Crumbs

I walk the boys this morning so that L can get a good long swim. The boys and I have quite a long walk, over half an hour anyway, and they both ate a hearty breakfast afterwards. Even Doggo who we suspect may be finding his munchies a bit too hard on his old worn down teeth, so we’ve started softening them with water.

In the afternoon I receive an email from Seetickets offering me a ticket for Frank Turner’s 2000th show at Rock City next Thursday and I have two hours to claim it. So I claim it!

I was in the original ballot for tickets and if you didn’t get one you went on the waiting list in case there were any returns or extra ones made available. So my name must have come up. That never usually happens. They were about 10 times oversubscribed.

With the pantomime now in full swing and us track cyclists generally ousted for the duration we have to grab what crumbs of track time we can. Oddly one of those crumbs is tonight from 5pm to 7pm as there is no pantomime performance tonight. As it’s a Friday night this seems rather odd but then the fact they’re holding a pantomime in a velodrome is pretty odd in the first place.

I leave work a little early for what is supposed to be a gentler session than the Sunday one. Not so, particularly when the same coach as the other Sunday turns up and starts doing his six day sixes again (or whatever it is). The overall standard tonight is lower but the pace isn’t which just means there are more bodies to be resuscitated afterwards.

(Friday 9^th December)

Initiation

A second day on the bike and again it was good. It felt a bit easier today and the traffic was lighter too. I’ve not idea why there was so much traffic on my route yesterday, there were queues everywhere. I was also accused of ignoring L’s ‘are you live’ texts, so today I sit clutching my phone in readiness, but then she emails.

Dog training tonight and I go early because we are starting a new beginner’s class. I have again been tasked with rounding up a crop of willing agility virgins who want to be shown the ropes and I have five girlies lined up ready for initiation tonight. We don’t get many blokes. Then one cancels just over an hour before class. Great.

As I’m already now on my way there, first I drop L off at a friend's house as planned, then pull into a lay-by where I get out my little black book. After consulting the waiting list, amazingly I manage to draft in a replacement at only half-an-hour’s notice. 

(Wednesday 6^th February)

Subtle Pressure Fails

The ructions from the great Loughborough Half Marathon rejection rumble on. I try and exert a bit of gentle pressure on the organisers by email. I imagine there’s a pretty high chance of a place coming up but can we afford to risk it by waiting and end up, horror of horrors, with a weekend off. The obvious way of ensuring a place is probably by entering something else on the same day, then for sure we'll be offered a place in Loughborough.

When the subtle pressure doesn’t work... stuff 'em... I ask to have our names taken off the waiting list and we enter Stafford instead.

It’s further to go but L assures me it was a good t-shirt last year. How does she know that? I don’t remember running it... but then there’s a lot things I don’t remember these days. She’s says she’s seen loads of people wearing them, that’s ok then.

It’s also not far from Leek and that was a hilly b****rd. It does say ‘incorporating two steady climbs’ on the info. I will so look forward to it.

I run from work and run a bit further than last week but I’m not sure how far as my GPS packs up. I’m guessing around 16k, 10 miles. I’m almost at Bramcote when it dawns on me that if I go much further it will become rather pointless getting the bus for only another couple of miles. So I stop there and then, at least making it worth getting the Mango card out. I’m also not sure I’ve got another three miles in me.

I get home and then, as instructed, shove L out of the door for hers.

(Wednesday 18th January)