JANUARY 2005 - Back in Action

[Sweder]

All best wishes to fellow RC viewers for a great 2005.
My 2004 ended on a sour note as some thoughtless scroat relieved me of my golf clubs following a social 9 holes with my mates on New Years Eve. A plague on thier houses (or possibly caravan), and lets move into the new year with renewed faith in mankind.

The news that the British public raised in excess of 45 million pounds for the Tsunami Relief fund certainly warmed the cockles, but to be honest the best news I could receive arrived when I donned the lycra for a brisk return to the Sussex Downs this morning - Hurrah!

Still bearing the last vestiges of a hacking cough, but feeling infintely better than I had in two weeks, I set off for Brighton seafront at 08:30. On opening the front door I was greeted with a perfect January morning - clean, crisp air, not a cloud in the sky with a watery yet unhindered yellow orb climbing gently over the town.

Tim (fellow telly tubby and recent achillies injury sufferer) arrived to take us off to Brighton where we met up with the Jog Shop crew. This is a fine bunch of athletes, very much in the RC tradition (ie of various and dubious abilities). Most had received hard luck notices from Mr Bedford and have entered Paris - no matter as our races will only be days apart and we can follow the same schedule.

We embarked in leisurely fashion on a gentle 10.5 miler along the clifftops heading East, turning inland at Saltdean and up the mile long muddy climb that is Telscombe Tye. Regrouping at regular intervals we followed a farmland track through fields around the village. Sam, our guide and mentor (as usual stride his mountain bike so as to keep pace with the fastest and slowest in our group) nipping up and down the line like a flourescent Collie, checking his flock and controlling the pace, announced 'an exciting new route'. The 'exciting' part proved to be somewhat of a let-down; a 1/2 mile 1 in 4 climb through a freshly ploughed (and extremely moist) field.

Regrouping at the top of the climb to remove several pounds of freshly churned earth from our shoes, we headed down into the village of Ovingdean and back to the seafront, finishing at Brighton Marina.

At the top of our Somme-like trek Sam dispensed his final instructions:
'Get down to the clifftop and give it some welly for the last mile and a half.'
The man is a sadist. The becalmed, sunny morning we had left at the start had by now been freshened by a stiff Easterly breeze sweeping off the ocean, providing an extra 'fun' element to our finishing stretch. Battling a stiff wind, tired muscles screaming for relief, our mud-splattered group finished in around 2 hours 10 minutes, with a 5 minute spread from first to last.

My immediate post-run reaction was to attempt to cough my lungs out onto the pavement. I feared the worst; however, much to my relief, the wheezing and hacking subsided to be replaced by a self-satisfied glow and a gentle tingle in the legs; we're back in action, and the fun starts here!

The rest of the month looks to pan out like this:
Sunday runs (a repeat of todays' journey next Sunday then extending to 12, 14 and 16 miles off-road)
Monday recovery sessions - 30 minute lopes around Lewes
Tuesday night track sessions - 200, 300, 1 KM and 1 Mile track sessions
Thursday (am or pm) longer runs (1 hr+ or 8 miles)
Friday night town laps

It's so good to be back - I'm off for a pint to celebrate!
Yeeehah!