Speedy Monkeys...

This weekend has been a brilliant combination of all of my favourite things... On Friday our good friends and fantastic triathletes Ozzer (Ian) and EK (Emma-Kate) came over for the weekend. We had a ride out to Ilkey on Saturday for a Betty's Fat Rascal (or a Fat Harry if you're from Leamington Spa) then we stopped off at Ben & Lies' so they could meet the new man in my life - the incredibly well behaved and handsome Charlie Lack, a whole ten days old now. Then we dined out for a carb loading dinner on Sat eve before going to the Leeds & Bradford Triathlon club awards night where we got to see what everyone looks like in real clothes and not lycra or rubber!! It was a great night and nice to have a catch up with people. I played a horrendous game of pool with Donna Edmondson-Booker (very good duathlete and runner) however it was good to see that she was just as bad at Pool than I was and we had to cheat in the end to actually get the game finished. Then the awards ceremony started. Both Tom & I had been nominated. Tom for male athlete of the year and me for female athlete of the year. This year wasn't to be mine and it went very deservedly to Sara Riley who competed in the World Champs in Hamburg in 2007, something I'm really looking forward to doing myself this year in Vancouver. However, my wonderful other half did pick up male triathlete of the year and I would like to congratulate him for such a great acheivement, he always puts his heart and soul into his training and there's still yet more to come in 2008 so well done Tom, you're a star.

Well, that took us to a later than hoped for evening prior to the first half-marathon of the year, the Brass Monkey held in York on a very flat and fast course. Tom (stato) Williams has been crunching numbers and working out what he should be capable of and how he's going to implement it since January 1st. I, however have had to take a different approach to it. I wasn't really looking forward to it. I'm still only running twice a week due to 'the' ankle injury and those sessions haven't been speed sessions but I've been able to build my mileage up to 12 miles without pain or aggravation so I knew the distance wouldn't be a problem. My riding has been consistent and I've done some good interval sessions on the bike and in the pool so my endurance and general fitness are in good nick. It was a case of 'suck it and see'. Our mates Ozzer and EK were also running as were a load of Virgin Active Road Runners (our running club) and Daz and Ben G. Such a mixed bag of times but wow what speedy monkeys they turned out to be, pb's flying around willy nilly at the end. I didn't pb but I was really pleased with my run. 1.32.47 and I felt strong, just felt the lack of speed in the legs and couldn't quite get them to turn over as fast as my heart and head wanted them to. It bodes well though, to be running well enough to only be a minute off my pb on only two runs a week with no speed sessions, I'll take that thank you very much. Tom, Daz, Ben G and Ozzer all pb'd which is fantastic (although Tom's was a bit of a double-edged sword missing sub 1.20 by 2 seconds... ouch.) Loads of the Virgin runners ran exceptionally well- some first timers and some super speedy pb's - so well done to you all, great start to the year.

Great runs all round topped off with a Sunday pub lunch and ice-cream and chocolate sauce. Catching up with good friends, racing hard and basking in post race glory...wonderful. Now I'm knackered and ready for a very early night. A recovery day tomorrow, 5km technique session in the pool in the morning and an easy turbo session in the evening. We're also going to try and alter our diet (Dean Karnazes style.) Basically we're going to try and cut out all food with any added sugar in it for a month and see if it helps our diet. Dean Karnazes is an ultra-endurance runner who has done this and it has helped keep his blood sugar more consistent, no spikes. Something both Tom & I would like to stop happening in our diet, so watch this space. I'll probably be crawling the walls in search of anything remotely sweet for the first couple of weeks.

Well done again to all who ran today, it was a tough one.

H. x