No Paul today. Martin was busy, but might have been coaxed out if there was some savage hunting to be done.
I was at the meeting point well early and next to arrive was Aisha leading a group of asset managers towards the meeting point. I waved at her and she waved back, changing direction to cut over to my side of the road. Unfortunately, her three buddies kept going in a straight on and the first guy bumped into her and nearly went over, followed by a pure keystone cops moment as the other two went into the first guy. They survived unscathed, but it was very funny.
Then the Scrutton arrived dribbling at the mouth before he'd even got to the meeting point. He cleaned himself up and then set off on a barrage of comments around how great it was to see such a mass of rubbish runners. On the way up I explained how in Paul's grading system he'd recently moved from a C to a B- trending B. The grin on his face said it all.
Alan Barnes (first man at the cross country in 30:mins) was at the canal resplendent in his long white compression socks! I gave a cheer for those. Nick was there too (sixth at the cross country).
My view was then respected by the elite as we needed some recovery reps for those who had raced and those who are going to race on the weekend at some elite bash. Ian Lockett himself set the session as :
12x 1min on 30seconds recovery, as hard as you like or stride it through.
Wind impact high, so 7 out 5 back.
Suddenly I panicked as me and some of the slow boys were in amongst the elite. Quick track back and we're off and I'm sort of in with Paul's B group. I decide to tuck in behind the girls and sure enough it is too fast and I'm dropped at the 4th rep. But there is still a ton of people behind me. Including the scrutton.
John Clarke (3rd at the cross country) goes by at full speed going the other way, he nods in response to my cheerful encouragement.
Battle through to the turn trading places with Steve and Aisha a few times. Easy one to the turn sets up the back five battle.
Ease through to catch Aisha on the first return leg. Karen's group go through on the 9th rep and I risk tucking in. Sarah is not holding Karen's pace and by the final rep I sneak past her.
As we finish the final rep I hear the voice of an out of breath Steve Scrutton "Guess who did not run hard enough yesterday?". He always has a come back this guy!
Great run back (chatting at elite recovery pace) to Alan who was pleased I'd had a good cross country after the bad half marathon race. It's great to be running again while not sick!
Nice to catch these guys thoughts and very nice not to be at the back on my own.
Now, where was Paul?
Possible Limehouse loop with Martin tomorrow. Looking forward to that.
1 comment:
Hopefully the lurgy is gone for good.
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