Cliff notes: DJ takes break from radio show to lose weight and improve fitness and enters ultramarathon.
It’s true. Yesterday marked five weeks of consistently completing four runs each week. Why is this important to me you might ask? Well the more observant of you will have noticed I haven’t updated my blog for some time and I figured it was about time I told you a little of what I’ve been up to.
Many of you will know that I presented a weekly Internet Radio show for six months on Ideal Clubworld Radio and before that did another year of weekly shows on their sister channel, Ideal Bootcamp. After eighteen months of presenting these shows I felt like I needed a break and a major reason was that I knew I had been neglecting my health and fitness and it was beginning to affect my performance as well as other areas of my life.
I have a feeling a few fellow DJs and radio presenters reading this might well recognise this impact of their chosen occupation/hobby. If so, I hope this article might help or inspire some of you to take action.
Just before Christmas I started a reasonably strict diet and in two months lost more than 8kg and 7% bodyfat. Having got my weight back down to a more reasonable level I have started to run to try and improve my fitness.
What you may not know is that I did run seriously in the past. I ran track, road and cross-country while at senior school and for a while afterwards and then after a ten year break got back into the sport again (as well as doing some duathlon). I last raced in 2007 and since then have only jogged occasionally.
I am someone who needs a focus or target to work towards and I have been looking for a while now at ultramarathons and searching for a suitable challenge. There was a race that I really liked the look of but was just too soon to be sensible and will have to keep for next year but I’m pleased to say the right event seems to have fallen into my lap in the shape of a new ultramarathon that is being held just a few miles from where I live.
So – In October I will be running the 9bar9x9 81km (50 mile) trail event!
Yes, that’s right! 50 miles! I feel like I need to strive for something that is not just going to be easy. I ran a marathon in 2001 but this is definitely a step up from that in terms of the training that I am going to have to do just to complete it.
I hope you will be interested in following my training. I plan to write a little about the intermediate events I have planned to build up to the main race but I also want to write about some of the tools and techniques I will be using to help me train. Technology has come on a long way since I started running at school and I have already been using things like a fitness band and smartphone apps to monitor my progress.
Has your fitness suffered from DJing? Have you run an ultramarathon? Am I mad? Do leave me a comment below. I would love to hear from you.
Finally, look out for me back on air soon…