Nearly not the last Rockett

Was early to the meeting point and this time and Aisha and was there, so I felt safe as more and more of the uber elite rocked up that I would have some company at the back today.

The cold rain had stopped and a baking sun scorched the road and towpath bone dry. It was beginning to scorch me too as we arrived at the canal.

The session was called as 10 minutes out, 3 recovery and then back with the following: 4x 60 on with 3o recovery followed by 4 more of 30 on 30 recovery.

On the ten out I went right to the back and Steve Scrutton was there too nursing an injury and claiming he was going to jog at the back and true to his word he let us go off. After about 3 mins into the 10 I decided to overtake Aisha and she did a great job of making just enough noise behind me to keep the pace solid and we nearly got the gas canisters in the 10 mins. Now, while that put me miles behind everyone except Aisha lets check the distance. It is 2.5 km making that a 40min 10km clip or 6:29 min miles (or an 85min half if held for another 75mins eek!) so the point being that was a respectable 10mins.

Noticed a dead bird in canal, that's the way I like my pigeons belly up in the drink and not under my feet!

On the way back Aisha and I were doing ok on the one min reps - Aisha's beep beep when we caught some joggers made me think of the roadrunner cartoon. At the third I was joined by Martin who volt faced and started to join in with us. My pace was now put to the test as Martin was not messing around. I let him lead and was able to keep him in check through the one min reps, but his better speed and acceleration meant I struggled to stay in touch on the 30s. But I had some in reserve. On the last rep I cunningly let Martin lead through the tunnel, as since the Bob incident I've been a little tentative going through those on the effort, but then accelerated out and past for the last 15 seconds going deep into the fifth zone finishing with stars spinning around my head as I doubled up to gulp in the hot dry air. All worth it though on two counts, to not really finish last and also for the encouraging words that are still ringing in my ears from Martin, "Strong finish, Niall".

Job done.