After months of sacrifice and arduous training, the time has finally come with one week to go before the 2009 London Marathon. How am I feeling? Well in all honesty it hasn’t sunk in yet and I don’t think it will until the morning of the race itself.
Since the end of 2008, I have been on a strict training programme which has consistently seen me clear 26 miles a week, supported by a balanced diet and no alcohol.
I have passed the worst of the training with my largest run covering 21 miles and I am now happily in the process of tapering off with a couple 1-2hr runs left to do.
It has been an incredible experience which has involved long distance runs in beautiful surroundings such as Devon, Gloucestershire, Hampshire and London (Richmond and Battersea Park were my daily saviours). My last run saw me cover 20k of the undulating coastal path in south Devon … I have not encountered many hills training in London so it was a steep learning curve…
The distance was completed in 1 hour 45 minutes which gives me great confidence in reaching the sub 4 hour target I have set, however, a wise person recently said to me ‘as it is your first marathon you should be extremely pleased with finishing let alone reaching under 4 hours,’ which I am inclined to agree with.
One element I have failed to do is gain first hand experience of an official competition, however, this weekend sees the inaugural Newham Classic 10K and ENS has been hired to manage the press office. This is a new initiative devised by the Olympic Gold medallist, Tessa Sanderson, which is part of the Newham multi-cultural Fun Day in Stratford and the first competition to be held in the 2012 Olympic Park. The team and I will be down there helping raise awareness for the event and soaking up the race atmosphere. It is going to be a great event and for anyone interested in knowing more, please go to http://newhamclassic10k.com/.
My final preparations for the race will include
· Complete one last 3 mile run next Saturday to help relax and loosen any muscles
· Start eating high carbohydrate meals, not forgetting a balanced proportion of protein and fats
· Continue to drink lots of water to hydrate adequately
· Check my running gear and ensure I am happy with the final race attire and have my name emblazoned on my vest
· Buy copious amounts of Vaseline and tape to warn off any unwanted chaffing
· Stock up on Jelly baby supplies
· Book my essential sports massage for after the race
· Have money ready for a well earnt pint afterwards
To pledge your support for Sam, feel free to go to his online page www.justgiving.com/sambowman and wish him luck…
Friday 17 April 2009
Tuesday 14 April 2009
The glass isn’t anything like half empty
Doom; gloom; credit crunch; deep recession; economic melt-down. Clearly, if you read the papers or listen to the news, you’ll quite rightly conclude that we’re only minutes away from having to subsist on raw turnips and ditchwater for what’s left of our short, miserable lives.
Clearly this is just arrant nonsense, yet all around us we see companies laying off staff and cutting budgets left, right and centre in preparation for the what the media assure us is the end of the world.
Let’s suppose that all the doom-mongers are correct and that the economy is actually set to shrink by something like 3% in the next year. Instead of wailing and gnashing our teeth, why not concentrate on the remaining 97% (not an insignificant figure, I think you’ll agree)?
The worst you can reasonably say is that business is going to be harder to get in an economic downturn, but it is still there. Those companies who batten down the hatches and look inwards to save costs are reducing their ability to deliver to their existing customers and leaving the way open for others to benefit. Better yet, there is an interestingly surgical aspect to hard times: second-rate companies are more likely to fail than good ones, leaving more business for those of us who are determined not just to prevail, but to thrive.
“Do the math” as they say in America. You turn over a million quid, thanks to 20 customers each spending £50,000 with you. They all come to you and one day they’re halving their budgets, which gives you a shortfall of £500,000. To maintain your turnover and carry on, you need to find another 20 customers: tough, but not impossible. And here’s the best bit, you now have 40 customers (twice your original market share). How good is that going to be when the economy recovers? You now have a potential turnover of £2 million – twice the business you started with, that’s how good. Worth working for, if you ask me.
Basically, there are only two positions you can take in a downturn like this; a positive position, or the foetal position. I know which one we’re going to take.
Paul Rodger
Bull Rodger ltd
Clearly this is just arrant nonsense, yet all around us we see companies laying off staff and cutting budgets left, right and centre in preparation for the what the media assure us is the end of the world.
Let’s suppose that all the doom-mongers are correct and that the economy is actually set to shrink by something like 3% in the next year. Instead of wailing and gnashing our teeth, why not concentrate on the remaining 97% (not an insignificant figure, I think you’ll agree)?
The worst you can reasonably say is that business is going to be harder to get in an economic downturn, but it is still there. Those companies who batten down the hatches and look inwards to save costs are reducing their ability to deliver to their existing customers and leaving the way open for others to benefit. Better yet, there is an interestingly surgical aspect to hard times: second-rate companies are more likely to fail than good ones, leaving more business for those of us who are determined not just to prevail, but to thrive.
“Do the math” as they say in America. You turn over a million quid, thanks to 20 customers each spending £50,000 with you. They all come to you and one day they’re halving their budgets, which gives you a shortfall of £500,000. To maintain your turnover and carry on, you need to find another 20 customers: tough, but not impossible. And here’s the best bit, you now have 40 customers (twice your original market share). How good is that going to be when the economy recovers? You now have a potential turnover of £2 million – twice the business you started with, that’s how good. Worth working for, if you ask me.
Basically, there are only two positions you can take in a downturn like this; a positive position, or the foetal position. I know which one we’re going to take.
Paul Rodger
Bull Rodger ltd
Friday 3 April 2009
Digital Marketing – A layman’s guide to the basics By Nathan Murphy at Alloyfish
SEO
This stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is the process of trying to manipulate Search Engines (Like Google or Yahoo) results to show your website higher than others. It requires good understanding of the modern methods Search Engines use to rate a website’s relevancy and importance. Search Engines are constantly changing how they rank websites to prevent this manipulation, and if caught doing optimisation badly you are likely to be penalised! - gone are the days of making thousands of links or articles where every second word is the key term you require!
PPC
Pay-Per-Click is paying for adverts to be shown beside search terms – see ‘sponsored links’ on Google search results. It costs the advertiser money every time you click on an advert and in competitive terms clicks are often in the region of £4 to £5 each!
Pay-Per-Click is great though, it means the person is specifically searching for the search terms you are paying to advertise on. Also you can advertise at certain times or locations to improve your targeting.
Good long-term optimisation and appropriate split testing is required, the page you send people to from the advert, and how well you convert will go in to determining where you appear in the sponsored links (top, or bottom) and your budget will determine how many times you are shown.
Beware of ‘Google Resellers’, often their offering is simply a con, there is always a catch (rubbish rarely searched keywords or slack guarantees usually)
Viral Marketing
This is a process of making something that is very interesting and releasing it on the internet. It works through people emailing it, or sending it to each other virally. Many great examples of this (Anyone see ‘will it blend’ – Google it if not). Viral adverts today are best as videos and for your wallet’s sake not too expensive.
Idea is everything here, if you have a bad idea then it doesn’t matter how well produced it is, it will fail. Get a decent set of creative minds to figure this one out!
Reputation Management
The process of ‘setting the record straight’ or giving ‘the other side of the story’. Good for burying bad press or helping make reviews sing a preferential song… be careful what you believe! This is a powerful way of boosting sales or balancing bad news.
PPM
Pay-Per-Mille – basically you pay for 1000 showings of your advert on a website. This is popular with site owners rather than search engines and can be great to get targeted visitors by subject. The quality of the campaign graphical elements will make a big difference to the campaigns effectiveness.
This stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is the process of trying to manipulate Search Engines (Like Google or Yahoo) results to show your website higher than others. It requires good understanding of the modern methods Search Engines use to rate a website’s relevancy and importance. Search Engines are constantly changing how they rank websites to prevent this manipulation, and if caught doing optimisation badly you are likely to be penalised! - gone are the days of making thousands of links or articles where every second word is the key term you require!
PPC
Pay-Per-Click is paying for adverts to be shown beside search terms – see ‘sponsored links’ on Google search results. It costs the advertiser money every time you click on an advert and in competitive terms clicks are often in the region of £4 to £5 each!
Pay-Per-Click is great though, it means the person is specifically searching for the search terms you are paying to advertise on. Also you can advertise at certain times or locations to improve your targeting.
Good long-term optimisation and appropriate split testing is required, the page you send people to from the advert, and how well you convert will go in to determining where you appear in the sponsored links (top, or bottom) and your budget will determine how many times you are shown.
Beware of ‘Google Resellers’, often their offering is simply a con, there is always a catch (rubbish rarely searched keywords or slack guarantees usually)
Viral Marketing
This is a process of making something that is very interesting and releasing it on the internet. It works through people emailing it, or sending it to each other virally. Many great examples of this (Anyone see ‘will it blend’ – Google it if not). Viral adverts today are best as videos and for your wallet’s sake not too expensive.
Idea is everything here, if you have a bad idea then it doesn’t matter how well produced it is, it will fail. Get a decent set of creative minds to figure this one out!
Reputation Management
The process of ‘setting the record straight’ or giving ‘the other side of the story’. Good for burying bad press or helping make reviews sing a preferential song… be careful what you believe! This is a powerful way of boosting sales or balancing bad news.
PPM
Pay-Per-Mille – basically you pay for 1000 showings of your advert on a website. This is popular with site owners rather than search engines and can be great to get targeted visitors by subject. The quality of the campaign graphical elements will make a big difference to the campaigns effectiveness.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
