The stripper

Day 319 Wednesday 14th November 7.2 miles : miles to date 2106.5 Now I've changed from the whistle and flute into my gear in all sorts of funny places this year. I have developed a routine that allows me to strip off almost anywhere. For the first time I had the luxury of the car back seat. Now why didn't I think of that, er, say 297 runs ago? The well oiled routine was put into motion in the middle of a jam packed car park at my daughters school where a parents/teachers evening was taking place. Fi and Meg were in the front praying that a teacher, pupil, parent or police officer didn't walk past. Heck, me and Satnav totally stripped off once on the back seat of a very busy top deck of a bus in Brighton after one particular late night race, so a car is well safe. I set off intending not to run too fast and stick to a 7.30 mile pace, given last nights session and Thursdays pending lung buster. Rather spectacularly I hit seven miles on the garmin at precisely 52:30, but I know the miles weren't even. The route home was undulating and the hills did slow me down going up and speed me up going down. I also picked it up on the unlit country road coming into the village, which was a little hairy in the dark and a bit of fog and then slowed down on the uneven pavements. In the end it was a reasonably comfortable run and I even turned down a glass of vino having done it. Has anyone seen my halo

Lucky Dip

Day 318 Tuesday 13th November 6.9 miles : miles to date 2099.3 I was a tad anxious heading over to tonight's club speed session. I have kicked back over the last few weeks, apart from running every day and fifty odd miles a week of course. I have put in a few good paced runs, but only maybe one or two a week. It is time to climb back aboard the PB train properly and not just try to coast through the next seven weeks. That meant it was going to be a hang on to the coat tails of the real whippets for as long as I could run. The session was a lucky dip one. We were given a card with twelve numbers on, with each having a time next to it ranging from 30 seconds to 4 minutes. Someone randomly picked a number and we then ran the time, with half time recovery before we ran the next lucky dip. Combine that session with a hilly, quite small loop and it was a toughie. I spent the entire night at the back although came off it at the end feeling quite energised. I had no problem at all being at the rear of almost every effort, as the crew were motoring and the fact is that without them, I just would not have run quite so hard. To top a good session, I also received a cheque for the princely sum of £37.50, which was my share of the prize for winning the team event at Chester marathon last month. Given I'm unlikely to win anything running related again, I'm half tempted to frame it. Mind you, Christmas is around the corner and I could use it to but Fi's prezzies and use the other £23 for a night out?

Panic stations?

Day 317 Monday 12th November 6.2 miles : miles to date 2092.4 Happy Feet. I haven't bought new trainers or had my tootsie's nibbled by fish. I went out for tonight's run with a small, local running group, chilled out and put some junk miles in the bank. Much more of a social run and chat, which is exactly what was needed tonight. I'm starting to panic now. There is exactly seven weeks to go from here, before the end of the year. The panic is not that I won't finish, but rather I will. There is still a bit of work to do before then. I'm 72.9 miles behind the 2500 target, having picked up a couple last week. I can try to add the shortfall to the average weekly mileage, which means just over 58 per week or save up most of it and leave it for the likely Hadrian's Wall challenge after Christmas. I think I had best double check my numbers and make sure Satnav can get a pass out. The thought of three days x-c running in stunning countryside is very exciting. No one will miss us for three days over Chrimbo I expect?

MUD!!!!!!

Day 316 Sunday 11th November 8.4 miles : miles to date 2086.2 The club were out in force at this mornings x-c and looking at some of the pictures on FB, it looks like it was an absolute mud bath. Gutted I didn't make it, but with all this running I have to make sure at weekends I fit in around the not so little peeps. Whilst I missed the run, if I had been there I would have more importantly not been at my lads first round cup rugby game. As it turns out, he and the team played a blinder and mullered last years cup winners playing the best rugby I have seen them play in the last few years. I love my running, but there are other things are much more important. We eventually arrived home and I did all the housework before the current arrived home from Welshieland. Fi was due to do a long one, so I waited to see if she wanted to go out. After driving for three hours she sensibly said no, so I donned the long play i-pod thingy machine, put on the head torch and just went out for an easy and very slow recovery run in the dark and cold. Average time was 8.06 per mile it was that slow! Most of the run was on roads with no street lights, so I would have struggled to run fast even if I wanted to. I was just happy to chill out with some Dad's rock and rock I did. In the last mile I picked it up a tad to 8 minute mile average. I mean who couldn't when Iron Maiden and Run to the Hills comes on?

Mud, mud, more mud and food

Day 315 Saturday 10th November 11.7 miles : miles to date 2077.8 Hi Honey I'm home. Daddy's back to play and play we did. The SMC welcomed me with open arms back into a depleted crew this very morn, due to Sundays x-c race at Tring. Or Wing or Bling (sorry not funny in-house joke). All thoughts of pace, mile splits and position were firmly shelved in favour of mud, water and banter. It was like time had stood still. We headed off to find mud and did everything we could to avoid tarmac, running my old mucker the Greensand's Ridge. David Cook came prepared for winter and was only missing a scarf. I can't wait to see what he turns up in when it's minus twelve. One of the longer term walking wounded in the form of Jerry Day was out for only the second time in what must be six months, so we gave it ten minutes before starting to take the mickey, concentrating on Cookies thermal gloves instead. The promised rain stayed away and when we were running the temperature was fine. The trail took us eventually into Chicksands Woods and my other old mucker Richard Jones once again came to the fore. He casually mentioned he wouldn't mind after Christmas running from the coast on one side of England to the coast on the other running along Hadrian's Wall, as you do. I'm not entirely sure he has mentioned it to the current Mrs. Jones, so don't tell her. She may be the ex Mrs. Jones when he does. A little later, Satnav once again showed his truth worth, heading through an army firing range and trying to take a trail in the exact opposite direction of where we were going, heading in fact back to where we had been. Think I'll be in charge of the maps. It was like nothing had changed. Come to think of it, it hasn't. A very enjoyable run with my pals, was finished off with a very tasty carnivore baguette and hot chocolate on the green with most of the crew. Running for PB's and times are one thing, but ultimately it's these types of runs that I get out of bed for. At 6.18am as it happens.

Day 314 Friday 9th November 4.8 miles : miles to date 2066.1 Ah Friday night, 7.30pm, cold and dark outside, the current Mrs. Owen away on a girlie weekend 170 miles away in my homeland, both kiddlepeeps out doing stuff, peace and quiet. Lovely. Now what's a lad going to do in those circumstances? Put on a bit of sport on the death box and crank open a Dr. Bud? No of course not. I stuck on a pair of only used 5 times shorts (I'm on my own you know), jumped in the car and headed over to run along an unlit path alongside a river, through a golf course and back, on my tod. This really was one of those runs where only Daisy would ever know if I went out and the bloke walking his dog who must have clenched a bit when I came at him out of nowhere in the dark. I did take it very easy, partly due to the last few runs and kept it below five miles as I've got to get up in ten hours to go, er, running. Someone will tell me if they think I'm getting obsessive about this won't they?

Puffin hard

Day 313 Thursday 8th November 7.9 miles : miles to date 2061.3 Tonight was the first tempo run with the club for around six weeks, through racing and holidays. I arrived knowing that I'm a little out of shape and with yesterdays hilly run still in the legs. I decided to go with the whippets on our normal 8ish undulating road run and just see how far I got. The whippet crew were just that. Four of the fastest chaps in the club. And me. I knew from the off it was going to be a hang on for as long as I could type run which was about three miles, when the gap between me and the Flying Scotsman had opened to about thirty feet. Disaster then hit. Well, ok, not quite disaster, but my shoe laces did come undone. By the time I stopped to rectify, the gap was even bigger and the speed those boys were going it was a case of auf Wiedersehen Pet. One of the lads had pulled up to sort something out and he caught me as I was swearing at my shoes. Good and bad news. The good news was I had someone who would push me along. The bad news is he's aiming for an elite marathon start of sub 2.45. We did work together for the next five miles, up and down, dodging cars and all sorts of obstacles. The benefit of running with someone a lot faster than you is inevitably, they will make you run faster. I clocked an eventual finish time around 11 minutes or quicker than the average time I took to cover the loop this time last year. For me at least it was a good tempo run. There were times when I was puffing and conversation was hard, which is the mark of a good quicker but not flat out session. I think I might be running an easy recovery run on Friday though.