4/15/10

Thursday’s Training – Am: 35 mins easy Pm: Off

Mileage – 5 Miles

I woke up this morning after 9am sometime and was glad that again I had made it through the night without waking up and that I had gotten at least 8 hours of good sleep. As I came out of the bedroom door, I bumped into AC who was just getting ready to head into the restaurant so we had a quick chat as I turned the kettle on and fetched my PowerBar. I sat in the living room playing around on the computer for a while before heading out the door to get my run in. I was actually just going to run half a mile and then do my stretching but once I started running I felt a little stale so decided to do an easy 5 miles and then so the workout once I got to St Andrews in the evening. It was another nice day outside so that made the run all the more pleasant. It has been a while since I have done a workout in the evening and I have always preferred that. We do our workouts in the morning as most of our races are in the morning and so we have to get our bodies used to that. I still race far better in the evenings after having a morning run and resting all day. I think that is why I have always run well in the track races that are held at night. I was really disappointed when I got to Beijing that my race was at 8.30am as the girls had their heats in the evening and I know I could have run really well had it been that way. That was a long time ago though and I have adapted to the morning races a lot better.

After the run I had some breakfast and then got onto the train to Leuchars and then hopped onto the bus to St Andrews. The great thing about this bus is that it drops you off right outside of where Ronnie (my Fife AC coach) lives. When your dragging a big bag around with you this makes a big difference. I unpacked and then relaxed for a little while before deciding against doing the workout today. I was feeling tired so I pushed it back a day and will adapt the training for the rest of the remaining time before the marathon. I headed down to the Fife AC training group that meets at the sports center on a Thursday and it was good to see that there are still a good amount of people turning up. I got to see my old coach Dave Francis and a bunch of others who have been in the club for a long time. I headed back to the house to have some dinner and relax for a while. I was getting tired in front of the TV but tried to stay awake so I could fall asleep later on. The problem was that when I went to bed I couldn’t nod off so I read for a bit. It must have been around 2.30am before I fell asleep but hopefully tomorrow I can get to sleep a lot earlier.

4/14/10

Wednesday’s Training – Am: 70 mins easy Pm: 45 mins easy

Mileage – 16.5 Miles

The difference between today and yesterday was huge. I slept right through the night again and woke up feeling pretty good. I sat and had some coffee and a PowerBar before heading out the door and I knew as soon as my foot hit the pavement that it wasn’t going to be as bad as yesterday. I felt so much better and was able to enjoy my run this time. 7 years ago, when I was at university in Stirling, AC had taken me on a run around Edinburgh that led us along a canal trail so I decided to try and find that. I found it almost right away as I knew the trail popped out near where his sister’s apartment was but finding my way back along it was going to be tough as there are a bunch of turn offs and roads to cross. After about 4 miles on a tiny trail, I hit the canal and it was a good feeling. I was heading towards the city so I had a great view of the castle and Arthur’s Seat. I also passed a pub that had a cracking name – The Kilted Pig! The trail ending up spitting me out right downtown so I did a lap of The Meadows and then headed back to the apartment. After some drills, stretching and breakfast, I headed up to the restaurant and spent a little time just drinking coffee and doing some stuff on the computer. Julie called me also so it was really good to hear her voice and to know that she is doing well. After a couple of hours AC mentioned something about a run so I pounced on this and told him to we should do one together for old times sake. He was a bit nervous as he hasn’t run much since his competitive days but it wasn’t too hard to convince him. We went back to the apartment and got changed and then headed over to do 2 laps of The Meadows and back. A nice easy 6 miles later and we were happy! AC was very surprised that he had lasted as long as that as the longest he’d done recently was 25 minutes. After standing outside and chatting for a little while, we headed in, got showers and then headed back up to the restaurant. Right away I got stuck into a burrito as I was getting hungry and that filled me up for a while. I had been texting my old house mate and good friend (and Olympic 110m hurdler), Allan Scott during the day and he met me at the restaurant and we sat at talked for 3 hours or so at one of the window tables and caught up on all our news as we hadn’t seen each other since the Olympics. We both actually stayed a day later than everyone in Beijing and spent the rest of our money on a huge meal at a restaurant in the city. The restaurant was closing up after 9pm so Allan got the bus back to his apartment and AC and I went back to his sister’s and relaxed for a little while before I headed to bed at midnight. I didn’t go to sleep until 1 am but that was fine as I had some reading material. I’m hoping that come next week, I wont have any problem getting to sleep by 10pm so I think bringing the time I go to sleep back one hour each night should be a good strategy.

This is a long one!

Tuesday’s Training – Am: 10*400m (ish) road loops with 400m jog rec. Pm: 35 mins slow

Mileage – 16 miles

My blood is changing. This always happens after 4 days down from altitude and last usually until the 7^th day down. And this is the reason why I felt do tired today. I got a great sleep of 10 hours last night and woke up feeling very groggy. I had an energy bar and coffee and spent a while trying to psyche myself up to get out the door and run. I jogged half a mile and then stretched for a while and then finally headed out again for a 3 mile warm up. I originally wanted to go to the track to get the workout done but once I looked up online that it cost £4.80 ($8) to get into the stadium I quickly changed my mind and decided to find somewhere on the roads to do it. I ended up just doing it around the block that AC’s sister lives on as it turned out to be just over 400m long. There were 4 pretty tight turns on the loop but the workout was going to be used just to get my legs back a little and try feel a bit better after a long day’s travel the day before. The first rep was pretty tough as I felt like I was just trying to start the ignition. I felt ok though once I had got through a couple of reps and got through the 10 reps without too much hassle from pedestrians or builders. The first rep was 73 secs and I brought that down to 68 secs by the last rep. Once I was done with the warm down, I stretched a bit and then had a nice hot shower which led to me resting in front of the TV for a while.

I got a call from AC at around 4pm and it turned out to be one of our friends Mark (who I’ve raced since I was 13) so I headed up to Illegal Jack’s and we sat and chatted for a bit. The restaurant was jammed full as AC had put on a free burrito day to raise awareness of what his product is. It was great to see so many people there and I’m sure it will have a great affect on his future business. After talking for a while, got onto the topic of the good athletes that we used to race against and how they had all disappeared. It ended up being that there was only Mark, myself and one other runner (out of the male athletes) who were still running from when we were juniors. It was pretty sad actually and a shame as I certainly wasn’t the best of the athletes when we were going through the ranks. Guys from all over Scotland would regularly beat me and now they have mostly all quit the sport. We walked down the road after a while as I had to get on with another run. I got to the apartment and got changed but was feeling very tired when I stepped out the door. I have been doing a lot of longer runs (up to 3 hours) during the marathon build up yet this 35 minute run was by far the longest feeling run I have done in a long while. I was so sluggish that I couldn’t even make it to 40 mins. I should have maybe taken the evening off but I still wanted to do something as exercise helps with getting over jet lag. AC’s sister was home when I got back so once I had showered we walked over to Illegal Jack’s for some dinner. It was good to see that it was still busy so we grabbed some food and sat at the window and people watched for a while. Mouse, AC’s sister, went home after a while and I stayed in case AC needed any help with anything but ended up just eating some more. My appetite is insatiable when I am tired so a beef quesadilla helped with that and then I just sat around reading the paper while I waited for AC to be finished. The staff had done really well with hw busy it was so AC wanted to take them out for a night so we went back to the apartment quickly so AC could shower. When we got back, the staff had all started drinking and were trying to force me to take shots of Jaigermeister but I was having none of it. I’ve not drunk any alcohol since New Year’s eve so I wasn’t about to end that streak a week before my big race. I wanted to stay awake as long as possible tonight as that is one of the recommendations we got from the UKA doctors when travelling to Asia on how to ease the effects of jet lag (Go to bed late and wake up late). I stayed with them at the restaurant until 1 am and then headed back when they went to the clubs. After watching some programs on my computer, I put my head down (at 2 am) and fell right asleep.

Monday’s Training – Am: Travelling to UK Pm: 52 mins very slow.

Mileage - 7 miles.

I’ve never been a good sleeper when it comes to air travel and last night was really no different. My problem is the length of my legs. I can never get comfortable because my knees are always pressed up against the seat in front and then my bum gets numb as I don’t have much cushioning there. I thought I had hit the jackpot though when we were taking off as it looked like I had the only seat on the plane with a free seat beside it. This always helps as I can stretch my legs out into the space beside me. Once we were up in the air though, the old lady 2 seats along went and grabbed her granddaughter and had her sit beside me. She was tiny so that wasn’t too bad but she was curled up on the seat so she was kicking me and moving around all night so that made sure I couldn’t get a decent stretch of sleep. I just had a bunch of 20 minute naps really.

We arrived at Heathrow around 1.30pm so I had a couple of hours until my connecting flight. I went and grabbed a sandwich and coffee and tried to relax a little bit but it felt better to stretch my legs out a bit as they had been cramped up for so long. At 3.30pm, I got on the plane to Edinburgh and slept the whole way up. I was surprised to see that my bag arrived right away (it normally gets lost somewhere) so I got onto the bus into town and headed over to Illegal Jack’s to meet AC and get the keys for his sister’s apartment (I would be staying with them for a couple of nights). After a quick reunion, I headed over to the apartment and headed out for my run. Needless to say, I didn’t feel too good. I actually headed off at a normal pace only to realise that I was really tired and I needed to slow the pace right down so I basically shuffled for the next 50 mins and tried to expend s little energy as possible. It was a gorgeous evening so I headed down to Holyrood Park where there were lots of people out running and doing things in the park. I headed back through The Meadows and again, there were lots of students out there relaxing and hanging out. I got back to the apartment and did some stretching to try and loosen up a bit. I showered and headed over to Illegal Jack’s to grab some dinner. I was pleasantly surprised to find both AC and his sister sitting waiting for me so AC grabbed us some of the freshly made chilli and then I washed it down with a beef burrito. We sat and chatted for a little while before it was time to close up so we went through to the back as AC had to do the cashing up and the staff had to clean the front of house. AC tried his best to explain Twitter to me but I still don’t really get it. Apparently there is so much more to it than just simple updates and AC is taking advantage of this to try and publicise his business as much as possible. We ended up heading back to the apartment after 9.30pm sometime and then just sat and chatted for a little while. I was slipping in and out of sleep whilst I was lying on the couch so decided to go to bed at 11.30pm and fell right asleep.

Sunday’s Training – Am: 10 mile tempo followed by 12*1 min hard, 1 min easy fartlek. 49.12 (4.56, 4.58, 4.57, 4.56, 4.55, 4.54, 4.55, 4.53, 4.50, 4.52) Pm: 34 mins easy

Mileage – 26 miles

I woke up at 6 this morning as I wanted to get on with the training before it got too hot and windy. I had an English muffin and coffee and waited tried to do a cross word while I waited for Julie to wake up. We headed out a little later than I wanted as I found a bunch of my videos that I made when I was at the Olympics. The videos didn’t work on my last computer so it was great that they were working now. I went for a half mile jog so I could get some stretching done before heading out for the workout. I warmed up for 3 miles and started to do my drills and strides. I was feeling a little tired but it was more of a mental foggy tired than a physical tiredness. I strapped on my racing shoes, took my t-shirt off and I was ready to go. Greg had planned for me to do a 15 mile tempo but his last advise to me was that if I was feeling good that I should stop short and if I didn’t feel good, keep going. The thinking around this being that if I was feeling good, I may leave the race out on the road but if I didn’t feel good, I would be going slow enough that I wouldn’t be killing myself. I didn’t really want to do a really long tempo anyway as I had done one last week so once I knew I felt ok, I decided upon just doing 10 miles at a decent pace and then a short fartlek afterwards.

The tempo itself was fine. It wasn’t super quick but I felt relaxed and able to pick the pace up when I needed so I was happy with the way I was feeling. I wanted to start slightly slower and pick it up as I went through the miles so that went as planned. Julie was out there with me on the bike and handing me my drinks every 3 miles. I had a bit of a mishap with my energy gel as I had taped it to my bottle and when I ripped it off the bottle (the top of it was taped to the bottle so that when I ripped it off, it would be open and ready to go) I guess I didn’t rip it right because it still wasn’t open. I squeezed it as hard as possible and the gel went shooting out all over the road. There was only a tiny bit left in the pack so I sucked that out and washed it down with some energy drink. I finished the tempo feeling fine and relaxed so I stopped for a second, wiped my face and head down (it was pretty warm), took some more liquid on and then jogged for half a mile before getting into the fartlek. I was flying on the 1 minute efforts so I was happy I was able to do that section of the workout well as I thought I would be tired. I managed to cover 4 miles and then stopped and changed my shoes and headed back for a 3 mile warm down.

Once I got back I had to get showered and changed really quickly as it was already 10.50am and we had to be at church at 11am. The shower and changing was no problem but trying to get some breakfast down was the hard part. Luckily Julie was already to go so she made me a smoothie with frozen blueberries and strawberries, probiotic yoghurt, apple juice and some vanilla protein isolate powder. I then grabbed a bottle of water and a bowl of cereal for the car. I couldn’t get the smoothie down quickly as it was so cold and I was getting some major brain freeze. We drove over to the church where all of Julie’s family were already and waiting for us.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing as we just sat around and chit chatted (and I tried to nap unsuccessfully). I ended up heading out the door again at 3.45pm to get a slow 5 mile run in. I felt fine but still just took it very easy. I got back and showered and then spent a little while repacking my bag. It now closed up fine so I printed off my boarding my passes and headed downstairs to have some dinner before heading to the airport. Julie took me to the airport but she drove around the airport while I checked my bags in case they were too heavy and I would have to take something out of it. They were fine so she headed back up the road to Flagstaff. I always hate saying goodbye to Julie as I start to miss her right away. I have done a lot of travelling and I’m usually fine but when the trip is 2 weeks long, I really miss her. It actually really kicks in when I land in the other country. Last year for the World Half marathon champs it was really bad as I took the exact route through London that we had taken the year before when she came over for a couple of weeks. It just reminded me of what a good time we had had and how much I wanted her around. I don’t really do too many long trips anymore so I guess it’s not too bad.

I got onto the plane and although I had already eaten dinner 3 hours before, I ate again and it wasn’t half bad. A cous cous salad and some pasta was just what I needed as I watched the film 2012 and then spent the rest of the night trying to sleep.

Saturday’s Training – Am: 80 mins easy Pm: 34 mins easy

Mileage – 17 Miles

I got up pretty late today after going to bed pretty late last night so it felt good to sleep in a little bit. I had my coffee and toast outside with Julie’s parents, Grandma and her brother, Mike while Julie kept sleeping. I forgot how nice the weather is in the morning in Phoenix before the sun starts to blast everything. I headed out the door around 10am and ran towards South Mountain as there are a bunch of trails that wonder around the foothills area. It was nice just to switch off and zig zag around the sandy paths and have a little quiet oasis so close to a big city. I wasn’t feeling great but after about 30 mins I started to perk up a bit. By 45 mins I realised that I should either turn around or head off on a trail that would cut across to the neighbourhoods. I went for the second option and ended up at the top of a hill with no trail to continue down to street level. I ended up stopping the watch and carefully walking down the steep hill face as this was no time to practise my hill running descending. I was now stuck on a drainage ditch behind everyone’s garden so I just followed it around until I got to a space in the houses and hopped over the fence to the street. I had no clue where I was but knew which general direction to take so after about 5 mins of running I came out at a main road and found my way back onto a route that I knew. I decided to finish the run at 80 mins and went to the back of the house to cool off in the pool. It was a nice temperature but I wish it had been a little colder. Julie then arrived back from her run so we both had showers and got ready to do some chores around town.

It took us a couple of hours to get everything done (emissions test for the car, buying blister bandages for my trip home, going to the shoe store) and I was getting tired so when we got back we lay down on the big couches in front of the TV and relaxed for an hour. This wasn’t a great way to start feeling good for my second run as I didn’t want to pull myself off the couch and go run in the sweltering heat. I got changed, dressed my blisters and headed out the door. Almost immediately I could feel the bandages move around so my feet were a little uncomfortable. I was supposed to run for 50 – 60 mins but I cut it down to 35 mins as I was tired and it was really hot. There was a strong breeze though so that helped to cool me down as I ran out on the sandy reservation.

I quickly got showered and changed and then we headed out to the church Luau that Julie’s parents had helped to organise. It took a little while for the food to be served but it was great once it did. Teriyaki chicken, Kaluha pork, rice, coleslaw, fruit salad and a whole assortment of desserts made my stomach happy. There were various acts on the stage, raffles and competitions and then once it was all over, we helped to break everything down and then take the grandma’s back to the house. Julie and I sat and talked to them for a while but then I headed up to bed when it was 10pm as I was getting pretty tired and I needed to get up early in the morning.

Sorry for the delay

Hi Folks,

Sorry I haven't posted anything for a few days but I have kept up with writing the training on my computer and will post all of it from Sunday to Tuesday once I get a chance to either transfer it to a computer thats linked to the internet or when I can get my computer online. I'm glad to be back in Scotland and happy to see that the weather is good. I'm just waiting for my body to get over the 7 day hump that it goes through when you come down from altitude. Speak to you all soon.

Lemon

4/9/10

Friday's Training - Am: 70 mins easy Pm: 55 mins easy

Mileage - 18 Miles

I took today as a very easy so that I could recover well from yesterday's workouts. I felt pretty tired in the morning when I met up with the guys so I was more than happy just to plod along for 10 miles. When I finished, Greg gave me the bottles I would be using for the marathon (they're lab bottles that have squirt straws coming out the top) and some calf sleeves from SLS3 (they had sent a bunch to the team to test out). Once I got home I spent most of my time doing washing and organising stuff before I would pack it all up for the trip back home. There was so much stuff I had to put in as I dont have any of my recovery tools in the uk. The Massage stick, tennis balls and stretch rope didn't take up much space but my foam roller certainly did. Once everything was clean and dry I packed up my bag with the intention of repacking it all on Sunday before I left Phoenix. I had a 30 min nap and then answered an email interview for Athletics Weekly. After finishing off my coffee I cut my hair down really short so that it would still be fairly short come marathon day. This meant that I had to clean up the bathroom afterwards but I can never seem to get rid of all the hair that gets everywhere. I headed out for my second run on the trail and I was glad that it was nice and warm outside. It was still windy but the temperature made the run pleasant. After getting back, I quickly showered and headed over to Julie's work to pick her up as we were heading straight down to Phoenix from there. We picked up a buffalo chicken pizza on the way and made it down the mountain safe and sound.

4/8/10

Thursday’s Training – Am: 4*2 mile with 4 mins rec. 9.40, 9.37, 9.34, 9.25 Pm: 59 mins easy

Mileage – 25 Miles

I hadn’t realised until I was going to bed last night that Greg had texted me to say that we would be going down to Sedona for the workout as the weather was supposed to be decent and there were a bunch of others doing a workout there also. I was relieved about this as I was going to have to do the session on Trina’s loop and it can get pretty monotonous. I then remembered that instead of doing two big loops for each rep I would now be doing 8 laps of the track for each rep! After all the marathon training I have been doing my mind has adapted to this and 10 mins of running really isn’t too boring. I met up with Martin at 8am and we headed down to Sedona and met the others at the track. We warmed up with Brett and then headed down to the track to get on with our drills and strides. Brett and Martin were running 2*2miles and the 2*1 mile so I thought I would maybe have some company for my 4*2 mile but they were to run much faster than I was so they started their workout while I finished of getting ready. Greg didn’t want the session to feel that hard and wanted me to be relaxed the whole way so he just wanted me to run 4.50 miles with the option of picking it up on the last rep. I was pretty tired when I woke up this morning but I felt fine once I got running and the pace felt pretty easy so that was a good sign as the last week of training has been pretty intense (3 workouts in the last 5 days with another big one set for Sunday). Getting through the first 2 reps was fine but after that was when I changed my mindset and started to imagine the London course and how I want to feel at specific points. I know it will start to feel hard on the later stages of the race so I pictured myself relaxing and feeling strong as I passed the 22 mile mark. On the last rep I was aerobically fine but my legs were starting to feel a little more tired as I picked up the pace. I could see myself running down Birdcage Walk and then turning onto The Mall and running fast down the last 200m of the race. It was good to finish after 32 laps of the track. The one thing that made a difference today was the weather. There was only a slight wind but the temperature was up so it felt good to get some rays on the skin and not having a cold wind whipping through my body. I had a quick word with Greg about the workout on Sunday (we will have to assess how I feel before I do it and really listen to my body to see if it recovered enough to hit a long hard tempo again) and then joined the guys on the warm down. I finished up and got some stretching done and then we headed back up the road. Just as I was digging into some food, Mark Woods called me from Scotland for an interview for Sunday’s paper (I think Scotland on Sunday) and then I tried to sleep. No success! For the life of me I couldn’t get to sleep so I just lay down to give my legs a rest before my next run.

I also got the good news from my mum that the custom made Oakley’s that Oakley were making for me had arrived so I would be picking them up from her once I get back to Scotland. I am leaving for Scotland on Sunday and will be in Edinburgh for a couple of days before I head to St Andrews to stay at Ronnie’s house so I can just focus on getting over jet lag and getting my final preparations done before the race. I will be heading down to London on the Thursday before the race and will be doing some press obligations on the Friday as well as making an appearance at the Mizuno stand at the marathon expo.

I had booked a massage for 6pm so I headed out the door at 4.30pm and went up to Buffalo again and got 3 laps done and headed back down the trail to finish off 10 miles. It wasn’t without incident though. With about a mile to go, a young couple were running with their dog off the leash (a fully grown boxer) and the moment the dog spotted me, it headed straight for me at a full sprint. Luckily I have had to deal with this kind of situation before and I have no problem hurting a dog before it gets a chance to take lumps out of me. I ran hard towards the dog and jumped right in its face right before it started to jump and I pushed it onto its side. It then growled and came back at me, which just prompted me to give it a swift kick in the head. Job done…the dog ran off. It didn’t stop the girl from screaming at me about how the dog is friendly and it would have never hurt me. I reminded her that it charged at me and just headed off the trail. I think her boyfriend knew I did the right thing as he grabbed his girlfriend and told her to calm down. I just didn't want to run the marathon with half a calf! Anyway, I got back in just under an hour and headed straight into the house as I needed to head over to the other side of town to get a massage. I had the time to write a note to Julie to tell her I would take her out for dinner and then jumped into the car. My legs felt ok but my calves were a little tight and my glutes were still a little locked up so I asked the lady to concentrate on those. Once I got out I headed over and bought Julie some flowers and then headed back to the apartment to pick her up. She was all dressed up and looking great so we drove over to Black Bart’s Steakhouse and had a great meal. I wanted to take her out as this was going to be our last night alone together before I head back over to the UK for a fortnight. All in all, it was great night and we had a really nice time. We are heading down to Phoenix tomorrow to stay at Julie’s parent’s house until Sunday as both her grand mothers are in town.

4/7/10

Wednesday’s Training – Am: 87 mins very easy Pm: 40 mins easy

Mileage – 18 Miles

I had a good nights sleep after going to bed early last night so I was hoping to feel really good today. I headed out to the Campbell Mesa trail again as surprise surprise, it was really windy again! I got off to a really slow start as the trailhead is uphill into the wind and I basically kept this pace for the rest of the run. This was my original idea as I have a hard workout tomorrow and I needed to recover from yesterday. It was nice just to plug in my ipod and just shuffle along for close to an hour and a half. I was still being blown about but I really wasn’t too bothered as I was pretty switched off. I need some days like this so that I can have lots of energy for the next day. It actually felt like a track season easy day. The hardest part was actually doing my drills after the run as I was being blown about the road. From the trail I headed over to the shops to pick up a few groceries before heading home to make some scrambled eggs with ham, mushrooms and red peppers and some fresh French loaf that I bought. It really filled me up so I would need a little while to digest the food before napping so I made a call to my coach in Scotland, Prof. Ron Morrison and my former FSU team and house mate, Luke Gunn (he and his girlfriend Hannah England are up in Mammoth Lakes doing some pre track season training). I was good to catch up with both of them and talk training for a little while. Once I got off of the calls, I fell right asleep and woke up an hour later.

After playing around on the computer for quite a while, I finally got out to do my second run. As usual I headed up the trail to Buffalo Park as I was just doing an easy 6 miles. Right when I got to the start of the park I met some old steeplechase rivals and stopped and talked to them for a while (Pieter Desmet of Belgium and Ben Bruce of the Oregon track team). They’re both opening up their season at the next Stanford meet and I must say I was little jealous that I wouldn’t be hitting the track again for a long while. After talking to them for about 5 minutes I headed back off on my run and it went by pretty quickly. It was still windy but I was really just switching my mind off for the run so I didn’t notice it too much. I got back and did some drills, strides and stretching and then quickly got showered and changed and drove to Julie’s work to pick her up as we were going over Picazzo’s to meet some friends for dinner.

We had a lovely dinner with my RCIA friend Jason Wolfe (the nutter who is running the Rim to Rim to Rim of the Grand Canyon in a couple of weeks) and his wife, Aerie and their 2 little kids. The kids were really funny and very well behaved and we just had a nice time chatting and relaxing for a bit. We headed back to the house after dinner and watched an episode of Billy Connolly’s World Tour of New Zealand and then Julie was starting to fade pretty quickly so we just got ready to bed and fell asleep nice and early.

For those of you in the UK looking for a track 10km in the summer, there is going to be one at Meadowbank Stadium on June 6^th. There are very few track 10km opportunities in the UK and I’ve seen a lot of complaints about this issue online so here is a perfect opportunity to run one during the thick of the track season. Meadowbank can be a very fast track when the weather is good so hopefully there will be a good turnout for the event. It is open to everyone and there are a bunch of Scots already signed up and they are hopefully going to attract the Eritreans to the event so you can expect the event to be won close to 29 minutes.