Week Two

I stopped losing weight.  But by Thursday I started running more. I did my first 30km  run in a while

Week One

I started the week on 83.6kilograms. The plan and what I did was as follows

I lost nearly 4 kilograms. 

The bad year is in the past

It is thirteen months since I wrote anything here.  I have had a bad year running wise. There have been no races to speak of in Germany and I struggled with consistency. 

I enjoyed myself crewing for Fabio in Spartathlon and combined that with a visit to the lion's gate in  Mycenae and the Acropolis Museum.

I rounded the year off with a Marcothon. Five kilometres a day, every day. I have also built up to doing a five minute plank and 100 press ups a day..  So that is an improvement on consistency.

In January, I will be upping that to include some intervals, hill work, Cooper tests, 12kms and longer runs. I have create January's plan already. 

I am finally going to bite the bullet and fast for January to fix my weight. Then in  February start back on  a vegetarian diet until my birthday in March.

At the end of January I will run in the Rodgau 50km,  which will be my first race in far too long. I hope to do sub six hours. If that goes as planned I am going to try the Sparta city race in February.

Then there is the TorTourdeRuhr in June. 

Wish me luck

Noteworthy November

I really shouldn't exaggerate the negatives in my training is in these blogs because,  it is not that bad and it worries a few readers.  That said I don't think things are that bad. I am fit and running, which is more than I can say about some of my running friends and acquaintances. I very rarely get injuries and run quite often.

Over the last four months I have covered an average of 300km a month. My weight has been consist in the low 80s this month. I improved my Vo2 max this month as well.  All my learning and reading programs are going well and I am getting more focus on them as I drop further and further away from  social media and news sites. 

The trick is to ensure the circle of your interest and the circle of your influence are matched. The problem with a lot of people, and I have been guilty of this in the past, is that the interest circle is far bigger than the influence one.  To tack an extreme example, why should a UK citizen living in Germany been at all concerned about what is happening in the USA.  I can't influence it at all and it barely affects my day to day life. 

Focus on the things you can change and forget about those you can't. 

Shitober

Where to begin?  The whole month went to pot very early on. I was struggling in my personal life and let it get to me. I forgot to focus on my motivation and do a little bit each day. 

September not as good August but better than before that

September was not as good as August as I covered 300km, 100km down on the previous month. However my weight  is regularly under 80kg which is a big benefit.  I had a really  bad peroid in the fourth week that stopped me running.  I was really depressed  and I knew if I ran I would feel better, but I was too depressed to even get changed for a run. This week I have recovered  somewhat and am back to 100km weeks and I also managed to do a complete week of core work. This consists of three dumbbell  sessions focusing on upper body,  three press up  and two pull up sessions. I am aiming on doing this for September  and gradually  adding a few short yoga sessions.

Another long break

The difference this time is that I have finally started running a decent distance each week.  From mid July I moved to 80km a week and now I am at 100km  a week.  So my August total is 402.km. I am also regularly  that is five time a week, working on my core. I am avoiding junk, mainly sugary junk in my diet as well.  The result of which is that my weight is dropping all be it slowly,  I am almost under 80kgs 

Looking back on my annual totals, below,  realistically if I want to get back to Sparta and finish, I need to do 3500km plus a year. I am not finding the 100km too difficult to do at the moment.  It is just a matter of consistantly making time day by day.  I am returning to work from this week on, which means as I am away from home it will be even easier to schedule. 

Totals September to August each year. 

2013 total 2800km
2014 total 4000km
2015 total 3000km
2016 total 3000km
2017 total 2800km
2018 total 2700km
2019 total 2000km
2020 total 2300km