Tuesday 27th March 2012 - Last minute kit buying!

Pretty lazy day on the physical side of things today.  I was working away so a 4:30am alarm call followed by a six hour round trip sandwiching some meetings and no lunch.  I got home about 8pm and had to set about some housekeeping and kit buying, more of which in a moment.

First though let me quickly bring you up to speed on yesterday's training; if you can call it that.  I started with a quick session in the tanning salon.  These places get a bit of a bad press and I think the whole tanning culture is derided slightly but my experience has been good.  The prices are really cheap; in fact I've wondered whether my tiny fee even pays for the electricity those giant machines use!  I guess it must because they seem fairly succesful.  Anyway, if you're looking for a good salon in Wrexham follow the link and tell them I sent you.  They won't know who I am but I'm sure they'll be happy to know that some random customer has recommended them.

After a quick 5 minutes frying in the vapouriser I headed off to the gym.  I spent a long leisurely time in there alternating between the pool, the sauna and the steam room.  All together I swam 1,500 metres and spent about an hour in the heat.  Roughly 45 minutes in the sauna and 15 minutes in the steam room.  It was a good session but I found some new blisters from my training walk on Sunday and frustratingly the ones from the night I got hypothermia (which are six week's old now) are still deep and fresh.  I now fear that they will not have healed fully when I reach the desert.  I wonder if I'll be the only person in the race to have blisters before I even start!

So on to today.  I still have a few items left to buy.  The main one causing me worry was the sunglasses.  It is important to buy 'goggle' type glasses, or ones with some kind of foam to the side because sand can blow in under the lense and be very unpleasant, particularly in a sand storm.  I had feared that I'd be paying over £100 for them but I found these little beauties online.



The other thing I've done tonight is buy myself a blood testing kit.  For my medical form I need to know my blood type.  It's the kind of thing I've been told in the past and never had the common sense to remember.  Or even write down!  Anyway, this nifty little number should sort me out.

Blood testing kit

That's it for today folks.  Peace, out.

Wednesday 18th January 2012 - 90 mins X-Trainer

Total so far: £700.53
Text "MIFF70 £5" (without quotes) to 70070 to donate £5 to Mencap.  Change the amount to whatever you are comfortable with.
Click on the "Donate Now" link in the sidebar or visit www.justgiving.com/pitymyfeet.
Thanks!

After getting some pain after 15 miles in two days on the treadmill I decided to go back on the elliptical.  Or, as I have realised in the last day or two, the Cross-Trainer.  It seems I am the only person in the world to call it an elliptical trainer.  Or maybe there is such a thing as an elliptical trainer but I have not been on it.  What I have been on is the cross trainer, or X-Trainer to save space.  Anyway, whatever it is or isn't, I spent 90 minutes on it tonight. I find myself zoning out when I'm on it and I used the time to read some more (I'm reading a book about Shackleton's ill-fated mission to Antartica).

My legs were tired and weak by the end after three days of hard work but I feel good.  I did a quick set of 15 reps on some machine that you sit on and pull things down to you.  I won't attempt to name it.  Then I went down and did 20 minutes in the sauna, unbroken. Usually I have to get out at about 15 minutes and cool down but I saw all 20 through.  Then I jumped in the pool for 30 lengths and then back into the sauna for another 20.  I didn't do this second twenty unbroken, I had to get out and grab a cold shower and re-fill my water bottle.  By the end of the 20 I was drizzling water over myself from my bottle and feeling pretty dreadful.  But I'm glad I pushed it a little and got to the 40 minutes.

That's the last training I'll do before the ultra on Saturday.  My thoughts are now bending entirely to the challenge ahead. I bought my provisions and have made my plan but more about that in the next post.

All quiet on the fundraising front. It's been a week since my last donation so I need to step things up a little.  I will spend some time today contacting more businesses and maybe see if I can use my Linked In or anything like that to promote it.  I was supposed to be in the Whitchurch Herald but they didn't print the article.  Oddly I did see a spike in hits to my blog but no donations came of it.

Thanks for reading folks! Peace, out.

JUST THE FACTS!!
Weight: 79.6 Kg

TODAY 
Distance 0 miles
Time  0 hrs
X-Trainer 1:30 hrs
Kcal  0
Press-ups 0
Swimming 500 m
Sauna  40 mins

TOTAL
Distance 344.48 miles
Time  62:51:43
X-Trainer 17:41 hrs
Kcal  34,388
Press-ups 620
Swimming 13,000 m
Sauna  7:15 hrs

Contact me: miffjacobs@hotmail.com
Please remember that I'm inflicting all this pain and misery on myself for a cause greater than just having a good story to tell over a beer. I hope to raise over
£9,500 for MENCAP.

There are 1.5 million people in the UK with a learning disability. Most are treated as ‘different’ however with the right support people with a learning disability can have access to education, jobs and an independent place to live. Mencap works with people with a learning disability to help them live the lives they want.

Be cool and click on the link below and help make someone's life better.
http://www.justgiving.com/pitymyfeet

Wednesday 11th January 2012 - Back on my toes

I ran tonight.  For the first time since the 17th December I got on my toes and ran.  OK, it was only for half a mile and it was on a treadmill and it was very slow.  But I ran!  I had a few natural twinges and pains but nothing specifically in the area of the torn muscle and nothing that has lingered to the morning (I'm writing this the day after).  I think tonight I will risk taking a mile of my plan and doing it on the treadmill to see how it goes.  If I can get off the elliptical and back on my toes it will do my confidence a lot of good.  For all the nerves I had stepping on the mill; it felt fantastic to be running again!!!

The rest of the workout seems a little irrelevant but I'll relate them anyway.  I started with some core exercises (bridges etc - how boring they are!), then the treadmill for half a mile, then an hour on the elliptical (I finished Lord of the Rings!), 60 lengths in the pool, and finally a quick ten minutes in the sauna to finish off.

On the fundraising front I contacted a couple more newspapers and also one radio station to see about publicity.  Oh, and I asked Mencap for a branded t-shirt to wear when collecting so I look less like some dodgy geezer embezzling fag money from passers by and more like a dedicated and hard working charity fundraiser trying desperately to meet his target!  The fund went up by £35 today.  Thank you Joe and thank you Joanne (great advice about my feet!!).

Peace, out.

JUST THE FACTS!!
Weight: 79.6 Kg

TODAY 
Distance 0.5 miles
Time  0:06 hrs
Elliptical 1:00 hrs
Kcal  0
Press-ups 0
Swimming 1500 m
Sauna  10 mins

TOTAL
Distance 327.91 miles
Time  60:07:06
Elliptical 14:54 hrs
Kcal  34,388
Press-ups 620
Swimming 12,500 m
Sauna  6:20 mins

Contact me: miffjacobs@hotmail.com
Please remember that I'm inflicting all this pain and misery on myself for a cause greater than just having a good story to tell over a beer. I hope to raise over £9,500 for MENCAP.

There are 1.5 million people in the UK with a learning disability. Most are treated as ‘different’ however with the right support people with a learning disability can have access to education, jobs and an independent place to live. Mencap works with people with a learning disability to help them live the lives they want.

Be cool and click on the link below and help make someone's life better.
http://www.justgiving.com/pitymyfeet

Tuesday 10th January 2012 - 2:48 hrs elliptical

Fourteen miles on my plan tonight so I translated that to 2hrs 48 mins on the elliptical.  I forgot my ipod and so it was gym dance music all the way again.  Like alcohol, I think your tolerance increases through exposure so the impulse to claw my ears from my head was lessened this time around.  Although the version of "With or Without You" they played should be criminalised.

Anyway, I took my kindle and so I was able to take my mind off the effort and the music by reading more of Lord of the Rings. Gollum fell into Mount Doom with the ring last night so to be honest the time absolutely flew by.  In fact I came to the end of the session before I came to the end of the book and was a little disappointed to have to leave it!  But on the whole I was very pleased with the work I did. I found it much easier than the 14 miles I did last week with no 'wobbliness' when I got off the machine like I had had on previous sessions.  One problem I did have though is that my jogging bottoms have rubbed the front of my thighs so much that they are red raw and stung like crazy in the pool.

After the elliptical I went down to the pool and eeked out 20 minutes in the sauna although I had to have several cold showers to get me through it because my body was still hot after the workout.  Finally I threw in 10 lengths to cool me down.  It might have been 12 though, after the depressing realisation that I had lost count. Quite a feat considering I was only counting to ten!!

A great day on the fundraising front too.  The total has gone up to £619.53, plus I have some uncounted money in my pot from the weekend to add yet.  Thank you Bridget, Nigel and those who donated anonymously through SMS.  I'm very grateful.  I got my event featured on my work's intranet and had a long talk to a journalist from the Whitchurch Herald.  I am going on Thursday to have some new photos taken (note to self.... pull tummy in for photo!).  Hopefully they will run a story on me next week.  Fingers crossed!  I also wrote letters to the managers of Tesco, Sainsbury, ASDA, and Morrisons supermarkets in Wrexham, Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch.  The letters ask for donations and also ask for permission to run collections at their sites. Fingers crossed again!

Phew, busy day!

Peace, out.

JUST THE FACTS!!
Weight: 79.6 Kg

TODAY 
Distance 0 miles
Time  0 hrs
Elliptical 2:48 hrs
Kcal  0
Press-ups 20
Swimming 250 m
Sauna  20 mins

TOTAL
Distance 327.41 miles
Time  60:01:06
Elliptical 13:54 hrs
Kcal  34,388
Press-ups 620
Swimming 11,000 m
Sauna  6:10 mins

FUNDRAISING
The fund is at £619.53. 
http://www.justgiving.com/pitymyfeet
Text "MIFF70 £5" to 70070
or just click on the "Donate Now" link on the sidebar.
Feel free to contact me with any fundraising ideas you have.  You can email me at: miffjacobs@hotmail.com

DONATE
Please remember that I'm inflicting all this pain and misery on myself for a cause greater than just having a good story to tell over a beer. I hope to raise over £9,500 for MENCAP.

There are 1.5 million people in the UK with a learning disability. Most are treated as ‘different’ however with the right support people with a learning disability can have access to education, jobs and an independent place to live. Mencap works with people with a learning disability to help them live the lives they want.

Be an awesome human being today and click on the link below and help make someone's life better.
http://www.justgiving.com/pitymyfeet

Wednesday 4th January 2012 - 66 mins elliptical

I was working in Milton Keynes today (about 130 miles / 200 km from home) so by the time I arrived at the gym I was feeling pretty jaded after the long drive.  However I blew away the cobwebs with some core strength exercises and then it was on to see my new best friend.  The elliptical trainer.  My plan said just 6 miles today so I figured at 11 minutes per mile and did 66 minutes.  I upped the level a bit from what I'd done the day before and also upped the cadence by between 10 and 20 reps per minute.  Especially when "Common People" came on my ipod shuffle!

After the elliptical I went down the pool and rested on a lounger (tough life eh?) for a bit before jumping in and doing 60 lengths to finish.  I then chilled out with my calves in the spa for a bit and into the sauna.

One problem I had was that I forgot to take a water bottle so had to rely on the little plastic cups at the gym.  The cup holders on the ellipticals are too big to hold them so I couldn't take any water during my time on there.  I built up a huge thirst and so gulped a lot as soon as I finished.  In fact I found myself gulping cups of water rather than sipping like I would do from the bottle and eventually I had a belly full of water that wouldn't budge.  This meant that I couldn't stomach enough water in the sauna and had to abandon and hit the steam room for the last bit.
 
Peace, out.

JUST THE FACTS!!
Weight: 79.6 Kg

TODAY 
Distance 0 miles
Time  0
Elliptical 1:06 hrs
Kcal  0
Press-ups 0
Swimming 1500 m
Sauna  20 mins

TOTAL
Distance 315.28 miles
Time  54:50:38
Elliptical 4:46 hrs
Kcal  34,388
Press-ups 400
Swimming 10,750 m
Sauna  5:50 mins

FUNDRAISING
The fund is at £481.53. 
If you haven't already donated then take a look at http://www.justgiving.com/pitymyfeet and help the wonderful work of MENCAP.  Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored already. I respect and love you all!!! 

Remember that you can now donate by sending a text to 70070 saying (without quotes) "MIFF70 £5" but replacing the £5 with any amount you wish to donate.  I've tested it to make sure it works and it's EASY EASY EASY!!!  Try it!

Feel free to contact me with any fundraising ideas you have.  You can email me at: miffjacobs@hotmail.com

DONATE
Please remember that I'm inflicting all this pain and misery on myself for a cause greater than just having a good story to tell over a beer. I hope to raise over £9,500 for MENCAP; an amazing charity who help those born with learning difficulties to live a normal life and to enjoy the same opportunities and choices that the rest of us take for granted.

Be an awesome human being today and click on the link below and help make someone's life better.
Thank you.  You really ARE awesome.

http://www.justgiving.com/pitymyfeet

Monday 2nd January 2012 - 75 mins Eliptical training

It's been a great Christmas for fun and time spent with the kids; but as far as my Marathon des Sables training and fundraising is concerned it's been terrible!  The torn calf muscle brought my training to a complete stand-still for over two weeks.  In fact I still cannot run even a single pace on it.  During one false dawn I tried hopping to show my Mum how much better it was and ended up limping for another two days.  With this experience in mind today I decided to eat a full bowl of realism and vowed not to run again until I am confident that it is fully healed.  Even if this takes another two weeks (which would mean a total of a whole month out!!).

However, in spite of this setback I am somehow filled with optimism and energy again.  I think a part of me has decided not to let it beat me and so I'm going to plough on with my training as best I can.  I went to the gym today and learned something very useful.  If I go on an eliptic trainer and keep my heel down on the pad I can use it without putting any strain on my calves whatsoever.  I went today did a 15 minute tester as a warm up and felt no problems at all.  So then I did some core exercises (avoiding the ones that put strain on my calves) and then went back to the eliptical and did a full hour.  I then went downstairs to the pool and swam 50 lengths and spent an age in the sauna and steam room.

And at the end of it all I feel ace!!  It's such a good feeling to be doing 'something' towards my training, even if it won't help with the old 'specificity' thing that I keep reading about.  If I can continue to build aerobic fitness and strengthen my knees and thighs then I will feel like I am making good progress even as I rest my calves.  I suppose it's a risk and maybe I ought to pull out of the event all together but I can't stomach making that decision.  So I'm going to plough on and work as hard as I dare on my training.  I'll also work as hard as I dare on my fundraising and to that end I am going to spend the rest of this evening designing some flyers that I can hand out as I am fundraising.  I intend to spend some days pushing leaflets through doors in the hope of encouraging some people to sponsor me - you never know, one might come through YOUR door!

Peace, out.

JUST THE FACTS!!
Weight: 79.6 Kg

TODAY 
Distance 0 miles
Time  0
Kcal  0
Press-ups 0
Swimming 1250 m
Sauna  1:05 mins

TOTAL
Distance 315.28 miles
Time  54:50:38
Kcal  34,388
Press-ups 400
Swimming 9250 m
Sauna  5:15 mins

FUNDRAISING
The fund is at £481.53. 
If you haven't already donated then take a look at http://www.justgiving.com/pitymyfeet and help the wonderful work of MENCAP.  Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored already. I respect and love you all!!! 

Remember that you can now donate by sending a text to 70070 saying (without quotes) "MIFF70 £5" but replacing the £5 with any amount you wish to donate.  I've tested it to make sure it works and it's EASY EASY EASY!!!  Try it!

Feel free to contact me with any fundraising ideas you have.  You can email me at: miffjacobs@hotmail.com

DONATE
Please remember that I'm inflicting all this pain and misery on myself for a cause greater than just having a good story to tell over a beer. I hope to raise over £9,500 for MENCAP; an amazing charity who help those born with learning difficulties to live a normal life and to enjoy the same opportunities and choices that the rest of us take for granted.

Be an awesome human being today and click on the link below and help make someone's life better.
Thank you.  You really ARE awesome.
http://www.justgiving.com/pitymyfeet