hello again

following my abject display last week at clevedon i have been selected for another race-the cotswold way relay. although it is not technically a fell race as there are no fells involved it is organised by the fell running association. the race is about 130 miles in total split over 10 legs. there are no markers and you have to find your own way. my leg is about 12 miles with 500 odd meters of climbing and about 300 of descent. although the cotswolds isn't a serious race it is a new challenge for me and i shall look forward to reporting back on how i get on. i reckon i'm now getting up to about 40 or 50 mpw so which even when i was fit would never of been enough so i'll probably just treat it as a long hard training run

another painful lesson at clevedon

well i ran at clevedon tonight and it proved to be another painful lesson in how not to judge the pace of a race. here are the split times 1k 3:32 (projected 5k time 1740, 10k 35:20). 5k split 19:17 (projected 10k time 38:34). final time 41:17. lets just say that the last 2 or 3k i was absolutely hanging. the heat made it a real slog over the last couple of miles but i'm not going to make bad excuses for a race in which i showed appalling pace judgement and appalingly poor levels of fitness. the only positive i can take from tonight is this. i have learnt a lesson namely that i am a piss poor runner and if i ever want to make a mark on life i will have to find some thing else that i am good at or i will forever be consigned to the dustbin of pisspoor mediocrity. some people think that cycling might be the answer but i just don't know. what ever i have no plans to stop running at any point in the near future because lets face it my life would be unrecognisable if i ever won any thing and i just wouldn't know how to cope. at least failure is some thing i'm used to. i'm running a leg of the cotswold way relay on saturday week, sorry doing, not running, that is far to strong a word and it may give some of you the misleading impression that i'm some how an above average runner which is most certainly not the case. i'll sign off now before i start dragging the rest of you down to my level.

pete

collateral damage

i've had to ease back on the training for the past couple of days. i've strained the collateral tendon in my knee and it hurts if i run too much on it, hence the title. i think there may be some damage to the patella tendon as well. for those of you that don't know the collateral tendon is the one on the in side of of the knee while the patella tendon is the one that runs accross the knee cap. whilst i can manage a steady 4 or 5 miles on it any thing hard is just out of the question but hopefully i can be fit for the clevedon midsummer 10k on tuesday night. i have absolutely no idea how fit i am but i would like to think i could break 40 minutes. pretty pathetic really but i have no right to expect any thing good if i haven't done any proper speed endurance work for 6 months apart from the odd tempo run. i was planning on doing a 13 miler tonight but the dual effects of dehydration and the race on tuesday night and the minor niggle i'm carrying at the minute meant that common sense prevailed at least until next week when i will start to build up the miles in preparation for marathon training. let you all know how it goes

there must be something i'm better at then running

i tried rowing the other day and i have deicded to ditch it completely. i just didn't feel that it suited my mentality working as part of a team and i didn't feel comfortable with a lot of elements of it like being on the water for example. i nearly got pulled in to the water on several occasions because my blade got stuck under the water or because i just had no rythym. so bollocks to it i'll just have to stick to running for the time being or in other words stick to being shit at all sports. there must be some thing i am better at than running. i mean i am allegedly some one who has an above average level of fitness but my running abilities are approximately equivalent to that of a parapleigic with no legs. with that in mind how can any logical rational person say i am even up to the standard of a piss poor runner?

i'm going to enter a marthon next year haven't decided which one yet. the aim is to try and do it in less than 3 hours but i'll probably fail in that as i fail in every thing else in my life, so it wouldn't be any thing new in my life. not sure how wise that is as my knee has been giving me some trouble recently, but the fact is that i need a new challenge in my running career. edinburgh or taunton or loch ness are the most likely options. i have even flirted with the idea of doing the ilses of scily marthon or the isle of wight one although i gather that is quite hilly. the isles of scily one is 26 laps of a one mile course so that might be a bit boring. the other option open to me is stratford on avon. thats on the same day as london and its about as much as i know about it. i think the real problem with me at the minute is i need a fresh challenge in life. running 5k's and 10k's whilst they do undoubtedly have their benefits, they have lost some of their appeal although i may be doing one tomorrow week at clevedon. i have only a very vague idea how fit i am at the minute. i did a seven mile tempo run the other day which i completed in 47:54. over quite a hilly course. that was within 30 seconds of my pb so i must be doing some thing right but its still not good enough for the standards that i should be hitting. there may well also be a few halfs over the course of the winter to see if i can improve my pb but that wouldn't be the main objective. the big 26.2 miles will be the main challenge!