Best big run to date - boom!

Very happy today.

I got up at 5am for todays big run and was out by about 5.40am ready and prepared for what I hoped was to be a 32k run - that's 3/4 of a marathon and from what I've learned most people training for their first marathon would not do more than this distance in their training - and it would be about a month before the race date.

I've brought the distance forward a bit because today is a big day too.  Running parties is what I do usually for kids having birthdays who are about 8-12/13 but today is my brothers birthday and he is 50!!

Fifty - that's like a half century!!  Happy Birthday IAN.

So because my brother Ian will be running the marathon with me in October (he has run marathons before) I figured I should put max effort in today and do a serious big run to mark his birthday.
Some of the parties that have happened this month have been an inspiration too and I have asked the kids to sing Happy Birthday to Ian to celebrate his 50th - these have now all been sent to him in Cairo where he lives.  So thank you to all those kids that helped out.

So the preparation went well - good protein/carb meal last night about 9pm after getting back from the studio and early to bed to get good sleep. Up at 5am with my ever supportive wife (training for a half marathon in September) and a small breakfast, plenty of liquids and off we went.

I stayed with wifey for the first 10k then she split off to go home.  Our daughters at Brownie camp so this was a perfect time for us to do this.

After 21k (half marathon distance) I decided to have the muesli bar I had brought with me for extra energy but OMG never doing this again - I couldn't chew - it took around a half kilometer to eat the bugger and I nearly coughed on it twice.  They are not the right food for energy on the go.  I've got to get some of the gels people talk about.  So things went really tho and the heat was not a problem this time.  5am to 6/7am is a cool time of the day with all the smells of pollen and calm roads.  By 27k I was flagging tho but the need to smash 30k was enough to keep me going and smash it I did - brilliant feeling to keep going under psychological pain.  At 30.5k I was faced with the biggest hill in Kenny and out of water, so i decided to walk and not get a needless injury.  At the top of the hill was an old man doing something random in his drive and I asked him if he would mind refilling my water bottles - he gave me the hose pipe saying "its all the same stuff!" and then miraculously for like about 1 minute it rained! But I was refreshed and refuelled so kept going and ran to 32k. I was happy with that but had sort of set my goal on 34k really so I walked 1k and ran the last. 

After running for so long then walking, my calf muscles had given up i think and so maybe this wasn't the best idea - I've heard trainers saying that it's better to keep going and run really slow than stop and/or walk - now I know why. Anyway - I feel really positive now that a marathon is possible for me - 34k is only 8k away and about 80% the distance - I've got 3 months training left and visiting Belgium, Boston, New York and Spain is going to be inspiration to keep training hard.  Bring it on!

Tiny reminder about the marathon relevance to Pop Star Party news:
In October this year I will be running the Dublin marathon so am currently training 4 days a week to build strength & passion for running - I will be running for a charity also and that charity is ChildLine Ireland.
https://sse-airtricity-dublin-marathon-2018.everydayhero.com/ie/roger
I'm taking a food supplement for extra energy & all round organic support to diet:
PopStarFood
If you would like a Pop Star Party then click here
Book Your Best Party Idea Ever Here

Party in Portugal - with sardines!

Last month has been an eye opener in so many ways.  June took me abroad a second time but this time to Portugal where there are forrest's of Eucalyptus trees - or used to be.  They suffered tremendously last year in the fires but are showing superb signs of growing back - it will take a good few more years to fully recover though.  Anyone who pictures a forrest will imagine vast expanses of green - not black.  

A friend of mine has a property in Portugal that he is doing up and I offered to pop out and help in the labouring department and be a moral boost - I also got a really cheap holiday and the chance to train in a different environment - the forrest is on a mountain and everywhere is steep steep steep. Running around these roads was exhilarating and of course I was careful not to overdo anything, as with different terrains you get different sprains.  I clocked an 11k run in Coimbra district which was good enough for me.  Sleeping on a camp bed and working hard in the 38 degree heat was interesting - fortunately this area is very rural and completely the opposite to Norway - wine is mega cheap!!  

And then one night we went to the local town and watched the Sardine Festival - I never imagined I would be writing this in a zillion years - yes the town had gone sardine mad - everywhere people were grilling sardines and selling them and a procession came through with people dancing, holding giant sized sardines on sticks so big it took 2 adults to hold them - bizarreeeeee.

I think this town is very comfortably stuck in the 70's - not a care in the world.  I will be back.

It was  a great break full of hard work and intense heat, running and seeing yet another different side of life - the world's a big place - or sardine even!

Tiny reminder about the marathon relevance to Pop Star Party news:
In October this year I will be running the Dublin marathon so am currently training 4 days a week to build strength & passion for running - I will be running for a charity also and that charity is ChildLine Ireland.
https://sse-airtricity-dublin-marathon-2018.everydayhero.com/ie/roger
I'm taking a food supplement for extra energy & all round organic support to diet:
PopStarFood
If you would like a Pop Star Party then click here
Book Your Best Party Idea Ever Here

Time's flying by

OK so it's been a month since my last post on running parties and running a marathon - there's good reason - I've been running around like a mad man!

The last few weeks have been amazing.  But training has continued throughout.

This is a quick blog about time in Norway.

Anyone who knows me will know that I don't do things by halves and holidays are no exception.  Last year when trying to look for a unique place to go I came across an area of Norway (like a county) called Rogaland - that was all I needed - we we're going.  Only it wasn't possible last year so finally this year we got chance to go.  In the area theres a place called Pulpit Rock which is described as the 'best view in the world' (probably by the Norwegians!) and it definitely lived up to expectations.  It took a ferry, a coach then just over 2 hours to hike to the top but the view was fantastic.  Amazingly there were marathon runners along the way trying to run to the top - a lot were failing as the ascent is mad crazy steep in 4 places.  Tom Cruise was filming here very recently for his next film which I think is out in July?

Sat on the edge of a 604m vertical drop

View from below in a boat

So don't think I was lazy whilst on holiday here - I managed to get 2 runs in including a 10k run to a very weird place called the 3 Swords from our hotel in Stavanger.  After getting to the sculpture it got even better as I realised I could get in the sea and swim to cool down - awesome.  Was a little bit worried about the jellyfish - no stings for me tho'!

So Norway was was fantastic - a lovely country to visit and amazing scenery - things do get expensive there tho'.  It is an expensive country generally and alcohol is very highly priced in public areas - best bet is to buy it in shops but you have to find the right times and places. There is an index called the Big Mac Index which measures the relative cost of a Big Mac in every country - Norway comes second highest to Switzerland.  A trip to Norway needs careful planning.

Tiny reminder about the marathon relevance to Pop Star Party news:
In October this year I will be running the Dublin marathon so am currently training 4 days a week to build strength & passion for running - I will be running for a charity also and that charity is ChildLine Ireland.
https://sse-airtricity-dublin-marathon-2018.everydayhero.com/ie/roger
I'm taking a food supplement for extra energy & all round organic support to diet:
PopStarFood
If you would like a Pop Star Party then click here
Book Your Best Party Idea Ever Here

My half marathon challenge(s)

So I decided when I started training this year that I would do 3 things. Follow a training plan (obviously) but also do the marathon distance every month and do a half marathon every month also - clearly the last 2 can be combined but don't have to be.

Today I completed the half marathon for Feb and the marathon distance for Feb - cos I ran 8.5k on Thursday eve, then 11.5k Saturday and 21k today on Sunday.

'So what?' you may be thinking!!

Well indeed so what, but the thing with running is there is so much too it - it's not just stamina or strength but there's the psychological side to it all as well as the physique and nutrition. And clothes - don't forget them and accessories but that's all another blog.

Whenever you run there is always the temptation to stop, after-all nobody is telling me to run - so what drives me? I guess many things do but possibly the main thing is my daughter.  

Just incase you don't know me I'm Roger, 47 years old and run a recording studio and part of the business involves running Pop Star Party. I'm married to Rachel and have 1 daughter Grace, who I spend a lot of time with and ever since she was born I have encouraged her to do things well and be successful.  She has been taught to swim by me and last year won her schools gala which I was very happy with.  Since the age of 4 she has learned to ice-skate and last year she competed nationally in an ice skating competition which was an enormous challenge.  Part of that required her to be able to do the splits and be very very supple and fit for pulling the moves on the ice and I spent a year helping her (encouraging her cough cough) to do all the exercises and stuff to be able to do the splits - none of us enjoyed this! But she got there and I think her determination impressed me enough to think I should do something to really challenge myself - which is where running fitted in nicely.

A lot of my family run too - there's heaps of runners in my family and we all have our reasons to run.  The things that go through your head when running are hilarious but whenever I'm feeling like I'm knackered I remind myself of how I push my daughter to 'try harder' or 'do it differently' and so I change the pace a bit or do whatever - but I don't stop!

At the moment it seems to work - I think I'm enjoying the psychology of running more than the physicality of running - maybe this will change as I get to be doing harder distances but right now it's all good.

This Thursday I travel to Ireland for my brother-in-laws' wedding and we are staying in Dublin.  I'm intending on trial running the section of the Dublin marathon which goes through Phoenix Park - this is about 4 miles or something along a straight path on a fairly constant incline so I figure is going to be quite dull.  Knowing how long that section takes will be a good help when I do it for real in October.

As soon as that's done I shall no doubt be indulging in all the usual wedding fun and looking forward to meeting up again with all the guys who were on the stag do in Portugal.  Maybe the next blog post will be on that!!

The Run to Dublin - Marathon Man

OK so I've decided to use this blog site to talk about my marathon training. "What's that got to do with parties?" you quite rightly ask!!  Well read on.

I'm not too good at blogs but want to improve. I'm not too good at running but want to improve. So it makes sense to combine the two eh!

I work with hundreds of kids every year running parties and have chosen to include ChildLine as my charity for the marathon in Dublin which is on Sunday October 28th 2018.  

Hopefully later and as things improve I will add all the details and maybe have followers too. So I'm gonna keep blog posts short (especially this one as Im running late today) (pardon the pun) but am excited to start to get this big deal out there.  

Training for a marathon starts early and actually i started last year when i trained from January 2017 to September 2017 for the half marathon in Nottingham. I completed it in 2 hours 15 mins which was a bit slower than i had hoped by hey - theres good reasons - more later on that.

This year training has also kinda begun and its exciting because the training will continue wherever I go - I already ran in Portugal in January (during a stag party holiday!) and will be running part of the actual marathon course in Ireland when I'm over there for my brother-in-laws marriage in March. After that Im going to Norway for a family holiday and Portugal again to help a friend developing a property and then hopefully Spain in the Summer, New York and Boston visiting family then the big one back in Ireland in October. So yes its exciting and I want to share it somehow!

So there we go - this is the start.

Cheers

Roger
Running parties for kids & running a marathon for ChildLine