All things April

This has felt like a really strange month. I guess the Easter Holidays threw me out of our usual routine and although that was a couple of weeks ago, I still don't feel I've got back into it again.

I've continued to do Park Run at Walsall Arboretum on a Saturday morning and I set my PB of 26:41 at the beginning of the month. I know it's slow, but, apart from 13th when I set off far too fast and ended up with a stitch towards the end of lap 2, it feels like I'm running at a more consistent page and it's not as much hard work as it had been in previous weeks. The improvement to the weather has helped as well.

On 20th April, I volunteered as opposed to running. The night before I'd been to give blood and had been asked whether I planned to do any exercise in the following 24 hours. It hadn't been a question I'd paid any attention to previously as the answer had always been a firm no (bordering on the 'no, are you nuts!'). I thought I'd be starting off doing something simple like marshalling. (Stand in one place for 45 minutes, clapping people as they went past, occasionally shouting encouragement). Instead, as someone was running late, I went on timing. That felt like quite a responsibility, especially as Kate, the race director, said that the timer was sensitive. 120 runners crossed the line, with Kate's husband clocking in first at 15:45 and everything went smoothly after that.

The rest of the month was really weight loss exercise and training for Swimathon. I lost 3lbs in April, although it feels like I lost much more. This might be because I put on a bit half way through the month, which came off the following week and also because I dropped below the magic 14 stone barrier. In fact, in the last couple of days, I've had some really nice compliments from people at church and at work with regards to how much thinner and younger I'm looking. At least the hard work is paying off and now there's not far to go until my BMI drops below the 'overweight' line.

In terms of Swimathon itself, when I signed up in the first place, I was aiming for 2:30:00, however when I did my first distance swim, I realised that I was going to easily beat this, so I decided I would be pleased with a time of 1:50:00 with a target 1:45:00.

I was always going to do Swimathon my way, ie me against the clock as opposed to me against anyone else who happened to be in the same lane as me. This was just as well since the two other guys in my lane did all 200 lengths on front crawl whereas I stuck to my 3 breast-2 crawl approach.

It took a couple of days for my results to appear online, so it may be that they haven't finished uploading yet, however to put the above into context, at the time of posting there are 2674 entrants in total (1329 men, 1345 women) and 345 in the 35-39 age bracket. The only downside was that as soon as I finished the distance, my left calf cramped up and 48 hours later it's still a little tender. Here are a couple of pictures from the day:

As far as 2013 miles goes, I'm a little ahead of target, however I'm a little worried about May. When I did the Sport Relief run last year, as soon as it was over, I didn't do any exercise for weeks. That would be terrible for both my weight-loss and 2013 miles targets, so I'll have to make a special effort to keep it going.

April Breakdown:

Walking: 11.14 miles in 4h 45m28
Running: 23.23 miles in 4h 06m49
Cycling: 129.35 miles in 6h 43m48
Cross Trainer (Elliptical)/Stepper: 5.77 miles in 1h 00m 08
Rowing Machine: 1.24 miles in 9m 23
Swimming: 19.67 miles in 11h 34m 19

Total: 190.4 miles in 28h 19m55

Year to Date
Distance: 716.1 miles
Remaining: 1296.9 miles