"One mile - One Child" Fund Raising - Progress Report.

My marathon in Lausanne will have a noble purpose, with each mile representing a Ugandan Child whose schooling I hope to be sponsoring in 2007.

The estimated cost is £50 per child and we have now been fund-raising for around 2 weeks in this way.

It looks like I already have to get to the 10 mile mark!

Mile 1 is for Charles Tezikoma. Thanks to Sue Garner.

Mile 2 is for Fred Zilonda. Thanks to Patrick Adams.


Mile 3 is for Ruth Nalumansi. Thanks to everyone at SITS 2006.


Mile 4 is for Betty Babita. Thanks to Rachel Ashby and Paul Lucas.


Mile 5 is for Ester Nabirye. Thanks to Clive and Di Ashby.

(No photo of Ester yet, sorry.)

Mile 6 is for Catherine Bajjanga. Thanks to Steve and Lisa Whitton.


Mile 7 is for Samuel Matende. Thanks to Barry and Siobhan Kirwan.


Mile 8 is for Everline Kagoya. Thanks to everyone at Brockenhurst Park Horse Trials 2006.


Mile 9 is for Edward Buyinza. Thanks to Jess Walker.


Mile 10 is for Dennis Lubogo. Thanks to everyone at Brockenhurst Park Horse Trials 2006.

If anyone wants to sponsor an orphan child at Busalamu Secondary School as I run another mile in Lausanne, please e-mail me on : charliethecoffeeman@hotmail.com

Thanks to all who have pledged so far. I am training hard, I promise!

Ice, Ice baby! Strike the POSE!

8 weeks to the Lausanne Marathon.
6 weeks to the Phedippidations World Half Marathon Challenge (at Henley on Thames)
2 weeks to the Robin Hood Nottingham Half Marathon.

Week 1 - 40.
Week 2 - 39
Week 3 - 36
Week 4 - 31
Week 5 - 19
Week 6 - 26
Week 7 - 61 (!!!!) Long run 1 - 16 miles.
Week 8 - 24
Week 9 - 50 Long run 2 - 18 miles

6 week average 35 miles (must get to 40!)

My weight is now 86 kg (down 6.1 kgs in 10 weeks)

I have entered the Lausanne Marathon - look - and have booked Easyjet flights there and back. Only 74 in my age group so far. It gets real now!

The fund raising for the Ugandan orphans has begun with a bang (see separate post).

That was a pretty satisfactory running week, especially as it was compressed into 5 running days and I completed my first 18 miler, my longest run since the year 2000! It was hilly and, as a two lap course, quite a good test psychologically. I could have done without the rush hour traffic which inevitably accompanied me on the busier parts. One of the problems of where I live is that is impossible to avoid a major road completely on any run of over 8 miles without resorting to multiple laps or double-backs. Oh, well, I mustn't complain, at least I'm surrounded by some quite scenic countryside.

I know seem to be able to knock off tempo runs at sub 8:30 pace and 9-10 mile runs pretty easily and am recovering exceptionally well. I am reasonable confident that the range of daily supplements that I went for around 10 weeks ago are having some sort of positive effect on me. They are:
A compound Multi-Vitamin / Mineral
A straight Glucosamine Sulphate
A Omega 3 Fish Oil capsule
Chromium Picolinate
L-carnitine
I've just added a Glucosamine / Chrondroitin combo which is a 2 per day and I will use this up to my marathon, phasing out the straight Glucosamine when the supply finishes early next week.

This feeling also probably means that my "Endurance building phase" is now done and I should start more strength based running over the next 4 weeks. Lots of hills, lots of offroad etc. - probably just in time (see below).

My Asics GT 2110 shoes now have 457 miles on them and I have just ordered some Asics Kayanos from Wiggle. The idea is to run around 200 miles in these in the next 8 weeks, mainly on the roads with my GT 2110's going to the offroad running. The Mizuno Nirvana's I bought have only got 70 miles on them, but they worry me. The wierd firm plastic spring "thingy" that runs under the heel and mid-foot gives quite a firm ride and I am pretty convinced that it is contributing to the onset of more lower leg problems. It is a motion control shoe, which I know I need, but what kind of motion is it controlling, I wonder? I've retired them for a while anyway.

My main problem in running right now (apart from keeping the button headphones of my MP3 player in as I sweat!) is the insidious encroachment of achilles tendonitis into my life. This started on my right leg and, feeling left out, the other leg has now joined in. Hence the new shoes and the title to this blog entry. I now have ice packs as a pretty much constant companion around the house, along with that minging pack of frozen peas that I found at the bottom of the freezer, unsused for over a year!!

Some things I know about this and will work to reverse :
- Increase in running , particularly on hard surfaces brings it on. So I will go to the country!
- Worn shoes and collapsed midsole cushioning can encourage it. New shoes on the way!
- The tendon naturally shortens during running. I'm stretching all day long, I promise!
- Worst of all, its a bugger to get rid of once you have it and I have a marathon to run in 8 weeks!

But there is something else I found out about while trawling the web - POSE running. I love the little videos on the PoseTech site and that evil Dr. Romanov has me brain-washed already! I tried my own version on a 9 miler last night and I can see what they mean. Basically it's a style of running that has to be learnt where footstrike takes place directly below your centre of gravity and your body axis shifts forward, using gravity as a forward propulsion force. The basic premise is that your running becomes more efficient, you stop crashing down on your heels, your times improve and you get less injuries. You feel a bit strange (and probably look it too!), but a change in biomechanics can't be a mistake for someone who seems to be flirting with overuse injuries, can it? So I am going to POSE for a while, if that's OK, and see if I can look like this on the Chiltern Hills!

I've got a 16 miler in the plan either today or tomorrow, but that may just turn into a 2 hour offroad jaunt. I have 25 miles under my shoes already this week and in theory I could get 3 more running days in to make up the other planned 25.

Next week is going to be a bit silly as I'm working at Blenheim Horse Trials, but that is a big park and I've said I'm going offroad.....

A footnote - 3 members of the family are now running regularly and it is with great enthusaism that we are planning to all run with lots of old friends in one of Europe's coolest running events in December at the Course d'Escalade in Geneva. I ran this about 5 times in the 7 years that we lived in Geneva and hurtling around the steep cobbled streets of Geneva's old town in your own age and sex limited mini-field was always a lot of fun (usually also very hair raising in the dark, rain and / or snow). I've yet to find a better excuse for gorging yourself on mulled wine and vegetable soup (there is a reason for this which can be read about here).

Thus perish the enemies of the republic!

It may just be that Coffeeman's Running Blog morphs into some team effort after Lausanne. Expect anarchy if Trev gets involved.

Training Report 10

10 weeks to the Lausanne Marathon.
8 weeks to the Phedippidations World Half Marathon Challenge (at Henley on Thames)
4 weeks to the Robin Hood Nottingham Half Marathon.

Week 1 - 40.
Week 2 - 39
Week 3 - 36
Week 4 - 31
Week 5 - 19
Week 6 - 26
Week 7 - 61 (!!!!) Long run 1. 16 miles.
Week 8 - 24

6 week average 33 miles (must get to 40!)

My weight is now 86.5 kg (down 5.6 kgs in 8 weeks)

So I managed to put in a "big one" in week 7. Wife away; light work schedule; motivated Coffeeman! As I piled on the miles, I was amazed at the real lack of fatigue. A first hilly 16 miler in the middle of the week was followed by a 9 mile recovery run and and a strong tempo run on friday.

On saturday I "raced". Well Lisa raced and I sort of "paced" really. It's the first time Lisa has had a number pinned to her chest in a running event and although they reduced the planned 10k to an 8k run, Lisa completed in less than 48 minutes with her Dad urging her to reel in competitors in front of her throughout the last mile. Really good fun, Lisa, despite the onset of shin splints. And we have an official result! 235th and 236th out of not many more.....

Lisa's a bit better at this at the moment but it may change. Sorry Lisa!

On sunday I also ran 8.5 miles on the roads around my village here, before work realities made me hit the road with "equipment" hitched behind the truck.

So this weeks training was inevitably a lot different, especially as I was working full on every day.

But...

I had a beautiful early morning run in Windsor Great Park around Virginia Water - why aren't there hundreds doing it as it must be an idyllic spot to do your early morning run? Traffic free, green, marked trails, etc. etc

I also had a 7.5 miler in South Derbyshire overlooking the Trent, with the smell of Jersey Cows in my nostrils as other lunatics mountain biked for 24 hours in the next valley. I have to admit three runs in a week felt like rest and I was basking a bit in the available fitness. It seems like it's time to pile on the miles again this week and an 18 miler is planned in a week of 45-50. I must never forget the distance of the marathon and although bowling along at 9 minute mile pace for an hour or an hour and a half is very pleasant, it won't get me from Lausanne to Vevey and back will it? The Nottingham Half gets nearer and although I think my original 1:45 goal is unrealistic (my best Tempo run is at 8:12 pace), I do have to set a goal that predicts a sub 4 hour marathon as a confidence booster.

I am now firmly hooked into an online diary at runningahead.com and see no reason why all runners don't use it. Hopefully the software can cope with the pressure of huge numbers of users as the site will get that. The ability to set out with just a stop watch and then on memory of the route plot the exact mileage on the site whilst it integrates smoothly into a cross-referenced training diary is awesome. So far I've avoided the forums as I see 4-5 names cropping up everywhere, suggesting a small group of accolytes. A broader participation would be nice, but seeing where everyone else runs is fascinating!

My "Noble Cause"

(Thanks to Steve Runner for the phrase : noble cause.)

I've run one marathon for charity. In 1998, frustrated at my inability to get into the London Marathon on the ballot for three consecutive years, I decided to take up a "Golden Bond" place and was able to raise over £3000 for the PHAB charity, supporting activity centres for disabled children.

Since Hill & Valley Coffee opened in 1999, we have fund-raised for various offbeat charitable causes in coffee producing countries. In early 2006 we finally found the cause that we want to work with on a long-term basis.

I have a particular emotional attraction to Uganda - it was where I "cut my teeth" as a coffee buyer in the 1980's and I got to know Ugandans who had lived through the turmoil of the Obote and Amin regimes in the decade before. These inherently dignified and always cheerful people seem capable of retaining their optimistic view of their future through whatever turmoil is thrown at them. It is my belief that eventually Ugandans will be able to control their own destiny and "develop" if we just give them a helping hand - not necessarily a hand out. For many reasons the country is capable of transcending the "undeveloped / poor / failed state" paradigm of much of sub-saharan Africa.

Lisa, my daughter, went to the south eastern area of Iganga to teach in a primary school for 4 months in 2002, and this brought home to me how desperate most young Ugandans were to seek education as a way out of poverty and underdevelopment. Under Yoweri Museveni as president in a form of quasi democratic beneficial parliamentary dictatorship, Uganda is less and likely to be a failed state, despite problems brewing to the north, west and even in Kenya to the east.

Equipped with some first hand knowledge of the country and its educational system, we decided, as a family, to seek a way of funding education in Uganda for specific individuals who needed help. As in many areas these days, we commenced our search by "googling" secondary school scholarship uganda and that's how we came across the wonderful young people running the Uganda Villages Project.

Five months later and with dozens of information hungry e-mails behind us, we are now actively supporting a group of orphans to get secondary schooling in Iganga district. Yes, the same region as Lisa travelled to and taught in. An auspicious coincidence.

What has all this to do with "Coffeeman Running" though?

Well we now have 26 children whose educational needs we want to cover for 2007. One child for each mile of the marathon I intend to run in Lausanne on October 22. All the children are in the same secondary school, Busalamu SS, in rural Iganga district. We have calculated £50 per child as sufficient to pay the school fees, leaving enough for a contribution to materials and exam fees as well as the all important clean white school uniforms which distinguish the children in term time.

So as my marathon training enters its last 9 weeks I am trying to raise sponsorship for these 26 young people, one by one, mile by mile. Individual sponsors are being sent a jpeg photo of the child and in most cases a pdf of a letter they have personally penned to their sponsor.

They say that running a marathon is always something of a "life enhancing" experience. On October 22nd I intend to enhance the lives of these 26 young people as the mile markers pass, hopefully with the inspiring view of the Alps on my side as I glance across the still waters of Lac Leman between Lausanne and Vevey.

There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be. ~George Sheehan

Oh and that picture at the top is of Charles Tezikoma. He is 17 years old and currently in year S2 at Busalamu. He doesn't know it yet, but a very nice lady who spends weekends working hard at British Eventing Horse Trials has just paid for his education next year. Charles wishes to be a policeman and is currently top of his class. I'll be thinking of him as I run the first downhill mile down to the Parc de Denantou.

Only 25 more to go!

Training Report 9

12 weeks to the Lausanne Marathon.
10 weeks to the Phedippidations World Half Marathon Challenge (at Henley on Thames)
6 weeks to the Robin Hood Nottingham Half Marathon.

The Regents Park Summer 10k is this coming saturday August 5th. I have entered the Nottingham Half Marathon.

Week 1 - 40.
Week 2 - 39
Week 3 - 36
Week 4 - 31
Week 5 - 19
Week 6 - 26
My weight is now 87.5 kg (down 4.6 kgs in 6 weeks)

At last, at last we are back to some "normal" English summer weather with morning temperatures in the mid teens. We have also had some rain and right now it's a bit windy.

My calf problem has not yet developed into anything serious - was just a warning probably of inflexible lower legs. I ice it after each run and sometimes in the evenings, and take some ibuprofen with my morning cocktail of supplements of "performance enhancing vitamins and supplements.

This week I am planning a BIG WEEK - and hoping to get 50 miles under my shoes for the first time in a long, long while. After 7.5 miles monday and 9 this morning, I'm aiming for a 16 mile meander through the backroads of some local villages tomorrow at 6 am. I have to confess that I'm not meeting many (any?) runners these mornings, but each time I hit a stretch of main road the early rush hour traffic is starting to really piss me off. Most of them seem either to screetch to a halt and impatiently wait for me to go past, leaving far too great a space for me or they are oblivious and virtually run you off the road. So tomorrow's course will be hilly and very rural. It brings up the problem with drink stashing - but hopefully the early morning residents of Chearsley don't search their hedges! My nine miler this morning covered part of the same ground, a few real grunting hills, and some nice views over the Chiltern Hills to the east and the Oxfordshire valleys around us to the west. I am looking forward to tomorrow already.

Next week will be a lower mileage as the work schedule looks pretty awful, but it will be the official start of my fund raising plan linked to the Lausanne Marathon. A blog entry will follow at the weekend - along with a short report on the Regents Park 10k, my daughter Lisa's debut with a number on.

In the meantime I've found a couple of really cool sites while surfing.

Endurance50.com is the official site marking ultrarunner Dean Karnazes' attempt to run 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states of he USA, beginning on September 17 in St. Charles Missouri.

Dean should be running the Lasalle Bank Chicago Marathon on the day I run in Lausanne and if he makes it it will be number 36 in the sequence. I am going to follow Dean's progress as my training stiffens up in the last 5 weeks. Hopefully it will inspire!

I've also stumbled upon what must be one of the best runners' sites anywhere on the web. Check out Running Ahead.com. It is a FREE online training schedule, compiled by a real runner and linked into google mapping software that allows you to course measure and plot. You will be able to follow my progress on here if you like. I am registered as CoffeemanRunning.