What a great day in the hills.....

but what a long day, a great run in the Hill's by Talybont-on-Usk, ankle was quite sore but then under foot conditions were never going to make it a smooth run, shin was fine, felt good so did a very hilly 25.5 miles, legs were quite stiff the next day but i think the 5hrs it took to get home was a little to blame.....

Is it supposed to hurt that much.....

I've not run for a month now, that said in that month i have done 580 miles on the bike (so much for the rest!) and last week i had my lower legs manipulated and in the process the person doing the manipulation managed to catch a nerve in the back of my leg to say it hurt would be a understatement but i have to say they feel a lot less stiff, i have tried to resume my daily stretching and my legs in general feel quite good, I'm off to Brecon this weekend to give them a bit of a work out, the plan is for a 20+ mile run/walk on Saturday and a shorter run on Sunday but it will be a very much a 'see how we go weekend' with a nice change of scenery.

That will be the bike run in then.....

I've managed to fit in 230 miles this week with about 170 miles of that off road, including cycling to work every day and a 60 miler on Saturday, the bike is running smoothly and I've only managed to get one puncture!!! I've bought some clip on pedals and shoes but after seeing someone fall off at a set of traffic lights on Saturday and almost getting run over when he didn't unclip quickly enough I'm still to fit them....

Stan Boardman

It's actually a Chris Boardman MTB, but when i walked into the bike shop and was asked if i needed any help i said i was looking for a Stan Boardman MTB, my stupidity was lost on the 12 year old shop assistant, but back to the bike, after wearing out 2 cheap bikes i bought a proper bike designed/made by Olympic bike champion Chris Boardman, the difference between the old bikes and the new are startling, it is so light and the gear change is precise and the brakes unbelievably powerful and smooth it's a slightly smaller frame so I'm optimistic that it will fit in the car, I'm also looking at a couple of endurance MTB races which will be something different.

Get me some water wings

it's time i learnt to swim.....all these injuries have taken the fun out of my running, the training has become a painful chore and when i stand on the start line of a race I'm already thinking about what injury is going to stop me finishing, this weekend it was the recurrence of a shin injury that stopped me at 55 mile point in the GUCR, up until that point i had been fine and although a little dehydrated i felt quite strong.
So i have a plan and it doesn't involve running, I'm going to have some swimming lessons (i can't swim!) and do a bit of swimming, buy myself a proper bike and cycle to work more often, stretch until I'm as flexible as a russian gymnast, reinstate my lunch time strolls around Mile End, and most importantly I'm going to have some fun!!

It's only 145 miles......

This time next week I'll hopefully be 26 hours into my journey from Birmingham to London, i have 2 hopes for the weekend, firstly to finish and secondly that we get a dry race, 145 miles in 42 hours is as tough as it gets but 145 miles in 42 hours in the rain is as depressing as it gets...I only mention the rain because 3 times this week i have trained in torrential rain and the novelty value has begun to wear off.
This week i plan to do a little walking and plenty of resting, i travel to Birmingham on Friday (with my one way ticket!) and the race starts on Saturday at 06:00 sharp.....

As if their was ever any doubt....

after another tough week of cycling, working, more cycling and even more working and yet another marathon(!!) i have confirmed my participation in the GUCR, my participation was never really in question but the general tiredness of the last few weeks had sowed the seed in my mind, the deciding factor was my 5th marathon in 5 weeks at the 3 Forts challenge in Worthing this weekend and it's 3800ft of climb and distance of 27.5 miles, i was hampered at the beginning with a dodgy stomach but finished very strong, and even after the 2hrs car journey back home i didn't really feel like i'd run quite a tough 27 miler.