Longest Run to date

Yesterday I attempted my longest run to date, 18 Miles. It was tough but I managed to get through it. I was aiming for a ten minute mile pace so was pleased to see that I was pretty much on target.

It was an incredibly windy day and running out into the countryside meant that I was dodging falling branches but it was good to explore some areas that I hadn’t been out to before. 

 

Next weekend I have a 20 mile run planned which is going to be painful so this weeks training will be fairly light with a bit of speed work (which I hate but is a necessary evil!)

Back to work

Work has got in the way a bit this week. Coming back from the Christmas break to a pile of work has left me tired and not given me the time to fuel myself properly.

I managed to get out for a ten mile run on Tuesday, my aim was five miles slow and then five miles quick but was struggling so kept all ten miles at a slow pace.

Tonight I did a three mile run and really tried to push it for the last mile but only managed a 8.13 mile which was disappointing as I thought I could go lower. I have an eighteen mile run on Saturday planned. Its my longest distance yet so I need to make sure I’m suitably rested and carb loaded up.

The one positive was going to the doctors before my run this evening to get a medical certificate signed off to allow me to run in Paris. The doctor wanted to do a checkup before signing the form and I was really pleased to get a healthy report. Excellent blood pressure and she said I didn’t look overweight so nothing to worry about there despite feeling particularly fat at 12 stone 4 pound.

Off to eat some pasta

Winter is here

Yesterday was cold, I opened my curtains to ice and fog and I put all thoughts of going for an early run out of my mind as I went back to bed.

By 11.30 some of the ice had melted but the fog was still there. After delaying my run and checking the weather multiple times I finally put on my hat and gloves and headed out the door.

My plan was a twelve mile run at around the pace I want to run the marathon (9.09 min/mile) giving me a chance to judge my fitness after the excess food at Christmas and despite the cold and icy conditions I managed an average of around 9.03.

My half marathon best from September was  8.20 mins/mile so I knew this was doable but I had put on a lot of weight since then so wasn’t sure how I would get on. In the end it was a comfortable run but was chilled to the bone by the end.

 

I will blog about my marathon plan and the time I am hoping for another time but I’m looking to get a long run of 22 miles in and a run of 17 miles at marathon pace so with my 12 yesterday and my 16 mile slow run last week I’m feeling pretty happy with my training

Rest day

Today is a rest day so I have no running updates but wanted to blog about my weight loss. Today my weight was 12 stone 5lbs so a bit lower than yesterday. I figure if I put these on the internet I will be more likely to try and get this figure down!

My blog is about a fatty running but my profile pic isn’t me looking that fat so I have put up two photos a before and after photo. The before was taken a few years before I started losing weight. I dont know how heavy I was but maybe 17 stone. I went up to 18 stone but nobody was allowed to keep photos of me at that point so there are no photos of me at my biggest (that I am aware of anyway!). The after photo is me in September so probably about 11 stone 10lbs, a bit lighter then now and was the scene of my best half marathon so definitely a good weight for me.

Running was a big factor in me losing weight but it really helped that I counted my calories and used an app for my smart phone called myfitnesspal. Without counting my calories I don’t think I could have done as well as I did even with running. It helped me make smarter food choices. I mean I could have eaten a chocolate bar but that would have left me with little calories to chose from so I ate something else instead. It helped me with portion control and in the first year of using it I went from 18 stone to 13 stone. Every time I saw someone they would comment on my weight loss and  that kept spurring me on to lose more. The weight loss did slow down and so did the comments and I only lost a stone the following year and then this year gone I managed to loss another half stone before unfortunately putting some of it back on.

I’m off for a healthy lunch with lots of fruit now but I’ll leave you with an anecdote from a meeting I had at work last month. There were a lot of people in the meeting so we all did introductions, after I introduced myself to the room one of my colleagues from the library commented that they thought they were meeting a different Matt and hadn’t met me before. I assured them that they had met me before and it seemed odd that they didn’t recognize me.

Suspiciously one of them replied ‘yeah but the Matt we thought we were meeting was a big guy?’.

That’s me I responded.

The reply came ‘no he is a really big guy’.

Still me!

Now I’ve met them a few times before but the last few years I have mainly communicated with them over the phone or email. It hadn’t occurred to me that there are friends and colleagues that I haven’t seen in years and probably still think of me as the ‘big guy!’ It was a great compliment and a good feeling

This year I will get down to the ten stone target. I’m really focused and have a really good plan and I hope to bump into more people who I haven’t seen for a while and get that great feeling again!

First run of 2015

Yesterday I was hungover, New Years eve was going to be the last time I drank alcohol until April so I made sure I enjoyed myself. When I woke from my drunken slumber I emptied the cupboards from all the snack food so I could make a clean start today. When I say emptied I mean I ate everything that I had left over!

My work decided that they didn’t want to turn the heating on today after everyone had been on leave since Christmas eve so they generously gave us all an extra days holiday allowing me a bit of time to get in my first run of 2015.

I started with weighing myself and I came in at 12 stone 6lbs. A whole 12lbs higher then I was in July. Much bigger than I wanted to be but with all the food and drink over the last few months it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. My target is 10 stone but I’m going to break it into chunks and focus on getting down to 12 stone over the next month.

I set out with the aim of doing eight miles around the 9 minute per mile mark and was pleasantly surprised with my pace as I managed to get quicker as I went on and felt relatively comfortable throughout.

Living in a town in England there are always some great routes and its only a couple of miles before I can find myself in the countryside but I always find myself doing the same routes. One of my goals for this year is to try some new routes so my training doesn’t get boring and also look up every now and then to enjoy my surroundings as its not everyday that you get to run past a castle. I didn’t have my phone/camera on me so this pic is taken from google maps along the route that I run regularly.

Warwick Castle © Google, used with permission

 

My 2015 Goals

So this blog is going to be my general ramblings about my running and my weight and I thought it would be a good idea to start off with my goals for 2015.

• Run a marathon – This one I am on target for with the Paris Marathon on the 12th April. My training is underway and I hope to get round without dying!
• Run a mile in under 7 minutes – I don’t tend to just go out and run a mile but the fastest mile I have done as part of a race or training run is currently 7.38
• Run a 5k in under 25 minutes – I occasionally do a parkrun, but my local one has a really steep hill and Im struggling to get lower than 25.46 but it will hopefully come this year
• Run a 10k in under 50 minutes – Current PB is 51.40, I think I can knock the 101 seconds off I need this year
• Run a half in under 1 hour 45 minutes. Again I’m close with this, my current PB is 1.49.10
• Run 1000 Miles – last year I ran 727 miles, this year I aim to hit 1000 miles
• Get weight to ten stone – This is the tough one, I’m currently on 12 stone 5lbs after a christmas of eating and drinking, my lowest was 11 stone 8lbs  last year so this is my first aim and then hopefully I can focus and hit the magical 10 stone target

Wish me luck!

About Me

I’ve always been the fat kid, never weighed myself and never really bothered with diets or there was always an excuse why I couldn’t diet or exercise. In 2008 I half arsed a 10K in just under 80 minutes and then spent the rest of the day eating so much food that I probably put on weight!

Skip forward to December 2011 and my 29th birthday and it was time I started to lose weight. The excuses were easy, just get through Christmas and New Year and I promised myself that I would try to lose weight. Just like always everyone thought but come the 1st January 2012 I actually started something and I’m still going now

I weighed myself that day and came in at 18 stone, for a 5’6 guy that was big, Johnny Vegas big as a friend(!) once said so it was time to start calorie counting and I downloaded the C25K app and went for my first walk/run. The weight started dropping off and the C25K became easy and the Bridge to 10k started calling.

It was time to attempt a 10K and I chose the same one I walked four years earlier. This time I ran every step and finished in a respectable 1 hour 10. That was the 10K done so the next step was a half marathon, that would be easy based on the improvements I had been making.

Wrong, that was tough, a 2 hours 23 half was ok for a first attempt but it hurt and I knew I could do better. I finished 2012 with another 10K and managed to get under an hour for the first time.

2013 was going to be my year but injuries took over and I only managed two races, a 58 minute 10K and a half marathon PB of 2.12

2013 clearly wasn’t my year but 2014 was. 3 parkruns, 2 10ks and 7 half marathons with PB’s of 25.46, 51.40 and 1.49.10 coupled with getting my weight down to 11 and a half stone meant I was loving running and there was only one thing that could possibly make me fall out of love with running. The big M!

As an Englishman there was only one marathon I wanted to do, London. I put my name in the ballot and waited. During that waiting time I started thinking I needed a plan B and started looking at other races and Paris quickly stood out. After a bit of research my plan B soon became plan A and I was booked up ready to go to France. My London rejection arrived on my doorstep and I wasn’t in the slightest bit disappointed.

After my last half I had a bit of a break, ate a lot of food and drank a lot of booze. I’m now starting my marathon training and trying to get my weight back under control

I’m looking forward to the adventure…