An autumninal feeling

I was a little relieved to make it to the end of the season with just two injuries and what qualifies as a minor drink problem. The Decathlon, despite the no-heighting in the vault, was still the highlight of the year for me, exceeding expectations in eight of the other events. For once I'd defied my usual tradition of turning up injured and it paid dividends. Yes I had a couple of niggles, but that's Masters Athletics, and I was actually pretty fit - relatively speaking as endurance still seems to evade me. Turns out, I broke 3 club records (High Jump, Discus and 100mH) and set a new points mark for the M55 Decathlon. Had I cleared my season average in the vault I would have just pinched 3rd place with just short of 5100 points, much more than I had expected. All of this means I can look forward to next year using these as targets for breaking, assuming I get the chance.

So, to winter's training then. I will have to up the mileage in an attempt to side step my furry friend the fridge toting bear, I really can't afford to have the wheels come off in the way they do in the 200m and 400m, one day I'm going to pass out. I decided that sneaking round the Park Runs with my wife would help but the main focus would be speed endurance consisting of 200's and 300's executed on my infamous grass track. This would only be possible for the first couple of months as it will get too dark and even I'm not stupid enough to try running across an uneven muddy field in the dark carrying a bear and a fridge.

It was a good plan but it soon came to grief as you may have guessed, thankfully not through injury this time. As this is a public area, and only golf, horse riding and moto-cross are banned, we do get a lot of dog walkers using the grass, so I sometimes have to put up with these lovable pooches chasing me or just bounding up full of the joys of spring to say hello. Inevitably I nearly came to grief during one particularly keen session of 6x200m, 32-33 seconds 4 minutes recovery. I was hurtling down the side of the field on rep no 4 when I came across a dog walker with an especially lovable little mutt coming the other way. The owner saw me coming and stopped, the dog saw me and bounded towards me on the left, tongue flapping madly in the wind. I broke right in the effort to miss the pair, but the dog bounced right also. As a Welshman and ex-rugby player, I gracefully sidestepped left, only for the dumb dog to go left in a vain effort to tackle me. We were getting close now, so I responded with a desperate cut to the right, but the dog got there first. It was at this point I decided to invent a new sport - dog hurdling! I cleared the dog, leaving it confused only to provoke what I hoped was exclamations of gratitude from the owner, but somehow I doubt if his comments were complimentary, and cast doubt over my sanity which, all things considered, were not without credibility.

Despite  my ever increasing age, I was pushing hard, training 5-6 days a week, weights, road runs (oh yes!) and the field runs, so it was some relief to get a couple of days off and get away from it all for  my birthday. Now, what do I usually get up to when I have a birthday? Normally I go to Scotland to get drunk in as many distilleries as is physically possible in the time allocated. Well, this year would be very similar, but minus the Scotland bit (Sorry Ken!). As luck would have it, three years ago, an entrepreneur set up a distillery in the Cotswolds and his single malt became eligible to be called whisky two weeks before my birthday meaning the official launch party was to be on Saturday the 7th October.

The Cotswolds Distillery

Too good an opportunity to miss, so we booked a nearby hotel - Ettington Chase - and spent the day at the launch, spending more than intended on the limited edition bottling and various other inebriating gins. Sunday we came back in an attempt to get on a tour, but they were all fully booked so we ended up just getting drunk on samples in the visitors centre. Now as a three  year old single malt, you'd expect it to be rough stuff, but it is lovely smooth dram, full of toffee caramel and marzipan. It has a good smooth finish with vanilla and more soft toffee. It compares favourably to the other southern singles, though it has now sold out so you'll have to take my word for it, although whisky writer Jim Murray was at the launch as he lives nearby, so you'll probably be able to take his instead.

The following week, after surviving training on the back of all that  drinking, we had a little get together at home and I opened a few other singles to compare. This included "The Englishman" from the other English distillery in Suffolk, a Penderyn of course  and a 10 year old Jura. The Jura came out on top ahead of the Penderyn, possibly because I love peat and Madeira, leaving the two English malts behind, though I have to say the Cotswolds Single is the best English and future releases will be very interesting.

The Sunborn 5 star floating hotel.

The following month, it was off to Gibraltar for a short break with my long suffering wife in celebration of her birthday, so an opportunity for duty frees. We stayed in the Sunborn luxury 5 star yacht moored in the marina near the airport and their 6 lane tartan track. Its as good as it looks, we were welcomed at check in with champagne so it certainly started well. As it was my wife's birthday the concierge arranged for more champagne for the room/cabin, I could get used to this. Breakfast was as good, yep it included more champagne alongside the cereal, which set us up nicely for the day. We spent our time productively shopping, the wife for jewelry and myself for single malts, everything was VAT free, but I  ended up buying three bottles in the airport where it was even cheaper. On return to the ship we met up with a couple we had flown out from Bristol with, who had an even better day, they had got engaged on the top of the rock, so my wife - ordered another bottle of champagne to celebrate. I can recommend Gibraltar for a short break, we managed to visit most places  of interest, the weather was kind too, but remember the hangover cures.

Back in Wales, I resumed my tussle with the bear, which was starting to worry me somewhat as collapsing at the side of the track and falling asleep in the stand could not be considered a normal part of  training. To that end I dug out my old Polar FT7 heart monitor to let me know if I was dead or not. Sadly training ground to a halt almost immediately, partly due to the weather but mostly due to the onset of yet another injury. This may also be down to the amount off whisky being consumed, but whilst my calf may have given out, at least I had proof I wasn't deceased. The indoor season hangs in the balance.