DMs

I did actually attempt a run in my 8-hole boots, when I knew I was doing the marathon but before I picked up the trainers. It was ill advised. However, I did win on one aspect - a seven year old girl who I passed buying ice cream said that she liked my shoes.

These are not good for running in.

Rainy Sundays and The buying of equipment pts 1 & 2

I still maintain that playing Prince of Persia for two hours in my pyjamas counts as training. I mean, he does loads of running around and jumping between rooftops and stuff and it was raining. That said, I did make it out for about half an hour, in a slight detour that dumped me at the bottom of the steep end of the valley, just by Moulsecoomb station, so I ended up just walking back up that, just as it started to rain again. It was annoying, because I had planned to repeat and improve on my run from last Sunday but what with the rain and a general lack of motivation that I've been suffering from all week (not just on the running front - I haven't had the desire to do anything much) it didn't really happen. I know that it'll pass, and I just have to wait for my energy to come back a bit, but even that knowledge doesn't always help when you're in the middle of it.

What I did manage to do this weekend was make it to the army surplus store at Preston Circus to buy some t-shirts and vests to train in. Paul Bruton's is seriously the best army surplus store I think I've come across, beating even the one at Greenwich Market that I used to go to as a teenager. I had meant to head there when I got first started training but I left my debit card on my desk at home and didn't realise until I was already at London road. What followed was a fairly miserable trudge into town, ending up at Sports Soccer staring at huge and unintelligible piles of trainers and racks of identical but slightly different tracksuit trousers. I bought a pair of Puma's in the end - as much as I might want to even I realise that I cant do proper running in my DMs.

Wales

I'm back from Wales, then, where I didn't run along Portmeirion beach. This was to be expected, as it was cold, starting to rain and I had to drive back to the cottage we were staying in.

The Smell of Rain- Looking down on Portmerion Beach.

I did try and run every day though, in the area around the cottage - which was basically about half a mile of hill and nowhere else to go. I swear I got less fit over the course of the week as well, as the first day I did it not easily, but at least without feeling like collapsing. By Friday I could hardly make it up at all, but it must have been worth it. On Sunday (after driving back to Brighton through the sort of storms you normally only get in Horror films about malevolent fogs) I managed to run a good four miles or so without stopping to walk. Success!

The view from the hill which I ran up almost every morning.

Upon Portmeirion Shores

Another shortish run this morning, mainly because I now have to get ready to drive for six hours to Snowdonia for my long awaited holiday in Wales, home-ish of the criminally underrated Hecate Enthroned, the supposed birthplace of Merlin, and also proud supplier of numerous desolate beaches as used on BBC location shoots. As we are staying in the North we'll be unfortunately too far away from Southerndown Beach, or Bad Wolf Bay as it is in Dr Who, but we will be close to Portmeirion, which was used in The Prisoner.  I shall return in a week or so with pictures.

The Golfcourse by Moonlight part 2

I went out this evening again, around six when I was just in from work. The moon loomed a lot lower tonight making the whole place much darker, and there were lots of small animals skittering in the shadows. I've been running up on the hill at Hollingbury, out on the path overlooking 'Scoombe valley until this small round pool in a strangely lonely ring of trees just before a really steep drop onto the playing fields. I came back over the golf course, but due to the darkness managed to get lost. 

Lost. On a golf course. That's seriously one of my nightmares. Right there.

The Golfcourse by Moonlight

Feeling a bit better this evening, and what with the full moon making it rather atmospheric (and not treacherously dark) I managed to get back into the swing of things with a short run (15-20 mins or something). Woo!

Training blip

My plan was to post fairly regular updates on my training. You know, how far I've been running, how long and so on. It's a plan that I still nurture, but that will have to wait a while, as I am still feeling just a bit ill, making any running about probably counterproductive.

The thing is, I was actually very good in the last few weeks - either running or swimming five days out of seven for two weeks until the tendrils of winter caught up with me and laid me low with, I'm not even sure what. Something grotty enough to keep me weak, but not grotty enough to get me off work, kind of like a constant hangover.

In any case, I shall make a short note of my plan for the next month or so, which is based around building up my stamina on the hills around where I live. That's it really, actually. I'm going to run at least three days a week, and swim two days. I already have been swimming for about an hour once a week with my girlfriend, and we've been meaning to up that to twice a week anyway - so this looks like a great chance to make that happen. And maybe I should do some more running too.

I Bid You...Welcome (etc.)

So, I said that I'd run a marathon. Among the really clever things that I've done in my life this ranks pretty low, but its not at the bottom; I used to play rugby.

The marathon in question is the inaugural Brighton Marathon, in 2010. Now, as far as I'm concerned 2010 is the future, which maybe made my initial decision seem less daunting when I made it. Of course 2010 was actually only two and a half months away when I decided to do this, and may even be here by the time you are reading this. I have, at the time of writing, just under six months to get myself up to scratch, so it's a good thing I've already started then, isn't it? This is going to be fun.

Regardless, I think doing this is going to be really worthwhile. I'm running on behalf of a Brighton charity, Leo House at Home. I like this, not just because I think that Leo House do awesome work, which they do, but because they do that work here in Brighton, where I live, so it all ties together - I'll be supporting people in Brighton by running around Brighton. A lot.

As for me: for those who don't know me my name is Amsel and I'm a bit of a goth (I'm also a bit of a metaller, but don't tell the other goths that). I'm running this training blog so that you can find out trivial details like how well I'm doing as well as important information about how my hair dye is holding up, but you can go and donate at my JustGiving page too. Do it now. It'll be great.