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Amsterdam-Week 10

Amsterdam, red light spells danger
Week Ten

The week in numbers (so far)...

Miles ran: 43.43
Times I've been to the gym: 0
Alcohol drunk: 1 bottle of red and post GNR pints
Chocolate eaten: 1 wispa
Diets maintained: 1, the Greek yoghurt diet

Weight: 12stone 3lb

Monday 1st September

Woke up this morning and after the weekends curry eating extravaganza in worried about the weight gain but thankfully I'm still 12st4 so about half a stone down from 9 weeks ago.

This week is a crazy week, it's GNR on Sunday so I'm really busy with work and we're also having a new kitchen delivered so I need to rip out the old one and all the flooring this week.

This means I may struggle to get out for all my planned runs, so I'm squeezing one in today as Wednesday and Friday will be unlikely to happen.

A very standard day working, eating Greek yoghurt and then 4 miles easy in the evening upto Cullercoats and back with a few hill strides chucked in.

Home and didn't even have a glass of wine to finish the day.

Tuesday 2nd September

Another busy day massaging and then it's club tonight and I'm going into C team, D team look very happy when I tell them this, particularly Simon G for some reason.

Back into C which these days seems to be filled with B team people and Graham utters those words to fill the group with dread.

'shall we have a chatty one'

So it's B team 5k pace from the off and by the second 2 minutes effort I'm struggling and at the back of a huge C group.

I cling on and before I know it we're at the 15 second reps and heading up the hill towards the Gibraltar Rock. Get to the top and I'm broken and we need to get all the way back to Whitley.

Graham says he's knackered so we'll 'ease off on the way back'.

Naturally, this means we start at sub 6 minute mile pace downhill, me and Ben have decided to go with the faster C group and Michelle takes a second C group just behind us. The 2 minute effort takes forever, Ben tells me I made a schoolboy error by checking my watch too early, he's right, we have only been running 24 seconds, I check again just to make sure and it's now 32 seconds. The pace eases slightly and we're at 6:20 mile pace.

Ben's complaining.

I'm complaining.

We don't bother slowing down.

Ben complains a lot.

The 2 minutes is up, I need to be in the group for them to drag me home, I speed up the recovery to catch them, Ben complains but follows. I'm starting to regret the 4 mile warmup.

Ben really does complain a lot.

The second 2 minutes starts and once again it's stupidly fast and me and Ben drop behind but stick together. Don't check the watch, don't do it....

I check. We've done 28 seconds.

Ben complains that I checked my watch.

The fast boys (& Georgina) are getting faster and me and Ben are doing the recoveries too fast to keep the group in sight. We cling on and then we're down to the 30's.

Then we are nearly home and onto the 15's, we are about 10 metres behind the group and a couple of 15 seconds efforts left to go and then we're done.

I'm absolutely wrecked but I feel a little better when I see Ben is also wrecked and that cheers me up.

I can't recall for definite but I think Ben may have complained again at this point.

First session back with C. I much prefer D.

But I have missed running with Ben.

The miserable, complaining old sod that he is.

Wednesday 3rd September

It's kitchen day.

I need to remove the entire old kitchen and take delivery of the new kitchen. It's a big kitchen and I'm guessing it's been in over 20 years, it's a big heavy solid wood thing and it's been well installed.

The simple option here is to smash it up but I don't want to give myself extra work and wreck the floor and walls so I'm dismantling it bit by bit.

New kitchen is coming at 1:45, it's now 8am and I'm giving myself til 1 to get this one out and then 45 minutes to tidy and make a space for the new one.

The next 5 hours are spent unscrewing countless screws, sawing through worktops and carrying everything out to the huge skip on the drive. By 1:15 I'm done and the skip is almost full.

Well I say done, but I've left the sink and dishwasher in place so we have something of a functioning kitchen. An hour later and the new kitchen is delivered.

Next job is to fit it. This job may or may not involve a large roll of heavy duty bin bags and a staple gun.

Thursday 4th September

Wake up and every single part of my body hurts, I've cut my hands to bits from removing tiles and using alcohol antibacterial hand wash turns out to be a really painful and bad idea.

That's something of an issue as I do this countless times each day when working.

It doesn't get any less painful.

Working all day back to back until 6pm and then out for a 5 mile warm up to get to Foxhunters for the session. As it is, this doesn't happen tonight and I skip the run and the session and just have a glass of wine instead.

It's been a long week and it's only Thursday.

Friday 5th September

Didn't sleep at all last night, awake from 5:30 and just get up at 6 and sit outside and have a coffee and then decide to go for a run.

The sun is shining, I switch on my music and Nick Cave comes on.

Let us go now

My darling companion

Set out for the distant skies

See the sun - See it rising - See it rising

Rising in your eyes

The sun is peeking through the clouds, I'm heading through Cullercoats and Nick's still singing, well strictly speaking it's the bit Else Torp sings and that's my favourite bit of the song so it's okay.

Let us go now

My only companion

Set out for the distant sky

Soon the children

Will be rising

This is not for our eyes

Anyway I digress. My point here is that it's been a long week, I'm tired and feel a bit drained and when I get this way I use music to attempt to shift me out of it. For me it needs to be slow, melancholic, maybe even a little depressing and have a very deep undercurrent of love and and for that you can't beat Nick Cave.

Or Johnny Cash.

Or Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell.

I hope when I have grandchildren I have two boys and they're called Nick Cave Jamison and Johnny Cash Jamison. Whichever of my kids does this for me will instantly become my favourite child.

Or Wichita Lineman Jamison, but that ones probably unlikely.

Back home and a full day working, by the end I'm shattered and a night of red wine and music on the telly is what's needed.

Saturday 6th September

Up at 7:30 and a bit hungover, my plan today is 6-7 miles and then parkrun. It's pacer week and I've said I'll do 24 minutes but upon waking I'm starting to regret this.

I'm only running 23 at the moment when I push it so a 24 will be close to my limit. Oh and then there's the small matter of the 6 miles I intend to do first.

Up to Tynemouth and the pace is okay but feels hard, I'm having a little panic about pacing but it'll be fine, I think.

Today I decide to go with my Amsterdam marathon playlist, there's no Nick Cave and no Johnny Cash, this is mostly because I don't think stopping and having a little cry would help during a marathon.

It's an eclectic mix, a bit of high tempo music from The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers, some heavy guitar noise from Therapy and Rage Against the Machine, some pop loveliness from Sugababes and Madonna and the song to carry me when I'm struggling...

How Far I'll Go from the Moana soundtrack.

Have I told you how much I love Moana? It's bit on the boat when Maui leaves her and the spirit of her grandma comes to see her, man that gets me every time.

Finish my run, rock up to parkrun and nail the pacing like an absolute pro. I feel weirdly sprightly today. Home, a couple of appointments and then back to normality of kitchen stuff, cooking and maybe a little glass of wine.

Sunday 7th September

It's Great North Run day.

Up at half 7, downstairs to make a coffee and then a last minute change of vest. I had a thicker one set put but looks like it's gonna be a hot one so the skeleton vest comes out. I've had this about 12 years and I'm slightly concerned it won't fit but the diet is working and it fits.

This last minute fannying around means I have to pour my coffee into a paper cup and head out the door with no breakfast. I decide this is okay and I'll get something in town. Walk to the metro and the stations already busy.

A Wallsend Harrier turns up in his club vest and walks down the platform like he owns the place, has this man never seen The Warriors? You don't flaunt your colours in enemy territory, there's no other Poly here to back me up and force him to walk to Wallsend station so I click some coke bottles together whilst saying 'Wallsend, come out to play-ay' over and over again.

It's a Warrior's reference.

What do you mean you haven't seen Warriors ?

Go and watch it immediately.

Anyway, on the metro and heading to town to get a coffee and food. I'm hungry.

Get to Sainsbury's and get the breakfast off champions. A chocolate croissant and a bottle of coke. Bump into Phil and we walk along to the start area where I meet a few more poly people.

A couple of last minute toilet stops and then onto the start pen where I see Simmo and Katie and time passes whilst Simmo says 'fuck' a lot.

And then we're off.

Now, there's a slight issue with me doing a half marathon. Since my return from injury my longest run has been 10 or 11 miles, now I've done lots of half marathons so this shouldn't really be a problem.

The plan is to sit at 8 min miles and on the words of Ron 'nothing daft'. In the whole I stick to this plan, there are a few 7:30/40 miles but plenty of 8:00-8:15's to balance it all out.

And then I get to 10 miles and my body remembers we haven't ran this far since April and decides to tell me. I have a beer at this point and throw most of it into my own face, I get another beer and drink most of this one.

11 miles, grim.

12 miles, nearly done.

Bump into one of my massage clients at this point and we stick close together which lifts my pace a little.

I thought I could do a steady 1:45 today and finished in 1:46:20, it was steady for 10 miles and hard work for the final 3. 15 minutes slower than I ran a half in back in January but it's done and another step closer to Amsterdam.

Onto the ferry with a gang of Poly and then off to the pub and 6 hours of drinking, talking shit and laughing which is really what this day is all about. I get spend some time with drunk Jim which is always a bonus and blag a lift in Mark's A-team van, which by the way was nothing like the A-team van, the bastards all lied to me.

A couple of pubs, some chunky chips, lots of beers and a takeway pizza to finish the night and then flat out asleep by 9pm.

A fantastic end to the week and just what was needed.

I'm working at 9am tomorrow, that may prove to be a major planning error on my part.

6 weeks to go.

London 2023

Want to read all about my London adventure in 2023.

It's mostly about Ben, my sausage dog nemesis and wine.

LONDON CALLING

Yorkshire 2024

Enjoyed reading about London?

Now its time for York and reading about Bilbo, mushrooms and wine.

And Ben.

YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS

Manchester 2025

Well you've read the last two so may as well carry on.

Manchester, so much to answer for. Yeah Ben gets a mention or two

MANCHESTER - THE SECOND COMING