Blog update time guys.

Today I went swimming, the first swim of the new year. I’m not a strong swimmer in fact I prefer to think of it as ‘drowning with style’ but I’m getting better. Olympiad I’ll never be, but at least I can do something more entertaining than tread water.

Limited financial comfort relegate me to council gym facilities. This means having to share limited pool time (a 2-3 hour window in the evening) with children’s swimming lessons and a whole range of different ability swimmers. I’m pretty much used to this, and as I said I’m not the strongest of swimmer. So I’ll identify (quite like the terminator does) the next slowest swimmer in the pool and follow them up and down in the same lane.

However, today there were a couple of really competent swimmers in the pool who glided through the water with ease, one was going really quick, which is fine (go Michael Phelps!) but then he started zig zagging across the pool dodging other swimmers (well actually it was them dodging him as they were stopping to let him past). If you couple this in with the group of four (2 girls, 2 boys) who’d swim a length then stop and chat etc, then it all got quite stressed. Thankfully though speedy Gonzales soon got out (probably spent) and things eased up a bit.

Anyway, 35 minutes done 20 lengths swam!

Next weight loss. My target for the end of Jan was to lose 7lbs, well things have been a little slow in that department, I’d stayed the same. But this morning I’ve lost 3lbs.

I’ve found having my weigh in day on a Friday morning seems to help me as come Monday (the start of the working week) I’m already into my stride with the healthy eating lark so don’t feel extra stress and don’t feel as guilty if I decide to have a cheat meal on the Monday evening.

My mileage target for Jan…. well I’ll talk about that once Jan is over with.

I visited the ‘genius bar’ in the Apple store in Liverpool One this morning. My appointment was for 10 am and was see promptly.

A chap called Chris was the ‘genius’ assisting me today.

Straight away he had all the details about my iPod on his iPad and gave me the bad news that it was 72 days past it’s warrantee. DOH! He did say that it wasn’t water damaged, and that it’s not often that he sees an iPod with the problems mine had.

So he gave me two options

1. I could swap my 32gb iPod touch for a new 32gb iPod touch like for like and pay £100, or
2. I could visit downstairs trade my 32gb iPod touch for the latest iPod touch that’s available, though the cheapest model was an 8gb and that would have cost me close to £160.

Safe to say I went for the cheapest option, option number 1.

So I’m sat at home now, new iPod charged and music/podcast’s set up and it’s ready to go.

Here I posted about an issue I had with a rude bus driver.

Well after a little chasing up last week I got a response, I’ve taken the liberty of copy and pasting the response below.

“16^th December 2011

I am writing further to your communication with Arriva on 15^th December 2011 regarding the problem you experienced with a route 403 bus service.

I can confirm that your comments have been forwarded to the manager of the Birkenhead garage and he has now completed his investigation and reported his findings back to me.

He has stated that he has identified the driver concerned with this incident, the driver has been spoken to in line with our company procedures and suitable action has been taken. Unfortunately for data protection reasons I am unable to disclose the action taken but I can assure you that it does reflect the seriousness of the incident.

Nevertheless we do not expect our drivers to treat passengers in this manner and a copy of this report will remain on file for future reference.

I am really sorry that you have had cause to complain about our services and I offer my sincere apologies for any disappointment or inconvenience caused and please do not hesitate to contact our customer service team should you encounter any further problems.”

Well that’s their response. I suppose it’s case closed. I will add that since the incident I’ve not seen the driver in question.

I will further add though that it took me to chase a response to this matter with Arriva Customer service email (which I now have) to get this response. The above was taken from a copy of a response which they sent out to me, which I’ve not received.

Not long after finishing this race I got through the door my acceptance letter for the London Marathon. At my fourth year of applying I’d been accepted. “Great” I thought. But it wasnt until I started looking at accommodation and travel etc that I realised that this was much more than the race I’d have to plan and prepare for.

My plan was to travel down with the wife and kids, hotel accommodation was acceptable at a push. But when I thought about it, it seemed unfair dragging them down to London just to see me when I crossed the finish line. I’m required to register at the excel centre the day before the race so I’d have been dragging them there as well. The only way things could have been ‘OK’ would have been if we’d booked a longer break etc, therefore more expensive.

After the realisation that logistically and financially it wouldn’t be possible I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be running the race.

That was until my friend (who was also in his fourth year of applying) text me to say he had a place in this years race also. Suddenly the thought of me travelling down the day before the race and coming back the evening of the race made things seem possible again. He’s booked the accommodation (a hotel near Heathrow) for over half the price I would have paid for the family. All that’s left now is to book the train tickets.

They’re not on sale yet as it’s over 12 weeks before the day of travel. So I’ll have to keep checking.

We’re hoping to get cheap train tickets, as if it’s too expensive the only other option we’ll have is to drive, taking it in turns. This isnt idea, but it’s cost-effective.

As far as I’m aware the best way to get cheap train tickets is to get in there early?!? I hope this proves to be true. If anyone has any suggestions regarding cheap tickets I’ll be only too happy to hear them.

My wife got me it for my 30th birthday in 2010. This was to replace an older ipod which was on its last legs (it was 5 years old).

All was going well until August while out on a long run I noticed the lock/power button at the top wasn’t working. When I got home, thinking moisture was the enemy I placed it somewhere to ‘dry out’ the next day it was working as it should. But it only lasted a week and the same problem happened again.

That was it. I couldn’t get the power/hold button to work again. It’s been nearly 5 months now and I’ve been pausing the ipod when not using and letting the screen time out.

I’ve noticed recently though that the battery life isn’t as long as it used to be.

Seems this ipod after just a year is to on its last legs. I’ve looked on the internet and I believe this to be a common problem.

I’ve asked at a mobile phone stall in the market if it can be fixed. It will cost me £35 to replace the button. I’ve been told that I could take it to my local Apple store and as a goodwill gesture they might just replace it, I don’t hold much good for that though.

So Monday, back to waking up early, getting the bus, work and healthy eating.

Yesterday I a href=”http://bigmanruns.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/goals-for-the-year-and-january/”posted/a about my goals for January and the year. One of January’s goals was to lose 7lbs. This will be made possible by using a href=”http://www.myfitnesspal.com/”myfitnesspal/a. This is the site/Android app which I started using in June which has helped (along with marathon training) in me weighing 2 stone less than what I did. Marathon race day I was actually 3 stone lighter, but post race indulgences and the festive period have seen some weight go back on.

When I’m at work I find it easier to eat healthy because I’m distracted with work and therefore I’m not thinking about food. Though that’s not to say if I wanted too I could eat like a pig. The cakes and biscuits my work colleagues have on the table in our tea room…

The thing I do find difficult though is staying hydrated, again I forget/don’t get the chance to grab some water so there will be mornings or afternoons were I’ll go without a drink. Just because I’ve been busy.

Speaking of hydration, I realised on Saturday while out running that a water bottle belt might be a wise investment too. Find it a little cumbersome at times carrying a water bottle. But I suppose the belt is only good if it doesn’t add to much weight to the run.

The main one for the year is the target of 1000 miles. This is the same target as I set myself last year. I didn’t make it. I managed 671 miles. Unfortunately I was quite lazy in the beginning part of 2011.

This year I really think I can do it.

January goal

Well Christmas has taken its toll. A festive weight gain is always guaranteed. Beginning of November I weighed 13 stone 9lbs. This was just under a 3 stone weight loss from what I was in June. Unfortunately post Marathon and Christmas I’ve probably put on about 10lbs. So for me I’ve decided to shift 7lbs by the end of the month.

The second goal, is to do a 20 mile run by the end of January. While training for the Liverpool marathon I did one 20 mile run, that was 6 weeks before the race. This year before London I’d like to get 2 or 3 twenty-mile runs done, just to help with the endurance.

Starting weight 14 stone 6lbs

I’ve made a decision that I’ll blog at least one running related post a week.

So the best way I can do this is if I blog my thoughts that I have while I’m out running (more so the longer runs of the week).

Today for me is the end of my first full week of running. When I say full week I mean at least 3 runs a week. My distance for the week is 24 miles.

Now lets see… Thoughts while out running…..

Well the main thoughts were based around the book I told you about above, I’m not going to post a review or demand that people go out and buy it because you can make that decision on your own based on the comments on Amazon. But what I will say is that it’s motivated me this week to run some serious mileage and it’s also reminded me that I have a blog.

Today the wind was ridiculous, I live on the Wirral which is a peninsula. Three sides surrounded by water I’m bound to struggle with the occasional coastal breeze! But at some points today, I didn’t feel like I was moving (well maybe backwards) the wind was that strong. That’s when it dawned on me that training for a Spring marathon is not only difficult because of the miles you have to put in but also because of the elements that you have to train in.

When I ran Liverpool Marathon in October last year I had the luxury of training through the summer months, So gale force winds were never an issue, sure we had heavy rain (it is England after all) but staying hydrated in the warmer weather was the only concern I faced.

The other challenge I’m facing with Spring marathon training is the dark mornings and dark evenings. Again during the summer it stayed lighter longer, therefore making it easier for me to go running once home from work. At the moment, by the time I’ve got the bus home from work and thawed out running is the last thing on my mind.

There will be more running home from work done to combat this issue, as the direct route home from work gets me home just 10 minutes after the bus would get me home.

Anyway that’s the end of today’s and this weeks running related blog post. As I’m typing this post my legs are aching (surely a good sign) I’m of the opinion that I need to get a ‘foam roller’ so if anyone has any suggestions to which and where is the best place to get one then please let me know.

Thanks for reading.

“Once again I find myself emailing yourselves.

This time I’ve decided to email direct rather than filling out your website Q&A form.

Well what could I possibly be emailing about this time, having complained in the past about late buses, rude staff and again buses being late.. Oh yeah it’s about a bus being late!

Anyway, that was a long time ago, since then I’ve changed jobs within the hospital and therefore changed my bus route.

My route to work is now shorter.

Anyway, as you would expect the bus sometimes doesn’t run on time. A few minutes you can forgive, but as the weather has gotten colder the buses seem to have gotten later.

Sure I’ve sent a couple of emails to Arriva themselves to bring it to their attention but they’re just met with your standard response letters blaming road works somewhere in the area and promising it will be monitored in the future.

However yesterday I had the misfortune to meet a rude bus driver. For whatever reason the driver took offense at me asking to clarify the number of the bus. Below is how the conversation unfolded:

Me: is this the 403?
No response,
Me: is this the 403?
Driver: you should have checked the front of the bus.
Me: I did but it wasn’t clear.
Driver: *shrug of shoulders*
Me: Is there something wrong?
Driver: not with me, but there is clearly something up with you
Pause,
Pause some more,
Me: eh?….. hey any chance I can take your name?

Basically what followed was the driver refusing to give my name, stating the info required to complain was on the ticket. My last comment after this;

Me: so we have to put up with late buses and rude drivers?

The driver didn’t like this, seemed quite shocked I said it, then threatened to throw me off. I put my headphones in and sat down half way through this empty threat and that was that.

Sure I’ve sent another email of complaint to Arriva, and I’m pretty sure that in a couple of weeks I’ll get a response promising more monitoring etc. But considering I pay £55 a month for a bus pass, what’s the point. I mean yeah, its convenient, good for the environment but if I was still using a car I could be there in a third of the time and wouldn’t have to put up with late buses and rude drivers.