Geek Fest

Before working at Sky I wasnt that into video games although did play them a lot as a kid but now I have turned into a big kid (at times anyway)!! Best memories from gaming 20 years ago was the ZX Spectrum and having to wait up to an hour for the game to load via the tape player only for me dodgy power lead getting nudged and resetting the bloody thing having to start all over again!!

Top 10 games I played on there (as there were hundreds..literally)

1) Daley Thompson Super test.
2) Football Manager
3) Jetpac
4) The Great Escape
5) Solomon's key
6) Boulder Dash
7) Jet Set Willy
8) The trap Door
9) Ian Bothem's Test Match
10) Battle of Britain

After the spectrum remember getting a Sega Mega drive for christmas in 1991 where became a massive Sonic fan along with the mighty Golden Axe and Streets of Rage before "converting" to the Super Nintendo with Megaman, Mario kart and Zelda!

Bought an xbox a few years ago and although has taken me a while have finally turned back the years and whenever have free time and playing video games.....yes I know there are a few of you that will read this and think what a sad sack but fuck it...I really dont care :P. Currently addicted to Mass Effect 2 and Fable III is sat waiting for me to finish Mass Effect which is a nice change as have spent the previous 4 months Playing Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas and have FINALLY got bored with them after nearly 150 hours game time for both of them!!

There are a few people at work who have gaming websites for reviews etc, if your into that type of thing check them out:

http://www.ggsgamer.com
http://www.16bits.co.uk/

Eastleigh 10k

This was my first "big" 10k race for a few years and was enjoyable to get back on the start line for this type of race. Before the race I would have taken 33mins dead but after finishing was a little disappointed with it really just based on the way I ran the race.

I started steady as planned but after 2k I pushed through the field a little too hard when should have sat in with the group and ended up struggling to hang on for the last few kilometers finishing in 18th place with 33:00 (32:58 chip time). Should have been easily under 33minutes but was still a solid time and good to get a tough race under the belt.

Was also good to see a few friends that havent seen for a while including Matt dumigan who had a storming run of 31:03 to finish 3rd place which was a great run considering he has only just started back to full training after a long lay off.

Results:
http://thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=44143

Bit of a running update:

Yesterday managed to get out in the sun for a grass session of 6 x 800/90 rec and 4 x 300s. Main thing is got them done but felt pretty rough but I think this is just down to not running much at that pace ad hopefully over the next few weeks should begin to feel a little more comfortable at that pace.

Yesterday evening I went to watch Frome FC at home to Totton and was suprised with how many people were at the game. now 358 people may not sound a lot but I believe that was the biggest Frome have had for several years and one of the highest in the whole division this season. Totton must have had near 100 fans there aswell with by far their loudest fan being a mid 40s fat and bald bloke who was chanting the entire game and im not joking! Best moment when he turned to the Frome fans standing infront of the club house with his arms in the air and started taunting them...bloody funny and brave although I reckon I could fit two of me inside one of his trouser legs and had the biggest set of man tits I think I have ever seen..hope they made him walk back to Totton as he could of done with the exercise.

Frome Town FC 0 - 3 AFC Totton

AFC Totton continued their impressive form and took a big step to automatic promotion by recording a comfortable 3-0 win away at The Aldersmith Stadium. Both teams struggled to create chances until the midway point of the first half when a neat turn and shot on the edge of the area forced a good save from Totton's keeper. The deadlock was broken minutes later when Totton's number 11 (who was causing Frome problems all night) turned his marker and struck a fierce shot that flew into the bottom right to give the vistors the lead. The lead was soon doubled after Frome gave away a cheap free kick on the edge of their penalty area and were made to pay as the resulting shot went through the wall and into the corner of the net giving the keeper no chance.

In the second half Frome's direct style of play wasnt creating any chances and if anything was putting them on the back foot as Totton would come straight back at them with some tidy posession play creating further half chances for themselves. The third goal was anything but tidy as Frome's defence failed to clear a long ball into the box allowing Totton's midfielder to run inside the box drilling a low shot that beat the keeper at his near post. Things got even worse for Frome 10 minutes later when after Frome had a goal disallowed for a foul on Totton's defender, captain Jamie Cheeseman recieved a second yellow card for dissent and recieved his marching orders.
Frome have to brush this defeat off quickly as they are straight back in action on Saturday with the visit of Bishops Cleeve to the Aldersmith Stadium followed by a trip to Mangotsfield United on Monday 28th March and will need to pick up points to hold off the chasing Hungerford and Almondsbury Town for the remaining playoff places.

Attendance: 358 (highest of season)

Support your local team

Tonight is a big night of football....no its not Champions league or is it international matches, its Frome Town FC home to top of the table AFC Totton who are 8 points clear in the race for automatic promotion to the Zamaretto Premier Division (league below Conference South). Frome have recovered from a poor start to the season and are now sitting 4th five points clear of 5th with two games in hand with the teams from 2nd to 5th entering the playoffs at the end of the season. This is only the second season in this division for Frome since promotion where they finished just outside the playoffs in 6th place so yet another improvement this year and the strong possibility of extending the season by reaching the playoffs.

With AFC Totton in total control of the league and marching towards promotion this will be a good test for Frome to see how far they have come and a chance of revenge after a 3-2 away defeat earlier in the season. Frome come into this match unbeaten in 9 league games winning the last five including an 8-0 destruction of North Leigh on Saturday so if your bored get on down to the Aldersmith Stadium tonight.....kick off is 7:45pm.

Loving the warmer weather at the moment, makes a nice change of not spending half the run warming up! Saturday I managed to slightly pull my calf again on a steady 5 miles so decided against the 10k but after doing a few things on Sunday got bored and decided to go and smash a threshold run as the calf seemed ok and glad I did.

Since picking up the illness I havent had any decent training runs or sessions so knocks confidence a little bit but taking a bif of a gamble and running Sunday paid off for once. Went the usual 5 miles route I usually do on Saturday and right from the first mile I felt very strong and comfortable going through the first mile about 12 seconds quicker than usual finishing on a 5:09 mile finishing in 26:29 which is a massive improvement for me recently.

Not taking it all so seriously since withdrawing from the marathon has lifted a bit of a weight from the shoulders and just enjoying running for the sake of it. Been running most days but havent worried about hitting 10 mile plus runs and is just aswell as work is busy and have other things going on outside of work.

Thinking about seeing how fast I can go over 5k this summer off a low millage of around 40 - 50 miles a week as be interesting to see if can get anywhere near my best off half the training as I think its possible as long as the quality sessions are in there and managed to get one run over 10 miles in a week...

Officially withdrawn...

Today filled out the withdraw form for London but will have a place for next year if I want to run which is a plus so will see how it all goes after the summer!!

This weeks training has been fairly relaxed millage wise but a bit more intense. After a day off Monday decided to get the legs ticking over a bit quicker by the standard "summer session" of 10 x 400s with a minute recovery. Safe to say a massive shock to the system and was blowing massively after the first few but have to start somewhere and it felt really good to be running (or trying to) fast again...time wise it was shocking compared to what was used to but solid for someone that hasnt done a session like that for going on 9 months!

Brisk 50 and 35 minute runs followed the two days afterwards with a road fartlek session Friday evening where it was fairly relaxed as deciding whether to run a local 10k Sunday. Legs are feeling a lot better and so is the chest (fingers crossed).

Was looking at some race websites and came across some VERY old results when running for Frome as a junior....might notice another Grist nearer the top of a few of them..

http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/1999/y5k1.htm
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/1999/y5k2.htm
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/1999/yeo53.htm
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/1999/yeo54.htm
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/1999/yeo55.htm

http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2000/yeo51.htm
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2000/yeo52.htm
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2000/yeo56.htm
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2000/r5page1.html

http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2001/ytrrc%205k%20series%20race2%202001.html
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2001/ytrrc%205k%20series%20race%203.html

Funny seeing the progression which I think was pretty much most races..was on similar training from the very first race listed in 1999 right up until the sub 16s in 2001 with the only real difference was the long run being several miles more. More doesnt always mean better....

So I have decided to call it a day and not run London this year. Feeling a lot better now but still not 100% as I found out on my first long run since the 20 mile race on Saturday. Ran 18 miles and the plan was to run plus 20, felt terrible the whole way round and generally didnt enjoy it! Gave it the weekend to contemplate but now def not running but still am planning to use this training to get some semi-decent times for the shorter distances. Am planning a few 10k races in the next few weeks so be interesting to see how they go as feel im in reasonable shape for them.

Summer plans are to get in as many 5k races as possible (yeovilton etc) with possibly getting on the start line to a few track races. Would like to try and get a few low key 1500 meter races in as really do enjoy those races. Love the intensity and tactics of them and the fact your basically flat out for 4 minutes. Would be good to get near by best time of 3:58.1 but would be ok with a low 4minute time.

So the next few weeks will be easing off a bit millage wise and increasing the intensity of some of the workouts. Def going to keep a long run of 14/15 miles on a sunday with a tempo run of 5miles for time being until move into the summer and the races start coming thick and fast.

Feel a bit disappointed with myself for not going through with it but no point getting on that start line knowing you havent done the training for it and not really motivated to be there. Will still keep the blog going with updates from training...

So still feeling pretty rubbish at the moment but hoping this will clear up in the next few days. All of this is showing how hard on your body training for a marathon can be and thats coming from someone who has been running since the age of 10!! Must admit I thought I would be able to hold out with the millage as used to run 70 plus every week easily but I guess the 2 years out of proper training have meant taking me longer than I thought to adapt back to this training.

Now you can be 18 to run a marathon but most of the time I would STRONGLY recommend against running one this young. If that 18 year old just wanted to get round and not worry too much with the time and wasnt going to run much for the rest of their life then fair enough go for it. But if that 18 year old was going to plan to run throughout their life and wanted to run in a decent time then absolutely no point as I believe you need to be strong enough for the training let alone the race and this means years of miles and training in the legs aswell as experience. Running local cross countrys, track races, 5k races and the odd 10k is where I personally learnt a lot about distance running in general and built a lot of strength from it all. When I was keen at 17/18 I proberly would have tried a marathon but I was lucky in that I had people who knew what they were doing advising me and plus my old man would never have let me punish myself over 26 miles at that age as was showing potential over the shorter distances of 5k and cross country.

From more of a coach point of view seeing I have advised athletes in the past about training and racing, I wouldnt advise an athlete to do a marathon at that age and if they insisted I would unfortunately have nothing to do with it. Have to think havent stopped growing and developing at 18 for most and pounding the streets training for 26 miles can end up in injury/illness a lot of the time...and yes I have seen athletes do this at this age never run again or never as quick.

Bit of a disaster today at Bath and to be honest in hindsight I shouldnt have even been on the start line. Wasnt feeling right right from the first mile and decided after 4 miles that once I got to the start of the second lap I would call it a day and so I did. Wasnt breathing heavy at all, just felt very flat and to round it all off the managed to get a slight pull on my calf. To be honest needing a Lemsip and some cough medicine this morning to make myself feel better was a sign that I shouldnt have bothered going.

Been having second thoughts about the marathon the last few weeks partly because not enjoying the training as all I seem to be doing is train and work with no time for anything else and missing the faster work for 5/10ks. So currently contemplating using the training so far as a base for a bit of a track season as my times for all the shorter distances could do with improving. Plus there are signs that my body just isnt up to it so instead of trying hammer myself might be time to call it a day and think about other options.

Still undecided whether to run tomorrow or not, just got back in from a few strides and body feels ok but still feeling a tad run down from the illness....looks like I will literally make the decision tomorrow morning after a good nights sleep.

Feeling a little better but have a bit of a chesty cough so Bath looking unlikely at the moment. Managed a very steady run yesterday and went ok but still not well enough to hammer myself over 13miles. Looks like a day of watching the football instead...