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Mark Martin 10K Training Blog (9th April 2010)

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay, I’m about as popular as petrol prices for my lack of blog last week so here we are back on the 10Kdiary!

What a couple of weeks I’ve had since we last conversed!

Firstly, the freakish snowfall at the start of the month seriously hampered my training for the 10K, I have though, improved on the diet of chip rolls and chocolate!

I had a bizarre incident trying to get to work one night and got stuck in a 3 hour traffic jam at Harthill at 11pm at night!

Luckily for me I had my mini-recorder with me and documented my crazy, crazy night, here’s the link: http://www.realradio-scotland.co.uk/presenters-shows/shows-xcyr/through-the-night-qtuj/mark-martins-night-in-the-snow/ysa7rm36/

After having to abandon my car at Harthill Services, I breezed through the snow like Bambi to a telephone to tell my bosses I wasn’t going to get within 15 miles of our HQ as, for some bizarre reason the mobile signals were out of service despite the transmitters being 2 miles up the road! (Answers on a postcard please!)

The snow run, mainly to keep myself warm from the friggin’ arctic like temperatures did help with muscle building in the calves and the pushing of jacknifed cars out the snow helped give a different kind of training to both my lower and upper body parts.

Back to the “official” training and again football has played a big part of my varied programme over the last few days!

Last Friday, my friends and I (just for the banter) decided to meet up for a game of “cuppy”. This is the game where you have one goalkeeper and it’s every man for themselves. The premise of the game is to run around after the ball to score “two and your through”, jeeso, trust me, it was so much easier when I was 12 years old!

To say I was knackered was putting it mildly after my Wayne Rooney-esque display! I did though come away from the football park with a slight hamstring pull which wasn’t the best heading out that night with my friends for a boogie (limp) on the dance floors of Edinburgh!

Now, to fill you in, I haven’t drunk pints for many years as I had some weight issues when I went into radio back in 2002. When you are young you think pints don’t put on a belly and you will work it off but back then I ballooned to 16 stone in a very short space of time due to my general laziness and disregard for healthy food!

I only now, on very rare occasions, drink pints and never Guinness after a little incident in Malaga last year with the boys. (I was sick on the plane home, eeek!) So it was a night of girly (£1.50) alcopops for the boys and I!

Now these drinkies are not the best when you are training for any kind of sport as it feels like they are 99% sugar and don’t let you sleep when you eventually get home after a night of randomness!

My sleep that morning/daytime was broken and made me very grumpy and de-motivated to do anything. My gran reminded me of the dangers of burning the candle at both ends once again! Once again, the wise owl was correct! (Cant believe I just conceded that – I’ll never live it down ha-ha!)

That Saturday night consisted of a night in front of rubbish weekend telly (bring back Gladiators and You Bet!) with a sore hamstring and a lack of appetite for some reason, Sunday surely had to be better!

Easter Sunday came along, yaaaay, time for lots of chocolate eggs for munching, not for me though! My Easter Sunday consisted of an early rise to perform tannoy duties at the live Sky Sports Hibernian vs. Celtic lunchtime match at Easter Road.

I was covering for the regular announcer Gav who was otherwise engaged and is a good guy despite being a Hibbee!  I was determined to use this live, televised game as inspiration for a week of getting back on the sporting wagon!

The game……was absolutely dire! Robbie Keane’s penalty expertly despatched though, sending Hibs down 1-0 but not the greatest advert for the SPL you’ll ever see!

Now, being a Jambo, I don’t like to see Hibs lose……………………. (ahem!) and I performed my duties professionally but maybe with a slight smirk announcing the time added on before full time!

On Monday, Real Radio 5’s was a non-starter for me with my dodgy hamstring so I light walk to my local supermarket for supplies was the order of the day.

Recently, myself and the other half (ok, mainly her) have been making soup from vegetables and “stew packs” which cost around £1 and I have to say the quality, healthiness and fun of making these soups have been nothing short of phenomenal!

My kitchen sometimes looks like the cooking segment on “This Morning” with vegetables on the chopping board, a pan on a low heat fizzling away with some random ingredients although I haven’t had Holly Willoughby pitching in yet, I am working on that bit……(maybe just in my dreams that happens!)

Soup making appears to be my new hobby so the walk to Morrisons had to be done!

I don’t get much chance to go walking nowadays with work and social commitments but blimey, it’s really quite invigorating! (Now there is a big word for me and yes I’ve had to spell check it!)

My destination is around a mile and a half from Mark Martin Mansions and the things I noticed on the walk to the shop were brilliant. I found two local newsagents I never knew existed, I found a new way to a mate’s house and didn’t realise there was so much wildlife around my area. These are observations I would never had made in my loser cruiser (car) so I was quietly impressed!

By Wednesday with my new healthy eating regime, I still had 4 unopened Easter eggs from the 5 I received on Easter Sunday and a hamstring that appeared to be easing off.

I was invited to play in my usual midweek 7’s game where I played 45 minutes in goal (conceding only 2 –Peter Schmeichel style) and 15 minutes up front (Christian Nade style! Trust me, there is a reason I’m a keeper!) The run outfield was fine as I didn’t over stretch myself (again like Nade) carrying my injury and while Lionel Messi was ripping Arsenal apart, I scored the sweetest goal I have ever scored.

I played a one-two with Andy on my team, he passed back to me and I slammed the ball into the top left-hand corner from 20 yards! I couldn’t have caught it any better and I celebrated like I had won the Scottish Cup! Little did I realise the other team ran straight up the park and slammed one in! Ooops!

The hamstring suitably passed the mid-week match and is easing off gradually with hot baths, rubbing and deep heat, good times!

Thursday of this week was a day of sorting out some business plus my car is needing a couple of repairs so after my daily sleep, I got up, straight on the phone and lappy to sort my things out then once again it was out in the Livi sunshine for a gentle stroll.

Listening to Steps, Five, Michael Bolton and Stock, Aitken, Waterman tunes on my MP3 player it was a quick 15 minute walk around the block!

For the record, the likes of Steps, Five, Michael Bolton, SAW, Spice Girls and other various cheesy artists is genuinely my taste in music!

Music is there to be sung along to and if I like cheesy pop that’s my choice ha-ha! I do like other genres of music but I do find a good pop song can change your mood instantly which is why I have these kinds of songs on my playlist. The funny thing is it drives some of my friends crazy when I have these tunes on in the car, I think it’s hilarious that they are trapped in my loser cruiser with B*Witched blaring on the stereo!

To be perfectly honest, I actually train with these kinds of songs in my ear, it takes your mind off the discomfort you might feel while training.

I would suggest if you can, train with your favourite songs obviously being mindful of when you are near roads and traffic though, we don’t want any unsavoury incidents pre-10K!

Looking ahead to this weekend I have a jam packed programme that means I will be on the go from early on Saturday morning.

I’m stadium announcing at the Celtic vs. Ross County Scottish Cup semi-final as a favour for a friend which requires standing on the Hampden touchline (dream!) announcing substitutions, time added on and any corporate messaging to a rather large crowd! If you are there, please don’t boo my announcements/voiceover voice!

Look out for me on Sky if you are watching the game at home, I’ll give you a wave from standing next to Chick Young (leg-end!)

Saturday night will be good fun, myself and a few of the guys from Real are going to the CHAS (Children’s Hospice Association Scotland) Easter Bash hoping to raise a huge wad of cash for such a worth charity!

I’m DJ’ing for the guests later in the night so I’m hoping to get a cheeky (light) swim session in at my hotel pre-show to keep the energy levels up for the evening fun and fundraising!

This Sunday, I am aiming to go a light run around my area as opposed to walking it, again cheesy tunes at the ready which includes my renewed fascination for Robson and Jerome as I found their CD and loaded onto the laptop! I wonder if “Up on the Roof” could be my new training song? (I’m actually not kidding!)

Are Robson and Jerome my new inspiration? Find out next week right here! Have a good week – be good, have fun and keep it varied!

Mark M