Back in the fold

I ran with Mike D's training group for the first time in, oh, I don't know, over a year? To be honest, I'm not really sure. One thing I am sure of, however, - I'm a damn sight slower than I was the last time I did train with them. There were a few friendly faces, Phil P and Sean to mention two.

We ran up and down the Clifton Prom in three different loops, large - 1.5km, medium - just over 1km and short - 650m. Now, in the past I've run the large in just over 6 minutes, the medium in just over 4 minutes and the short in about two and a half minutes - I should add at this point, that the loops are far from flat - you run up a pretty steady climb during all three and the large has a somewhat steeper bit towards the end.

Tonight we ran three large, two medium and two short and apart from the first one I was on my lonesome - on account of being shit. Even so, I stuck to the task in hand - you don't get fit without cracking a few nuts. I ran my last two reps, that's the short ones in case you've become confused - I had by that point, after everyone else had finished, warmed down and gone home - only kidding, they'd stayed behind to chat.

My splits were 6:20, 6:22 and 6:30 followed by 4:30 and 4:32 and finished off - and I nearly was - with 2:40 and 2:35. Now I know I've been quicker but it's a start. I can build and after all, it was close to five miles of (relative) fast running - which is way more than I've done in eons.

Sean ran well. I think it helped him to be part of a larger, quicker group. He had people to chase instead of being the lead man, as is normally the case.

Anyway, there isn't any track tomorrow on account of the end of the world - [coughs] I mean, the end of the year - so I hope to head out from work at lunch for a steady - and I do mean steady - half hour from work with Clive T and Graham. Then there's the race on Thursday, some 5 mile effort in Gloucestershire and I think Phil P might be giving it a go there - he's much faster than me in case you were wondering and a real contender.

So that's your lot for tonight. Tootle pip.