Sub 3

my school photo reminds me that Monty did not get full school colours (the  horrific blazer and tie combo) despite having made it to the final of the Scottish Boys golf tourney.

In fact, Monty was considered to have let the school down by giving up his place in the cricket team to concentrate on golf, and got a lot of grief.

My dad, who loves writing letters of complaint, let the school know of his sense of injustice, and also felt I deserved colours for either XC or golf (our golf team was feckin unbeatable), and that their obsession with rugby and cricket was unhealthy. 

The reply he got, told him bluntly that they thought he was mentally unstable.

Fearing that my recent fatigue was due to not eating enough, Last night I went for the "german carbo load" - that was a load of pasta, chocolate and muesli washed down with 6 pints of Erdinger (and a 2am flurry of abusive tweets that I had to delete today). 

After my head had cleared this morning I ran the treadmill run of my life.... 5 miles at about 6 min/mile. I was flying, but with ease.

Then, went to a funeral this afternoon (one of those catholic ones that goes on for hours with lots of incense, wine tasting and how great some latter day street magician was). I was cold in the church wrapped in my coat and gloves and feckin shivering uncontrollably outside. 

Starting to suspect I need to be eating more. And that's a first.

Only 365 days until I too become a V35. 

Happy birthday to CC2.  You never fully appreciate 34 until you're 35.

ZaTTu, just the 24 at lunchtime today then? Likewise working at home today, I was feeling pretty pleased with a lunchtime 8, incorporating a 10K tempo of 35:36 (5:44 mm pace), which bodes well for hitting that pace, i.e., 1:15 pace at Wokingham, but a lunchtime 24 is a whole other level!

TT - 24M ! blimey I'll be happy with anything over 15 tomorrow. Some lunch break ! I was lucky to get 5M in !

CC - happy b'day, get any new boots ?

LS21 - I shall be balancing it by driving for a birthday Indian tomorrow and fish and chips on Sunday. Proper afleete here too

Dachs - top-notch tempo. I am impressed with how you can pop it out in training like that. We'll probably be quite close at Wokingham. At the moment I reckon I'm about 5:43/5:55 HM/Mara.

TR - I normally do my long run on a wfh day anyway. As Al_P says, I view it as reasonable to use commuting time (and lunchtime) for runs, plus my lot are pretty relaxed as long as I get my hours/work done.

Al_P - interesting on the 10 x 800m @ MP. Is that at current or target MP?

Happy Birthday CC2

Here's a pair of scoobies for the lightweight brigade.

http://www.sportsshoes.com/product/INO86/inov~8-evoskin-shoes/

Blisters -- I'll save discussing those until I'm stuck in a lift with someone. (They look disturbingly like a Marigold for the foot though.)

Impressed by Dachs and wowed by ZaTTu, top stuff.

CC2  -- many happy returns.

Day off for me -- was 65M last week, I got my arithmetic wrong. Something a bit more half-marathon focused tomorrow I think to burn off the planned pub supper...

top miles CW, I like it

18 bagged which is back to where I left off 2 weekends ago. Done in a 12,4,1,1 styliee. Knee was complaining afer 1/2 of the 12, so after a few more miles I tried Dids approach of trying to run a bit quicker to see if it stops it aching so much, which it did a bit, until the last 2 easy miles. I thought I was smashing out some fast running on the bit when I was pushing myself and the pace a bit, but it turns out it was more like 7:15s. I'm miles away from a sub3 at the mo.

TR/MtR - nice 18s the pair of you. I haven't run since my 10 2 weeks ago, initially slightly tight hamstring but relentless snow/ice for 10 days. It's just thawing now so will run tomorrow. Then it's 12 weeks from next week. No idea what kind of shape I'm in - Bath half in 5 weeks will reveal all. Been swimming loads so aerobically I don't think I'm in too bad shape and the weight hasn't piled on.

Hoping that the good consistency I had last year keeping the mileage up and the  20 I knocked out in November means I'll be able to get back to it fairly easily. No target for VLM this end at the moment, just see what happens.

What do people reckon to going up to a slow midweek 16/17 to top up the endurance? I won't be able to get as many long runs in as I'd like so was thinking of getting a few 2hr runs in once Im back up to decent mileage to compensate a bit.

LS21 - indeed plenty of time yet

MtR - snap !

RS - I've done midweekers of 16 and 17 in the past and I think that it was a waste of matches. 12 to 14 seems better for me.

bloody hell, can dogs really run 18 miles? My running pal claims proudly that a dog chased him round the park a few weeks back before it collapsed with exhaustion and "pissed itself" after about 100 yards or so.

Barely believable but I have been refused to defer jury service. I'm hardly a vital cog in the nation's economy but I'm not sure what I'll tell our contracted customers and Er Indoors when their mission critical IT systems have been broken for weeks and they and us are out of business.I now find myself having to compile some sort of weighty dossier of evidence in my defence. Kinell, it's me, the downtrodden little man, on trial.Again.

If it fails I'll just bloody run 25 miles every morning and sleep it off at the back of the court in my sweaty lycra (and that's a joke in case any spies are reading).

LD -- make sure you can hook up your laptop via 3G* and have a decent battery, and you'll probably find you can do a fair bit while you're not actually in court. I found it a bit like business travel when it goes wrong -- all hanging around, delays and cancellations, and wandering around furtively looking behind waiting-room seats for free mains sockets... or, at a several thousand to one probability against, try and get chosen for a case where Jools is in action so you can claim you're biased.

*They had wi-fi in Cambridge, but only BT OpenZone. I had a winge afterwards, pleading proper free wi-fi.

Well bagged on the 18s TR  & MtR.

Dachs / TT - impressive form for this time of year.  TT happy b'day (and Speedy too) for Monday (?).  Always remember yours is near mine.

First V40 success was achieved on Thursday night at the local pub quiz, appropriately winning exactly £40.

Another first today, as I ran with a borrowed GPS watch on my long run.  Never bother with any sort of watch normally.  Final score was a 24.3 mile run in 2h53 with a consistent pace avg 7.09 pace; quite happy as the underfoot conditions weren't ideal much of the way.  Might get used to this new technology lark...