On the way back to the show, I drop in on the Thunder Run. Plenty of people are not thundering around the course this morning, in fact quite a lot are walking.
Back at the show, Doggo has some nice runs and a few clear rounds today but still no rosettes. MD does ok too, runs well but frustratingly he always seem to get a pole or miss a weave of something. Also he seems to be getting more confident and getting faster which is creating more problems for me but in the long run, this is fundamentally a good thing. L says that if I have to work on my speed, she has just the training plan, that’ll be mine then!
Daughter has departed for a five day stint in a camping barn somewhere up in the Peak District. The Rave Shack she calls it. Problem is, knowing her friends, being in each other’s pockets for almost a week, they could be at each other throats... there could be murder but hopefully not.
(Sunday 1st August)
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
For The Seriously Mad
Show report - day two. Doggo is not hitting the contacts at the moment, probably due to lack of training. So that cost us two runs today. He's booked in for a refresher course from September. He was clear in his jumping though. It was a good run but again no rosette.
I missed one of MD’s runs completely as I was too busy working. The two runs he got included a truly awful one and a good one, where he was clear up to obstacle 12 but then didn't even see the weaves and went for a hurdle instead. So we picked up faults for that. I’ve not had much time to concentrate on running them this weekend due to ring managing both days. I’m hoping for better tomorrow when I don't have to work on the rings.
At lunch time I nip over to Burton, a few miles away, and collect L, who has managed to use public transport to get that far. Then when the agility has finish we move to a different part of Catton Park where the Thunder Run is taking place. It’s a 24 hour running race where the aim is to do as many laps of the 10k cross country course in the time allowed. It starts a 2pm today and finishes at the same time tomorrow. There is an individual competition for the seriously mad but also a team event for five or more people. L is secretly hoping someone will be injured and that someone will beg her to run.
I need to start persuading a few people, we must do this next year.
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(Saturday 31st July)
I missed one of MD’s runs completely as I was too busy working. The two runs he got included a truly awful one and a good one, where he was clear up to obstacle 12 but then didn't even see the weaves and went for a hurdle instead. So we picked up faults for that. I’ve not had much time to concentrate on running them this weekend due to ring managing both days. I’m hoping for better tomorrow when I don't have to work on the rings.
At lunch time I nip over to Burton, a few miles away, and collect L, who has managed to use public transport to get that far. Then when the agility has finish we move to a different part of Catton Park where the Thunder Run is taking place. It’s a 24 hour running race where the aim is to do as many laps of the 10k cross country course in the time allowed. It starts a 2pm today and finishes at the same time tomorrow. There is an individual competition for the seriously mad but also a team event for five or more people. L is secretly hoping someone will be injured and that someone will beg her to run.
I need to start persuading a few people, we must do this next year.
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(Saturday 31st July)
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Eternally Grateful
L gets up early and heads off for the gym with my personal training plan. She doesn’t take the dogs out. Oh yes, I nearly forgot. The yappy one (and Doggo) are coming with me aren’t they. Three day dog show, run by my own club.
The show starts at 1pm but I’ve been told to get there for 8.30am because there is so much to do but I know from past experience that this isn't usually the case. So I don't rush. I get there at just gone 9.00 to find that not much is happening, as ever. I should have stayed in bed, although L had bolted early, so not that much fun on my own. At least the dogs get plenty of walks, making sure that they’re nice and relaxed, as well as knackered for their first run at 1pm.
I’m assigned to ring manage for two days and then I get Sunday off, apart from helping clear up afterwards. Working on a ring doesn’t make for very good performances in the ring, because you’re just too busy to concentrate when it gets to your turn.
There are just two runs each for the boys today. Doggo misses a contact, tut tut, but then goes clear in jumping. MD messes up the weaves in jumping but then goes clear in the agility. Yayyyy. 18th place, outside the rosettes but that’ll do for starters.
L says she’ll be ecstatic with 18th tonight in her race. I’d be ecstatic for her. In fact that’s better than I usually do.
I leave the show and head straight to Shipley Park to meet her there for the Heanor 5 mile race. It’s a 7.30 start and I’m on Shipley Park for 7.10, only... no one else is. I feel I’m in the wrong place. The start is at Shipley Park Cricket Club. Hmmm. No cricket club here. I think that should be Shipley Cricket Club. I jump back in the car and eventually find the right place, five minutes after the race start. It’s a good job I wasn’t intending to run in it.
Also after being fine all day, it’s now tipping it down. The boys and I gallantly stand in the rain and support L. For once even Doggo looks happy that he’s not running. Once L finishes, we leg it to the car and then home to dry off.
She tells me that the wait is over... Panda Bear's new single is out. I hide my excitement well. L asks me if I’ll download it for her tonight, she’s not good at doing these things. If I do, she says, she’ll be eternally grateful... and seduce me with candles, wine with Panda Bear playing in the background... I’m not sure that quite does it for me. We get the bus to the Crown instead.
The show starts at 1pm but I’ve been told to get there for 8.30am because there is so much to do but I know from past experience that this isn't usually the case. So I don't rush. I get there at just gone 9.00 to find that not much is happening, as ever. I should have stayed in bed, although L had bolted early, so not that much fun on my own. At least the dogs get plenty of walks, making sure that they’re nice and relaxed, as well as knackered for their first run at 1pm.
I’m assigned to ring manage for two days and then I get Sunday off, apart from helping clear up afterwards. Working on a ring doesn’t make for very good performances in the ring, because you’re just too busy to concentrate when it gets to your turn.
There are just two runs each for the boys today. Doggo misses a contact, tut tut, but then goes clear in jumping. MD messes up the weaves in jumping but then goes clear in the agility. Yayyyy. 18th place, outside the rosettes but that’ll do for starters.
L says she’ll be ecstatic with 18th tonight in her race. I’d be ecstatic for her. In fact that’s better than I usually do.
I leave the show and head straight to Shipley Park to meet her there for the Heanor 5 mile race. It’s a 7.30 start and I’m on Shipley Park for 7.10, only... no one else is. I feel I’m in the wrong place. The start is at Shipley Park Cricket Club. Hmmm. No cricket club here. I think that should be Shipley Cricket Club. I jump back in the car and eventually find the right place, five minutes after the race start. It’s a good job I wasn’t intending to run in it.
Also after being fine all day, it’s now tipping it down. The boys and I gallantly stand in the rain and support L. For once even Doggo looks happy that he’s not running. Once L finishes, we leg it to the car and then home to dry off.
She tells me that the wait is over... Panda Bear's new single is out. I hide my excitement well. L asks me if I’ll download it for her tonight, she’s not good at doing these things. If I do, she says, she’ll be eternally grateful... and seduce me with candles, wine with Panda Bear playing in the background... I’m not sure that quite does it for me. We get the bus to the Crown instead.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Taking Precautions
After the run last night and cycling to and from work today, I’m probably not in the best shape for squash. Not that I’m sure what the best shape would be. My opponent's stated aim is to win 100 games in a calendar year, my aim is to stop him. He also has the added dilemma that he fancies a game or two of tennis whilst the weather is good; although this will slow his inexorable drive for 100 blood stained notches on his squash racquet.
After another defeat tonight, even I’m beginning to agree that it may be beginning to look like tennis weather... So we agree a game for our next match up, in two weeks time. Stay indoors that night, it’s going to rain.
The wasps' home now appears to be vacant and derelict. So I get chance to inspect it from up close. It is quite a work of perfection. L says she is full of admiration for the horrible little cretins.
She’s been taking precautions in case they come back and overdosing on toast and Marmite. Apparently you don't get bitten or stung by insects if you eat the stuff. Not that she needs an excuse to hit the Marmite.
Somebody seems to have ‘borrowed’ a tub of Chamois Cream, as I found it open in the bathroom. Must have been Daughter. I hope she hasn’t mistaken something that is meant for your crotch for face cream.
(Thursday 29th July)
After another defeat tonight, even I’m beginning to agree that it may be beginning to look like tennis weather... So we agree a game for our next match up, in two weeks time. Stay indoors that night, it’s going to rain.
The wasps' home now appears to be vacant and derelict. So I get chance to inspect it from up close. It is quite a work of perfection. L says she is full of admiration for the horrible little cretins.
She’s been taking precautions in case they come back and overdosing on toast and Marmite. Apparently you don't get bitten or stung by insects if you eat the stuff. Not that she needs an excuse to hit the Marmite.
Somebody seems to have ‘borrowed’ a tub of Chamois Cream, as I found it open in the bathroom. Must have been Daughter. I hope she hasn’t mistaken something that is meant for your crotch for face cream.
(Thursday 29th July)
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Natural Order Of Things
So much for the new enhanced Red Arrow service, that promises a bus every ten minutes. I get to the bus stop for 8.30, the first bus comes at 8.55 and of course it’s packed. Then when we arrived in Derby, the driver drops us off at the old place in Market Square, as he claimed he was 25 minutes early. Work that one out.
The evil enemy are probably no more by now because the wasp man has been. We’ve just got to keep Doggo away from his favourite leg lifting spot for a few days in case there’s some stray napalm around.
It must be a bad bus day because after work I try and get the Indigo to Breaston, from where we have a race tonight. The board at the bus stop says they’ll be a bus in two minutes. Excellent. I wait... and wait. The board changes to six minutes and sticks like that for half an hour before finally counting down to zero, at which point a bus appears and it is of course packed. This service is supposed to be every 20 minutes.
I seem to do better than L, who can’t get an Indigo at all and in the end gets the R4 to Risley and ends up walking the mile down Risley Lane to get to Breaston.
The race is Erewash Valley Running club’s 'The Run', now rebranded as ‘The Run 4.2’. They got into trouble describing this race as a 4 miler and have now decided it’s 4.2 miles, hence the rebrand. It’s also becoming a bit of an annual thing for me. This is the third running of it, I’ve done all three and I’ve got the mugs to prove it. A white one for 2008 and a black one for 2009, this year my money’s on it being red.
I’ve also gone slightly quicker each year but this year I can’t really see me lowering my time. Last year I had protégée to race against and I was 2-0 down in our mini race series, so I had to beat him and did. This year without that sort of motivation and without much training either, I just can’t see it being a good race for me but...
You just never know. I start quicker than I wanted to and then forget to slow down, as I start a tussle of sorts with a chap who is considerably older than me and being behind him just doesn’t seem right somehow. We tussle for the first two miles but then I have to accept my place in the natural pecking order of things, behind him. It’s all a bit too fast for me, I’m doing six minute miles and I ought to be half marathon training, what with Nottingham coming up, and doing seven and a halfs!
The older gentleman forges on ahead and catches two other runners. With a mile to go, I realise that I could catch them too, if I really wanted to. I want to. So I dig deep and do indeed catch them. It also brings me right up to him and with just a quarter of a mile to go, he’s in striking distance. I don’t however like overtaking people in sight of the finish line, not when they’ve done all the work pacing me around... but he’s slowed so dramatically... I desert my principals and nip past him.
My time... well... last year I did 25.40, this year I’m just over 25.00 on my watch. Wow. Though I didn’t see the finish line so I stopped my watch late. The provisional results seem to have me down as 24.57. Double wow.
And the mug colour is... white. White? How does that work then, did they have a load left from 2008? Hmmm. Disappointed with that.
The general consensus is that although it’s probably not 4 miles it certainly isn’t 4.2. A couple of GPS watches put it much closer to 4 than 4.2 but I’m still pleased with my time. I’m also well impressed with L’s time which, even taking the distance as 4 not 4.2, puts her inside her 10k target, that we’re working towards. That is if she can keep the pace the same for another two miles. Surely my training plan isn’t paying off already. I’ll make myself redundant.
The race starts and finishes at the Navigation pub, so guess where we go afterwards....
(Wednesday 28th July)
The evil enemy are probably no more by now because the wasp man has been. We’ve just got to keep Doggo away from his favourite leg lifting spot for a few days in case there’s some stray napalm around.
It must be a bad bus day because after work I try and get the Indigo to Breaston, from where we have a race tonight. The board at the bus stop says they’ll be a bus in two minutes. Excellent. I wait... and wait. The board changes to six minutes and sticks like that for half an hour before finally counting down to zero, at which point a bus appears and it is of course packed. This service is supposed to be every 20 minutes.
I seem to do better than L, who can’t get an Indigo at all and in the end gets the R4 to Risley and ends up walking the mile down Risley Lane to get to Breaston.
The race is Erewash Valley Running club’s 'The Run', now rebranded as ‘The Run 4.2’. They got into trouble describing this race as a 4 miler and have now decided it’s 4.2 miles, hence the rebrand. It’s also becoming a bit of an annual thing for me. This is the third running of it, I’ve done all three and I’ve got the mugs to prove it. A white one for 2008 and a black one for 2009, this year my money’s on it being red.
I’ve also gone slightly quicker each year but this year I can’t really see me lowering my time. Last year I had protégée to race against and I was 2-0 down in our mini race series, so I had to beat him and did. This year without that sort of motivation and without much training either, I just can’t see it being a good race for me but...
You just never know. I start quicker than I wanted to and then forget to slow down, as I start a tussle of sorts with a chap who is considerably older than me and being behind him just doesn’t seem right somehow. We tussle for the first two miles but then I have to accept my place in the natural pecking order of things, behind him. It’s all a bit too fast for me, I’m doing six minute miles and I ought to be half marathon training, what with Nottingham coming up, and doing seven and a halfs!
The older gentleman forges on ahead and catches two other runners. With a mile to go, I realise that I could catch them too, if I really wanted to. I want to. So I dig deep and do indeed catch them. It also brings me right up to him and with just a quarter of a mile to go, he’s in striking distance. I don’t however like overtaking people in sight of the finish line, not when they’ve done all the work pacing me around... but he’s slowed so dramatically... I desert my principals and nip past him.
My time... well... last year I did 25.40, this year I’m just over 25.00 on my watch. Wow. Though I didn’t see the finish line so I stopped my watch late. The provisional results seem to have me down as 24.57. Double wow.
And the mug colour is... white. White? How does that work then, did they have a load left from 2008? Hmmm. Disappointed with that.
The general consensus is that although it’s probably not 4 miles it certainly isn’t 4.2. A couple of GPS watches put it much closer to 4 than 4.2 but I’m still pleased with my time. I’m also well impressed with L’s time which, even taking the distance as 4 not 4.2, puts her inside her 10k target, that we’re working towards. That is if she can keep the pace the same for another two miles. Surely my training plan isn’t paying off already. I’ll make myself redundant.
The race starts and finishes at the Navigation pub, so guess where we go afterwards....
(Wednesday 28th July)
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Onrushing Express Train
I’m still alive. The blotches seem to have gone down now and no one at work notices my reddish glow.
L’s booked a chap to kill the blighters. He’s coming tomorrow. Everyone at work advises I do it myself with a £10 can of wasp killer from the garden centre, a veil for my face and a cricket bat, just in case. I’m not so keen to go back into the war zone and I’m not sure L will let me anyway.
The chap says it may also destroy the bush. What’s he going to use a flame thrower? Well suppose it’s one less thing for me to have to trim. He’s coming first thing tomorrow. Daughter intends to get up early to make sure she’s there to spectate and take photos.
I change my car insurance online to a different company. Yet a week later my old insurance has expired and I’ve had notification of that, but all is quiet on the new insurance front. No confirmation email and nothing through the post...
I ring them. It takes 22 minutes to get through to their call centre... what have I done? I’ve signed up to a company who doesn’t do email, or snail mail and doesn’t answer their phones until they’ve pushed your stamina for their awful hold music to extremes. Not a good start.
Turns out, I am insured but for some reason no email address was stored with my application, despite the fact apparently it won’t let you submit it online without one. The chap at the call centre explains this in a fake surprised voice that more than indicates that this happens all the time.
The new football season is fast approaching, just like an onrushing express train and I’m tied to the tracks. I feel that if I close my eyes and pretend the train isn’t coming I might avoid it but realistically I know this won’t be the case. As you can probably tell, I’m not filled with that much optimism.
Derby have changed their system.... again. It’s now going to be 4-2-3-1 for the new season. Last season we conceded a lot of goals down the wings which is why we reverted to a standard 4-4-2 after a failed attempt at something similar.
Our two friendlies this last week: Bournemouth 3-3 and Chesterfield 5-4.
Conclusion. We will score goals against lower league sides but concede just as many. When we play better opposition... I hate to think. We play Stoke City tonight, which could be enlightening.
I suppose with all these goals flying in... our first game up at Leeds is bound to be a 0-0 bore draw.
I get home from dog training to find that Derby have defeated Stoke 1-0. Oh. A win and a clean sheet. Blimey.
(Tuesday 27th July)
L’s booked a chap to kill the blighters. He’s coming tomorrow. Everyone at work advises I do it myself with a £10 can of wasp killer from the garden centre, a veil for my face and a cricket bat, just in case. I’m not so keen to go back into the war zone and I’m not sure L will let me anyway.
The chap says it may also destroy the bush. What’s he going to use a flame thrower? Well suppose it’s one less thing for me to have to trim. He’s coming first thing tomorrow. Daughter intends to get up early to make sure she’s there to spectate and take photos.
I change my car insurance online to a different company. Yet a week later my old insurance has expired and I’ve had notification of that, but all is quiet on the new insurance front. No confirmation email and nothing through the post...
I ring them. It takes 22 minutes to get through to their call centre... what have I done? I’ve signed up to a company who doesn’t do email, or snail mail and doesn’t answer their phones until they’ve pushed your stamina for their awful hold music to extremes. Not a good start.
Turns out, I am insured but for some reason no email address was stored with my application, despite the fact apparently it won’t let you submit it online without one. The chap at the call centre explains this in a fake surprised voice that more than indicates that this happens all the time.
The new football season is fast approaching, just like an onrushing express train and I’m tied to the tracks. I feel that if I close my eyes and pretend the train isn’t coming I might avoid it but realistically I know this won’t be the case. As you can probably tell, I’m not filled with that much optimism.
Derby have changed their system.... again. It’s now going to be 4-2-3-1 for the new season. Last season we conceded a lot of goals down the wings which is why we reverted to a standard 4-4-2 after a failed attempt at something similar.
Our two friendlies this last week: Bournemouth 3-3 and Chesterfield 5-4.
Conclusion. We will score goals against lower league sides but concede just as many. When we play better opposition... I hate to think. We play Stoke City tonight, which could be enlightening.
I suppose with all these goals flying in... our first game up at Leeds is bound to be a 0-0 bore draw.
I get home from dog training to find that Derby have defeated Stoke 1-0. Oh. A win and a clean sheet. Blimey.
(Tuesday 27th July)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Feeling Lucky
The weather is miserable but dry, so far. I’m feeling lucky, so I decide to dodge the inevitable rain on the bike. It doesn’t rain.
L does the bike too, indoor. She executes my training plan on the bike with the broken seat. My training plan obviously isn’t tough enough if she has to spice it up like that. I must review it. She says she’s feeling quite pleased with herself. I’ll have to put a stop to that as well.
My luck is holding and it’s still not raining as I cycle home. Though I forget that they have the road up in Stapleford. They have scraped the surface off, ready for resurfacing. It’s not before time; this has been easily the worst section of road on my journey since I started cycling to work four years ago. It’s even worse now of course with the road up, a real puncture trap, so I should have taken a different route but I forgot. Still my luck holds. At least today they have started to lay tarmac on a stretch of it and it’s lovely. It will be great when it’s all done.
I get home and take the opportunity of a night free of training, neither dog nor running, and the lack of rain, to cut the front hedge. There I am whizzing along with the cutters when I inadvertently chainsaw through a wasps nest. Not so lucky now. Ouch. Well that doesn’t really describe it. I leg it round to the back garden pronto but not before I’ve taken at least half a dozen hits on the arm, neck and head.
Nursing my wounds, I watch from a safe distance as a reinforced wasp army of hundreds circle the front garden ready to launch a fresh attack should I dare to pick up the hedge cutters again. Later, as things calm down, I inch back into range and notice the nest... it’s the size of a football. How did I not see that!
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It is around this point that I realise that the damage to myself is more severe that I first thought. I am now coming out in some all over allergic rash of hives, in a nice range of colours ranging from yellow to red. Within the hour my body was looking impressively like a relief map of the Lake District. L calls NHS Direct who recommend immediate admittance to A&E. I settle for some anti-histamine pills instead. Then after another hour or so the worst of the mountain range are starting to subside. So it seems I might live after all. Still, I suggest to L that she best get romantic with me tonight just in case it’s her last chance... she doesn’t actually say no but I can tell that being seduced by Mr Spotty isn’t top of her ‘to do’ list this evening.
(Monday 26th July)
L does the bike too, indoor. She executes my training plan on the bike with the broken seat. My training plan obviously isn’t tough enough if she has to spice it up like that. I must review it. She says she’s feeling quite pleased with herself. I’ll have to put a stop to that as well.
My luck is holding and it’s still not raining as I cycle home. Though I forget that they have the road up in Stapleford. They have scraped the surface off, ready for resurfacing. It’s not before time; this has been easily the worst section of road on my journey since I started cycling to work four years ago. It’s even worse now of course with the road up, a real puncture trap, so I should have taken a different route but I forgot. Still my luck holds. At least today they have started to lay tarmac on a stretch of it and it’s lovely. It will be great when it’s all done.
I get home and take the opportunity of a night free of training, neither dog nor running, and the lack of rain, to cut the front hedge. There I am whizzing along with the cutters when I inadvertently chainsaw through a wasps nest. Not so lucky now. Ouch. Well that doesn’t really describe it. I leg it round to the back garden pronto but not before I’ve taken at least half a dozen hits on the arm, neck and head.
Nursing my wounds, I watch from a safe distance as a reinforced wasp army of hundreds circle the front garden ready to launch a fresh attack should I dare to pick up the hedge cutters again. Later, as things calm down, I inch back into range and notice the nest... it’s the size of a football. How did I not see that!
.jpg)
It is around this point that I realise that the damage to myself is more severe that I first thought. I am now coming out in some all over allergic rash of hives, in a nice range of colours ranging from yellow to red. Within the hour my body was looking impressively like a relief map of the Lake District. L calls NHS Direct who recommend immediate admittance to A&E. I settle for some anti-histamine pills instead. Then after another hour or so the worst of the mountain range are starting to subside. So it seems I might live after all. Still, I suggest to L that she best get romantic with me tonight just in case it’s her last chance... she doesn’t actually say no but I can tell that being seduced by Mr Spotty isn’t top of her ‘to do’ list this evening.
(Monday 26th July)
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