hoped for a couple of weeks ago, but all things considered, still a big achievement.  Unfortunately, adrenaline doesn't last forever, so last night I was back to the cough, the streaming cold and added aching joints.

Despite the general insanity of last week, it was an exciting one without a dull moment.  I'm hoping that this week will be slightly calmer so that I can catch up on the things I've been neglecting.  Maybe I'll have the Steady Hat finished by the weekend and I definitely must push the fundraising more.

Speaking of which, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men in the UK will suffer from domestic violence at some point in their lives.  I'm raising money for Refuge to help people deal with the after effects of domestic violence.  Please sponsor me by clicking on the tab at the top of the page.  Thank you!

Wokingham Here We Come

Next weekend I'm running my first event of the year, the Wokingham Half Marathon.  You may be wondering why I'd go so far from home to run.  The answer is really simple and two-fold.  Firstly it's where my sister and her family live, so I have a good excuse for dropping in on them.  She's runing too, so it will be a bit of a family day out.  The second reason for going so far is that the course is essentially flat.  Living where I do, hills are a near permanent part of my training.  The opportunity to not have to charge up or down steep slopes is a big draw.

Since I've actually tried to do proper tarining over the last few months, I am in pretty good shape for a reasonably good time.  I can certainly easily go the distance, but the real question is whether I have the pace to run a personal best time and at long last go under 90 minutes.

To find out for yourselves, you'll have to be in Cantley Park just before 11.30 next Sunday when I expect to cross the line.  I'll be the sweaty man in red fingerless mitts.  If you're really lucky, and it's cold enough, you might even get a sneak peek at the Steady Hat that is nearly off the needles.

Finally, thanks to all who have left such kind comments here, on Twitter and on Ravelry.  I still have a way to go to hit the fundraising target, but it's been a great start.

This is not a viable alternative

I haven't run in nearly a week.  This is a bad thing as it's messing with my training schedule.  Part of this has been work related and part weather related. With snow around, I can't find anywhere safe to run as the side roads and pavements are ice rinks.  I've had to find an alternative:

I really don't enjoy indoor training.  I can't see the point of working up a sweat to go nowhere at all with exactly the same view throughout. In short, I'm frustrated and bored.

The only bright side has been that I've been able to uncover a few gems on the BBC iPlayer.  I don't know how, or exactly why, but I found myself watching Hits of 1978, including googly-eyed Kate Bush and so on.  With the variety of songs, I couldn't match my cadence with anything except, bizarrely, Terry Wogan singing The Floral Dance.  This may be a throwback to my youth as a member of Helston Town Band when I actually played for the real thing. However, national treasure or not, Sir Terry's version remains an abomination and the whole episode was a little unsettling.

With sub-zero temperatures promised for a few more days, I'll be busy going nowhere for a while to come.  Maybe I'll even begin to enjoy it.

Winter is here!

After the best part of two months on holiday, presumably skiing in Klosters, winter has made a comeback this weekend.  Yesterday's run was completed in pouring rain combined with icy wind.  Today was a bit more pleasant as the sun made an appearance, but the cold was pretty bitter.  The next week or so looks like it will be even colder.

I really don't actually mind the cold as I can just stick on another layer and a hat and get out there.  Unfortunately, my current hat is all but worn out, so I will need a new one soon.  Happily, I know where it will come from.  I will shortly have the first of the Ready, Steady, Go! patterns to release as I have my sample knitter on the case right now and the second pattern is a hat that just needs writing up.  Watch this space for photos and further news.

Cheer up London!

We've returned from our annual tour of the UK.  One of the things I enjoy about visiting family is the change of scenery when we're out and about.  That's not to say that I am bored with the Somerset/Wiltshire borderlands, but change is always good.

With the marathon 4 months away, I still needed to keep my training up, so had the opportunity to change my usual routes.  I had wanted to do a set of posts about running by rivers, but West Dorset was mostly underwater.  The Thames however, had not burst its banks, so I was able to put in some miles and get some photos.

 

I was serenaded by parakeets and met this friendly heron on the riverside.

I have to say that he/she was the friendliest part of my run.  It seems that smiling at, or saying hello to, other runners on the Thames path has a default response of looking away, or frowning.  By contrast, the minimum response elsewhere is a nod, but more often a few words.  I was left wondering whether London's runners are ruder, or just having a collective bad day.

Splash, Bang, Wallop

Yes it's raining.  Yes I went for a run.  Yes I fell over.  Again.  Fortunately, this time there was no lasting damage.  So, now I need to add changing direction on wet manhole covers to my list of things to avoid while training.

It has been remarkably wet for months now, with near constant flood warnings each time it rains  for longer than a couple of hours.  Following the assertion of of Ranulph Feinnes that, "There's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing," I've wrapped up and got out there.  Today I paused to take a few photos to show the effects locally :

I strongly suspect that when I go past here tomorrow, I'll need my wellies as the water was right up to the edge.

Somewhere under here is a small pond at the centre of a nature reserve.  In March, the river was a fraction of the width it is now and the pond was all but dried up.  I do wonder how much of the banks will remain once the water has subsided.

With Christmas next week, I think I might struggle to get out and keep on top of training.  Hopefully the weather will pick up a bit too as there can't possibly be any more water in the sky to fall.

In Praise of Recycling Boxes

I am a big fan of kerbside recycling. The boxes provided by the council mean that we don't have to head off to the dump on a weekly basis. Furthermore, it gives me plenty of material for lessons. The polypropylene from which the boxes are made, for example, has appeared in at least two this week alone.

One of the points I always make is the strength of the material and the flexibility in terms of the colour. These two properties were my downfall earlier this week. Out running in the dark, I didn't see the black recycling box that had been abandoned on the pavement, more than a day after it had been emptied. In fact, once I'd recovered from the shock of landing face first onto the pavement, I could still barely see it beyond the crack that I'd put in it as I tripped. Fortunately nobody saw my fall, although I did pass a few people as I staggered home with blood pouring down my gravel studded face, so goodness only knows what they thought.

The main indignity has been going into work.  My students' initial concern has been rapidly replaced with the usual blend of mickey taking and dry wit.  One even tried to pass the incident off as karma for my having set him homework!  In addition, this week I've been meeting with lots of parents.  Many have been too polite to ask why their child's tutor looks as though he's gone 10 rounds with [insert contemporary boxing champ].

Finally, I have had to take time off from exercise that requires my knees to work properly.  This means that I won't be able to compete in the DBMax Chilly Duathlon at the weekend.  Still, I'm sure that the enforced rest will do me some good: at least I can't injure myself further.