Bucko's World

It's sometimes easy to lose focus while training for a race; I can do the run tomorrow, I'm already fit enough, skipping a day's training won't hurt, the list goes on and on, so it's good to have something come up to remind you exactly why you shouldn't be making excuses, and should be putting in the hard yards to help those who cannot help themselves....

Firstly though, a massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored Caitlin and I so far.  Words cannot express how humbling it is to have friends, family and complete strangers put their hands in their pockets to sponsor us for this run.  We hope the faith you have shown in us is warranted when we hit the road in anger!

And secondly, the huge reminder this week that while we are running in memory of Shaun Denney, we are hoping to help find a cure for brain tumours for the people who are suffering now.  This link shows how they can devastate the lives of both young and old.  Here is little Jack's story: Jack's Star Wars Funeral

So, on to the training.  I've pretty much doubled my "go to the gym once a week and ponce around a bit" - I'm now poncing about twice as much.  I've added some swimming into the mix of running, rowing and floor work (stomach exercises for those not in the know) but nearly drowned first time out, managing a measly 10 lengths!  Luckily this left me suitably chastened, and next time in it was a much more acceptable 40 lengths which is 1K.  If it rains heavily on the day of the run, I think I'm in with a chance...

I'm also pretty much running 25K a week, with at least one of the runs broken down into interval training, which is a bit fast and then a bit slow - repeat ad nauseam...this means the run takes longer and is less fun - although most of you reading this probably don't associate the words "Running" and "fun" together at the best of times!  Don't worry though, that's why Caitlin and I are doing it for you  :-)

On the evening of Friday 11th May I had all my assumptions regarding how training Caitlin for the run should go blown out of the water within five seconds of us starting our first session together.  I'd assumed that getting her up to anything close to the speed to run a 10K from scratch was going to be the biggest challenge, but boy was I wrong.  You see an 18 year old who is fit from doing dance lessons for 14 years turns out to be a different prospect from an 18 year old who gets out of breath walking to the bus stop - the irony being that they are the same person!

Caitlin's fitness, you see, is like a sprinter's.  She is used to burning her energy in an explosive five minute dance routine, not a drawn out 30 minute run.  Still very fit, but a very, very different type of fitness.  And so it is that when I press go on the stop watch, I find myself trying to catch up with a Gazelle like creature who has fizzed out of the starting blocks like a startled Hare, and is half way to the miniature train tracks (it's a Swanley Park thing ;-) ) before I catch up and try to slow her down!  We're going to be running for an hour plus, not five minutes.  This was a problem I hadn't foreseen, trying to slow someone down!

Fortunately, once, I caught up, we were able to turn the run into an interval based session, and managed a full 5K before we called it time.  This is a whole 1K more than Caitlin had managed before, and rightly so she was rather pleased with herself.

So, here is the conundrum.  In one way we are massively ahead of the curve for a beginner's 10K.  Normally 5K would come up after 5 WEEKS of training, not one session.  On the other hand, slowing someone down enough so they don't need a two minute walk every 1K is a huge challenge in itself, the Horns of a Dilemma indeed!  Some training nous is required now, but I'm sure between us we are going to conquer this mountain.

Let me end now on why this post is called "Rose Coloured Glasses".  Sometimes a piece of music can remind you of a very specific time of your life, with almost crystal clear clarity at times.  For instance, if the Phil Oakley track "Together in Electric Dreams" comes on the radio, I'm immediately transported back to a specific time featuring my metallic blue Mini Metro, and the Adventures of Moz and Rob in Sidcup :-)  When I play Marillion's Fantastic Place (my funeral song btw, you should all learn it for me!) I cannot help but think of my late brother-in-law Michael Turner.  It's not that the song is even about losing a loved one in that way, but the opening line is just so apposite; "It's always a struggle to let somebody go", that it gets me every time...

So, onto Transatlantic's Rose Coloured Glasses.  Me and Moz are at a gig a few days after Shaun's passing when they play that track.  The lyrics hit me in the heart like a dagger, and before you know it I'm in floods of tears:

When the ending came I said goodbye
I hope to meet him on the other side
And I don't believe I wear rose colored glasses
And I believe we have the greatest hope
(I believe we have the greatest hope)
And I'll sing this as we're scattering his ashes
I believe the man has gone back home...
(I believe the man has gone back home)

This world is not our home
You can live like a rollin' stone
But you cannot escape with your life
We seek a city on fire
With the heart of a child's desire
We will cross that bridge
and enter into life....real life...

Rose Coloured Glasses by Transatlantic

And again I'm reminded why I'm putting my ageing body through this torture after having "retired" from running nine years ago.  While I can still put one foot in front of the other, I am SO much better off than those less fortunate than me, suffering from this awful disease,  and that is little enough to make me stop whinging, put the trainers on and get the fuck out there and do this...