grinding it out

a week has gone by since the last time i posted in here and a few things have changed in my running life since then. i am getting a good feeling about this winter, i can feel some pbs coming. in fact just as a guide, i have raced 3 times so far this winter and ran 3 pb's, even if two of them were for distances that i will only race once a year, that is the same every year and it demonstrates that my year on year progression has been quite positive when you consider for the first two races i knocked off 36 seconds and 27 seconds respectively for my best times for those respective courses. on tuesday night i ran a third pb of the winter, 17:33 for the bridge inn 5k road race at shortwood. overall i would still say the race was a disappointment as, whisper it quietly, i was beaten by claire willer, who also ran her fastest time for that course. my legs were tired from saturday still and i felt rough pretty much the whole way around. thats not making excuses though, because even though she had never even been in front of me at any point before in any training session or race, (she was 40 seconds behond me at clevedon), when roles were reversed and she was the one with the heavy races in her legs. she is a good young runner though and i always felt that at some point she would get me. the two positives i can take from this though are firstly being behind her gave me a nice view of her arse and having done that on tired legs i know i can run faster when i am fresh and on a faster course. just to put in perspective how well she ran, she was only two seconds behind martin flook the current senior mens midland area 800 meter champion. its still some thing that i have to put right next time.

thursday night was a 5 mile tempo run around coombe dingle, or they say its 5 miles i personally think its a bit short by about a hundred yards or so. i completed the course in 27:42 some way ahead of the elite women who aprt from one who was just behind me and some way (about two minutes i am told) behind the elite/international men who were only about a hundred yards in front of me at the end of the first lap as they decided they were going to run easy and chat to each other while they were running before they got a bit more serious on the second lap. it felt like they were toying with us and it was infuraiating! its the first time any body can remember running that course as a straight 2 lap tempo run. previously it has either been 2x1 lap with a long 6 or 7 minute recovery or just a 2.5 mile tempo run.

staying on the subject tempo runs will be the order of the day for tonight with a hard 11.5 mile effort around where i live as a final hard run before the swindon half marathon and i will be aiming for 6 minute mile pace or thereabouts. i am delibrately running tough courses because it will harden me up ready for what is apparrently quite a tough course and also because living on the top of a very steep hill i have no alternative. running may have to take a bit of a back seat soon though becausethe threat of redundancies at work are looming large and are now very real. if they succeed in cutting saturday deliveries, i will almost certainly be out of a job. they're saying that 40,000 jobs out of 170,000 will go through natural wastage. yeah right who do you think you're fooling crozier you evil cunt? still theres no point in me worrying about or trying to control things i can never have any control over and i bet adam crozier wont lose any sleep either with his £500,000 in bonuses. as joe frazier once said you just have to be a man and do what you have to do and not what you want to do.

hard day...tired but delighted

that was without a shadow of a doubt one of the hardest races i have run. sutton park is one of the great courses of world road running but it is also one of the most demanding both of your fitness and tactical nous. too hardup the 1st hill, even slightly and you will blow up spectacularly. the hills are quite some thing. luckily my level of fitness this winter meant i was able to keep a harsh pace going until about 2 or 300 yards from the line-just, but the wheels i think came off in the last little bit, but the conditions were slightly windy but apart from that fine. all of the runners in my team ran within about a minute of each other. i surprised my self by how close iwas to jerry hogan (14 secs) and danny randell, 36 secs, who would both normally be at least 20 secs further ahead in a 5k. i forgot how much that turn near the keepers gate hurts though. down a slope to slow down then speed up up the same hill. thats where the wheels come off for a lot of people. it perfectly defines the word evil. and the down hill section is psychologically very tough as you don't see the finish until you are about 100 yards away, you can only sense it. as for the end, well i collapsed in a heap, not a uncommon thing because as mike would say, i really put my back in to it when i train

i now look forward to greater challenges in the near future starting with the bridge inn race on tuesday night at shortwood and to be followed by the swindon half marathon. i have done a few hard longer runs in preparation for this but i have a sense that whilst i will achieve my targets time wise it will be very hard going. well all i can say after today is bring it on, i feel like i can handle anything thats thrown at me (well most things anyway)!

long run plus gym tomorrow so i'm signing off for now. time for a subway sarnie!

moving on

it is, i have reliably been informed our last session on the downs tonight due to the fading light (there's no street lighting up there)and for what looks like the only time this winter it looks like we are going to be training by the turret as opposed to the rose bush doing a circuit of the trees and bushes around there. this is the one circuit where somebody usually, no sorry always gets lost on the first two repetitions. i can't for the life of me remember what times i wass doing last year, but i'm sure that i will beat them tonight or at leat if sundays anything to go by i will.

that sundays was the 18:04 i ran for 5.2k at clevedonwhich will surely be enough for a pb on a more accurately measured 5k course. the reason why we are doing this course tonight is because of the relays on saturday which will probably mean no session on thursday. they're very early this year. the circuit has a slope which is supposed to replicate the 2 mile long hill at sutton park, which is where the race is quite often where the race is run and lost and it is just so easy to go a little too quick and my god will you suffer for it in the later stages. i know that all too well, i made that mistake last year! i'm just gonna aim to beat my time from last year (21:42 i think but not sure on that one will have to check). there'll be no going off hard this time like theer was on sunday though

road relay time-again!

it comes around very quickly each year. the north somerset road relay championships are upon us followed by the midland 6 stage next saturday. its come so quickly we've barely had chance to notice it. i'm in the b team for tomorrow one of my favourite events of the year and we have a chance of a medal, whereas our a team should walk away with the victory. afterwards as its still early i might go for another run to boost the winter mileage

back in the swing of things

i am well and truly back in the groove now after my summer recess, ready to run some fast times. however my goodwill yesterday was tempered by the fact that as of the 8th of october all postal delivery workers will now start work at 6 as opposed to 5 in the morning. but was improved by the 6.8% pay deal which was more than what we asked for which proves what i said about adam crozier being a bullshitter. still can't agree on conditions though so we may still have to walk out again in the near future. enough of that though

back on the downs tonight as we were on tuesday, we did one long rep through the avenue of trees which i have now managed to get down to 11:10, a lap of durdham down now down to 5:51, plus two half laps of he downs which were about between 3 and 5 minutes.

looking further ahead, i have now entered the bath half marathon which numerically speaking is the 2nd biggest race i have done behind the london 10k run of 2004. i am also thinking of doing the royal victoria park 4 miles which is also in bath in novenber

upping the tempo

did an 8 mile tempo run this morning. first thing straight from bed to the road, home had breakfast and straight down the gym, from where i have come straight to portishead library, where i am now. i will then go home and have lunch, and be straight back out the door towards bristol to watch and possibly help out with the bristol mile races which are being organised jointly by the british milers club, of which my coach mike down is the chairman, and clevedons international 1500 meter runner james thie. i will then be rushing up to clifton to meet up with my brother and one of his mates to go and watch england play the usa at rugby. tomorrow i will be watching the bristol half marathon and going for my long run in the evening as opposed to the traditional sunday morning long jaunt to accomodate for my interest in the half marathon and how relatively compared to previous years only a small number of my team mates will be getting on. we should still win the womens team title like we did last year. we were favourites to win the mens team title last year, but belgrave harriers did a bit of a sneaky one on us sending a few ethiopians and brit internationals up and they may well do the same this year.

talking of rugby i cannot believe the media reaction to argentinas defeat of france. i think it has borderred on disrespectful the way the have described it as a 'massive upset'. consider these facts. 1. argentina are a bloody good side who beat englands 1st team last year. 2. frances 1st team struggled to beat englands 2nd team 3. argentina have now beaten france 5 out of the past times they have played. face facts mr media who quite apparently knows nothing about sport, a new force has truly arrived on the international scene and mark my words they will one day win the world cup, within the next 20 years. its now the southern hemisphere big 4 not the southern hemisphere big 3. TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY

a wretched night

i'm back winter training and we are gradually upping the ante ready for the relays to come starting with a trial run out at the north somerset relays at clevedon towns hand staduium on sunday week. there are races going on this weekend with the hsbc cardiff 10k the bristol half marathon and the the bristol mile races, but i wont be doing either of those as i have decided to concentrate on getting my self fit rather than racing too early in the season. the cardiff 10k is too awkward to get to, the bristol half marathon i forgot to get my entry in after changing my mind about doing it, and as for the mile races, it holds to many bad memories for me from the last time i did it (namely being lapped by james thie on a short 5 and a bit lap course and having my coach mike announce it over the tannoy system). so there you have it. thats my excuses for this weekend.