Sunday, April 23, 2006

At crossed purposes

The last 3 weeks have seen our football season revive from the winter slumber again. Its been difficult to keep to my schedule as the muscles ache for a day or two after each match. We're still in with a shout of promotion and possibly even a cup. Anyway the past 3 weeks have gone like this.

Week 1 - Ran home for the second Tuesday in a row. Altered the route slightly so now its 9 miles exactly and ran much better. Averaged sub 7 minute miles and felt good all the way home. Whilst running down a street in High Heaton a 9 year old girl started to race me, sprinting to keep up she looked up at me with a broad smile on her face before running out of breath and going in for her dinner. Its nice to know that all kids down aspire to hanging around bus stops hurling abuse at people. Managed to run 4 times in total before playing football for the first time in 8 weeks on the Sunday. A bit rusty but we beat the Cullercoats Piper 2-1 courtesy of a brace from Mason and moved into the quarter final of the Cup.

Week 2 - Woke up on Monday with every bone in my body aching. The match had really taken it out of me. By Tuesday evening I was still in a bad way but headed out for a 5 miler. Took it easy and was just hoping that it would help releive the muscle soreness but I was still a bit stiff on Wednesday. The only other run was an 8 miler on Friday which was a pretty decent if unspectacular run. Away to top of the league South Beach on the Sunday we battled hard for a 1-1 draw.

Week 3 - Legs felt much better after the match and on Tuesday I went out for a 10.25 run. Didn't push the pace and settled into a very comfortable 7:20 to 7:30 per mile pace. Went to practice at The Parks on Wednesday with a few of the lads and my only other run was a trip to the lighthouse on Saturday. Not a very productive week on the running front but rounded off with a 2-1 quarter final victory against the Rockcliffe. Choppington Bomar in the semi final. We've still got 6 or 7 games to play and the season is scheduled to go to the 28th May but hopefully games can be brought forward. Until the season is over I'm just going to have to fit runs in when I can and then step up the running after that.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

A blip in form.

Thu 31 Mar Delaval Arms 43:42

It seems like I've hit a bit of a pothole in my training plan. This week got off to a decent start with the 9 mile run home from work but just one more run, and a disappointing one at that during the rest of the week. My training has certainly taken a bit of a dive over the past two weeks and I'm really going to have to dig in and work hard to get myself back on track.

Thursday's run was exceptional in an unwanted kind of way. Not for the first time whilst running at night, I was abused and harrased by a bunch of teenagers sitting in the bus stop outside the Whitley Bay Leisure Pool. This time two of them chased after me whilst shouting and screaming. I'd had enough and turned and swore very loudly at them which sent them sprinting in the opposite direction. It was just a bunch of stupid girls and I should have just ignored them but this kind of thing is happening too often and I'd had enough this time. It really spoilt my run, sometimes when you're not running well at least you feel the benefit mentally of getting away from everything and can relax with your own thoughts. This incident ruined everything, I felt anger at being harrassed and guilt at the way I reacted. It just beats me that in a decent area with good state schools we still have to put up with kids like this. What kind of parent allows their 13 year old kids to wander the sea front in the dark these days? Do they not watch the news or read the newspapers and realise what kind of weirdos can be lurking out there?

Anyway, rant over. Next week's plan must be to stick to my plan, run 4 times during the week and get myself back on track.