February 2005 - Week 4

[Sweder]

Darnation, you noticed! Just don't tell Mrs Sweder . . .

You're right of course, Andy. My Physio is of the same view - you can hold form for several weeks without excessive training, and I've not missed a huge amount (so far). The injuries will clear up . . . if I give them chance to, which means rest. I just like whining - it gives me something to write about when I'm not running or writing about running. On a positive note I'm getting plenty of rest between long runs, which may yet prove beneficial.

There are two other subjects that got my fingers dancing on the keyboard tonight. The Carling Cup final, with Mr Mourinho's thoughtless gesture towards the Liverpool fans - if this guy starts to believe all the hype he'll do something really silly one day soon - let's hope. Nice to see Stevie Gerrard bag one for his new club, too.

And the Oscars. I sat through 2 1/2 hours of Seabiscuit last night - that's 150 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Schmaltzy sacharine-saturated balderdash. Rumour has it The Aviator will sweep Oscar off his feet tonight, and whilst I've not shelled out the silver for this one yet I have a nasty feeling it's out of a similar stable. (I also hated every moment of Titanic except for when DeCaprio drowned). I'm a Scorcese fan, but just because Raging Bull and Goodfellas were (mistakenly) overlooked in the Best Director category, that's no good reason to reward what superficially at any rate appears to be glitzy pap.

I'd like to see Million Dollar Baby sweep with a couple of nods to Sideways. But there again I've never been one for happy endings