Kingdom's Blog

July 29th, 2010

I’m sitting watching Jedward on This Morning performing their new single and, as much as I don’t really like the Jedward phenomenum, I’m thinking that I could do with their energy. Seriously - they’ve just jumped up and down for 4 mins!

Yesterday was the rest day on the Tour and it came at the right time. While the muscles didn’t feel too bad, I think the stomach was complaining about the abuse it’s been getting. I say the muscles didn’t feel too bad, that was until I attempted to run up stairs to catch a train and realised that my calf muscles fairly took a pounding on Tuesday. They’re the muscles at the back of your lower leg and if you’re not sensible while running up hills, you can over stretch them. This is exactly what I did - I lost my footing going up the hill and ended up over stretching them. It’s the equivalent of standing upright then leaning forward while keeping your feet flat on the floor. Give that a try and see how quickly you start to hurt (stop when it starts to hurt - I don’t want injuries).

Tonight we’re off to St Andrews and the beach race. There are 2 races that are worth viewing and this is the second of them. I imagine the sight of 150 or so runners stretching out along the beach at St Andrews will be pretty memorable. As one of the runners bringing up the rear I’ll get to see it - something that the leaders miss out on. I’m pretty sure they can live with that. If you’re around St Andrews tonight then we’re running along the West Beach from 7.45pm and if you fancy a dip afterwards you’re more than welcome to join us. I’m told it’s mandatory and I’m not wanting to incur the wrath of my new running friends.

By the way the other race worth viewing was the Lungbuster - the sight of runners climbing West Lomond is something that’ll stay with me for a long time. The Vodcast is back tomorrow but if you’ve missed the previous ones then you’ll find them here at You Tube.Â

July 28th, 2010

Ah, the Lomonds Lungbuster… the race I was dreading and it almost was a really good race. Actually it was a really good race except for just before the end but, hey, what’s done can’t be undone now. If you’ve never walked up West Lomond I’d encourage you to do so especially on a sunny day. The view from the top is amazing not that I had time to appreciate it but I’m pretty sure you can see the whole of Fife from up there. Once this race series is done, I’m going back up there but at walking pace.

Anyway, the second half of the race was better than I thought it might be. The first part racing to the top was every bit as hard as you’d imagine but the descent was alright. It was like having a fresh pair of legs and I made up some ground. I’ve always liked hills in race because for every uphill there’s normally a downhill section where you can let gravity help you.

Today’s a rest day and a chance to catch up with some other stuff I need to do this week while I’m off work. If nothing else, I’m looking forward to eating dinner at a normal time tonight. This eating after 10pm can’t be doing me any good!

Tomorrow we’ll look ahead to Day 4 of the tour and a race that you might want to consider coming out to see. As ever the Tour vodcast is on YouTube. It’ll be there just before 3pm today.

July 26th, 2010

On Saturday I wrote about what I’m getting up to this week. Yesterday was Day 1 of the Tour - the Teddy Bear race at Giffordtown. If you can imagine getting into a sauna wearing a winter outfit and then running then you’ll have an idea what it was like running the 5 miles. The winner (and tour leader) took the sensible option of running bare chested (although how you’re meant to pin your number on …..) but then he had the appropriate shape for it. Not sure anyone wants to see me do the same.

The details are on the vlog which you’ll find here. Tonight it’s the Loopy Loch Trail Race, Lochore Meadows which is around 6 miles long so slightly longer than yesterday and with slightly tired legs but since we’re starting at 7.30pm it should be cooler and more bearable.

It’s 1 race down, 5 to go and still feeling alright.

July 24th, 2010

This weekend the Tour de France cycle race concludes in Paris but closer to home the Tour of Fife gets underway in Giffordtown. It’s the 10^th Anniversary of the event which attracts amateur athletes from across Fife and beyond as they compete in 6 races over 7 days. Like the cycling equivalent the Tour tests the athletes abilities across many course types from flat, undulating races through hill races, time trials and even a race along St Andrews beach.

Now I say atheletes,… it’s 149 finely toned fit people and me this year. Don’t ask why but for some reason I decided that I should enter. Perhaps it’s the challenge, perhaps it’s the promise of cakes at the post race event next weekend, whatever it is I’m part of the elite group. This event was sold out almost as soon as the entries opened online. It’s like the Forth Bridge 10K which takes place in a fortnight – people seem to love taking part.

Now I’m not back on air for a fortnight but I thought it would be interesting to chart my progress so I’ll be posting a blog here each day for the next week plus you can follow my updates in my video blog at You Tube. The first update is there already.

More details:

Fife Athletics Website – http://www.fifeac.co.uk

April 4th, 2010

Finally after 13 weeks the Wednesday Weigh In (and Weekend Weigh In) is over. You’d hope that the new skill I’ve learnt is how to eat healthy foods and exercise more. However this year I’ve gained an extra skill: video making. The idea was to video what happened in the studio on a Saturday afternoon during the Weigh In would be edited and released as a vodcast on a Sunday night.

Now, I promised myself that if I kept this going for the full run of the feature that I’d treat myself to some proper kit. As a result I’ve come by a Flip video camera (if it’s good enough for Phillip Schofield it’s good enough for me), a new high powered laptop and some proper software to make movies. This is how we found ourselves surrounded by cameras on Wednesday night and how I’ve found myself spending every waking hour this weekend making the final vodcast.

What I’ve tried to do is give you a proper idea of the little asides and unseen visual elements from the evening which you would see if you were one of the people standing in the studio (and there were quite a few of them). Unfortunately since I try to keep these videos down to 5 mins and since I wanted to get the final installment out this weekend, I’ve had to lose a lot of the action that didn’t relate to the Weekend Weigh In. Perhaps at some point in the future we’ll put a more indepth vid online.

There’s one more video to go and that’s the outakes vodcast which’ll be out later this month.

If you’ve watched any of the vodcasts then thank you. They’ve been great fun to make, I hope you’ve noticed the improvements over the weeks as I learnt what I was doing and gained more confidence in the process. Do watch out for a few more later in the year.

You’ll find the final vodcast right here.

March 25th, 2010

Regular readers/listeners will be aware that I enjoy running the odd 10K or two. This year as an additional challenge I’m going to do a half marathon and I’m expecting to take just over 2 hours to do it. Now that’s a long time to run without a distraction. On a 10K I’ll happily enjoy the banter and watch the world go by but I can’t sustain that for double the distance. Additionally I’m going to need some inspiration to help drive me onwards when I feel like I can’t continue and bailing out seems like the best option.

Someone has suggested listening to music as I go round which is something I’m going to try but I need your suggestions of what I should put on my generic MP3 player. What music drives you onwards, what songs distract you when you most need distracting?

We’ll be asking this on RadioActive this Saturday afternoon after 3pm and again on the Sunday breakfast show. Call, text or email using the form on the presenters page. Don’t forget the final weekend weigh in is this Saturday too!

February 21st, 2010

I’ve spoken about this a couple of times on air but never given you the link in case you want to see it. Lip Dub is basically a lip synch video made with one continuous shot by amateur filmmakers. There’s a better explanation here.

Anyway the University of Quebec did a great one to the Black Eyed Peas song - I’ve Got A Feeling and it’s on You Tube here. Once you’ve watched that try searching for GeekyAli or Kingdom FM to find the latest vodcast from the Wednesday Weigh In at the Weekend.

February 1st, 2010

Week 4 on the Weekend Weigh In and nothing changes,…. well not exactly nothing. Check out the vodcast to find out what happened on Saturday plus we set a challenge for Gary Peattie and introduce a new gadget! It’s all online at the Geeky Ali channel on YouTube.

January 23rd, 2010

Week 3 of the Weigh In at the Weekend and I’ve started the loss. On the scales this weekend I weighed 15st 0.5lb and I couldn’t be happier because, and here’s my dirty little secret, I haven’t really tried this week either.

The vodcast will be available online at the Geeky Ali channel (seriously) on Sunday night with details of why I’m declaring war on the Wednesday Weighers.

*Edit* The vodcast is now available online.