A Good Ponder

I like a good ponder when I’m out on my long runs, so correct me if I’m wrong but back in the day wasn’t Valentine’s Day for people who were single? Wasn’t the idea that this day was for single folk to secretly declare their interest in other single folk while those already paired up just got on with their lives? Not any more.

I ponder this injustice as I run home, singly (as in running on my own), past multiple pubs selling their Valentine’s night experience. Anyone who popped an anonymous card through a door this morning and have since bagged a date for tonight will be unlikely to get a table ahead of all the couples who probably booked last summer.

It is at that point that I literally bump into L as I run through the Uni. I grab a quick sweaty snog and hope that has secured my own date for the evening. After her tennis that is.

Although when I offer the still drying out L a romantic Valentine's glass of wine later, I get a look a bit like the one Doggo used to give me when I tried to get a worming tablet down him. So not a hugely succesful seduction.

(Thursday 14^th February)

Well Over Budget

Friday is long run day but I will see how far last night’s beer festival lets me go.

All the way as it happens, although I feel rather ill afterwards. The slight cold I was keeping under wraps seems to have taken the opportunity to become unwrapped.

Then I push L out on hers.

It’s TOTP and Dragon Tattoo night but we watch neither. TOTP didn’t seem to be on this week, so that must be another episode they’ve lost and we watched the cycling instead of Dragon Tattoo. Well worthwhile as it turned out, how good was that cycling? Two golds and a bronze on the first night. Time for a photo of a couple of girls in figure hugging Lycra I guess.

I usually cook on a Friday but we team up tonight, a bit like the above team sprinters. L leads off with a starter, whilst I take us home with the main. We break a world record too, price wise, with well over budget fresh scallops. We’re not sure whether to cook them or frame them. Then to add even more value, she adds king prawns to them. We eat like royalty in our house tonight.

(Friday 17th February)

A Poltergeist Moment

I’m not sure the legs are up to a long run yet but I plan to attempt something tonight and see how far I get.

In Canada a British man has become the world’s oldest marathon runner after completing a race in Toronto at the age of 100. Good on him and it shows there’s hope for me yet.

Meanwhile that bloody giraffe is all over the Welsh press. He's even got his name in print. Mr Sub-1:40, not that I’m bothered but he can consider his card well and truly marked.

At work, our air con system has a poltergeist moment and turns itself on, full blast, emptying the room of paper and pinning everyone against one wall. Someone had to remove some ceiling tiles and poke a ruler into the roof space until they found the isolating switch. Quite exciting really, especially for a Monday, sorry Tuesday morning. It is my first day back, it feels like a Monday.

So to tonight’s run, which isn’t bad actually. I plan on 16km and get as far as 14.5km before I decide I ought to head home in case L hasn't got back to the boys. So all systems go, perhaps, for Birmingham on Sunday.

(Tuesday 18th October)

No Stops, No Walking And No Urge To Vomit

I get the bus in and will do a long run after work. Probably a last training run before Sunday, depending on how it goes. Talking of Sunday, plenty of people don’t seem to have got their numbers yet, us included.

Some interesting selections in the British squad for the World Track Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands from 23rd March. As expected, no Bradley Wiggins or Geraint Thomas who are back on the road. Also as expected, no Rebecca Romero, the Olympic individual pursuit champion who has been suffering with indecision and then injury. The interesting news is that there’s no Shanaze Reade either, who was outperformed by Jess Varnish in the team sprint in Manchester and no Sarah Storey despite a winning performance in the team pursuit, she’s at the World Track Para-Cycling Championships in Italy instead.

It’s a good run home, well almost home. 10.7 miles from work to Attenborough with no stops, no walking and no urge to vomit. All very encouraging. The only thing that isn’t encouraging is that we haven’t got a race pack yet.

L does her own run and we rendezvous later in a hot bath to compare aching limbs. It’s almost like a Sunday, we even have a curry. The only thing we don’t have is the post-run alcohol. Which we could indulge in... but best not.

(Tuesday 15th March)