my training story
NICHOLAS SOUTHORN
BOLTON IRONMAN 2021

Hello everyone! I hope you are all keeping well physically and emotionally.

For those who don’t know me, my name is Nik and I have been a member of the club for about a year and a half now. I am an advanced clinical practitioner at Derby Hospital and running is something that doesn’t come naturally to me at all! I exercise for two reasons – to keep my head straight and to keep the rapidly expanding dad-bod in check. I do, however, like a challenge: my very first organised run was the London Marathon in 2016.

Keeping to form, I recently entered into an event that is so ludicrously out of my comfort zone that I am truly anxious about it. The event is Ironman UK in Bolton 2021. If you aren’t sure, Ironman is a pretty extensive triathlon consisting of a swim (3.9 km), a bike ride (180.3 km), and a run (42.2 km) – a total of 226 KM (about 140 miles) covered in 17 hours. I have never done a triathlon before and I hate open water swimming – so I am off to a great start!

I can hear you now: “Why on earth would you, a self-proclaimed lazy chubby bloke, sign up for something as torturous as an Ironman?” Good question. Allow me to answer.

Your local hospital, as I am sure you know, does many wonderful things for the community. It isn’t perfect and like every other NHS institution we are plagued with tight budgets, pandemics, and overuse. While people like me and my colleagues might take good care of the people of Derby from a medical perspective, there are needs that require funding from alternative sources: patient welfare, clinical research, equipment, and staff training.

The comfort of patients is often overlooked yet without certain comforts ranging from toiletries to televisions would be sorely missed were they not available. Some departments depend on charitable donations for things like laptops, computer screens, and water coolers. None of these things would be possible without the kind donations of the community to the Derby and Burton Hospitals Charity. I strongly believe that we can all make a huge difference to patient welfare by donating to our local hospital. I believe this so much that I regularly put myself through physical purgatory on order to tempt people out of their hard-earned cash. Unfortunately, each year people expect more of me hence why from my original charity event in 2009 (a bungee jump) I have by graduation come to one of the hardest endurance events in the UK: Ironman.

My training has been quite basic if I am honest, just running and cycling long distances. However, I have recently started doing some more targeted and specific cardio training which includes something called “Blaze” at the gym, and other various HIIT sessions. I am, as always, on the lookout for training partners, so if you fancy a run, bike ride, or even a game of tennis (caveat: I am terrible and you must at least pretend to be terrible too) so if you are interested drop me a bell. I will be writing a series relating to my training journey for the MRC newsletter which will take us nicely to the big day: July 4th 2021.

If you are so inclined, you may sponsor me via my justgiving page below:

Nik's justgiving.com page

Hello and welcome to the second instalment of my MRC training blog – I hope that you have managed to take advantage of the brief heatwave (while observing whatever the present CoVID19 guidelines are, of course).

The past couple of weeks have been interesting for me as I have found my groove at the gym. My traditional method of training for endurance events which utilises exactly none of my hard-earned human physiology knowledge has been replaced by a more structured HIIT workout. I previously limited my training to running, jogging, a bit more running and the occasional run if I had time. It should have come as no surprise whatsoever, therefore, that during a ‘fun day’ 100m sprint last year, my body flatly refused to participate leaving me red-faced and largely chair-bound for some time after.

The idea of an exercise which made my heart rate exceed 120 was something about which I was apprehensive, and therefore approached with caution. I had always considered myself as a monogamous athlete and long-distance running to be my faithful partner. My reservations aside, I knew that my body needed more, so I started to look elsewhere. I am glad I did. Doing a blended strength, cardio, and combat HIIT workout with additional dynamic core training has completely transformed my fitness levels. The type I do is called Blaze (other brands are available) and I am now doing it four times a week with some running and swimming in-between for completeness. Using a fitness tracker, I can see that I can mount a cardiac response and recover from exercise much more efficiently. I am also finding hills to be much easier and less DOMS after a run.

My plan is to continue building on this diversity to create a solid foundation on which I can build a reasonable triathlete. My take-home message is to have an open relationship with running: you can improve your run-life by experimenting with other sports. Always practice safe exercise, look after yourself and be happy.

Raising money for the hospital is something that I am passionate about. Patient comfort, research funding, and new equipment is the aim of the Hospital Charity. We all rely on the generous donations from the public to make our hospitals work, and if my Ironman efforts go some way towards that end, I am happy with the new exercises, I am happy with the DOMS, I am even happy with the fact that I need to learn to swim properly. But don’t let me do this in vein – sponsor me and share my JustGiving page info so friends, family, and co-workers can do likewise.

Until next time – stay safe, stay happy, stay cool.

Nik

Nik's justgiving.com page

Hello again all. The last two weeks haven’t been my finest in terms of training. I have been perpetually on-call overnight at the hospital which hasn’t helped; but the fact that I am also buying a house, trying adapt to the whims of the local authorities in terms of schooling for my kids, and we are gazing into the abyss of a second outbreak of CoVID-19 all contribute to what can be loosely described as a stressful time.

I want to talk about something that is more than just stress, however. Something that is the leading cause of disability worldwide (1), yet we barely ever talk about. The reason is because last Wednesday I was looking forward to a nice long run which never happened. I had the day off, the weather was perfect, and I had achieved the right mix of activity and rest the previous day. So why didn’t I go? The reason is complex, but the result is that I just couldn’t get myself out of bed. I didn’t leave my flat for the entire day because I had been shrouded in a dark veil of depression. At this point I would like to point out that I am okay, this isn’t a cry for help, it’s an attempt to normalise something that for some reason society pretends isn’t happening.

So to be clear: yes, I live with depression and anxiety. And yes, I am still a normal functioning member of the human race despite this fact (well, kind of).

The fact is that depression is common: 24% of women and 13% of men in England are diagnosed with depression in their lifetime (2). This figure is known to be artificially low as many don’t seek medical help. Depression can be a deadly disease – a colossal 20.6% of people contemplate suicide at some point in their life (3) and in 2018 there were 6,514 suicides (over 16 per day), 75% of those were men (4).

From my experience of talking to fellow runners, many many of us have some form of mental health condition and use exercise as a management strategy. Which is great because the beneficial effects of exercise are well known in almost all medical conditions, including mental health. It is also frustrating as, when the black dog is humping my leg, it occasionally makes getting out for a run impossible. I have learned over the years that forcing myself out doesn’t actually help – I know that it does for some people, however. All that I feel when I am running against my will is profound emptiness and by the time I get home I am in a stinking bad mood. Now accept that there are times I just have to give my mind and body the time and space it needs to ride out the storm.

Learning to live around depression is about trial and error. I now know that the storms always pass. I didn’t always know that for a long while, and things became very bleak. I found a love of classical music through depression and began to appreciate small gifts of nature when out walking our beautiful county. This is opposed to the blatant practical joke that is middle-age: I mean, what the hell is the deal with ear hair? I can’t imagine any evolutionary or divine advantage to it, but there it is.

Anyway, the most important thing you can do if and when you experience any level of depression is talking. Just speak up. Grab a mate, go for a drink or stay in with a hot chocolate, and talk. You will not be judged, you will not feel worse, you will feel liberated more comfortable with your thoughts and better able to rationalise them. Do not repress your feelings and end up with intractable low moods and stomach ulcers – let it out. I imagine that this club is full of ears who would be glad to have a listen. I for one would happily sit and listen to anyone in need.

So if you find that you need a duvet day and you can’t cope with getting your gear on and hitting the pavement: don’t worry give your body and mind the time and space it needs – your trainers will be waiting for you.

More importantly, enjoy the times you have with those who you love as they love you too. Here’s a picture of me and my favourites. Stay safe.

Nik

1. Global Burden of Disease 2017 Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet [Internet]. 2018 Nov 10 [cited 2020 Sept 30];392(10159):1789–858

2. Craig R, Fuller E, Mindell J (Eds). Health Survey for England 2014: Health, social care and lifestyles [Internet]. 2015. Available from: content.digital.nhs.uk

3. McManus S, Bebbington P, Jenkins R, Brugha T. Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014 [Internet]. Leeds; 2016. Available from: content.digital.nhs.uk

4. Office for National Statistics. Suicides in the UK: 2018 registrations [Internet]. 2019. [cited 2020 Sept 30] Available from: ons.gov.uk

Nik's justgiving.com page