An abandoned race

Friday 17th October
Complete rest. I had a race number for the Hogweed Major Muggle 15 the following morning, a 15 mile cross country race near Chipping Norton, and the first time the race was being held. When I entered I thought it would make a good, cheap training run and would give me the rest of the weekend to chill out and do other things.

As it turned out I couldn't find any motivation to go (I was too tired to even get my kit ready) and worst of all, the blister on my heel started peeling. By the time I had got rid of all the loose skin it was quite raw and needed a plaster. Several, in fact.

Saturday 18th October
Didn't go to the race. It was painful walking to the shop to get my paper, so God knows what effect 15 miles cross country would have had.

Went to the gym instead, did both classes, spinning and body pump. Spinning was better than expected, I pushed myself and opted out of Rich's excessive recoveries and got quite a sweat on. Body pump was interesting, Ali did the new release for the first time, which I actually quite liked. The squats track is hard, but the chest track is a bit easier than the last one, and the lunges track is a bit different. Found the abs track really hard, but I need to build up my strength in that area to be fair.

Sunday 19th October
Off to visit family in Melksham today for Sunday lunch so no time for a long run. Went to James' hour long spinning class at 10am which was really good. Unusually for a class at that time on a Sunday, it was full, which shows how good it is.

Had a really good day with the family, lunch with my sister Fiona, her husband Rich, their little girl Holly and my Dad. I also visited my sister Amanda and met my great nephew, Taylor "Dink" for the first time. I've never met such a happy baby, but he did cry when he was left alone with me for a little while. Oh dear.

Monday 20th October
Went out with the running club tonight which proved a bad move. Basically my legs were sore from the classes, and if I'm honest had enjoyed the weekend a little too much. Gerry was out and bossing the pace as usual, and I was struggling to keep up. In the end Andy and I did a different route, which was still about 6 or 7 miles. At least this was a wake up call to tell me how much my form has dropped and how I need to get back into some sort of structured training.

Tuesday 21st October
Speed work. Arranged to meet Martin Davis at the gym to do some speedwork on the treadmill. 1 mile to warm up, then I did 8 * 2 minutes at 14kph with 1 minute jog recoveries. Martin did seven reps, but at 18kph! Still, I think we managed to motivate each other. I managed to push the speed up to 15kp on the last few reps but to be honest hadn't done 2 minute efforts on the treadmill so didn't know how I was going to cope. 1 mile jog to cool down, then home for some tea before going to see the excellent Taken at the cinema. Why did I wait so long before seeing this?

Wednesday 22nd October
1.6k on the treadmill, body pump, then 3.4k on the treadmill. Would have run for longer after the class but had some trapped wind that made it uncomfortable, so I stopped. Still, not a bad session.

Thursday 23rd October
Hill reps tonight. Thought this would be good training for the Downton half marathon on 30th November, which will be my next major focus. Jog out to the ridge, one set of 10 reps, jog to Lydiard, another set of 10, hen jog back to the gym. Good session, but I need to find a longer and steeper hill - the obvious one would be Kingshill, but the problem with that is, there is a lot of traffic and I'd be breathing in all the fumes?

Anyway, still an effective session. Rest tomorrow so I am fresh for my run with Anthony on Saturday afternoon - the first in two years!