The Adventures of Liz and Matt

The Elixir of Life

2010-04-05T00:20:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since we last updated this which I take as a good sign that we’re actually really busy doing stuff rather than just being lazy!

We’ve been here 4 months now and are settling in. Firstly I can report that we appear to have acclimatised just as the summer has ended and we’re entering the cooler autumn months. Apparently this year has been very wet in Sydney which is great news for most people as they’ve had precious little rain the last 10 years.

What we’ve noticed is that pretty much on the dot of 4pm throughout the back end of the summer the weather would change with a stiff breeze blowing in off the sea and up the harbour, occasionally turning into a full on raging storm. It makes for very entertaining viewing from the safety of our balcony. Some of the sunsets here have been incredible, we’ve tried to capture some of them and posted pics here but they really do fail to do them justice. I blame it on the camera personally.....

We celebrated Australia Day in full on Aussie style with a BBQ and the best of Slim Dusty! I got to try out the obligatory Barbie which seemed to work a treat despite tales of horrific blowback from the died in the wool Aussies present! As a bonus we got to witness the fireworks taking place over the harbour in Darling Harbour.

Liz has been busy working for a company translating tapes of random conversations being used by a company who are developing speech recognition software. Through this she’s made some good friends who are sadly now off travelling Australia before heading back to the UK. Although the job has had its moments, Liz starts a new job working for a government agency based in the heart of the CBD.
Her role will be as the Stakeholder Engagement Analyst for a Health project called E-Health which is based around the implementation of a Digital Health Network here in Australia. She’s really looking forward to it, especially as at the end of the day she can just walk to any one of the cities great bars for a quick glass of vino!

My job also has an office in the city so we will be able to meet up after work and also share the same transport to work. In most cases we get the train but occasionally we treat ourselves to catching the ferry. Our route takes us under the Harbour Bridge and past the Opera house, all up only a 10 min trip. One of the things that has been difficult for us here is making new friends. We’ve hosted a couple of parties but return invites have been sadly lacking – I don’t know why this is but Liz reckons it might’ve been my BBQ skills!

So to make more of an effort I’ve recently joined a local Rugby Seniors team called Lane Cove Oldies much to the apparent amusement of Pedro! Oldies being the operative word as most of us are getting on a bit, going grey and carrying a few decades worth of beer and pies. Still, it’s a good way to meet a bunch of blokes and as a bonus we’re sponsored by the local pub.

We’ve once again been blessed with lovely neighbours; Phil and Maggie have helped us settle in and introduced us to the main golf course in Sydney. Liz had her first 18 holes the other day and is now hooked so we’re sorting out lessons. Back home our tenants have final beaten us down with their trivial complaining so we’ve just served notice on them which is a blessed relief.
It does mean that we are going to struggle financially paying a full UK mortgage and rent here but the hassle and stress of dealing with them was unbearable. To compensate we’ve taken on a lodger for a short term and so far this is working out very well. I spend a fair amount of time in Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth and it’s been good for Liz to have another female for company. Sadly she’s heading off on her own travels shortly so we’ll begin the search for a replacement until we either rent out or sell Corner Cottage.

Most of our spare time is spent at the beach with one memorable visit being to a place 45 mins north of Sydney where we caught a ferry over the Pittwater River to the Kuringai Chase national park. It’s an absolutely magical spot and a great day out.

This Easter weekend we headed off down the Kangaroo Valley, a national park area about 2 hours drive south of Sydney. We bought some basic camping gear and slept on a blow up mattress in the back of our 4x4. The area is stunningly beautiful with a resemblance to the Sussex Downs in terms of luscious, rolling, green meadows and hills with rivers full of fish (that I couldn’t catch) running through it. Liz’s university friend Alex was there with a group of her friends who we didn’t know before the trip but they were great fun. We managed a spot of off roading and tasted some local wines at a wonderfully cavalier vineyard where they left us the bottle with instructions to “help yourselves” so we did! We also did a bit of river swimming, kayaking and waterfall watching during the day and spent the evenings eating and drinking with our new friends.

Finally a little thank you to Mum and Keith for helping us get the new Corner Cottage window sorted and to Mandy, Anna and Dom for saving our lives with emergency rations of chocolate just in time for Easter. You simply cannot get good choccy here and that, my friends, is a terrible thing.

The End of Days

2009-12-31T23:50:00.001-08:00

Well having returned from a fantastic trip to Chicago Liz and I set about uprooting our life to the other side of the world as I accepted a job from my UK employer, Canon, to move to Australia.

The last few weeks were spent in a blur of parties, goodbyes, packing and selling off anything we weren't packing. Constantly saying goodbye to all our wonderful friends made us feel very lucky and not a little unsure if we were doing the right thing but we both love an adventure and this was too good an opportunity to miss.

So having finally let out our loved Corner Cottage and said our goodbyes to our wonderful neighbours Rog, Sarah and Josh, we were winging our way on Singapore Airways and could, for the first time in many weeks, relax completely knowing nothing we could do now would change anything for the next 24 hours.

Arrival in Sydney was a shock, literally, it was 41 degrees and we just holed up in our hotel room with the aircon on trying to stave of a desperate desire to sleep. It took 4 days to get over the jet lag properly and roughly 4 weeks to get some kind of bodily acclimatisation sorted.

Work has been an interesting experience, it’s actually almost exactly like the UK in every way except people go home at 5pm and actually do stuff rather than working til late, eating dinner and flopping, exhausted, into bed. The main difference though, and the reason we came, is the ease with which you can find yourself enjoying any number of outdoors activities. So far we’ve been sea kayaking which we could get to love, hiking through the coastal trails, boogie boarding, bbq’uing and generally hanging out on the beach with all the associated sunburn us Brits manage to catch.

It’s also interesting to note that our xmas party was an extremely lavish affair taking place in the Grand Ballroom of Sydney’s Star City Casino with free champers and grub all night and a twirl from a much loved Aussie crooner and one time Australian idol judge, Marsha Hynes – think Cheryl Cole’s significantly less attractive grandmother who can actually sing. The point being that it’s absolutely like the Aussies not to let a Global Economic Crisis get in the way of a good p*ss up!

The other significant event to happen to us has been New Years Eve which is a huge deal here. We headed down to a less touristy vantage spot and were rewarded with a spectacular view of the fireworks over the harbour bridge. It was a great night and I’ve attached a short vid which simply fails to do it justice.

In a week’s time on the 9th Jan we move out of hotel room and into our new apartment. Neither of us can wait as living in a hotel is fun for a weekend but after 6 weeks the novelty has worn a touch thin – that and the fact that our apartment has the most incredible views over the harbour as well as a lovely guest room for all our friends WHO ARE COMING TO VISIT!

The 2009 Chicago Marathon

2009-11-23T04:48:00.000-08:00

Liz and I completed the 2009 Chicago Marathon.

Following a couple of great days with our Chicago friends Sharon and Dan and their adorable young Miles we signed on at the Expo the day before and picked up our race numbers and signed up for the Nike 4hr 30mins pace team. I was pretty impressed by just how slick the organisation was and this carried through into race day as well.
Chicago is a really striking city and at first light on a freezing cold October day it looked quite stunning as we lined up along with 50,000 other runners for the start.

We weren’t expecting the cold conditions given that the previous year it was quite hot and the year before it was over 30 degrees.

The reality of running in near freezing weather is that everything takes that much longer to warm up and my already pathetically short muscles were struggling after just 6 miles when the first of five stretch stops had to take place.

Our pace was easy to maintain, we would be running around 10 min mile pace but that was really too slow to get warm and with the cold also forcing a number of toilet breaks, when combined with the stretch stops and a couple of first aid station stops for much needed painkillers we were actually had to run around 9.15 pace to stay on target.

Liz’s race wasn’t helped by the fact that she tweaked her calf muscle at around the half way mark. It was really hurting and I thought she would have to pull out but she’s a tough cookie and after downing some ibuprofen pills she dug in and toughed it out.

Sharon, Dan and Miles came to cheer us on and we first spotted them at mile 15 where we stopped for a quick stretch, photo and energy gel. Having them there really gave us a boost, especially when we came across them at mile 19 by when things were getting a bit hard and definitely at the 23 mile marker. At this point it was a mixture of feeling like I was running on wooden legs through a vat of treacle but I was also a bit excited knowing that with only 3 miles to go that we would definitely make it.

The flip side was that we had slipped behind our 4hr 30min pace which would mean running the last 3 miles around 8.30min pace. Although in many ways it seemed pointless to make any extra effort I think it was a combination of having something to aim at and desperately wanting to end the thing that got us to the line in 4hr 29mins and 27secs!

Crossing the line together we were amazed to see free beers being donated by the Goose Island Beer Company, usually I’m not one to pass up a free beer but somehow this one was easy to give up!

We collected our medals and picked up some bananas and bagels and as soon as we had collected our gear we sat in the park and ate. It felt great to get some real food inside instead of the slightly nauseous energy gels we’d been slurping for the last 3 hours or so.

The downside of stopping running is that it was virtually impossible to start even a slow hobble afterwards and we were rescued from having to walk too far by Dan picking us up and driving back to his place to spend the rest of the day on their wonderful recliners being waited on patiently with food and cups of team.

We need to say a massive thanks to Sharon and Dan for letting us stay with them and also for their wonderful hospitality. We also need to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has contributed to our Just Giving page. We raised just under £1000 for Trust Pa which was almost twice what we originally hoped for.

For us we have another challenge coming up as I’ve recently accepted an offer to work in Australia and we head off in mid November to start a new way of life in Sydney so the next blog will hopefully come from the other side of the world.

For whom the bell tolls....

2009-10-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

Is that a ringing in my ears or the sound of a fat bird in the corner clearing her throat? Either way, it’s time!

The final throes of our training schedule passed in a painful blur with Liz completing her 18 miler last weekend and me finishing my longest run the weekend before but then spent a few days lugging a rucksack up and down a few hills in the Italian Dolomites which turned out to be great strength and endurance training. Plus though i'd mention it as it's allows me to upload a pic that's actually relevant.

In between then and now I’ve been doing a few cycle rides and a couple of 4 mile jaunts which have seemed like a warm up session compared to the mileage we had been putting in.
Injury wise both of us seem in pretty good nick with no real issues to speak of. My calf’s have been OK since I finished the long runs, my physio gave me some ultra sound and massaging which helped massively and the comparative rest has been the single biggest contributor.
Liz’s shin splints have completely gone and she’s been going great guns, both of us have been stretching quite a lot with the main beneficiary being our gas supplier as most of the stretching sessions have taken place in piping hot baths!

So we fly out at ridiculous o’clock tomorrow but that’s nothing compared to the lunacy of a race start time of 7.30am which effectively means eating our bowlfuls of porridge (we’re taking it with us) at about 5.30am – eeugh!

On the plus side we are staying in Chicago with our good friends Sharon and Dan who recently brought young Miles into this world and we’re very much looking forward to meeting them all.

Our original goal was to run a sub 4 hour time, however, this got revised to just being happy to complete the course once our injuries robbed us both of approximately 8 weeks of training. The good news is that having slogged through the long runs we’re feeling more positive about hitting a decent time and are planning to latch onto one of the specially provided pace runners in the hope they can drag us round as close to the 4 hour mark as possible.

A massive thank you to all who have sponsored us via our Just Giving page http://www.justgiving.com/lizandmatt this is reason we’ve being doing all of this and with times being as difficult as they are we really do appreciate every single penny.

Blood, sweat & tears

2009-09-14T01:11:00.000-07:00

Mid week we are running a mixture of short 5-6 mile runs at fast pace with the odd sprint session thrown in and every Sunday we head out for a long run which increases by a mile every weekend. The idea is to build up to about 20 miles a couple of weeks before the marathon and then taper the training right down.

So far we are at the 15 mile mark and it’s not pleasant. In fact we have been so concerned about our body’s ability to deal with nearly 4 hours of running that we decided about a month ago to really focus on our endurance and ran effectively 3 half marathon distances in 5 days.

The good news is that we managed to do it OK. Interestingly (well it was to me) I weighed myself before and after the final run and found I’d lost 5 lbs of which the majority would’ve been through sweat and this despite drinking 500ml en route . This is a good indication of what the body goes through when running longer distances in heat (it was 27 degrees) and really shows the importance of being properly hydrated to start with.

Of more concern however was the distinctly blood coloured urine I had the joy of passing after one of the fast paced mid week runs. A trip to the GP ended with the cheerful assumption that “it’s probably Kidney stones” and I was packed off to hospital for an ultrasound.
Fortunately the ultrasound showed no problems and following consultation with a specialist urologist (now there’s a sh*t job) I was informed that it was due to over training and I should cut back a bit – great news for me!

Liz hasn’t escaped scot free either and has been suffering painful shin splints for the last week for which the only cure is rest. This is a bad time to go down with an injury so she’s been out on the bike to keep things ticking over. We’re hoping that two weeks off the roads will be long enough.

I’d like to end on a positive note but seeing as I’ve just returned from a long run with a torn calf muscle it might be a bit difficult! Although two weeks of rest, ice and ibuprofen means at least I get to put my feet up!

All the gear, no idea!

2009-08-26T02:14:00.000-07:00

Thought I’d share a brief look at some of the running specific stuff we’ve been accumulating over the recent months.

First of all I’ve been trying a new pair of shoes designed by Newton Running, a US manufacturer based out of fantastically named Boulder, Colorado.

The concept is simple, if you take your shoes off and run you will naturally run more on your toes than you do with shoes on. This means less stress on the ankle, knee and hip joints and is generally more efficient. To promote this more forward running style they have developed special lugs on the forefoot area, it’s that simple.

But does it work Well the short answer is yes although it takes a little getting used to. However, after several short runs I’ve become accustomed to the style and it feels pretty natural. I can definitely feel the difference in impact but it does work your calves and achilles quite heavily so I’d suggest that unless you have calves like bullets that you build the miles gradually.

I use the Newtons for my faster mid week runs and normal trainers (Mizuno Waveriders for the geeks out there) for the longer stuff.

Of course there is one major flaw in the Newtons which Liz expertly pointed out, namely that they really are the most awful colour combination imaginable!

The Newtons came from a company called Stride UK who are a small company that specialise in video gait analysis and following several recommendations Liz booked herself in for what they call the mid level analysis which concentrates on everything from the hips down.

This consisted of drawing various markings on Liz’s legs and getting her to run with and without trainers on a special treadmill whilst being filmed from the side and the front.

From this simple exercise it appears any amount of information can be deciphered and Liz walked away with a full analysis of her running style, suggestions for how to reduce stresses such as where she might benefit from building muscle strength and improving flexibility. In addition she was given a list of suggested stretches and exercises designed to specifically address these areas.

The best bit though was when we got home and installed the CD they gave us onto our laptop. It contained all the video analysis and we had a good laugh at just how knock kneed Liz is. (wel I did anyway!)

Hydration and energy play an important part in marathon training, lots of studies show how performance is affected by these two things. All I know is I get hungry and thirsty on any run longer than 45 mins so we’ve been stocking up on Isotonic drinks and energy gels.
Energy gels are great for squeezing down during a run, they’re much easier than trying to chew through a flap jack and generally more effective than the classic runners friend the Jelly Baby.

Of course, carrying a couple of energy gels and half a litre of Isotonic drink on a long run presents it’s own logistical challenge but fortunately gear manufacturers have overcome this obstacle with any amount of storage devices. I chose the red and black one because it matched the colour of my vest/shorts/cap combo!

OK, so now we were isotoniced up, gelled out and fitted with the latest hyper trainers what we really needed was a GPS tracking system that allows us to monitor our speed, pace, heart rate, altitude and any amount of other information useful to the modern marathoner, if only I could get the bloody thing to tell the time.....

Bandit Paddlers

2009-07-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

Well it’s been a busy time in the Jones household so I apologise for the slow update of the blog recently.

The marathon training has finally started to ramp following a series of set backs for both of us.

Liz has been suffering from sore knees which become quite painful after only a few miles. After trying rest and anti-inflammatories she visited a specialist who has told her to stretch various muscles. After a few weeks of stretching things seem to have improved a little but it’s still painful on longer runs.

I’ve had a recurring calf muscle strain which restricted me to one session a week for 6 weeks which was not ideal. I think this came about from focusing on stretching that calf muscle as directed by the Podiatrist.

However, as I have now found out, all that was in vain because my sore foot arch was being caused by nothing more than badly fitting shoes! I had them originally fitted by a specialist running shop with video analysis and also took them with me to the Podiatrist (who never looked at them on me).

So after 6 weeks of stretching but not really getting any better I decided to stick 2 pairs of inners into my shoes in a desperate attempt to rid myself of the a pains. I got approximately half a mile before my leg went completely dead from the pain. So I removed the second inner and re-fitted the now loose shoe – instant relief, no pain at all!

So the next day I undid my trainers and ran with them as loose as possible and again, no pain!

Now I know I should be happy to have cured this problem but I can’t help being just a tad p*ssed off with the so called experts who simply failed to spot such a basic mistake. I work in computers and the first thing we do when responding to a fault call is ask if they’ve turned the PC on, this lot had jumped straight to page 10 of the fault manual!

So to celebrate I’ve purchased a new pair of shoes from Newton, they’re supposed to promote a more forward footfall which in turn prevents stress on the ankles, knees etc. and so far they seem very good. Liz is thinking about getting a pair if her stretching doesn’t work out.

A typical week for us is 3 lots of 5-6 mile interval type runs during the week with a 10-12 miler on a Sunday. Every other week we put a sprint session in to replace one of the 6 mile runs. I think we’re both seeing real improvements although neither of us is confident of lasting the full distance at the pace needed to dip under 4 hours.

To really mix things up myself and my two step brothers, Pete and Andy, undertook a bit of a Bandit Paddle over a recent weekend, all 40 miles of it!

Buying inflatable canoes off ebay may not sound the best idea but these were beauties and had plenty of space for us to store all our kit, including a 3 man tent!

Liz dropped us off at the River Rother in Midhurst and we had a wonderful time wending our way down this beautiful if un-kept river picking up floating polo balls from the Cowdray Park estate. We had a mixed reaction from the small number of fishermen we met on the way, some were perfectly pleasant but a couple got quite abusive and muttered about our trip being illegal. Now I had looked into this and simply put, the law is unclear with regard to recreational activities so we put our heads down and carried on.

By the evening we had been on the go for 8 hours and were feeling the strain although pitching on down through several weirs we encountered had made it a memorable day despite the now persistent rainfall.

We found a likely spot to set up camp for the night and trundled off to a local pub for something warm and plenty of alcohol to wash it down. Liz made a welcome appearance and it was with some regret that we all said goodbye as she headed off to a nice warm dry bed whilst we trudged wearily through sodden fields to our tent.

The next day dawned grey and wet and we set off this time up the River Arun to cover the remaining 20 miles by early afternoon. Fairly quickly the sun came out and with the tide on our side we made good progress despite my inflatable canoe suffering a puncture which required a mid river pump up every 20 mins. After a mere 6 hours we arrived at Arundel and slipped and slid up the cloyingly muddy river bank, dragging the canoes with us and into the back of BA ( our van, so called cos it’s hard as nails) and off to a scrumptious roast that Liz had cooked.

All in all, great fun and really good endurance training as well as being something we wouldn’t usually do.

Car racing has been going OK although my lack of focus on it has been showing. The race at Brands Hatch was great fun with Liz coming along for the first time as well as Roger and Sarah our neighbours and parents to Josh and Sean who are the Custard Tart Racing’s official pit crew.

The weather for qualifying was extremely wet and surprisingly I managed to bag 4th on the grid for both races. Good starts are becoming a speciality and after briefly taking 2nd place on the opening lap I settled into 3rd place until a couple of missed gear changes saw me drop to fifth at the flag but still my best result so far. Unfortunately race 2 had me on the wrong tyre pressures and again after sneaking up to 2nd I dropped back through the pack to a disappointing 8th.

If I’d got my act together and done the test day I really think a podium was there for the taking and so now it’s on to Castle Combe for the next two rounds.

Yin and Yang

2009-05-26T12:26:00.001-07:00

The Bath Half was the most painful thing I’ve ever done and that includes 9 hours down Kilimanjaro with what turned out to be a ruptured cruciate. It seems that most of that pain was down to having short calve muscles as diagnosed by a local Podiatrist.

Fortunately the cure is simple, I need to stretch more, a lot more. I’ve got a bunch of stretches to do 3 times a day for the next 4 weeks to see if it makes any improvements as I’m suffering severe foot pain during every run.

The upside I’m hoping will be in the shape of sympathy donations, after all, that’s the point to all this. Trust me, I’d much rather be in bed at 6am when it’s pissing it down than slogging up a muddy track.

Work has been pretty full on for both of us, I’ve no idea how we’re going to manage when the mileage needs to increase. For example this week I dropped Liz off at the station at 6.50am and headed up to Arundel Park just in time for to watch the 1st string of race horses from Josh Gifford’s stable blast up the gallops in the misty morning. I have added a sprint session to my weekly training which consists of a 15 min warm up then 1 x 30 sec sprint, jog back to the start, 1 x 45 sec and 1 x 60 secs then start again and finish with a third set. Usually by the end I’m ready to pass out but it’s straight home for a shower and a quick change so I can make the hour drive to the office in time for 9am. I’m lucky enough to work from home usually a couple of times a week so can get my 6 mile runs in on those days and then Liz and I will do a joint run at the weekend.

Frustratingly, although I can feel my fitness increasing hugely, my weight is pretty static at just under 13st. I’m hoping that if I can keep going then it will eventually start to come down.

Both Liz and I were due to race in the Bognor 10K recently. Liz has recovered from her twisted ankle but has just gone down with a cold and I made the schoolboy error of going to Twickenham for the Guinness Premiership final the day before and the resulting hangover meant I never even made it out of bed until midday.
As penance I decided to run my own 10K the next day and was close to vomiting at the end having put everything into it and managing a half decent 43 mins.

This was the same time Liz managed just before she developed the recent cold and is the sort of pace that both Liz and I are hoping we can sustain over the full Marathon distance in just over 4 months time – so quite a bit more work to do then!

The car racing saw the Custard Tart Racing team arrive at Mallory more in hope than expectation and qualifying had me start one from last due to having to take it easy bedding new brake pads in.

I did manage another sneaky start though and overtook five people on an exciting first lap before dicing for 4th place with another competitor. We had a terrific, nose to tail battle for several laps before I got slightly squeezed onto the grass and ended up hitting the wall which resulted in a fractured radiator. Pulling into the pits my crew, (josh the neighbour’s lad and Pete Rowney the co member of CTR) set about begging and borrowing the parts needed to get me out for race two.

We made it with minutes to spare and I was rewarded with my best ever finish of 5th after starting 11th. Now it’s onto Brands Hatch; this is the race I targeted at the start of the season as my best chance of a win so I’m keeping everything crossed and may even buy a new set of tyres.

Under Starters Orders

2009-04-27T02:13:00.001-07:00

Sadly the Steyning Duathlon didn’t materialise as expected. Due in parts to myself contracting a severe case of man flu from which I was lucky to survive and Liz twisting her ankle whilst we were Snowboarding in the brilliant resort of Briancon. There is some mystery around the exact cause of the twisted ankle and whilst Liz is claiming it was a boarding injury I do seem to remember having to give her a piggy back ride home one night after she insisted on wearing her high heeled boots out drinking – apparently there’s only so many days a girl can go without her heels!

The truth is the winner from all this was probably the Duathlon event itself as it was spared the slightly ridiculous sight of me being lapped several times by the competitors of an event which we hadn’t realised was part of the British Qualifying series and therefore attended by all the would be internationals looking to gain a place in the more prestigious international events.

So that made the next event on our schedule the first race of the BARC Westfield Series the at Rockingham, a circuit I’ve never been to before. Rockingham is quite and intimidating site as you drive up to it. The Grandstands dominate the skyline as they envelope the oval track to provide seating for nearly 100,000 people. Needless to say we didn’t manage to attract those numbers and the 2000 odd spectators that enjoyed the glorious spring sunshine hardly seemed to make a dent on the miles of green seating.

I arrived with my pit crew (Josh, our neighbour’s lad) on the Saturday evening just in time to witness the Mini Challenge team setting up a double pit garage with a huge plasma screen, glitter ball, sound system and even a couple of grid girls! How the other half live; we made do with beans on toast by torch light.

The next morning saw the car safely through scrutineering although being a new car on the grid the MSA scrutineer was very thorough with his examination which can be no bad thing. After some friendly banter with my new fellow competitors the qualifying took place. I had problems pretty much straight away. The car just felt undriveable to start with. I can only really describe it as like driving on ice. The steering was very light and it seemed to have no grip, especially under braking.

After a few laps I came into the pits to check the tyre pressures. We are using a new tyre this year and the pressures had gone through the roof. With little knowledge on what pressures worked best Josh reset them in the pit lane and I went out again. The car was noticeably different although braking was still an issue but sadly the chequered flag came out so I didn't get a flying lap in and would start 15th and last on the grid!

It was great to see my friend James arrive just in time to give me some much needed moral support and the photos are courtesy of his hidden talents with a lens.

So on with the race and lining up at the back gave me a great view of Rockingham’s wide start line from where I managed to get a pretty good start utilising a technique I’ve been perfecting over the years and which cannot be divulged here. It’s a long run down to the first corner during which I flew past three cars, one of which belonged to series newcomer and novice Harry Gordon-Finlayson who had some issues selecting 2nd gear but recovered well to put in some strong lap times that bode well for the future.

I then managed to take another car into the first corner and another into the next. It's amazing how being in a race pushes you much more quickly than testing or qualifying and pretty soon I'd picked the pace up and was chasing down the guys ahead of me. I noticed I was much quicker than them through the back section but quite slow on the brakes into a hairpin and too aggressive on the throttle getting out of the tighter corners, one of which led onto the main straight where a fast exit was very important as it was then a straight drag along the banking and round one of the banked bends.

With a couple of laps to go I had caught up the two cars battling for 6th and thought about a lunge up the inside into the last corner onto the long main straight but decided to try and get a good exit and use the tow to get past. Unfortunately I just got too much wheel spin and lost ground so had to leave it very late into the hairpin at the end of the straight and locked up onto the grass and span twice. Fortunately I didn't lose too much time getting back onto the track and crossed the line in 8th with a massive grin plastered across my face.

With battles raging throughout the grid there was always something interesting happening but up front Simon Pryke took the win and was generally in a class of his own. However my heart goes out to Will Chappell whose gearbox gave up the ghost in the final corner when he was looking set for a podium.

Personally I reckon there are a couple of areas for improvement. Just knowing the track helps massively as it's not immediately obvious at Rockingham where the best lines are. Also my driving style could do with some improvement to say the least. I was too aggressive on the power and the rears were just lighting up on exit from the slower corners. A couple of times on the last couple of laps I focused on being smoother and got my fastest lap so there should be some more time to come from just being better at that. Then there are the brakes. I was using a set of pads that had sat in my damp garage for the last couple of years having last been worn in 2006 they just gave no stopping power. It was impossible to get the car slowed from high speed and they had no feel at all so a couple of days ago a deal was struck with EBC to become my first official sponsor. EBC make the excellent Yellow pads; if they’re good enough for the last two Westfield Champions they’re good enough for me.

So with the first race out of the way I feel like a proper racing driver; that first win is surely only an excuse or three away now. Roll on Mallory Park on the 10th May.

In the meantime the marathon training is going well, Liz has now recovered from her twisted ankle and the four weeks off doesn’t seem to have affected her fitness too much. I’m having a few niggles with my right foot which is probably a result of increasing the length of my runs and the fact that my left leg still has slightly less muscle mass from the ACL surgery. I’ve booked in to see a Podiatrist next week to get some advice on how to overcome this but I’m suspecting it will involve leg exercises and maybe some custom orthotics.

In the meantime I’m focusing on losing weight so have been running before breakfast which is a truly horrible thing. I’ve been told your body gets used to it, I hope so! I’ve set a target weight of 11st 7lb having started at 13st 8lb, currently I’m at 13st 2lb.

Bleeding Nips

2009-03-19T01:10:00.000-07:00

No the title's not a socio-political comment but a reflection of the state of my chest at the end of 13.2 tortuous miles (for me at least)!

The good news is that both Liz and I completed the Bath Half Marathon on Sunday and in doing so we both managed to beat our times from 2003; the last time we ran the event.

Liz was a quite staggering 19mins faster than before and did, as expected, open a can of whoop ass on me. I trailed in almost a mile behind.

Our final run the previous weekend had been difficult; we covered just less than 9 miles in a mixture of rain and sleet. I was suffering cramp after 6 miles and needed to stop and stretch. Liz was fine the next day but I didn’t quite get rid of the soreness until Thursday so wasn’t able to do a warm down run mid week. It also left me feeling a bit worried about my ability to complete the course without stopping.

We headed down to Liz’s dad’s house in Cardiff on the Saturday and tucked into a huge pasta meal whilst casting a jealous eye over the wine bottle – we’d both been “on the wagon” for the last week.

Race day morning arrived and we soon realised a basic flaw in our cunning plan to consume huge quantities of porridge for breakfast, the race wasn’t due to start until 11.30 some 4 hours later so we tucked a few crafty croissants into our bags and headed off. It was in the car on the way that we made our biggest mistake. Both Liz and I were concerned about being properly hydrated so chugged down about a litre of water each and promptly spent the majority of our time up until the start of the race needing the loo. Apparently the trick is to take small but frequent sips of isotonic drink in the build up – DOH

Overall it was a well organised event and with 15,000 runners it’s difficult to know how else to start the race but having to stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow runners for 30mins before the start meant that any benefit I’d gained from stretching and warming up had been completely lost. It’s really not the ideal preparation for running a half marathon.

Sadly Liz was entered into another section of runners and I didn’t get to see her at all during the race. This also meant that my cunning plan to run hand in hand until surprising her with my sprint finish over the last 10 metres was scuppered. Liz ran a well paced race with slightly negative splits, apparently this is ideal, and finished very strongly whilst I just seemed to find it a world of pain from about a halfway. The good news is that my new ACL was completely pain free. Sadly the same couldn’t be said for all the other parts of my legs not to mention nipples; why did no one tell me about this – I’ll be using plasters next time!

I need to say a big thank you to the ladies that gave up their time to provide massages after the race. Both Liz and I benefited hugely from their healing hands, making the 3 hour drive home just about bearable.

A few days on and the stiffness has now gone and we’re about to start training for our next challenge, the Steyning Duathlon on Easter Monday. This is a 7K run, 36K bike ride and a final 5K run so we need to get out and about on our bikes and practice the transition phase apparently (thanks for the tip Tricky).

Alastair Kerr, who was a great friend of PA, has been organising runners for the event on behalf of TRUST PA for a number of years and again put on a great day with the usual passionate support from both Rob and Gerri Blundell so thanks guys, we’ll be back next year.

Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who has donated using our Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/lizandmatt it was heart warming to see the donations grow and with literally blood, sweat and tears being shed in the cause you did get good value for your money plus we are now one fifth of a way towards our target of £500.

A break from the old routine......

2009-03-07T01:04:00.001-08:00

Well there's one week to go until our Bath Half Marathon and the training's been hard work for me but Liz has been flying.

I've had this virus since New Years eve and only started running 3 weeks ago. Originally I'd be aiming for a 1hr 45min time but with the lack of training it would be more realistic to look at simply completing the course. Liz had been hoping to break 2hrs but she's been going so well that a 1hr 50min looks a reasonable target so I'm facing the real prospect of getting spanked out of site by my wife - and not in a good way too!

Honestly though I don't know how anyone other than the unemployed manage to undertake any kind of regular training programme. I’ve been having to get up at ridiculous o’clock to fit an hours run in before jumping in the car and driving to work. This is not ideal and means I look like an arthritic octogenarian trying to get out of the car and walk into the office!

To break things up and help in our goal to climb Mt Blanc later this year we recently took a trip to Aviemore in Scotland for a weekend of winter climbing. I’ve been before so had some idea of what to expect but it was Liz’s first time so we hired a guide, Anna, who sorted the routes and organised all the extra gear we’d need like crampons and ice axes.

The first day was spent in Coire an t Sneachda climbing up some easy snow gullies and learning how to build snow bollards to provide secure protection for belaying down slopes when there’s nothing else available. We also dug out a couple of ice axe belays and platforms which were nice and solid but you’d end with piles if you spent too much time sat in them.

Unfortunately Liz got very cold which meant she didn’t have such a great time so that evening she headed off to some of the gear shops in Aviemore and treated herself to some shiny new clothing and was toasty warm the next day.

The second day we headed into the neighbouring Coire for some altogether more serious stuff. Armed with technical axes we headed up some steepish ice and rock and traversed several very steep and icy slopes which we both found quite unnerving as a fall hear meant that one or both of the other’s on the rope would have to hold the fall which would probably be ok if it was me but as Anna looked 7 stone wet through I didn’t fancy the chances of her managing to hold my near 14stones. As it turned out I did slip on one slope as I got sudden cramp in a hamstring and went down quicker than Desire Washington. Luckily I was on the only bit of flat rock at the time so disaster was avoided.

The final pitch turned into a bit of a nightmare as both Liz and I were exhausted, it’s particularly hard on the calf muscles and we were both shaking like a small, bald dog as we clung to the side of the mountain watching a storm come in and engulf our Guide as she headed out of sight up a steep chimney leading to the top out onto the Cairngorm plateau. Obviously we made it OK but the first thing I said to Liz was “let’s not do this again!”

Several days later we’re contemplating a return in October.

So we have a week to go to the race. We will be doing a 10 mile run tomorrow followed by a couple of gentler runs mid week – wish us luck and if you can pop over to the Just Giving page then that would be great.

Matt

The End of Days

2009-01-18T13:42:00.001-08:00

Ok, deep breath, are we sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

Once upon a time in a land far far..........oh bugger!

We'll just cut to the chase, this page has really been set up to give some life to the things my wife Liz and I are planning to do this year to have some fun and because we're trying to get you lot to give money to the charity TrustPA through our web page www.justgiving.com/lizandmatt we thought we ought to at least let you know what sort of blood, sweat and tears (of joy hopefully) you can expect us to go through on behalf of your hard earned.

After spending the last few years renovating houses with all our spare time we just had enough so early this years plans took shape to have a bit of fun, get fit again and just go out and do some stuff. So far we've got a rough itinerary that looks like the following:

Feb - Winter Climbing in Scotland
March - Bath Half Marathon
April - Steyning Duathalon & BARC Westfield Chaps Rounds 1&2 @ Rockingham
June - Welsh 3000 & BARC Westfield Champs Rounds 3&4 @Brands Hatch
July - BARC Westfield Champs Rounds 5&6 @ Donington Park
August - BARC Westfield Champs Rounds 7&8 @ Castle Combe& Rounds 9&10 @ Croft
Sept - Climb Mont Blanc & BARC Westfield Champs Rounds 11&12 @ Snetterton
Oct - Chicago Marathon

As you can see, we're both planning on doing some endurance events and will be updating this blog with progress to date. Although we both ran the Bath Half marathon in 2003 we have done little running since. We started the training before Christmas using a training schedule nicked from www.runnersworld.co.uk and so far so good minus a couple of lost weeks due to a nasty virus, the upside of which was half a stone of weightloss.

In addition I'll be racing my Westfield in the BARC Westfield Championship this year and hoping to be able to upload some video of the races if I can figure out how. If you're one of those people who are into these types of cars then you are either single, on the verge of divorce or fortunate to be married to an absolute angel of a woman.

If you can make it to any of the events above it would be great to have some extra support and we may have spare tickets.

Right, that's the first post out the way, lets hope the rest are somewhat more, well just more!