A New Year with less alcohol, less caffeine and less toenails

With January being a month where no-one has any money, Sean and I decided that rather than doing a physical challenge, we would both give up alcohol and caffeine.

It's been a long, long month but with only 5 hours left of January it looks like we're going to complete the challenge! It really hasn't been easy. Work has been extra busy, we've both stepped up the training in preparation for the marathon and caffeine has been greatly missed.

Before Christmas I'd definitely become quite dependant on coffee. With dark mornings, early starts and dark evenings finding the motivation to work out, do a long day in the office and then work out again was difficult and only possible with lots of coffee. I had been drinking about 5-6 cups of coffee each day. The first few days were difficult and i had a constant headache but after that, things became much easier and I feel much better now. I'm sleeping much better which actually means I'm more awake than when I was drinking coffee.

A month without alcohol hasn't been as bad as I had initially anticipated as we haven't been out other than for a dinner a couple of times and when neither of you orders wine with dinner, it doesn't seem as difficult. Having said this, I'm currently sat looking longingly at my sister's glass of wine!

January has been a good month for training and we've both signed up to a new gym. We're both trying to put in as many miles as we can every week but the weeks seem to be flying by and the marathon is getting ever closer.

Our next event is only 2 weeks away so for now it's back to training and we'll update you all again once we've completed the Avalanche Run in February.

Oh and in case you were wondering about the name of the blog, I lost a toenail after doing the Brutal 10 in December.

HellRunner and Brutal 10

Since I wrote my last blog entry the above challenges have been completed. So far, so good.

Tackling HellRunner first, it was just as bad as it sounded. The terrain was tough, the water deep and the mud like quicksand, however, it was my worst fear, the bottlenecking of people, that caused the most problems. Unfortunately, as I've seen with events like this before, there are certain segments of the course that necessitate a single file policy and there's nothing you can do but (at least appear to be) patient and wait for your turn to enter whatever it is that's awaiting, usually a muddy pool. The major downside with this, other than the negative impact it has on your time, is that all this waiting around in cold and wet clothes doesn't really help you to get and/or keep warm. In serious cases, experienced by one of our crew, is that this can lead to mild hypothermia setting in. I don't think this was helped by this particular runner's choice of attire...not mentioning any names.

              You wouldn't have been able to tell who's trainer was who's after the race!

It didn't help that we didn't know the actual distance of the race (the official line was that the course would be 10-12 miles but no actual distance could be confirmed. Lucky us, it turned out to be closer to 12 miles). Importantly, all 4 of us that took this one on completed it and money was brought into the coffers for RHF. Job done.

Training for HellRunner had gone pretty well, even if it was only started a couple of weeks before the event. Sadly, the same can't be said for Brutal10. Although i did get an initial urge after HellRunner to really take my training seriously, this lasted all of one week before I reverted to type, type being not a lot. The timing of Brutal10 didn't help either, with this event taking place a mere 3 days after Christmas. With all the traditional food and drink flying around, I was never going to be in tip top shape no matter how well I trained (or so I kept telling myself) and therefore the lazy side of my brain got the better of me. I can safely say Danni was much the same.

Nevertheless, Danni and myself rocked up to Brutal10 armed with not a lot of fitness but a lot of determination. While we all ran separately for HellRunner to allow each of us to get the best time possible for the individual, with only 2 of us running this one we agreed to run the course together to keep each other company and motivation high, much needed it turned out.

While the Brutal10 course itself was not as difficult or as long as HellRunner, the lack of training made it feel not far off it. Still, we made it as fun as we could and both crossed the line together at around 2 hours 15 minutes, despite Danni trying to cheekily outsprint me (evidenced below) at the end for personal glory. I wasn't having any of that!

So all in all, the events I've done so far have been challenging like I wanted but achievable. There is bigger and tougher stuff ahead but that's 2 down for me now and God knows how many for Danni (I think 6. Actually I know 6, she's just confirmed). 

Next up is Chase the Yeti (how fun does that sound?!) followed by a night race. The Paris Marathon and a 20 mile assault course will follow hard on the heels of these so training really will need to be stepped up in the near future.

We are both extremely grateful for the generous support shown so far and extend our thanks to those of you who have sponsored all of us, some multiple times, who have contributed to the cause. I know Christmas has gone but keep the generosity up!

Sean