First of all a big thanks to Dai 'The Barber' Davieswho was kind enough to let me use his place in Tenerife, a very nice and generous guy who let me and Mark Pollard stay at his place for 10days in the sun, a break that was needed. The 'Training Camp' also included 3.42 1500m runner Chris MacKay and Commonwealth Games 1500m finalist Ali Hay, who were staying 5mins down the road (Although seemed to be over at ours eating most of the time).

Sun - It's great and I forgot what it's like. I am not someone who sits in the sun all day but I like to get up warm, go to bed warm and run in the warm....the cold goes through my skinny bones.

The 'Training Camp' was a double edged sword in respect that I was injured through the whole ten days, so I couldn't get what was planned out of the 10days but I had such a good time in the company of the other guys and in a relaxed atmosphere of the older generation. There seemed to be a lot of sayings being used through our time over and over again so here are a few....

Sore Bones- This was in reference to me and the fact one day I said it felt like my knee joint was braking in half with excruciating pain in the knee cap.

50-50 - Watering down juice.

Tuck Shop Rules- It became apparent during Chris MacKays time playing basketball on the streets to make ends meet during childhood he pulled a few fast ones, this also had a knock on effect in school where he ran a little tuck shop of sweets and pop for other children... Anything sneaky or shifty was known as tuck shop rules.

Boot Camp- This was designed as a stint of training so any suggestion of something that might compromise such a time was met with this phrase I.e going out for a Chinese, having a pinnacalada, watching a film past 11pm, putting in haribo sweets at the food shop and so on.

Boxing Clever- Chrissy McKay had a few lines in reply to most things and this was one. So if you were to say 'What training you thinking of tomorrow or just a general question like 'Hows the love life' you could expect a ' Ay, boxing clever mate'.

You Like Virgina?- If you take a post walk stroll down the seafront after dinner this is a phrase you might be greated with. Its a trick question really because the answer made lead to something else.

So in terms of training going out the window I was lucky enough to have a training partner for aqua running as Ali Hay also had a serious problem (returning from an Achilles operation) so most mornings were spent together in the pool going in round in circles as people caught a few rays or enjoyed a coffee/beer by the pool. There were also a few night sessions while getting a waft of food and smoke during an hour running in water, also thanks to the Scottish physio who lent me an aqua jogger for the trip.

 The actual problem I had was I had damaged fibres around the knee cap which had then damaged a tendon and also my ITB band, which then made for a hell of a lot of pain in my left knee. My knee had settled down somewhat from the run I did at Edinburgh XC which left me struggling to walk 2 meters so on arrival at Tenerife I tried to run. It was probably stupid but it was such a nice night and Pollard wasn't sure of where to go. It was pretty painful and stopped at 4 miles and at that point I had given up hope of running at all the rest of the trip. With a shit load of icing, anti-inflammatory, stretching, swimming and aqua running along with some serious work on the trigger point roller Ali Hay had I did manage a couple of light runs by the end.

There is still slight tightness and dull pain on downhills but hopefully keeping up what I did I should be able to train somewhat next week.

Chris McKay was also struggling with a long term injury so jumped in and out while Pollard got pretty much everything done he wanted and trained really hard. To be fair to him he got in some great stuff including a very impressive 4x10mins and and really tough 2x6mins, 10x400, 2x6mins and another 10x400m on the track. That night I walked down to the track with Mr Hay while Chris Warmed up with him and then we tried to give him a good shout through the session.

As a group we got on really well and it's a worry if you haven't been away together for 10days if you will get on as well as you do just seeing each other here and there during the season. I think we all developed certain roles and McKay nailed the role of chef! I was impressed with the tough Scots cooking skills with Curry's, spaghetti Bol...although one night a kilo of mince was a bit much and he did piss up a rice dish one night, but no ones perfect.

 Miss the place and the guys. Same time next year then!

 Simx

p.s will try and get some photos of Ali for next blog