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2005 -- Discovery of a sport i should never have stopped.

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 July 24th 2005 was what turned out to be a momentous day in my life. This was the day after many years of Smoking, Drinking and Drugs I decided after seeing a grandad playing with his grandson without losing breath whilst I attempted to play football knackered that it was time to stop everything and change. The very next day I got an inhalator from the doctors giving up smoking and threw the Marijuana away and vowed to make a change positively with my physical health and the almost monotone non committal ambition free mental existence of functioning whilst smoking weed and getting high on a weekend. With this in mind I decided to try a run as this was a sport until 1993 I was pretty good at holding school records and running as a colt with the now defunct Cramlington harriers. Even after a few years of smoking, smoking weed, drinking Southern comfort and taking LSD and magic mushrooms between 13 and 15yrs old I was still able to beat the perceived best in the school runners at Cross c
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High Fells of Hedgehope,Ingram,Northumberland 14.01.2018

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Great well organised event up in possibly my favourite childhood place to visit Ingram Valley in Northumberland. Many a great weekend day with picnics with the family, a bit of football, homemade boat racing down the river and perhaps where my love for hill running was subconsciously born running up the fells with my brother who was good going up and I was good going down hill. High fell events put on this event as part of there high fell trail series but the terrain meant this was a winter fell race in freezing conditions ! The race organiser Barry had sorted an entry which was great after the recent good news of my boy Kais all clear from cancer which at 17 was hard for everyone concerned. I knew quite a few faces and off I went for my warm up the start of the Ingram trail half which I won 2 years ago and given the fact I didn't really prepare apart from one 5 am fell run a week before I kind of accepted victory wouldn't be mine especially after spotting young Briggs o
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Treadmill Fun

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As the weather has been atrociuos and im not one forrunning about in the freezing windy rain i have ran a lot of running indoors on the treadmill.Although not for the purists treadmill running is quite productive as i dont enjoy it i run very quickly to get it over with!! Most have the runs have been sub 6 minute miling and i finished the week off with a 26.46 5 miler which had me feeling the burn.Only 44 miles this week after last weeks 37 miles but quality and fitness is there and looking forward to racing soon.
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Cross Country Racing

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Whilst running a progression run on treadmill in a steady 5.48 minute miling i begun thinking of Cross Country running and racing.I have enjoyed ocassionely training on the cross country at East Cramlington when it comes to racing although part of my Morpeth membership fees i just havent bothered too much.In the 7 years i have ran now I only ever done 2 North Easterns,1 Northern and 1National Champs.As a fell runner this may seem bizarre but I reckon deep down i just dont enjoy it too much.The local Harrier Cross country league is very popular but i havent really got into the spirit at all apart from enjoying a 1st and 2nd at other events i have had half arsed runs in all honesty.As for the chmapionships i came 22nd in North East in 2008 and 23rd in 2012 despite starting well fading in both.The Northern at Pontefract racecourse was a tough 12k but was on course to come top 100 but a poor second lap made 116 the best i could do.The National in Leeds in 2010 was very tough and I found th
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Itching to Go

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Im feeling 100% again and really enjoying hard training at the moment producing some good times in tempo runs and intervals.I had 3 choices for races tommorow but decided as it was 35mph winds i would stay in training mode.Another reason is that Calzaghe/Jones Jnr is on the box and im hoping joe will finish his career undefeated.Ive entered some different races for the start of 2009 Alsager 5,Wilmslow half,Snake lane 10 and got good deals on local travelodges only costing £9 per night.
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Back to the Grindstone

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Nearly over the stiffness and getting back into the training.Looking forward to doing lots of speedwork which will hopefully result in improving my times for 5k,5mile and 10k.Recently ive taken in a lot of information about training and realize my base mileage pace is too quick so ive begun to do my morning short run over cross country where you cannot fail to run slower.Monday gone i done some 90 second intervals (60r) and ran really quick on tired legs.Im now off to the Running club for a Pyramid effort session.Fingers Crossed.
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Amsterdam PB -- Resilience

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At Yesterdays Amsterdam Marathon i got a pb by 1.40 and in the circumstances i really was pleased with how i done.In the build up i got a heavy cold/flu and on the Friday Evening i felt i couldnt do the race.On the Sunday Morning with the help of Vicks and Paracetemol i felt better and as the Mile flew by at an even pace i was well on course passing 10 miles in 1.00.34.The next 4 miles were into quite a headwind but i still felt good picking people right off until 18 miles where my left calf began to tighten quite a lot.I shrugged it off as you get nowhere quitting and even on 20 miles in 2.01.36 and was on course for a 2.40-2.41 but running on my own coupled with the wind as well as hitting a little bit of a wall AND my calf developing into a pull or tear my pace dropped 25-30 secs per mile.This is when i became most proud of myself as i showed good resilience to persevere finishing in 2.43.22 a pb by 1.40.I now know i can knock large chunks off my pb in the future starting at London
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