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Well, it's that time once again and it only feels like Amsterdam was 5 minutes ago, but here we go again ...

The week in numbers ...
Miles ran:  44.48
Gym visits:  0
Chocolate eaten: 1 bar, i think.
Alcohol  drunk:  1 bottle of wine, few glasses of wine  & some beers

Weight:  11st10lb

We've got track tonight at the club, it's a long old session of 500,700,900,1100,900,700,500 and it's often pretty brutal.

I haven't done any speed work for two weeks and I'm a bit worried about trying some now. Not a chance I'm going with B team who are supposed to be running at 23's (but won't be) and a little worried about C who will be doing 25's. So I decide I have two obvious options.

Option one, run with D team and stick to pace.

Option two, run by myself at my pace which will be somewhere between D and E pace.

I go for option two.

And mess it up spectacularly.

First 500 at 25 per 100, too fast. First 700 at 24 per 100, too fast. First 900 at 24 per 100, overtake C team, too fast. Now it's the 1100 and C team are behind me and I don't want them to catch me, again too fast at 23 per 100. Now heading down the pyramid and back to 900 at 23 per 100, too fast. Now it's 700 at 23's again and agin too fast and time to finish off with 500 and I do this at 22 per 100.

Twat Simon well and truly took over tonight and he had a bloody brilliant time.

My first bit of speed work in weeks. I run by myself to protect my hamstring and not run with a group and I do the entire thing way too fast and should have just ran with B team.

Anyway, my hamstring felt okay. We will see what tomorrow brings but glad to have got through they unscathed.

Out in the morning for a run, it's supposed to be recovery week but I had enough recovery weeks when I was injured so I'm planning 4 x 15 mins at threshold pace.

And then I see the weather and hear the wind and decide 10 miles easy sounds much more appealing.

I head out and just run a nice comfortable pace, tick off the miles and do the runners nod to every runner I see. It amazes me how many runners don't know the universal language of the head nod or the eyebrow raise.

I stopped doing the eyebrow raise a while ago when I realised I was getting ignored often, I thought maybe I wasn't emphasising the eyebrow lift quite enough so started to do it very pronounced and still nothing.

It was around this time I remembered I always run in sunglasses and nobody can see my eyebrows.

This was also around the time I opted instead for the head nod, sometimes a slow and measured nod and sometimes a fast up and down action. It all depends on what music I'm listening to at the time.  I'm fairly certain I've given myself whiplash doing it whilst listening to The Prodigy.

There's a fella on the seafront that for many years wore a 'TORIES OUT' t shirt and we've always nodded to each other, over the years his shirts have become even better and we now do a full excited wave when we spot each other. I do like that fella and his 'NO NEW NAZIS' t shirt is a personal favourite.

Over the years I've become quite friendly with random runners on the seafront, there's a lady I always pass around Cullercoats or Tynemouth and our eyebrow raises moved to nods and then our nods moved to waves and our waves to 'hellos' and then onto 'you okay?' and 'hows training?'

We're getting married next week, seems the obvious next step.  

It reminds me of many years ago when I gave up work to stay home and raise my kids (the best thing I ever did). I went to toddler groups and music groups with them as babies and toddlers and when Lily was a toddler I became friendly with a lady at a music group, we shared the hatred of the 'round the circle song' where they would sing the same verse every time and then each person in order would say the name of their child in the gap, or even sing the name of their child.

Now, it's frowned upon to drink heavily when you have small children and I need booze to sing by myself in a room full of strangers and even singing 'Lily' was a step too far. So me and this lady would just say the name of our kids in an annoyed monotone voice and over time the rest of the group realised how much we despised this song so they all sung our children's names to save us the hassle of ruining the song each time.

Anyway, I digress. The point of this story was that much like my new running wife, I knew this lady for years, we occasionally had coffee together and met up at toddler groups and she was for ever in my phone as 'no singing lady' and even now after 20 years I have no idea of her name. It became too awkward to ask after 5 or 6 years and basically raising our children together. Weird thing was she always knew my name but iny defence I was the only bloke at every music and toddler group and everyone knew me.

I still live in fear of bumping into her one day.

6am and the alarm goes off.

6:15 and I've yet to move.

6:20 and I'm downstairs getting ready, I've got 4 minutes to be out the door. I'm eating a chocolate spread sandwich and drinking a vile carb drink and then Murphy starts crying so I go and see him and let him out.

Then the cat wants feeding so I feed him, then I nip to the toilet, then I let Murphy back in, then I let the cat out then I go back to the toilet and then I realise I left my phone upstairs. Go back upstairs to get my phone and then come back down again.

I'm out the door ten minutes late which means it's only time now for 18 miles, or more likely 18 and a bit if I can stick to pace.

My new bright pink pro 4's arrived yesterday so I've got those on with my bright pink socks and naturally all my other clothes are black. I look like a ninja who didn't get the memo about the shoes.

Out and heading to Seaton Sluice and it's dark and cold, as always I start slow and settle into a rhythm and flick the Garmin screen off so I can't see the pace, time or distance, I want to run by feel today and usually I'm pretty good at this.

Through Sluice, loop back to Whitley, up through Cullercoats and Tynemouth and into Shields and then a big loop through shields that I plan to do twice. I'm taking a gel every 4 miles and they're not going down well today. My stomach is grumbling and I chuck the third one away half way through and have a bit of Kendal sports bar instead. A quick check of the watch and I'm averaging 8:14 mile pace but due to my tardiness this morning I need to cut the second loop short and head back.

I get into Tynemouth and pick the pace up, it's downhill so feels good and get to parkrun about 5 mins before the start. See Simon, Cara and Steve who are all also deep into a long'un and Ben who isn't because he's old school and does long Sunday runs on a Sunday. He's a man of principle is Ben, and as Margaret Thatcher famously said 'the lady is not for turning' and this was about Ben, because he's actually a lady. Little known fact.

Parkrun nailed at 24 min pace and then a run home and I've done 21.23 miles at 8:03 average pace, the pickup from Tynemouth and parkrun have knocked ten secs a mile off overall. My legs are aching a bit but overall I feel good and really pleased to have got this one nailed.

Then it's a bit of work and then time for the big shop. Ben does his big shop on a Friday, if I haven't mentioned already he's old school. 

Then Sat night and we have a group night out and it's the first one on ages.  Not sure if I'll be running tomorow, usually I do long run on a Sat and then 10 miles or so on a Sunday but tomorrow may well be very different.

All previous blogs are available to read HERE