still running

in amsterdam, ready for exeter on tuesday night, where i will be racing a 1500 meters. could be the last one of the season, depending on how the fixtures pan out. it looks like for the next avon league fixture will be either 800 or 3000 for the distance people and having done nothing like enough 800 meter speed work i feel as though that would be akin to suicide to try one with that little speed work behind me. so i will be doing the 3k instead, nothing ventured nothing gained. i should have a realistic chance of running a pb in that as i have only ever done 10:23, in a race where i stood on the start line tired and gradually got progressively worse until i was lapping at about 5 seconds a lap slower than i was at the start of the race. i don't have particularly fond memories of either of the times i ran 3000 meters on the track as it was bloody hard work both times and i ended up running on my own both lapping people and being lapped. the being lapped though was only by one person a former gb international, martin hula, who just happened to lap every body else in the field as well. on the surface lapping people sounds like fun, but when you are running for a time it is at best an inconvenience and at worst quite dispiriting, as it is rather boring runing around a rubber track on your own. it also puts you at a disadvantageif you're running for a fast time as you have to fight your way past the lapped runners (sods law is that you always catch them on the bends making you run even further than you would if you caught them in the straight). it also means that you have less people to protect you from the elemnts if the weather is bad or for slipstreming effect when the weather is good.

i set my self a target of 30 complete track sessions as well as races before the start of the season and it doesn't look like i'm going to get any where near that, for one reason and another, but mostly because i just don't think i'm going to have time before the end of season kicks in. we will be preparing for the autumn relays come the last week of august/first week of september where we will be training on the grass and roads and the rubber stuff will be left well alone until the next out door season. i have said that i will do indoor track this year if i pass my driving test. yes, that will be my "treat" to my self for getting my licence.

i have only made two trips to the red light district in amsterdam. there is so much more to do there than hookers and i have to say that the city that i have seen completely defies the image of it that some tims comes across. the museums are fascinating and they are scattered every where throughout the city. whereas the red light section is only concentrated in one small area of the city. go beyond the boundaries of the red light district and you wouldn't even know it was there. the museums them selves have been utterly fascinating. today i took advantage of a special deal between madam tussauds and the amsterdam dungeons. some of the implements of torture that they showed us were shall we say interesting, including a hook where they gave us a demonstration of where they would insert it to get "confessions" out of heretics and other forms of traitors. another one was the cage where they would a small cage, which was usually only used on prisoners who were being particularly difficult. in the cage, which would be surrounded by hot coals there would be a rat which had been starved by the jailer. the result was that the rat would eat its way through the prisoners intestines. death was inevitable but it must have been a particularly horrible way to die, slow and very painful as well

there were also exhibits of people throwing up blood (the black death) and other implements that were used in the name of god such as tongue extractors. it makes the thought of hanging or being burnt at the stake seem rather appealing. tomorrow i will be paying a visit to the amsterdam history musem as well as probably the sex museum, which is really only a small exhibition but what the hell, its there so its there to be done.

i am now starting to think about thing s i shall be doing in the time between the end of the summer season and the start of winter training. number one obviously is that i will be watching the world championships in osaka (they start their season laterthe elite athletes do not like the mere mortal club runners like my self). there will be more weight work coming in to the equation as we start to think about strengthening up again rather than speed work and horribly painful lactate acid. so i suppose there will be stints on the rowing machine and the exercise bikes to ease the enormous amount of strain that running and carrying heavy (thats heavy mr crozier not light as you like all the public to think in your propoganda war) post bags around puts on your legs