Road to London

Start of the week and in the gym once again.

Legs felt fine after yesterday's 20 miler which is a good sign.  Anyway it's boring talking about the gym as there's only so much you can say about kettlebells.

They're heavy, you lift them up, you swing them about a bit and you put them down.

That's it.

They're not really very heavy, I lied about that to make me sound a bit more manly to be honest.  But I do swing them about quite a lot.

Monday night I went out with Peter, Roger and met up with Graham and Helen to see Young Fathers @ the boiler shop.  Now I love music as much as I love running and I love running as much as I love red wine and I love red wine as much as I love sweets and chocolate.

So, here's my gig review. It was f'ing brilliant, they were superb.

I would say I was probably the oldest person there but all the fellas I was with were older than me so I was at least the 4th oldest. I loved every second of it apart from the large hispter bloke with a little beanie on his head and the Harry Potter glasses who insisted on standing way too close to me and hitting me with his big ass when he danced.  

I didn't for one second like him or his dancing or his mates declaration at the start of every song that it was an 'anthem'.

Bloody hipsters.

Grand Prix Tuesday.

Plan was threshold run tonight and I stuck absolutely to the plan.

Well, when I say stuck absolutely to the plan, what I mean was I told Natalie that was my plan and I intended to stick to the plan, but then I started running. 

So we start and the group shoot off and leave my by the time we get to the bus stop, fine, I'm sticking to the plan.

First mile a few seconds ahead of the plan.  Then a thought enters my head.... I wonder if I can catch anyone from the group? I doubt it but you never know. Shall I try? No, just sit at the pace you're doing and run a  threshold.  Yes, be sensible and do the sensible approach and stick with the plan.  I'm sticking to the plan.  After all I'm following a plan for a reason.

So I scrap the plan, now I want to catch the rest of the group.

The threshold plan now adapts to increasing the pace significantly each mile and try and catch the group. It felt great, got them all apart fro Colin and Dave and then the best bit, you know what's coming Bain….

Pass Graham at the end of the prom, he tells me to go after Bain, look up and spot him so put a final surge on, the lines getting closer, Bains getting closer, I'm getting closer and about 20cm from the line I pass him and run straight into the back of Harris as I'm laughing about it way too much.

Bain took it very well and was gracious in defeat.

He definitely didn't swear at me and use words I've never even heard before, disgusting filthy mouth that he has.

It was great fun.

Not for Bain obviously.  Filthy boy.

Easy miles on Wednesday, 4 miles along the coast and back in the snow and the sun was shining.

It was glorious and then I went home and spent the day working. 

Oh, I have a sore back, you need to know that as I intend to use it as an excuse later on this week.

Threshold Thursday.

A few important facts for you here.

• I have a sore back (see above)

• It was very cold and icy

• It was very, very windy

• I'm very, very tired

• I still have a sore back

• It was a horrible session

Session today was 1 X 1 mile, 2 min recovery and then 3 x 3 miles with 4 mim recoveries and all at threshold pace.  I started the first mile and heading North wasn't too bad, it was slippy but runable and then turned to head South and got battered by the wind, came in on pace but it felt way too hard.  Now I had 3 x 3 miles to do at the same pace round and round the parkrun course.

At this point I thought going home was a bloody good idea and nothing about the session sounded remotely tempting.  But then I thought about the blog and I thought about people giving me grief for not doing the session, I knew Bain would have a dig, I knew Ben would say something, I knew Natasha would call me a lightweight.  Not the nice people  in the group who are encouraging and helpful, I'm talking about the darker elements of the club, you know the ones that just can't help but always have a little pop at you when things aren't going well.  Little sly digs and underhand comments all the time, disgraceful behaviour.

Never catch me doing that.

Apart from when I beat Bain at the GP and write an entire entry about it and pretty much all the stuff I say about Ben all the time (he once sent someone the wrong way in a parkrun on purpose so he could beat him, true story) and of course the fact I've spent years giving Natasha grief, did I mention how I beat her at parkrun once ? But aside from all of that I'd never say anything nasty.

So, let's digress a little.  I did parkrun once and felt good and beat Natasha.

Anyway….  I did the first 3 mile rep, it was awful, I hated it.  Decided now that I had to do the second rep which would be even worse but once done it I'd only have one left and then I could go to the shop and buy chocolate.  

Rep 2 started and I had a cunning plan to slightly tweak the route to make it more interesting, it didn't work.  All I did was run round the memorial and take the first path, it wasn't anymore interesting than the second path.

Rep 2 done, stood for my recovery in the cold.

The hailstones started.

The wind got worse.

Started the final rep, again I had a cunning plan to make this one better.  Instead of coming back on the top path I'd come back on the road down to the dome and then drop onto the prom.  It was a stupid idea, it was even windier up there and I swear even colder.  Dropped onto the prom and ran the full length, then turned to head back for the final 800m straight into the wind.

Grim, grim, grim.  Next week I'm doing it again but starting with a 2 mile rep instead of 1 mile.

Can't wait.

Friday was easy miles and I was looking forward to this one.

Lots of snow on the ground but it was nice to run on and the sun was out.

Stuck Young Fathers on my headphones and did a very enjoyable and steady 4 miles in the snow and sunshine.

Feeling very tired this week and the easy runs definitively help with recovery, looking forward to getting through the next couple of weeks and then looking to start tapering.

Parkrun.

They cancelled parkrun.

Gutted.

Sunday long run was going to be 15-16 miles at 8:00-8:10 mile pace, plan today was a small loop to start and then the usual 13 mile loop.  First loop was roughly 4 miles and for some reason in my head a 4 mile loop added to a 13 mile loop would be about 15 miles, turns out it's more like 17 miles.

Maths never was my strong point and maybe my haphazard method of long run planning needs thinking about.

Or maybe it doesn't and I'll just keep making stuff up as I go.

So back to the run, it was windy and knackering just constantly running into it.  Problem with wind is it buggers up your gait, you lean into it and don't lift your hips or upper body and everything feels heavier and harder, it's just a bit crap and tiring.

So pace was slow and the slog from the coast up Monkseaton Drive and then all the way up towards Holystone was awful.  Once I got out the wind it was fine and I'd get faster but then back into the wind and battered once again.  Pace was all over the place, some miles at 8:30-8:45 pace and others closer to 8:00

And importantly here's an excuse I need to get in nice and early.  Last night Gail made me go to the pub for a drink and then get an Indian takeaway, I regretted this food choice before I went to bed, I regretted it when I couldn't sleep, I regretted it when I woke up and I regretted it as I started running.  

Indian food and long runs don't mix.

Got to Tynemouth, waited for the watch beep and was expecting 13 miles to flash up, it was 15.

Ballsed that maths up today didn't I.  

So finished the run at the dome with a little extra loop to hit the 17 miles as couldn't possibly end on a random number.  Got heckled by John B who shouted 'croissant' at me and now I started thinking what would happen if co-op only had apple tarts again, decided I was kicking off at the nice fella that works there, either that or I'd blame the Tories on Facebook later.

They had croissants.

They had chocolate croissants.

They had those stupid apple things.

A long week, a week of feeling tired, a week of niggles and aches.

Next week im supposed to be doing 22 miles on Sunday.  I'm out on Saturday night, didn't think this one through.

All previous blogs are available to read HERE