Caught on Film Again!

It seems one of the marshalls at todays 10K race has posted a video on YouTube. I can be seen (briefly) at about 5:00-5:03.

Acceleration = Change in Velocity/Time

Stephen Hawking was once told by his publisher that each equation he included in his book "A Brief History of Time" would halve his sales.

I wonder if the same holds true for blog posts?

This post, titled with a sketchily remembered equation from my GCSE physics, is an amalgamation of my recent running achievements and other developments.

New FiveFingers

After retiring my normal running shoes, all I had remaining were my FiveFingers KSO's and Adidas Kanadia TR4 trail shoes.
The KSO's are good, they got me on the road to minimalist running, but they do have a flaw. They have terrible grip in wet conditions. I've come close to snapping an ankle on occasion! As for the Kanadia's, I don't won to wear them out on the roads. What I needed was a middle way, a hybrid between my KSO's and Kanadia's. Turns out that Vibram have such a thing:

Behold the TrekSport!

The FiveFingers TrekSport is almost identical to the KSO but has tread on the sole to improve grip. The rubber is 1mm thicker than on the KSO so there is a slight reduction in sensation from the ground. In practice, this has not been a major issue. I have run on road, trail and cross country in these and I love them! No nearly broken ankle so far either!

parkrun

Since achieving my first sub-25:00 parkrun the other week, I've continued to make steady progress.
At Braunstone on 4/8/12, I ran a 24:14! That was delightful but paled into insignificance compared to this week's run at Conkers:

Yes, you read that correctly!

23:47!!! God only knows how I managed that! The folks at Conkers parkrun have captured me on film once again, check out my sprint finish:

I'm briefly visible at 8:32-8:34 wearing my blue sleeveless t-shirt.

After recovering from that, I found that Adidas, sponsors of both parkrun and Team GB, were giving every parkrunner a free Team GB replica wristband to celebrate the Olympics.

Not bad for a freebie!

All in all then, not a bad couple of weeks at parkrun! Unfortunately, work gets in the way next week. Although a break to recover and consolidate my gains is probably no bad thing!

Hermitage 10K 2012

Finally, the other day on a whim, I decided to enter a local 10K race. I chose the Hermitage 10K near Coalville.

It was my third 10K race this year and the first I've run in Vibram FiveFingers.

Thanks to all the running I've been doing lately, I managed to achieve my goal of a sub-1 hour race! That's another item I can cross off The List! Unfortunately, due to a glitch, official times won't be posted until at least tomorrow. However, I clocked it with my Garmin at 53:14.2, which (if accurate) betters my previous performance by 14 minutes!

Approaching the finish (Photo credit www.runner-photos.co.uk)

As is customary, I was the recipient of yet another t-shirt, a relatively plain white technical shirt. Should come in useful for training runs.

Next big race is the Great North Run.

My Longest Run

Yesterday, I decided to test myself. I wanted to see how long and far I could run maintaining a pace of ~7min/km.

To my satisfaction, I comfortably managed 10 miles. I continued and found I was starting to stiffen-up by about 12 miles, after which I started having niggling tenderness in my knees and ankles. By 14 miles, I'd slowed down to a walk so I stopped my Garmin watch. I had been running for 2:47:31.

A screenshot from my RunKeeper profile.

I was only 1 mile short of completing the entire circuit of Rutland Water at a running pace! Just over a year ago, walking that route almost finished me! It's almost unbelievable to me how much improvement there has been in my fitness and stamina over just 9 months.

I'm glad I ran the circuit yesterday. I've proven to myself that I can cover the distance required for the Great North Run. I now have 47 days to get just a little stronger. I'm sure yesterday's run will have helped no end!

Sub-25:00 5K ≠ Impossible [UPDATED]

A momentous day!

I have finally, after 8 months & 23 days of parkrunning, crossed the 25:00 barrier!

Not quite a true reflection of my performance!

At the end, I forced myself to sprint up the hill to the finish line, at which point I promptly fell into a heap on the cool grass. A number of seconds passed as my heart rate fell. I sat up, looked at my Garmin and was horrified. I'd forgotten to stop the timer!!! When I pushed the start/stop button, it read 24:58.66.

How long had I been laying on the grass? At most, I reckoned thirty seconds. I had no choice but to await the official results. The only certainty was that I had succeeded in running a sub-25:00 5K!

Then it came:

Lies!!!

Not possible. I started my timer exactly when the race started, I was late stopping it by several seconds. I beat 25:00! This was only the second time the volunteer at the finish line has been in charge of timing. My best explanation for the discrepancy is that the timer was started several seconds before the race start was actually announced.

I'm claiming today as having achieved my goal of a sub-25:00 5K because I know that is what I did today.

I will erase all doubt at my next parkrun!

UPDATE 29/7/12:


Vindication! The glitch was noticed and rectified. New official time = 24:28!!

Grabbed off the parkrun website

With Regret... You're Fired!

I decided to take up running in October 2010. I got a couch to 5k plan, I bought some gear including a pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10 shoes.

My faithful Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10's

On my first run-walk session, I made the classic mistake of sprinting instead of running, hence running myself into the ground. That experience led to all my gear being consigned to the bottom of my wardrobe for 12 months.

Then in October 2011, I joined the beginner's sessions hosted by my local running club, saw the error of my ways and became a runner. My Brooks have taken me from run-walking to running, through ten parkruns and a 10K.

Here enters the influence of a book. Specifically 'Born to Run' by Chris McDougall. I dabbled in trail running and minimalist running in Vibram FiveFingers (VFF's). I entered a trail race and bought some Adidas Kanadia TR4 trail shoes. Recently, I've been doing more trail running than road running while gradually increasing my mileage in my VFF's.

There is a fundamental difference between my Kanadia's, VFF's and Adrenaline's. The Adrenaline's are 'stability' shoes with padding designed to eliminate unstable motion as the foot lands. Neither the Kanadia's nor the VFF's have this. So, as I've grown used to the trail and 'barefoot' shoes, my gait has subtly changed.

I first noticed this on a jaunt around the town bypass a couple of weeks ago. Toward the last 1/3 of the loop, my legs started to hurt and I felt myself fighting the shoes. The Adrenaline's were trying to force my feet to land in a way that had become unnatural for me. Instinctively, my legs tried to override this effect causing an ache in my ankles, shins and knees.

As an experiment, this morning I did the same run in my VFF's. No pain was experienced at all (although, as this was my longest ever run in VFF's, I felt the onset of blisters at the base of my big toes). Also, I was over a minute faster.

A screenshot of my bypass run data. The far left is in VFF's, the rest were in Adrenaline's.

So, today with regret, I've made the difficult decision to retire my trusty old Adrenaline's. It has become clear that they no longer suit the running style I've grown into. Minimalist footwear is the way forward for me.

I'm grateful to the Adrenaline's for getting me through my first hundred miles and establishing 'The Running Bug' in me for many years to come.

My Second 'Barefoot' parkrun

Proof I was there in my VFF's!

Following the other week's cancellation, I've finally done a 'barefoot' Braunstone parkrun, my 'home' parkrun.

At Braunstone, the route is mostly on a tarmac path, except for part of the midway hill which is a dirt track. As such, it was a little less forgiving to the feet than the soft, muddy, dirt trail at Conkers.

Despite this, I managed to run quite comfortably keeping the late Caballo Blanco's mantra of "Easy, Light, Smooth, Fast" in mind.

Another PB! 25:04.84 according to my Garmin!!

I was elated at the end to look to my GPS watch to see a time of 25:04.84! That's 2:09 faster than my previous best at Braunstone and 27s faster than my effort at Conkers the other week!

I was even more elated when my official time was posted, exactly matching my own estimate!

A screenshot showing my official time.

There is no doubt in my mind now that I'm significantly faster in my VFF's. Now, only a mere 4 seconds off crossing another goal off The List!

Me approaching the finish line. (Something very odd happened to my hair along the way!)

Caught on Film

It appears my antics, and those of my fellow parkrunners, have been posted to YouTube for all eternity!

Outward Bound

I appear about 25 seconds in. I'm towards the left of the frame wearing a red t-shirt, holding a blue water bottle.

Return Leg

I'm right at the start of this one.

My First 'Barefoot' parkrun.

As promised, today I ran my first parkrun in Vibram FifeFingers (VFF's) 'barefoot' shoes.

Unfortunately, due to flooding after Friday's monsoon conditions, my usual parkrun at Braunstone Park was cancelled.

Instead of backing out of the challenge, I decided to visit one of the other parkrun venues within a 50 mile radius of my home. I chose Conkers parkrun because they insisted on their Facebook page that they would run. This is the first time I've visited another parkrun venue and I must say Conkers was very well-run and welcoming indeed.

So, how did I get on?

Before the race, a couple of runners commented on my VFF's. They were genuinely curious. Certainly a conversation starter which was good for me being billy-no-mates at a new venue!

The conditions were, in a word, muddy!

The state of my feet after the race. Fortunately, VFF's are washable!!

Despite having to leap over/run though/slalom around puddles, I felt good. When I turned the first corner, I was somewhat apprehensive about the hill I was faced with as I hadn't tackled significant inclines in VFF's before. I needn't have worried, the hill was surprisingly easy.

I've decided that my theory about wasting energy compressing padding in normal shoes must be right as the whole course felt significantly easier.

I didn't go out today chasing a PB. My aim was to be careful as the course was unfamiliar to me and this would be the furthest I'd ran in one go wearing VFF's.

So, the outcome?...

Fastest ever parkrun!

I clocked my time at 25:32. My official time was 25:31, 36th out of a field of 86. By far my fastest ever parkrun, 1:42 faster than my previous best! 

I felt strong at the end, so much so that I reckon had I been less conservative at the start (owing to an unfamiliar course) and hadn't had to weave around puddles, I'd have been several seconds faster. That sub-25:00 time is looking much more achievable!

My feet felt fine afterwards, no aches or pains at all. I have decided that all my future parkruns will be in VFF's. Also, I'll try out some of the other parkrun venues to add variety as my experience today was very positive.

Proof I've Not Been Totally Idle

I may not have been blogging or tackling those 30 Day Challenges, but I've not been completely idle.

As proof, I offer this photo of my race number and finishers t-shirt from the Wymeswold Waddle 2012 which I ran on May 13th.

It was a 5 mile road race, 2.5 uphill and 2.5 down. Downhill was more fun! My official time was 51:48.

For my next trick, I intend to run parkrun in my Vibram FiveFingers on Saturday. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

I fell off the wagon.

I allowed work to get in my way.

I abandoned my 30 Day Challenges.

I'm sorry :-(

I guess I got carried away and took on far too much too quickly. I'll revisit the 30 Day Challenges in the future but right now, I've got to focus on the challenges that are of greatest importance to me.

To that end, I'm going to focus on a running goal from The List.

In honour of the blog's title, the goal I've chosen to tackle is: "Log a cumulative mileage of > the circumference of Earth". The world will then indeed be mine!
According to Dailymile, I'm only 1/153th of the way there so I better step it up!

Another Day, Another 10k, Another T-Shirt

I ran the race and I have the T-Shirt to prove it!!

Today I ran Leicester's Big 10k 2012. It was a sunny morning, not much wind and a reasonably flat course. I finished 431st out of a field of 509 runners in 1:07:18.

Powering towards the finish line

Not too bad. Still, I think I could do better. My training over the past 4 weeks has suffered to be honest. I allowed work to get the better of me once again.

Must regain my momentum. Onwards to a new challenge!...

Great North Run 2012

Today I received word that I have a place in this years Great North Run!

This is the most iconic half-marathon in the country. Not a bad choice for my first.
So its off to Newcastle and South Shields for me come September. May God have mercy on my soul!!

State of February's 30-Day Challenge (Week 1)

This challenge did not start well. First, I forgot to charge the battery for my DSLR camera so all of the pictures were taken with my iPhone. Also, I missed 3 days because life got in the way.

Below is a map showing the locations where a photo was taken this week.

View Photography 30-Day Challenge 2012 (Week 1) in a larger map

I will endeavour to do better and catch up next week.

My Thoughts on Competition

Tug of War (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Today I want to share my thoughts on competition.

I am no stranger to competition. To get my place in medical school, I had to fight off (on average) nine other candidates. To get my current job, I had to fight off almost twenty other candidates (it took me two attempts to secure that job by the way). What may surprise you is that I dislike competition.

As you can see from my Challenges page, I'm contemplating doing a Tough Mudder event. (Yes, I am slightly mad!) What I find refreshing about it is that it's not a race. In fact, some of the obstacles are insurmountable without help. They believe collaboration is superior to competition, a belief I agree with.

A lot of people don't try things principally because they don't think they can compete. They say to themselves that they can't possibly be the best so why bother? If you step back a moment and think about it, it's crazy. If I felt that way about running, I'd never run. I definitely can't run 5km in 15 minutes like some of my fellow parkrunners! I still run. That's because I don't gauge my results relative to the elite runners. I gauge my results against my own previous performances. Yes, I want to improve and see how good I can be but I don't need to be the very best.

The only person worth competing against is yourself. You might not be the smartest, strongest, fastest person in the world but in your group you're bound to be the best at something.

I think it all goes back to our society's fear of failure. Being last is not a failure if you complete the course. The only true failure is never trying. Don't let competition stop you.

Work-Life Balance

Today, I'd like to share a TED talk I came across relating to work-life balance:

My favourite points:

• "I'd like all of you to pause for a moment, you wretched weaklings, and take stock of your miserable existence".
• "And the reality of the society that we're in is there are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like".
• "It's up to us as individuals to take control and responsibility for the type of lives that we want to lead".
• "Because commercial companies are inherently designed to get as much out of you as they can get away with".
• "You can't do it all in one day. We need to elongate the time frame upon which we judge the balance in our life".
• "With the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your relationships and the quality of your life".
• "We can change society's definition of success away from the moronically simplistic notion that the person with the most money when he dies wins, to a more thoughtful and balanced definition of what a life well-lived looks like".

Wise words indeed.

My Thoughts on Choice

"You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your ben and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

Yesterday, I saw"The Adjustment Bureau", a film dealing with choice, the nature of free will, the ripple effect etc. It got me thinking.

Every day we are presented with endless choices. Do I drive to work today or shall I take the train? Will I have a coffee before leaving or skip it and have one later? Do I go for a run or stay in because its cold? Shall I cook for myself or get a Chinese take-away? I could go on...

Many of these decisions we take mindlessly, through habit or reflex. Should this be so? After all, each decision leads to another choice, and another, and another ad infinitum. If we step back a moment and put even a tiny amount of thought behind some of those seemingly tiny choices perhaps, just perhaps, we could influence those things in life that seem inevitable or insurmountable.

For example, I'm a runner. I've made no secret of that but I've only been a 'proper' runner since October 2011 because I'm monumentally lazy if I can get away with it. I read books and running magazines for nearly a year before stepping foot outdoors. It has taken a great deal of conscious effort for me to actually drag myself out beyond my front door to run consistently. I've battled cold weather, wind, my ungodly work schedule and my own laziness to do what has been necessary. Each time I've not felt like getting out for a run, I've had to remind myself of how rubbish I'd feel for letting myself down. I even joined a running club. And the result of all this? I regularly run 3 times a week no matter what my work schedule and I've raced up and down a mountain! If you told me that a year ago I'd have laughed in your face!

It took a surprisingly small amount of effort to achieve this though. I just had to stop and think briefly before choosing to stay inside my warm house. I simply said to myself, 'it'll only be half an hour', 'you'll feel better about yourself afterwards', 'it'll be easier than the last time', 'you'll soon warm yourself up' etc. Then off I would go.

What's my point? Well, my point is that often we do know how the ripples of our decisions will play out but we simply ignore it. I knew if I didn't go out for that run, the next one would be even harder to do, I'd be down on myself, I'd eat crap and eventually just give up.

At the end of the day, all we have are our choices. We have total control over the decisions we make. We can predict the impact our decisions will have on our lives. We just have to think before we choose.

My 2nd (and 3rd) Miles in Vibram FiveFingers

In future I may avoid using VFF's in freezing temperatures!!

Tonight was my second run in my Vibram FiveFingers KSO's. This time I pushed on extra kilometre. Here are my thoughts:

1. The ankles are getting stronger.
Last week, I felt my ankles were being strained stabilising my feet without the support of my normal running shoes. Tonight, they seemed to know what to do and only now, a couple of hours later, do my ankle muscles feel worked. It's the pleasant discomfort of a muscle worked-out as opposed to the agony of injury. (My shins are a little sore but that is mainly left over from a hill session with my running club on Tuesday).

2. I'm liking the extra awareness of the running surface.
To work in an extra kilometre, I detoured down a new road with some construction rubble strewn over it and a muddy patch of earth. You can instantly detect the change in terrain and the feet seem to reposition themselves of their own free will. I wonder if the same would be true for those times you catch your foot unexpectedly on a patch of mud or slush?

3. I continue to get faster.

Behold, RunKeeper's analysis of my run. My fastest average pace ever 

apparently.

Compared to last week, RunKeeper says I'm 7 seconds/km faster. I can't say with certainty the VFF's are making the difference because I've not done an easy run in my normal shoes yet to compare. However, based on my thought last week about the possibility of energy being wasted in compressing cushioning, I wouldn't be surprised if they were. Alternatively it could just be me getting fitter. We'll see.

4. You definitely know how your foot is landing.
Linked to more awareness of the road surface, is greater awareness of your foot position relative to the ground. In the VFF's I know I'm landing on my forefoot and pronating far less than I do in shoes. In my normal shoes I have no idea what my foot is doing.

5. VFF's may be a poor choice in cold weather.
It was zero Celsius outside tonight. When I got home, I couldn't feel my toes. Enough said.

Next week I'll try 4km (hopefully in warmer weather!). If that goes OK it'll be time to try a parkrun in the VFF's.

My First Mile in Vibram FiveFingers

Me in my Vibrams after running just over 2km

This evening, I ran just over a mile (2.24km to be precise) in my Vibram FiveFingers (VFF's). Here are my impressions.

1. I became immediately lighter on my feet.
This was not surprising given I knew there would be zero cushioning between me and the ground. What did surprise me though was I had less of a tendency to bounce up and down.

2. My average pace increased.
I was surprised by this. It definitely seemed to me like I was moving faster even though I was deliberately trying to go easy. Runkeeper confirmed that this particular run was the one with my fastest ever average pace of 5:35/km.  My guess is that energy that is normally wasted compressing normal shoe cushioning and bouncing around was more efficiently channelled into moving me forwards.

3. I was more aware of the road surface.
Despite the several millimetres of rubber between my foot and the ground, I was much more aware of the road surface than I imagined I would be. When I ran over a twig, I certainly knew about it! Even though I've run that stretch of road dozens of times, I was shocked to discover a dip in the road I'd never noticed before. It was only slight but felt like a chasm. Perhaps it had been absorbed by the cushioning in my ordinary shoes?

4. My ankles seemed to be working harder to stabilise my feet.
I was expecting to feel some new strains but the ankle was not where I thought they'd be. Vibrams provide no ankle support whatsoever. Therefore, the surrounding muscles were forced to hold my feet in the proper position. I was expecting strain on the heel, toes or the foot muscles. My Brooks GTS Adrenalines must provide more ankle support than I realised! I'll have to allow my ankles to strengthen before logging serious mileage in the Vibrams.

5. (Update 27/1/12) My core was more engaged.
I only realised this morning that my core was probably more engaged than usual during last nights run owing to a mild abdominal tightness when I woke up! Not sure if this is related to the Vibrams or if it's just a gradual improvement in my running form with greater experience. Thought I'd mention it though.

Those were my first thoughts. Next week I'll see if I can add another kilometre to the distance and see how I get on.

Learning a New Language

Today I was invited into the Duolingo private beta. I can now crack on with a couple of the intellectual goals from The List. Today I start to learn German!

For more info, see the videos below:

The TED talk that brought Duolingo to my attention.

A more succinct description (for those short on time).

My First 10K (And My First Trail Race)

Me approaching a checkpoint. South Stack lighthouse visible in the background. The wind almost tore off my race number from my leg!

Today I completed my very first 10K race. It was also my very first trail race!

It involved dragging my backside up to the highest point of the island I grew up on. To say it was hard work would be an understatement! The climbs were steep, so steep even the serious fell-runners power-walked up them! The downhills were treacherous to say the least with loose rocks, mud, exposed roots, etc. And the wind. My God, the wind! I got properly sandblasted by the spray from the Irish Sea as well as nearly blown off my feet on occasion. To get a sense of it take a look at this screenshot from my RunKeeper page:

My actual time was 1:45:21 (I forgot to deactivate the auto pause feature!) 

The views though were spectacular! I lived on Anglesey for 18 years and never ventured up Holyhead Mountain before. It goes to show how little some of us know about our immediate surroundings. Certainly food for thought.

My finishing time was 1:45:21. I'm happy with that given that 2/3 of the course had me climbing from sea level to nearly 200m and that I had to seriously apply the brakes on many of the downhills! Not sure of my overall position, I'll learn that on Monday when all the results are collated. Do I care?...

Not especially, I'm just glad to have completed it!

My finishing time

All the commemorative paraphernalia, my race number, a red wristband, the slip with my time, a commemorative dog-tag and I even got the t-shirt!

My finisher's dog-tag

As arduous as I've made it sound, it was certainly good fun! Would I do it again?...

In a heartbeat!

Update 23/1/12 17:56:
The official results are in. I was 129th out of 146 runners.

30 Day Challenges

I've drawn a measure of inspiration from this video:

In addition to any other challenge I set myself, I've decided I'll do eleven 30 day challenges, one each month for the remainder of this year.

February
Take one photo every day. [FAILED]

March
Try the paleo diet for a month. (See Steve Kamb's Nerd Fitness article on the subject). [FAILED]

April
Do 15 minutes of yoga every day throughout April (I'll be using Wii Fit Plus for this one). [FAILED]

May
Walk 10,000 steps every day throughout May. (I'll track this with my FitBit). [FAILED]

June
Drink eight 375ml glasses of water every day in June. [FAILED]

July
Get up no later than 06:00 every day in July (except when on night shifts). [FAILED]

August
Practice piano for half an hour every day. (Using Garageband lessons). [ABANDONED]

September
Avoid buying lunch throughout September. [ABANDONED]

October
Avoid coffee throughout October. (This one will certainly be difficult for me). [ABANDONED]

November
Write a 50,000 word novel as part of nanowrimo. The daily target is 1,667 words. All I need now is an idea and an outline but I've got ten months to figure that out! [ABANDONED]

December
TBD [ABANDONED]

I'll post progress reports for each month's challenge. If I find any of the habits beneficial, I'll keep them up. I'm also open to suggestions for future 30 day challenges.


UPDATE: I've abandoned my 30 Day Challenges. See the July 3rd post.

My Thoughts on Fear

Has fear ever stopped you from doing something you wanted?

I regret to say that several times in the past, I've allowed fear to paralyse me. Recently I've been thinking about fear and I want to share my conclusions.

What is fear for?


The one thing every animal on earth understands is fear. It is fundamental to our survival. It allows us to recognise threats. When it strikes, there are only two things you're able to do. Fight, or flee.

If fear is so great, what's the problem?


The main problem with fear, is that sometimes, fear lies. Sometimes it tells us that we are in danger when in fact no real danger exists.

Fear is learned.


One thing that's interesting about fear is that we're born fearless. I once saw a BBC documentary about phobias. In it, they put a baby in a room with a python. The baby, instead of being scared, tried to grab and eat the python. Only when the baby's mother reacted to the python with fear did the baby show any sign of apprehension.

We learn other fears too. Most insidious of all the fears we learn is the fear of failure. Ironically, we learn this fear from school. We learn that we must always give the right answer, that mistakes are bad, that we must never, ever fail.

Its this fear of failure that seeps into our souls and crops up whenever we face the unfamiliar. As with all fears, all that can be done when it strikes is to either fight or flee. Too often, we flee.

To illustrate how daft the fear of failure is, I give the example of a baby learning to walk.

When a baby learns to walk, they're not very steady, wobble around, trip over their own feet and fall down more often than not. This is good, because each stumble teaches the baby what not to do. Next time they get up they're a little less wobbly and walk a little further. They learn from every fall.

Imagine if the baby was scared of falling. He now has two options. Try to walk (fight), or stick to crawling (flee). Falling would petty much be inevitable so which option do you think the baby would choose?... That baby would never ever walk.

Daft, isn't it?

Reviewing The List

I've spent the morning planning how I might make progress on achieving some of the goals on my list in 2012.

Some I will tackle in due time. For example, in under 2 weeks I'll be running a 10k trail race. I've also applied for a place in the Great North Run in September which, if I'm accepted, takes care of the half-marathon goal.

Others will take some plotting.

Money is a little tight at present so until I learn to travel hack, my global exploration will have to wait.

A simple one to get started on is my barefoot running goal. Chris McDougall makes a good case for it in his book 'Born to Run'. I've even invested in a pair of Vibram FiveFingers!

My VFF KSO'S

I hereby resolve to do one training run per week in my Vibram's. Eventually, once my feet have toughened-up, I'll do a parkrun in them then who knows?...

Imagine my surprise when, this very afternoon, I found an opportunity to complete one of my 'Beyond Insane' goals. When I was walking home from the coffee shop, I saw a van advertising a SCUBA diving school not 3 miles away from my home! I've looked at their website and found that they offer a taster session as well as a reasonably-priced certification course. I might make this a gift to myself after payday in a couple of weeks!!

Finally, I'll try to dig out the photographic & video proof of my two completed 'Beyond Insane' goals from my parents attic when I'm next there.

Update 23/1/12 18:57
Photographic and video proof of my skydive and bungy jump can be found on my 'Achievements' page.

2011: A Year in Review

Happy New Year!

2012 is upon us so the time has come to reflect on 2011 and look forward to the year ahead.

Travel

(Red = Planes, Green = Trains, Blue = Automobiles)
View 2011 - Year in Travel in a larger map

Iceland

In February, I visited Iceland with my schoolmate Dan. Our mission, to see and photograph the aurora borealis.

We succeeded:

Aurora Borealis over Hella, Iceland. February 2011

Our first night it was raining and on the third night there was a blizzard. Conditions on the second night, as you can see, were perfect!

It was an amazing sight. The lights seem to build up gradually and appear to come up from the ground rather than descend from above as I would have expected. When they first appeared, I thought I was imagining things, it was that subtle. Eventually they built up to the impressive sight I've managed to catch on film. 

I prepared in advance by studying advice on websites written by aurora photographers. Still, it took me several attempts to get a decent photograph. I had to take a 30 second exposure with my DSLR to get this picture.

In the daytime, we explored south west Iceland. Here are some of the highlights:

Strokkur Geyser, Geysir, Iceland. February 2011

Me, wrapped up warm in front of Gullfoss, a spectacular waterfall

The black sand beach at Vik

Florence, Italy

In May, I caught up with Toby, another old schoolfriend of mine who returned from a 2 year contract in the Cayman Islands. He settled in London but I have an irrational dislike of London so we decided to visit Florence for a weekend instead. The highlights:

Me (failing to smile because I dislike posing for photos), beside the river Arno in front of the Ponte Vecchio

A glimpse of the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore

United Kingdom

2011 had me traipsing up and down the country as usual. The usual meeting friends, family, sitting exams, going to work...

Health & Fitness


2011 saw me make strides in this area of my life also. As I mentioned previously, work over my first year in the East Midlands almost killed me. I didn't have 6kg to lose!! So, I took steps. I bought a Withings WiScale to track my weight and resolved to eat better. Progress was made, and I've even exceeded my baseline weight of 69kg! Proof below:

My weight since April 2011

I also took up running. For support, I joined my local running club (Rutland Running & Triathlon Club). With their help I went from wheezing my way through a few hundred metres to being able to run 30+ minutes comfortably. An old uni friend of mine, Drew, introduced me to parkrun in late October. Its a free, timed 5k run every Saturday held in parks all over the country. My first couple of efforts were less-than-stellar. I stuck at it and managed 5 parkruns in late 2011 each time bettering my previous performances.

Me setting a parkrun 5Km PB in November

In April, as well as my scale, I bought a FitBit pedometer to track my steps. I remembered to wear it more often than not. By September, I'd walked 750 miles with it!

My 750 mile FitBit badge!

Finally, in September, I bought a bike. I was inspired in part by my new bosses who are all keen cyclists and do long-distance charity rides every summer and my mate Drew's triathlon preparations. Also, I live in an area with ample cycle routes so it felt right to get back into cycling. Having tried a dozen bikes in the local bike shop, I opted for the Giant Defy 4.

My shiny new bike!

It goes scarily fast and I'm still getting used to the clipless pedals and cycle shoes! There's a local cycling club that I plan to join in the springtime of 2012 when my schedule thins out a little. I've also planned to try a sprint triathlon in August.

Work

Work was OK in 2011. Got promoted in August. Made sure to take all the leave I was entitled to so I didn't burn out like in 2009-10!! Passed an important exam in February, failed another in September. That's all I'll say about work.

Life

Thanks to the running club, I now know more local people. I've let go of a lot of old baggage this year and my uni friends were surprised by my energy when I met up with them in Glasgow! I'm healthier than I've ever been in my life before! Definite progress.

When 2010 ended, I was on a downer. At the end of 2011, I'm on a high and can't wait to challenge myself in 2012. I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, they just don't stick. Instead, I'm going to try to build on my momentum and see where it takes me.

2012, bring it on!!