Friday 23 September 2011

Time off (sort of)

I have just returned from my two week break, it was a break of sorts shattered at the end by an insanely large amount of running to get me back into things!

It was fortunate that i had some time off as work went into overdrive working on average 9-10 hour days, the joys of receiving a promotion and being given a few more projects. Although it has been character building and excellent experience with juggling multiple projects and resourcing appropriately. Anyway enough of work.

During the time off I took advantage of the time to do a few other activities, golf, rock climbing a bit of football all things to keep me active and not put a stone on. I threw in some small runs every other day with a maximum of 3 miles.

In the second week I went to Switzerland with Matt Barnes meeting up with Darren Talbot, who lives out there, Mike Skinner and Team GB's number 1 fan club Trevor and Lynn Pearce.

On the Thursday we went to the Diamond league meet in Zurich, it was amazing. The atmosphere was 10 times better than what i have experienced in the UK and they love all disciplines so there was a constant buzz. We were in the standing area next to the high jump and javelin so we got to see a lot of action and as you can see a lot of the winners of each race.


The following day consisted of a float down a river to bern in a few rubber dingys as well as a stop off for a BBQ and swim. When we got to Bern we had to pack up and the 3 other lads ran back up the river (12 miles) to the cars while i went out for 4 and came back.

The next day was where the real fun began, a two hour trip to the wine region of France for a small matter of a half marathon which we had entered. We were hoping for a nice steady run and to clean up the prizes, this was dashed by a local turning up who was planning to run New York Marathon. Lets just say he was in better shape than we expected. The 32 degree heat and rolling hills did not help matters. Several stops, about a gallon of water and a slight detour at the end of the race i finished in about 1 hour 22 min (should have been longer considering my detour). The most painful 13(ish) miles i have run in a long time. So the next day we did it all over again, just a little slower this time, and finished it off with a swim in the Rhine.

Since then I have got back into some steady training, one 40 mile week, a painful 16:35 5k park run tied in with a saturday morning session in wythenshaw, a 4 mile tempo and 8*300 reps. All perfect preparation for the Northern six stage relay this weekend.

Or not.

1 comment:

  1. You make me want to get back into running. Did Stafford Half back in '08 and completely stopped running afterwards.

    Your speed blows mine out of the water but I've never been into competing. You should put your half PB in the sidebar.

    You ever used FetchEveryone.com?

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