Wednesday 31 January 2018

Wednesday with Dan

Dan picked me up at the usual 730 AM with me just finishing up an early morning call. Off we went into the drizzle coupled with low temps. I was unsure how the back would hold up but was just about ok. Could not do this alone so very thankful to Dan for the company. 17k dead slow in 5.10s but more hills.


Steady eddy with Messi

I complained from the off. Tired legs, sore back, I was rolling out all the excuses. Messi ordered 21k. Ok I said and then continually thought what have I let myself in for.

We headed to the park with some initial slow ks but then gradually picked it up. The laps went by nicely on a beaut of a winters day and no wind. I reckon the middle section was around 16ks in 4.09/08s. With the run home to warm down that got us to 22k in 4.18s. Solid enough given how lethargic I was to start with.

J still sick as a dog so I was juggling work and the boys. Not an easy task.

Rydie at tennis:







Monday 29 January 2018

Solo recovery for Doc Sam

Home today looking after J who is bed ridden. Snuck out for a 45 minute recovery on a grey and dull London day (4.54s / 9.3k).  Nothing else to say other than legs are wasted after yesterday’s efforts.

Hilly Long solo

The stars aligned for me with the elder boys’ games both being called off which meant I only had to be back by 10.30 to get Rydie to his game.

It’s been bugging me for some weeks now that I’ve not done a proper long run. Messi was not keen so plucked up the courage to attack my Hilly Long route around Biggin Hill solo.

With having ran easy on Friday and rested yesterday I felt bouncy and so comfortably settled on 4.30s. The first 14ks are almost entirely uphill. It’s pretty brutal. Mingling with all the bike riders on the popular route I managed to catch a few on the steeper sections. Despite the hills, I surprised myself by keeping the average below 4.30s reaching the high point at circa 14km with the average on 4.24s to then attack the final 20ks which are mostly downhill albeit with 4 or 5 nasty short and sharp hills.

I had a wobbly patch around 17k where I thought for a minute or so that I was bonking with not having eaten brekkie / gels. But managed to pull myself together and get back home for the total 33.3ks in 2 hours and 22 minutes (4.16 average) which includes 500m of vertical climbing.

Quick shower and out the door to drive Rydie to his game. Dan’s bday celebrations in the afternoon but Jacqui now sick as a dog and Mia still in hospital.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1379188058



Lukie late birthday party

No run today running around the family including Lukie’s football party at Goals in Elmers End.  Have to say he has a fantastic set of mates. They were a lot of fun.




Friday with Messi

Laps of the park with Messi. Slow and simple early morning. Mia in hospital still and so worked from home popping over to see her at lunchtime.

Boys #3 and 4.



Thursday 25 January 2018

Session! Fartlek

Morning jog/stretch/yoga - 3k

Lunch treadmill session - 60 mins fartlek which went 13’ warm up (4.48s) + 1’/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1 with 1 minute floats (3.45s) + 14’ warm down (4.25s).

Pretty knackered but content.

Wednesday 24 January 2018

Run to work - wet and windy

Same routine. Daniel arrived bang on time and then the slog to work. I struggled today and felt empty by the end.

Lunch = jog + stretch + my yoga + strength = the only reason why I can continue running. Pretty simple.

21ks for the day.

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Usual commute with Selman

D picked me up at 7.30 after my early morning call. It was wet and dark still but time passed quickly. Felt a little better again today for another 17k in a touch over 5s. I was quite depleted by the time we crossed Blackfriars Bridge.

Lunch - my 30 minute yoga / stretch routine


Tread

10 KMs on the treadmill in 5s. Bored.

Monday 22 January 2018

Ryder frozen

AM - I ditched the Canterbury 10 mile race to be home with the family and instead met Messi for laps of the park - enjoyable company as always and in contrast to yesterday we were actually moving quite well. So much so we ran under 4.30s (20k, 4.28s).

Daniel ran well in Canterbury but still think he has so much more potential. I have high hopes for him for London. I honestly think he has a 2.52 in his locker.

Mid morning - Jack’s and Lukie's games were both cancelled and by the time Ryder and I arrived in West Wickham for his game it was
snowing heavily. It was absolutely freezing. 5 minutes into the second half one of the opposition players started balling his eyes out because his hands were so cold. I was not sure wherher it would be one of the parents next or another player. As our goalkeeper then succumbed to the cold the referee had the good sense to cancel the game. Rydie just about held it together but is now suffering from a heavy cough.

PM - dinner out with all the Fam for Byron burgers with Jacqui and I watching Detroit beforehand. Holy cow.

Another 100km week. 2nd in succession.






Junior Kent County XC

Leggy this morning but forced myself outside into the rain to Norman Park for Park Run.

Bumped into Messi on the start line but he was tempo’ing and frankly I was not up for it. He ran off into the distance with Briony, a sub 35 minute 10k runner and also gunning for a sub 2.40 marathon.

Ended up running most of the way with Ed and managed to hold 3.50s for 19 minutes working quite hard. Bloody hell!

It was freezing so after finishing I just turned round to get home as Jack and I needed to be on the road by 11 to be in Dover for his race. It rained the entire way there and scarily we lost traction on the motorway a couple of times with all the water surface.

The race was at one of the Military Private schools and first impressions were that it was horribly muddy. A quick scan of the opposition and it was abundantly clear that everyone was wearing spikes. I walked back to Jack who was trying to keep warm in the car. ‘Dad’ he announced ‘I am going to run in my trainers’. ‘Errrrr son, NO you’re not’ I said, ‘that’s a bad idea - get your football boots on!’.

At the start we bumped into my old coach Andy Frankish when I used to make up the numbers with Mark Steinle (2.09 London Marathon in 2002), Jonathon Murray and co. It’s because of people like him giving up their free time that British Athletics is still even remotely competitive. I introduced him to Jack as my coach when I was his age! It was weird as and as if I was still in 1985 watching myself being introduced to him all over again.

They set off super quick as these junior races always do for 2 circuits with each having one small lap which meant we could see them 4 times. As if running in football boots was not a handicap enough, he has also done zero training relying solely on his football fitness. He ended up in ~#70th place which included boys in the year above. As a May birthday there will have been some boys 18 months older and it looked that way.

The finish was a classic as a boy outsprintd him whilst projectile spewing over the steward. Full marks to him for effort.

The first thing Jack said was ‘Dad, can we please please go home?’ and secondly: ‘that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done’. We headed straight to the car and were out of there 5 minutes later. Now tuning into Radio 5 Live for the Arsenal Palace game our day went from bad to worse when by 3.22 PM we were already 4-0 down.

Nevertheless, nice one on one time with #2 with chats in the car about Australia and other things. What made it for me was after Jack having had a warm bath he came down stairs to give me a big hug and thanked me for taking him. That was a nice touch - I would never have done that at his age!















Friday 19 January 2018

Rest day after 13 days

Had planned this and coincided with my persisting right knee niggle.

30 mins of my running yoga / stretch routine at lunch.

A lot of noise at the moment in all facets of my life with Mia now in hospital. She’s going to be ok though.





One hellava day

Not sure where to start. Ran in with Daniel and Messi for part and then the rollercoaster began (17k in 5.05s - we are remarkably consistent). Had to strap myself in. The ride finished around 645 PM to get back home and compare notes of the day with J.

* right knee playing up still and now running through my usual array of antics to fix it. Serves me right for ditching my yoga and stretching routines.




Wednesday 17 January 2018

Results day

Daniel picked me up at home again at 7.30 AM before slogging it out for the 17k route to Fleet Street which included hills and a harsh headwind. Bloody freezing too. 17k in 5.05s, very similar to yesterday.

At lunch spent 35 mins on core and stretching before sprinting back for afetrnoon calls.

20k for the day.

Tuesday 16 January 2018

Selman

Run in early with Dan and right knee sore due to my own laziness. 17k in 5.05s.

Busy day in the office and it’s bloody cold.


Jacqui Monday

I worked from home today due to family commitments and so ran 9k earlyish in the pouring rain (4.40s). Not exactly enjoyable.

Grabbed some lunch with J at a new Vietnamese place in North Bromley for lunch.


Sunday footie

Ditched the long run and instead attempted to sit down and do some homework with the boys with varying degrees of success.

This week all their football matches coincided around midday with me taking Jack and Ryder who both had games in sunny Catford. I dropped Jack first before dropping Ryder with his coach to then race back and catch Jack’s first half meeting my dad there and then speeding back to catch Ryder’s game.

Ryder (Rydie) is improving all the time but he’s still hands down the worst player in his team. That said, he plays with real gusto and he most importantly thinks that he’s doing great which I find totally adorable. He constantly puffs his cheeks and goes full gas. Jack was back on form scoring a nice goal cutting in from the right and curling a left foot shot into the near corner.

Post games I took Jack, Rydie and Sin (the boy with magic in his feet) to see Lukie’s and Harlem’s second half. They managed to equalise 2 minutes into injury time only to lose the game in the 3rd minute of injury time. Never mind.

Now late into the afternoon I had a 45 minute window until the Liverpool Man City game which was not quite at the level of the Palace game the day before but was great entertainment with the Reds squeezing home 4-3 :). The impetus to get home to see the start made it into a sponstaneous threshold run. 9k in 3.55s on the hilly course and the first k being 5 minutes.

It’s been a good weekend. 106k for the week.
















Stars aligned...with Loyle

AM - ran to Park Run but my legs were goneski. I only planned to jog round and but progressed through the field passing Lukie’s best mate Josh with 600 meters to go. He’s 11! and says it all. 13k in 4.35s and straight home to pick the boys up from training.

Lunch - family time as is standard in our house on a Saturday. In fact at the weekends we try and sit at least twice daily for food.

Afternoon - took Jack to Selhurst to see Palace vs Burnley. It’s always nice to have the one on one time. It did not disappoint with Selhurst typically raucous and Palace running out 1-0 winners thanks to Sakgoaaaal.  The highlight though was pre-game whilst standing in the queue to get in when I spied Loyle Carner the now global hip hop star. I was certainly star struck but demanded a selfie all the same and blabbing about taking my 13 year old to his recent gig at the Brixton Academy. He was nice as pie and a real gent. I knew he would be, his Ma is a mad Palace fan after all.

Evening - family dinner.

*A great day.
** Even tho managed 5 loads of washing - we could employ a factory to wash the amount of crap our boys go through in 1 week with all their activities.









Friday 12 January 2018

Mike Holmes

Ran in with Dan (17k in 4.55s per km) and then also a short loop with Mike at lunch which took us west down the embankment, over to the better south side via Westminster Bridge and back across the wobbly bridge (6k in 5s). Great catching up with him.

Same age we both started at GS the same year and have shared many a joke over the best part of 2 decades. A mad Liverpool fan who grew up in a working class area in the city, defying all the odds and was the first in his family to go to Uni finishing with a First in mathematics at Cambridge no less. He is one of the good guys.

We were both in Germany at the same time in the early 2000s, the highlight being the night when we did the all-nighter to go and watch Liverpool’s Champions League Semi away at Bayer Leverkusen. We spent hours trekking for tickets and was ludicrous looking back at it now but a lot of fun. He’s not changed one iota.



Thursday 11 January 2018

Dikembe Mutombo

Today I met Dikembe Mutombo. A privilege and someone who has made real difference.

In short, his story is NBA legend followed by full time philanthropist. It’s the latter not the former where he has had lasting impact. 10 years ago post retiring from basketball and whilst on a trip to his native Africa he felt compelled to help and decided to build a hospital in the Congo, his country of birth. He was told it would cost $30m and so he and his wife duly donated the vast majority.

It’s a remarkable story from someone who grew up in humble surroundings, his father earned less than $40 a month.  He was very keen to impress that it’s not how much money you make but the extent to which you help others which counts. It’s this contribution which will invariably ensure your happiness.

He realed off quote after quote:

- It’s in our hands to make the world a better place (straight out of the Mandela book)

- The real litmus test is how much you touch people other than your love ones

- Life is not where you come from, it is where you are going

- On his email signature he has the following quote which I love : I will continue to work hard as I do not accept excuses’.

They kept coming....

He told the story of how his first coach reached out to him in 1999 and said ‘hey African come here’, ‘do you want to play basketball?’.  ‘What about my medical studies?’ he replied. The coach went on to tell him that if he did exactly what he said he would be able to help more people than any doctor in history.

We asked him about why team sports are so important for business careers. He said that you don’t get success alone, it only comes through working with others.

He was asked whether his background gave him the platform to succeed in all the facets of his life.  He agreed, at 9 years of age he was asked to get up at 4.30 every morning to sell bread before school. He did that for 8 years to help feed his family.

Only three players have had their jerseys retired. He being one. He broke countless NBA defence records.

He is now a global ambassador for the NBA. An $8bn institution. They’ve recently built 10,000 courts in China alone.

He was asked about his kids, his 14 year old son is 6 foot 8 and has a size 18 shoe.  He takes them home to Africa every year to ensure that they stay grounded.

He was asked about how to start a charity? He said the main thing was to commit to it for life as opposed to lying to the world and letting it go after 3 years.

He only broke 22 noses in 18 years. Lebron James was his last victim.

* ran to work with Dan. 17k in 5s.










Wednesday 10 January 2018

Sammy special

Fartlek today which went 13 minutes warm up followed by 1’/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1 with 1 minute floats finishing with another 13 warm down for 13.8ks in 60 minutes.

Not quick but done and the first session for yonks.

Meanwhile back in the Alps there is utter carnage. Yesterday’s avalanche was exactly where we 6 were skiing last week - today’s Times:


Tuesday 9 January 2018

Run in with Selman

Daniel picked me up at 730 and even before we reached the end of my road I already knew it was going to be a struggle. Am sure Daniel was getting annoyed with how slow I was running. Ended up with 17k in 1.28. Could not have done solo so thanks to Daniel for putting up with me!

Lunch - 60 mins gym.

PM - jog to E&C train station 3k. 

20k for the day but feeling crappie.


Monday flat

Totally flat today. Short gym session followed by 30 minute jog. Sure I have a minor bug of some sort.

Sunday slog

Out early doors with Messi to chew the fat on how unfit we both are (no pun intended).

17k in over 5 minute ks. Ouch. Nice to catch up all the same.

The rest of the day I was playing daddy day care as J was out all day with Jack in north London for his London Cup Final round which they lost!!!!!

Managed a short ride with boys 1, 3 and 4 in the afternoon to Kelsey Park and back saying our hellos to the resident fox.



Home

The bus got us down the mountain safely thank goodness and the flight out of Geneva was also on time which meant we made it back for 1.30pm.

Got out for short 9k jog pre dinner. Knackered and not fit.

Lake Annecy early morning:



Monday 8 January 2018

Day #7 - final day

The boys and J were at ski school in the morning followed by us all meeting up at lunch in time for the Pallafour lift to open.  We were one of the very first to speed down after the piste workers had done their bit.  That first run was fast, terrifying and a tonne of fun all at the same time. At one point I was travelling well over 50kmh and border line out of control.

The Pallafour opening coincided with blue skies and glorious sun shine which always brings out the best in the stunning 360 degree vista.

A sensational afternoon joined by Chev and Dave to cap off a memeorable holiday. J improved out of sight as did Lukie who is now parallel turning with no bother. Tommy is undoubtably the natural and just gets better and better.  My form was mixed and a little frustrated with myself but it left me with the goal to ski as well as I possibly can and decided we must squeeze in another trip this season. It’s a priveledge to be able to ski and dreamlike in good conditions.













Day #6 - bonkers amount of snow

So we woke to be told that the Tignes authorities had imposed a curfew with no one allowed to go outside with the avalanche risk increasing yet again. Last night it snowed another meter at least and it must be 5ms in the last week now. I’ve skied a lot over the years but have never seen so much. Not even close. You can hardly see out of the ground floor windows.

Around midday the curfew was lifted with most of the 30+ people staying in our chalet heading out to wade through the new layer on the road outside, our boys messing around with the other UK boys and getting in trouble for throwing snow balls at the truck driver who was given the impossible task of clearing the road. At one point, David had to run out in front of the driver to warn him that he was heading in the direction of a parked car that was completely submerged under all the new snow. Bonkers.

It then turned into a mass snow ball fight against the chalet next to us before we headed into town to try our hand at sledging on the Pallafour.   The boys loved every second despite getting soaked to the bone and will probably never ever see so much snow again.

My concern is definitely rising re how the hell we are going to get back down the mountain on Saturday morning.  Here’s really hoping we are able to ski tomorrow too. It would be a shame if we were not able to but that’s the volatile mountains for you.