In November last year, we awarded a grant of £5,000 to the Borneo Organgutan Survival for their work.

Here’s an update of exactly where that funding went and what it meant to the organisation and the wildlife that benefitted from it.

borneo-orangutan-survival

Viitor Plus, gave us an award to The Body Shop  Foundation for “Sustainability Supporter at early start”, in recognition the support they received from us (for sustainable  development-”Sacosa de panza” project).  Alina picked up the Diploma on our behalf at their “Partners Annual Meeting” at the end of February.

Good job all!!

Will he won’t he?

Hello fellow foundation fans!  I wasn’t able to write a blog last week because life, as it has a tendancy to do sometimes, got in the way so I have two weeks of running to catch up on.  Well that’s not strictly true sadly as the knee knack is still giving me grief so training has still been somewhat limited.

After the Sussex Beacon Half my knee was still very sore the following day so it was with some trepidation that I set off for a training run on the Tuesday morning.  Frustratingly I had only gone about a mile and a half before I had to turn back and walk home as the knee was simply not having it.  I rested it for a few days and tried again on the Friday with much the same result.  This was a nightmare!  I had been diligently performing the most painful of stretches with a foam roller but to little or no avail.  My muscles were definitely getting less knotty and the stretches less painful but there seemed to be very little improvement in the knee.  And all this at the very point in my training that I should be starting to attain the longest distances in preparation for the big day!

As I’d learned back in September, rest is what injuries need most so I spent last Sunday moping around the house instead of clocking up the miles.  If someone had have said to me back in the summer that I would have been miserable sat indoors on a damp and windy Sunday because I would rather be running I would have thought them utterly deluded, but that is the frankly bizarre situation I now find myself in.

By Tuesday morning I figured I was ready to give it a go again and thankfully managed to complete a little three mile run with only minor discomfort and not too much by way of post run soreness either.  This was a huge relief and helped ease some of the frustration of the previous three weeks.  Could it be that I was back in business and could finally get back on with the training program?  I didn’t want to tempt fate so whilst I was busy helping other intrepid volunteers put together 1,700 goodie bags to be sold on marathon day on Wednesday night I decided that I would skip Thursday’s run and try another little three-miler on Friday.

After about two miles of that nervous run my heart sank as the familiar pain in my right knee began to rear its ugly head and I angrily wondered when the hell this stupid knee problem was going to stop and let me get on with running my race and raising money for great causes.  A couple of minutes later and the answer may have arrived from the unlikeliest of sources, celebrity drug idiot/tortured genius (depending on your viewpoint) Pete Doherty.  I noticed that after about 30 seconds of “Don’t look back into the sun” filling my ears that the pain was gone.  I absolutely love that song and I began to wonder if I was simply thinking too hard about my gammy knee.  Could it really be that all my knee needed was ignoring?

I put my “ignore the knee” theory to the test on Sunday when I managed to do a little over 13 miles, albeit with a number of “knee breaks”.  I don’t mean that I actually broke my knee, I mean that I had to stop to stretch out my right quad which seemed to stop the pain in my knee, if only for a while.  My knee is still quite sore as I type this with Match of the Day 2 in my ears but at the end of today’s run I felt that I could have comfortably done another few miles which has to be a positive for me to take into the coming week.

The long and short of it is that I’m planning to downgrade my training to a meagre two runs per week on Thursday and Sunday.  I’m hoping that this new reduced regime will protect my knee sufficiently that I make it to the start line whilst doing enough training to ensure that I make it over the finish line come April 18th!

Has anyone else got any similar training stories to tell?  Better still, has anyone got any good news about their training?  Either way I’d love to hear from you so please drop me a line: simon.allchin@thebodyshop.com

Happy training!

Philippa

With less than 2 months before the big day itself, our runners are stepping up the pace and making great strides in their fundraising totals for the Foundation.

Take Philippa Challis, for example.  She’s roped in a whole group of happy helpers - including her mum and friends Veronica and Don - who are sorting bags of donated items to be car booted, adding to Philippas total. On Philippa’s behalf, we’d like to give a huge shout out to this band of fabulous volunteers for their support and also to Philippa’s baby sis Jos - for keeping her motivated and focused DESPITE being in Australia!

Philippa and Al have also joined forces to put on the mother of all cake sales in their office the next couple of weeks with Al’s much sort after ‘courgette cake’ on the menu!

And then there’s Filippo.  Filippo has been sending his Just Giving link to all and sundry and is picking up sponsorship quickly along the way.  Good work Filippo!

Joanne Laker is another one who has been using her Just Giving page like a demon.  Joanne is currently on £666.00, 133% of her target amount.  The great thing about the Just Giving website is that they do all the hard work collecting the Gift Aid and its totally secure.  You may fundraise like a little devil but to us you are a total angel Jo!

ALL our runners are doing their best and it certainly isn’t easy juggling life, work, training and fundraising but we salute you.  If you know any of our exceptional bunch or even if you don’t but you’d like to show your support for their amazing commitment to us here, please click on their Just Giving website.  Believe me, they deserve it.

Lisa Jackson - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonLisaJackson

Sarah Ellis - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonSarahEllis

Alan Scott - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonAlScott

Mark Davies - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonMarkDavies

Dave Carmen - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonDaveCarmen

Lindsey Cox - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonLindseyCox

Jeanie Smith - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonJeanieSmith

Alix Ovel - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonAlixOvel

Kirsty Fletcher - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonKirstyFletcher

Suzanne Holloway - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonSuzanneHolloway

Philippa Challis - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonPhilippaChallis

David Hounsome - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonDavidHounsome

Daniel Parish - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonDanielParish

Filippo Guildolin - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonFilippoGuildolin

Simon Allchin - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonSimonAllchin

Kico Amata - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonKicoAmata

Laura Thompson - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonLauraThompson

Joanne Laker - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonJoanneLaker

Simon Laker - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonSimonLaker

Richard Hope - www.justgiving.com/BrightonMarathonRichardHope

After getting knee knack after about 8½ miles of last Sunday’s run it’s been another week of no training and the associated insufferable levels of guilt.  With a view to getting to the bottom of my gammy knee I asked my good friend Mr Google if he knew of anyone who could perform some video analysis of what my body does whilst I’m running that causes my knee to complain so vociferously.  I found plenty of places that were happy to analyse my gait but only whilst standing still.  I also found a few sports shops who offered video analysis before recommending trainers, but as I’d visited one of those shortly before my last episode of knee knack I felt that I wanted someone with a more medical bent to be the other side of the camera.  And then I found StrideUK operating out of Studio 57 in Hove who appeared to do exactly what I was looking for, video running gait analysis performed by an expert in bio-mechanics and sports injuries.

On arrival I was warmly greeted by Mitchell Phillips, who showed me through to a room containing a state of the art slatted running machine with several cameras trained on it, a big screen on the wall and a workstation.  Mitchell enthusiastically walked through what we would be doing in the session before sending me off to get changed into running shorts.  Once I was back he proceeded to tape up my shorts so they looked like a sort of running nappy and then draw strange lines all over my legs in black marker pen and stick little fluorescent yellow dots onto both me and my trainers before filming me on the running machine, first in my trainers and then barefoot.

The running and filming was all over in about fifteen minutes and by the time I had wiped off most of the pen marks from my legs and got changed back into my normal clothes Mitchell had already begun his analysis of my gait.  He then spent a truly fascinating hour and a half taking me through the footage in passionate detail and explaining what was going on with me in terms of my biomechanics.  He pointed out two key muscle tightness issues in my quads and particularly in my right glut as being the root cause of my knee knack and gave me a personally tailored stretching program that would resolve the problem.  The computer analysis also suggested that I run in quite a narrow channel with my feet occasionally brushing one another as I run which apparently is more common in female runners.  In other words, I’d paid £115 to find out that I’m a tight arse who runs like a girl.  Nice.

I was initially slightly sceptical about what I would get out of this visit but I have to say that I would now happily recommend it to anyone who wanted to better understand and improve their running style.  To have such an enthusiastic and personable expert in the field of bio-mechanics spend two hours giving you a one to one consultation was, I think, fantastic value for money.

So having spent two days diligently performing my prescribed stretching exercises I lined up at the start of the Sussex Beacon Half Marathon, shivering in the rain, wondering whether my gammy knee would last the distance or not.  Well despite the best efforts of the driving rain and winter temperatures I did make it to the finish running most of the way, but as I only had two days of stretching to cure the underlying problem with my knee it still feels pretty sore.  I finished about halfway down the list of nearly six thousand finishers with a chip time of 2:00:53 but as there was a queue at the finish which stopped me crossing it for a good minute I’m claiming two hours dead.

So having completed a half marathon did I feel like I could have done another one straight after it?  Definitely not!  There’s clearly still a lot of training to do and it all starts again in earnest on Tuesday.  When will it end???!!

Happy running everyone!

Another week nearer the marathon and another week of getting up early for training runs pounding the streets and… well actually that’s not the case at all.  I’ve had a silly cough and cold which won’t shift and it’s really knocked the wind out of me.  So it’s actually been a week of rolling over, turning off the alarm and falling straight back to sleep.  I honestly didn’t realise was what a cruel mistress this marathon would be.  Not running this week has left me feeling so guilty, despite the fact that my body was getting all Mary Winehouse and saying “no, no, no”.  I once heard that Catholicism is largely based on guilt, well fair play to all the catholics out there if that’s the case as it can’t be easy going through life feeling this bad about yourself all the time!

Well by the time the weekend came around I was feeling a bit better and so my other half and me arranged to visit her folks for Sunday lunch, dropping our daughter Ella off there early so that we could go for a run/cycle beforehand.  With Sunday’s run planned I had a very cool Saturday shopping trip in the meantime, I was off to the running shop on my quest for the trainers that would take me to marathon glory so that I had plenty of time to wear them in before the big day.

At the running shop I was duly filmed running up and down the street with my jeans rolled up to my knees and I was sooo glad I had picked a shop right opposite the railway station as Brighton fans were heading off to the match.  Having smiled politely at the jeering hoodies by the station it was back inside to review my foot footage.  Turns out I may have been running in the wrong trainers all this time and that I now had my pick of shoes suitable for the neutral pronator, which apparently are far more cushioned, yaay!  This means that running in my new shoes I can hardly feel the ground and they are much, MUCH more comfortable than my previous “stability” shoes.

So on a damp and dreary St Valentine’s day I donned my shiny new trainers and set off for a romantic jog with my other half cycling along next to me along the Downs Link disused railway line.  After a couple of miles I decided that my knee was twingeing a bit and so I strapped it up in a support bandage and carried on.  The run was going well, my legs were in good shape, energy levels were high, my lungs were working well and I even managed to reel in and overtake a pretty serious looking runner.  But then after about eight and a half miles my knee suddenly started to feel decidedly uncomfortable and in the space of just a hundred yards or so it went from uncomfortable to hurting too much to run on, just as it had done a few weeks before.  The difference was that this time it didn’t get any better after ten minutes of walking, if anything the pain was getting worse and my knee just could not support me if I tried to run on it.  With a heavy heart I conceded that it was time to ‘phone the troops for a lift home.

So here I am, nine weeks out from the marathon with a gammy knee and not able to train.  It’s already much better than it was and I’m hoping that it will calm down enough for me to run in the Sussex Beacons half marathon on Sunday.  I’ve also booked a two hour consultation at a specialist sports clinic in Hove on Friday afternoon for some computerised 360 degree video gait analysis.  Hopefully that will shed some light on where I’m going wrong with my running style and trainer selection.  I shall let you know how that went next week and hopefully, how I got on in the Sussex Beacons Half.  Fingers crossed!

Now that long distance travel is far more accessible than it was say fifty years ago, the likelihood is that you are reading this whilst in a town other than the one in which you grew up.  That being the case, when was the last time you went back to the neighbourhood you grew up in with a reminiscent misty eyed smile?  This weekend I did just that in Stone, Staffordshire where I spent a very pleasant Saturday catching up with my dad and a couple of old school friends who still live in the area before turning in for a good night’s rest in preparation for Sunday’s seventeen mile training run.

At 9.30am, with a suitably nostalgic soundtrack in my ears, I set off on the route I had been planning for the last week or so.  The run took me past the hotel I used to deliver papers to and the football pitch where I scored my only ever goals for the school team, two in the same match against our arch rivals, Christchurch, in a thumping five nil win.  Onward I ran, past the house of the first girl I kissed and into the estate which was home to me from 1977 until 1990.  Past the playing fields where we used to play football until it was too dark to see the ball and past the brook where I bent the front wheel of my sister’s bike in an unsuccessful attempt at jumping it (I’d had my doubts about the angle of that ramp from the start). Possibly as a result of similar failures, a chain link fence has now been erected along the brook’s bank to stop today’s crop of local daredevils attempting similar spectacular stunts.  Sad that they will never feel the pride and joy of landing their first jump really, (sigh) the price of progress…

Next up I passed the house of my first love (now married and living in Kenya apparently) then around the next corner I slowed almost to a walk as I took a good look at our old house before heading on past the fields where I used to walk my dog and the pub where I both drank and pulled my first pints.  I jogged by the field where I used to play cricket in the long summer holidays before reaching my old high school and the start of the infamous “Oulton Triangle” which we were forced to run before games lessons.

None of my memories of the Oulton Triangle were good and it was always with a sulky teenage droop of the shoulders that it was approached but having now seen this one and a third mile circuit on a map I wondered why we’d all hated it so much in our early teens.  I soon found out as although none of the three uphill sections were particularly steep, the middle one of the three was pretty long and kept getting steeper toward the end, that’s sadistic games teachers for you!

Once back at the school I passed the playground where I earned the cane from the head master for throwing a conker which narrowly missed the deputy head, Mrs Whitehurst.  The conker was aimed at Steven Lockley but he ducked and she didn’t, oops!  I then went down through the town centre which has changed quite a bit since I last lived there twenty years ago, all pedestrianisation and hanging baskets, though thankfully still packed with thriving local businesses and only a couple of national chains in sight.  At the end of the high street I passed the church I used to sing in as a lad and the kebab shop I invariably ended up in when out with the lads.  Another couple of miles and I arrived at my mate Martyn’s house for a well earned drink and some jelly babies before setting off with him along the canal back into town to do it all over again but this time with an old school chum to laugh about it with.

So there we are, my longest ever run covered with surprising ease, apart from a bit of thigh chaff which had me walking like John Wayne for the rest of the day.  Just goes to show that if you give yourself something to think about or someone to chat to while you’re running then the miles just fly by!  Valentine’s day next Sunday and being the old charmer that I am I’ll be kicking Ness out of bed around 9.00ish to look after Ella while I set off for a half marathon.  Who says romance is dead?

Keep up the training!  Only 10 weeks to go before I can ceremoniously unplug the alarm clock, yaay!!!

Trots, nipples and 200 miles

Howdy doody friends of the foundation!  This week’s training runs took me past the 200 miles marker in my training program and only another 322 to go before the race (did you like the way I used the word “only” there?)  This week also saw the earliest I had to set my alarm clock too, a frankly inhumane 5.20am!

My wonderful other half, Vanessa, is a chiropractor and on Thursday she had an 8 o’clock patient in her Henfield clinic which meant that she needed to leave the house by 7.00am in order to get there in plenty of time to set up for the day.  This sadly coincided with an 8 mile training run which meant that I had to be out of the front door by 5.40am to be 100% sure of getting home before 7.  The street lights in my road weren’t even on it was that early!  So as I was stumbling along the darkened streets in my half-awake state I was amazed by how many other people were out and about at that time.  They were predominantly dressed in all the colours of the high-vis rainbow and I imagine that they had to be up at that antisocial hour as part of their every day routine.  I swear I will never ever again whinge about how hard my 9-5 job at my comfy, warm and dry desk is ever again!  I salute you high-vis army, all power to your collective elbows!

After suffering knee knack last week (or Ilio-Tibial Band Friction Syndrome caused by tightening of the ITB and abrasion against the Lateral Epicondyle as my other half pointed out to me) I did a bit of research to find out what other injuries might be in store for me over the coming weeks.  I also discovered that ITBFS is also more commonly known as “runner’s knee” (they clearly had their best and brightest minds on the naming committee that day).  I’ve also experienced another unimaginatively named condition this week, having had my first taste of jogger’s nipple!  Well, when I say taste I don’t mean… well you know what I mean.  There was bleeding and everything!  Gross!  I now run with plasters over my nipples as protection and would really appreciate it if anyone knows of a brand of plaster that only sticks to skin and not chest hair.

Well if you think that made you wince then another response I got on my quest for injury enlightenment within the running fraternity was this little beauty:

“No running blog would be complete without a reference to Runners trots.  I saw the effects when running in my first Marathon and the effects as you can imagine are not good. So the thing is, be prepared!  Imodium is the best option, just don’t take too many and also stay off anything which you have not encountered before e.g. don’t go for a curry if you have not had one the day before a run before.  The best option however is to ensure you’re hydrated before and after the race so a) you don’t encounter fatigue and b) you don’t get cramps”.

Eeeeuuuwwwww!!!  Well I’m hoping this is a complaint limited to fast runners as I’ve yet to experience it personally.  I also go before I go, if you know what I mean.  A really good resource for self diagnosing injuries is this one: http://www.physioroom.com/sports/running/index.php
An added bonus of this site for any fantasy football managers is that they also keep tabs on injuries of all Premier League footballers which could be very useful information indeed come that end of season push for glory (or mid table mediocrity this year in my case).

Last thing this week is that I’ve had a request passed on from the lovely Jo Laker who kindly organises an unofficial BSI running club after work every Tuesday here in the UK, based in Sussex.  Runners of all abilities are encouraged and the route Jo leads varies from 5 to 10 miles.  An inside source has suggested that the distance run seems directly proportional to how mean Jo’s feeling.  As such, I would suggest a polite and cheery enquiry as to how her day’s been before setting off might be advisable.  So if you’re looking for some friendly company while you’re pounding out the training miles then simply loiter in the West Car Park at around 5.15pm on a Tuesday and keep an eye out for similar loiterers.  The ones dressed in running apparel would probably be the safest to approach.

Keep up the training!

]]> http://thebodyshopfoundation.org/2010/02/01/cool-running-ramblings-issue-9/feed/ http://thebodyshopfoundation.org/2010/01/27/cool-running-ramblings-issue-8/ http://thebodyshopfoundation.org/2010/01/27/cool-running-ramblings-issue-8/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:41:42 +0000 admin http://thebodyshopfoundation.org/?p=1240 Bar bills, knee knack and UrbanDictionary.com

It’s been a funny old up and down week this one.  Training started well with Tuesday’s four mile run going beautifully to plan but then I found Thursday’s seven mile run hard going with my legs really aching for the last few miles and my right knee starting to develop a worrying twinge.  Friday’s run was back on track with my knee knack clearing itself up after about a mile and then as a special treat to myself I booked the afternoon off work to prepare for my sister’s wedding.

It was a splendid do on Saturday which rolled nicely into a boozy evening where I made the classic mistake of booking drinks to my room.  Imagine my horror when I went to check out and they produced a big wad of receipts with my gradually deteriorating signature at the bottom of them.  Thank heavens the room was at a discounted rate!  Needless to say Sunday’s run was postponed until Monday which I’d booked off especially for the occasion.

So Monday arrived and a slightly daunting 15 mile run lay ahead of me, made a little less daunting when my other half part jokingly suggested that she might come with me on her bike.  Foolish woman!  Before she had chance to retract the comment I legged it to the garage to pump up her tyres and dust the cobwebs off of her handlebars.  That’ll teach her!

The route took us from Rustington to Worthing and back and I was really enjoying having a bit of company and someone to carry water and stuff for me.  It did have its downsides though, like when Ness crashed into me in order to avoid a stray branch from a fairly harmless looking bush which she thought might brush her arm!  Later it was my turn to do something stupid when I boldly went through a gate to a private beach without noticing that there was no way a bike could follow me.  D’oh!  11 miles done and I realised that I’d now be doing the last four miles without water or company.  Things then took a turn for the even worse when at 12½ miles my right knee gave way for no reason at all.  It was as much as I could do to walk on it, never mind run!

After a few minutes it seemed to be easing and so I tried to run again but had to stop almost immediately as the pain was excruciating and all strength in my knee had deserted me.  I was back to slowly hobbling along the road with no phone, no water, no one for company and having slowed right down the chill in the air was much more noticeable.  After about ten more minutes of walking I was starting to shiver which was most definitely not a good look, so I gave my knee one last chance and gingerly started to jog again.  Thankfully the pain had subsided a bit and some of the strength seemed to have returned, which turned out to be just enough to see me through the last couple of miles.

Once home I did a bit of stretching, defrosted in a delightfully hot shower, wolfed down a hearty lunch and then flopped back into bed for a well earned hour and a half nap.  These weekend runs are certainly getting tough!

Having recovered from the run I finally got around to writing an email to all my friends and family about my marathon training and who I was raising money for.  Unfortunately I made a completely honest mistake in the opening line of my email.  Thankfully a self confessed OCD proof reader friend of mine pointed out the meaning of the word I had used instead of “fettle” as stated in urbandictionary.com.  I have never been so grateful for my useless home broadband connection having a problem remotely connecting to my work email system which meant I didn’t have to explain away the word “feckle” to anyone!

Well that was fun wasn’t it?  Two weeks of either snow or ice on the pavements has meant that the training plan has had a great big chunk bitten out of it in the last couple of weeks, 33 miles missed to be precise.  Whilst that seems like a lot of training to miss my personal view is that the risk of injuring myself far outweighed the benefit of running in conditions like we’ve had recently but mine is clearly not a unanimously held view as I have heard of a few dedicated souls who have braved the snow, ice and sub zero temperatures to go running this week.  Blinkin’ nutters!!  I have to say that somewhat guiltily there’s a bit of me that hopes they ended up on their backsides in front of a load of high school kids, that’d teach ‘em for being so hard core.

But thankfully the snow and ice have cleared now and training resumed last Friday with a little three mile refresher before work and then on Saturday it was off to Milton Keynes for a night on the beer with my soon to be brother-in-law on his stag do.  Not classic training preparation I’ll grant you but thankfully Mick is knocking on a bit (that should help find out if he reads this or not) so it was a fairly civilised affair and I managed to keep my alcohol intake down to four pints and a couple of shots and sneaked off to bed fairly sober at about 1.00am for my beauty sleep before the following day’s massive 14 mile training run.  14 miles!  That’s over half a marathon and a full two miles further than I had ever run before!  Lummy!

Unfortunately my daughter didn’t read the script which quite clearly stated daddy would need a nice lie in before his run so just before 7 O’clock we were up and having breakfast before settling down to watch the 7.35am Match of the Day re-run.  Well, if you’ve been dragged out of bed at that God forsaken hour on a Sunday morning you might as well make the most of it.

A couple of hours later and my other half finally got up and I was out on the road on a beautiful crisp and sunny winter’s morning.  Five miles and three quarters of an hour later I had reached Willen Lake where my other half arrived in perfect time to give me a drink and a bit of encouragement.

After another gruelling hour and twenty five minutes my little legs were aching and I was stumbling along all but spent, but I had made it.  Fourteen whole miles had passed under my feet and the feeling of accomplishment at having completed the distance helped to temper my exhaustion.  It’s hard to believe that only a few months ago I had never run further than a mile or so but here I am clocking up 14 miles in a shade under two hours ten minutes.  I know I’ve still got a heck of a long way to go but I’m starting to believe that this marathon really is achievable.

But it isn’t just about the running is it?  What I really need to start thinking hard about is how on earth I’m going to raise £500???