I'd like to order the vegan option please......

Sunday 1st March

A phrase I've already started to use, and am probably going to be uttering a lot more over the coming two weeks / month (not fully decided on the timescale yet) of this vegan challenge.

Despite this blog being called #40before40 and the fact that I turned 40 just over five weeks ago, I am carrying on with some of the tasks I didn't get round to before the big day.

I am being joined on this challenge by Mrs P, who has done a lot more research than me and sorted out a meal plan for the next fortnight.

It's great to have her support and she is going to be contributing to this blog along the way.
How she will cope with at least two weeks off the cheese will be an interesting social experiment......

I had a bit of a meat and dairy blowout yesterday on the last day before becoming a temporary (probably) vegan: American pancakes with scrambled egg for breakfast; flat white; leftover Chinese for lunch with pork, beef and chicken; and chicken fajitas for tea.

Mmm American pancakes with scrambled eggs and honey

Flat white with real milk

Chicken fajitas.....

What am I going to miss the most?

Well, I eat a lot of eggs and cheese.

As part of my bid to tone up (see last blog entry), I attempt (and often fail) to have a diet that is more protein than carbs. As a result of this, we get through a lot of eggs each week.

I also like to snack on cheese during the day and night.

I've probably being eating more meat since I altered my diet about a year ago, but in the 10 years Mrs P and I have been together we've never really had a weekly menu that is heavy on animals.

We've generally balanced it out with fish and veggie food.

How's the first day been?

It's been pretty good, although I have had bouts of hunger.

I went out for an earlyish run and then attempted to recreate my normal protein breakfast, but instead of omelette I opted for avocado and sunflower seeds, with a bit more mushroom than normal.

At least Nando's garlic peri-peri sauce is vegan-friendly....

Attempting a 'normal' breakfast sans eggs

I probably should have gone for porridge, but as we were having wholemeal pasta with homemade (vegan) pesto for lunch and wild mushroom risotto for dinner, I didn't want to have too many carbs.

But I found myself getting really hungry after lunch and started to snack on fruit (apple with cashew butter, as well tidying up one of Bryher's half-eaten bananas).

I've really enjoyed eating less carbs over the last 12 months and do feel better for it.
I've also cut out a lot of fruit, as prior to my personal training sessions I could eat around five pieces a day, every day, which is a lot of sugar.

Biggest obstacles

Not going overboard again on carbs and fruit
Not eating the girls' leftover ice-cream
Not tucking into some cheese and cream crackers with butter (right now)

At least the vegan-friendly snacks seem okay

Here comes the non-science part

I weighed myself this morning and was 13st 1lb.
Generally feel okay, but getting over a bit of sickness / manflu from Thursday and Friday

Giving Blood

"I see it's your first time today. What made you decide to give blood?"

A question I was asked twice this afternoon: once during the initial consultation and once as the nurse was preparing to push the needle into my left arm. 

Number 25 on my list was to give blood, and as with signing up to be a donor, it was something I'd never really thought about. 

I signed up to be a donor after being taken through to a webpage after buying my car tax, and I signed up to give blood after a leaflet came through in the donor pack. 

So, just before 3pm I left MPAD HQ and walked through Truro to the Carrick Sports and Recreation Centre near Hendra park. 

As I got closer to the building, I started to feel nervous.

The Give Blood van outside the sports centre

The feeling grew as I stepped inside and handed over my appointment letter. 

I was given two leaflets to read, asked if I'd eaten plenty during the day and was given 500ml of water to drink. 

What surprised me as I walked into the building was, apart from the consultation booths, how open the set up was. You could see people in reclining chairs giving blood. 

As I sat down to read the leaflets, which gave a list of reasons why shouldn't give blood, my nerves grew. 

I was soon called in for the initial consultation where the nurse went through my health questionnaire, took a pin prick of blood from my middle finger, and said I was good to donate. 

I was taken to another area where in front of me there was a table with drinks and a bowl of biscuits.

I delved deep and found a Mint Club, a biscuit that I'd not had for a long time. 

As I was unwrapping the Club, I was called by the nurse to go over to make my donation. 

I was sat into a chair, where donor carer, Clare, checked if she could find a good vein. Test passed my left arm was strapped in and the chair was reclined. 

Clare handed me a leaflet advising me to do some simple exercises while the blood was being taken. As well crossing my legs, I was also advised to clench my legs and buttocks.....

It was time to insert the needle. Clare told me to keep opening and clenching my hand, and that the whole process would take less than 10 minutes. 

The needle was a bit uncomfortable to begin with, but once the blood started to flow, it felt fine. 

She filled three sample tubes to start with before attaching me to a bag. 

While I was being drained of a pint I asked Clare how much blood they expected to take during the session and whe it would go. 

Clare said they are set a target to collect 90 pints, and that they took 99 yesterday, and that blood from the morning session would go to Derriford. Blood from the afternoon and evening slots would go to Bristol, after picking up the morning's blood from Plymouth, where it would be tested. 

And that was it - the blood was taken. 

Clare took me over to the tea table, but I was told that as it was my first time I was unable to have tea (in case the heat made me feel lightheaded), so I stick to water and tucked into a packet of cheese and onion crisps and some digestive biscuits.

My sticker


Stickers for the girls

I did feel slightly emotional at this point, and I couldn't tell if this was to the blood loss, or the fact that all the blood donor team were so grateful and said 'thank you' at every opportunity. 

After 15 minutes I rolled my sleeve down and headed back to the office. 

I gave blood selfie

But not before I signed up to do the whole thing again in March.

All patched up

The girls chuffed with their stickers

Boing Boing

Number 13 on my #40before40 list was to take Liv (4) to her experience her first West Bromwich Albion match, preferably at the Hawthorns.

If I'm not playing football on a Saturday, I'll try to find a dodgy stream over the net to watch West Brom's games, or go to my parents house to catch them on Sky Sports, if we're on the telly.

Liv will often watch with me and seems to enjoy it (although I do remember her crying several times as my Dad and I cheered loudly as we demolished Wolves 5-1 in 2012, although she was not quite 2 then!).

I was 11 when my Dad took me to see my first Albion game: a 1-0 win against Huddersfield. We'd just been relegated into the old Division Two, and despite only winning four games that relegation season, I think I remember us been tipped as one of the teams to go up.

My Dad arranged for us to go to watch the team training a couple of days before the game, and the then club captain, Martyn Bennett, took my Panini 85 sticker album to get it signed by the squad, including Steve Bull and future England international, Carlton Palmer.

Watching from the old Rainbow Stand at the Hawthorns, I became completely hooked as Bennett duly scored the winner with a diving header.

It was an interesting time to start watching football: there were still strong elements of hooliganism, and the cages were still in place, as was terracing pre-Hillsborough. I think it cost me £3 to get in, but fans were certainly not treated as 'consumers' back then, especially by the authorities.

And so, I decided it was time that Liv followed the rite of passage, albeit seven years younger than I did.

The decision was helped by the fact that she'd enjoyed the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and said she'd be keen to go to a game.

I was pleased when the fixtures came out to find that Albion had been given a home game for the first match of the season against Sunderland.

Having sat through many terrible, dire matches in freezing cold and wet weather over the numerous winters of watching, I was thinking that a game at the start of the season, when there's a better chance of it being warmer, would be the ideal option.

I contacted our family friend Ray, who had been my Dad's best man and also looked after MPAD's accounts when I first started the business, who popped up to the ground to pick up tickets for us.

Once we'd got tickets I thought it would be a good idea to make a bit of a road trip of it and catch up with some relatives, as well as show Liv some of the sights in the town of my birth - Dudley!

We set off early on Friday (15th August) to beat the summer traffic leaving Cornwall and headed to Merry Hill.

First stop was the West Brom club shop to pick up a t-shirt for Liv (and a Baggy Bird for Bryher).

Liv had wanted to get the new football shirt with 'Picken' and '4' on the back, but at £54.95 I said no! She seemed to be much happier with the t-shirt with the club crest in pink anyway.

Liv with her bag of swag at the West Bromwich Albion club shop in Merry Hill

We had a quick stop at the Disney Store (where we found the much sought after Elsa teddy from Frozen), followed by lunch at Nando's, before heading off to see my Dad's cousin for a cuppa, and then heading up to our other cousins - Kate and Mark - to stay the night.

Daddy / Daughter road trip - lunch at Nando's Merry Hill

Saturday arrived and Liv put on her t-shirt and we ventured off to Ray's for lunch, one of his world famous ham sandwiches, before setting off for West Bromwich.

At this point Liv fell asleep in the car, and I was having some slight concerns that it may all be a bit too much for her.

I had explained to her that going to the game was a bit like going to a panto: you cheer the heroes (West Brom) and boo the baddies (Sunderland and the referee), as well as cheer and clap a lot (hopefully....)

But a quick 25 power nap seemed to do the trick and she awoke excited and raring to go.

As we walked up Halfords Lane towards the ground the crowds started to build, and we stopped to get a flag and a programme before heading through the turnstiles.

Outside the Shrine

We took our seats in the Birmingham Road End and Liv started to wave her flag around, almost hitting the people sat in front and behind us (apologies if you're reading this!).

In our seats in the Birmingham Road End

Then, the best moment of the afternoon as far as Liv was concerned. As the players warmed up, Liv spotted Albion's mascot, Baggy Bird, at the front of the stand. She wanted to meet him / her.

So I rushed down the steps and took her behind the goal for a photo opportunity.

A very excited Liv with Baggy Bird

I had to keep an eye on her as there were a few wayward shots coming over from the players, and the steward was not entirely happy with her standing on the electronic advertising hoarding to be next to Baggy Bird.

West Brom players warming up: Graham Dorrans about to take a shot at Boaz Myhill while Dean Kiely watches on

Players warming up before kick-off

The game kicked off and Liv carried on waving her flag and shouting 'Come on West Brom!'.

But, after five minutes Sunderland took the lead after a 'worldy' from Lee Cattermole.

Silence.

That only lasted momentarily, as on nine minutes a picture of the late Albion legend, Jeff Astle, came up on the big screens and the whole ground broke into applause for the #JusticeforJeff campaign (Jeff's family are trying to get recognition from the FA about the issues of sport-related head injuries after he died from a degenerative brain disease). Despite being too young to see him play, my Dad has told me that heading was one of strengths and he scored a lot of goals from them).

Albion came back into the game and started to create chances. Long range efforts from Chris Brunt and Sebastien Pocognoli went wide, while a similar effort from Craig Gardner was well saved.

We got back into the game five minutes before half-time when Victor Anichebe was adjudged to have been fouled and the ref, who'd been having shocker, awarded us a soft penalty.

We all stood up and I held Liv in my arms to watch the spot kick.

Up stepped Saido Berahino to dispatch the ball into the back of the net.

Loads cheers and a quick Boing Boing followed as Liv held her hands over her ears, saying that it was too loud!

The half-time whistle blew and Liv asked if it was time to go home!

Despite eating two of Ray's world famous ham sandwiches during the first half, she wanted a packet of crisps and a bottle of water. So we joined the massive queue in the concourse and waiting for 15 minutes before being served.

As a result we missed the start of the second half and an Albion 'goal' that was ruled out for a supposed foul on the keeper.

Albion were more dominant, with Sunderland's best chances coming from set pieces.

Liv was starting to get a bit fidgety at this point, so I sat her on my lap, but she still kept shouting 'Come on West Brom'.

Graham Dorrans then had a shot that was parried by the Sunderland keeper, and the loose ball was picked up by Gardner on the left hand side of the box.

We all stood up, me holding Liv again, as he crossed for Berahino to get his, and Albion's second. Cue more loud cheers and Boinging. Liv put her hands on her ears again to block the noise.

"What happened Daddy?" she asked. "We scored. You saw a goal" I replied. "Does that mean we're winning?" she asked. "Yes it does" I said. "Hooray! Come on West Brom!" cheered Liv.

With five minutes to goal, poor marking from a dodgy free kick let Sunderland in to equalise.

2-2.

As the game was drawing to a close, the fourth official held up the board showing five minutes added time. At this point Liv announced that she needed the toilet immediately.

The queues of people leaving the ground were starting to build and while we were waiting to make our exit the final whistle blew.

Liv turned to me, gave me a kiss and said thank you for taking her to the game. I was very chuffed (although I would have been more chuffed had we won).

We made it to the toilet in time, before dropping Ray at the metro station and making our way to the motorway to head back home to Truro.

By the time we got home Liv was fast asleep and went to bed in her new West Brom t-shirt.

It was a brilliant trip and I enjoyed the time together with Liv. 

Now just have to see if Bryher wants to do it all in a couple of years time......

Boing Boing!

Coffee

Number 14 on my list was to have a coffee. 

Probably a strange one for most people who frequent Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Caffe Nero or any number of independent coffee shops that have grown over the last few years and taken over the high street. 

But it's been about 10 years since I had my last coffee. 

I can't remember when exactly, but Mrs P and I have been together for over nine years and she has never seen me drink one. 

So, the reason for not drinking coffee. 

About 10 years ago I went to the doctors for a bit of a health check.

I was not in the best shape: I hardly did any exercise, drank a bit too much and didn't eat as well as I should. 

I also drank a lot of tea and coffee everyday, in excess of 10 cups, with sugar in. 

At the health check I weighed in at 16st 7lbs - the heaviest I had ever been. 

The doctor told me to make some changes. 

So I cut down on booze, started to eat better foods, began running and cut sugar out of my tea and coffee. 

I found I didn't like tea and coffee without added sweetness, so I stopped drinking them both and turned to green tea (which I now drink in great quantities). 

I remember going to a Cornwall Chamber of Commerce breakfast event about three months later and had a coffee. 

My head completely span out from the caffeine and that was the last one I drank in a decade. 

There have been times when I have missed it: I used to enjoy an espresso after a meal, particularly when in France. 

However, with 40 approaching I thought I'd give it a shot. 

In my head I'd planned to make it a ceremonial event, similar to brewing my beer, but it didn't work out like that. 

It just sort of happened. 

We'd arrived in Brittany for our family holiday with Mrs P, Olivia, Bryher and the in-laws (mother in law - Cathie, father in law - John and brother in law - Dan).

As we were unable to checked into our accommodation in Fouesnant until 3pm we stopped off at a creperie in Beg Meil for lunch.

A combination of tiredness from the overnight crossing from Plymouth to Roscoff and our Franglais not being up to speed the post-lunch coffee order for Cathie, John and Mrs P slightly confused our waitress, who ended up bringing out four coffees.

So what to do with the extra petit cafe?

The extra petit cafe

On the spur of the moment, and thinking about this list, I said  I'd have it.

Drinking the petit cafe 

Mmm, this is quite nice

The finished petit cafe

And I really enjoyed it, although I could feel the caffeine in my head over the next few minutes.

So, when Mrs P and I went back to the creperie for a date night, I decided I'd have another.

Date night crepes

Another petit cafe

Since we got home I've had one more coffee, from Costa, when we were in Yorkshire to watch the Tour de France. And again, I really enjoyed.

I think I will start drinking coffee again, but I'm not going to go down the Gold Blend or Nescafe route like I used to.

Classic Quarter

Number 3 on my #40before40 list was to beat the time that I recorded on last year's Classic Quarter second leg.

For those that don't know, the Classic Quarter is a 44 mile ultramarathon in Cornwall that starts at Lizard Point and finishes at Land's End.

You can either run the whole race as a solo entry, or take part in a relay - two or four people.

For the second year running I took part in a four person team and tackled the second leg, which starts at Gunwalloe Church Cove and ends at Perranuthanoe. 

The leg is just under 13 miles and takes in some amazing coastline and some incredibly steep parts, especially around Rinsey Head.

Richard Wadman from Francis Clark, who ran the whole marathon last year, was in charge of getting the team together.

In fact, three of last year's team remained in place: Simon Choak, Kirsti Ashworth and myself. 

The only change was Richard coming in for Jez Mancer, who decided to take on the whole 44 miles this time.

After a 4.30am alarm call on Saturday 7th June, which didn't go down too well with Mrs P, Richard picked me up in Truro at 5.15am and we headed down to the Lizard Point.

12 months earlier Simon and I found ourselves driving down to the start in torrential rain, lightening and thunder. 

The weather was much more favourable this year, although we did have thunder, lightening and rain the night before.

Richard and I registered, picked up our race numbers and listened to the briefing before the first leg runners set off around 7am.

My race number

Richard Wadman and myself at Lizard Point. Richard ran the first leg, which started at 7am

I then hopped into Richard's car and drove round to Gunwalloe Church Cove and got ready.

Having a cup of green tea selfie in the car park at Gunwalloe while waiting for Richard

The checkpoint at Gunwalloe Church Cove

Richard arrived at the first checkpoint around 8.25am after making good progress on the first leg.

I set off at a steady pace determined to beat last year's time.

The big thing for me last year was that I found I ate too much before the start and felt sick for the first part, but then ran out of energy.

As well as fitness sessions with Felicia Sheingold, I have also been getting some nutrition tips.

I had leftover frittata around 6.30am followed by porridge around 7am - Felicia suggested I avoid the porridge and go for more protein, before having some other carbs.

Porridge has become a bit of a pre-event staple for me - I even have it before midweek football matches - so I felt slightly unsure about changing before such a big event.

What made me feel sick last year was following the porridge with two peanut butter and jam wraps.

This year I swapped the wraps for two rice cakes and made a peanut butter and jam rice cake sandwich.

It was much better on the stomach.

Last year's run had been tough and the rain before the start made the path tricky and very slippy, especially the hilly parts.

Without that, I found the course to be much better to run on.

Although mainly on the coastpath, we ran across the beach at Loe Bar, as well as on the road around Porthleven harbour.

The first half to Porthleven is a nice run. It's the next part that takes in Rinsey which is tough.

There are some incredibly steep hill climbs and descents where it is only possible to walk, although I'm sure there were a few participants who enjoyed running up and down those sections.

Last year I found the mental battle the hardest part of the race, although it was physically tiring, simply because there are no mile / km markers that you'd find in a normal road race.

At the time it felt like it would never end.

This year was slightly easier mentally as I knew the course and had an idea of how much further I had to go.

Physically I found it tough. I guess that as well as the nature of the course, a lot of that was done to the fact that I had less time to train for the event as the end of the football season took up a huge chuck of time (six games in 18 days in early May).

For the last couple of miles I had really bad cramp in both carves, thighs and my left groin. Getting over the granite and wooden styles, or rock parts of the path, became more challenging. At one point I found myself frozen halfway over a style as both legs cramped up.

One of Felicia's suggestions to help my energy was to take walnuts inside dates. I put six in my pocket and found they really helped as fatigue set it.

I struggle to eat when I'm running as I find I get uncomfortable, but as soon as I had the first one I could feel my body craving more.

Despite the cramp I managed to summon up the energy for a sprint finish, where I handed over the timing chip to Simon to run the third leg.

Unofficial finish time on iPhone

Richard then drove round to Lamorna Cove to wait for Simon, and then join Kristi to provide moral support in the last leg to Land's End.

After getting dressed very slowly due to more cramp I drove home to eat a big lunch.

My official time in 2013 was 2:35:48.

This year I did it in 2:23:52.

I managed to knock 11 minutes 56 seconds off my time.

When the results came through I did feel slightly disappointed as I'd aimed to knock 15 to 20 minutes off, but on reflection I am pretty pleased with that.

It also gives me a target to beat next year!

Jelly Babies at the end of the leg - they've never tasted so good

End of run feeling exhausted and hurting from cramp selfie

My finishers running T-shirt and medal to add to my collection

Beard Blog

Number 21 on my list was growing a beard.

Last time I grew a full beard was in January 2008. I did it to keep my face warm when I went snowboarding for my stag do before I married Mrs P. 

Since then I've been pretty much clean shaven every day, especially since Olivia was born nearly four years ago. That includes weekends. 

I just got into a habit of shaving daily. 

I hadn't really planned when I was going to grow my beard, but naming my beer Beardstoker gave me the imputus to be slight more hirsute for the launch at MPAD's refreshed brand / 15th birthday party. 

I decided to start growing the beard on 15th April, which gave me 23 days to grow for the bash.

Day 1 without shaving

The one thing I noticed as my beard grew was that whiskers that had previously been ginger had now turned grey. 

Olivia even asked me if I was going to be Father Christmas. 

I was quite pleased with the beard at our party. It went down well with our clients and associates, as did Beardstroker. 

Day 23

The Beardstroker label

After five weeks the beard started to get slightly messy and uncomfortable, despite shampooing, conditioning and moisturising on a daily basis. 

Day 35

I now had a choice: to invest in a beard trimmer or to go clean shaven again. 

I decided to go for the beard trimmer.

Beard trimmer

Day 36 and a trimmed beard

Seven weeks and half weeks and counting and the beard is still here. 

Trimming every two or three days and continued moisturising is helping. 

Now I just need to decide when and if it goes....

In the meantime, here's a short time lapse film made up of five weeks of beard growth photos.

Rock Solid Race

The first big challenge on my 40 before 40 list has been done. 

Number 8 on my list was compete in a Tough Guy / Tough Mudder event. 

Yesterday I headed up to a very sunny Escot Park just outside Exeter with my support team (Rachel, Olivia and Bryher) to tackle the Rock Solid Race. 

The 10k obstacle race, which I heard several people say was actually 12k, took in mud, water, mud, water, more mud and some bonkers obstacles. 

After a warm up with a military fitness instructor, my wave set off at 1.20pm. 

The obstacles are now a bit of a blur, but we started with haybale hurdles (the big round ones), before heading off into the woods. 

At first I tried to avoid the mud and water, but after five minutes the only thing to do was to embrace it (my white running socks will never be white again ). 

Crawling on your stomach through muddy water and under barbed wire certainly got the adrenalin going, as did diving under a giant inflatable tube in a murky pond. I made the mistake of opening my eyes before surfacing, and can still feel grains of dirt under my eyelids as I type. 

The biggest challenge for me was the vertical cargo net. The height was okay, probably around 15 feet, it was the fear of falling that got me. 

I did it though, but the fear of falling off an obstacle wasn't helped by seeing a guy strapped into a stretcher waiting for an ambulance by one of the eight foot walls.

Tyres, more haybales, more water, wading through waist-deep mud, rope climbs, crawling through mud under a net, tunnels and more walls all were tackled, and enjoyed. 

I even took some strange enjoyment in diving into the skip full of iced water that resulted in the worst ice cream headache ever!

As I came into the final stretch I could see Bryher in the distance running around in her bright red all in one suit, before I saw Rach and Liv. 

This spurred me on for the final push where I jumped over fire, took on volunteers with Gladiator-style pugil sticks before, in true Rocky style, climbing haybale steps to cross the finish line. 

Having checked my time this afternoon I did the race in 1.50:08 and finished 271st out of 1880 finishers. I'm pretty chuffed with that for my first effort. 

I've also raised around £130 for CHICKS so far, which is the reason why I tackled this event. 

As well as my support team, I'd like to say a huge thank you to Felicia Sheingold, who has pushed me to my limits in my training sessions since January. The extra fitness made a huge difference. 

Bring on next year's race!

Post race burger in Exeter. 

 My race number, dog tag medals and Rock Solid T-shirt.