Pride of South London

Short jog to TS and 7k at lunch. 11k for the day. No complaints.

Picked up J at 6.30pm and headed straight to the night game at Selhurst which are always special. The fact that we were playing Arsenal gave it an extra edge.

To put it out there, I hate Arsenal. It really annoys me that half of South London support them and shun their local teams. I also have history with Arsenal:

1. They stole my childhood hero Ian Wright.

2. A few years later I went to the old Highbury with Stevie needing a point to stay up. Ian Wright basically scored to put us down. It was probably the worst day of my life after the day Wrighty left.

We absolutely smashed them Monday night. I reckon all the celebrating was pent up frustration for 30 years of grief as Selhurst was absolutely rocking living up to the neutral's tag of the best fans in the land.

Conversely the Arsenal fans were quick to abuse their own players (not fit to wear the shirt and all that jazz) but frankly that was the worse away support I have seen from any club. It's the same old crap songs. I went to the new Highbury recently and their home support is awful. You might as well watch on the telly.

I reckon that we'll be fine now and Sakho / Milivojevic (our Luca) have made all the difference. My pick was Big Ben (Benteke) who was outstanding and Cabaye's goal was a gem.

'We want you stay... we want you to stay...ohh Arsene Wenger we want you to stay!'

'Oh Luca ohhhhhooo, Oh Luca ohhhhhhooo...he comes from Serbia, he's gonna murder ya...ohh Luca ohhhhhooo'

Amazing that J was there with me. It always tastes better if it's your local team.

Foxy's trail

Met Messi at the top of the hill and then Foxy in Norman Park. Messi made us late again:) he was still fuming re his beloved Barca losing away to Malaga last night 'playing for the title and they're bloody walking' he moaned.

After quick chat re where we would head (I pleaded for out of the park) Foxy suggested one of his routes which started the back way to Hayes school (his regular commute) through a number of fields which is ridiculous when you think it's still in London. At this point I got confused where we were but it was roughly the direction of Keston. Messi's OCD than notched up another level when Foxy embarked on a trail through the woods but with hills thrown in. Messi by this point was beside himself :)

At around 13k I was feeling pretty good on a 4.40ish pace and with the conversation flowing the time was going quickly. Continuing with my theme to date of no brekkie and gels I also avoided carbs last night and knew that I was depleted. Had to focus for a while as we headed around the fields of Farnborough. Foxy was intent on showing us Rio Ferdinand's house on one of the most exclusive roads (Park Aveneue) I've ever seen with cars north of 100k sitting on all the drive ways.

We then said our farewells as Messi and I headed to the park whilst Foxy headed home. From there we upped the pace a little to average 4s for the final 8k home (even going up Mead Way quickly which we never do) to get home for 28k in 4.19s on a warm (all relative) and sunny morning.

Big thanks to Foxy for the new scenery. I often bag South London but some of the countryside around here is stunning.

The rest of the day was spent on the sofa working whilst watching Roubaix and some gardening. I said that Sagan would win but a mechanical put pay to that - he's been so unlucky this Classics' season.

130k for the week and with 2 weeks out I am basically done. Will run some mile repeats with Messi/Foxy on Tuesday morning and Park Run on Saturday and that'll be it.

Pics of the garden which is coming along and this morning's route:

https://www.strava.com/activities/934263656

13k easy + PR 5k (17.19) + 4 easy

Messi sms'd me just before 8 to say that he was running laps ahead of Park Run so left a little earlier than planned to meet him. We ended up cruising for 13k before the start of PR but today for the first time on the summer course. This was slightly annoying as it's more on the grass than the 'winter' course. It's hard to tell but approximately 50% is on grass and to make matters worse it had not been cut and was soaking wet from the overnight dew.

I had told myself last night to go reasonably hard but having ran longer than planned beforehand I was unsure how the legs would cope. The 1st k starting on the grass buzzed up 3.24 as I started catching the positions from 10th down to 5th.  I could hear Foxy trailing me and about half way I summoned him to the front with the order to pull me home. All the middle ks were +/- around the 3.30 marker. On the back straight he then pulled away slightly and whilst I was tiring I was never really working at full 100% capacity. With a last k of 3.24, I finished with 17.19 per the Garmin and in 5th place (Foxy in 17.15). The course was long today so officially a bit slower than that. That said if it wasn't on the grass I reckon you could take off another 5s per k.

Next weekend I am going to give it a good crack and hope to get sub 17. It's annoyingly as there are 700 runners these days and so on the final lap you have to zig zag across the path to get by. Running is exploding here and there are now circa 50 park runs in London every weekend.

Everyone is running well at the moment:

- Messi has only been training for the Half and his main goal is Berlin in 5 months. Though I reckon he could still run close to 2.35 in London if he wanted to. He is undecided. He has kindly offered to pace me.

- Foxy like me is focussing on London. He has to be in with a shout of 2.35/36. Still being so young he has decades of time ahead.

- Daniel is the interesting one. I really think he could run a 1.19 Half and sub 2.50 marathon. He often beats me at Park Run and just needs to believe it a bit more. He though has taken the noble decision to allow his wife Gillian to run a spring Marathon and looking forward to seeing how she gets on in Brighton tomorrow. I reackon if he keeps the track going and starts committing to some of the longer tempos he will pull it off no question.

- Rory is also running well and no doubt will run under 1.30 for the Half soon and has already accomplished his 10k goal.

It's the Canberra Running Festival back home in Aus this weekend and nearly all of my Sydney Striders / HuRTs crew are competing. Really hoping that my bro (from another mo) Benny Streckeisen will run under 1.20. After all the training he's been doing he really deserves it.

Another stunning morning here and tomorrow will be 23 degrees celcius and sunny. This will be a nightmare if it is like this on the 23rd.

A massive sporting weekend ahead: the Masters, Grand Prix, critical Premiership games and most importantly the mother of all races 'Paris Roubaix' (this time Sagan will be too strong).

London full of cherry blossom:

Friday float

After quick cuppa with Ma and Pa I ran the 10k to the office dead slow. Absolutely stunning morning. Tired though and could feel the fumes again although is always better mornings. Come the summer there is no way I'll be doing any sessions in the middle of the day.

In 2 minds what I am going to do in the morning. Will play by ear. 3k home later on in the day.

Pics from my parents gaff early morning;

Mum and Dad's

With J and the boys away spending my hard earned cash, I opted for a night at Mum and Dads.  Been meaning to do this for a while and jogged here straight from the office. Nice evening and 10k done in 5s. With jog to TS earlier in the day it got me to 12k for the day. Super nice and easy. This morning I actually felt fanatastic despite yesterday's session.

Always interesting chat with both:

1. Me moaning about London's pollution. It is a mess. Writing this I can still feel the fumes on the back of my throat. There are literally thousands of kids every day at inner city London schools who are unknowingly being polluted. Sadiq Khan is rightly tackling this but it will take 5 years at least and they really need to ban diesel cars. Until that point there is no way I would live within the 10k radius of the city. Reckon my folks who live in SE23 are just about ok but absolutely no closer.

2. Brexit - Mum almost in tears all over again. My Dad kept going on about Boris - he has a strong dislike for the bloke and that is putting it mildly. See snippet below from the Telegraph a few years back which sums it up.

3. Footie - Dad is a mad Barrow fan, his home town and they are playing our Bromley FC (the boys' club) in the national league next weekend. We'll all be there.

4. More footie - this time our shared dislike for Arsenal football club. Cannot wait to smash them at Selhurst for the night game next week. Everyone is up for it.

5. Mum's home town Wolfsburg - Jack is playing against them in Wolfsburg in 3 weeks.  Mum is made up and nice symmetry. I still think of my old mate Gary Hall when I think of Wolfsburg. Gary found it more than hilarious that about 10 years ago Wolfgang Wolf!!!! no less was the manager there. You could not make it up.

Boris, hard canvas and my bedtime-view:

Last tempo - 21ish ks with Messi (3.48s)

We had planned this on Sunday and was hoping he was going to ditch but no he stayed true to his word. Still fatigued we headed to the park and set off after a 4K warm up. The plan was a little loose and mainly due to us still having the Sunday race in our legs. We got to 13ks and Messi ordered 5 more laps of the park. Ok I said and put my head down. Slowed a little to 3.48s for just under a half marathon. I reckon the last 10k was pretty good simulation for the last 10k in a marathon as my legs were really tired. Delighted to get done and major thanks to Roger aka Messi for the help. His running goes from strength to strength and will be eyeing a low 2.30 come spring time in Berlin.

2.5 weeks to go and now pretty much done.

Tuesday tread

10k in 4.20s still trying to get the legs going. Still quite fatigued after a tough last week. 4K in the late evening.

Sunshine recovery

Got out at lunch to relieve my heavy legs. Ran to Big Ben and then into the Royal Parks. Nice loop in (relative) warm sunshine - 10k in 4.35s. 3k home in the late evening.

Pics from yesterday:

Paddock Wood Half 1.17.59

Had a good sleep, heavily taped my foot and picked up by Messi and Rory early morning for the drive over to Royal Tunbridge Wells on a stunning warm morning after training all winter in the cold and rain.  Cannot tell you what a difference it makes. The traffic was a bit of a nightmare and so we literally arrived at the start line with 30 seconds to spare leaving no time to get nervous.

My races are always a blur but had set myself a 1.17.xx target having ran hard all week and 3 tempos under my belt. Basically ran controlled to go through 10k 36.30ish (3.39s).  At that point I caught 2 club runners in their Kent jerseys and implored them to work as a group which they kindly accepted. With each of us taking 60secs efforts on the front we soon caught the next group of 5 runners including a Blackheath Harrier (my old club) and a Herne Hill Harrier (the club I ran for between the age of 9 and 12).

Again I implored the group to work together as they were all spread amateurishly across the road which they also accepted but this is where I made my mistake and got carried away running way too many turns at the front. After going through 10 miles in 59 minutes, I reckon this cost me a high 1.16. Everyone else just sat in behind. Still the pace was dropping and did not want the pace to fade so had to do something.

The group then splintered and at 16k the heavy efforts began to catch up with me. That said I was able to maintain 3.45s, slightly slower than the 3.40 average. The finish was round a tight bend and so in view I knew that I had to push to get me to sub 1.18 which I managed just! 1.17.59, 3.41 avg.

With the heavy week I have to be pleased with that especially with > 65ks in sub 3.45s and 105k in total with 3 weeks to go. This is the fastest I have ran for 6 years, and have had some horror injuries over this period which have been a nightmare. I hope the foot does not pull up too sore in the morning.

Messi ran super strong to get his high 1.13 finish (PB), Daniel 1.22 (PB) and Rory low 1.30s. All were mighty satisfied with their efforts.

Daniel and family suggested lunch in Hildenborough at Dame Kelly Holmes' cafe and a result as she was there and so plucked up the courage to request the obligatory selfie. She still looks amazing.

Watched Tour of Flanders when I got home, aka the 'Tour of war'. Gilbert took it out with 50k to go and must go down as one of the greatest rides in the race's history with Sagan crashing in the process. Wow what a performance in 6hrs and 23 minutes. The guy has done the lot in his career but this must go down as his career best.

With Palace winning at Chelsea and the run today it has been a good weekend.

Saturday Park Run with J and Lukie

Woke up to a really sore foot post my classic fall yesterday on Regents street. Had promised J and Lukie that I would run Park Run so I hobbled over to meet them there. J has been doing a lot of running and gym work recently and has nearly completed her qualified PT course with one of my best buddies' Stevie B (the footie coach).

I continued to hobble round with Daniel and Messi in 22 minutes mostly chatting about tomorrow with Lukie next in on 27 minutes and J 30 seconds later. J particularly is improving every day. 10k in 4.45s for me.

I was then grumpy for the rest of the day worrying about my foot. Not pleasant and not pleasant to be around. Lots of icing and ibuprofen.

Early to bed. I think everyone was pleased to see the back of me. Oh and Timmy Lindop is now officially crapping himself that the Allardyce revival will inevitably lead to Palace finishing above them (Stoke). It's now down to 5 points with a game in hand. COYEs. Eagles flying high and Zaha is unplayable. Check out his goal for Ivory Coast vs Russia in the week.