This last few weeks have been great both training and otherwise.  Last Saturday I joined a few of the Swiss boys for a training run at the top of a local mountain.  Well not sure about mountain but it is another few hundred metres higher than here.  Anyway, fortunately we didn't have to run up to the top as their is a car park, but the idea of the session is to do two complete laps at the top.  It is undulating with 4 or 5 little hills all of a few minutes running which make the loop pretty tough.  We set off in a group and there was even about 10 young people form the Swiss National Squad on a training weekend.  The idea was to go off easy, get slightly quicker in the second half of the 1st lap and then nail the 2nd lap.  Soon we were down to just 4 guys and the talking had stopped!  We came round the first loop in 34 minutes and then the pace really kicked in.  I was probably guilty of pushing it on over the first half, which is not the most sensible given the 2nd half of the loop is the toughest, but soon it was down to just myself and Phil Bandi coming out of a forest on a steep hill, before we hit the road and about 15 mins to the finish.  Philip dropped me with about 4 minutes left to run, once we got to the top of yet another incline, but I managed to hold a decent pace and come through the lap in 29.22.  Have been told that anything sub 30 on the lap is very respectable and they have been doing it for years, so really happy and coming into some good shape.  Unfortunately I hit my knee when coming off my bike later in the day and badly bruised it.  At one point the following day I was changing the tyres on the car (winter tyres for the summer ones) and banged the knee again and I ended up rolling around the floor trying not to vomit due to the pain.  I can't believe something like that can be so painful it makes you feel nauseous!

I had to take the Sunday off and then the Monday also as I was on my way to the local office to pick up my permit and slipped on the step outside the building and found myself once again rolling around in pain! My own fault as I was admiring my new permit and slipped on the wet stairs as it had been tipping it down with rain) The good news though was that I have been granted the permit to live here so I am not illegal and can stay till 2014, so that is a massive weight off the shoulders.  

I trained back in the group Tuesday and Wednesday, with Tuesday being a hard run over 75 mins, although I found it harder than I would have liked, but the knee was hurting and so everything seemed so much harder.  Yesterday we did another crescendo run, 75mins starting off slowish and then 5 x 10 mins getting quicker everytime.  I hung onto Philips coattails until 2 mins to go before he dropped me, but I was really pleased with the session.  Has been much colder here and I can now see some snow on the mountains in the distance.  It has also been raining which makes cycling to the German course in the morning a bit nasty but other than that it has all been really good.  I have a couple of road races lined up in November over 8k so really looking forward to that and posting some good performances.  Not sure about times though, I know the first one is 8 loops around a town, so I guess the times could be slow with all the corners.

Gutted for the Belgrave Lads at the Relays with Steve falling.  I know they all tried really hard to get back in the mix, but it wasn't to be, especially on that tight course.  Well done to the Bedford boys to retain the title, really good running.  Other than Newham at the National 6, I think the relays have all been very close and exciting this Autumn, which is a great thing for the road running scene.  

Sp8y