All Bases Covered

L recommends the Fractured Marathon at Calke Abbey, that I’ve not heard of before. It sounds interesting and thankfully it’s not ‘fractured’ as in ankle although it is all off road . It’s called fractured because each of the 10 x 2.6 mile laps start on the half hour. So it’s not a continuous marathon, assuming you can do a lap in less than half an hour. It also starts at 7pm, which means the last lap starts at midnight.

Another race that is in the diary is the Peterborough Marathon, which I had considered doing as a warmup race for the Brighton Marathon but it appears there were only 170 in it last year. Which isn’t quite what I was looking for but then if everyone thinks that they’ll never get the numbers up.

On Monday we all head over to L’s folks to shift some things downstairs for them which means the boys get a walk around Mickleover. It’s already dropping colder and by the next morning it’s very icy underfoot. I fall over twice while walking the dogs, who barely notice. I do manage to make it to the bus and therefore to work without any further falls but that’s probably helped by not having a dog in each hand.

Later L fails to talk herself out of run club while I fail to persuade the Lad out of wanting to go Dog Training.

On Wednesday I am summoned to the Yard for pizza by my now retired ex-colleague. The only probably is that I am down to run 10 miles tonight and now I’m full of pizza. Somehow I get through it.

Thursday see L heading over to her running club again where they have introduced a longer 6 mile run but she is having what she calls ‘massive nerve attacks’ about it, what I call ‘adrenaline’. This is because it's only fast fellas that have posted on Facebook to say they are going. 

I’m sure she’ll be fine. I pop both a 0% Leffe and a 9% Leffe in the fridge, so that all bases are covered for when she returns.

(Thursday 23rd January)

Damage Limitation

Sunday brings the final match of the football season, naturally with an irritating 12:30 lunch time kick off, and all Derby have to do to make the Play Offs is to win. Not so easy perhaps when their opponents are fourth place West Bromwich Albion and that scenario isn’t looking likely with the score at 1-1 with only twenty minutes to go. However two late goals see Derby through to a Play Off with Leeds.

Monday is the May Day Bank Holiday and is the day of my inadvisable half marathon, the Great Northern Half in Mickleover, but if I’m doing the Windermere Marathon in two weeks time I need to do some training, however inadvisable. It is run by Huub and is possibly the dullest race you’ll ever do but it’s shockingly popular. At least it usually is when it’s run in March when there’s not a lot on. Having it in May, when there are more races on, means it hasn’t proved quite as popular.

There is a 10k option which L does. It’s the same course as mine but just the one lap!

I take it steady, in a damage limitation exercise, and run it at marathon (e.g. two hour) pace. Which goes well for ten miles, so I decide to up the pace for the last three and come in at 1:54:08 but I’ll probably regret it tomorrow.

We have a sneaky pint afterwards in the Nags Head before going out in the evening. First to the Crafty Crow then to the posh World Service for a meal. Which is very nice but probably not as nice as it should be.

(Monday 6^th May)

Research Purposes

Monday is a bank holiday and with us heading off to the Faroe Islands on Thursday this means it’s just a two day working week for us.

L heads over to Mickleover on Tuesday to try out their running club and to visit her folks. They apparently have her down to do ‘Slower Snake Intervals’ which sounds like some sort of speed session for the speed phobic. I’m sure she’ll enlighten me later.

I do my speed session on my bike to work on Thursday, as I’m running late, again.

Once at work, it’s time for a Huel bar. They have been giving away free samples of these as a ‘work perk’ but I think they’re having problems finding someone who can stomach them. Even L’s chucked one in the bin and she claims to be the human version of the Lad. Her company has a whole box of them and she ‘kindly’ donated one to me but she says the texture is a bit like soil, which isn't really selling it to me. I may give it a go for research purposes... but not today

(Wednesday 29^th August)

Nothing But The Best

Doggo continues to insist on nothing but the best for breakfast, as a dog of his senior years would probably expect. Not everyone gets gravy for breakfast but he does.

I cycle to work while L hits the gym. Then she bombards me with an endless steam of emails. Busy are we?

It’s still the Easter holidays and her boss is away, so there’s not much going on at her work. She says she’ll take Friday off if things don’t pick up. The dogs will certainly make sure she’s not bored if she spends the day at home.

In the evening, she takes the car over to Mickleover to visit her parents which means I have to break the news to her that the car is currently refusing to turn right or rather it’s refusing to indicate that’s what you wish it to do.

(Wednesday 19^th April)

The Premonition Comes True

For saying its July it was incredibly nippy on the bike this morning and I don’t mean that I was fast, I mean cold.

L is in London for work where she is meeting, in her words, two cranky women or rather her boss is and her job is to protect him from them. 

They give us a start date for the bathroom - Monday 3rd October. No rush then, I hope the existing shower will last that long.

A pub lunch today and I finally add Brunswick Railway Porter to my list of dark ones. It's number 61.

Dog training tonight but it’s a Bass free one as L is too late back from London to head over to Mickleover to meet me.

As Theresa May reveals her new cabinet Daughter texts to say she is impressed as my premonition comes true and she names BJ as Foreign Secretary. Yay, let him shovel up his own mess. 

(Wednesday 13^th July)