A Little Help...

Went for a run yesterday and got a new PB on my mile - 8'44" which at least is a start. I've also posted on the nike+ forums about running a marathon and any suggestions regarding training. I got a couple of really useful responses (from RicC and Axemen86) and they've given me a few places to go and have a look.
I'm taking a day off today, partly because I need to have a rest day at some point this week and would like to be rested before the 10K tomorrow, but mainly because I only got 4 hours sleep last night because I was working on a problem sheet until 4am : (
Anyways, I've got to finish off this problem sheet and then look over my dissertation stuff for my meeting with my supervisor this afternoon then its frantic learning of timps for a concert I've been roped into this evening - sightreading for an instrument I've never played before - FUN!
I will write again once I've done my 10K run tomorrow

Inspiration

Sadly, my grandfather passed away last Monday after a year of battling with MND (Motor Neurone Disease). He was diagnosed with the disease on the 16th November last year and battled through until the 17th November this year. He showed such determination to fight the disease, still heading to rugby matches each Saturday and visiting his family - so much determination putting anything I could do to shame. He gradually lost his speech and function in his fingers and it must have been so frustrating for him to have lost virtually all forms of communication but he still smiled. He only had one night in hospital during the year and that was last Sunday. He was determined to get back home on the Monday and he managed to step into the porch of his home before he collapsed on my Dad. He lost conciousness, stopped breathing and once resuscitated he was put on life support in the hospital. My gran asked for the life support to remain on until my uncle arrived from Stirling (about 2 hours drive away). I think Granda must have heard that as he waited until my uncle arrived, waited until my uncle came and said his goodbye and then died of his own accord about a minute later. The funeral was on Friday and although we were all very upset as strange as it sounds it was a really nice day allowing us to remember good memories of granda.
Since coming back to Oxford on Sunday night it has given me a renewed drive for my training. I suppose I feel if Granda had the determination to fight MND the least I could do is have more determination for my training. Related to all this I have set myself a new goal... to run a marathon. I am aiming to hopefully run the New York Marathon next year to raise money for MND. I feel this would be a fitting tribute to my Granda, especially as it is something sporty. This obvioulsy depends on me going to America, but if I stay here I will try and run the London Marathon.
So my training has stepped up a gear - if I'm going to run it in a year's time I obviously need to get much fitter. On Monday I went running with Nicole in the morning for around 4.5km and then went swimming with Steph and Paul in the evening. On Tuesday morning me and Paul went to the gym to start the weights again and then this lunchtime I went for a 45 minute run to Kidlington and back running over 7.5km. I am really enjoying the exercise and I am feeling a lot better for it. Lets hope I can keep it up!

Update... (aka rowing, exams and not much running...)

Well, I have had possibly the most hectic two weeks of my life and so haven't had a chance to update the blog until now!
Well since I last wrote, I have started term and am well into the work (It is now Tuesday of 3rd Week and there are 8 weeks in total each term here at Oxford).
In first week I didn't really get a chance to do any running because suddenly I had a lot of work to do! This year has really stepped up a gear and from having one or two problem sheets a week last year I suddenly have 3 every week and they are a huge step up in terms of difficulty. I have already had to pull 2 relative all-nighters (i.e. staying up till about 4 doing work then only getting 3 hours sleep). That said, I am really enjoying the work, even if it is difficult, and I am managing to do some stuff that I really enjoy too.
After coming back to Uni determined not to row (so much so that I didn't bring any lycra with me) I succumbed before the end of first week! I got a phone call from Andy Brown the men's captain asking if I could row on Saturday morning for an outing. I agreed and he informed me that the outing would be to Abingdon and back - a good three hours on the water. That meant about 13 miles of rowing, of which a good 7 or 8 would be at racing pace! I got up at 7am on Saturday morning ready to face the music and found I actually really enjoyed it. I realised how much I miss rowing - after all it has been a major part of my life for the last 3 years. There is nothing quite the same as being in a really fast boat on a crisp morning sweating like crazy and generally killing yourself to try and make the boat go just that tiny fraction faster. As it turned out I ended up subbing in this last weekend to, and have volunteered to do so next weekend too. At the end of the day, all it means is missing a Saturday morning during which I would probably have jsut sat in bed, and the outings are really good exercise and make me feel less bad about the lack of running recently. Unfortunately, the coach seems to think I have also volunteered to do Wallingford head in 5 weeks time - a 5km head race in usuallyfreezing conditions! Although I would quite like to finally compete in this race (the last two years I have been entered and the race has been cancelled due to high stream) I don't want to appear too keen!
Unfortunately the only run I've managed in these last two weeks was on Friday night (rather stupidly the night before the rowing outing...). Hazel, one of my flatmates, needed to go to the train station to pick up some tickets so she could go visit her boyfriend and so decided to run there instead of cycling. I immediately said I'd come and before I knew it we were off on a 6.25km run. We did it in two halves (as we had to stop at the train station to pick up the tickets) and our average pace was 6"01/km on the way there and 6"03/km on the way back. I was really pleased we managed to keep the pace up on the way back as we were both pretty knackered by that point. As it turns out we are both pretty similar in terms of pacing which is good and means neither of us was running away from the other.
In other news, I've decided on my applications for America. My ranking of universities is as follows:
1st Choice - MIT
2nd Choice - CalTech
3rd Choice - Cornell
4th Choice - Brown
5th Choice - Chicago
6th Choice - Rutgers
So fingers crossed I'll end up in Boston! Another reason why the past couple of weeks have been so stressful is that I had my GRE general exam on last Thursday. After stressing out about it, it ended up being pretty ok, and I got 620/800 for my verbal and 800/800 on my math which I was really pleased about. I've got my subject GRE in December so hopefully that will go OK too.
I'm planning on doing a few runs this week to try and clear my head - these past couple of weeks I've been getting really stressed and a bit depressed to the point where yesterday I nearly started crying in the middle of the street for no apparent reason (and the last time I cried was at my Granny's funeral four years ago). I think hopefully running will help me get away from it all - Oxford life can be pretty heavy going a lot of the time, so hopefully running might help.
Anyways, I better stop seeing as this post is slowly becoming huge, and will probably post again after my row this weekend.

Medal!

It may not be from Beijing, but I've just earned my first Nike+ medal!
I now have a medal from completing a challenge (run 10km in 4 weeks) and a trophy for winning a challenge (being on the Seniors team in the Freshmen vs Sophomores vs Juniors vs Seniors challenge).
Had a nice run with Nicole and might try to get out for a run tomorrow before lectures start...

Nike+ Widgets!

I am heading out for a run at 5 with my friend Nicole but thought beforehand I would add some Nike+ widgets to my page to let everyone know how I'm doing:

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It Worked! (aka A Visit From Lance Armstrong)

Surprisingly, Michel Thomas worked!
I ended up going for a run on Wednesday morning, just before heading in to do our university Fresher's Fair for the Oxford Student Chorus (I'm secretary). I put on Michel Thomas and away I went. I listened to the first few lessons (all of which I've heard before) and ended up running for 25 minutes and doing just short of 4km. This was a pace of around 6"20 per kilometer which is quite good going for me. I am aiming to get back down to 6 per kilometer for a 10k run like I did at the end of first year.
Not only that, but when I finished the run (feeling slightly less knackered than usual) I suddenly heard over my iPod - "Hello, this is Lance Armstrong. You have just got a new personal best for a mile, well done."
This was quite a nice suprise as I didn't think I had run particularly fast but I think taking your mind off the running (i.e. by learning French) really helps. It's funny, as in the past I have tried it with talking books and I ended up just ignoring the book, whereas with the French you have no choice but to think about it.
After the run I ended up heading to Fresher's fair, getting a new bike (which'll make travelling around so much easier) and then I went climbing (well, bouldering) with Steph and Paul for nearly an hour and a half. It was really fun and I surprised myself with some of the routes I tackled. I was probably most proud of the overhead ones, because although I didn't complete them, I got much further than I expected and had better upper body strength than I thought!
Overall though, all the exercise and the fact I've got fresher's flu meant that I ended up having a nap when I got back. I then woke up to find an email from the Fulbright scholarship asking me to decide on a ranking of my university choices by next Wednesday. This is all a little stressful as I have no idea where I want to go! My main two are M.I.T and CalTech and I have no real way of distinguishing which one I'd prefer.
I'm going to go for a run again tomorrow. I don't know if I'll use Michel Thomas again, I might alternate with music for each run, and I feel the need for something a bit upbeat.
My Nike+ goals are currently:

1. Ran 2/8 times in four weeks
2. Burnt 768/2000 calories in 4 weeks
   
3. Ran 2/5 runs under 7"00 av pace in 4 weeks
4. Ran 2/12 times in October

I don't know if I am quite on target for goal 4 (I will have to start doing more runs once I feel better) but I am pretty confident I can complete 1 - 3 in the time limit.
Anyways, off to bed to get up bright and early and try and beat that mile (9"19) again!

French?

I didn't get a chance to run all weekend as I was at my brother's for his birthday and I had to leave Oxford at 6 this morning to head to London to sort out my America applications for my PhD but am going for a run first thing tomorrow morning. I've decided that if I end up in America at CalTech (one of my top choice uni's) then by the end of my first year there (preferably at the start of it) I want to be happy with my body when going to the beach. This is definitely not the case right now so I'm planning on keeping up the running while also watching what I eat. I'm also going to sub into the odd rowing outing because any exercise is good exercise! If I head to MIT (my other main choice) I want my fitness to be up so I have a good chance to get into their senior rowing squad and hopefully row the Head of the Charles. So fitness all round really!
What I'm going to try tomorrow is listening to the Michel Thomas French course while running in the morning... Its an audio course and I thought it might take my mind of the running while helping me learn a language I have always wanted to know... I'll let you know how it goes!