Since the previous episode, quite by chance, training has actually been going pretty well. I have decamped my speed endurance sessions to the grasslands of Rogerstone as you probably know, and left just the out and out speed work at my home track. The work has therefore been stepped up, well a bit any road, though I'm not convinced my body understands that it's supposed to respond to all this pain and get fitter. The previous Monday's session was a case in point, it consisted of just 4x300m reps, that's from the sign post down the little slope, side stepping the three giant mole hills, dodging the low branches, then up the slope that soon feels like a cliff face, past the man hole cover and along to the broken fence by the next man hole. Scenic but effective and I managed a reasonable series of 54, 53, 54, and 54 with 4 minutes stagger back recoveries, at the end of which I tripped over somebody's fridge and just collapsed. It was then I had an Alice in Wonderland moment as I lay sprawled on the grass making a noise akin to a steam train waiting for the off. Whilst looking up and trying to focus on the tree's branches above, a grey squirrel appeared briefly, took a quick look at me, then I was sure it winked and laughed before it disappeared.
So hoping that the Monday session had an impact different to the dents left in my head, the Wednesday workload was set to the same level only over a shorter distance, 6x200m. The course is the same, hill, moles, branches, hill and finish at the first man hole cover. I had a quick look around, just the one dog walker so off we went. Went well to start 34, 34, 33, 33, 34, and finished with another 34. However, the trouble had started on the 4th one, I'd had to employ what most Welsh Rugby players can do by instinct and side step the dog walker resulting in the rep being a bit quicker. This in turn meant on the penultimate one dog became a bear and I only vaguely remember making it past the fridge, recoveries went from 3 to 4 minutes. The final one was a bit too much of a blur, but I distinctly remember stepping in the middle mole hill before drifting sideways up the little hill that now resembled Mount Kilimanjaro with a man hole cover at the top. Inevitably I fell to my knees in worship of still being alive and began a close up study of a remarkable 6 leaf clover. Hardly surprisingly, it turned out to be a 3 leaf clover only I was seeing double.
The following week, it was sprint work and a simple set of 7x60m flat out with hours and hours of meandering back for recoveries. Just for a laugh I took the stop watch with me and managed to clock them all around my PB: 7.9 - 8.1. It just so happened that my ever supportive daughter, Chloe, was also training and was not impressed, she just laughed as she'd just done 6x400.
Following all this hilarity, we left for two weeks in the sun in Playa des Ingles, Gran Canaria. Looking for our hotel on Google Earth, I spotted an 8 lane track so training would continue abroad. Little did we know what awaited us.
Two days into the sun god worshipping we went to the Estadio Municipal Maspalomas and purchased two electronic wrist bands that allowed access to the facility, rather like being tagged really, and on the Tuesday we turned up to run. The 'Track' was an old Mondo surface that had fossilised in the previous millennium and had subsequently disintegrated and no longer took a spike and was too covered by loose track rubble to be used at speed in flats. Not to be discouraged by this (The old Swansea track jumped to mind here for some straange reason), and the fact we'd already paid for five sessions at 2 Euros each, we set about 6x50m block starts (yes I took my blocks on holiday), 6x60m sprints (yes and my spikes) and 4x150m (24,21,21,21 -yep and the stop watch) in the 23 degree heat. It went OK, although we got the strangest looks from the locals who were starting to resemble furry mammals towards the end.
We came back for more of Thursday - 4x50m blocks, 4x60, 4x80 and 4x100 which was exactly when the bear jumped me, and I only managed 2 of the 100s, and Chloe has been reminding me ever since 'cos shed did all 4! Saturday morning we were back again much to the local's amusement, I have to look up "Loco Ingles" sometime. This session was an easy one, but fell at the first hurdle. We tried to do long jump but discovered the sand was only two inches deep, so it was back to the track and more 60's and 100's. We managed two more seasons of blocks, sprints and 150s before returning to reality back in the UK with sore feet and blunt spikes
The big question was: would sprinting on near concrete make me any faster, the Inter Regional was the day after we got back so we shall see.........
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