Training this week hasn’t exactly gone to plan. As an asthmatic the only time I seem to suffer badly with it is in the winter when it’s snowing, my chest doesn’t take kindly to cold/wet weather which is sad as I love the snow.
My first run of the week was one of my longish ones which I did from the house as I’m getting very bored of running in the forest, chest was tight but not too bad, the following day it was worse then on Wednesday I headed off to the gym for my first speed session of the week and felt very disappointed with my performance. The old legs could move but the chest couldn’t keep up and certainly wasn’t able to run at the pace I had been doing the previous week – very frustrating. Back to the gym on Thursday to try again – no change.
Usually I don’t have to use my inhaler, its always with me just in case I need it, but this week I have found myself using it up to 5/6 times a day. Yesterday I went and did a lovely short 10k run again from the house, very cold outside but took it very easy and enjoyed being out for a run. Training will have to be “do what I can” and nice and easy until my chest improves. When I get asthma apart from not being able to get air into my lungs my neck gets itchy and I have this annoying cough. To see how it feels to have asthma make a circle with your thumb and middle finger, put it to your mouth and breath through it – easy, now clench your hand together, put it to your mouth and try to breath – see the difference, that’s what it like. (bit like running at low altitude)
On a brighter note I gave a talk at the Tales of Adventure in London organised by Chris Martin. In 2009 Chris Martin (Director of New Ocean Wave) and Mick Dawson became the first team to row across the North Pacific Ocean from Choshi, Japan to San Francisco – WOW!
The event is held once a month in The George on the Strand (very convenient for me coming from Kent!) Chris has lots of amazing people with tales to tell about their various adventures around the world. On Thursday evening the first speaker up was Matthew Traver who told us about his fantastic 200km trip on horseback in Western Mongolia together with some great pictures. Matthew finished his talk off by showing us a video of himself and his partner in crime Jamie Maddison packrafting the Khova River, looked amazing.
There was also a link up with Charlie Pitcher who is currently in La Gomera waiting for the right conditions to set off on his World Record attempt to row 3000 miles from La Gomera, off the northwest coast of Africa to Barbados, where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic, to become the world’s fastest ocean rower, Charlie aims to beat the current Atlantic record of 40 days, 9 hours and 44 minutes set in January 2012. You can track Charlie on his website and send him messages of support. I wish him all the luck in the world with this awesome challenge and if anyone can do it Charlie can.
It was wonderful for me to have the support of friends who turned up to listen to me together with HWMBO! I met some very interesting people who had great tales to tell and one lady who is about to something quite fantastic, a real challenge, but not for me to tell you! When I have a link I will pop it up on the website.
I’m sitting in my kitchen watching the snow beginning to fall which is set to continue for the rest of the day. Tomorrows run will have to be from the garage as I have to drop my car off for its service (could be expensive!) so I will run from there with my yaktraks on to stop me slipping over on the country lanes which won’t have been gritted.
Many races have been cancelled this weekend due to the severe weather conditions which from a safety point of view is the right decision but very disappointing for the competitors. For the last week some extremely tough athletes have been taking part in The Spine Race The race is 268 miles non-stop along the Pennine Way, a brutal and challenge in extreme weather conditions. This year saw Eugeni Roselló Sole dominate the race finishing in 5 days 4hrs 52 minutes followed closely behind by Mick Cooper in 5 days 7 hrs 11 minutes who apparently used only a map and compass for navigation not a GPS, even more impressive. Gregory Crowley finished 3rd in 5 days 12 hrs 13 mins
The other finishers were (in no particular order) Brian Mullan, Annabel Gates, Ian Bowles, Thomas Ehmke, Jin Cao Paul Dickens, Gary Morrison and Richard Lendon. Annie Garcia, Russ Swift and David Lee were all evacuated off the course due to the weather. An extra-ordinary bunch of people whether they finished or not, it really is a tough race. Annabel Gates became the first female to finish the Spine. If I was to take part in a race like this I would have to brush up my navigation skills and of course recce the route several times. Its on the list but not something I’m ready to enter at the moment.
Planning for my big 2014 adventure is going well, it gets very exciting every-time we make further progress.
Fingers crossed my asthma is slightly better next week so I can train properly.
Happy Training
