Holy hail storms batman

What a weekend, ups and downs is the best way to describe it. The biggest down was finding out the stag weekend dates had changed for geoffs send off into the married world......and I am doing Air traffic control at Lowestoft airs how .....f&&& it!!! I can't believe being one of the ushers I wont be able to make one of my best friends stag weekends. Someone who gave us such enormous help during our wedding and just one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. I found out on Friday purely by chance and have spent all weekend trying to get cover, trying to get out of the air show even offering to pay my way out but no. My contract was signed in early march and it's water tight. Damn it.... When you do something like this you name needs to be down for safety cases, emergency plans etc which cannot be changed once done. Just not a happy bunny today. I had to put all that aside somehow for Sunday. Last race of the duathlon season for Iain and myself and we won. Now normally I would be quite held back and talk about how well everybody did etc etc......... Screw that we won,  we won the team race and we won the USN Dorney lake team duathlon series! We won it this time in style. A full two minutes off the bike time and 40 seconds off both runs.  With all the professional individual runners we came second overall. We were within a gnats whisker of beating all the GB guys. It was the final leg and I was catching up with the number 1 GB guy. My lungs were burning, my knees, ankles Achilles,hamstrings all felt like they were going to break (imagine running at your fastest possible speed for 2.5k then cooling down for 18 mins then doing exactly the same again, you need to be hitting 6 min miles at the slowest!! Try it next time your out). He didn't realise I was there, saw me at the final turning point and shot off, I just could not catch up. He didn't have an ounce of fat on him, he was about 5'8 and looked like he weighed 8 stone. I had no chance. Iain really put us up in the rankings, he averaged 22 mph through the whole course, now take into account there are 2 180 degree turns and it's pretty amazing. It was good weather so he could go all out. All over for this year for us as a team. I think we will try a different series next year as we didn't even get a medal, just a credit note to get money off our next race. Pretty poor show I thought. So 19 days until the big one. Did a 20 mile run last night through a hail storm, hail hurts!! I think 2 more 20 milers and I will be happy. Going to run down the Basingstoke canal and find somewhere else just to rack the miles up. Then lots of hard aerobic tennis and some football/american football to keep the injury risk down but the heart rate up.

Your gonna love this one...

The new video is out! Well not mine but my car and myself make a cameo! It's done by a friend of mine running for tommys filmed using Ron Howard's film crew! Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ9z6mrOH9E Maverick out

Marathon Distractions

Soooooo don’t judge me…… please. This is my running play list. Its very eclectic, and slightly all over the place but that describes me quite well on a good day. It’s a mix of heavy metal, rock, dance, tv theme tunes and various other items. I wont bother breaking them down but here we go in alphabetical order-

The A team original theme

American heartbeat (rocky)

Around the World, Daft punk

Back to the future soundtrack

The power of love, Back to the future sound track

Bad romance, lady Gaga

Hold me kill me kiss me thrill me U2….batman sound track

Battle of Britain theme tune

Beat it, Michael Jackson

Bellissima, DJ quicksilver

Black, Trivium

Blade runner theme tune

Born Slippy

Born this way, lady gaga

Buried alive, Avenge sevenfold

Burning heart, Rocky

Can I play with madness, Iron Maiden

Can you feel it, the Jackson 5

Chakalaka, wippenberg

Crazy Train, The oz master ozzy osbourne

Derezzed, Daft punk, tron sound track

Everyday I love you les and less, Kaiser chiefs

Eye of the tiger, Rock

Fame…..ok don’t know how that got on there…honest

Fear of the dark, iron maiden

For whom the bell tolls, metallica

Ghostbusters theme tune

Gladiators the tv competition series theme tune (most inspirational)

Gonna fly now, rock Again!!!

Hollowed be thy name, iron maiden

Hearts on fire…..holy crap how many rocky tunes are there!!

Holding out for a hero, Bonnie tyler

In da club, 50 cent

Its my life, Dr alban

Jump, Madonna

Kenny loggins, danger zone……top gun had to be in there somewhere

Killing in the name of, rage against the machine

Lonely is the night, billy squire

Never miss a beat, Kaiser chiefs

Nightmare, avenge sevenfold

No one knows, Queens of the stone age

No tomorrow, Orson

Nothing gonna stand in our way……the transformers the movie sound track, oh dear

Orion, Metallica

Rock the night, Europe

Timewarp, rocky horror picture show

Saturday night fever, beejees

Running on empty, Jackson brown

Separate ways, journey

Seven days and one week, bbe

Seven nation army, the white stripes

Shut up and let me go, the ting tings

Superstition, stevie wonder

Sweat, snoop dogg and david guetta

Sweet child of mine, guns and roses

Theme from shaft….Oh yes, if you like funky guitar rifts this is for you

Thunderstruck, ACDC

The touch, transformers

You’re the best, karate kid

633 Squadron

Dare, transformers

Hunger transformers

Your love lifts me higher and higher, Ghostbusters

What can you do for me, utah saints

Icarus, Madeon

Atomic, Blondie

Oops upside your head……family parties!!!

Yes that is it, strange but true.

Kony, charity or not?

If you know me you know I research absolutely everything I spend money on. I look for a bargain but will pay the money if it is needed. I have always been a huge contributor to charities in monetary form or helping out personally any way I can. There is a trend going on, a trend which intrigued me. Normally theses things pass me by but I decided to do some research. My Business studies and economics A-levels taught me where to research business accounts and how to look in the right place. It showed me how to dig a little deeper into what people do. The reason why this charity sparked a light in my research brain was because its based in Africa, a good proportion of our family lived there for many years and in fact my father was brought up there for most of his life. I know a little, not a lot ut enough to know who is talking out of their arse and who has a grasp of the politics over there. I had a rare night to myself last night so started some digging. I honestly wanted to stay as far away as possible from KONY 2012, the latest fauxtivist fad sweeping the web (remember “change your Facebook profile pic to stop child abuse”?), but you clearly won’t stop sending me that damn video until I say something about it, so here goes: Stop sending me that video. The organization behind Kony 2012 ,Invisible Children Inc. ,is an extremely shady nonprofit that has been called ”misleading,” “naive,” and “dangerous” by a Yale political science professor, and has been accused by Foreign office manipulating facts for strategic purposes.” They have also been criticized by the Better Business Bureau for refusing to provide information necessary to determine if IC meets the Bureau’s standards. Additionally, IC has a low two-star rating in accountability from Charity Navigator because they won’t let their financials be independently audited. That’s not a good thing. In fact, it’s a very bad thing, and should make you immediately pause and reflect on where the money you’re sending them is going. By IC’s own admission, only 31% of all the funds they receive go toward actually helping anyone . The rest go to line the pockets of the three people in charge of the organization, to pay for their travel expenses (over $1 million in the last year alone) and to fund their filmmaking business (also over a million) — which is quite an effective way to make more money, as clearly illustrated by the fact that so many can’t seem to stop forwarding their well-engineered emotional blackmail to everyone they’ve ever known. And as far as what they do with that money: The group is in favor of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending. Let’s not get our lines crossed: The Lord’s Resistance Army is bad news. And Joseph Kony is a very bad man, and needs to be stopped. But propping up Uganda’s decades-old dictatorship and its military arm, which has been accused by the UN of committing unspeakable atrocities and itself facilitated the recruitment of child soldiers, is not the way to go about it. The United States is already plenty involved in helping rout Kony and his band of psycho sycophants. Kony is on the run, having been pushed out of Uganda, and it’s likely he will soon be caught, if he isn’t already dead. But killing Kony won’t fix anything, just as killing Osama bin Laden didn’t end terrorism. Placing the blame for all of central Africa’s woes on Kony — even as a starting point — will only imperil many more people than are already in danger. Sending money to a nonprofit that wants to muck things up by dousing the flames with fuel is not helping. Want to help? Really want to help? Send your money to nonprofits that are putting more than 31% toward rebuilding the region’s medical and educational infrastructure, so that former child soldiers have something worth coming home to. The bottom line is, research your causes thoroughly. Don’t just forward a random video to a stranger because a mass murderer makes a five-year-old “sad.” Learn a little bit about the complexities of the region’s ongoing strife before advocating for direct military intervention. There is no black and white in the world. And going about solving important problems like there is just serves to make all those equally troubling shades of gray invisible. If you want to give money to a charity, give it to St Georges hospital. I can personally guarantee everything you get wont go to an African dictator and will go to helping sick people to get better.    

In the words of Charlie Sheen WINNING

Yesterday was my first ever competitive duathlon which I did as a team event with my best man Iain. It was a horrendous day, 30mph winds, honking it down with sideways rain. Totally crap! Dorney lake had never looked so miserable!

A duathlon consists of a run, followed by a cycle then a run. You have to be quick on these things so I did the running and Iain did the cycling. We knew that in training we were fast but you never know what the day is going to throw at you, rain wind and a ball bustlingly cold temperature.

I was up first, it went ok, I was 20 seconds off pace but I blame that on the wind! I finished the first run in 10:31, Iain then took over on the cycle and put in a stonking time of 19:59. I was up again and went faster in the second run. 10:30 with the transitions our time was 41: 40………………..

We Won!! We actually won the Team event!

Overall there were only 3 people who went faster than Iain and myself, this was in the individual event. All 3 run for Great Britain and will probably be Olympic hopefuls. We were only 1 minute behind Olympic pace….would you believe it! To celebrate our amazing win im going for an 18 mile run this afternoon but I did allow myself a pizza for lunch. Have to beast the calories out now.

Not long now.....

My fundraising page has just reminded me that there are only 50 days to go - EEEEK!!

Had a great day at the Full Potential training day last Saturday, the concept of threshold running was fairly new to me, and I'm definately going to incorporate it into my training, I just hope its not too late to have an effect....

I've also started to do some core strength training, can only hold a 'plank' for about 45 seconds at the moment so I'm really hoping that will improve too!

This Sunday I'm running the Milton Keynes half, swiftly followed by the Liverpool half on the 18th march.  Conscious that I need to get my mileage up too so will try for a 15 mile plus the weekend in between.

Just been told about a 16 mile run in Kingston on the 1st April (the 'Breakfast Run').  Considering entering that too.......

Happy running everyone :-)

Jenny x

Training video number 3 is out!

Hello All,   Well its that moment you have all been waiting for the release of training video number 3! Click on the link below, this will take you to my sponsorship website, bottom right hand corner is the you tube link, to watch it in full screen click the you tube label on the video.   http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DanJohnsonlondonmarathon   I hope you all enjoy it and if you feel like making a donation no matter how big it would all be gratefully received   To watch the original training videos the link for number one is here   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRmwkQ4WfUQ   And the link for number two is here   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJdFzR0BeKQ

And the the winner is.... Me horarraaa

Great little half marathon at Dorney lake yesterday. It was racing against yourself to increase your overall pace. They had the runners world magazine pace team there so I was attempting a 1:45 half marathon time. Bear in mind the fastest I have run one was windsor half in 2:03 it was a hell of a task to complete.  All started off well, I was on pace for the first 6 miles and feeling good. I then got an enormous pain in my chest, seeing that I am running for st George's Heart unit where my dad had triple bypass surgery, I thought it best to slow down! It was like the biggest stitch you have ever had but inside your ribcage. I was down 2 mins and considering pulling off to the side when I released the loudest belch known to mankind, it was so load infact that people around me wearing headphones were laughing. Pain gone. I started to make up the time but just couldn't catch up to the pacers. This was however the first race I have ever done that I lapped people. I was very proud and remembered how I was in their place only a few months back. The rest of the race went well, I finished in 1:51:00, 12 minutes shaved off my personal best. I was very chuffed at the end and kept thinking that I could do better if it were not for issue of gas. I am aiming for a below 4 hour marathon time so I now know the kind of pace I need at the beginning to get the breathing space if my legs give up at the end. Final clip finished on the final video, finally.... The winner of the james bond first edition book was Katie howard. Watch out for an even better competition in the near future

Competition time

BIG COMPETITION!! If you make a donation between now and saturday and guess correctly (to the nearest minute) what my time will be at the Dorney lake race your pace half marathon this Saturday morning you will win a first edition Hardback James bond book!!! You can donate any amount (every little helps), but every 'time' must be different. No duplicates allowed. Please go to the virgin giving page below, give whatever you can, then on the message write your time. If nobody gets the exact time the competition rolls onto the next race but I will find a smaller prize for the person with the time closest to the one achieved. Good luck to you all My page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DanJohnsonlondonmarathon

All aboard the crazy running train choo choo

Happy valentines day all, how many of you will be spending time with your loved ones or, like me, your loved one is a touring dancer so I will be running tonight! Marathon training going well, 3 six mile runs a week with an 18miler mixed in there somewhere. I now have a huge number of events coming up so I hope that me knees hold out.  I have an application in for the new York marathon and I've just been accepted in to the Amsterdam one. I'm hoping that everyone will have enjoyed so much of the local 'produce' that they will either forget to turn up or get a massive case of the munches halfway through the marathon....yay dans wins. As you are all really interested here is my full list this year. Not many holidays for me! Feb 18 Race your pace half marathon, Dorney lake March 04 duathlon, Dorney lake March 11 silverstone half marathon March 25th fleet half marathon April 22nd London marathon (the one and only) May 13th Staines 10k May 26th Triathlon dorney June 17 - 21 Nijmegen marches Sept 22nd London triathlon Oct 7th Windsor half Oct 21st Amsterdam marathon Nov 4th new York (unconfirmed) If no new York Athens marathon The good thing is all the half marathons are dead flat so they are perfect training runs for London. This Saturday I am going for a personal best, so far I've only done a 2:03 for a half marathon but my goal is 1:45. Tough but I hope I don't destroy my legs as I'm flying Saturday afternoon and need them to operate the rudder....and brakes!

Brrrrr it's cold!!!

I knew as soon as I signed up to run the marathon that one of the hardest challenges for me would be motivating myself to get out there to train during the winter months - unavoidable when the big day is in April!  And now I find myself needing to complete (at least) a 10 mile run this weekend in sub-zero temperatures, it's a good job I feel as motivated as I do by the cause or it would be far too tempting to stay inside wrapped up under a blanket!

Speaking of bad weather, I was really delighted to run the 4 Villages Half Marathon in Cheshire (the 'Helsby Half') a couple of weeks ago and beat my PB (now down to 2 hrs 10 mins) despite gale force winds (fine when they were behind you, not so great when head on or to the side, blowing you off course!).  Hoping to enter the Milton Keynes half which is at the start of March - partly just to get used to the 'race' environment to try and help my nerves for the Marathon day itself. 

Really enjoying reading this blog and seeing how my fellow St George's runners are getting on with their training.  Are any of you doing the Adidas training day for charity runners on 25th Feb?  Happy running :-)

Jenny x

Two blogs, two lots of work, half the time..... and the zombies

Having two blogs to do and no time is becoming rather frustrating as I have to use my comic wit twice during a day rather than just the once. Seeing my dad always used to call me a half wit I officially have to use four times as much brain power to be funny (hope everyone is keeping up). I read the previous blog post and thought I would put a few positives on your training. First you lose weight, through running I lost 3 and a half stone in around 4 months. Second is the immense satisfaction you feel after you hit a milestone. My first one was running 4 miles for the first time then 12 then 20. Third, I was the first person to ever run a half marathon then a full marathon in our family. Having their support when you cross the line after you first race is fantastic and a feeling you will never forget. The forth is being fit and everything that comes with it. I never get sick, I always eat well because I know it will affect my training otherwise and little things like being able to fit into a pair of 32 jeans when you had to squeeze into a pair of 38's really make you smile. What I love most is having my playlist, running 18 miles down by the river and watching the landscape change everyday. You can switch off from work and all the stress that surrounds it. You can forget about everyone and have a moment of self indulgence where all you are worrying about is yourself. You can work out your pace, work out your miles or even your bank balance it's up to you. I love thinking about the most diverse things like if we had a zombie attack which parts of the house would me most tactically advantageous to stay in and how many shells would I need for my shotgun. Can zombies run? How long would it take to wear one down? Is a snooker Que really an effective zombie disposal method?

I too, only have one knee....

So I found the "create post" button - a year of firsts - first marathon, first blog post, but not much encouragement - cold burns and pain all round are not reassuring me. I am following the muppet's guide called "how to run a marathon" and having started at 3 minutes some time last year when it seemed like a good idea to fill out the form, I am now at significantly more than that and realising why its called " no pain, no gain".  Anyone got anything positive to say?!

Baby steps

The first run back after an injury is never particularly satisfying. How far? Not very. How fast? Slow. After a week or two of enforced rest you’re a bundle of nervous energy, and you want to get out and pound the pavement pretty hard and turn out that new 10k PB you’ve been dreaming about for the last couple of weeks.

Once you’re out things aren’t so straightforward. Everything’s harder than you thought it’d be. You’ve put on a bit of weight with the time off, you’ve not been sleeping so well, and your muscles aren’t used to moving like this. Your SHOULDERS hurt. Has it really been that long?

It’s ok. The first mile’s always a bit crap. Your body needs time to bed in, switch from desk/caffeine/commute mode into the lean mean efficient running machine you know it is. Keep going. Slow and steady.

Your injury starts to hurt a bit. Suddenly 6 miles isn’t looking so clever. Or is it? Maybe it’s just a ‘goodbye’ twinge – ‘So long and thanks for all the ice!’. You’ve got to do 6 miles. You’re already behind on your training schedule – no time to slack now. You’ve done the rest, it should be fixed, keep going.

It’s getting worse. Another mile and it’ll be ok? Yeah?

No. You’ve been down that road. Go home. Rest some more. Book sports massage. Do strength exercises. Try again.

Maybe I am learning from last year’s mistakes after all.

I have one functioning knee

Successfully cycled into work this morning without any pain, will break out the trainers tomorrow and give some running a go.

Plans are afoot for a charity pub quiz in a central London location sometime in February – there may even be a celebrity quiz master on the night… watch this space.

Cross posted to lukewaterfield.co.uk

Has anyone seen my man parts?

Well it was my first morning run of the year and it was cooolllllldddddd!!! I was planning to do 18 miles around Virginia water lake and the surrounding Windsor park. Got there for 7:30 with the car showing -2 on the temperature. I had learnt my lesson from Thursday night, I went out in my normal winter running kit (sealskin unders and top with shorts and an Adidas running top). I was basically totally covered from head to toe. Had a half decent 6mile run, got home and took my top off to realise I had cold burns all over my body. First time I have ever had this in my life. Basically it looks like a mild burn but is freezing cold. I was covered in red blotches so straight in the warm bath and managed to catch it in time. Being a person who climbs mountains when it's extremely cold I am used to watching out for the warning signs, I had none at all, maybe because I was concentrating on my run. I digress, I was wearing the same as before with an additional pair of jiggers and a fleece. Run was going well, first mile hurt like hell because of the cold but quickly warmed up. I was testing a new water carrier I got for my birthday which is called a camel pack, perfect for long distance running. My first deep cold warning was when my water started to come out as a slush puppy. I got to 13 miles to look at my frozen gloves, I then realised I had a layer of ice all over me!!! I quickly checked my skin, all ok, my theory is that as all the outer items I was wearing were breathable the moisture seeped out and froze on the surface of the fleece and trousers. Very strange being mr crispy for a short period of time. I decided to go to pack it up then head to work and have a hot shower. Again you have to be careful with these things, I didn't feel cold at all. If I remember correctly the final stages of hypothermia is a cruel sense of feeling hot so you start taking layers of. The beginning of the end!

ACME Training Schedule

Hello hello hello, I'm Luke, nice to meet you, have a seat, would you like a biscuit?

No? Good, biscuits are bad.

As are crisps, chocolate, alcohol and coffee and everything else I've been consuming of late.

Due to a knackered knee, my New Year's resolution of 'eat healthy, run more, don't get injured' has disappeared out of the window pretty rapidly, like Wile E Coyote dropping off yet another cliff with a not-exactly-surprised expression on its face.

For some reason as soon as I lay off the exercise all self control and restraint goes out the window (along with Wile E) and I'm shovelling pizza and cappuccinos down my neck at a frightening rate. I think it's my body's way of telling me there's excess energy to burn and it doesn't know what to do with it. It's certainly an excuse.

But now you know all about my dietary habits and weak-mindedness and not a lot else, terribly rude of me.

Back to the beginning. I'm Luke, 27, parliamentary researcher, South Londoner and a general sucker for punishment, particularly if it involves running vast distances for little reward. I've been working in Tooting for the past four years, and have seen up close the difference the St George's Hospital Charity has made to the care and treatment of countless patients (and their families) who've had cause to use the hospital in that time. Simply put, they're ace (there is no higher compliment to bestow).

London 2012 will be my second marathon - I ran the Paris marathon last year and frankly made a bit of a hash of it all - this doesn't diminish any of the fear, or make the training any easier (as I foolishly thought it would when entering...).

Case in point - we're barely two weeks into the New Year and I've already done a bit of damage to my knee through a slightly over-exuberant start to my 'proper' training schedule. Hence the rambling introduction which focuses on food: a lot and running: not a lot.

Still, the knee's working now (I think), I've got some brand new running shoes (thank you Asics sale) and have tattooed 'slow down muppet' on arms.

I just hope I haven't put on too much weight in the last week...

(apologies, I'm not usually this hyperactive, see comments re: coffee consumption).

This is the first post in our St George's London Marathon 2012 blog!  We've set this up exclusively for your use.  Feel free to discuss all things marathon related including training, nutrition, injuries (hopefully far and few between) and of course... fundraising!

We want you to get the most out of your London Marathon experience and as there are nine of you in total taking part to raise funds for St George's this year, with first time marathon runners and veterans alike, we reckon there'll be lots to discuss....

Thanks again for choosing to run for St George's.  We really appreciate your amazing support and please feel free to ask us any questions.  I (Maribel) will be your main contact if you have any questions about the Marathon or simply need to ask a question.  Feel free to put your question on here or send me an email to: maribel.bennett@stgeorges.nhs.uk.  If I can't help then I'm sure I can find someone who can!

Stay tuned for lots of marathon related talk and above all, enjoy!