My first 5k

Date	Sunday Jan. 24th 2010
Time started	14:00
Average speed**	7.5kmph
Total time taken**	40 minutes
Showers taken	1
Food now needed	Lots
Sleep now needed	More
The feeling of finally realising I CAN do a 5k run	Priceless

M


* Given from treadmill
** Calculated from average speed given

Resolutions of 2009 (A reflection of the year)

So, last December I made the following new years resolutions: (taken from a deviantART journal entry)

- Take more photos. If I see a good target, shot it!
- Look into starting Karate again (it's been 7 long years since training stopped)
- Get (at least) 5km fit for Nov. 3rd
- Research more about what I do in my career. Better thy self.

Have I kept to them? Let's see.

Photography

I have been taking more photos, and some new work has gone up onto deviantART but not as much as I'd like. Now that I have a premium membership I hope that I'll be more productive with my photography. I may try the whole, take a picture of yourself everyday thing. Might force me to think more about it.

Karate

This one has just been flat out fail. I haven't started again. I suck.

Running

I probably could run 5km by Nov. 3rd, but I never tried. My training was going well(-ish) up until December. Kind of fell apart though. This has to be rectified, starting Jan. 2nd.

Career

Over the past year I have learnt to be more confident in myself and my abilities when it comes to my job. I'm still finding that sometimes holding myself back for too long before I force myself to "fake it 'til I make it". It's coming with time and experience, just got to keep it up.


What's in store for 2010? More of the same really, only a lot more of it. More photography, more training, more confidence in myself in my career. Nothing new, just consistent. I think it's easier to focus on things you are already doing than try to force new rules and regulations on yourself every new year.

I guess we shall see how I've done in 12 months.

Happy new year all.

M

Saturday of success

Had my alarm set for 8.15am so I'd have plenty of time to wake up, get up, get onto the computer and wait for 9am. Why? Bon Jovi tickets for June 2010 were going on presale and I had an O2 code. This make for a happy me. So, 9am comes, I click on the link, go to ticketmaster and add 2 tickets to my basket (best available for £65 each), (I know!). For this price you'd expect to get really good seats and you'd have a night to remember... You'd be wrong. Row U in the back section! Total price... £149! Rip off!! Now I know it's not Bon Jovi that set the ticket prices, but it still pisses me off and puts me of seeing them in the future.

Anyway, on with the rest of the day, ticktless.

Home alone on a Saturday, what to do. Obviously, play PS3. Batman: Arkham Asylum. With only 3 tropies left to get (all connected, so I get one, I'll get the other 2 as a bonus) I played my ass off. And, you guessed it, I got the 3 trophies, completing the entire game and all achievables. It's both awesome and sad when this happens. Great because it's the culmination off my hours "hard work", but sad because there isn't anything new to do. I guess it's time to go back to Guitar Hero. Not a bad thing.

The gym followed the PS3 win. 10 minutes on the treadmill, 20 on the weights, 5 on the treadmill. Got through most of a Pendulum album (good music for the gym!). Not bad work out, now aching like a... really... achy thing.

Now home, showered, writing this (unexpectedly long) blog post, with an Oz on my lap (one of my two cats), watching Halloween (2007, Rob Zombie) and feeling hungry. Lunchtime.

M

New training PB... Sort of

10 minutes with an average speed of 9.3km. Less time at a faster pace. Hopefully can get to around 9.5-10kmph and then start increasing my time.

Also did about 15 minutes of weights. Think I'm starting to see slight changes in my body. Should document it with photos... We'll see.

M

So many thing, so little time (right now)

Right first thing, training. Did a solid 13 minutes of the treadmill last night, average speed 8.9km/h, distance 1.92km. This is good. It had been 5 days since I last went to the gym, I don't want to be leaving it so long between sessions.

I finished American Psycho today, good book. Will go on my in-mind book shelf next to The Diceman. Great book, if you can handle the random ramblings of a guy who take note of what everyone around him is wearing while thinking about his last victim that he has massacred. Random, extreme violence that isn't for everyone, but I enjoyed it. (See previous blog about dark side of personalities, A Line Through Cross)

My next book is going to be Cross County. Getting back to Alex Cross and his dragon slaying. Yay!

Still got to review Guitar Hero 5 and now Batman: Arkham Asylum (my new obsession), and comment on the whole music file sharing thing that might be going on, not really sure. Then again, if it's not in the media, swine flu doesn't exist/isn't a threat anymore either.

But for now, it's back to the trenches with me. Ta ta for now.

M

Autumn is here

I LOVE Autumn. It is my favourite time of year (and not because it includes my birthday)(*cough*November 3rd*cough*).

I've been meaning to blog for a while now about a few things: the Lily Allen/music file sharing debate; a review of Guitar Hero 5; and a few more, none of which I'm going to do now.

I'm just making this entry to ensure that I have to blog about them later on. Kick my own ass activated.

I've pulled a muscle in my back, assuming it was during a session at the gym recently, my first injury, not including the blisters on my feet from running.

Other than that, all is well.

A journey to Essex this weekend, birthday celebrations to be had, Chinese food to be eaten. Good times.

M

2km goal, done.

Just been to the gym. Warm up walk for 500m then jogged for 2km! New PB for me. A my head let me know it, was a bit dizzy all the way home.

Onwards and upwards!

M

TRAINING#015 800m's all round

Went to the gym earlier and went 800 metre crzay! Once on the tread mill, then on the exercise bike and then back on the tread mill (with weights in between), it was a good session.

M

TRAINING#014 My first check point

Went to the gym yesterday and hit my first check point (1.5km) on my way to my first mile stone (5km). To some this might not be much, and when I had finished I still had energy in me, but in the spirit of taking things easy and not dying of an asthma attack, I think things are going well, if a little slow.

Next check point is 3km, which, by my very rough calculations, I should be hitting by mid-September.

Target acquired.

M

TRAINING#013 A review of the last 287 days

So, bringing all my previous blogs about training for the 2011 NYC Marathon has got me thinking. I am so fucking lazy!

Seriously, I should be doing more than this.

Now that I'm running distances rather than times, I have made up a plan for goal achievement that I'm going to try and stick to:

Distance Goal	Date to be achieved
5km	03/11/09
10km	03/05/10
20km	03/11/10
40km	03/11/11

Distances between goals will slowly increase, but still not wanting to push myself too hard too fast.

Last target I hit was 1.4km on 10/08/09 ... This must continue.

We'll see where I am Nov 3rd. I want to be doing better, just got to get up off my lazy ass!

M

TRAINING#012 Redefined... Version 2.0

Been a while away from the gym. I am ashamed. But went earlier today and was good. 1km ran comfortably. Bit of arms and legs after good stretch, then another 500m run.

Decided to focus on distance rather than time when running. Since I'll be running 40km not 10 hours (I hope) I thought it made a bit more sense to do it this way.

The training must continue.

M

TRAINING#011 The gym redefined

Ok, so my second gym session went well. I've set myself a regular routine:

- 5 minutes jogging @ 7.5kmph / 1% incline
- 3x 10 leg extensions @ 10kg (each leg)
- 3x 10 bicep curls @ 5kg
- 3x 10 leg curls @ 10kg (each leg)
- 3x 10 chest presses @ 10kg
- 50 pull downs @ 15kg
- 5 minutes jogging @ 7.5kmph / 1% incline

Need to do legs then arms then back to legs, etc. But it's to be refined as I go.

Oviously I'll increase my time/weights as I go, but going to keep building it slowly. Injures I do not want!

M

TRAINING#010 The gym

So, the gym going has begin and it has begin well. Induction on Thursday, first session Saturday afternoon, went again on Tuesday evening. I think it's going to be a regular thing, but only time will tell.

So far I've found that I can do 5 minutes at 7.5kmph on an incline of 1% on the tredmill.

This is very good.

Will help me learn to pace myself. Also started weight training. Starting small and working my way up, don't want any injures.

Here's how it goes so far:

- 3x 10 leg extensions on each leg @ 7.5kg
- 3x 10 leg curls on each leg @ 12.5kg
- 30x chest extensions @ 12.5kg
- 50x lateral pull downs @ 12.5kg

Not 100% sure on those names and weights, will have to start taking note each time I go to track my progress.

But so far, so good.

M

TRAINING#009 Thought I had forgotten, hadn't I?!

Ok, so talking to myself isn't the best start to things, but isn't that what ALL bloggers do?!

This past weekend saw the moving into a new flat. We have access to a gym. This is good news. Also the fact that the weather is improving all the time, so likely hood of training is doubled, at least!

We shall see what happens. Goal still remains. Nov 6th 2011 NYC Marathon.

GO!

M

TRAINING#008 See last week

...

M

TRAINING#007 Wasted Week

Nothing happened.

Had plenty of time, but nothing done.

I could beat myself up over it (and probably will) but that's not going to get things done.

Monday is written off. Got plans. Must run, or at least Wii Fit.

MUST. DO. BETTER.

M

TRAINING#006 Improvement needed

Training hasn't been going to plan. I know it hasn't been a month yet, but I thought I'd get more than I have done. There have been issues along the way, but I should be doing better...

...I WILL do better.

Today is Tuesday.

Still plenty of time in the week.

M

TRAINING#005 Start of Week 3

60 secs run, 2 mins walk, 5 times = 15 minutes

Less than last Monday, but what with recent Asthma related issues, I felt cutting it short necessary.

Let's keep it going.

M

TRAINING#004 Ok, end of week 2...

The distractions re starting to gather, all jumping around me shouting "Waste time on me!"... and repeat.

As a big Playstation fan, GTA:IV with trophies proves very very tempting to go through the whole game

again. Add this to Guitar Hero World Tour... Lots of time in front of the TV. Plus Angel season 5 yet to watch.

Right, back to the runnning thing.

Monday saw the first (of many to come) training "session", and I think it went well. Althought it did teach me that stretching must be involved. There should've been 2 more sessions as well as exercise today...

- On Wednesday... My dog ate it. (Can't remember why I didn't go for a run)
- On Friday I went to see my mum (and collect GHWT) which included having major issues with asthma related ill health.
- Saturday catch up of Friday. Asthma related injures. Back muscles pulled to hell, tied to a tree then pulled back again.
- Sunday... GHWT.

I really need to kick my ass!

1085 days to go.

I WILL DO BETTER.

M

TRAINING#003 A good start to Week 2

60 secs run, 2 mins walk, 6 times = 18 minutes

A much better start this week.

M