Day 166 Thursday 14th June 8.8 miles : miles to date 1116.4 The last few days runs dictated a slower one was on the cards for me tonight. I was a little hesitant to turn up at the club, as Thursdays are normally 8 mile plus, cross country tempo runs. I just knew I had to rest the pins and would have been happy to let the lads go. Fortunately for me, the recent wet weather has caused an explosion in the fields and the route we took was very overgrown in places. As a result, we ended up running a much more social run, chatting all the way and putting the world to right, as only a bunch of blokes can do. Still, at least we were sober albeit the conversation was still the same, just not so slurred. We were without any female input, so it was the usual discussions about wine, women and song for 95% of the run. We wasted the other 5% talking religion, politics and economic recovery. Having moved onto such important issues, Jody Buczynski decided to take the long cut back to base near to home, taking us right down into the basin of Ampthill Park, which meant we of course had to climb up the other side. We all thanked him for that and reminded him that we had run up the same hills thirteen times on Tuesday. All we were missing was a few beers. Mind you, at the end of the run we looked as if we had been to the pub, as we smelt, were disheveled and didn't make any sense at all.

Day 165 Wednesday 13th June 3.1 miles : miles to date 1107.6 I had a Queen moment on tonight's trail run across the top of the Ashridge Estate. I set off intending to take it easy and for the first 100 metres or so I did, but started to pick it up again despite knowing I shouldn't after three harder days in a row. The truth is, I just wanted to get it done and go home so whilst I didn't pan it, I was shifting a bit too quickly on tired legs. A mile or so into the trail, I rounded a bend to see a lady in front of me on a bike that was too small for her ample frame. She was a little rotund - nothing wrong with that by the way - and as I approached from the rear, the chorus of fat bottomed girls sprang into my mind. I began singing it to myself whilst approaching the young lady in question who wasn't cycling that fast. That was it for the rest of the run, as I repeated a version of the chorus in my mind. All together now;- Oh, you gonna take me home tonight Oh, down beside that red firelight Oh, you gonna let it all hang out Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' world go round Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' world go round Luckily, a mixture of Dad rock going through the brain, a few undulations and a twinge in Calvin the calf meant I slowed down covering the 5k in 22;37. The simple truth is I want to get to the point where my slower runs are done at a 7.30 pace, but I recognise that will take a while. On the way back in close to the car, an older chap was out for a walk and he stopped, pulled out his hankie, held it high and dropped it for me as I went past him on the path, in a crossing the line type thing. That was a really jolly thing to do, which did bring a smile to my face for which I thanked him.

Day 164 Tuesday 12th June 6.9 miles : miles to date 1104.5 This pre schedule training week is starting to warm up nicely. For the third night in a row I was up for a bit of an effort, albeit it I was coaching at the club. I ran with the middle group on what was planned to be 13 hill efforts on three different sections in the always attractive but hilly Ampthill Park. Its a balance when coaching of running with the group to an extent but also stopping to encourage the runners all the way in. We did have a slight route malfunction on one of the hills. One of the other coaches had put the markers out and in truth I thought the hill was too short and we should have been a lot further up. I carried on to the top on my own puffing hard but couldn't find the marker, so checked with the lead coach and was told it was at the top. Next effort I took the crew all the way up to the top where we still couldn't find the marker. It seems the "top" was in fact one third of the way up to a small slightly flatter section after all. On top of the hills already run, that hurt. Needless to say, the group thanked me for my attention to detail and the unneeded pain inflicted on them. I obviously did the right thing and blamed the lead coach! Without actually realising it, I managed to cover just under seven miles on a hilly, cross country course after two harder day runs. I do know my limits and for Wednesday I predict a gentle, flat three miler along the canal. Voldemort training schedule minus 5 and counting down.

5k effort part 2

Day 163 Monday 11th June 5.4 miles : miles to date 1097.6 After last nights 5k effort, I thought I would give it another go this evening without the de-hydration, wildly uneven pacing and the other factors I mentioned. I used the virtual partner on my garmin watch and tapped in 5k and bang on twenty minutes, hoping in truth to go under that. The watch said I needed a steady 6.25 mile pace, which is what I set off at after a few warm up strides. I watched the pacer carefully and tried to keep an even pace without last nights fluctuations. At the 1.6 mile point, I noticed I was almost spot on pacing and toggled between the time, distance and virtual modes while gritting my teeth and ploughing on through the rain. The next time I glanced at the watch, I seemed to be slowing and half a mile later I couldn't believe I still had almost half still to go, given the state of my breathing. It was then that rather annoyingly I noticed that I had accidentally stopped the watch, so I had no idea how far I had got and what was the time. That threw me slightly so I slowed, considered my options and then gave it one more blast before re-setting and returning somewhat slower to home. I do know at least that for the first 1.6 miles my average pace was 6.24 and probably for another mile I kept going at the same level. Still, it was a better run than last night, so pleased with that. I guess I have no choice. Its going to have to be a few mile reps with the Flying Scotsman George Arbuckle along New Road soon. New Road is a long, mostly straight, flat and perfect mile rep venue. I feel pain coming on.

Day 162 Sunday 10th June 4 miles : miles to date 1092.4 I just had a shocker of a run. At 3.1 miles I was at 21.29 and then struggled onto 4 miles in just over 28 odd minutes. It was only a training run and I guess normally I would be ok with the time, but the truth is I was expecting to be in the 20's to prove to myself that in a race I would aim for the 19's and then below over the weeks to come. There are a number of reasons, all of which are my fault;- 1. I set out not intending to run faster and didn't for half a mile 2. At the half mile point, the Foo Fighters kicked in on the i-pod long play thingy machine and that was it, game on 3. I consumed far too much gin, beer and vino last night (to the point that my next door neighbour told me this morning I looked well rough!) 4. Flabby stomach as a result of two weeks over indulgence 5. Very de-hydrated 6. Pacing was shocking - after slow first half mile, I then tried to run hard to catch up with the result for part of the time I was running a 5.20 mile pace. Far too quick and I blew not long after 7. Slightly undulating trail paths, not ideal 5k route There is of course only one thing for it - another G&T to drown my sorrows and an acceptance that next week, I will have to cut back again on the food and beverage front. I'm not actually upset, given all of the above. I will cut down this week and see where I am next weekend.

SMC run 9th June

Day 161 Saturday 9th June 14.4 miles : miles to date 1088.4

After what seems like quite a long break, I was back out with an unusual mix for today's SMC run. It's not the runners themselves who were individually unusual, but rather the blend that came out. We were joined by two Bedford Harriers for the first time, who wanted to check out the route diversion on leg three of the pending Greensands Ridge Relay run, as did Annie " I've only run this leg 7 times and I'm not sure if I have it in my mind yet " Paige. What was really nice though was that we were also joined by two newbies to the SMC, in Jo and Paresh Aatkar which was just great and the return of Niki Rouse who has been out injured since February. To top it all, Sue Jones joined us to make sure her hubbie got the route right. He didn't.   

Annie doing an Irish jig before the start and Niki hoping not to get injured again

Bedford Harriers interlopers!

Annie telling us about the fish she caught 

My bodyguards

We waited at the start for David Cook and Chris Jenart to turn up, which unusually they didn't. Well I say they didn't, but David make the mistake of mailing me later and saying that he had in fact turned up early in his red slippers and realised that perhaps they weren't the best footwear for cross country running. The bloke has retired and bought a motor home two weeks, so understandable really. No sign of Christoff though.

We were only intending to run part of the Greensands and do maybe 12 or so miles, without any real plan. We headed off on a wandering cross country route towards the direction of Woburn, taking in part of the John Bunyan route. The Bedford interlopers were taken by surprise by our pace. We were far slower than they had thought and intentionally got slower. Saturday runs at the moment at least are dictated by the speed of the last runner and on a gentle jaunt like today, it made no difference how slow or fast we went.

Still, it was nice to have a chat with Rob and Carla, to get a bit of an insight to their club and how things work. It seems the clubs are quite alike in terms of our structure and different types of groups. It was also great to have a long chat with Paresh who I have known from afar, but never run with outside of club sessions. Both he and Jo came out for the first time and cranked out a 14 plus miler, not having run that far for a sometime. I didn't know that Paresh is a marathon runner, which is a surprise given I thought I knew all the marathon mile munchers. Jo is a tri-athlete and can do everything, which I admire particularly as I can hardly swim a length of the local pool.

SMC's much missed friend Niki Rouse, also made a very welcome return to the fold. Having picked up the dreaded plantar fasciitis early this year, she has been out for almost four months. To any runner that is a huge amount of time and she has been clearly pulling her hair out. Another of the fold, Jerry Day, has been out for sometime and whilst he didn't come back, any SMC runner with an injury is missed by the others. Sue has also struggled for ages with an injury and fingers crossed, she looks as though she has turned a corner, putting in a great run.

So today was half new SMC runners with the other half made up of a few regulars and a returning veteran. We have in the recent past had as many as twenty two out on a Saturday and out of that number, only four today appeared. That in itself made today's saunter very nice, as it meant I had time to get to know the newbies much more so than I could have done if the full brigade had turned up. 

As for the run itself, we wandered as we do, all over the place crossing a number of well known local trails including John Bunyan and Greensands. We were meant to do about twelve, but satnav took us off through a golf course, followed by a very dicy run along a narrow, bendy and fast A road whilst looking for a route into the forest on the other side of the road. We didn't find it and had to do a longer loop, with the eventual distance being a few miles longer than vaguely planed. Still, it was as always a lovely cross country run with my fellow club runners which I very much enjoyed. 

Jo and Paresh at the end, looking as good as they did at the start

Day 160 Friday 8th June 3.2 miles : miles to date 1074

Having braved the wilds of Woburn House and its fearsome creatures last night, I found myself parking up again in the same place tonight albeit running the reverse of leg two of the Greensands Ridge relay race. This is a cross country six person thirty four mile relay race in Bedfordshire limited to thirty teams. My limited claim to fame, is that four years ago me, Satnav Jones and A.N.Other bloke from Leighton Buzzard were the first ones to run it solo. We did it for the next two years, as it is a jewel in the crown in this area of these types of events.
The club has three ladies carrying the torch this summer in two weeks time, in Annie Page, Caroline Gilby and Bec Rebecca Fleckney. Annie has been very keen to learn the route and luckily for me I was able to park up on the way home and join her, Shaun Kirtley and Theresa Jordan Jacksonfor an all too brief few minutes whilst I ran my paltry distance and they ran I would guess thirteen miles odd. It is a rare thing that its me dropping out at low levels, but I had an injured wife, bottle of wine, Friday night supper and a dosy terrier waiting for me.