SportsShoes Blog

Here they are - well the first wave anyway.

I’m the one in the Santa suit…….

Wow last Christmas seems like only yesterday and here we are again.

What a special time it is again now I have kids - it really relights the magic in my old bones….

As you can guess we were quite late to bed last night and quite early to rise this morning. Right now Ben’s got his nose stuck in a DS, Max has just been prised out of his new Walshies so he can get in the bath, Carolyn’s starting to panic about the lunch and the dog’s got no idea what’s going on…..

Saturday was the annual Santa Cycle and what a heap of festive fun that was - I think at our peak we had 16 santas which, when strung out in a line along the road, is quite a site - perhaps some of you saw us on our pilgrimage to Bolton Abbey’s tea rooms - photo to follow.

last one of 2008 - a big one, the Irish Nationals.. played 1st round last night and won comfortably enough in 3.. gets tougher from here but really looking forward to it and pushing for a good end to the year!!

Well I’m ill again! I seem to have caught every virus going so far this winter. Since the Revolution I picked up a cold which meant being confined to my bed and drinking honey and lemon on my 18th birthday! After a week off the bike I then tried a bit of steady training and a trip to the gym which then resulted in a chest infection. I’m on antibiotics at the moment so hopefully it will clear up soon.  I’ve just sorted out a 6 month gym membership with Cannons Health Club in Cottingley which they have kindly provided for free through the BOA.  Having a gym so near will cut down the travelling time as I currently train in Leeds.  I’ll continue to go there once a week as the strength and conditioning coach there, Mike Morely really knows his stuff, but then go to Cannons for the second session.  It’ll also be nice to finish off the weights with a quick trip to the jacuzzi and pool..all to help muscle recovery of course!

So … It has now been over a week since my neck went again and my cold has cleared ( why does everyone want windows practically glued shut in the winter, just to create a playground for germs ? ). Anyway, a short back and bicep workout tonight is definitely in order. I’ve already gorged on quality streets for my breakfast for the past week so now starting to think I better do something about it, especially after walking round with my neck stationary and not moving for more than 10 yards at a time!

So, tonight, I need to start back into it slowly and not over do it…

I think just some wide grip pull ups, deadlifts, bent over rows and shrugs should be enough for my back. Then I am going to do curls and hammers for my biceps, then depending on if my body has held up I am going to have a quick 1000 meter sprint on the rowing machine.

I must help the abs to appear again and knowing I have quite a few clothes coming my way for Christmas, I don’t want to disappoint Santa with them not fitting!

I’ll let you all know how I get on,

J.

Bingley’s A team managed 4th overall at the CW (even with me in the team).

As suspected I got a thorough kicking as I wheezed and puffed around leg 2 chasing my mate Martin who was skipping and bouncing along like bambi.

To make matters worse we got lost just 2 miles into the 8.5 mile leg losing around 2 - 3 mins as we trotted through bogs and consulted maps. We then took a bad line off Stoodley Pike which lost us another few seconds but after that we did OK until the last mile when we hit the big climb out of Todmorden and I ran up it like a Chelsea Pensioner.

All things considered we didn’t do too bad and our dodgy route choice didn’t actually affect the overall result so no real harm done.

A few beers on Sunday night allowed everything to be put right (or forgotten).

Now I’m looking forward to this coming weekend which is a fest of biking, boozing and running with an unhealthy dose of santa suits thrown in for good measure - photos to follow……

Had a weekend of track last weekend with Friday night track league and the Revolution track meeting on the Saturday.  Unfortunately there were only 2 womens events on - a 20 lap points race with sprints every 4 laps and a 6 lap dash!

I was perhaps a little bit eager to start with, going for the first sprint and up against the likes of Anna Blyth, an Academy sprinter - who needless to say passed me along with the USA’s Kacey Manderfield to leave me 3rd with 2 points.  I managed another 3rd in the 3rd sprint and finished 6th with 4 points.

The 6 lap dash was over really quickly but was a good result! I attacked over the top of the bunch with 2 laps to go and just made it to the finish line before Anna! (see pic! )

It’s been a fairly steady week this week - bike to work Monday, Tuesday and Friday - speed session on Tuesday night (3 x 6 minute efforts) - 5 miles on the road on Wednesday night (few hills and the last half mile at pace) - rest Thursday.

I’ll be resting up tomorrow as well as Sunday morning I’m running for Bingley in the Calderdale Way (CW) relay. The CW is a 50 odd mile circular tour of the Calder valley. For the race, the route is split into 5 legs of varying distance and climb and each leg is covered by teams of two runners.

Relays are always hard work for one member of the team as no two people run at exactly the same pace. This weekend it’s going to be my turn to suffer as I’m running with my pal Martin who is much faster than I am. His job will be to open gates and hurl encouragement (read abuse) at me and my job will be to keep my head down and pull my tripe out!!!

The only upside to this wet, muddy and painful event is that we all get together on Sunday evening for a debrief (well a booze up actually) where we can talk about how well we should have run and make endless excuses for our feeble efforts.

Once the CWs out the way it’s just a week to the Santa Cycle - can’t wait….

A few posts ago, some of you may have been wondering about the reference to a bad tash - well here’s the explanation……

I’ve been having a spot of bother uploading pics to this site but it seems OK now.

Here’s my mate Tricky in all his Freddie finery for all the world to enjoy - quality!!!

Well that’s been a grotty week hasn’t it….

Last Sunday morning I had a great run for a couple of hours over Ilkley Moor - it was freezing cold with ice on the ground, no mud but plenty of grip. It was the perfect morning for a long run so I made the most of my kids’ footy matches being called off and took to the hills.

Monday I cycled to work and on the way home as cold water trickled down between my butt cheeks I thought to myself “I really should have put my mudguard back on!!!”

Since then I’ve been crocked with a cold - a gift from my wife who has been struggling with a bad dose of girl-flu for the past couple of weeks.

Anyway on the postive side, it was a great time to have a cold and be laid off running as the snow and ice meant that it would have been pretty much impossible to do much anyway. I still managed my 2 dog walks each day to keep the old joints from seizing up.

It’s Saturday now and I think I’ve beaten my cold through a bout of ‘positive thinking’ I’m just at the green custard stage now - it looks very pretty in the snow!!!

I’m all psyched up again now after just talking to a chap (Rob Thackery) about his sub 10 hour Ironman so tomorrow I’m going to try another long trot over the moors - hope the weather holds.

I’d like to do an Ironman sometime soon but the training commitment is huge because of the three different events. I used to swim a lot as kid but not anymore - to get to a point where I could do 5 miles open water would be a massive challenge (and that’s before 100 miles on the bike and a marathon).