Road to London

Missed gym yet again! 

It was all Graham's fault.

If I'm honest I was pretty pleased, one of the things marathon training has taught me is I'm so bloody tired all the time.  That's lesson 1 of marathon training, be prepared to sleep a lot and want to sleep even more.

Last night was my final night of drinking for 3 weeks, finished off a bottle of red and woke this morning with a slightly cloudy head and have a long day working.  Will probably try and grab half an hour later to have a sleep on the settee.  I mentioned this to Murphy and he said it's a bloody brilliant idea.

We never get round to having a sleep, my Stevie Wonder obsession instead kicks in and we sit with a cup of coffee and stick Songs In The Key Of Life on the record player and have a sing along.

Murphy decides to sleep and snore all the way through it.

Tuesday is going to be threshold day, a move around of sessions as I don't want to do in and out the bays today.

So session is 3 X 2 miles @ threshold which is around 7:20-7:30 mile pace with a 3 min recovery between each one.  Start at the Sandcastles, up and around Marconi point and back down to sandcastles is the planned route.

Problem number 1, it's Easter hols so there are people everywhere, problem number 2 it's sunny so there are people everywhere.  

Each rep should be between 14:40 and 15:00 but I always aim to hit them closer to 14:30-14:40, first one in 14:17, then 14:21 and a final 13:52 and then easy run home for a shower, Stevie Wonder (this time it was Hotter Than July) and a cup of coffee.

Oh and a, Whispa's and Stevie Wonder are my red wine replacements now I'm having three weeks off the booze.

Decide I need a Stevie Wonder t shirt but can't find one I like so I'll have to design one and then go off on a tangent and start designing a KLF t shirt and then a Johnny Cash one and then go on eBay and buy another Stevie Wonder album.

Didn't see my sausage dog enemy today.

Easy miles Wednesday is here once again.

4 easy miles with a stop off for a bottle of coke and a Whispa at co-op.

I eat too many Whispa's.

I like Whispa's.

But not Whispa Gold's, they're awful.

Wednesday night we have a Cookson planning meeting with the Helen's (G&L), Rebecca and JB, if ever there was a setting for a glass of red this was it.

I had a coffee.

Thursday morning out for a coffee with my mum, she bought me a Whispa, she knows me well 

Thursday evening and it's club session, quiet night as lots being sensible and resting for NT10K.  That means not many from B team about and maybe we can do a combined B and C team and take it a bit easier.

Session is long out and backs, 3,4,5,4,3 mins out steady and then turn and back faster.  Now a couple of weeks ago we did short out and backs and you'll remember it all got very silly with me, Phil and Peter and the A team.

So arrive at the clock tonight to start and it's a small B team, infact it's me, oh and Phil, oh shit and Peter.

So it's me, Phil and Peter.

I let out a little sigh as I know what's inevitably coming.

But we're sensible, we keep away from A team and go the opposite way on each rep, push hard as a group and a good session and no sillyness this week.

Well there was a little sillyness but nothing like last time.

Home and a rest day tomorrow.

Friday, Good Friday infact and I'm working.

Have a lie in, take Murphy out for walk and then sit and listen to some music and drink coffee.

Yeah, it was Stevie Wonder.

Tomorrow is 4 miles easy.

Was planning 4 miles easy tonight but instead woke up at 3am with a feeling like my toe was going to explode, now at the best of times us runners have hideous toes but this was all together different.

The toe next to my big toe on my right foot, which according to Google is the 'long' toe or the 'index' toe or the 'second' toe.  I shall call it the 'fucking painful' toe.

Anyway, it was throbbing and I mean properly throbbing.  A quick glance and it was bright red and very hot and damn it hurt, took some pain killers and tried to sleep but keep waking up so eventually got up and went downstairs with the plan of stabbing something into it to stop it feeling like it was an unexploded bomb.

Well it wasn't pretty, a big blister had formed under what's left of my misshapen vile looking excuse for a toenail and a quick prod with nail clippers and it exploded in a ball of puss, fluid and blood.

In for a penny I thought and I just pulled what was left of the nail off.

This whole process was incredibly painful and involved a lot of swearing and me squeezing my toe to try and make it go numb.

Thought it wouldn't be wise to run today, walking hurt at first but by teatime all was good.

Apologies if you were eating when you read that but Graham once sent me a photo of his blister when I was eating breakfast so swings and roundabouts and all that.

15-16 miles tomorrow with NT chucked on the end, nowt daft now Simon just get it right

A sedate Saturday night watching a movie and no booze.  In bed by 12 and awake at 5 with my toe once again ready to explode.  Now this time I'm too tired to get up so instead figure there's no nail left to remove so instead grab my toe and squeeze it as hard as I can, it hurts but instant relief as what's left of the blister explodes once again.

Told Gail about this later in the day, she gave me a look that suggested she didn't want to hear the story.

Probably the same look you all have on your faces right now.

Anyway, that's enough exploding toes.

Today was 9 miles at 8 min miles and then come through the NT start line and tag the 10k on at 7:45 mile pace.

It's the last 'long' run before the marathon (just 14 miles next week) so again i get on the full marathon kit, I lube the lubing areas, I deep heat the deep heating areas, I grab 2 gels, I have a bagel for breakfast and I put on some tunes. 

Plan is to leave the house at 8:48, for once I've mapped the route perfectly and if I stay at 8 min miles I'll arrive bang on the race starting.

Up Monkseaton drive and around Red House and Beaumont, chuck in the Sainsbury's loop and head back down Monkseaton Drive and along the coast to Shields.  A nasty headwind which will help everyone later, so it's head down and get on with it.

Pace is just under 8 min miles so I'm going to arrive a minute or so too early.

Get to the start and see people still loitering, run up the road, loop the roundabout and back and they still haven't started.  Back up to the roundabout, back down and round the next roundabout and back up to the bus stop and eventually they've started.

Cross the line as the final starter and get a cheer from the people hanging around, would be lying if I didn't say it was one of the greatest moments of my life.

Then I ran straight into a wall of runners.

Spent the next 2.5 miles weaving in and out of people which is no doubt good practice for London, saw loads of the group and gave some shouts and heckles.  Ran for a bit with the Gents and Jen and then up the hills and settled into a nice pace.

Was great to see so many of the group working in small groups to push each other on, people from different groups helping each other get PB's and at one point I actually felt a tear fall from my eye.  

Then I realised it was sweat when it hit my lip and tasted really salty.

A few heckle shouts of 'whispa' and 'croissants' which were much appreciated.  Past the Dome and caught up with Mark Shorting and one mile left to go, settled in  with Mark and had a chat and we saw the final mile in together and had a lovely, sweaty, manly cuddle at the finish line.

Loads of people buzzing with PB's which is bloody impressive on that course, you have to be a special kind of runner to PB at the NT10k.

My PB is from the NT10k, it was 8 years ago and I've never been close to it since.

My run was exactly what I had planned, a 48 min 10k tagged onto a 9-10 mile run at 8 min miles, pacing was a bit up and down but I can live with that. I am also now officially tired of marathon training, I'm knackered and ready to properly taper for the next 2 weeks.  

Home and consumed a huge roast dinner followed by eating an entire Malteser Easter egg and both bars of Malteser chocolate.

Probably about 3000 calories.

Fancy a Whispa now.

Oh, I almost forgot, I haven't seen Ben once this week.

All previous blogs are available to read HERE