Gun-ho and kissing the guns!

Well Mr Wannabe you really have been pushing yourself and managed to do over 2012 press ups. I can not believe you have done over a thousand in the last 4 days. Super human effort. I suppose you are now going to attack the squat thrusts with the same vigour and gun-ho attitude? But please think about the marathon and training for that. It is not far away and if you want to get under your target time you need to get organised, motivated and structured with your running.

I promise this is the last time I'll mentioned this and maybe I'm banging on about this so much because I'm still not allowed to run and once again didn't get in to the London marathon. Anway another reason I will stop mentioning this lack of training is that the less training you and the old hand do the more you'll damage your bodies, therefore the longer to recover and more time out of action you'll have allowing me to catch up for lost time.

So carry on boys with your press-ups and squats! You'll be great at the marathon, no problem at all, your legs will be fine - the cheering crowd will get you around. Think positively the more time it takes you to complete it means more total time towards your 2012 minute goal!

"Come play with me if you must this game of ghosts."

mmmmmmmmm don't really know how to answer this. Am I really
evil or just showing the guile of an injured animal that is also Mr Competitive.
I'm more shocked by Mr Mellow himself being so competitive. Originally I was
thinking I'm going to get to a target number of sit ups and stick to that total
all day everyday to get to the target, but then the young punk starts bashing
out 302 in a day! - just wrong. So, my body is not quite firing on all cylinders but
my mind is. I thought it was time to start playing some games of the mind to
see if he'd crack.

Being a veteran of two ironmans, just incase I've not mentioned this, I realise I need a strong focused mind as well as body that would get me around. The mind, if anything, is far more important that the legs and blocking negative thoughts get you to the end and not have 6% body fat and physically super fit but a weak mind.

I just thought I'd have some fun and play some games with the wannabe. It does remind me of how Chris McCormack (who’d been on the Ironman circuit for years) aka the guru was chased down by Andreas Raelert in Kona Ironman World Champs in 2010. The young *wannabe* pulled next to the guru after chasing him down all day. 2 miles to go, after 138.2 miles of racing, the guru starts playing his mind games. The wannabe cracks and the guru goes off running into the sunset and becomes World Champ again.

McCormack is numbr 4 - You'll have to read the book to see wat he says to Raelert

Meanwhile the wannabe has to try a new tactic to win. So 2011 comes and the wannabe is hot favourite as the guru is no longer there but up pops another Aussie and beats him as well. SO
maybe what I’m saying is just be careful *wannabe* don’t focus all your attention on me. Look behind your other shoulder as well as the old hand might be sneaking up!

Link to their battle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r64XLZ_Zv6Y

As for me well I’m just on damage limitations and trying to get as many points as I can before I'm allowed to run and cycle hard. I want to be able to see the *wannabe* in the distance. I also want to win this game we have. I can assure all our followers and readers we are friends and we will never fall out over this.

To prove a point I’ll lend either of you the Chris McCormack book ‘I’m Here to WIN’. Worth a read.

Oh yeah as for the quote at the top it's from Joe Simpson, a climber now author. Him of 'Touching the Void' fame.

Rambling Thoughts from The Guru

Well, thought I'd jot down a few thoughts that have been racing through my little head recently. Isn't swimming in lanes dull! but isn't it fantastic for working out the most amasing mental calculations. Whilst I was going up and down the pool 62 times last week I realised that it will be impossible to swim the required 2012 k let alone miles for this challenge. I will have to swim over 2k's every time I visit the pool and that means going there 3 times a week and it will cost me close on £500. Lets face it folks that is unrealistic. Yes I know if I swim further each time then this will reduce the number of times I go and all that. But, reality states 'that ain't gonna happen!'

I was also wondering if we should include a 201.2 mile/ kilometer mid-way teaser? as there is a huge gap between 2012m and 2012km. I will have to talk to the others about this. Talking of the other two. With them lucky enough to get into London Marathon, I would have thought that they would have been clocking up the miles and be out of sight by now and I might not be able to catch their distances. However, everyday their totals are staying the same and my knee is getting stronger. The chase will be starting soon!

I went for a check on my knee to the hospital last Friday and was told it is "sitting nicely and aligned nicely." I should also be hearing something from the physio soon. But I'm still waiting............... mmmmmmm

Apart from all the above I should be in the pool again next week for another early morning session and in one weeks time I'm going to rig up the turbo and get in the garage to start on some very light spinning with low resistance, won't record it to begin. Then I will start increasing the pressure and resistance.

Well, its good bye from me and with it being the weekend and no tweets off the other two I hope their out there putting the miles in.

A long journey starts with a small step

January 1st 2012 - Olympic Year, loads of athletes around the world will be stopping drinking until the Olympics are over and living like monks. They might achieve or exceed their goals but they might not. I'm sure we'll see tears of joy and tears of distress. But will they truly have as much of a laugh as us three embarking on our little adventure?

You could say the fun and games have already started at 12.28 am in the early hours of the new year by a little text from me (Jona) to Mark to reply to his New Year greeting to inform him I had already completed my 2012m 'one legged' bike ride. To which he drops his drink and leaves his party to pound the treadmill for 2012m and what he thinks was 2012 seconds. Unfortunately he fell short of the latter goal by under 20 seconds. I blame alcohol.

As for me my heart has been in it all day but only managed to complete x15 sit ups and x30 press ups.

I weighed myself this morning and was amazed to see I weighed a massive 80013.6941 grammes. Please don't convert this to St and lbs as it is just too embarrassing. Even though it is not an official 'challenge' even I am determined to loose 2012g rapidly!

So my fellow challengers, who have already started, may you get an early lead and train hard for your marathon in April as by then I hopefully will have started my quest for victory. Like your run in April this challenge is over 12 months and not the first 4 months. However, in the a very British stiff upper lip sort of way, I wish my competitors all the best and my they train hard and long, but will it be enough? Only the final totals will decide. Good Luck Boys may we have lots of laughs along this 'journey'.

Those taking part - The Guru, The Wannabe & The Old Hand

So, the challenge has been set and accepted by three grown men, but who are they?

  


Mr Jona Davies has just turned 40, has completed two Ironman triathlons, has dislocated his knee (so may be off to a slow start) and may be known as "The Guru" in this challenge.

  


Mr Mark Saward is the most experienced of the trio, and by that I mean the oldest. He has been the face of the RNLI's reindeer run and has many a running number blue tacked to his office wall. You may call him "The Old Hand"

Although Mr Roy Bird is the youngest of the bunch he has still led a very full life, as indicated by the length of the belt he wears. Full of good intentions and desires for the future, he is "The Wannabe"