Reinvigorating my running

You know when you put something off a few times and then before you know it you have been putting it for ages, then all of a sudden it's been so long since you did the thing it's hard to go back to it? 

When you keep procrastinating, become perhaps a bit lazy and start making up excuses and all of a sudden it's been months since you did the thing you were meant to do? 

Well this happened to me...

For almost the last year I have been in the lucky position to work literally opposite Regents Park, I can actually see the park from my desk. A runners dream right?! (I am open to discussing job swap opportunities!)

Then early last year I started running in Regents Park in the morning before work most often accompanied by at least one running buddy and the run usually consisted of a track session using the running track on the north side of the park. 

The track is a better setting for an early morning session than any gym

Back in the autumn for one reason and another I stopped going, it's so easy to fall out of a good routine and life can throw so many things to get in the way.

Last week I finally got back to running an early morning session. I loved it, it felt amazing, I loved being in London so early, I loved exercising before work and feeling great throughout the day.

A pre dawn shot of London overlooking Regents Park

I was annoyed with myself for having missed out on so many of these sessions over the last six months. 

Then on Saturday I took part in a run with UK fitness bloggers which departed from near Liverpool Street and explored a little area nestled in between Wanstead, the river and the City. 

I really enjoyed the experience of exploring, running somewhere new and taking in some sights.

I realised I had gone a bit stale with my running. I remembered how fun running can be when you use it as an opportunity to explore and for adventure.

So last night after work I embarked on a partial run commute home, leaving my work near Great Portland Street I ran through the City and along the river back to Liverpool Street to catch the train home.

It felt great! I ticked up sub 5 minute KMs despite a back pack and a heavy laptop.

London looked epic lit up in the winter night.  

I hadn't run in London for over a year and not even spent that much time walking around either. So many regular places I used to pas have changed, larger buildings disappeared, new modern structures cropping up all over the place. 

I suppose the point of my story is the idea that usually you won't regret doing things but you do regret not doing things.  

It's a notion based on a quote from a wiser man than me.

A Happy Running Birthday

This weekend was my birthday and as soon as I realised a few months back that my birthday fell on a Sunday I knew I would be running somewhere. After all your birthday doesn't fall on a Sunday very often so as a runner you need to grab the rare opportunity of a birthday race. 

Initially I liked the idea of taking part in the London Winter Run, a mass participation 10K event through central London with fake snow and hugs from polar bears it looked like a whole lot of fun. Then my competitive side got the better of me and I thought about doing something a bit more ambitious and soon found a Half Marathon courtesy of RunthroughUK who were holding a range of races including a Half Marathon in Victoria Park. When my two running buddies Tony and Chris were keen on a Half marathon in the early part of the year it was all set. 

Not being a massive fun of Christmas I thought having an event in January was a perfect way to distract myself from all the Christmas nonsense with lots of training and then earn myself a nice, massive, shiny birthday PB. 

Great plan right?! What could be a better birthday gift to myself?

Well it didn't go quite to plan, I had a bit of a cough and cold over Christmas which scuppered my training plans then over New Year and into the early part of January it developed into a horrible cough. To make it worse I then suffers the triple whammy of flu, an infection in my tooth requiring root canal work and a slight calf strain. So long story short I wasn't stood on the start line in great shape.

But I'm getting ahead of myself the Half Marathon was the second part of my birthday weekend running adventures.

Part one was a meet up with UK Fitness Bloggers on Saturday morning for a 5K jaunt around East London. 

An expertly taken selfie courtesy of Michael @coachmikeybee

The meet up was organised by UK Fitness Bloggers founder Helen and hosted by the Runners Works, a running shop, runners training base, cafe, treatment facility all rolled into one just a few minutes away from Liverpool Street station. 

It was great to meet up with some fellow bloggers and we headed out on our run led my running coach Mollie who got us nicely warmed up before talking us through the course she had planned out for us.

The group of us of varying abilities jogged off towards Wanstead and I soon paired up with Alin who runs a great fitness blog with his wife and Beagles over at pennyplainfit.co.uk well worth checking out for fitness tips and healthy recipes. 

We chatted and took in the sites of a different part of the city and kind of meandered our way in the general direction of our planned route. OK so we got lost and ran about 6K but hey we had fun and got a few great selfies on the way round!

Most importantly we helped support RODS a charity for orphaned children with Down Syndrome. 

Post run we all made the most of the comfortable surroundings of the Running Works Cafe, Secret Frog and a tasty assortment of hot drinks and cakes. 

I really enjoyed this little adventures on a quiet Saturday morning in the normal bustling city, enjoying seeing some great site and meeting some new people.

So back to part two of my running weekend and the Half Marathon. Originally I thought Victoria Park would be quick and easy to get to as its East London location is not too far from my Essex home, early morning Sunday transport had other ideas! So a 5.30 alarm call for me! Happy Birthday indeed! 

At Mile End I met up with Tony and Chris and we jogged over to the start area. The forecasted heavy rain had so far held off but it wasn't to stay away all morning as a light but persistent drizzle started to fall about 15 minutes before the race start and continued throughout the race.

Race wise I knew it was going to be a struggle as I have only done one nine mile I the last month or two as my only long run so I left Tony and Chris to chase PBs and I set off on my plod round. 

I set off nicely and was well ahead of both a target pace (I hoped for around 4.55min/km) and my expected pace (I thought it would be a struggle to stay under 5.10min/km) after the first 7K. I ticked off the first 10K in 49 minutes and knew it was going to be a struggle for here on in, and it was.

If you know Victoria Park then you know it's not massive and so the Half Marathon route was 6.5 laps. Mental torture for some but for me I find running repetitive laps very freeing as it allows you to focus on your running as you are not thinking about the course ahead or what's around the next corner. 

Towards 8 miles I was starting to struggle and by mile nine I was unusually for me mid race in a dark place. I had a nagging pain in my left abdomen, I was wet and as my pace had dropped I had got so cold, my legs were tired and I didn't really want to run. My mind reflected on the fact I could have been having fun in central London at the Winter Run with all the Polar bears running a gentle 10K but no here I was not in fit enough shape to comfortable run 13 miles feeling cold, wet and miserable, what an idiot! 

After a while my energy gel kicked in and my mood brightened, miles 8 and 9 seemed to take forever but miles 10-13 flew by and I was soon kicking for the finish. It was great to have Tony and Chris support me in the final straight and finishing with my last kilometer being my fastest of the race was a real positive. 

An official final time of a disappointing 1.49.56 was only brightened by massive PBs from my two training partners. A big shout out to the increasingly impressive Bramster for knicking the groups Half Marathon record, it's only on loan! 

Post race frost bite and hypothermia seemed like real possibilities so we used what energy we had left to hot foot it to a nearby Costa for much need hot drinks and some calorific refueling. 

Overall, a part from the rain it was a decent event, well organised with enthusiast, friendly marshals with homemade flapjack and a great bit of bling you can't ask for too much more.

So that was my birthday weekend of running, 29K of running, some great locations, new friends made and great experiences. What better way to spend a birthday than to spend it running?! 

The not so wonderful world of blogging

So today I came across a top 100 list of running blogsi that has recently been published by feedspot. 

I didn't for one second think I would be on (cue lack of suspense) and I'm not and that's fine.

For the record a few blogs that feature in the top 100 that I follow and highly recommend include; 

http://www.dreamingoffootpaths.co.uk/ 

http://www.therunnerbeans.com/

http://eatprayrundc.com/

http://bensrunningblog.com/ 

There are also more than a few great sounding blogs I want to check out and that's not to say there so many great running blogs out there not on the list as well. 

It has however led me to once again reevaluate my blog goals, which is all I ever do rather than actually write any decent content! 

I started my blog about 18 months ago now and my aims were loosely as follows:

• To write about, express my passion for and generally share my love and passion for running.
• To interact and engage more with other runners
• To do something more productive with my dead time while sat on the train etc
• To have some kind of outlet and place to express myself
• To perhaps improve my writing skills and make the most of the good writing style I supposedly had during my College and Uni years

Looking back I have mixed feelings about whether I have acheieved these goals or not. In many ways Twitter has filled many of the holes I had sought to fill through writing a blog and I enjoy the interactions with other runners and the relentless  constant flow of content available that keeps me occupied but maintaining a Twitter account is not quite the same as keeping a blog.

Also my life has changed since I started out blogging, originally my job left me feeling unfulfilled and so I needed the outlet blogging provided. Now my job is much more mentally demanding and time consuming so finding the time and energy for blogging is much more difficult. 

I have lost count of the times I have thought about what my blog is for or what I think I ought to do with it.

I keep coming back to two conclusions, one my blog is for me and I will write what I want to write whether its successful or not. Although the motivation for writing great content and good posts are there as I really get a buzz from having a well received post and receiving comments and feedback from others. 

Secondly I need to stop procrastinating, the amount of times I have decided I am going to invest more time and effort into my blog our endless. And if I had a pound for every great blog idea I drafted in my mind or half wrote but never published I would be a really wealthy blogger! I'm sure most bloggers and writers have this trouble though!

So once again I find myself giving myself a kick up the arse (surely a great plyometric warm up if it was possible?!), time will tell if it develops into any real change ......

I feel I have plenty to share with the world and with plenty of running adventures on the horizon including four marathons there will be plenty to blog about!

Karkoa sports bag review

I was recently contacted by the nice people at Karkoa and asked if I would like to review their sports bag.

My first response was 'Karkoa' who are you? Never heard of you and every time I look at your brand name I keep thinking it says Koala and therefore start thinking about Australian marsupials. 

Anyway turns out they are an European sportsbag manufacturer looking to promote their brand on the shores of the United Kingdom.

I checked out their website to see what they were all about and to see if I thought their bag was any good. Checking out their website it looked to me like they are a trendy kind of 'up market' company with a cool type of European style looking to supply busy professional sporty types with a bag that will accommodate all your daily luggage and sport equipment for when your hitting the gym at the start of the day or running after work. 

My first instinct was to opt for the smaller bag in their rucksack range the 25L Smartbag25 purely because one of the bags in this range had an orange trim. A bit superficial as no doubt the larger 40L bag would be far more useful because its bigger and you can fit more in to it which is after all the name of the game, but no my fondness for my favourite colour ruined my judgement. Whoops! 

So how did I get on with the bag?

Slightly mixed reviews if I am honest, it wasn't as spacious as I thought it would be as the website and the marketing promo gave you the impression the bag was going to have magical TARDIS qualities able to amazingly have room to fit everything you could imagine into it. 

Perhaps if I had opted for the larger bag then this would have been more accommodating so please bare that in mind if you are considering your options between the smaller 25L bag or the larger 40L bag.

I also had a concern with the design of the bag, the main design of the back is in the photo below. As I understand it the basic idea seems to be thinking about redesigning the standard concept of a rucksack to give you more internal storage options as well as more ways to access what is in your bag rather than a standard one main way to put things in and get things out.

I felt pretty vulnerable carrying the bag on my back knowing that the front of the bag is basically one big exposed zip running along the bottom of my bag where everything would just fall out onto the street if it was to be opened. 

OK so this never happened but it might be considered a design flaw? Or maybe it's just me just thinking back to being at an all boys secondary school where anybody with this bag would be constantly at the mercy of practical jokers. 

Having all the handy compartments inside is really useful though as its better than having all little things like snacks, deodorant or fruit floating around with everything else in one large compartment. 

Its also really great to have a separate space for used running kit so it doesn't stink out everything else! However my concern is that this compartment bag would itself get rather smelly pretty soon and would need regular washing? I suppose using my current system of a plastic bag is easier but then again using a plastic bag every time I workout is not very environmentally friendly, neither is it very cheap now there is the 5p plastic bag tax. 

My other gripes were that my laptop didn't fit into the bag very easily. By easily I mean I had to rally stretch the bag to squeeze it in and then I didn't have much capacity left for anything else. Again my bag was not the larger 40L bag that Karkoa offer and neither is my laptop the smallest or thinnest laptop going but being able to fit my laptop easily into my bag without engaging in a wrestling match is a mandatory requirement. 

Karkoa were also quick to point out during our correspondence that the bag wasn't really designed for running but more for carrying everything you might need for running or other sport. A big problem because surely as a runner you want a bag for carrying your stuff if you are going running but also you want a bag that can handle a run commute when required? I certainly don't want to have a bag for each. To be honest I didn't try running with the bag as I found it pretty uncomfortable to walk with let alone run with. The bag seems to be designed to sit a bit higher on your back rather than sit down in the small of your back, which is in contrast to bags I am used to, its probably better for posture or something I don't know but I didn't find it very comfortable. 

I have tried to make this post constructive and not too negative but I am not sure it has turned out that way. 

Just because the bag wasn't for me doesn't mean others wouldn't find it a great bag to use. The bag is certainly very well designed and looks super cool especially the orange sunrise design that I went for.  

I have noticed a few other running bloggers have recently reviewed Karkoa bags and got on very well with them. Check out Steve Skinner's review here or The Runners Knees review here both of these guys opted for the 40L though which is perhaps where I went wrong!

In summary Karkoa certainly offer a very stylish and thoroughly well thought out designed bag which will appeal to lot of people I'm sure, it just didn't tick some of my requirement

Disclaimer: Karkoa approached me and provided me with a bag of my choosing free of charge for me to review.

Happy 2016 - Onwards and Upwards

Happy 2016!

Here we are well into the New Year, I don't about you but I am certainly a few pounds heavier from enjoying a bit too much Christmas excess. In fact I sit typing this demolishing some of the last of my Christmas chocolates in the form of some chocolate coins. I am trying to maintain my typing while constantly having to fidget around with getting my next chocolate treat out of its metal casing.

I am not a big fan of Christmas or of New Year festivities but I was glad of  a prolonged period off work and I was looking forward to using my extra time off to get some more running in. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way.

Before Christmas I booked myself in for my for my first race of 2016 a runthrough Half Marathon in Victoria park at the end of January. Its an event I am pretty excited about as not only does it have a super cool medal as highlighted below but it also falls on my birthday!

I will be honest, I have been looking forward to my birthday falling on a Sunday so I can do a race on my birthday, what a great way to spend the day!

I have built up the race to be a race of magical proportions, surely a race on my birthday will be the most magical event and the running Gods will bestow nothing but good things on the run and my preparation for it?

Of course not!

My training over Christmas was blighted by a cold/cough that had me under the weather off and on for most of the festive period. I had penciled in the ambitious idea of a half marathon distance run before Christmas, another one between Christmas and New Year and a third between New Year and going back to work. I didn't get any of these runs in just one 14K trundle our feeling the worse for wear after Christmas.

Eager to make up for lost ground I planned to attack this week with great enthusiasm and lots of running.

Monday I got out for a great session which involved using a local motorway crossing for some hill sprints and then some strength and conditioning work on the stairs.

Since then it has gone a bit wrong, my Monday night session had obviously aggravated my calf as I awoke on Tuesday morning with a calf strain. The week hasn't got much better as I have been in agony with an infection in my tooth. After a few sleepless nights full of pain and struggling to eat all week a trip to the dentist has seen me get on the antibiotics and get booked in for some required root canal work.

So not the ideal start to the week but now both my tooth and calf are on the mend so next week will see me attempting to kick start the New Year.

I am not a big fan of New Years resolutions and all these ambitions and declarations of intent that everyone is full of at this time of year.

Other than my recap of 2015 (peak at my medal haul form 2015 below) I haven't written a post about all the great things I am planning for 2016 and all the changes I am going to make to myself, my lifestyle, my running or my blog.

I am simply going to press on with doing what I do.

In terms of running I know what I need to improve in my training and of course I will be aiming for more PBs in 2016 and if I can run consistently without too many injuries I would love to be able to run 2016km this year.

In terms of my lifestyle I know I need to keep trying to eat healthier the same as everyone else, eat a bit cleaner and cut out the carbs and the junk food.

As for the blog, it was always planned to be for me to write what I want to write, I am never going to be famous or earn a living from my blog. So I will continue to write more of the same, if you like it then great thanks for reading, I love interacting with other runners, why not drop me a line? If my blogs not for you then thats cool its not really a crowd pleaser designed for the masses but thanks for dropping by.

So onwards and upwards for 2016, I hope you manage to run off any Christmas excesses and achieve all your ambitions in the year ahead!