Swansea 10k and Scam monkey update

Another year, another run around Swansea for 6 miles! Only this year my expectations were on the floor. After a year of physio and rehabilitation classes, before starting back to run properly, I was happily hoping to get round in 55 mins or so (although I was faster than that in the Merthyr 10k).

Come race day, I'm feeling good, had to run an unexpected 1k kids race practically dragging Gracie by the hand  first thing. But that's all warm up I suppose! Plenty of stretching so as not to destroy my knee again and i was off.

Got to give it to Swansea, it's a nice course, especially when the sun is pumping down on you on such a nice day. Downside is... sun is pumping down on you as it's such a nice day. Big thanks to the guy with the hose at about 6 or 7k, much appreciated. So so hot!

On route, felt horrible at first, had been stood in the baking sun for 20+ mins before hand, was really overheating! But got myself into a good rhythm and within 2 or 3k i was going at a decent pace. Then the realisation hit me... I could maintain this pace, this was comfortable... so I maintained it. It got to the point where occasionally I was losing time due to traffic, this does not happen to me.

Got to the last 400m or so and I felt like i had more in the tank, so off i went, no quite a sprint finish but a quick one. I run in before the clock gets that close to 51 mins and instantly know... PB. Phone says 50:38, but slightly over distance (as usual me wandering past the line trying to turn it off). But regardless I'm happy.

Time later comes through at 50:19, 1:31 off my old best time! Barely mediocre in the grand scheme of things but for me, not bad. Although I have got sunburn on both my shoulders... in September... and it is quite sore...

Also, update on scam monkey from other day, reported to police, PayPal and gumtree (who ignored my email) and my money is on it's way back! Massive thanks to Andrew Aitcheson for the assistance/advice on this. Now hoping to get a capture card again! Have recorded one XB1 video, but it was shite and has been filed away on some god forsaken corner of YouTube. as a WIP!

Cardiff half in 2 weeks, expect more running related writings before then.

Roughly 1 year later...

This time last year (think it was January) I posted this:

http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/hi-im-andrew-and-im-underachiever.html

Which has been described to me as a very frank and honest post about myself, it was even mentioned in my work appraisal! Well as much as January is the time for planning, December should be the time for reflecting, I've just read that post back and... Hmmm a mixed bag of results at best.

Let's start with positives! Oh yes fitness. Decent effort PB's at 10k and half marathon and big PB's too. Had a big stall the last 6 weeks or so with a broken arm but come March 3rd I'm confident I'll be capable of a sub 2 hour half marathon in Llanelli. Not bad for a fat asthmatic! Still plenty to do though, still fat but not as fat (my work pass photos were beginning to look like before/after shots). I was actually going to the gym today but mother Driscoll is coming down shopping and so I'm meeting her for lunch instead! Dedication!

On a personal level, good stuff. Child #2 (Dylan) successfully birthed and growing. I was actually fully aware of his existence at the point of the other post, but it was early pregnancy and we hadn't said anything to pretty much anyone, so me announcing it to the 24 (actual number) of people who read the last post would have been silly! I still have 2 houses etc and home like is still good (hi Cerys!), Gracie is doing well in school and dotes on the baby. No complaints there.

Ambition wise, not so great. My 'chance' to try out a senior role and then apply for it was a truly epic epic fail. Crashed and burned in style and what felt like my last chance to progress failed. I tried to join another department, bang in another fail, I tried to join another company... Hat trick! There's still a possibility going forward, but by now its pretty obvious where then problem really lays.

Am doing some courses though, maybe I'll learn something.

Don't get me wrong I don't hate my job and I work with some good people. Generally people who've been there less time than me and have passed me by though. There's even patterns in fractals (Google or listen too Mandelbrot set, Benoit has sadly left us though... Mandelbrot's in heaven..).

Writing wise, including this I've posted 40 times on here. That's not too bad. Some with decent number of views too!

As I said previously, all I can do is try and on times I've crashed and burned and on some things I've done quite well. Oh well power on!

The blogger app (still on the nexus 7, tis lush) just asked me to tag my location... Northern Europe was the best it could do... Don't think this pad has GPS but well done for trying! If you ever wonder where I am in the mornings, its easy there's only ever 2 possibilities, either on manor way while a stagecoach driver looks confused at traffic or on the A470 while some stagecoach driver looks confused at traffic. After Christmas I'm switching to train. I'll take overcrowding ahead of taking 2 hours to get to work.

EDIT: Sorry Nexus, you do have GPS. Should never have doubted you!

And I'm spent...

Running season is over, for now anyway. last weekend was the final run of my 3 leg September/October jaunt round Swansea, Cardiff and Aberdare(!). Personal Bests tumbled, knee joints crumbled but after a roughly combined 242 minutes of running, I'm done.

As a result of my efforts, Barnardo's has a little more money and I have...

A truly epic collection of event t-shirts and participation medals!

My favourite shifted this year too, usually the Swansea 10k is my fav race, but this year it was Cardiff. This was helped by Swansea being horrifically wet and windy, but the crowds etc in Cardiff did spur you on, plus I wasn't struggling as much as before so could take stuff in! Aberdare? Fuck me, hardest first mile and a bit ever, but quite pleasant apart form that. Think I'd like to do it quicker, but the main issue was my brains unwillingness to let me run quickly down steep hills.

Given my standard of coordination I'd have been picking up my teeth from a rock half way down if I'd gone for it! Still worth a go though and the t-shirt from that was the nicest!  

So what now? Time to sit on my arse over crimbo and get fat... well to a degree. I've classed myself as injured at the moment as I am walking like I've shit myself due to swelling on my foot and a ropey knee, but give me a week and I'll be back in the gym on lunch times, I've kind of agreed with my pointless and demon run co-person to do the 5k 'santa' dash in Cardiff in December. It's 5k, there are no concerns there, but it'll keep me going.

Further more there's then a 8 mile road run in Newport in January (let's face it if I'm in Newport, I'm going to be running, to save my trainers from chavs at least) which looks like a great warm up for the Llanelli Half Marathon in March, which is supposed to be a nice and quite quick course. Sub 2 hours anyone? I doubt it too but I'm going to try.

Long term goal is apply for London 2014... but calm down for 5.

Then next year I'll do it all again! Well maybe!

Either way the slightly smaller version of me is more manageable and less likely to die horribly from a heart attack or related illnesses, so the exercise levels should at least stay the same, and to be fair do need to get picked up further. Particularly on distance, must run further at a time.

But for today... where's me burger?

Cardiff Half Marathon

Well that was fun, the only dry day in about 6 months, contrasting the Swansea 10k drastically, freezing temperatures to start but warming up nicely, and improvement on the course they used last year. The Cardiff Marathon was a nice day out:

I went in with a target time of 2:10, hoping for 2:05 and for the second race in a row, I hit the better target! Moving my oversized gut round the 13.1 miles in 2:03:58. If anything a bit frustrating I was closer to 2 hours than I was expecting while still falling a bit short.

A slow first mile people dodging (10:40ish) didn't help, and there was also a massive flap at around the 8 mile mark all of which cost me quite a bit of time of course. But I think with better training 2 hours should be my target come Llanelli in March.

Not a bad couple of races, taking 6ish mins of my 10k time and 19ish of my 1/2 marathon and judging by how I feel, there'#s more to come on both. Sadly my knee doesn't seem as willing as the rest of me and is rather useless at the moment, as a result I'm now officially doubtful for the Aberdare Demon Run this coming Sunday, as long as it feels ok by Wednesday I'll be raring to go, but I think I quick check up on it may be in need tomorrow.

Next year though, sub 2 hour 1/2 is on, and I also fancy a go at a 26.2 miler at some point, but maybe 2014.

Running again!

So, how do you spend your lunch hours? Quick pint? Food? Sounds good to me, but lately I've begun using the hour, and the free gym work provides, to get a bit of exercise in!

For the last few weeks, I've been banging in a quick 5km, which let's face it is more than I was doing anyway, not hard to do more than 0! Oh and when I say quick, I'm fully aware than just under 26 minutes isn't quick, I don't mean it like that, was a bit disappointed with yesterdays 5.85km in 30 minutes though.

This year I have 3 events planned:

• Swansea 10k
• Cardiff Half Marathon (21.2km)
• Aberdare 'Demon' Run (8km, but apparently over some nasty terrain)

So as you can imagine running my 5km repeatedly is woefully inadequate, but it's a start, bit of weight may come off so I won't look quite so much like a blimp in a Batman hoodie!

Maybe Val should join me!

Sorry, have to reuse it, love that pic!

Keep on running

It's that time of the year again, the time of year I try to do something I'm physically incapable of to raise money for charity (well not only for that, I do it so I don't become a 30 stone monster as well, beefcake!), this year I've used all my imagination and done exactly the same as last year, the Cardiff Half Marathon, plus probably the Swansea 10k as a warm up race.

This year I'll be joined by my friends Brad and James (or so I'm told by Brad, don't count numbers til the start line), here's the classiest photo I could find of myself (the floral number) and Bradley (the little black/grey dress) from my stag night. Ignore the bald one, we always find it best.

Anyway, running requires preparation, something which traditionally I suck at as much as the running part. So this year I've started earlier (well it can't be any later than last year as I barely did anything, lazy motherf...) so Rhydycar gym will actually start earning the £9,500 a month it takes from my account. So far I've made 2 visits, on the first covering 4 miles and doing a bit on the bike and the second 5 miles, both at pretty decent pace too, so I'm pretty confident I'll be able to do 13 by October.

The main issue at the moment is feeling the urge to stop at even the faintest hint of fatigue. Knowing rest and relaxation is just a large red stop button away is quite tempting, to the point where on the 5 miles, I could have easily have carried on, I wasn't feeling that bad, but just thought, "That'll do fatty, go get a burger." Which of course I didn't.

Luckily I get myself into a mindset that once I'm going I do tend to really enjoy training. Headphones in, decent music, bit of adrenaline or something pumping, sense of achievement when you get there, it's good stuff.

Equally my choice of charity is still open, traditionally of late I've fund raised for Velindre, a very worthy cause. But with a new sprog on the way (have I mentioned that? I have now anyway) the temptation is there to support a kids charity, such as the NSPCC who I ran for on my first half marathon, also with Brad but no James, ended with quite a nasty knee injury...

Any suggestions, I have a comments section....

I may keep this blog updated periodically with training updates, I doubt they'll be that interesting, but it's my blog and I'll post what I like! I'm planning on hitting the gym this very evening, 5 miles again is the target, see how I feel when I get there. I'm still far to heavy to make a decent go at it, but I'll get there. I even have Special K for Breakfast this morning! Not out of any weight-loss plan, I just really like the red berries one. 

Also is it wrong I'm really fancying a kebab at the moment?

Hi, I'm Andrew and I'm an underachiever

On a personal level, my life is pretty sweet, I have good friends, the kind of friends you can rely on, I have a lovely wife who I love dearly, I have Gracie who's a story on her own, I have family, I own a couple of houses (1 of which I live in obviously). Things are good! However, there's always been one level on which I frustrate myself royally, achievements.

Now I know everything above is an achievement, and some of them big ones, I'm talking about the little personal stuff. Not quite a bucket list, I'm not that old or (as far as I'm aware) in any immediate danger of kicking said bucket.

Back in school days I had a bit of ambition, but never followed it through, up until the age of 16, I wanted to write, I had a pretty good imagination, decent attention to detail, could put points across and was borderline creative, I thought I could write things people would be interested in. I wanted to be a journalist. Come 16 and A-Level options time I convinced myself I wasn't good enough for this and went down the safe, 'I'm a geek and I'm good with numbers and computers option' (which I am) took maths/sciencey A-levels and lacked enthusiasm for 2 years. (Apart from stats modules in Maths, I seemed to be reasonably good at them naturally and enjoyed them much, looking at my job now of course...)

This lack of enthusiasm carried through so I never actually wanted to go to university, but I did for a while as that was my next prescribed step, I did ok, but circumstances went against me and I dropped. I don't regret going, some of the people there were top quality and I made some good friends, I just wish I'd been there out of desire not duty.

Work wise, I always have been ambitious, I've always tried to push myself, try and get to a more senior level, but I must have been successful in around 10% of the internal interviews I've gone for. I've got a chance to try out a senior role now, I'm giving it my best but I still feel I'm the underdog long term, but we'll see. At times I've wallowed and as a result maybe missed chances, there are times I've felt frustrated, I'm not exactly known for my unshakable self confidence and at times I can be slow to recover from losing out. This is the year for moving on up I feel, I just have to make sure it happens.

It's not so much even about the money, yes I'd love a job which paid me royally, no more stressing about money, can have all the shiny things in the world, woo-hoo, nice, but not essential. Primarily I want to enjoy my job, have a feeling of responsibility. I'm not saying I don't enjoy what I have now, but I want... more. Exactly what I've been finding in my temp role. Worst thing could be if I do my 2 months then fail long term. Previously I assumed I'd enjoy such a role, but now I actually know that I do, back to before may be worse. Oh and reasonable money is a necessity I have a family and mortgage remember, I'm sure charity work would be rewarding, but I can't see it buying food!

The writing things hangs round too, and I've written stuff before, some I've posted on here, more I haven't, most I've never finished after convincing myself (probably accurately) that what I'm writing is shite, maybe it was a good idea to start but I killed it... I stuck the one short story on amazon, but it didn't sell (I didn't exactly push it either) it was horribly bad value for money anyway, but I thought the content was tolerable. But there must be an idea in there somewhere otherwise why would I have the continuing ambition to try. Self delusion? Distinct possibility, but seeing/reading some of the stuff on the kindle store, well let's just say there's hope for everyone.

I even have been writing reviews for amazon of late, just to see how people react to stuff I think. I'm ranked just inside the top 17,000 reviewers, so not exactly a write off, but not good by any stretch. But I'll climb over time, maybe.

I've always had ambitions to be fitter, I'm never going to be an athlete, I knew from the age of 10 and missing an open goal with a header for St Illtyds Primary team I was never going to be a footballer, or an athlete of any kind. But that's no reason to sit on my arse and be a fatty now is it. I've been thin, I've been 19+ stone and if I had to choose between the two... I'd choose neither, but more towards the smaller. I really like going to the gym, and I get a sense of relaxation from running, always have, my body however disagrees and breaks regularly, slowing progress to the point where it's an effort to get going again, like now. But I will be back gym count on it, and soon (Llanelli Half coming up in March!). Plus I'm getting quite fat again, well more fat than usual!

Well fuck all this wallowing in self pity, in 16 days I'm 30 and this year I'm going to do something about some of it. That's what new years resolutions are after all. Maybe not it all, and maybe I'll bomb at what I try, but as long as I do try, I can't do any more.

Oh and I'll also try writing here regularly again, it was doing OK and I neglected it, plus that writing thing I was on about...

Please sponsor me!

Hello,

No rant today, more of a beg!

In just 9 days time I, under the persona of runner 6695, will be one of a massive 14,000 people tearing through the streets of Cardiff as a runner in the Cardiff Half Marathon.

I do these things as a personal challenge, something always to keep ahead of me to work for, although this time the work has been beyond non-existent, I'll do better next time I promise, but I also do them to do what I can for charity. This run as my last couple have been is for Velindre Cancer Hospital in Cardiff.

I could spout endless amounts of shite about their good work but it's generally better to let them do the talking, their information is here:

http://velindrefundraising.com/

So if you have a spare pound, fiver, grand (maybe not) and want to give it to Velindre, I'll be happy to be the conduit for that. Plus it'll help spur me round the 13+ miles of disaster and torment that lay ahead of me.

You can sponsor me at:

http://www.justgiving.com/andrew-driscoll0 

Thanks in advance!

Swansea Bay 10k

Yesterday was the lovely Swansea Bay 10k. My third time in the race and by far the least preparation I'd ever done. I'm by no stretch an athlete, so to try this kind of thing ideally some decent effort needs to be made, however this time things just kept getting in the way and I did 1 run (count it... 1) in the 2 months or so before the event. (Heolgerrig - Beacon Heights via winchfawr road, 4 miles very hilly) So as you can imagine there was a sense of dread as number 3753 took up his position at the rear of the field (where I belong) to run the 6.2 miles ahead.

At this point I'll go into my biggest usual problem running, pacing. I can't do it, I never have any idea how fast I'm going etc, so hight praise for the Nike+ GPS iPhone app. An absolute godsend, kept me informed on pace as often as I wanted, well worth the £1.49 from the app store (I had mine free!)

Anyway, back on point, I started, right calf quite tense and a little sore, couldn't hear the warm up (as could nobody round by me, everyone just kinds stood round looking confused while the first 2500 - 3000 people bounced around weirdly) so just tried stretching the sore bit.

Then bang, we were off... well almost it took me 2 and a half minutes to start, but I was off. I hit the Nike+ app which started the music. First song? 'We're not gonna make it' by the Presidents of the USA. You couldn't write it! It also finished with Still Alive by Jonathan Coulton, quite apt, 'This was a triumph...'.

But it went quite well, I kept pace well for the first half of the race, was on schedule for an hour time, my ultimate goal (aim low, rarely disappointed) until a few niggles kicked in and I had to stop a few times on the way back. But I finished and I finished without any major disasters. The time:

Nike+ says 1:04:43 my chip says 1:05:00 so one of them, in a massively underwhelming 2,400th / 4,000.

Not exactly a write off, but I know I could have done better and if I'd actually trained I could have done well. So I'm frustrated mainly with myself!

I now have 3 weeks til the Cardiff Half Marathon, I need to train, I will do 2:20, it's my goal! Plus I can't make it 13 miles without good prep, it's a physical impossibility! I'm also running it for Velindre if anyone wants to sponsor me, feel free!

http://www.justgiving.com/andrew-driscoll0/eurl.axd/d33ccee2fd79d546ae925c4f9d873bb1

Lloret rocks, alpharooms suck

Right, it's got to be said, these blogs are turning a little into the consumer section on that's life. But I don't care, it's my blog and I'll write what I like so there :p

Firstly, I had a delightful time in Espania. Lloret is a lovely place, not really targeted at the Brits so much any more, or maybe not at this point in the season anyway. But the hotel was decent the staff was nice, all in all it was a lovely little trip.

The only downside was... well getting home at the end. We noticed the night before that Alpharooms, who we'd booked everything through, had made a mistake with the return transfer, which would have left us stuck for a very long time in the airport. So we rang up to arrange, the first woman, unhelpful but gave us another number, the second one took their time, seemingly couldn't work their own systems (all while we should have been partying on our last night out there) then eventually gave us a new time and pick up point. To be sure, we passed the phone woman to the receptionist to write stuff down due to slight difficulty understanding the Spanish accent. She even drew us a little map, how nice!

We ate and drabnk and were merry! Eventually after sorting these people out, it can take the shine off the last night of a holiday (actually a honeymoon) when you have to sort out stuff people have cocked up on your behalf.

Following morning, checked out after a nice breakfast (gotta love a bit of all inclusive buffet style grub!), at least 50% of us remembered to get their wrist band snipped, (the other 50% may have kept it on til we were in a party on the sat night) and we trekked over to the Guitart Monterray to get picked up (We were staying in the Guitart Capri!). Well we waited for the bus, and waited and the due time passed, and we got a little(!) stressed and waited and then phoned.

Yay! We'd been given the wrong pick up location and the bus had fucked off without us. No choice, panic stations, ran back to hotel, asked the still helpful reception staff to get us a taxi and we taxi'd it back to the airport in time... and at a cost of €55, we were lucky we had enough cash on us. We also tried asking the Spanish taxi driver for a receipt, I may as well had been asking a Martian for a table tennis ball, so we gave up and went for the plane.

Obviously this annoyed me, it was alpharooms fault for booking the wrong thing and then the coach company (NTIncoming) for giving the wrong info when we tried to fix alpharooms mistake. So on return, I wrote a nice email ready for alpharooms stating I feel they should cover the taxi fare, refund the unused transfer and maybe a little sorry would be nice. I went to their site and guess what. No email address to complain to.

I asked if anyone knew one on twitter and the company themselves contacted me to say no. I mean honestly, how backwards a system. Fair enough if I was supplying receipts or something, but I could even scan them!! I just wanna complain! It's obstructive and obviously designed to make complaining as hard as possible. Poor show. But complain I will. Maybe they'll even read this who knows!

In other news today, series 5 of The Guild starts on XBOX Live! (Thursday for other formats) well I'm assuming that's the case as it's the US release schedule and it should be pretty uniform.

OK then, don't keep on running, it's up to you

I honestly don't know whether I'm accident prone, unlucky or my body has some kind conspiracy against me. I'm guessing it's the first, but no guarantees.

No sooner as I signed my name on the (digital) dotted line for the half marathon and good cause bit I so lovingly blogged about Monday, than I manage to injure myself! I'd been playing 5 a side for what must've been 35 or 40 seconds when I get a pain in my right thigh. No, that can't be great I thought, but I carried on and before I knew it kicking the damn thing became a remarkably sore experience. That's right, I'd done a muscle in my thigh. Highly annoying! I played on, but with little ability to kick, run or stick my leg out you can imagine how useful I was.

You think my body has some kind of problem with me becoming fitter. It felt the cardio about to be pushed and went, "Screw that fat boy, you aint taking my McDonalds off me." I would like to reassure my body, the McDonalds will be a constant, although overtaken in the preference scale by a Dominos American hot with no onion and extra pepperoni. mmmmmmmmmmmm

It's only now the second day and the pain is better and I'm already not walking like quite the weirdo I was yesterday, I honestly think I'll be fit to go back to the gym on the weekend, but it's still annoying as it's put me  behind where I wanted to be before I've even started.

I've got 4 months and I'm not exactly starting from scratch so I think I'll be OK. But if this happened just at the wrong moment, what's going to happen next? It's been a few years since I broke anything... I'm sure it'll be fine.

Regardless of no training I am today going to start my fundraising efforts in earnest. I'll start with work. Generally people in work with me a good people and generous ones too, I'm hoping that has continued into the current questionable economic climate. They should be used to me by now by generally do 1 charity thing a year, such as the Excalibur Challenge last year in which me n 3 others raised £1,300 or so for Velindre. I'm not going to manage that solo obviously, but its good as it shows I can do it.

I'm not sure whether to stick to, 'will you please sponsor me' stuff or expand a little. In that £1,300 was the proceeds from a quiz night, once again much harder to do anything with solo than with 4, but if I ask nice maybe they'll help!

Keep on Running!

Today, I signed myself up to run Octobers Cardiff half marathon.

I've always been one of those people who trains and looks after themselves far better when they have some sort of goal to work towards. Goal driven if you will. So today I put a rather large goal almost looming over me, as a result I will go to the gym, mainly as I don't want top die in a park in Cardiff.

13.1 miles is a long way and I'm not anywhere near fit enough at the moment but I'll get there. I'm hoping for a time around 2:20-2:30 with no injuries. I'll be happy with that. Let's be honest, I'll be happy to finish before the 3 hours is up and I have to dodge cars in the street to get to the line! It's good to have ambition I find.

I will of course drag my ass round the Swansea 10k as preparation, which is always nice and not too far. It'll be fine... my God what have I done...

What signing up for these types of events also does is give me an opportunity to raise some money for good causes and this is no exception. I have signed up as one of the Velindre 100 Team to help raise funds for Velindre Cancer Centre. I'm in the process of making up a justgiving page, which if anyone feels the urge to donate too.. please do. Link will follow! My initial target is a princely £100, I hope to beat that, but who knows, it relies on me getting sponsors, something which I'm bad at.

Oh well I'll try me best. I have twitter I suppose, I'll use that.

Anyway I off to play 5-a-side.