Road to London

A family day out to Beamish meant yet again gym day was cancelled but this time it was my fault but I'll blame Graham anyway.

Graham cancelled gym day.

So I'll tell you about my day at Beamish instead, this way I can mention Poppy who's gone on and on for bloody weeks about not being mentioned in my blog.

Me, Gail and the kids went to Beamish, I say kids but as I'm officially old they are actually 20, 17 and 14 so ⅔ of them are now adults.  Lily likes to remind us that she's been asking to go to Beamish for 7 years and we've never been, it's a lie but we go along with it because it's funny.  

Actually, the more I think about it she's probably right as last time I remember being there we queued for hours to take the three of them to see Santa. Lily just excited and loving the whole thing, Sam standing back and watching from afar as he never really trusted Santa and Poppy just storming straight on in without a seconds thought.

The 3 of them still live their lives this way.

Anyway, it cost £90 for us.

You get an annual pass so we plan to go every day for the next year to make the most of it as £90 is obscene to look at old stuff.  If I wanted to look at old stuff and hear about the olden days I'd just go round my mum's for a coffee.

My mum reads my blog.

She's going to punch me for that comment.

Tuesday is track night and it's the superb session of Bonderenkos.  Decide I'm going to go in C team this week as sillyness will just prevail in B team and I'm too close to London know for any of that foolish behaviour.

So join in with C team and get a big sigh from them when I say I'm joining in, they love me really, apart from Bain.  He instead threatens to trip me up, which of course he has no chance of doing as he can't keep up with me.

Harsh, but true and he knows it.  

He's very, very old.

Rep 1 starts and I sit nicely midgroup and all is fine.  Jog recovery and rep 2 starts and Lloyd heads to the front, I head up to join him and therein lies the story of the rest of the session.

It's fast, it's B team fast.  Lloyd admits he doesn't really do 'pacing' and just runs as hard as he can, I like running with Lloyd.  Midway through the session I tell him he's being promoted to B team on Thursday, C team will no doubt be over the moon with this.  Last time I ran with Lloyd he was in D team and I promoted him to C team during that session.

3 sets done and every single rep too fast apart from the first 400.  

Lloyd's fault, or maybe Graham's, actually I'm blaming Ben.  If Ben had been there I'd have run with him but he wasn't there so it's Ben's fault.

It's all Ben's fault.

Easy miles Wednesday.

The wind is howling and it's raining, out for 3-4 miles easy and it's the usual up to Marconi point, round past the kayak place and back home.

Get home, have a shower, have some breakfast and a coffee and get ready to work.

Wonder why my client is late and then realise I've looked at the wrong day and I've got another hour before working, take Murphy for a walk.

Come home and listen to Bill Withers, I'm not in a Bill Withers phase but I may drift into one soon.

Decide I need some chocolate today, I have a wispa, whispa, whisper, wispar, wisper, wispurr, wizpah? 

I have a Yorkie.

Thursday is a crazy short and sharp club session that will do no favours for marathon training so I'm skipping it.  Was hoping to get out to do a short threshold session but couldn't fit it in so have moved it to tomorrow and will take today as an extra rest day and do some foam rolling instead.

Then in the evening head along to the club to do some top quality heckling.  Again Ben isn't there so I save all my best heckles for when he comes back, I say heckles but really it's just me making random shit up about Ben a lot whilst he mocks me for that time he beat me at the Terry O'Gara 5k.

He cheated by the way, used me as a wind break for 2.5 miles and then shuffled past me.

He also sent a pensioner the wrong way in a parkrun once so he could beat them.

True story.

I never make stories up about Ben.

Friday is threshold Thursday.

A short session today of 4 X 1 mile threshold pace with 1 min recoveries.  Nothing daft as we're getting dangerously close to London now.

Got myself a new pair of Endorphin Speeds that I'll wear for London, thought I'd try them today and on Sundays long run to wear them in.

Aiming today for 7:20-7:30 mile pace for each rep.

Mile 1 in 7:06

Mile 2 in 7:09

Mile 3 in 6:52

Mile 4 in 6:46

Idiot.

Gail persauded me to go the pub for lunch, halloumi fries and a non alcoholic lager, two weeks booze free now.

Parkrun tomorrow at a steady pace and 13 miles on Sunday before we start the final week.

Parkrun plan was steady pace at around 7:20-7:30 per mile.

Started nice and easy and got boxed in a bit, round the memorial, down the hill to the skate park and then spotted Natasha flying past.

Put on a spurt and went after her and ran 2 miles chatting shit and parkrun flew over, she finished her session and we jogged final mile in.

Felt good to put some pace in, didn't even get any chocolate after and not a pastry in sight.

Last longish run tomorrow, will run my usual loop which is about 13 miles and celebrate with a wispa and a coffee before the final taper week kicks in.

Oh and I saw Ben today, it was from afar but it was glorious. 

Headed out for my last long'ish run on the usual loop and aiming for 13 miles at around 8 min mile pace.

My legs felt heavy and sluggish from the first few steps for some reason. 

Just could never get into it, kept trying to convince myself it was easy pace but felt much harder than it should have.

Decided when coming down towards Tynemouth Pool that there was no point on slogging away for 13 miles so changed it to a 10 miler and live to fight another day.

Heading along the coast for final mile and picked up the pace so I could finish sooner, 10 miles done in just over 8 min mile pace and walked the last mile home.

Saw Ange and her little run crew who all rightfully heckled me for walking, I would have done the same if I ever saw her walking but she never bloody does.

Grabbed a coffee and walked home, this week will be easy runs, lots of foam rolling and a massage on Thursday.

And no chocolate.

One week to go.

All previous blogs are available to read HERE