My ‘A race’ this year was going to be ‘Baby Celtman’ aka Celtman Solo 10.5. However, as Iain Twinbike Run qualified for the full Celtman itself, and Baby Celtman being the following week, I could only go to Applecross once and supported his race instead. So, my main race this year involved me sitting in a car having a snooze while waiting for Iain TwinBikeRun to finish swimming. And how did I get on? I can honestly say I smashed it. Just look at the genius move of bringing a pillow with me to make my snooze even more comfortable. If supporting was a race, then I was a gold medal winner. 

For actual running, biking and swimming, I had a back up goal of trying to run a bit faster this year. I’d noticed my average times were creeping down and I wanted to try and push a bit faster. By the end of the year I was running around 30 seconds faster a mile than the start. I’d like to say there was a dedicated training programme to achieve this but it mostly involved finishing work at 5 and having to be home by 540 as that’s when our nanny finished. There’s nothing like having to avoid paying overtime to make you run faster. 

Overall, a decent year that reflected two things. One, a one year old in the house which meant I was very restricted about anything longer than an hour. Two, a broken rib and then COVID to finish the year so Oct to Dec was patchy as I had to avoid pressure on my rib and then anything which set off a cough for a couple of weeks. 

Next year, ‘Baby Celtman’ is the goal again and I’m looking forward to being back in Applecoss, even if I have to be there with a bike and running kit and not a comfy pillow. 

Last year, after finishing my 31 days of exercise challenge, I wrote:

“Tired legs, tired arms… Pooh sticks thrown off a bridge show more skill in the water than I did [swimming] this morning. I was very glad to finish the swim and, with it, the challenge.”

Today, I feel good, and I feel I have benefitted from trying some form of stretching each day. So much so, I’ll be continuing the challenge tomorrow by incorporating some form of stretching each day into my routine.

Most importantly, I started the challenge because I felt pain in my right hip, and, today, I can report I have not felt any pain or discomfort for the last two weeks. Yay!

Who’d have guessed it? Taking care of yourself and trying not to run, bike or swim your body into the ground, is actually a good thing to do! 🙂

What fresh hell is this? Why is he smiling? I take back everything I said about medicine balls – this is now the most challenging exercise I’ve tried in my 31 day challenge and all it involves is standing and raising a leg. Who knew that a single leg raise would be so hard? If you don’t believe me, if you’re thinking “I’ve hopped before how hard can it be?” then, let me assure you, this is not hopscotch, this is torture. And then he says “turn your head to the left” and the next thing you know, you’re toppling sideways faster than a skyscraper attacked by Godzilla. Try it and see if you can stay upright for 12 minutes, I couldn’t!

A useful video I should have watched 23 days ago. The most important tip for me was that stretching is not just about stretching. You can work on getting more flexible through other forms of training, which would have made it easier to hit some of my daily targets if I’d known this tip earlier…

There are many ways that you can injure yourself. Some are obvious: ice on a road when riding your bike; a hole in the paverment to twist your ankle while running. Others are less so. Footballer Kirk Broadfoot certainly didn’t expect to injure himself cooking an egg in a microwave, but, when it exploded, he missed Rangers next match. Food should come with a health warning – especially when you’re stretching.

For the last two nights I’ve only had time to stretch shortly after large meals. I didn’t think anything of it. I know not to swim on a full stomach or to run while stuffed full of biscuits but I didn’t expect it to have any effect on my stretching. I was wrong.

While stretching out was fine – reaching up, extending arms and legs, anything that involved length – as soon as I start to curl, whether doubling over or crunching up – I felt like I was jumping on a bag pipe in my stomach. “OOOHHHHHAAAAHHHHAWGGHHHHH!” I went, just like the lovely sound of a bag pipe. There are certain moves that you can’t do with a full stomach.

I guess this should be obvious. You can’t eat two hot dogs, chips, and a chip butty and a yoghurt (because I’m being healthy!) and expect it to go from plate to stomach and to vanish on the way. My stomach is full of the food I’ve just eaten. It doesn’t disppear in 30 minutes. Digestion takes time.

So, I share this update with a warning that the only thing you should stretch after a large meal is your waistband.

Last night I tried some stretching exercises with a medicine ball. I say “medicine ball” but I actually mean “death ball”. Blimey, Charlie, jings, crivens – whatever you do, don’t use a medicine ball at the top of your stairs.

A confession – I’ve been working out on the landing at the top of my stairs. There’s a large mirror on the wall and I find it helpful to use it to check my form. There’s just enough room to stretch out my arms, though sometimes I do have to bend into the spare bedroom, but it’s a decent space for watching videos on an iPad and myself in the mirror. Until last night.

Last night, I thought I would try using a medicine ball. My wife had one from when she was pregnant because pregnant woman look like like big balloons. They sit on it and say things like “Oooh, that’s nice” and “wouldn’t this be nice if I had a KitKat?” and “where’s my KitKat?” and “you can’t expect a pregnant woman to get her own KitKat, can you?”. Or was that just my experience?

Anyways, as I had a medicine ball, I thought I’d give it go and tried:

Before I realised this was advanced level balancing and I needed something easier to start with like:

Until I realised that even on a beginners level of bouncing on a big bouncy ball, I had no balance and was rolling back and forth on the landing with each roll taking me closed to the edge of the stairs.

I didn’t even know a medicine ball could roll. I thought another name for it was a “stability ball”. Stable. Not moving. A good thing when you’re on the first floor and trying to avoid plummeting faster down the stair than a rocket powered slinky.

It was getting dangerous and as the moves progressed to lying on my back and rolling the ball beneath me I could see (upside down, as I was on my back) that I was getting closer and closer to lying not just upside down but also one level down in a crumpled heap.

So, the moral of the story is this: medicine balls are tough, start with an easy video, but most of all, don’t use one at the top of your stairs as it won’t be a medicine ball you need but a medicine phone to call a medicine ambulance to take you to the medicine hospital for lots of medicine.