Manly

Back in the Australia home and mobbed by lots and lots of old friends. Nuts.

Day spent wandering, at the beach, inlaws visit and then finally a run. 15ish ks on the Manly loop bumping into more folks. By the time I got back the Inlaws had arrived and brought a feast with them. The boys then vanished and were found at Pete's place making a large bonfire on Smith Street.

I hate jet lag. J out for the count but the boys have amazingly lasted the course. That's females for you :)

https://www.strava.com/activities/805026184

Tempo....flight

Well the day finally arrived. Worked from home after taking Ryder and Lukie to school. Planned to meet Messi mid morning and to hit out another tempo. I was knackered tho. Messi suggested 8kms so just went with it. I was breathing hard after 2 and got more and more ragged. Still another tempo done in 3.45s for me and 3.40s per Messi's watch. Another 15k and Messi running well today.
All good.

Picked up the boys early from school and made the trek to LHR. Travelling with 6 economy is a whole new world vs flying solo in business. I went straight to the Business desk and said I know we are not flying business but can we queue with you as there are invariably going to be issues. No they said. So 1 hour later and having been allocated random seats plus visa issues we ended back at the same desk. I told you so!

Now on runway and in the mood to beat David Boon's record for number of beers consumed between London and Sydney.

* Achilles better again today. Took some of Tommy H's advise and found that rolling the base of your foot has worked a treat.

Pics of the day including Ryder with bestest buddy:

Weight lifted

Huge weight off my shoulders with today being the final day in the office for 24 straight days. I am mildly ecstatic. Absolutely knackered today and whilst queuing for my lunch I really debated with myself whether to hit the deadmill but figured I'd feel better for it. Started on 3.45s and after 2k called it quits. Then tried again and then again. Ended up with 12ish ks in 4.10s. Sweating buckets too which is always a sign that I am fatigued.  Mentally I did not have it today with the Achilles now bad again and it bloody hurts.

3k jog home from TS in the late evening.

Luke and Heather

Ran in and Achilles actually felt ok. Constantly up and down.

Then arranged a strength session with Mark P who got me doing all sorts of stability and balance exercises. A great session.

Met Mum and Dad at 6 for the Carol service at St Brides Church across the road on Fleet Street. Met Jacqui and the boys there too and was important to make my Mum happy given we're not going to be around over the Christmas period - J went straight to the restaurant. None of us are religious but have to say it was a nice service albeit I just think that the 'church' is generally so out of touch with real life.

We then jumped into a taxi to get to Covent Garden where we met Luke and Heather for dinner and was surprised to see Umi and Janes too. Luke and Heather (+kids) were good friends in Manly and are visiting London to eventually ski.

Rafi their son in one of the pics below is not yet 13 and is already running a 2.17 800ms and has qualified for the Australian nationals at Homebush next month! Impressive.

Home at 11 and then had to log on to sort out a massive mess. Crawling over the finish line.

* I had a parenting highlight today. I think I can count them on one hand. After coming out of the service a lady made a b-line for us and commented how impeccably well behaved we were and what a brilliant Dad I was for taking them to the service. Reckon I should go to church more often!  I find parenting is just a laundry list of hard knocks and so getting that comment was something to saviour. If only she knew......

DK

Arranged to meet Dave who is over from Sydney. He was moaning about the weather and how it's dark at 3 o'clock. Personally I don't know what all the fuss is about. Anyway picked him up outside of the Macquarie offices and shock horror he was actually there waiting for me and on time. A first for everything!

Nice jog heading past St Paul's down to the river and then headed west turning at the Houses of Parliament and back the same way - the sun even appeared for the time we were out and about. Nice catching up with him giving me a download on the Hurt Squad goss and will be seeing him again next week in any case.

12k done in 5s.  Managed a little bit of strength too.

Busy rest of the day taking the team out for dinner on promotions day.  Home late and 3k jog from TS home made it 15k for the day but the Achilles is wrecked.

At dinner we were all talking about next year's holiday plans. Somehow need to fit in Germany, an adventure with the Fam in South America, skiing in the Alps and surfing. Will not be happy if I don't get it all fitted in as well as lots of European weekend trips. Lots to ponder.

Monday blues

Ran in but the Achilles was sore. A 17k slow slog. Back to back all day and then late home. 3 more from TS. I really don't enjoy Mondays.

PS really missing the bike at the moment.

X3 10am kick offs

Somehow managed to drop J with Ryder at the Bromley Arena, drop Jack at his home ground and then make it for Lukie's kick off.  His game was memorable for the argument I had with the Rastafarian who took huge offence with me running laps whilst I watched. I told him where to stick it but then he brought the Calvary and was left no choice but to run into the neighbouring park.

Lukie not at the races today with the whole team the same and they got beat by a team full of black boys who were half decent.

The game was at Ten Em Bee which I am pretty sure has produced a mass amount of pros as South East London always does; there are more English Prem players from around here than anywhere else in the country.

15k done on the grass with the Achilles not as bad as yesterday. Another 100k week.

Solo session

No Messi who was on daddy duties so had to solo it and opted for same session as last week but my were my legs not in a good way and the bloody right Achilles is painful.

Got it done running 3.50s or 3.45s depending whose watch is right and timed it perfectly so that I had 60secs recovery before jumping into the muddy Park Run. 15k in 3.45s ish and 21k all up.
Accupuncture in the arvo which helped and then Anna's and Tony's party with the boys coming along.  A really nice night with J hitting multiple shots - at least I did not have to stop the car this time!

Run in

Ran in and 30 minutes of strength at lunch. 20ks done with jogs from TS.

Amsterdam

Up early morning for the usual stumble around the parks and canals. Love this place and the Pulitzer.

15k done with the last few ks quicker as was getting late.

Back home in London in time for dinner. Officially knackered.

Lux and Amatredam

This time did not want to risk it so flew out of LHR. Pretty brutal day ending with late night dinner in Amsterdam post flying from Lux early evening. Always slightly strange flying somewhere in the morning and then ending up somewhere later that night.

No run today.

Christmas markets dans Lux villes:

City airport

Was meant to be in Lux for a 10am meeting but all flights were cancelled due to the fog so asked to be escorted back out of airport and cabbed it back home. It took me longer to get home in cab than if I had flown to Luxembourg and taken cab from the other side to the office!

Jogged 8k at lunch after accupuncture in Bromley. It definitely helped but f'ck me the right Achilles is sore.

Tomorrow will try and get to Lux again for board meetins followed by flight to Amsterdam in the evening. Will make it a super long day and no opportunity for run unless I sneak in 5k before dinner.

Early run in

Up super early to fit in the run in before all day board meeting at our offices. Right Achilles still sore.

Work is manic and so could not get out for my 6pm Accupuncture appointment. I desperately need some and will need to wait until Friday now.

Jogged 3k home from TS. 20ish ks for the day.

Home alone and Ryder game - frosty!

Just Ryder, Jack and I home today with no car so we cycled to Ryder's game which they won 7-1. That team is on fire. Ryder also massively improving and surprisingly is loving his football. I was unsure.

I jogged there and back and did another loop on way home and jogged laps watching. The only way to fit it in. 18k done and 103 for the week.

Right Achilles not very good.

Park Run (10k + 5k tempo)

Met Messi at 810 to jog down to the park where we had preplanned the 10k tempo which we hit averaging 3.45s. Felt ok this morning with the last 1.5k a bit of a struggle. 10k done in 37.20 (3.44s). We then jogged immediately to the start of Park Run where there were 600 runners waiting. We jumped straight back into the same rhythm and ran the 5k in 3.45s.

23k all up and a decent session. Big thanks to the 2.37 man.

Clowned around with the boys for the rest of the day.