The Battle Resumes

In the car today, as the weather is foul.

Battle resumes on the squash court this evening. Although my opponent suggests that they might have to widen the door to get him onto the court. Clearly he didn’t take advantage of the extra time off at Christmas to pack in extra training. Personally I thought that was what it was for.

Managed two runs, two Watt Bike sessions and a swim myself. I’m a bit disappointed with that total but the weather hasn’t been great to get out on the road bike.

He is soon 1-0 down and seemingly hampered by a back problem. Yet he still comes through to win.

Afterwards we support another empty pub, the Navigation. We are the only ones in at first but it does get busier after a while.

(Thursday 7^th January)

Not The Best Of Planning

I wake up at 5am without a hangover. Phew. This isn’t the best of planning but we have the North West Interclub Agility Championships today, in Preston. A mere two and a bit hour drive. I feel a bit queasy on the way up but that’s not last night, it’s this audiobook of mine. ‘Flesh House’ is the most gruesome one yet.

I arrive just after 8am and pull into a near empty car park... oh dear. Wrong day? I check my info. Yep, correct day. Show opens 9am, competition starts 9.30... Bugger. Not the usual 8.30 start then. I could have had another hour in bed. That’ll teach me to read the info. Oh well, time for a walk then boys. I attempt to nudge the dogs awake.

Eventually everyone else turns up and the competition starts. Well not everyone shows up. Four of our ten person team fail to show, cutting the number of dogs in our team from 16 to 8 with the best 4 to score and with one of them being MD, the odds are not good.

Today, the two boys are going head to head in all four classes. Which should be interesting...

Round 1. Helter Skelter. Both dogs go clear. Which is celebration time for MD, no poles down, although he does waste time by barking at the tunnel before eventually deciding to go through it. Doggo 24.495 seconds, MD 24.621. Round 1 to Doggo, just.

Round 2. Jumping Course. Doggo has a pole down, practically unheard of. MD, despite another bark at the tunnel, clear for the second course in a row, totally unheard of. 1-1.

Round 3. First Agility Course. Doggo clear. MD... ah, had to happen, not just tunnel trouble but a fair few other troubles too. 2-1 to the old man.

Round 4. Second Agility Course. Doggo clear. MD 5 faults. So 3-1 to Doggo but MD has the last laugh and picks up two rosettes for his clear rounds. 6th and 10th. Although they competed on the same courses their results were split by their grades and MD is a much lower grade than Doggo, where rosettes are much easier to come by.

They've both done well, I expect it from Doggo but MD has jumped brilliantly, not a single pole down all day. However he's in for extra tunnel training next week.

Team wise, we are 9th out off 11. We're usually top three and have had three wins in the last four years. So, not good but we were dumped on by those who stayed away.

We head home where we will almost have the house to ourselves because Daughter is at a party, so we should be good for a nice relaxing pre-race night in. If only the pre-party wasn’t at our house... hmmm. Eventually by 10pm they’re gone.

(Saturday 2nd April)