Hail Caesar

we seem to have a complete Roman Legion living in the house at the moment, and its quite afearsome proposition. The smaller 2 W's are running around with swords and shields and have claimed at least 3 bedrooms for their camp. Whereas BigW seems to be trying to play Caesar by giving out the orders. Priviledge of age I suppose.

So what brought this on? Two things really 1) Middle W is doing Romans at school and he has a hyperactive imagination at the best of time and 2) They have discovered one of my Computer games called Caesar III. Its a bit like SimCity except in Roman times. I'm not sure SmallW has got to grips with the concept of only building when you have money and the building provides a purpose, he is more into just building what looks nice. I hate to say it but they have got me back at it - it had been a year since I last played the game and I installed it on my computer for a quick game - 2 hours later........

Running continues with its build-up 7 slow miles on Saturday and 4 Yassos at lunchtime today, brings me to 50 miles in the month. I'm taking the family up to Glasgow tomorrow for a couple of days, so unless I get out early tomorrow morning that will be running until Saturday.

PS MrsW says thanks for the comments - well apart from Leon's, she gets a bit tetchy when people call her a nurse. BTW has Giovanni found you yet Leon? He was saying something about bilateral tib and fib breaks

Dogs and runners don't mix

As all the mini-W's where in school MrsW and I had lunch together yesterday. Nowhere romantic I have to say. The Starbucks in the shopping centre across the road from my work. MrsW had been out for a run earlier and had an unfortunate encounter with a dog and its owner.

As she approached apparently the dog got a little agitated and MrsW tried to sidestep, except she slipped and fell over, but given the list of grazes I think she went for the triple pike with somersault. Her lists of injuries are

Grazes on heel of both hands
Grazing and bruising on right elbow
Bruising on Right Shoulder
Grazes on both knees

What is the really surprising thing is despite the accident only happening within a couple of hundred yards of home, she didn't back but continued running on. I think she deserved her Toffee Nut Latte. My run today was positively tame by comparison 5 miles in 42:50, boring really. At least I didn't encounter any dogs!

Shall I shan't I?

Busy day at work, couple of problems needed some in-depth thinking about. Of course you are just get settled into a train of thought when someone wanders up and asks a question about something totally different, one of the dangers of an open-plan office - no door to close. I must admit I can be quite rude sometimes and sit with my headphones on and just say " not a good time ". I think most people understand, especially when I try and go and see them afterwards.

I forgot to pack my trainers for running this morning, so this left me with a dilemma. Do I skip the run or do I use my "speed" trainers which are just a little too small for the orthos to fit into? What did I do?















Of course I went for a run! Short plod of just under 4 miles, but it had a very encouraging side, for the first time since I started running again my HR stayed low and relatively consistent, perhaps the body is remembering what its supposed to do!

Great couple of days

Just had some really good days

Got invited down to work colleagues yacht on Friday evening (its not a big boat honest!). We didn't make it past the clubhouse, they do a very nice fish and chips and as for the Gales HSB well that just slipped down a treat. Nice evening though it put paid to any running attempt on Saturday Morning.

Sunday was spent watching BigW at another Rugby tournament and yet another winners medal. He didn't score - unless you count assisting one of your team by grabbing them by the jersey and driving them and the ball over the line. I think he was please with the assist on its own.

Now Monday, most people hate Mondays start of the week and all that, well I felt the same until I got into the office. The rather irritating chap who sits next to me has been moved to some far flung corner of the building - OH YES dancing in the office. Even had to celebrate with a Bacon Butty.

Oh of course with pleasure comes pain - need to work the calories off. Today's chosen form of torture was speed work. 3 Yasso repeats at 6:40 m/m, this was hard work but then its been a couple of months since I did anything speedy, but its a start.

Meeting Beanz

Interesting week so far which played a little havoc with the running schedule

Monday had a friend that haven't spoken to much recently start work at the office. I thought it only fair that we sat down and had some lunch together anyway I wanted to catch up on a few things. So no Monday run.

Tuesday had a lunchtime meeting so that put pay to any lunchtime running. In the evening went over to Southampton to see Beanz as she was down at the Uni. Went for something to eat after I managed to get totally lost in Southampton. I will offer in my defence I don't normally drive in Southampton for that direction and the least said about my close-ish encounter with a concrete pillar in a car park the better. Great chat with Beanz though really nice to meet someone from blog land and a bit of guessing the times for certain other bloggers. Oh and Beanz expense account paid for dinner thanks Beanz.

So onto Wednesday, appointment with the phyyz for some preventative maintenance she seemed quite pleased with the general condition of my legs and it didn't hurt to much but still no running. I was able to persuade MrsW that she should take all 3 mini-W's to karate and I would sneak out for a gentle trot. Ended up doing a fraction over 4 miles in 38 minutes so a decent base training run.

Thursday oh what shall I do today. My self created plan said 5 miles and was trying to build up to it when someone wandered round and asked if I was still going running at lunchtime. I said I was so he asked if he could join me so no excuses now. Off we went for 5 realtively pacy miles. The only trouble was that our in-run electronics differed in the distance covered. His said 5.5 and mine said 5.3 which one to believe? I would like to say the 5.5 but I don't think we were averaging 7:40 m/m I think my 5.3 is closer to it the truth. Never mind it was still a good run and a kick up the pants for me.

Pride and Prejudice

My parents offered to look after the smallW's last night, so MrsW and I took ourselves off to the new cinema in town. Being fit people we decided to walk into town its only 20 minutes. One thing it did show me was how much the town I live in changes at night. Their were large groups milling around not actually doing anything. They were probably deciding which pub to blindinly drunk in. For the first time in 10 years of living here I was concerned about my safety. This should not be. The council has made a start by removning the license of one of the late night bars, forcing it to close. We could do with at least another 2 or 3 losing their licenses as well.

Reached the cinema safely though. We had gone to see Pride and Prejudice which was very good, especially Keira Knightley as Lizzie, though I prefer Colin Firth as D'arcy he does do a good line in stuck up romantically inept men. The only problem with going to the cinema was MrsW had a packet of toffee eclairs and I kept on finding one thrust into my hand for my consumption. That coupled with pint of beer aptley called "Fallover" (6% abv) didn't bode well for a run in the morning.

Woke up at about 7 and finally managed to convince my body to get out of bed at 8 to go for a run. Nice and easy start of the long slow runs - 5 miles. As it had been a late night I rigged the route with a long down slope with the end being short sharp up. Got round alright though the stomach was making some interesting noises towards the end. My right heel though is definitely beginning to blister when I've got my ortho's in. It could just be a case of a different contact point with the foot moving slightly differently. I've a couple more 3 and 4 mile runs planned next week before I step up to 6 miles, something to keep an eye (plaster and vaseline) on

oh almost forgot the mandatory table

Mile	Time	Ave HR
1	10:04	148
2	9:18	147
3	9:45	150
4	9:28	151
5	9:44	157
.17	1:32	160
49:53	9:39	151

Happy Birthday BigW

Its was BigW's 10th Birthday today. It doesn't seem like 10 years ago that I held this tiny baby in my hands for the first time, where does the time go? One thing is for certain he isn't tiny any more. He's nearly 5 ft tall and weighs the best part of 7 stone. If he tackles you in a rugby game, you will know you have been tackled. He really does make MrsW and I proud of him.

He's also a bit of a cricket fan so MrsW made hime a special cricket bat shaped cake complete with all the markings of Andrew Flintoff's bat.

With the thought of birthday cake in mind I decided that I'd better run today. After the rather sluggish efforts of the past couple of days I opted for a treadmill run where I could control what was going on a bit better. The plan was relatively simple - 1 mile warm-up building up to 8min/m pace hold that pace for 2 miles then gradual deceleration for a mile. Simple plan but the 2 miles in the middle worried me. There was no use in hanging around just get on and do it.

Soooo the run went a bit like this

1	9:03	151
2	7:58	163
3	7:59	166
4	8:35	164

Which if the truth be told I'm quite happy with. Rest day tomorrow, then a build up to 5 miles easy for Saturday morning.

It'll get easier

Alarm went off at 6 this morning and I did not want to get up, legs just didn't want to move, so I hit the snooze button. Unfortunately I only get to do this twice before MrsW rolls over and smacks me for not getting up. Eventually dragged myself up.

Perhaps the legs where trying to tell me something, something like "were not up to this running lark". Well I paid them no attention and plotted my little 3 mile lunchtime trot. I'd like to say it was better than yesterday, but it wasn't. Legs still felt like lead, though the Heart Rate was down a few beats for the pace. I'm probably still just shaking the lethargy out of the system, Patience is a virture I have to tell myself. It'll get easier in a couple of weeks I hope!

Bumped into the phyzzy person at the coffee machine and made another appointment for next week, so I mustn't overdo it or else I'll be made to really suffer on the treatment table.

A relative of Giovanni?

I'm convinced the scales at home are wrong. They are trying to tell me I've put on over 3lb in weight in the 5 days I was away, nah must be some mistake. So I keep on re-weighing myself but no its not a one off, I've put weight on.

Hmm only one thing to do - Go running - but when?

Couldn't go Saturday because I didn't get up till 10, tired from the flight back.
Couldn't go Sunday as I was with BigW at a rugby tournament - which his team happened to win - in fact he got 2 tries, one being quite good to watch as the opposition tried to tackle him and just bounced off and he lumbered his way over the line.
Ahh Monday lunchtime perfect - oh no Sports Massage booked. I'm beginning to wonder if my massuese is related to Giovanni in someway. She certainly has this sadistic streak.

She gets disappointed if I don't squawk in pain when she runs over a tender spot or a knot in the muscle, she has however learnt that I stop talking when it starts to hurt, so goes back over the area just to make sure! No seriously she is actually very good.

So that brings me to today I got out to go for a run on my own outside, just me and my orthotics. No problems to report with the orthotics, didn't notice them really perhaps because my legs just felt like lead and didn't want to do it. I did however perserve and managed to drag my overweight frame round 4.2 miles in just under 39 minutes, not fantastic but as someone once said
"Even a thousand mile journey must start with a single footstep"