VLM week -11: The week with the conference

A week of three halves, if I may use the old footballing analogy. The first part was up in Manchester, for the Spring Conference at GMex - a huge event with all B&Q managers there. What a show - with Jason Manford and Diversity. Of course the really special moment was the FlashMob, with yours truly right up there on stage - as you can see. Not sure what has happened to my midriff, there seems to be an odd kind of 'rucking up' going on.

It was a great event, and I was totally immersed in it. My role (if I may aggrandise it as such) was to run one of the stalls in a 'Millionaire' style - 16 sets of 15 minutes, one after the other. Knackering yet exciting at the same time. I loved the praise, of course, and this reminder of my pleasure end enjoyment with being on stage!

Runningwise you will be pleased to hear that I took full advantage of the LA Fitness attached to the Hotel. My, that is hardcore gymming, with serried ranks of cardio machines, and separate zones for the muscle queens, and the abs addicts.

Then, back to the normal life for a few days, recovering from a very sore throat and the start of a cold. Without a doubt I was still struggling after the weekend, as I had not at all recovered fully.

Over the weekend, a ragged 17 miler on the Saturday proved both my still-recovering state and my leg tiredness. A swift 6 miler on Sunday turned out much better, after which we were joined by Janet's family for the afternoon.

On the wine front, a glorious bottle of Ridge Lytton Springs 2004 from the truly excellent Paul Draper. Predominantly Zinfandel, with 30% of other grapes, Petite Sirah and Carignan. The colour is ruby red with a hint of juicy purple, and on the nose, sweet fruit with a touch of vanilla. On the palate, such sweet richness, very rounded and complete, with excellent structure, The palate is glorious, just a ripe wave of lushness. Paul Draper has indeed tamed the beast that is Zinfandel.

Have a great week!

Comments

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...

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