So you are back! That is great as it will help to spread the word about this great charity and about the fight against Leukaemia.
BGT Britains Got Thankful charities and fundraisers as even big bad boy Simon Cowell mentioned a charity who has contacted and touched him live on BGT and that is great as it gets people to think that if my Simon is willing to spread the word then surely more people will want to…. Thank you Simon.
Now back to training business:

Monday:
Driving home from Milford on Sea and my body surprised me by how good it felt so I decided to go for a loosening jog of 3.5 miles and it ended well after a very sore and painful start as my legs wouldn’t bend properly. They annoyed me a lot as I wanted them to work properly but I calmed down once they did what I wanted them to…..

Tuesday:
I worked but this arrived in the post for me

All I can say to the team of the Berghaus company is a big fat heartfelt Thank You!

Wednesday:
I was working again so no training for me but this arrived in the post

Thank you kind Tetley Tea Folk you guys rock too!

Thursday:
I had no chance to run but you have guessed it something else came through the post
This time it was the promised Allied Bakery (Kingsmill) vouchers to the Value of £5. Thank you so much that raises my heart

Friday:
I went for an 4.07 mile interval training and my fast sections were remarkably constant and fast especially considering  the little sleep I had in between my 2 nights but it was great and yes something else arrived an unsuspected voucher from

to the value of £30. Again Thank you so much!

Saturday:
I went for a nice 9.5 mile off road  run with my good friend and brother in law @timcnicholls it was one of the most enjoyable runs as I have missed running with Tim a lot. So thank you for your support.

Sunday:
I managed to run 5.6 miles and it was slow and painful as I did not sleep after my nights yesterday and that as well as yesterdays run caught up with me. However the sunshine and lovely scenery made me feel much better.

I did it and it was good as every mile counts.

Fundraising news:
www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer is the web address you can use to donate money towards The Amber
Phillpott Trust.I have pretty much exhausted my efforts of contacting large companies and will now only contact local shops, businesses, pubs and restaurants as I have to concentrate on my training again and that is time consuming enough…
All
of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or
entered in a silent auction to help raise funds for The Amber Phillpott Trust, Helen&Douglas House hospice, Oxford children’s hospital and Ronald House.
Soon raffle tickets will be available to purchase and I am more than happy to take your orders once I have all the details.

Available prizes at present are:
Berghaus Rucksack
Hall&Woodhouse £30 voucher
Kingsmill £5 voucher
Teapot clock
High School Musical dance mate games (times 2)
Segais design hair cut (its gone)
Little cuddly polar bear teddy’s
2 Oxford United Tickets (sorry Raffle only)
Cushion from “Spring Lark” (its gone)
RC car
Black T-Shirts from Calsberg
Baby food (bowl, spoons, sachets, cuddly toy) from Hipp
Authenticated autographs (Sting, Badly drawn boy, Michael Owen)
Open ended standard return train tickets from FGW x 2 (sorry Raffle only)
Men’s hair cut
oil change
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
Frisbees
If
you are interested in a raffle ticket then
please email me at florianstoermer@gmail.com.

Online Total today:
£545 direct donations
£131 donated for goods received
That is brilliant but I would like to raise another £955 so please help to spread the word and donate what you can every penny helps!

Stats Zone:
Runs:4
Distance covered this week: 22.7 miles 
Distance covered this month: 60.6 miles

Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.

If you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long Ultramarathon, then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the 14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc… and/or donate via www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer

So you are back! That is great as it will help to spread the word about this great charity and about the fight against Leukaemia.
BGT Britains Got Thankful charities and fundraisers as even big bad boy Simon Cowell mentioned a charity who has contacted and touched him live on BGT and that is great as it gets people to think that if my Simon is willing to spread the word then surely more people will want to…. Thank you Simon.
Now back to training business:

Monday:
Driving home from Milford on Sea and my body surprised me by how good it felt so I decided to go for a loosening jog of 3.5 miles and it ended well after a very sore and painful start as my legs wouldn’t bend properly. They annoyed me a lot as I wanted them to work properly but I calmed down once they did what I wanted them to…..

Tuesday:
I worked but this arrived in the post for me

All I can say to the team of the Berghaus company is a big fat heartfelt Thank You!

Wednesday:
I was working again so no training for me but this arrived in the post

Thank you kind Tetley Tea Folk you guys rock too!

Thursday:
I had no chance to run but you have guessed it something else came through the post
This time it was the promised Allied Bakery (Kingsmill) vouchers to the Value of £5. Thank you so much that raises my heart

Friday:
I went for an 4.07 mile interval training and my fast sections were remarkably constant and fast especially considering  the little sleep I had in between my 2 nights but it was great and yes something else arrived an unsuspected voucher from

to the value of £30. Again Thank you so much!

Saturday:
I went for a nice 9.5 mile off road  run with my good friend and brother in law @timcnicholls it was one of the most enjoyable runs as I have missed running with Tim a lot. So thank you for your support.

Sunday:
I managed to run 5.6 miles and it was slow and painful as I did not sleep after my nights yesterday and that as well as yesterdays run caught up with me. However the sunshine and lovely scenery made me feel much better.

I did it and it was good as every mile counts.

Fundraising news:
www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer is the web address you can use to donate money towards The Amber
Phillpott Trust.I have pretty much exhausted my efforts of contacting large companies and will now only contact local shops, businesses, pubs and restaurants as I have to concentrate on my training again and that is time consuming enough…
All
of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or
entered in a silent auction to help raise funds for The Amber Phillpott Trust, Helen&Douglas House hospice, Oxford children’s hospital and Ronald House.
Soon raffle tickets will be available to purchase and I am more than happy to take your orders once I have all the details.

Available prizes at present are:
Berghaus Rucksack
Hall&Woodhouse £30 voucher
Kingsmill £5 voucher
Teapot clock
High School Musical dance mate games (times 2)
Segais design hair cut (its gone)
Little cuddly polar bear teddy’s
2 Oxford United Tickets (sorry Raffle only)
Cushion from “Spring Lark” (its gone)
RC car
Black T-Shirts from Calsberg
Baby food (bowl, spoons, sachets, cuddly toy) from Hipp
Authenticated autographs (Sting, Badly drawn boy, Michael Owen)
Open ended standard return train tickets from FGW x 2 (sorry Raffle only)
Men’s hair cut
oil change
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
Frisbees
If
you are interested in a raffle ticket then
please email me at florianstoermer@gmail.com.

Online Total today:
£545 direct donations
£131 donated for goods received
That is brilliant but I would like to raise another £955 so please help to spread the word and donate what you can every penny helps!

Stats Zone:
Runs:4
Distance covered this week: 22.7 miles 
Distance covered this month: 60.6 miles

Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.

If you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long Ultramarathon, then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the 14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc… and/or donate via www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer

Welcome to the Ultra blog
This week is an ultra blog because be of the events that happened this week in both the fund raising and running department.
I shall not bore you with day by day coverage this week as I would otherwise have to tell you that I have improved my 5k time despite runing post night shifts without sleep, or telling you that it was mine and my father in laws birthday.
I will however talk, well write, about 2 main events; the 1st will be that the Wantage community spirit is alive and kicking and the 2nd is about my first ever ultra event.

Community Spirit

Ok so on Wednesday I decided to go to some local shops to see if I could get any more donations for the raffle and was half expecting to get nothing but a few odd looks from the managers/shop owners. However the response I got blew me out of the water and put a huge smile on my face. I visited 4 shops, 1 fitness studio, 2 banks and 1 hair dresser. The fitness studio was very impressed with my challenge and promised to definately donate something towards my challenge and asked for a sponsorship form to put out for their custoemrs which was very kind and supportive and gave me hope for the next visits. The next shop was a small local key cutters/shoe fixing place and they asked me to come back after the weekend so they can sort out a prize/donation for me. Again a great result. The 2 banks couldnt help but forwarded my request to their headquarters again a good result. The local hair dresser,  Segais, straight away gave me a a great voucher for a hair design, cut and finish (see voucher below).

In a large chain I was told that the shop donates only to their designated charity but I was asked to leave my details with them as the staff would like to help me in my charity challenge (that nearly made me cry). The other 2 shops said that they will forward my requests to their bossess who weren’t there until the end of the week and as long as the charity budget has not been spent yet they were sure that I should get some support (again an excellent response).
This made me happy already but then I got an email from Oxford United Football Club and they have sent me a voucher for 2 people to attend a home game in September (brilliant).

Communtiy spirit even reached the virtual world as a twitter friend whom I have never met yet has decided to send me 2 unopened High School Musical Dance Mat games. Thank you so much Denise (@ruggedradnage).

My first Ultra Marathon run  So yesterday the 05.05.12 at 1100 I started my first ever ultra marathon and I was put in the elite group which concerned me a bit as it was my first race longer than a half marathon so quite a step up.

The course was through the New Forest through woodlands, marsh areas and open fields. The rain leading up to the race was lovely as it made the whole ground boggy, muddy, wet, slippery with a lot of huge puddles which couldn’t always be avoided despite big jumps… The other problem was that the course was not always well sign posted so we (myself and other elite runners) got lost a few times which added at least 5 miles to my total and probably 10 minutes on top of that was spent standing around trying to figure out where to go… This really did not help my physical reserves or mental strength. Until check point (CP) 2 (which was officially 16 miles but I had run 20 by then) I felt great and was well ahead of my target as I was pulled along by the elite runners (avg pace was 8:20min/mile not my planned 9min/mile). Here I saw my lovely family which gave me another boost. At some point between CP 2 and 3 I started to feel sick, despite maintaining a frequent and regular food and hydration intake,

 I wanted to vomit a few times but didn’t. That really wore me down mentally. As well as that I was runing on my own and could not see anyone else for ages. I really wanted to stop 2-3 times before CP 3 but did not despite getting lost with another runner again I fought to CP 3 and saw my lovely girl waving, then I saw my wife, mother and father in law and my cute little boy. I stopped at CP 3 to eat and drink or tried to eat but could not as I was feeling so ill, my wife reassured me that I could stop and have nothing to prove to anyone. She was right I had nothing to prove to anyone apart from myself so I grabbed two slithers of a cheesy sandwich and 2 small cocktail sauasages as I knew I needed salt.  It took me 25 minutes to eat them; oh yes 25 minutes for what usually takes me only 25 seconds. I felt less sick after that but was not able to move my legs properly and to check my progress I looked at my phone and my gps acted up so couldn’t use that to guage how far I still had to run.
All of these events played on my mind and again I wanted to stop. Negative thoughts flooded in and I really struggled, but remembering what my little girl was shouting at CP 2/3 “go go daddy you can do it”, my wife and in laws supporting me all the way and the lovely messages I got via facebook and from my #twitfam helped me to believe in myself and pull through at a decent pace for the last leg of roughly 9min/mile. At the finish I was very cold and could not stop shaking. When I saw my lovely wife I got very emotional and a bit worried as she told me that I looked a bit blue around the lips. I felt a bit odd from about 2 miles before the end and the feeling only disappeared after a hot shower and lots of food.

Overall I am very happy with my run as I gave it my all and there was nothing left in the tank. I learnt a lot about myself and how my mind and body respond to different conditions and stimuli and how I can rectify short comings even whilst running at my limit.All in all I feel much more confident about running my 37.5 mile ultra on the 14th of July 2012 in Abingdon.

Fundraising news:
www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer
is the web address you can use to donate money towards The Amber
Phillpott Trust. I have received a lot of negative replies from
companies and even more have not even answered at all which is sad but
it wont stop me. I am glad it didn’t stop me as  2 more national/inernational companies have agreed to sent me prizes over.
All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction but if
anything takes your fancy you can always take it off our hands
beforehand in exchange for a donation to The Amber Phillpott Trust.
Available at present are:

High School Musical dance mate games (times 2)
Segais design hair cut
Little cuddly polar bear teddy’s
2 Oxford United Tickets (sorry Raffle only)
Cushion from “Spring Lark”
RC car
Black T-Shirts from Calsberg
Baby food (bowl, spoons, sachets, cuddly toy) from Hipp
Authenticated autographs (Sting, Badly drawn boy, Michael Owen)
Open ended standard return train tickets from FGW x 2 (sorry Raffle only)
mens hair cut
oil change
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
frisbees
If
you like any of these items or express interest in a raffle ticket then please email me at
florianstoermer@gmail.com and express what you are interested in and I
will get back to you.

Stats Zone:
Runs:2
Distance covered this week: 38.1 miles 
Distance covered this month: 38.1 miles

Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.

If
you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other
charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long
Ultramarathon,
then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the
14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc… and/or donate via www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer

You better believe it!!!

Family Ellis also sent this amazing RC Audi car, which is so cool that I might bid for it myself but then again that would be wrong I guess but what a great present this would make to any boy or man because we will always be little boys deep down.

Fundraising news:
www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer is the web address you can use to donate money towards The Amber Phillpott Trust. I have received a lot of negative replies from
companies and even more have not even answered at all which is sad but
it wont stop me. I am glad it didn’t stop me as  the 2 local business I approached directly were very forthcoming and generous so I shall continue to email, call ,write and speak in person to all sorts of companies.
All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction but if
anything takes your fancy you can always take it off our hands
beforehand in exchange for a donation to The Amber Phillpott Trust.
Available at present are:
Cushion from “Spring Lark”
RC car
Black T-Shirts from Calsberg
Baby food (bowl, spoons, sachets, cuddly toy) from Hipp
Authenticated autographs (Sting, Badly drawn boy, Michael Owen)
Open ended standard return train tickets from FGW x 2
mens hair cut
oil change
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
frisbees
If you like any of these items then please email me at florianstoermer@gmail.com and express what you are interested in and I will get back to you.

Stats Zone:
Runs: 3
Distance covered this week: 21.2 miles 
Distance covered this month: 128.37 miles

Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.

If
you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other
charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long
Ultramarathon,
then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the
14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc… and/or donate via www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer

Hi and welcome back to my blog!
So this week I knew wasn’t going to be that good for my training as I had a lot of shifts to work and had jobs to do at home as well as wanting to spent some time with my family. This means that there’s not much to report training wise but let me start my blog off with some good fund raising news.

Monday
Apart from a strength walk, lots of housework and spending a fun day with my kids and my wife (once she was back from work) I managed to squeeze in a new and very hard interval session, which I really enjoyed.
Hold on that’s not all. I also received 2 standard open ended return tickets from the kind and very generous people from First Great Western Trains.

tickets just didn’t look as good as their logo

 Tuesday
Just work no fun no training but the first USB stick has been reserved thanks to a kind charitable donation.

Wednesday
No training but a great friend of mine sent me authenticated autographs of Michael Owen, Badly Drawn Boy and Sting!!

bad picture but great donation I am so pleased

 Thursday
No training no news apart from an exciting email from a potential sponsor which if it does come true will blow my mind and yours. I am  just waiting to hear back from Babygourmet about the proposed arrangement and then I will give details right here.

Friday
Before my night shift I managed to do a quick interval type session training and it was nice just a bit short but I have to be sensible.

Saturday 
After finishing my night shift we looked after our  baby boy who has been suffering with his last teeth coming through and a nasty temperature. SO only a strength walk and some manly jobs done and that’s all.

Sunday
Today was an exciting day as lots of my friends ran the Virgin London Marathon #VLM and for some strange reason I was really excited for them and a bit nervous too. 
Anyhow my lovely wife decided that we should explore a bit more of my actual 35 mile+  ultra route as there is roughly a section of 13 miles I have never even seen… So my brother in law, fellow sith logger and good friend Tim ran from Streatley/Goring to Wallingford with me. That route was scenic and beautiful but this 6.5 mile stretch had 22 gates which I know will be hard to overcome on the 14th of July 2012 but I hope to have friends with me to ease the pain…..

Further more has the lovely Melanie Ellis owner of www.springlark.com informed me that she has hand made a lovely cushion which she is sending down to me to use in the raffle/auction.

She has not stopped there she has also mentioned my blog (including address),Charity and fund raising challenge on her facebook site, via twitter and on her brand new and brilliant new blog which is worth a read whatever you are in to.

Anyhow that was my training week and now to some exciting fund raising news and some impressive stats.

Fundraising news:
I’m
still waiting for the final
registration for The Amber Phillpott Trust with the virgin giving site
before I can register my support site. I will keep you posted with
further details. I have received a lot of negative replies from companies and even more have not even answered at all which is sad but it wont stop me.
All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction but if
anything takes your fancy you can always take it off our hands
beforehand in exchange for a donation to The Amber Phillpott Trust.

Stats Zone:
Runs: 3
Distance covered this week: 15.75 miles 
Distance covered this month: 107.4 miles

Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.

If
you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other
charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long
Ultramarathon,
then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the
14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc… and
soon I will be able to create my sponsorship website so watch this space

Hi,
so let me tell you what happened in this exciting week as one part of the fund raising has started and I ran more than I have in any other week before.

Monday
Nothing really happened today apart from me sending out a lot of emails to companies asking them for their support

Tuesday
I ran an exciting 19 miles in a decent time with some decent hills in there. It was exciting as I ran a new never before run first 6.5 miles and I absolutely loved every bit of it as the view was amazing.

Tuesday was also exciting because I received my first donation to help me raise money for The Amber Phillpott Trust from the lovely people from HiPP. They sent a very cute soft toy, a lot of samples  (which will be raffled\sold as packs of 10), a bip, a few multi coloured spoons and a bowl.

Wednesday
After finishing my night and getting home I decided to go out for a slow jog across never before explored routes. I did just that, taking turns everywhere where I saw public footpath signs getting lost a few times, running through dry but boggy riverbeds and quite possibly tresspassing through some fields at times….. I decided to take it easy as my legs were tired from tuesday’s run and from working all night. I loved the 10 mile run as it was a beautiful scenery and just enjoyeable as I ran carefree. #happyflo

Thursday
I was at work all day so no run but a great bunch of donations arrived from Draeger. They were kind enough to send me a few 4GB usb sticks in the shape of health care professionals, Frisbees, pens, post its notes, id holders and golf ball&tee sets.

Friday
Again I was working and did not get any running in but again I got another parcel sent to me. This time 2 T-Shirt’s from the lovely people from Carlsberg.

Saturday
I managed to squeeze in a swift new approach to interval training by swapping the intensity and duration around a bit. That helped me to really push myself and worked me hard. I really enjoyed this session as it was very hard. (no pics just sweat)

Sunday
Today I ran the first part of my 35 mile ultra marathon just in reverse and I fear the ultra might be longer than initially planned my latest estimate is 37miles…
The reverse bit was very hard as the route is a constant up and down but the net change is 200m the total elevation change was 456 metres according to runkeeper. So I am glad that Iwill  run downhill on the 14th of July. This run was also hard as The Ridgeway was blocked twice by some annoying in-considerate ravers who were part of an illegally organised rave pop up party.On the positive I met “The Joyride” team and that was a nice surprise as they are an awesome group of lads doing an amazing cycle challenge in aid of Cancer research. Great going you guys keep it up.
Whilst mentioning others please take a moment to also look up Mark Townson who went through a different journey and decided to help other people with his blog and MIND by raising as much as he can by running The London Marathon next weekend.

Anyhow that was my training week and now to some exciting fund raising news and some impressive stats.

Fundraising news:
I’m still waiting for the final
registration for The Amber Phillpott Trust with the virgin giving site
before I can register my support site. I will keep you posted with
further details. I have been promised further gift donations from different companies and once they arrive I will obviously put pictures right here. All of these gifts will be raffled off on the day but if anything takes your fancy you can always take it off our hands beforehand in exchange for a donation to The Amber Phillpott Trust.

Stats Zone:
Runs: 4
Distance covered this week: 51.5 miles (my best week ever)
Distance covered this month: 91.65 miles

Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.

If
you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other
charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long
Ultramarathon,
then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the
14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc… and
soon I will be able to create my sponsorship website so watch this space

Happy Easter
I hope you all had a great Easter and ate lots of chocolate as that will help our economy and our mood:-)

Anyway lets talk about my preparation this week for the charity challenge which will be a 35mile ultramarathon along the Ridgeway and the Thames Tow Path finishing in Abingdon on the 14th of July 2012. (Just in case you didn’t know that)

Monday
We drove home from Baildon and it was a lovely drive with lots of fun and laughter. Once we were home and unpacked I had a chance to go for a quick 3.1mile (5km) run and I beat my personal best by roughly 15 seconds and am down to 20 minutes and 16 seconds. So it was a great day thanks to a brilliant team effort from team Stoermer.

Tuesday
It was a nice long run on a new undulating route covering some steep inclines and not before discovered footpaths across the beautiful countryside.

me in the beautiful countryside looking tired

Once I got home after the uneventful but fun run I realised that my third and fourth toe on both feet were bleeding not sure why but I thought that was weird and was planning to put pictures in here but was advised against it…..

Wednesday and Thursday
Both days were spent sleeping as I was on nights..

Friday
I slept 2 hours after my final night and was dropped off en-route to see some friends. I used to drive this section as part of my journey to work but was blissfully unaware on how undulating it was. I ran it with some tired legs and mind and thoroughly enjoyed it as it tested my mental and physical strength.

Long  straight uphill road (tough)

Saturday

No training due to other commitments but managed to email a lot of companies and businesses to ask for sponsorship or prizes for a charity raffle. I managed to contact 100 plus companies and got 3 promises of prizes already. Details and pictures as soon as I get the prizes.

Sunday
I only managed one 2 mile strength walk due to Easter and other commitments.

All in all I am very happy with this weeks adventures as I did a lot of work on the fundraising and awareness raising side and had some decent runs.

Fundraising news:
Still awaiting the final registration from The Amber Phillpott Trust with the virgin giving site before I can register my support site. I will keep you posted with further details. As soon as I receive the promised prizes I will show you pictures of them here.

Stats Zone:
Runs:3
Distance covered this week: 27.03 miles
Distance covered this month: 40.13 miles

Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.

If
you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other
charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long
Ultramarathon,
then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the
14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc… and
soon I will be able to create my sponsorship website so watch this space

Hello!
Welcome back to reading my blog. Its a little late as I ran a little race yesterday and only got home today.
I believe that in your life you need to set yourself goals as otherwise you may waste opportunitys which could enhance your own life and maybe even that of others.
So my goal for this year is to raise money and awareness for The Amber Philpott Trust by running my 35mile ultramarathon on the 14th of July 2012 as part of the Yeah Baby charity concert event in Abingdon.
Obviously to achieve this I have set myself “sub” goals and this week started by me tailoring my training to my 2nd goal of the year, which was to run the Baildon Boundry Way half marathon in less then 110minutes. Have I achieved this or was it a learning experience? WEll keep reading:-)

Monday

I did a quick run of one hour and covered a distance of 8.15 miles I have not achieved this in my training before so I was very proud to say the least. I was very motivated on Monday as my lovely and very supportive wife decided to go out for a run and ran 25% further than planned and regardless of the distance it was a great start and she worked hard! That much dedication by my wife made me work that bit harder to achieve my goal of 8miles in 1 hour.

Tuesday

I ran a shortened interval session after work and it was hard work as I still do not like interval sessions but at least I do not hate them anymore….

Wednesday
My last chance to run before the HM race and I managed to get a good 12 mile run in the lovely sunshine at a decent pace. I ran up the ridgeway and enjoyed the glorious view of Lark Hill and views down from The Ridgeway. I am one lucky man to live and run here.

View of Lark Hill

View on my downhill section from The Ridgeway

Thursday and Friday
No training run just run off my feet at work….

Saturday
Driving to Baildon to see our amazing friends and running partners

Sunday
RACE DAY well today was the day and when we were led to the start I feared the worst as we were led downhill and as my friend Graham aptly said  “the one who walks down will have to run up again”.

View downhill  to the start

His words were very true but still that did not stop me to fulfilling my sub goal for the race of running it as fast as I can with as much fun and as little care as possible and boy that I did. The views were amazing and the marshalls, runners and spectactors were extremly friendly and supportive. I have never experienced anything like this which helped me to run up the crazy hills of the last few miles. Sadly my runkeeper died but Graham was kind enough to tag me in his. Please ignore the times and just look at the elevation Runkeeperlink. So the run was amazing and I could bore you with all the mental ups I had during the race and how challenging the hills were but I won’t. I learnt a few things a) my interval, speed training and strength walks do work b) running without care really makes you faster and c) I love overtaking club runners….
Anyway I had a great time thanks to the support of my family and my friends and managed to run the hilly half marathon in 1 hour 40 minutes and 52 seconds which meant I have smashed my goal of running sub 110 minutes and am close to my season goal of running a half marathon sub 100 minutes.

Left to right: Mark,  me, Graham

Me wearing my T-Shirt with pride all day the next day:-)

Fundraising news:
The Taxman has finally done all the things that need to be done so I should be able to get my fundraising page any day now I am so excited!
Stats Zone:
Runs:4
Distance covered this week: 36.54 miles
Distance covered this month: 13.1 miles

Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.

If
you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other
charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long
Ultramarathon,
then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the
14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc… and
soon I will be able to create my sponsorship website so watch this space

Good Day,
I hope you are all well and that you have and still are enjoying the lovely sunshine. Last week there was no blog from me as I had nothing to write about as my whole family and I were ill which prevented me from training at all……

Anyhow this week I am back and  under strict instructions by my virtual trainer to stick to short runs and not to do anything big as I should give my body the chance to recover from my viral infections.

I know most of you now think that I have not stuck to that but as a matter of fact I have. I did 2 interval training session, a magic mile and a 10k run. I have managed to improve my magic mile to 6:04min and improved my 10k time for this year to 44:34min. Nothing happened during my training runs so I wont bore you with those.

On Sunday I had the privilege to run the Sport Relief mile with my lovely wife Catherine, my 3yo daughter Evie and my 1yo son Fabian (on my back).
It was a lovely experience running with my whole family as I have never done that before and now can’t wait for my little treasures to get bigger so that we can try and join our local parkrun in Abingdon.
I am very impressed with my wife as she doesn’t run and she did really well, Fabian enjoyed himself on my back and kept either giggling or trying to fall asleep but I am extremely proud of my little girl Evie who did not stop moving at all and ran probably for 80 odd percent of the way. We had a great time together as a family and she said that she is running for the poorly children. ( I am very proud of her!!!)
Below are some pictures of my family and me sadly some pics did not upload properly….

the whole gang pre race pic did not upload properly Sorry

Evie and Catherine enjoying their run

sadly pic of  Fabian and I did not upload properly

As soon as I have any news on the actual fund raising part of my charity challenge I will inform you. In the mean time if you have any contacts in companies which may be willing to sponser me please pass their details on to me or forward them my blog link. I hope to get corporate sponsorship as well as that would help to raise awareness and funds…..

Stats Zone:
Runs: 5
Distance covered this week: 73.43 miles
Distance covered this month: 55.56 miles
Strength walks:8
Distance covered: roughly 11.5 miles
Daily strength challenges completed: 7/7

Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.

If
you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other
charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long
Ultramarathon,
then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the
14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc… and
soon I will be able to create my sponsorship website so watch this space