Miles 17.47; Bike Miles 11; Units 26

The week of the Hursley 10k arrives! Two short but fast runs in the week, then a couple of days resting, before toeing the line. It was another glorious day, a little windy, but nothing to worry about. As ever the carnival atmosphere made this a very special race, over the IBM Hursley estate. That only adds to the sense of something a bit secret - 500+ people all gathering, as if by some unknown force, to run over the oh-so-confidential hub of IBMs development home, across tracks and fields, with not a single step on a public road! As if to add to the air of peculiarity the photo of the START actually reads FINISH - the more astute amongst you will realise that we return and end the race under this banner going the other way. Surely the techno boffins at Hursley could scrub out the words with photoshop? Or indeed is this still within the spirit of 1950's Cold War counter-intel, putting the enemy spy off the scent? Oh, I am transported back to the world of Grahame Greene already...B&W gloomy photos, a thin band of smoke rising, a dead letter drop, codewords, lots of gin and tonic...

..now stop that and get back to the race report! Delighted with the result, a time of 42.11 over a hilly and rutted course, 19th overall and 6th in my age group (for indeed now I am a Male 40+ not a senior), which is very pleasing. Also, lots of people running the race with me, such as Ian from Wellow Fitness, Matt and Luke (in fact we were trying to find a Matthew, then we could have run as the four apostles...). And, after that, lunch at the Plough with Matt and Luke. Happy days indeed.

The usual cycle to work on Wednesday - just as before, though noticeably getting chillier this time!

Wine of the week - well, I should call it delivery of the week! I decided to withdraw some wines from storage, and so on Friday, the excitement of 7 cases of mixed Burgundy, Rhone, Italian and Claret arriving! from this selection I chose Domaine Jean Grivot Vosne Romanee 2005 as the first to be tried. Humble villages wine from a great producer in an excellent vintage. Immediately it looks serious for this rung of the quality ladder village wine. The colour was deep and bright, ripe strawberry fruit with a hint of earthiness, and the tiniest amount of new oak. On the palate it was midweight, good fruit, length, and some tannin. Definitely well above village quality and with a few years ahead. A fulsome reminder of why Burgundy - when it is good - rocks when compared to sweet, fruity New Zealand Pinots.

Pip Pip

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miles 20.64; Bike Miles 0; Units probably too many!

A couple of runs this week, Tuesday and Sunday, the latter a great long run - just over 14 miles - really feeling back in the swing of things, and ready to book some races now. It was just glorious to be out in the cool but sunny weather - absolute joy! I am finally feeling like I am able to run again. It has also been a bit more of a relaxed week at work, with a couple of days on a training course, and the rest of the time in the office. Also, the throat was gently easing out by the weekend ( I did promise not to go on about it).... ....which is good when I tell you that we went to Hotel Terravina again, this time as a gift for my 40th Birthday from Carol and Huw, to take part in a 'sabrage' event, which means that you chop the top off a bottle of champagne with a sabre! All very extravagant and grand - see me brandishing said bottle in the attached photo. What a great experience that was, really very special. Thanks to C&H for that! Other than the Champagne we also had tw...

Miles: 23.2, Units 22 (hurrah!)

Trainingwise, not a perfect week. I didn't run my intended Frenches session on Wednesday, and opted instead for Cemetery Hill. I was planning for about 30 mins of effort, but at about 25 minutes I came across a cat that had been struck by a car, and was (not to beat about the bush) dying in front of me. Another car stopped and we got it ready to go to the vets, but it had clearly suffered too much. Not a great omen, and pretty horrible. I blew out my Friday run with a bit of a sore throat and a general feeling of lethargy- and so, I aimed on Saturday for a strong 10 miler with the same again on Sunday, to prepare for the 20 mile race on the following week - however, I had to work on Sunday from 7am to 5 and quite frankly a steady 40 mins was all I could muster up. All round a sorry picture - summed up nicely in this pic of me from the Clarendon marathon in 2007 Winewise also not a very exciting week. The most enjoyable drop was a bit of an oddity - Bricco Rosso Suagna Langhe Rosso ...

Miles 33.84; Units 27

Exercise-wise, a back end loaded week. I had to miss three training days through pressure of work. Sometimes that's not such a bad thing, as it gives you a chance to recover. All too often, we runners can run ourselves into the ground, if we are not careful. However, after two days you start to feel the lack of exercise, and imagine that you are ballooning up in weight. This of course is not true, though that is little comfort. This may also be a personal thing, however I usually find that when I take more than one day off, a number of niggles emerge - in this case a touch of plantar fasciitis (for you non-runners, a pain like a drawing pin being lodged in your heel - see the gloriously Heath-Robinson picture of the necessary stretching to help the recovery). Maybe the body is just seizing the day and bringing the bad stuff out that it has kept under check whilst you are exercising - clearly 3 days is enough for it to think "oh good, we seem to have stopped all this mad runn...

I Drink, therefore I Run

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