at a bit of a loose end

its 9:45, its pissing down with rain, i've been on the picket line since 4:35 am. not a great start to the day. still at least the two sides in this dispute have agreed to sit down and talk things over at acas. royal mail didn't really have much option after the current wave of strikes which have been going on over a two week period some thing like 80 million items of mail have been backlogged...meaning that tommorrow is going to be heavier than christmas. and saturday will be as well. the penny has finally dropped or so it seems that we aren't going to back down. cr*zier and l****ton have made a massive error of judgement if they thought that they would weaken the resolve of the union members. still if they just rehash their business plan like they did the last time they "talked" then this could have a bit more mileage but i think the end is in sight now even with a further round of talks to be announced today to agree a structure for negotiations.

talking about structure, thats some thing that i really need to put back in to my athletic career at the moment, lack of races makes it that much harder to motivate yourself. i'm going to try a 5k next wedsnesday at bitton along with the possibility of a 1500 at the south west inter-counties championships next week (although i wont be selected for the county team). the final race will be a 3000 meters at the avon league club meeting where i will be hoping for a time in the region of sub 10 minutes.

moving on to the winter or early autumn, i have sent an email off applying for a charity place in the bristol half marathon but i have heard nothing back yet. i'm just hoping that thats not another race plan that ends up falling through. this time i will actually race the half marathon, rather than just turning up a nd treating it as a gentle sunday moring jog like i did when i ran the stroud half last year.

as soon as(or within a couple of days of) finishing that 3k it will be the end of my season and i will then go back to doing the gym work hwlping to strengthen me up for the coming winter season.most of that will be done on the upper body. (low weight high repetition) along with some leg work was a way of strengthening the legs but without the constant pounding on your legs that running on the roads gives you. ok it doesn't have the aerobic benefits, but it also helps to strengthen the joits and you are also inside where you are far less susceptible to colds and viruses that are unfortunately quite common place among endurance athletes in those long cold winter months.