Blogs
All the latest news on Mathew's Fund raising and training towards the 2014 Marathon Des Sables
August 2012
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The month of August 2012 will be remembered by everyone in the UK for the fantastic Olympic Games and the inspiration and national pride those committed individuals and teams gave to all who witnessed their achievements. Watching the like of Mo Farah (Will we forever be doing the 'MO-BOT!?') and Jessica Ennis realising their dreams are moments that will stay in my mind.
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Have I ever shouted so LOUD at the TV when it looked like Mo Farah had gone too early at 200m to go, only to see him pick up and run for the line! I doubt it very much!
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When you consider the training and commitments these athletes have, compared to the training I and similar others entail is a massive, gigantic world apart. My total respect to all those athletes!

I was lucky enough to experience some of the Olympics, a fantastic day on Centre Court where I saw the likes of Federer and Williams, not to mention sat behind Michelle Obama, and I can say that the organisers of the venues and events deserve all the plaudits they have received. To many people its too easy to take cheap shots at our country and the people within, bit witnessing the pride in those Games Makers, no-one should doubt the depth of passion and pride which exists in our country which all too often is suppressed by the Media.
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Away from the Olympics, for me August has been a strange old month, most of it spent counting down the days to the Family holiday, the last 2 weeks, and it was probably the harder training I did in the first 2 weeks of the month (If I'm honest in a pointless attempt to turn back the years as best I could before bearing all (well nearly) at the pool-side!) that made my immune system switch off and eventually I came to an immediate halt with what started as a slightly annoying (to those around!) Chest cough, then at the end of August transpired I had caught of all things WHOOPING COUGH!

The 2 weeks holiday could not have come at a better time and at least I was able to put my feet up and enjoy the sun without too much guilt that the infection was stopping me training ( I do confess to 1 Run and 1 Spinning Class whilst away, when really I was not fit).I've been told that the symptoms can take up to 3 months to clear!!! we will have to see but I have promised myself and those around that I will ease myself back into the training gradually and see how it goes.
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Easier said than done!! ................now where did I put those trainers.......?
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June 2012
The all too familiar sight of puddles, welcome to a typical summers day!
One word stands out for the Month of June 2012, RAIN, in-fact two words, RAIN & RAIN (does that count as 3 or 2??).
Now to hardened "all-weathers Ultra Runners" a little rain does not pose any challenge and only adds to the 'drama' of those long early morning runs.........HOWEVER I AM A COMPLETE WUSS when it comes to running in any rain or wind. (good job i've decided to run in the Sahara..??).

As a result my training over the last month has been a mish-mash of differing regimes, and whilst the run itself is some 21 months away and any structured training towards the MdS at this stage would be at the least unrealistic and most counter productive, I intended to up the mileage to around 40 miles/week and drop the hours spent spinning. I've ended up doing one week of decent distance (Week 1 around 50km), 1 week of loads of spin classes (4hr,15min week 2) and a bit of everything including weights (week 3)
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Its easy to get drawn to an hours spinning class with the banging music, flashing strobes and motivational (often mad..you know who you are!) instructor when the weather is crap but I need to drop the time spent doing this as its conflicting with the intention to increase the 'slow-twitch' distance muscles rather than developing the 'fast twitch' spinning/sprinting muscles which will offer no assistance to distance/ultra running other than offering some Cardio Vascular exercise and motivational buzz.

Hopefully July will offer some better weather and give me an opportunity to cover some decent mileage in hot (probably too hopeful...Warm) conditions , particularly as I am in Dubai for 2 weeks next month (end August) and intend to get my first real test of hot running whilst over there on vacation. (We will see, as I read this however the tennis (Wimbledon) is rained off and the cricket covers are on, no change then!!)
I intend to enter a few races over the coming months including a couple of Half Marathons and 10k to see how my fitness is progressing, I'll post details of those shortly.

Finally the fundraising has started and a big thank you to those who have started the ball rolling (thank you so much Susan & Brian in Spain for your generous donation, thank you x).
With the website up and running and a few plans in the pipeline to spread the word of the site hopefully some momentum will start to evolve.
Me with Henry and Beth holding the Olympic Torch Sat 22nd June as part of BMW's Sponsorship of the games.
May 2012
31st May 2012
A great proportion of my time these last couple of weeks has been taken planning amongst other things this website, and putting together some kind of on-line presence through social media sites.
I've never much been into Facebook, preferring to poke fun at those with accounts, citing that they must not have much else going on in their lives, or that they have far too much time on their hands! That view is changing quickly as I'm now immersed in creating some kind of on-line presence which hopefully people will find interesting. I've suddenly got to attract old friends, colleagues, acquaintances and would-be sponsors to my sites and keep them interested with details of my fund raising, training and occasional amusing ditty!
Without this presence, the amount i'm wanting to raise for Yorkshire Cancer Research will be far more difficult than I can imagine. £10,000.
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