More powerful reps

Potential excuses for todays reps being bad.

1) Having been in Scotland at the weekend delivering my children to the half term playground that is Millport
2) Sunday going out to Luton Hoo (in flat shoes that trashed my tibialis posterier) then,
3) to the cinema to see couples retreat followed by a meal out then
4) power hour circuits on Monday night. Those were fun and Jo was back (800m in 2:21) so that made the shuttles at the end much more interesting and the young guns and some of us older dudes were finding out quickly just how fast Jo could go, the answer is very fast and give her more that the length of the hall I'm sure she could trash me, but over that distance I can just hold her pace. It was all very amusing.

None of all that mattered, I was fine.

At the meeting point in the Needs group were Scrutton, George, Paul, but no Martin.

George has been out for a while, but his comeback was most welcome.

Smaller group today and before you could say 6 by 4 with 90 off, three groups formed and Paul, George, Paul and I burst out laughing at the natural selection - hard stares from the elite group as they were clearly not going to condone enjoyment of any kind.

Scrutton zoomed away to lead rep one and he went through a puddle and splashed me. I spied a puddle 20m ahead and stamped down hard into it. Unfortunately, while soaking Steve (under the Geneva convention this is acceptable and appropriate retaliation) there was collateral damage and my apology was not enough for the back group who were pretty close to chucking me in the canal for that. Lucky for me I appear to be faster than them and with staying dry as motivation I had no choice but to lead the group through the first few reps.

Scrutton nearly hit a bike who was coming out of a tunnel and having slagged him of for that at the very same point I nearly crashed into a jogger. From then on every tunnel got a McIntyre shout as I went through.

Felt like a long way out and we were well past the park gates when we hit half way. Paul was still with me and George was still going well too.

Paul commented on form just after the turn. I noticed the non-sitting position and footfall circle working nicely just before then and the turn does indeed seem to be a good place to be thinking form.

The return leg was marked by a fast moving object closing in on us. This was Martin 'half reps' Wood late for the session but very keen to join in.

Two police were walking along looking out for something. Suddenly one of them jumps the railings then the other goes over too. The first one moves into the flats while the other makes a flanking maneuver around the back. We spot the target looking well guilty with bike. We offer to help catch the guy, but the police have him cornered so we just shout encouragement to the flanking officer.

Martin has upped the pace on the return leg. We're moving fast and I can hear him huffing and puffing on my shoulder. I focus on form again and try not to sit and slightly increase the footfall circle - again to my delight and surprise perceived effort drops and pace increases and Martin's footfalls aren't quite so loud anymore.

Dropped George somewhere after rep 4.

Psychologically prepared for the last rep. by stating my intention to let the elite through when they turn up without challenge.

I need not have bothered, as they never caught us. Made it perfectly back to the start point so thanks to Martin's timely arrival we'd done a perfectly balanced set of reps. I was very happy with today's session, 80-90 percent efforts by the end, but again feeling solid enough and light on feet.

With the race approaching fast and even Dave in taper, it's time for a rest day, then a slow day (watch out zone 1 slobs, here I come) and then a well timed Hare and Hound to round off the week - I'm going to get that hare this time!