Back To School

My lovely girlfriend was telling me about this lunatic she works with; he’s like the forrest gump of the I.T world, one day he just started running and he just hasn’t stopped! He’s found another slightly de-ranged fella to be his running buddy and the two “marathon men” are embarking on the slightly ridiculous challenge of completing 12 marathons in 12 months!


So I decided I would help out and make sure they were in a fit state to head off on their little adventure...

A little bleep test to determine their current fitness level and give me a bit more information to put a specific training programme together, and obviously a nice way to see them suffer and find out if they’ve got the staying power!...

Here’s Jamie’s take on the afternoon...

Sunday afternoon began with the feeling of returning to school as we prepared ourselves for the physical challenge that is the 20 metre bleep test.

Set in one of the gymnasiums at the old College for Education, now Northumbria Police HQ I really expected Mr Sugden, the PE teacher from Kes, to march in armed with whistle in hand and barking orders!

Fortunately we were joined by David Osgathorp, a high profile personal trainer from London, who was on hand to give us some much needed advice and feedback from the results from the test.

Langley and Jamie were joined by Judy and Zach for the opening stages of the test, but Zach soon found other interests (mostly climbing on police mannequins and peddling like the dickens on one of the many exercise bikes dotted around the room) and Judy later dropped out leaving the two marathon men to push themselves as far as their legs would take them.



The test had certainly picked up its pace by level 9 (or were we just slowing?) and the pair sprinted from point to point to hit the beats. Looking good at level 11 quickly turned to lagging behind as level 12 closed in. Langley reached shuttle 10 in level 11 before dropping and Jamie fell a shuttle later - showing how equal our relative fitness levels are as a pair.

We await the results with trepidation and David will be setting us a series of personal goals to help us in our build up to Anglesey.

If this wasn't enough we then set off on a 16 mile riverside run from Newburn back to Hexham. A tough run, but very rewarding on completion.
The training programme is on it’s way fella’s...
If you want to find out more about Langley and Jamie’s challenge head over to www.marathonmen.co.uk and help them in their goal to raise money for www.tinylives.org.uk

I’ve been inspired by their goal and if these dodgy old knees can take it then I may even join them for one of their marathons (let me know the flattest course fella’s ;-))

I’ll keep you all updated on their progress.