Happy new year or not?

I never know when the previous season ends and the next one starts, sure the outdoor season is over by October (well in Wales anyway), but does the indoor season start before or after the new year?

By some miracle I found myself fit enough to compete in the Cardiff Met Christmas Classic on the 16th December, so was this still the 2018 season or would it be 2019? The confusion is based on what good old Power of 10 does. Now, my interest was mostly on the Pole Vault and Long Jump as usual, I had some unfinished business with my 2018 results - could do better.  So I was hoping to improve my season's bests in both events but this would depend on what Po10 considers "This season" when listing Outdoors vs Indoors. For instance, if you list the 2019 Long Jump Rankings for the M55 Outdoors, it lists only performances from 2019 but all are currently flagged as Indoor performances, if you change to Indoors you get some extra ones from the end of 2018.

Putting this less than interesting discussion to one side before we all die of boredom, I found myself warming up well for the vault. My one training session had suggested 3.0m was a distinct possibility which would be a season's best in whatever year Po10 wanted. On my third run through I did indeed slither over a 3.30m bungee bar, so I was on song for once. Well so I thought anyway, lady luck had other plans for me as usual. The competition started at a leisurely rate and I entered at 2.60m, first vault is always my worst, so it should be no surprise that it all went terribly wrong once again, at least I didn't break anything, uprights, bar, pole and bones included. Sadly vault 2 was a disaster, half way down the runway as I hit the gas button, my right calf gave way and cramped up, resulting in another catastrophic failure. I took my third attempt, which was surprisingly the best of the trio despite the pain that had appeared in my leg. So that was that, end of season or a failure to start the season as I had to withdraw from the long jump.

I guess you all know how I drowned my sorrows once again, but it involved a bottle of Macallan 10 year old Fine Oak, and very fine it is too. Being a typical Macallan Speyside malt that I'm sure a lot of you have seen in Tescos, the taste has that familiar sherry oaky-ness to it with the remnants of the Bourbon cask it was aged in. Its quite oily and smooth to drink with a lovely finish as it slides down leaving a little nutty flavour.

Christmas was approaching fast so, I basically took an early break from training to rehab the calf which was thankfully successful. Whiskymas, as I have now christened it, was fun from a single malt perspective.

The above Mcallan took a bit of a beating as you would expect and I sneaked what was the last but one shot from my 1960 Strathisla, I may have to invest in another one of them despite the huge cost as it's so darn good. Like the Mcallan, its very oaky with rich chewy fruitiness, with butterscotch and sherry flavours and full of smokeyness which is slightly unusual for a Highland malt, more typical of the neighbouring Speyside offerings. It's unusual, but that is because it pre-dates the era of consistency, by which I mean the casks bottled varied but the distilleries didn't worry as they do now. So no effort was made to make every bottle taste the same by vatting loads of casks before bottling. Anyway, I wouldn't rush out to buy one though, if you can find one it'll cost over £500 - I bought mine years ago for about £50, and a second for £120 which I can no longer afford to replace.

The new year was ushered in with the resumption of some serious training with the Welsh Masters indoor track championships less than three weeks away, this was focused on sorting out my diabolical block start. I actually managed to do this without injuring myself for once, so I was feeling pretty good when I sauntered into the Non Thomas Cardiff Met Open meeting at NIAC on the 20th of January. I'd entered the 60m and the 200m, and ducked the 400m as it was immediately after the 200m and I wasn't that fit. Sadly the 60m didn't go that well, I thought I started well but there were too many ahead of me for that to be so. When I saw the Welsh Masters Athletics Association photos, I could see I was  4th out of the blocks, so a crap start by anyone's standard. On the upside, I did win the race, all thanks to a blistering second 30m. The time was nothing special: 8.74, my second worst time, narrowly beating one I clocked several years ago when I tripped out the blocks attempting to do a Jamaican start. I felt it was a promising start as I'd only really done half a dozen sessions, the 200m should be better.

After enjoying the couple of hours recovery, a luxury I'm not usually afforded, I lined up for M55 200m as the only one entered from WMAA. My opposition were a trio of English guests from the younger age groups, so I was unlikely to keep pace despite their banter to the contrary. Sure enough, I started well, (well better than the 60m anyway), and hit the first bend as hard as I could. Nevertheless, I drifted back from the others. I dug deep on the final bend but only succeeded in digging myself a hole full of treacle through which it felt like I was dragging a fridge. Through the bleary head spinning haze I managed to clock 28.85. Time for a lie down and - yes - when I got home the rest of the Macallan was consumed by way of celebration of the two medals but also to forget the times.

My next competition was the second part of the Welsh Masters championships, the field events at the Swansea indoor "Track" on the 10th February. I concentrated once more on the vault and hurdles as the latter is the first event in the indoor pentathlon that I intended to enter later that month, and the vault is of course one of my preferred disciplines. I was unable to maintain the wave of common sense that had preceeded the previous meeting, and I entered all five events - Long Jump, Shot Putt, High Jump, Pole Vault and Triple Jump. This would be demanding and good preparation for the multi-event championship later in the month. I opened my account with the shot, not a sparkling throw but acceptable at 7.67m, then it was across to the adjacent long jump and my first attempt to claim the no. 1 spot in Wales. I made it three quarters of the way down the runway before my left calf decided enough was enough and painfully turned to reinforced concrete. I did jump as I was travelling too quick to stop, and rather embarrassingly took 2nd place with 4.14m to go with 3rd in the shot.

I left early feeling rather deflated after allowing the leg some time to recover with a bag of ice from St. Johns. As I strapped the unused poles to the roof of the car, I wondered if I would recover in time for next week's BMAF Pentathlon, it was going to be touch and go, so I went.  When I had driven the 55 miles home in a real sulk, I realised I had left my kit bag in the car park, yet another senior moment that couldn't be blamed on the whisky. My brother in law drove me back down but the bag had gone, along with my wallet. Then something strange happened, my bank texted me to thank me for letting them know I'd lost my payment card, which I had yet to do. Either they were psycic or my wife had rung them. Turned out to be neither, one of the meeting officials had rescued my bag and contacted the bank to try to locate me, so after a couple of phone calls I was reunited with my kit and cards in time for dinner.