On the move

Not a bad week really although there was some disappointment at the end. Most of the week went to plan with the steady run early Monday morning at 5:45 per mile pace and then a easy run at night for an hour with girlfriend (Lee) joining me for the middle part. Tuesday morning we switched the session to the morning due to the flight over to Belfast but it was the first hill session for a while. I have always been wary of hill sessions mainly due to injuries in the early years that came from hill repetitions, so I have found it better to just do less and save the hassle of picking up a niggle.

Wednesday I ran 7miles quite hard which was a worry that would take it out of me for the race the following night but it's a training block and I had to look at the bigger picture luckily I think the structure of the week helped a bit and I wasn't to tired. The race itself was good (read race report), and an early hour run with James Kelly on the Friday morning finished off the trip to Ireland nicely.

Then the problems started, the plan was to arrive in Cardiff (flights booked before committing to the National Cross Country) at just before 8pm where I would pick up the car and drive to Windsor to stay the night. Obviously with the race being a bit later I could run in the morning and then catch a train into London to try and help the team (Belgrave). Problem was as we came to land there was to much fog so we had to circle around for a while until the pilot decided it was too bad! So we got diverted to Birmingham, where he made us sit in the plane for an hour while he rang around trying to find out if the fog would lift to fly back. In the end it was deemed to dangerous so a coach trip back to Cardiff but with no coaches around at such notice it wasn't until 11:30pm we actually got on our way. We must have had the slowest driver available as it was gone 2am when we arrived in Cardiff Airport, I realise this wasn't the company's fault but it was very frustrating and I had to decide what to do now. I decided to go home and not race, reason being if I had driven at night then I would be there around 5am (if my eyes stayed open) and then up at 9am....or go home and get to bed at 3am having to get up at 7am to drive in the morning. I just felt either way I would be knackered or no use to the team and run my body into the ground with all the travel, race, and return travel. I was gutted for myself and the team but think it was the right thing to do. Now I have the hassle of trying to get my money back for the hotel and train tickets I booked!

Some well done messages:-

Goolab for his win and 'Wicksy' but knowing Phil he was probably disappointed with his run.

Draper and McLeod for the 3k effort yesterday especially Draper who ran the whole race at the front of the chasing pack, great effort and determination.

Warburton, old man 'Warbo' ran 1500m and is starting to look good again after a 10minute 3k run in Bahrain!!

Steve Davies, who although disappointed with his run in the same race as 'Warbo' still ran a solid time and already had the qualifying time so fingers crossed.

Neil Speaight, the run of the day! Great to see him mixing it with the big guns again in the 1500m Grand Prix and having got a cheeky phone call after the race I'm sure he has more to come.....3:39, maybe a personal best soon if he keeps this up and no body deserves it more.