Have I got some great exciting news for you?

You better believe it!!!

Did I run much this week? Well no as I had another busy week at work and wanted to dedciate at least one whole day to my family so only had 2 days to train after finishing 3 nights. My training news will come later but first of all please visit and support me on www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer

here you can join a few others to help me raise as much money as possible for The Amber Phillpott Trust.

Monday & Tuesday

Sadly no training these two days due to night shifts

Wednesday

Still no training but Family Ellis surprised me by sending  this cushion. If you would like to own it it is available in exchange for a donation to The Amber Phillpott Trust. Just email me what you would like to donate. A great present for anyone really. If you would like to see some more of her handywork please visit her website www.springlark.com.

Family Ellis also sent this amazing RC Audi car, which is so cool that I might bid for it myself but then again that would be wrong I guess but what a great present this would make to any boy or man because we will always be little boys deep down.

Thursday

Or should I call it double run Thursday?

I did a steady 4.67 miles at a decent pace after nights without any rest after my 3 night shifts and after lunch and a little post lunch nap I did a hard 60 minute interval session (8miles) which really took it out of me but so worth it :-) both for the physical but especially for the mental strength gained by this.

Friday

I woke up and ran on some very stiff and tired legs for just 80 minutes (8.5miles) it was slow and was tough but I did it so another mental victory.

Then I had my hair cut at my favourite barber shop in town Roly's Revived and they offered to donate a free hair cut to my charity raffle/auction.

I then had to pick up my car from the great garage that is Grease Monkeys located on the Grove Technology Park (Wantage) who offered to donate a free oil change and pressure check service towards my charity auction/raffle.

Saturday &Sunday

No training as I was working on Saturday and had a great family day on Sunday.

Fundraising news:
www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer is the web address you can use to donate money towards The Amber Phillpott Trust. I have received a lot of negative replies from companies and even more have not even answered at all which is sad but it wont stop me. I am glad it didn't stop me as  the 2 local business I approached directly were very forthcoming and generous so I shall continue to email, call ,write and speak in person to all sorts of companies.
All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction but if anything takes your fancy you can always take it off our hands beforehand in exchange for a donation to The Amber Phillpott Trust.
Available at present are:
Cushion from "Spring Lark"
RC car
Black T-Shirts from Calsberg
Baby food (bowl, spoons, sachets, cuddly toy) from Hipp
Authenticated autographs (Sting, Badly drawn boy, Michael Owen)
Open ended standard return train tickets from FGW x 2
mens hair cut
oil change
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
frisbees
If you like any of these items then please email me at florianstoermer@gmail.com and express what you are interested in and I will get back to you.



Stats Zone:
Runs: 3
Distance covered this week: 21.2 miles 
Distance covered this month: 128.37 miles


Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.


If you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long Ultramarathon, then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the 14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc... and/or donate via www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer

Sometimes work just gets in the way....

Hi and welcome back to my blog!
So this week I knew wasn't going to be that good for my training as I had a lot of shifts to work and had jobs to do at home as well as wanting to spent some time with my family. This means that there's not much to report training wise but let me start my blog off with some good fund raising news.

Monday
Apart from a strength walk, lots of housework and spending a fun day with my kids and my wife (once she was back from work) I managed to squeeze in a new and very hard interval session, which I really enjoyed.
Hold on that's not all. I also received 2 standard open ended return tickets from the kind and very generous people from First Great Western Trains.

tickets just didn't look as good as their logo

 Tuesday
Just work no fun no training but the first USB stick has been reserved thanks to a kind charitable donation. :-)

Wednesday
No training but a great friend of mine sent me authenticated autographs of Michael Owen, Badly Drawn Boy and Sting!!

bad picture but great donation I am so pleased

 Thursday
No training no news apart from an exciting email from a potential sponsor which if it does come true will blow my mind and yours. I am  just waiting to hear back from Babygourmet about the proposed arrangement and then I will give details right here.

Friday
Before my night shift I managed to do a quick interval type session training and it was nice just a bit short but I have to be sensible.

Saturday 
After finishing my night shift we looked after our  baby boy who has been suffering with his last teeth coming through and a nasty temperature. SO only a strength walk and some manly jobs done and that's all.

Sunday
Today was an exciting day as lots of my friends ran the Virgin London Marathon #VLM and for some strange reason I was really excited for them and a bit nervous too. 
Anyhow my lovely wife decided that we should explore a bit more of my actual 35 mile+  ultra route as there is roughly a section of 13 miles I have never even seen... So my brother in law, fellow sith logger and good friend Tim ran from Streatley/Goring to Wallingford with me. That route was scenic and beautiful but this 6.5 mile stretch had 22 gates which I know will be hard to overcome on the 14th of July 2012 but I hope to have friends with me to ease the pain.....

Further more has the lovely Melanie Ellis owner of www.springlark.com informed me that she has hand made a lovely cushion which she is sending down to me to use in the raffle/auction.

She has not stopped there she has also mentioned my blog (including address),Charity and fund raising challenge on her facebook site, via twitter and on her brand new and brilliant new blog which is worth a read whatever you are in to.

Anyhow that was my training week and now to some exciting fund raising news and some impressive stats.

Fundraising news:
I'm still waiting for the final registration for The Amber Phillpott Trust with the virgin giving site before I can register my support site. I will keep you posted with further details. I have received a lot of negative replies from companies and even more have not even answered at all which is sad but it wont stop me.
All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction but if anything takes your fancy you can always take it off our hands beforehand in exchange for a donation to The Amber Phillpott Trust.

Stats Zone:
Runs: 3
Distance covered this week: 15.75 miles 
Distance covered this month: 107.4 miles


Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.




If you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long Ultramarathon, then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the 14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc... and soon I will be able to create my sponsorship website so watch this space

The prizes start to arrive

Hi,
so let me tell you what happened in this exciting week as one part of the fund raising has started and I ran more than I have in any other week before.

Monday
Nothing really happened today apart from me sending out a lot of emails to companies asking them for their support

Tuesday
I ran an exciting 19 miles in a decent time with some decent hills in there. It was exciting as I ran a new never before run first 6.5 miles and I absolutely loved every bit of it as the view was amazing.

Tuesday was also exciting because I received my first donation to help me raise money for The Amber Phillpott Trust from the lovely people from HiPP. They sent a very cute soft toy, a lot of samples  (which will be raffled\sold as packs of 10), a bip, a few multi coloured spoons and a bowl.

Wednesday
After finishing my night and getting home I decided to go out for a slow jog across never before explored routes. I did just that, taking turns everywhere where I saw public footpath signs getting lost a few times, running through dry but boggy riverbeds and quite possibly tresspassing through some fields at times..... I decided to take it easy as my legs were tired from tuesday's run and from working all night. I loved the 10 mile run as it was a beautiful scenery and just enjoyeable as I ran carefree. #happyflo

Thursday
I was at work all day so no run but a great bunch of donations arrived from Draeger. They were kind enough to send me a few 4GB usb sticks in the shape of health care professionals, Frisbees, pens, post its notes, id holders and golf ball&tee sets.

Friday
Again I was working and did not get any running in but again I got another parcel sent to me. This time 2 T-Shirt's from the lovely people from Carlsberg.

Saturday
I managed to squeeze in a swift new approach to interval training by swapping the intensity and duration around a bit. That helped me to really push myself and worked me hard. I really enjoyed this session as it was very hard. (no pics just sweat)

Sunday
Today I ran the first part of my 35 mile ultra marathon just in reverse and I fear the ultra might be longer than initially planned my latest estimate is 37miles...
The reverse bit was very hard as the route is a constant up and down but the net change is 200m the total elevation change was 456 metres according to runkeeper. So I am glad that Iwill  run downhill on the 14th of July. This run was also hard as The Ridgeway was blocked twice by some annoying in-considerate ravers who were part of an illegally organised rave pop up party.On the positive I met "The Joyride" team and that was a nice surprise as they are an awesome group of lads doing an amazing cycle challenge in aid of Cancer research. Great going you guys keep it up.
Whilst mentioning others please take a moment to also look up Mark Townson who went through a different journey and decided to help other people with his blog and MIND by raising as much as he can by running The London Marathon next weekend.

Anyhow that was my training week and now to some exciting fund raising news and some impressive stats.

Fundraising news:
I'm still waiting for the final registration for The Amber Phillpott Trust with the virgin giving site before I can register my support site. I will keep you posted with further details. I have been promised further gift donations from different companies and once they arrive I will obviously put pictures right here. All of these gifts will be raffled off on the day but if anything takes your fancy you can always take it off our hands beforehand in exchange for a donation to The Amber Phillpott Trust.

Stats Zone:
Runs: 4
Distance covered this week: 51.5 miles (my best week ever)
Distance covered this month: 91.65 miles


Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.




If you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long Ultramarathon, then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the 14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc... and soon I will be able to create my sponsorship website so watch this space

Happy Easter

Happy Easter
I hope you all had a great Easter and ate lots of chocolate as that will help our economy and our mood:-)

Anyway lets talk about my preparation this week for the charity challenge which will be a 35mile ultramarathon along the Ridgeway and the Thames Tow Path finishing in Abingdon on the 14th of July 2012. (Just in case you didn't know that)

Monday
We drove home from Baildon and it was a lovely drive with lots of fun and laughter. Once we were home and unpacked I had a chance to go for a quick 3.1mile (5km) run and I beat my personal best by roughly 15 seconds and am down to 20 minutes and 16 seconds. So it was a great day thanks to a brilliant team effort from team Stoermer.

Tuesday
It was a nice long run on a new undulating route covering some steep inclines and not before discovered footpaths across the beautiful countryside.

me in the beautiful countryside looking tired

Once I got home after the uneventful but fun run I realised that my third and fourth toe on both feet were bleeding not sure why but I thought that was weird and was planning to put pictures in here but was advised against it.....

Wednesday and Thursday
Both days were spent sleeping as I was on nights..


Friday
I slept 2 hours after my final night and was dropped off en-route to see some friends. I used to drive this section as part of my journey to work but was blissfully unaware on how undulating it was. I ran it with some tired legs and mind and thoroughly enjoyed it as it tested my mental and physical strength.

Long  straight uphill road (tough)

Saturday

No training due to other commitments but managed to email a lot of companies and businesses to ask for sponsorship or prizes for a charity raffle. I managed to contact 100 plus companies and got 3 promises of prizes already. Details and pictures as soon as I get the prizes.

Sunday
I only managed one 2 mile strength walk due to Easter and other commitments.


All in all I am very happy with this weeks adventures as I did a lot of work on the fundraising and awareness raising side and had some decent runs.


Fundraising news:
Still awaiting the final registration from The Amber Phillpott Trust with the virgin giving site before I can register my support site. I will keep you posted with further details. As soon as I receive the promised prizes I will show you pictures of them here.

Stats Zone:
Runs:3
Distance covered this week: 27.03 miles
Distance covered this month: 40.13 miles


Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.




If you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long Ultramarathon, then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the 14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc... and soon I will be able to create my sponsorship website so watch this space

Its all about your goals!

Hello!
Welcome back to reading my blog. Its a little late as I ran a little race yesterday and only got home today.
I believe that in your life you need to set yourself goals as otherwise you may waste opportunitys which could enhance your own life and maybe even that of others.
So my goal for this year is to raise money and awareness for The Amber Philpott Trust by running my 35mile ultramarathon on the 14th of July 2012 as part of the Yeah Baby charity concert event in Abingdon.
Obviously to achieve this I have set myself "sub" goals and this week started by me tailoring my training to my 2nd goal of the year, which was to run the Baildon Boundry Way half marathon in less then 110minutes. Have I achieved this or was it a learning experience? WEll keep reading:-)

Monday

I did a quick run of one hour and covered a distance of 8.15 miles I have not achieved this in my training before so I was very proud to say the least. I was very motivated on Monday as my lovely and very supportive wife decided to go out for a run and ran 25% further than planned and regardless of the distance it was a great start and she worked hard! That much dedication by my wife made me work that bit harder to achieve my goal of 8miles in 1 hour.

Tuesday

I ran a shortened interval session after work and it was hard work as I still do not like interval sessions but at least I do not hate them anymore....

Wednesday
My last chance to run before the HM race and I managed to get a good 12 mile run in the lovely sunshine at a decent pace. I ran up the ridgeway and enjoyed the glorious view of Lark Hill and views down from The Ridgeway. I am one lucky man to live and run here.

View of Lark Hill

View on my downhill section from The Ridgeway

Thursday and Friday
No training run just run off my feet at work....

Saturday
Driving to Baildon to see our amazing friends and running partners

Sunday
RACE DAY well today was the day and when we were led to the start I feared the worst as we were led downhill and as my friend Graham aptly said  "the one who walks down will have to run up again".

View downhill  to the start

His words were very true but still that did not stop me to fulfilling my sub goal for the race of running it as fast as I can with as much fun and as little care as possible and boy that I did. The views were amazing and the marshalls, runners and spectactors were extremly friendly and supportive. I have never experienced anything like this which helped me to run up the crazy hills of the last few miles. Sadly my runkeeper died but Graham was kind enough to tag me in his. Please ignore the times and just look at the elevation Runkeeperlink. So the run was amazing and I could bore you with all the mental ups I had during the race and how challenging the hills were but I won't. I learnt a few things a) my interval, speed training and strength walks do work b) running without care really makes you faster and c) I love overtaking club runners....
Anyway I had a great time thanks to the support of my family and my friends and managed to run the hilly half marathon in 1 hour 40 minutes and 52 seconds which meant I have smashed my goal of running sub 110 minutes and am close to my season goal of running a half marathon sub 100 minutes.

Left to right: Mark,  me, Graham

Me wearing my T-Shirt with pride all day the next day:-)

Fundraising news:
The Taxman has finally done all the things that need to be done so I should be able to get my fundraising page any day now I am so excited!
Stats Zone:
Runs:4
Distance covered this week: 36.54 miles
Distance covered this month: 13.1 miles


Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.




If you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long Ultramarathon, then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the 14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc... and soon I will be able to create my sponsorship website so watch this space