!!!

So I haven't made a post in 6 weeks. I've reached the point of not caring about this blog. That's a bad point to reach. There was a lot not worth writing about, like all my University deadlines. If you care, I had four essays and five exams in the month after the marathon. I've got three results back. One was a low 2.1, one was a good 1st, and one was an amazing 1st. I basically got full marks, and the teacher had nothing bad to say. That was the essay I wrote on the Marathon. I think I'll post it on here, its 6000 words so you probably won't read it, but it saves me doing another post about the marathon. You won't have to heard me say the word "Marathon" again. Not until next year anyway.





After the Marathon, the next exciting thing to happen was that Will and Kate got married (FYI). I watched it in bed.



Not alone obviously. Olivia was my Princess for the day. She was even wearing a real Tiara. But she doesn't want to be seen here.

Olivia left me for some seasonal work in Australia.



And you know what filled the hole she left in my life? My stalker. That's right. I had a stalker for a while in 2010. He would pop up in the most awkward places and fuck my day up. Well he reared his ugly head last month and fucked my whole life up, and I've been having bad dreams about him every night since. Seriously. I could name him and shame him but that would be mean. Maybe if he crops up again, I will. Unless I dispose of him first.



But it might not have to come to that. Because I dyed my hair blond, so he won't be able to find me. (That's not true. He likely knows i've dyed my hair, but I needed an excuse to mention it to you). And blonde's definitely do have more fun. Maybe not more fun in life, per se. But more fun with different colours of dye. What's that saying? "You can't paint a shit pink" or something. Well you can't dye black hair pink either.



Or green.

Marathon training, weeks 19 - 21

I didn't make separate entires for these three weeks because, drawing so close to the end of it all, everything's become quite monotonous, really. Although i've been doing things these three weeks that I hadn't done for the first 18.

I've been to physiotherapy twice, which is quite enjoyable. My physiotherapist is a turkish cpriot, and i'm a greek cyprio, so he get's all his racial anger out on my calves, so we both win.

I've started to delve into some research i'm doing for an essay on the marathon. Maybe too much research. But it means that i'm not just running it for running-its-sake, but for research purposes, so whether I give up and die, or breeze through to the finish line in seconds, I will have something to write about, I hope.

I raised £200 in these three weeks. I was hoping for more, but i've got wind that "the average" fundraiser is at 50% with one week to go. I'm at 61%. Win. I will keep nagging you, for the next 6 weeks, to donate on my behalf, so you should do it.

I've started tapering, so 2 weeks ago, after my longest run yet, 15 miles, i get to relax more and eat more than ever, which is fun.

Can't beleive there's less than a week left. Not really a training week at all. It seems to me as though I haven't trained for long or hard enough; I've heard a lot recently about how mammoth a marathon is supposed to be, and that half of it is in in the training. It's been quite enjoyable for me. Maybe because i'm young.

The Curse of April 17th

I'm cursed. By April 17th. Or at least I think I am. But I'm going to document this now, in 2011, so that if the curse plays out, and I die on April 17th, you'll all be safe in the knowledge that I told you so.

The curse isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I've noticed that for as long as I can remember (April 17th 2007), something monumental/dire has happened in my life. Let's start with April 17th 2007; I broke up with my first "real" boyfriend on this day. Hardly life changing, but it was a big deal at the time. One year later, I found myself in someone else's bed, and I was like "Oh snap! It's a year today since I broke up with Matt! How far I've come!" Little did I know that the sex I had on A17th08* (*Does that work?) would lead me into a painful, one sided relationship a la Kate Winslet in The Holiday.

So so far - My first break-up. I fell in Love. 2009 was a bit different in that what happened was that I shat myself.

Yeah you heard me. It was just a normal day, A17th09 to be precise, and I hadn't yet clocked on to my curse. I was in the middle of a Jungle, in a homophobic country, so obviously the Curse-Master couldn't inflict any romance related calamities on me this day. But I got out of my hut, as I did every morning, brushed my teeth by the river side, in my swim shorts and t-shirt whilst watching the hundreds of school children sweep the grass (???). My tooth-brushing was, as always, interrupted by the headmasters house-girl telling me my breakfast was ready. So I put my toothbrush back in my hut, and crossed the busy field to the headmasters hut, where I sat with him and his wife, to our usual breakfast of Hot water and fresh bread. And then suddenly I shat. It wasn't even faux flatulence. One second I was chewing by bread, the next second I was shitting. At a table full of people, in loose shorts, in a house without a toilet. I had no choice but to finish my breakfast with a stern face, and politely excuse myself, somehow keeping my back to the wall. I couldn't keep my back to the wall when crossing the field, back to my hut, but who knows what, if anything, the children saw. They probably just saw the crazy white man clutching at his shorts for no reason. Anyway, we don't need to know the rest of the story. Suffice to say I got washed and changed and went to school. The point is - Who shit's themselves?! Nobody does. Except children, old people, people who are having anal sex, and people who are cursed. We know which category I fell into on that day, don't we (the cursed one). It was only in writing it in my diary that night that I spotted the date at the top of the page! I noticed the trend, How exiting.

Forward a year; April 17th 2010. After basically exactly 2 years of self inflicted torture, I found myself in that boys bed again. Fooling around. It's something I'd wished for for years, and as I kissed him, I felt emancipated from my wishes, and basically got over it. Who knew how simple it was! Besides the fact that we fell out a month later, the curse had been broken!!! A break-up, unrequited love, and a shit. I'd ended it with something good! An emancipation! Woohoo! I got on with my life for another year.

Then last week, I realised something. The most important trial of 2011 for me so far, is going to be The London Marathon. Guess what Sherlock. It's on April 17th.

It awaits to be seen whether the events of A17th10 mean that the curse is now a good curse, or whether it was just an off year, and I'm going to break my leg and die at mile 23. Maybe nothing will happen; i'll receive an average time and my legs will hurt a bit; but it is definitely something major, and definitely on april 17th, so that's definitely the 5th year in a row. And now I have the blog entry to prove that curses exist. Stay tuned for A17th12 - end of the world edition.

Marathon Training, week 18

It's getting very close to the day now.

This week i received a package from Virgin, it had shoelaces, a countdown clock, and a magazine reminding me that I wasn't training enough and that I should eat a lot more carbs, and hyping the whole event up before telling me not to panic. Thanks for that virgin. I'm now officially shit scared, but also a bit exited.

I went to Muscle-Activation-Therapy this week, to help me with my injured leg. It's a kind of new-age Physiotherapy. It was really good, but subsequent sessions would cost me £85 a go, so they let me go.

Luckily my leg stopped hurting, finally, after 3 miserable weeks, and I ran 5 miles this week. That's it. 5 fucking miles, a month before the marathon!!! Well, this week, week 19, i'm going to be back on track. Fuck the yoga. Fuck the bike machine. This is real life...

Also, raised £136.20 this week. Another £130 next week?!? Yes please.

Marathon Training, week 16

SIXTEEN WEEKS OF THIS SHIT!

Well, I'm not complaining. If i had one complaint, it would be the weather. It's so cold guys. Running in shorts and a t-shirt! I've been sneezing a lot this week. That would be shit; not running the marathon because i caught a cold!!!

Another complaint… or more of an observation of something annoying, is how complex and thought provoking a long distance run can be. No-one likes running in circles, so i generally use a long journey to coincide with such runs. Usually home-uni, or uni-my parents house, or the dentist-uni or some other shit like that. But then i will need a shower at my destination, and a change of clothes, so i always have to go there a day or 2 earlier and stash these things, kind of defeating the point of using the run to coincide with the journey, if i have to make the same journey anyway to prepare for the run! Then that leaves me with what I HAVE to carry - water, banana, carbo-gel, ipod, phone, wallet, blister plasters. I only have two hands, so I literally sellotape these things together and then hold them in two handy packages. Besides looking like i freak, I can never forget my sellotape wherever I go.

Did my usual shit this week - A threshold run, yoga, then my longest run yet - 13.2 miles! That's just over a half marathon :). It hurt a bit for the last 20 minutes, and I got upset that I was only halfway toward my eventual goal. My leg still hurts, i think I pulled something mildly. Then finished the week with some good old Interval Training.

Also, I saw a billboard advertising something to do with the marathon this week, and ran past quite a few other people running, so there's a big sense of anticipation in the air!

Now I have two very positive things to tell you;

1. I raised £115 this week!!!!!! That is SO DAMN MUCH. To put it in perspective, I raised £140 in the whole of february. Let's see if i can keep it in triple digits next week :) Big thank you to Raffaella and my baby brother Nick!

2. While dancing naked in front of the mirror, I noticed some muscle definition in my stomach that wasn't there before. I put that down to the Interval Training to be honest. But yeah, physical results are becoming visible results, which is encouraging!

PLEASE PLEASE SPONSOR ME!!!
If i haven't asked you personally yet, I will. If I have, and you haven't sponsored me - I'm writing a damn list. There's no escape from me and my good cause. http://www.justgiving.com/lukasgeorgiou

Marathon training, week 12

Because I learnt at the conference that I should start running on the streets immediately, i started the week by putting myself to the test - run from my parents house to university.
I did it, quite easily. In an hour and a half. This doesn't include the 20 minutes where i had to stop and apply plasters to my blisters. It was about 8.8 miles. So that's exactly 1/3rd of the marathon. At this rate i will run the marathon in about five hours.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Ahem.

But anyway, it wasn't as difficult as i thought it would be, so i'm going to extend the distance next week by running around the block once beforehand, adding over 2 miles (big block).

On the tuesday I went to a yoga class, to limber up from the run.
On the wednesday, i did some High Interval training.
On the thursday I tried to go to the gym but was fed up.
And on saturday, i did another street run; this time at night time, and for only 5.5 miles. I did it on a full stomach too. Not a good idea.

Although the whole week was easy enough, physically, and in terms of willpower to a degree, it does kind of scare me that that amount of exercise is the bare minimum that i need to be putting in weekly now.

This weeks mileage: 17.3

Raised a massive £56.20 this week which was amazing; thanks to some lovely people :)
See if I can get even more next week!

If you haven't done so already, click HERE to sponsor me.

Marathon Training, week 10

I upped my game this week,

I went for your average run on monday.

Then tuesday, i ran for 70 minutes, which is the longest i've done so far. Here's some proof for all the haters.



Thursday, with a hangover, i ventured into some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), which is alternating between sprint-run-sprint-run-sprint run, every minute for 20 minutes. Very hard work.

Saturday (So that's four times in the week, finally), i went for another average run. Except this time, EVERYTHING was against me. There was an old man next to me, going faster and longer than i was, and i think he thought i cared. Him thinking i cared made me angry.
Also, my hair is getting long now, so i kept sweating into my eye, and i was wearing some sort of non-synthetic t-shirt or something so my sweat was clinging to me and weighing me down. So after 12 minutes I wanted to stop. I then had a half an hour arguement with myself in my head, and finally, 45 minutes later, got off the treadmill. I really do think it's time to start running outside. Let's wait till february for that though.

On a side note, i got 2 sponsors this week, from an aquaintance, and from somebody i've never met. Thanks friends.

Click here to sponsor me...

Marathon Training, weeks 4 - 9

I kind of went off the radar with keeping track of this because of Uni. Last term was hard, what with doing a compulsory module, two shit modules, and a third year module; uni took up almost every breath, and i slackened a bit for a fortnight. I came back with a vengeance after Christmas though, and stepped up my game.

I received a leaflet in the post about the different types of running to train with so I've been going up-hill, down-hill, fast, slow, and even tried running at my threshold for a half hour. I ran 4 miles but wouldn't recommend it because i had a massive comedown afterward.

But going hard has definately had it's benefits. I've managed to raise 8% of my minimum sponsorship target. That's not a high percentage, but £1500 is a lot of money. I'm not sure how far i'll get but it being the minimum kind of answers that question for me.

Also, i saw an old flame recently, and he remarked that my "body had change". I "used to be a skinny boy, but now I have the physique of a big man." This filled me slightly with disdain, and i exclaimed "But i want to be a skinny boy!"
To which he replied "Oh but you are. With your clothes on, you're a cute skinny boy, and when you take them off, the manly body is a very nice surprise."
Then, some other things happened.

What we can all learn here is that exercise pays off in a lot of ways.

I'm yet to do a run for longer than 65 minutes, so I think that kind of has to be on the agenda sometime soon. Stay tuned.

Marathon Training, week 3

Session 4

So based on my experiences with M.I.A last week, i thought i would try, at a friends recommendation, some 'dark Psy-trance' music.

So i made my way onto Youtube and with some difficulty managed to nab 3 songs. Or so i thought.

A lot of loading and waiting later, and there were 950 dark psy tracks sitting in my iTunes. Let's not ask how that happened. Let me just tell you that it's called trance for a reason.

Got onto the treadmill after a tough day at uni and started running, had a peek at the clock. Bam. 17 minutes had passed. I had a little giggle to myself and then whooosh. 41 minutes had passed. Satisfied at the quickest 50 minutes of my life, i got off the treadmill.

Session 5

Didn't want to overkill the running, so had a 1-on-1 'core work out' class in the gym, followed by 20 minutes on the bike machine.

Session 6

The unfamiliar exercise's of session 5 made me ache for a good few days, but i plowed through, and with the help of my trance music, at 10am on a snowey morning, managed to spend 70 minutes running, without looking at the clock, or slowing down. I ran 8 miles.

Good news everyone. Trance music is the key to running far.

Marathon Training, Day 3

Today I got up at 8am and went through the frost to the Gym. Decided to dedicate half an hour to the treadmill. I found the only other person in the gym quite amusing. A squat asian man, he would give me evils in the mirror, then get on the treadmill next to me, sprint all out for 30 seconds then jump off, then try again, and again. Trying to intimidate me?


It didn't work, and half an hour later, i left him to his own devices.

Todays mood: Morning fitness is good.

Marathon Training, Day 2

Admittedly, I had 4 days rest from last week, but i figure i shouldn't jump straight into these things.

Today i simply ran on the treadmill for 50 minutes. I listened to M.I.A's new album, aptly titled "/\/\/\Y/\"
Well i do have to say, upon it's first listen i thought it was a load of noisy hogwash. But i found the repetative beats of pneumatic drills and glugging water to be quite hypnotic when running, and played one song, :"Teqkila" on repeat and before i knew it, half an hour was gone. So i think next week i will listen to something rather more abstract. Maybe some 'Cyber Trance'. Seriously.

So yeah. 50 minutes later, there was again the general nakedness of the changing rooms, and then - this, I can only put down to brainwashing - I went to the pub and had two shots of teqila. Which i washed down with two pints of water, so as to not make myself feel bad.

I will only have one day of rest this time round. Promise.

Don't forget to sponsor me.

http://www.justgiving.com/lukasgeorgiou