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Manchester - Week 5

Manchester, the second coming ...
Week 5

The week in numbers ...

Miles ran: 54
Mushrooms eaten : a handful
Chocolate eaten: 2 Yorkie Duo's
Wine drank: 2 bottles
American waffles eaten: 1 pack
Donuts eaten - 1

Weight: Monday 11st7lb
Sunday 11st10lb

Monday 3rd February

Weighed myself this morning and very pleased to see I'm back at 11st7, this is a good start to the week and this week I am focused.

Busy day working but tonight I am going to the gym to do some spinning on the bike and I've got a bodyweight core programme all planned out.

I eat greek yoghurt for breakfast, noodles and mushrooms for lunch. Make more noodles and tofu for tea but don't have any as I'm going to the gym and I'll have it later. My gym gear is out ready, I'm doing this.

Gail gets home, has her tea and tells me she's not going for a walk with her sister's so .......

I stay in and watch The Twilight Zone with her instead.

And then Lily says she's going to Tesco's so I go with her and buy a Yorkie Duo.

I'm utterly useless.

Tuesday 4th February

Grand Prix tonight and I have a horrible handicap starting with a group of people who are significantly faster than me. More about that later.

Work, lunch, dog walk, work, walk into Whitley and buy some records in a charity shop, home, work, cook tea. What a day.

Then it's GP time, I need some extra miles so head put for 4 miles easy as a warm up. Now this goes absolutely against my number one rule of no warm up before a race but marathon training needs the miles. Meet Graham midway through the warm up and head to the start with him, keep looking at my handicap and it doesn't get any better.

Keep talking to people who are faster than me and they all seem to be starting before me, this is gonna be grim.

Get to the start with Justin, Hanley, Paddy, Vicky, Daryl, the Parky's and we're off. Or rather they're off and I watch them all go into the distance whilst I settle into a hard'ish but manageable pace.

Find the whole thing just a little bit grim if I'm honest, pick pace up in the latest mile and then Matt does me dirty by taking me in a sprint finish.

At least I manage to beat Paddy and stay upwind of him.

Easy run home and I'm done.

No chocolate, no wine, no sweets today.

Wednesday 5th February

Boring day.

Early morning run and by early morning I mean 8:30 which is ridiculously early, nice easy miles up to Tynemouth and back.

Then home to work all day and a glass of wine in front of the telly in the evening.

That's it.

Told you it was boring.

Thursday 6th February

Threshold's are once again here.

Today it's 4 x 2 miles at threshold pace with a warm up and cool down. Not sure how this will go today, I'm aiming for around 7 min miles pace for the intervals so should be able to hit the 2 miles in 14 mins.

The sun is shining but it's cold and the pavements are slippy. The plan is 1 mile put from the Sandcastles, loop round by Cullercoats Kayak and back to the Sandcastles again.

Again it's early, before 9am! God I need a lie in.

Rep 1 starts and pace feels okay, bit of a slight uphill into Cullercoats, loop round and back and two 1 done in 14:02, perfect.

Rep 2, feeling good and loop round and back and done in 13:50. Starting to get warm now so decide to take the jacket off, the zips knackered as it's old and I forget to undo the velcro on my watch arm so I look like some little kid trapped in his jacket desperatly tryng to wriggle out of it and I'm against the clock as my recovery is counting down rapidly.

Zips undone and it's off the left arm, damn it, it's stuck on my right arm and the velcro strap is behind my watch and I can't get it off, timers counting down, I contemplate running with it hanging from my wrist or shall I just tear the sleeve off ? That's not an overreaction is it ? I'm against the clock here, less than 10 seconds to go and I'm still trapped in my coat. I use my knee to pin the dangling coat to the railings and with one final yank it's off, my watch beeps for 3 seconds countdown, I manically tie it to the railing and start running.

I have no idea if I've tied it on properly and resign myself to getting back and having no jacket, rep 3 done in 13:49, too fast but I was worried about my jacket all alone flapping in the breeze on the railings.

I'm pleased to say the jacket was still there, I secure it better and off again on the final rep. Last two were too fast so start this one more sensibly and by sensibly I mean significantly faster than every other mile split. Rep 4 in 13:49 and yes I am an absolute twat.

Catch up with Alison, Greg and Wendy who are doing the morning session and then head home for a shower, work.

Head to the club in the evening to supervise and Graham reminds me there is a bottle of wine in the clubhouse for me from Christmas, this is a superb outcome and I jog to the start of the session carrying my wine.

That's what 'real' athletes do.

Friday 7th February

My hip hurts, my knee hurts and I have 18 miles to do this weekend so I decide to cancel today's run and take it easy.

Work starts at a crazy 8am but the bonus being I'm done by 2pm and head to Whitley for a coffee with my mum.

Wonder round the shops for a bit and realise I'm really hungry as I haven't eaten today so grab something to eat which obviously is chocolate, a honeycomb Yorkie Due and grab a big family size bag of Walkers Salt and Vinegar Squares, now I haven't had these for years and wonder if they still make your lips tingle when you eat them.

I can confirm that yes, they do.

Eat my chocolate and walk home, nothing to do now until I make tea so I opt for a bath to listen to some Nick Cave and eat my crisps.

In the bath and crisps resting on the bath shelf, reach for the crisps and knock a big handful into the bath. The initial panic kicks in and then fades and then a moment to contemplate my next move.

Now we have a few options here:

- leave them and have a bath with soggy crisps , not pleasant but they'll soon dissolve and wont cause an issue.

- scoop them out and put them on the shelf, the obvious option really, scoop them and dispose of them and have a crisp free bath.

- eat them

I'll let you decide which option I chose.

I'm not proud of it but nor do I care.

I was hungry.

I lay in the bath scooping warm, wet, soggy crisps into my mouth like an animal.

Picture it now, picture the pitiful sight of a grown man eating soggy bath crisps by the handful.

Saturday 8th February

It's parkrun day and Whitley is back next week so this will be my last foray into the enemy territory of Blyth parkrun.

As you know I'm a lazy bugger so I will not do any other parkrun when Whitley is back.

So my choice here is a lift to and from Blyth and do the parkrun or make Saturday my 18 miler and do 10 miles to get to Blyth, then parkrun and 5 miles home.

Jim and Natasha both doing 18 miles with a Blyth sandwich so this is the obvious choice but my hip still niggling me and I like to drink a bottle of red wine on a Friday and if you recall yesterday's blog entry I now have a bottle of wine, thanks Lloyd.

I shall decide later, right now I'm in the bath and just felt a soggy Walkers Salt and Vinegar Square wash past my leg.

I think I'll eat it.

I wake up at 6 and can't get back to sleep, lie in bed til 7 deciding if I should run to Blyth or not, get up at 7:15 and stick a bagel in the toaster and get ready and then decide I'll do a few miles before I head to Blyth to test the hip. So hurriedly eat half a bagel, grab my gear and out into the wind and run towards Cullercoats, loop round and head back intending to meet Jim and Natasha at 8:05

Get to Turknaz at 8:00 and realise not a chance I'll meet them in time so keep going, pace is supposed to be 8:30 miles but I'm sitting closer to to 8:10-8:15 and feels fine.

Head up towards the caravan park and spot Jim, Natasha is in the bushes somewhere.

Pace picks up a little and pretty much bang on 10 miles and we're in Blyth 10 mins early, I need sugar and head into Gregg's to buy a bottle of coke.

This proves to be an error on my part.

Waiting ages in the queue and then have 5 mins to get to the start line as I down half the bottle of coke very quickly. Stash the bottle and jog to the start, all I can feel is coke and bubbles bouncing around in my stomach. Get to the start and plan on 8 min miles and then have a change of plan and decide to aim for 7:30's

Run the next three miles at 7:15, 7:11 and 7:03 but feel good. Finish, grab my bottle of coke and drink the rest of it because my hangover is now starting to take load and i need sugar, lots of sugar. Then we're off for another 5 miles home. My coke is now bouncing around and I'm feeling a little sick.

Head back and me and Jim do middle aged man stuff and talk about pensions, retirement and mortgages and bore the shit out of Natasha.

Home and 18.5 miles done at just over 8 minutes mile pace, have some coffee, have a a shower and fall asleep on the bed.

Sunday 9th February

Spend Saturday drinking more wine, don't usually drink on a Saturday as I do Sunday long run but this week that's done so I can drink, more.

So what's Sunday's plan ?

5 mile easy ?

Tynemouth and back for an easy 6 miler ?

No no no.

Jim told us about a donut run today, you pay 3 quid and get a donut and a coffee and do an easy 5k in Tynemouth, so holy shit we are in !!

Wake up early and feel a bit hungover, it's 7:30 and I need to leave at 8:20 to give me plenty of time for an easy run to the donut shop.

At 8:20 I'm watching videos of 'guilty dogs' on Instagram, thee are dogs that have stolen food, wrecked the house or just done something they shouldn't do and no try and hide and look guilty, yes they are stupid and yes I do spend way too much time watching them. At 8:25 I'm still watching them, 8:30, 8:35, oh shit I'm gonna be late. Chuck my shoes on and grab my top and off I go, it's way colder than I thought.

Now it's raining, I'm cold and wet and running late.

Pick up the pace and get to Tynemouth and met Dave, Mike and Natasha. The donut place is rammed, mostly younger ladies and us three. We walk to the start at the priory and we become very aware this is not our kind of thing, they start a warm up with stretches and lunges, it's all very upbeat and happy. Everyone is doing it, apart from the three miserable looking blokes in the middle who stand there scowling at the whole world whilst the happy run leader mocks us.

Eventually we start, hipster watches are slower than normal watches and 9am does not mean 9am.

Jog to Cullercoats in the group, loop round and me and Natasha then go to the front and head back for our donuts, we win the race which isn't a race and grab our donuts and coffee.

A final 3.5 miles home and I'm knackered, my first training week over 50 miles.