Chapter 15 - In Which the Lard-Ass Writes Again

So, I haven't written anything now since January. I'd like to say that this is down to me being busy becoming some sort of chiselled Adonis, but that would be a lie and I have no interest in having my pants catch fire. I haven't been completely inactive, and in fact for the first time in my adult life have taken part in organised events which resulted in medals being awarded to me. Unlike in the previous blogs, my focus for getting into shape shifted from running to cycling, which is frankly a lot easier. I still like the idea of taking up running and it's not something I've given up on but at the same time, it's also not something I've actually done any of. In all honesty, in the last two months I've not actually done anything. Readers of previous entries should be unsurprised by this statement. I think I laid out my lazy credentials early.

'So what did you do this year?', you are no doubt asking. Well let me show you...

First up in June was the Rob Roy Challenge. This is a splendid jaunt through the Scottish countryside combining both walking (or running if you're one of those fit people) and cycling for a combined 55 miles across the full course (gold level) from Drymen to Kenmore. The eagle eyed will spot that my medal is in fact not gold, but silver. Silver is awarded for completing the 16 miles on foot first section and the first 22 mile segment of cycling for a total of 38 miles of self powered torture adventure. Have a look at the link for more details. It's very well organised and run for charity, plus 2015 is the 10th anniversary so have a look if it seems like something you fancy a crack at.

Next up, is the Pedal for Scotland event, another brilliantly organised jaunt through the countryside. This time there's no walking or running or any of that malarkey, just a straight up cycle. The clue's in the name really. This consists of getting into Glasgow at an ungodly hour with a bicycle, then setting off with a steely determination towards Edinburgh, for what turned out to be an absolutely brilliant day, and something which while technically is categorised as exercise, was very enjoyable. Details of  my efforts can be found here on Strava. Again, can't recommend having a go at this enough to folk.

Linlithgow during Pedal for Scotland

Couple of observations from both these events. Firstly, after both of these I felt fine in a muscular sense. Sure, I was tired, but at no point was I particularly sore. On the Rob Roy, I stopped at silver not due to any issue with muscles but due to feeling wiped. I had absolutely no energy. Looking back on it a couple of days afterwards I was sure this was down basically to not eating properly on the day. No food = no fuel = no energy. This was not something I wanted to repeat on the Pedal for Scotland so I devised a cunning plan... I decided to give energy gels a go. Wiggle (cracking online shop, they give you Haribo) had High 5 race packs on sale prior to the event, so I bought a couple of these to try. On the day I carried a few of the gels and the wee tablets to stick into my water and these combined with a packet of sandwiches at Linlithgow carried me through marvellously. Later that night though, there was a couple of hours where I could not stop shivering and ran a fever and wonder if this was down to massive amounts of caffeine in my system.

Anyway, this is the point at which this peters out with no stunning conclusion or moment of lucid clarity which draws everything above together into a surprising and uplifting finale. Here's a song to distract you so that I can leg it while you look the other way. If you like electronic/industrial/good music in general then you need to check out WVM. You can hear the influences in the music while it's still it's own thing. Highly recommend his stuff, although the last EP may be hard to find now. Check him out here

Chapter 14 - In which our hero finally gets back off his arse

Time flies and such like, eh? Once again after that post about intentions and looking to get back to doing something by way of exercise I stop, take a look around, and realise months have gone by. I'm really not good at this whole self motivation/doing stuff thing. Better late than never though apparently.

So then, as it says in the title, our hero (me, obviously) has finally gotten off his arse and started the Couch to 5K again. It began this morning, with my alarm clock set for an early rise to get up and at it. I then proceeded to sleep through said alarm, and so it's off to a good start as usual. When I did get up, it was no time to be going for a run. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like it would be an actual bad time to do it, but Goals On Sunday was about to start and I had missed Match of the Day, so what could I do? After this, it was almost lunchtime and I had a bunch of housework to do so the run was put off to later in the evening. At this point, old Ally would have put it off to another day, but not this time. Not today. This is all new(ish) Ally. Half five came around and it was time. Podcast was already loaded on my ipod, thermal running tee on, shorts on, shoes on, out the door.

Fuck me, it's cold.

Two minutes out from the house and it started snowing, but that's cool. I'm invincible and possessed of a steely determination. Honest. Well, maybe not, but I was feeling OK so kept going. If you've done the C2-5K before you know how it goes: walk a bit, run a bit, walk a bit, run a bit, etc. You know what, after the first couple of runny bits, I was feeling good. Maybe I wasn't as out of shape as I'd believed.  Ha. That type of judgement is best left to the end, and at that point I realised I was exactly as out of shape as I had suspected. My physical ability, combined with the remnants of a bad cold from over New Year meant that while I maybe wasn't quite breathing out my arse by the end, at the same time it wasn't a cake walk either.

So what did I learn? I learned I'm out of shape - no surprise there really, and the whole point of this is to improve on that, so not exactly something learned. More like something already known reinforced.