“The sex was great, but he was British and had no idea.”
Rebecca, Cheers
Monday 15th June – Yesterday was my wife’s birthday. There was cake, ice cream, bacon sarnies. I ate shit loads with the justification of having run 14 miles in the morning. This is always the danger with us runners – do a long one, burn 1700 calories, then eat 4000. As such, today I feel both leggy AND fat. Thankfully, it’s a rest day. I do my core exercises at lunch time. The legs feel a little heavy, but nothing major.
Tuesday 16th June – My right groin is a bit sore. Or is it my hamstring. Something is sore to the point I’ve noticed it anyway. I’m doing club track session – long reps at 10k pace. I head out for a 5 mile warm up and feel…pretty good. I put this down to the fact that it’s the first weekend in a long time that I haven’t done a ‘fast’ run – either Parkrun or the quicker 10 miler. The track session also goes well. I’m in a good group and the pace is sensible. A couple of warm down laps, and 10 miles in the tank.
Wednesday 17th June – We’re hitting a spell of warmer weather and today is what my grandmother used to call ‘close’. She also use to say lots of racist things. But in this instance, by ‘close’ she would mean the air is warm. I head off down the Wagonway in the evening for my 6 easy and it’s a lovely summers evening. The Wagonway is fairly busy with walkers, dogs, cyclists, and a few runners as well. It’s all very British. I get back in time to watch England beat Croatia 4-2 in the World Cup. It’s coming home. Probably.
Thursday 18th June – The close conditions from yesterday have carried over to today. It’s Thresholds day, so I’m under no illusions that this one has the potential to be hard work. I set off to the local Estate (which I’ve christened ‘The Loop of Pain’) and tonight it’s 10 x 1kms with 2 min recoveries. Despite the fact I complete this at far too fast a pace again, this isn’t as painful as predicted. When I get back in the house, I’m drenched in sweat. It looks like I’ve been dumped in the sea. I smell like it as well.
Friday 19th June – The warm, muggy weather continues. After last nights energy sapping Thresholds, I’m a little heavy legged. Lunch time core session is waaaaarm. Even with the window open, it’s hotter than Christina Ricci circa 1999. In the evening, it’s 4 miles with hills. Thankfully, it’s cooled down a bit. To stop losing count on my 10 hill repeats, I say the name of an NUFC footballer who used to wear that shirt number in my head as I go up. The more obscure the better. I bet mo one has said Wayne Fereday’s name in years. Unless making a list of our shittest ever players.
Saturday 20th June – No run today, so I continue to volunteer at the Parkrun. I’ve massively got the hang of the Funnel Manager role now. It’s important today especially, as due to other venues cancelling and the weather finally deciding to do that summer thing, it’s busy. For about a 5 minute period, I think I shout ‘well done everyone, keep moving down the funnel’ about a billion times. I think I shout it in my sleep at 2am later that night. Afterwards, I find out we’ve had pushers on the course (it’s a 2 lap Parkrun, so this does happen from time to time) and someone accidentally spat on the Timekeeper. All of these people are adults, allegedly.
Sunday 21st June – My wife and daughter are up at 3am to head down to the beach to catch the summer solstice sunrise. Whilst I’m partial to an early start, I have a rule about getting up on the middle of the night for anything. It’s that I don’t get up in the middle of the night to do anything. Peeing and catching a flight are my two exceptions. I only have to do 12 miles today, which is nice. It’s a warm and gorgeous morning and I head down the coast, north along it, then back inland to follow the Wagonway back. I again do this at what I want my Marathon pace to be, which I achieve will relatively ease. It will be interesting to see if I can maintain this when I start to hit 18/19/20 milers.
Mood: “Moto Moto. Than means hot hot’”