September send off

Again my training was a little off well maybe a lot off! I did my usual Monday run with the running club. I went out pretty fast maybe a little to fast for me but I hung on to the end I had one of the fast guys in my sights and I wanted to hunt him down. I really only managed one run with running club this week. I managed a couple of 5k but nothing spectacular.
Today I went racing. 9k of Cross country loveliness. The start was a little village not to far from Newmarket. The fields was pretty small which was a real shame as its a really lovely event. You head of on the foot paths across fields and along Devils Dyke which is some kind of saxon thing or something. Its a little bit undulating with one fairly big hill a couple of kilometres in. I didn't want to get to carried out at the beginning as there where some just doing the 5k so if I went out to hard and blew up then it would be bad. I felt ok strong enough and picked up the pace a little. I'm still really nervous of my digestive system so I took some tablets to try and deal with that disappearing into the bushes half way round is not ideal. On the whole I was ok I wasn't last anyway. My time 54.15.

superlative September start

At running club I've been taking out the beginners group which has been good. The girls are good at taking advise and following the plan, Will however is another matter see's all the boys going out hard and goes with them only to blow up half way round I have mentioned to him pacing would be good but yeah! I helped at the Club Cycling rally bank holiday weekend it was really good so many like minded people I have an itching to try a bit of grass track but apparently fixed gear bikes can be temperamental. I helped with the kids racing which is so cool they're so keen. I did a nice 10k 22 August lovely off road course through the forest. I went with Alan from running club the rest of the field was mixed bag of men and women but a fair amount of older guys say late fifties early sixties so I thought I was in for a good time lol, think again last time I underestimate the competition. On the whole I did ok I didn't set the world alight but I really enjoyed myself everyone was really friendly we all had a good laugh and joke at the start and finish. It was really low key but we all had juice and a rather nice 9bar at the end. Managed to drag the bike out but only twice Paulie and I went out a couple of Sundays ago I was hoping for an easy run having done a 13 mile run on the Thursday and my legs feeling a little tired still but that was wishful thinking we didn't go to far but we did do hills I don't much enjoy hills! I've been back out with a friend since and she's pretty good and I was barely hanging on but still nice to go out in good company. I've had two pretty good weekends this month so far. Last week I took part in the Great Barrow challenge. There are some extreme events you can do and some not so extreme I was somewhere in the middle of not so extreme I signed up for 2x15miles one on the Saturday then another on the Sunday. It was a pretty early start 8.00am and there was a great atmosphere at the start line. Everyone raring to go! I set of nice and easy prepared to run my own race. I between the first and second checkpoint I was just a front of a group of American girls and eves dropping in on their banter. At the second check point I asked the girl manning it where my next turn was and she pointed up the road so off we all trot but the turn never came and we trotted on we finally got to a junction about 5k up the road. Do you when something doesn't feel right! We all dug out our maps and instructions to discover that where we were was miles from where we should have been so I doubled back some carried on and some turned left. The girls who carried on phone the race director and got picked up I went back to the check point and they were dropped of there and we got back on track. The 2 who turned left got lost ended up in Newmarket and phoned a husband to come get them. After regrouping we all ran in together. Even though we got lost and some did a lot more miles that they should have it was a great day met some really nice girls lovely course with detour. The 15miles on Sunday was a lot easier to navigate its around some of my home training ground so I know it pretty well I spend a fair bit of the day on my own and had a few issues with my gastro intestinal track and a few pee's in the bushes lol. Trail running you can't be proud. But again the event was well organised check points well stocked and everyone who marshalled and took part was really nice.
Today I went out to Debham in Essex too do a 10k to support some friends. Not a bad race at all. Nice course a few hills some rather quaint little English villages, nice quiet country roads loads of water stations and friendly marshals, lots of nice friendly spectators cheering everyone on. I met some really lovely people all running for charity they did a great job raising £4,000 for autism. I'm feeling pretty content this week after all that

Duathlon Ditty

Newmarket Duathlon! Well that was one way to start of a Sunday afternoon! Its a was a bit of a late start for a race, I'm used slightly earlier starts so I thought a 12.00 start would be nice although you do have a bit of waiting around which doesn't aid the nerves I went to the loo about 4 times. As I left the house the rain started and we had some pretty heavy showers right before the start. The bike course was going to be slippy! Not good I took the carbon bike with dry tires oh well no fast cornering. But as the gun went off the sun came out and there was a bit of heat in it. The first run in 2 laps of the playing field then up the hill nice and on to the tracks my time for the first run was 23.38 in 2012 I was 24:42. The bike course is 3 loops of a rather nasty hilly head windy course you just got to love the road had dried up nicely so it wasn't too slippy just hilly. I hadn't been on my bike since we got the keys to the house so it was tough. I just kinda when out did my best and hung on my time was 57:10 in 2012 it was 59:2. The last run is two laps of the same course it starts out nice along some nice tracks along fields through a little wood then a nice climb up the hill auch. My legs were like jelly when I first got off the bike they felt really weird the fist loop was tough and honestly I looked and felt rubbish but once I got my stride I actually felt ok on the 2nd loop and my time was 26:15 and my time in 2012 was 26:34. I didn't quiet do as well as I would have liked but I did ok I got a rather nice goody bag and a medal for my kitchen was so its all good. I'm tired now. If I had actually trained for it I might have done even better who knows.