Thursday with NYC

Spent the large chunk of my day on calls with NYC. Exhausting but did manage a 50 minute cruise enjoying the London sunshine but the pollution is really bad to the extent that I need to avoid the lunchtime sessions. Will either have to be from home (where the air is thankfully still good) or run early in the city.  I don't get it; people are literally buying apartments for > £1m to live in shitty air. I would not feel comfortable with my boys growing up in that.

Did not feel too bad today and the calf is now 80%.

I have to mention Tommy's Toon who sadly have been relegated. My money is now on the watertight defence of Stoke to go next year leaving me on my Jackson Jones. Who'd have thought that out of the original Mediocre players it's down to 2 at least for one more season:

Palace - reigning FA cup winners
Stoke to get relegated 2017 (Timmy)
Toon relegation 16 (Tommy)
Villa relegation 16 (Enda)
QPR relegation 14 (Heydo)
Cardiff so long ago I cannot remember (Jimmy)

The Mediocre should come with a relegation health warning!

Some pics of my lunch circuit with new bike lanes which are transforming London:

MKM

Met MKM at lunch but not much else and zero time for run in the end. I figure more time for the calf to get better. He shared his fantastic news and 'peace of mind'.

Need to crack on though in next few days. Going to start getting very restless otherwise.

Stevie messaged me and the Monte Rose Hut is not open on the June 11th weekend and so will need need to come up with a Zermatt plan B.

Culprit

Found this picture on my phone. The culprit is one of 4. My money on #3 Lucas.

Got out in early afternoon for a gym session. As is always the case, the mist had cleared by the time I got back to my desk.

Monday mediocre

Having won the Mediocre it seems it is rubbing off more broadly.

Will hit the rower today and aim for 7,600. Another 100m+ from last week. Plan will be to run tomorrow and Thursday.

Some pictures from the marathon - needless to say I only took the supposed better ones:

Sunday sun with Claude the fish

It was ridiculously hot today for London. 26 dc and would have caused havoc had this been marathon day.

Morning spent with Fam in Beckenham Place park and then Lukie's game in afternoon followed by bbq at home. Thankfully Lukie fared better and they drew 2 each with a rowdy set of parents on both teams.

How remiss of me yesterday not to mention Palace beating Stoke completing the hattrick of wins for the season which included the FA cup tie. Undisputed Mediocre winners.

Cup final tickets are booked.

Managed another 7k jog in the late afternoon. Calf 65%.

Saturday cup final

The whole Fam and Jeoff headed to Chipstead (45 mins drive south west) for Jack's u11 final. The first time they charged all of us to watch. In summary the whole team did not turn up and they lost 3-0. Jack also not at the races. Just one of those days.

Jogged 7kms in the afternoon with right calf still only 60%. Still first run in 2 weeks.

Definitely at a low ebb at the moment.

Friday under the pump at work

No time for anything else.

Liverpool on fire

All about Liverpool today who were excellent in winning their European semi - so very fitting after the Hillsborough verdict this week:

1. James Milner is playing well enough to be in the England 11. Never thought I'd say that.

2. Emre Can is a colossus - he'd walk his way into the England side if only he were English. Am going to predict that he'll be one of the top 3 defensive midfielders in the world next year. I watched him closely in the flesh at Selhurst and he was brutal then too.

3. Liverpool have a real chance in winning the league next year. I really believe that.

4. I really like Firmino too. He made all three goals and that piece of skill which bamboozeld the full back was almost as good as Bolasie.

5. Klopp as I predicted is the best thing that has happened to Liverpool since John Barnes.

The good news is that the calf is beginning to feel better but am persevering with the rowing. Made it to 7,500ms today and would have hit c.7,700 had Mark P not chatted to me at the half way mark. Gave him the lowdown on my marathon mare.

Row

30 minute row at lunch managing 7,321ms. 200 more than yesterday. Some strength after.

Not much else. Oh but I did raise £3.5k by running the marathon which I feel pretty good about and will be enough to fund a new high-tech wheelchair for a disabled child.

Train chaos

And so London continues to operate as a third world country. In my 18 year career I've swung it so that thankfully I've only had to work 3.5 of which in London. I feel sorry for the poor buggers who know no different then what is continual train chaos. What a complete waste of time and unnecessary stress. It's the absolute pits and exactly what you need after a busy day in the office.

In fact today I made the call to start cycling in which I've avoided to date but today was the final straw. It actually works quite well as will get my cardio in meaning that I will be slightly less of a nightmare at home than I usually am. With some of my best buddies taking bad crashes of late namely the Streck back in Sydney I'd decided to stay away but Christ I'd rather be hit by a bus then go through this pain every day. Bring on Spring......

Cardio today was back on the rower. Now me and Hugh Toll "Tollie" use to smash out literally hundreds of Ks on these. Always set on 5.5 as per the elites and then TT for either 30 or 60 minutes. 60 is slightly sadistic but hell yeah it gets you fit. I remember both of us hitting over 8k for 30 minutes and in freak periods even >16k over the 60. In running terms I equate this easily as comparable to a sub 35 minute 10k. 

Today I started on an estimated 7,500m for 30 minutes but slowed and finished with 7,106ms which puts our 16k feats into perspective. Will persevere with the rowing and will mix it up with the bike. I reckon rowing gets you really 'bike' fit and my best ever bike form coincided with those heavy rowing sessions with Tollie.

Blank holiday Monday

Day #8 of no running as calf still no better - looking like a few more blanks to come too.

So hung with family all day mainly with boy #4. Rode our bikes to Kelsey park in the morning followed by a little footie in the afternoon. Happy boy.

Today was all about Leicester winning the Prem. 5000-1 at the beginning of the season - definitely up there with all sporting history. I read about one bloke who cashed out at £72 grand whereas he could have held on for £250k. Oh deary me. Amazingly Mark Selby (a Leicester boy) won the World Snooker championships within 18 minutes of the football finishing. The country has literally gone Leicester crazy.

Bluebells with Winston

Feeling low today but good to be with the family all day. Another sunny and actually quite warm day spent firstly at the Bromley Arena for Jack's game followed by a drive out to the countryside near Westerham, the home of Winston Churchill no less.

Jack played ok considering he is still coughing his guts up every 2 minutes. It started in Austria and has not shifted. He basically started but had to come off after 5 minutes for the rest of the first half. He then started the second creating the winner and went straight off again. A bit of a non event. At least his knee is better. Have told him no training this week until he gets better.

I had my heart set on seeing the bluebell woods and came across them on the road between Cudham and Westerham. They are simply stunning. Had a nice walk before ice creams on the village square in Westerham where the entire village was out in force.

Boys day

Just  hung with my 4 boys all day and relieved that the marathon ordeal is now over and no longer under pressure to get a run in. It was beginning to do my head in.

In the morning we rode our bikes in the sunshine (Ryder can now handle the longer distances) and then the arvo spent kicking the footie in the backyard. In the evening I took them to the movies to see Civil War (the new Avengers movie) whilst J was out on a girlie night. Ryder is a total super hero freak.

My ankle and right calf are still completely screwed. 6 days in and still no way better with heavy swelling. If it stays this way in a week it will start getting annoying but right now I could not care less. That said my Chinese doctor buddy has made some slight improvement with some aggressive acupuncture yesterday.

I still feel heavily defeated by last weekend's marathon - it helped to reflect a little with J in the morning as I recalled the ordeal - it helped to talk about it. Both agreed that I need to let my obsession with the London marathon go and set some other goals. There is the Nice Cannes race in the autumn and depending on how I recover I may toy with running Berlin. Going to hit the Alps a few times over the summer too for some high altitude walking and locked in the Monte Rosa route starting from Zermatt in June. J is coming with and is already having nightmares about crampons and crossing the glacier :)

On the footie front Tommy H owes me 10+ pints after Palace gifted the Toon 3 points - someone definitely paid Cabaye to miss that pen. They really needed that win too. Trust though 'watertight defence' Stoke to screw it up at the last minute and give Sunderland a lifeline. It's going to go right down to the wire. Palace are still not out of it but cannot be caught by N'castle.

Swollen calf and ankle

4 days in and ankle and calf still looking like a balloon. Painful as well. Should have stopped at half way.