It's a long way to Tipperary...but that might depend on how you measure it

Following on from Trudi's suggestion that we think about how far we'll be running [walking] in Smoots, there's been a few other alternative suggestions to the way we think about the task ahead.

Apparently, we're approximately going to be doing 295680 handbreadths (that's the Biblical measurement - presumably in different time periods this differs according to the average size of peoples' hands)

Alternatively, in Old Russian measurements, we could be said to be doing
506879.94 vershoks, or the completely unpronouncable 12801.6 makhovaya sazhens. At least once we've spent time trying to figure out how to pronounce them the walking will seem like an easier task.

My favourie so far I think is the 85477644 pixels. I thought pixels were a computer thing - so presumably that's the distance of all those pixels laid end to end on the floor - although doubtless someone who really knows what this measure of distance is will put me straight on this shortly...

Weekend "progress"

Nowt on Friday. Nowt on Saturday. Nowt on Sunday. 7k on a treadmill this morning in 50 mins. Yay! Of sorts. Now all I have to do is that, over and over again, in fur (I refer you to Trudi's last blog for messages on the same theme..!)

Number crunching

Here at Mad As Badgers, debate has started as to whether miles and kilometers are just too darned sensible as units of measurement. We quite possibly require something a little more outlandish. Take the Smoot, for example (not to be confused with the Indian moot, which is also a unit of measurement according to onlineconversion.com).

Says Wikipedia:
"The Smoot is a nonstandard unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity prank. It is named after an MIT fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha, Oliver R. Smoot (class of 1962), who in October, 1958 was rolled head over heels by his fraternity brothers to measure the length of the Harvard Bridge. One smoot is equal to his height (five feet and seven inches)"

So, if we say we're running 12,398.636737572 smoots dressed as badgers, does that sound better or worse?

We really should try to come up with a brand new, badgery unit of measurement. If you have any great ideas about this, please send them to us by email - trudi@madasbadgers.org or taz@madasbadgers.org). Best suggestion will go down in history (or, failing that, on this website at the very least).

That Friday feeling

Not 'Thank Crunchie it's Friday, but 'Thank Twix it's Friday'. Yes, I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I bribed myself today. I was working on a different site, a bit further away (a shade under 6 miles if you include absent-mindedly taking the wrong turn a couple of times), and decided to walk home again. Chocolate is to a Trudi as a carrot is to a donkey (I'm sure I've used that analogy before!), so, reward stashed in bag, off I went. I can now officially do a half marathon by walking home from work three times a week. Now all I have to do is do it in one go, and with furry sleeves instead of denim ones...

I'd also like to say thank you to everyone who has sponsored us or left lovely messages so far. You all rock harder than a big lump of granite :o)

If I shut my eyes and count to three, I'll open them again to find it was all a dream...

Today I told everyone at work about our running and handed my sponsor form around. This act somehow turned something that we've idly been laughing and joking about for the last few months into something slightly realer and scarier.

I haven't been training since Monday, although I am trying to walk to places I'd normally get transport to, but it doesn't seem to be having much, if any, effect. I did think about trying to follow Trudi's lead, and walk to work, but W4 to SE1 would probably take me until it was time to go home. On the positive side I am going away this weekend (which usually would be a sign of excessive eating leading to extra unhealthiness), but the place we're staying in has both a gym and a swimming pool, so I have NO EXCUSE. (That's in capitals so that when I re-read this i'm clear about the level of excuse I have for not training).

I, like Trudi, rejected the gym option for training for this, mostly because a. it's expensive and b.training in the gym is great (apart from the actual exercising element involved) - it's warm, instant showers and you get to watch telly while you run. Which is somewhat different to the real world of hills, hard pavements and rain.

At least I now have the extra motivating factor of a sponsor form filled out by the kind people I work with, so that every time I feel disheartened I can look at it and remind myself that if I don't do it, I won't raise the money for charity. Which I really really REALLY want to do. Not least so that I can see Trace's face when she sees me and Trudi dressed as Badgers...

I'd still like to wake up and find it's all a dream though. Anyone got a magic machine that could make that happen? Anyone?

Taz.x

Now is the time for optimism...

The costumes are being made. It's all becoming very, very real. I'm hoping to have enough done by the weekend to stun you all with a photo showing off my impressive sewing skills, that's if I haven't stabbed myself with pins too much to hold a camera!

I've come to the conclusion that going to the gym is not nearly as effective for me as walking/jogging in the real world. I am currently getting home in the evenings with the slightly smug muscle ache of someone doing regular exercise -it's 4 miles from work to home, I've started doing this every day now. Who needs the gym when a steep hill is part of your daily commute? (she says, neatly sidestepping the fact that she carries an oyster card as a safety net in case of groin strain or a torrential downpour).

Trudi x

A little bit of light at the end of the tunnel

Last week I managed to do precisely nill training. I find it incredibly difficult to actually do every day things like get up, go to work and all the rest of it, and figure out where to find time to do training. Part of it is down to my state of mind at any given moment however, and last week was no good in this respect.

By contrast, this morning, the first morning of the week, I managed to get up, go for a run*, do a tiny bit of washing up, put a wash load in the machine, have a shower, eat the lovely breakfast that Paul made for me and make my sandwiches. And get to work 15 minutes early. What's all that about then?

The run* is presented as run*, because I have, with the help of the slightly-less-evil-genius-than-he'd-like-to-have-you-believe PJ helped me come up with a semi-fast walk, semi-jog which is slower, but much easier to do, and I managed to keep going for a lot longer and didn't struggle with the lack of oxygen so much. Whether I can achieve this with a layer of fur on top of me remains to be seen, but there is at least the first tiny ray of light at the end of the tunnel in that today for the first time I could at least get round the course (dressed normally!) without collapsing entirely.

5 weeks to go...

Ever hear the story of the hare and the tortoise?

What about the one with the hare, the tortoise and the incredibly slow badger?

I am not, in any way, shape, or form, motivated to train for the Great North Run. It's all of a few weeks away, and I've managed a couple of short training runs and a bit if walking. Doing the Great North Run dressed as a badger is so far past my comprehension of the idea of something uncomfortably painful that I can't even get past the point where I imagine that September is actually going to end, and we're actually going to go through with it.

Last week I managed to get up twice at 6.30 in the morning to do two training runs of about 3 miles each. The first day, I wasn't sure if it was the early hour or the running I resented so much. By the second day, I definitely knew it was the running. I hate this, and I hate that we agreed to do it, and I also know that's the precise reason I have to go through with it, because people don't give you money for doing things you love. But even the extreme motivating factor of trying to reach our fund raising target has failed to inspire me this time.

I'm not sure how I'm going to get through this, I'm not sure I will get through this and I'm certainly not sure what on earth I'm going to look like trying to do it! Thank goodness for Trudi's artistic vision and sewing machine - if it was up to me we'd have a pot of black paint tipped over us and I'd describe us as "skinned badgers". We did, at least, make one arm of one of the badger costumes on Sunday. Ok, we didn't make it, we pinned it together.

Please, somebody, wake me up when it's all over.

taz.x