Brucie bonus, good game, good game

Bruce was back tonight after a long layoff through injury. Hopefully he can ease himself back into slowly and get back to his best. Tonight he mixed in and ran some steady four hundreds - quicker than me, I should add.

Tonight we ran five sets of 400m/200m with 30 seconds between the four and the two and a long 3 minutes between sets. The idea tonight was to go quick. Sean worked really hard - 60/61s followed by 30/31s. By the end he was pooped.

I tried my best but wasn't quite on the money tonight. My four hundreds were a consistent 75 seconds but after an initial 31s two hundred I dropped to 35s for the next two but then I had to skip the last couple of two's on account of being absolutely shagged after the four's. I ran in my road shoes on account of my achilles feeling a tad tight - I seem to have survived.

Then it was home for twenty minutes of cross training - no rest for the wicked...

Cross training

40 minutes of cross training for me tonight. I've decided I need to get back into the habit - no, I'm not going to start wearing a nun's outfit - I mean giving the arms and legs a bit of a go.

I eased in with various leg, arm and back exercises all done in a slow and steady manner. I focused on controlled form and stretching. And you know what? Despite the steady pace I actually got quite a burn - amazing.

It's the track for me tomorrow...

A run after work?

What the hell was I thinking. Yes, after a mere nine months of having moved up north I finally managed to drive home and go for a run after work. OK, so where I live isn't exactly 'up north', but to Bristolians its practically another country up here. Even more of a shock was that I almost clocked up an hours worth - was that the sound of jaws dropping? Now I know I once went for a run after work on a day I was working from home but that's not quite the same. I think I need to go lie down now...

Another hot day

I got up a bit later than planned and determined, being a lazy bastard, that it was too hot to run so I rode the bike for 90 minutes infront of 'Flight Plan' - not a bad film if a little formulaic - but it held my attention for the session. I think I must have sweat about four litres because I was dripping like a leaky tap and my eyes were stinging through the salty wash - think I'm headed the way of the 'too much information' so I'll stop there.

Then it was off out front to help the neighbours clear our little stretch of stream to keep the water flowing but I really need some waders to get down and dirty - there's some sludge to clear. It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it.

Well done to Sean

It was another Midland League day today, down at sunny Bath - least I assume it was sunny. Might have been peeing down, what do I know? I wasn't there. Anyway, I've just seen the results and Sean, who ran the 2k Steeple Chase was second in the race but first in the B String on account of the fact that Tim W was running and although Sean is quick, Tim is double quick. The reason I mention all this is because Sean ran 6:21 and I think that's a PB - don't quote me, and if it's not a PB then it's still a bloomin' good time...

Now it's the blasted achilles

No long run but I spent an hour on the bike and then a bit of felting in the sun - that's doing a bit of bodging on the shed roof for the uninitiated. The bike is still working like a charm, smooth as silk - can't believe I put up with the clanking for so long.

It's been cooler today and I almost wich I'd forced myself out but my left achilles feels sore so I figure nothing to be gained from making it worse. I should be good for it tomorrow though - with luck that is...

Secretly knackered

I secretly did some leg exercises after my extremely poor track session on Wednesday. I used to do a weights session on the legs once or twice a week when I had my gym membership. I figured perhaps I was missing a trick. A trick is bloody right - my legs were sore yesterday and sorer today - and I only did some crouches, forward lunges and some side to side. I spent close to half an hour of controlled exercise mind - non of this rushing, quick rubbish - if you're gonna do something you may as well try and do it properly - that's the Nepalese guru speaking again. But my god are my legs paying the price. Still it's a good indicator that I should add a few sessions in during the week - I'm figuring by my pain, that I need it.

I hope to be able to go for a long(ish), steady run tomorrow - dependant on the legs being less sore...

A prize winning pooch

A text book example of a gold medal winning lurcher...

A shocker

My legs felt terrible. Warming was hopeless - all right, it wasn't that bad, no hang on, it bloody well was...

It was just Sean and I tonight and while he ran an excellent session of three hundreds in a mind boggling consistent - and down right fast - 43 seconds, I ran two 1600m very very slowly. It was more of an extended warm up and warm down. I almost weep to mention the times of 6:30 and 6:20 with a 2 minute recovery. A shocker is the only way to describe it.

I'm now almost certain not to run tomorrow the Thornbury 10k because unless I feel capable of running under 42 minutes it won't even be a solid tempo run. If I were a betting man I would not be putting down a big ante.

Off to sleep now...

Did I really just do that?

From the off I had absolutely no spring in my legs. I'm talking plod all the way. Normally I get past halfway before it all starts to go plod. Tonight it was heavy going all the way. It was like running through mud. Now I don't like the heat and humidity. Never have. Never will but it doesn't normally hit me like that so I don't think I can put the performance down to that.

All day I've been feeling good. I don't feel tired and I really was looking forward to another quicker time. Right up to the moment that is, before I went for a warm up - and I did do a proper warm up - I felt in the mood for it - ooh no, Mrs. But from the moment I started that fateful warm up I knew things weren't quite right. My two rest days had done sod all to prepare me for a fast one. And in truth, I don't know why I was so shit tonight. Perhaps, I'm still fatigued from last weeks efforts - I'd really like to believe that's not the case.

Anyway my run was a total disappointment - 19:45 - and believe me I tried the whole way. I had to dig deep just to break twenty. I think I need to reconsider the Thornbury 10k on Thursday but I'll see how I feel tomorrow - it is another day, after all.

Well I'll end on a positive note. It was great to see Mike T running again. He's had his fair - make that, more than his fair share - of set backs but he ran well tonight, beating me by miles but a one legged donkey could have done that tonight...

Resting

I feel OK today - not so OK that I can be arsed to do any training, mind. Only kidding - not about the lack of training, no, I shan't be doing of that nonsense, no, I'm kidding about the reason for not training. I'm going to use these two days (that's yesterday and today) to give the old bones a chance to recover ahead of tomorrow's Bridge Inn 5k.

I went at it pretty hard last week and although I feel recovered I may still have a bit of fatigue in me but hopefully I'll be able to build from last month's SB and claim another one. Depending on the outcome I'm tempted to then have a crack at the Thornbury Carnival 10k on Thursday, although I won't taper for it so I'll be heading to the track on Wednesday. I reckon the reprisal of my old 'race yourself back to form' is the way to go.

And the results are in

Just a quick one - stop it - to mention that we were 3rd in the mixed category and 11th overall. A fine achievement considering the struggle to fill the team of just 10 athletes from the ranks of Bristol and West AC. And I thank one and all of them for jumping into the breach.

The only downside to the result is the fact that, of our team consisting of four men and six women, it was the men - excluding Mike Roberts - who let the team down - shame on me and the boys. In fact, if we could have raised another four women they would have smashed all before them as a women's only team category...

Cheers drive

I'm starting to flag a little. I ran Ok on leg 1 but to be brutally honest my race schedule of recent days took its toll. By half way my left hamstring tightened up but I dug deep to finish 18th.

Then it was a quick change into my driving gloves to move our leg runners car from the start to the end of their leg to ease the logistics. I drove 5 in all. An old van, a newer van, an astra, a honda automatic - and a porsche - now that doesn't happen everyday.

Team wise we've not done too bad. Helen won her leg (7) outright - a woman has never won a stage outright before and Mike Roberts won his leg as well.

That's it for now. More later including team result...

The world has gone Jackson mad

Why is it that everyone in the world - including those who denounced him during the 'inappropriate behaviour' years - have becomes the most massive fans of Micheal Jackson now he has departed the mortal coil? Don't they realise that you are permitted to purchase an artists work - before they die? There's no rule of thumb, 'Death's Law', if you prefer, that states you can only buy someone's album after they've died. And if they were Micheal Jackson's biggest fans - why the bloody hell do they need to rush out and buy up every album he ever made? - they should already have his songs - they're the biggest fans, right? I'll admit he had a few catchy tunes, but come on, it's not like he was your dad, is it?

I'm afraid this looks like a case for - duh, duh, duh [that's that catchy 1950's B music suspense music just in case you were wondering] - Super 'Jump On The Band Wagon' Man to the rescue. Wherever there is a band wagon, when all original thought is lost, when all you can do if follow the next man, then it's time call, Super 'Jump On The Band Wagon' Man.

Right, got that off my chest, it's time for chilling and carbo loading ahead of tomorrow's 5 o'clock start to be ready for Leg One of the Cotswold Relay. Of the two times I've run Leg One I think I'm going to be closer to the time of my first attempt, 1:33:52, than that of my second, 1:27:54 - I only hope I don't run a PW. I've got to be good enough for around the 90 minute mark, surely - and don't call me Shirley.