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Manchester - Week 3

Manchester, the second coming ...
Week 3

The week in numbers ...

Miles ran: 56
Mushrooms eaten : 1 large punnet
Chocolate eaten: 1 Toblerone, 1 Boost Duo, 1 Lion Bar Duo, 1 Dairy Milk
Wine drank: 1 bottle
American waffles eaten: 1 pack

Weight: Monday 11st12lb
Sunday 11sr11lb

Monday 20th January

Goes without saying I didn't go to the gym again.

This time I have an excuse, Gail usually goes out for a walk with her sisters and that's my time to go to the gym, or more likely think about going to the gym whilst not going to the gym. But she's not been well so not going out tonight and what kind of husband would I be to leave her when she's not well?

So instead I once again don't go to the gym and instead put it off yet again for a week and instead lie on the settee with Murphy.

It's highly unlikely I'll go next week but might think about it a bit more next time than I did this time.

Tuesday 21st January

Club session tonight, short and sharp one which on paper looks easy but in reality is an absolute F***er.

The usual 4 mile warm up followed by an extra mile to get to the start point and then into B team which I really wasn't in the mood for tonight.

Straight into a 2 min rep and aiming for around 6:20-6:30 mile pace, it's quick straight from the off, the recoveries are quick and I'm having to push hard on the easy bits to close the gap on the front of the group. We end up stretched out a bit and then 3 miles and we're done.

Set 1 that is.

We have another set to do.

I quite fancy going home now.

2 mins at 6:20 mile pace.

2 mins easy(ish)

2 mins at 6:10 mile pace.

For fucks sake.

I'm now in the gap between the front of B and the the back of B, my choices are to drop back a bit and run with the back of B which would be the sensible choice or kill myself and run the recoveries fast to hang onto the front of B.

Front of B it is. I'm having to run my recoveries at near 7 min pace to hang on and then after 6 miles, we're done and I am broken.

Easy run home and that's just over 11 miles.

I get in and eat a mushroom pizza and garlic bread.

Wednesday 22nd January

Easy miles day.

So this should be 5 miles, recently it's been more like 7 miles.

Today it's gonna be 5 miles, I'm tired, my hip hurts, my knee hurts and I just can't be bothered. I'm working on the assumption that easy miles will make my knee and hip feel better.

It sort of does and sort of doesn't.

Home and an afternoon of doing boring job of updating my website. I recently got a pair of compression boots, these things basically squeeze the life out of your legs from your feet upwards and they are superb. It's a new service you can book through me and I'm having a lot of fun putting the pressure up until I can't feel my legs, they go all the way up to 200mmHg, now I obviously have absolutely no idea what a mm or even a Hg is but 60mmHg feels like a hippo sitting on your legs and cranking it up to 200 is insane !

After a bit of leg squeezing I then have a productive few hours of looking at holidays.

Man I Iove holidays.

Taking my family out the equation my list of loves are holidays, music and running in an ever changing order depending on what I'm doing. I don't put my family in the list because if I do then they'll all realise that Murphy comes top.

Thursday 23rd January

It's threshold day and today is 6 x 1 mile, it's a hard session but a good 'un.

Head to bed on Wednesday night at 11pm and set my alarm to wake me at 6:45 to be out the door and running by 7am.

At 11:05pm I cancel my alarm.

I wake up at 9, I'm working at 9:30 and I've missed my chance for my threshold. I am an absolute lazy bastard.

Work all day and then at 1:15 I'm free and have a few hours to get it done. It's raining, it's cold, I don't want to go out, why the hell did I enter a Spring marathon.

Warm up for a couple of miles and then here we go.

6 miles and all to be between 7:05 and 7:20 mile pace, mile 1 in 7:09 and then a 2 min recov and mile 2 in 6:55 but it is downhill. Alright Simon, let's not be a dick here, 7:05-7:20 is the pace, mile 3 in 6:57 and then 6:56 and 7:01, what a dick.

Last mile, it's downhill and Fat Dog have just come on, who are Fat Dog I hear you ask? Well they are superb, so go and listen to them.

Cause he's a bad, bad puta madre now

And he likes to see you go.....

This seems a bit too fast.

And he's got no bible on his chest,

he just has some snow,

Slow down Simon you twat.

Burn, burn, burn, burn

Burn, burn, let it burn

Mile 6 in 6:40

My knee hurts, it's club later and I plan to run easy at the back to plod out some miles.

I start the group off, I sit at the back ready to jog out easy and then I turn and walk the opposite way and go to The Split Chimp and have a large glass of Merlot. I sit in the window seat drinking my Merlot and the Beastie Boys are playing, this is way better than running.

Then I go to coop and buy a Toblerone and go home and eat it and drink some more wine.

Friday 24th January

It's easy miles and hill day but we have an amber weather warning so sod that and I'm having a day off.

My hip is also hurting quite a bit today, it's the same thing that kept me out for 3 months and made me miss Manchester last year.

Lots of foam rolling and massage gun to the quads, hips and lower back but unfortunately I'm really busy all day so on my feet working and that doesn't help.

Friday night is red wine and some quality Top of The Pops 2 action as always.

Saturday 25th January

It's parkrun day.

I'm in two minds of sacking this off and having an extra rest day to rest the hip or test the hip to make sure it'll be okay for tomorrow's 16 miler.

I opt for the tester option.

Picked up by the Oldham's who kindly give me a lift to Blyth, Ben refused to take me because he's a shit, had some excuse about not going to Blyth and already having a car full but this is just typical Ben bullshit.

Start a gentle warm up with Ollie and the hip hurts, few mins of running and it eases. Plan is threshold pace, not being a twat pace. So should be around 22-23 mins, feel okay and hip gets better the more I run and each miles a little quicker than the previous and done in 21:53.

Slightly twattish but not too bad so I'll take that.

Sunday 26th January

Long run day and today is 16 miles at 8:30 mile pace.

It's cold, damn cold.

I go for the standard 2 long sleeve tops, jacket, cap, 2 pairs of gloves and 2XU compression tights and then in a moment of madness I go for a second pair of compression tights over the top.

2 tights Simon, you F'ing maverick!

It's slippy it's cold but I'm warm.

Warm'ish.

Head up towards Seaton Sluice and can't really get my legs moving quick enough, I realise this is probably due to the fact I can't actually move my legs properly. I put this down to my hip preventing me lifting my legs enough, hip eases but still can't quite get moving properly.

Two pairs of compression tights.

I can't lift my legs properly because I'm wearing two pairs of very tight compression tights, I think I've cut the circulation off to my ass.

If I ever stopped to think things through my life would be a whole lot simpler but way more boring.

Longer the run goes on the more I get into it, my early slow pace starts to pick up and I'm onto the 8:30 pace I need. A loop up through shields and then back into Tynemouth for the last few miles home, along through Cullercoats and Whitley and then loop round and back up my street and watching the distance, I might need to do a loop up the street to hit 16.

Hang on, this is close. I'm on my street and I've got 0.1 of a mile to go, I hit 16 miles at the end of my drive. This is the kind of thing another runner would fist bump me for, what a moment to be alive!

Week three done.

My hip hurts and I'm going to need to manage it over the next 13 weeks but for now, all is good.

I've also just realised that as I lie in the bath writing this, today I have eaten 2 American waffles, 4 digestive biscuits, 2 ginger snap biscuits, 3 packets of cheese and onion crisps and a large bar of Dairy Milk.

My diet is still awful.

I've also just watched 'inside the factory' and they were making golden syrup which when first put in the tin is very liquid like and I'm now thinking if you could drink an entire jar of golden syrup?

I think it's worth doing, maybe after a long run.