Day 6 - Death Day

Finally the arrival of Easter Sunday, and the end of lent. Pete Street and I had already agreed to go for Chocolate Fudge Cake after our run and I couldn’t wait. I saw Leslie and Tom this morning before my run, and they loosened off my IT band and Peronial, and then I set off with the lads. My IT-Band hurt for the whole hour I ran, but it was a welcome relief from pain in my Achilles area. I stretched and iced as soon as I got back before getting changed and going to Bar O Cafe for our fudge cake! Boy it was good and I even had a bar of Milka afterwards. Pete and I decided that we weren’t craving that badly as it has been so long, and so are pretty much going to go back on the same diet, although not quite as strict. I absolutely love chocolate, but I get addicted and eat way too much, so if I’m trying to keep my weight down its probably best I don’t have any at all! The rest of the afternoon was spent tanning it up and socialising around the pool. At around 6, Kate Hindle, Lucy Dowsett, Becky Gough and I did a bit of core and stretching on the grass by the pool. I really had to man up, as girls are always so much better at core!

I got back to the villa at 5.30, and had to get ready in 30mins (which is quick for me) as me and my brother were meeting my parents for a meal. They came out here yesterday, and are staying in a gorgeous hotel right on the beach. It was a good half an hour walk down to the hotel, but it was really nice to see them! We got the extra surprise of a HUGE Easter egg in the hotel foyer that you could help yourself to! After a catch up and a drink in their room, we wandered into the Marina to find somewhere to eat. My parents had been given a recommendation and so we tried it out. The restaurant  was called the Abroa, and the fish steaks I had were very good. We then went for an ice cream, no prizes for guessing I went for chocolate! Chris and I then walked home, and I ate the mini-eggs and crème egg my mum had brought out for me! Today really was a death day!

Day 5 - BBQ

Today saw the second session of our trip. With the Gandyman now out here in Portugal it would definitely be a session where people would try to impress, with BUCS looming on the horizon, and George only being here for a week. Those of us doing the 5k session started at 10, with a 2k rep at 5k pace, just like on Tuesday. 10 minutes later the main session started, which was 700, 200, 600, 200, 500, 200, 400 all off 90sec recovery, with the reps getting faster throughout the session. Unfortunately for me, my heel wasn’t feeling too great, and so I had to stop after the 2k. I was pretty down about this, but George said not to worry about it and just get ready for Tuesday (the next session). I stayed around and stretched whilst the rest of the guys did the session, Emery in particular running very well. The track was rammed this morning, with around 7+ groups training on it, as it closes at 12 on a Saturday. At 10 a few of John Nuttall’s group and some of the Liverpool lads were doing a huge volume session, whilst we also saw Phil Nicholls doing what looked like 400’s and Ben Moreau doing some longer reps. At 11 Liz McColgan’s group were doing 800’s and a small but high quality group from Blackburn (my brother, Alison Leonard, Karl Billington and Anthony Hauserman) were doing 300’s.

As soon as I got back, I went to see Leslie and Tom for a bit of ‘emergency treatment’ to see if they could sort my heel out. There weren’t massaging today as it is their rest day, so I was very lucky that they agreed to take a quick look at me. Between them they loosened off my IT-Band and Peronial Tendon, and this really seemed to help the pain in my heel straight away. I cannot say how thankful I was and I really do owe them one! After the treatment I got lunch whilst watching the United-Chelsea game. This was always going to be horribly tense as Mariani is a Chelsea fan, and Fairbourn a big United fan (oh and Griff pretends he’s a big United fan!). We all know the result, but it didn’t quite kill the atmosphere in the villa as much as I anticipated for...

Earlier on in the week we were invited to the 9 person L’boro villa down by the track for a BBQ. We couldn’t pass up on this offer, and so rocked up at 6pm with all our food. Everyone who has come away with L’boro was there, and despite the wait for food (obviously going to happen when catering for over 30 people) it was good. I smashed 2 burgers and a couple of sausages along with a bit of the pasta that Besty and the girls had laid on! This was most definitely the most full I have been since coming out here! Our house left quite early however, as we wanted to go down to the Marina. We watched the David Haye fight in Figo’s bar, with a large Liverpool AC contingency, before heading on to Rui’s Karaoke bar again. The DJ tonight was awful, which ruined it, as he had the wrong backing tracks playing and all sorts. The company was great but it really was a shambles which got worse when a John Smiths shandy set me back 5 euro’s 50! Never again!

Day 4 – “a successful track season would now just be an added bonus!”

After a relatively late night last night, most of our house chose to lie in. Fairbourn was out early for an easy run, but personally I didn’t get up until 10am. With no running today, I was in no rush to really do anything. After breakfast we went to the bar for a coffee but not being a coffee drinker I soon hit the pool for an hour to catch some more rays. We had lunch just after 1pm, and then headed down to the beach. The beach is about a 15 minute walk away, and a massive group had already set off down there when we left. Emery, Griff, Mariani and I walked down to the beach with Nathan Bibby and a group of girls from Birmingham. I knew half of them before the trip, and met a few of the others by the pool yesterday, but the lads didn’t know any of them, so it was good to just get to meet some new people and socialise. When we arrived at the beach, we messed about with a Nerf and football for a bit and I had a cheeky dip in the sea. Things then got a bit more serious with a mass rounder’s game. It must have been about 15-a-side, with groups from Preston/Blackburn, Loughborough and Birmingham all involved! This was a great laugh and of course, I was on the winning team! As Pete Street and I discussed afterwards, a successful track season would now just be an added bonus!

Mariani and his little friend!

Mariani and I left the beach at 4.40, just before the rest, as we had to get to the supermarket as we were on cooking duty tonight. We were worried it closed at 5 being Good Friday, but it didn’t actually close till 8, which was annoying as we could have squeezed in a little more tanning time! Anyway we purchased just over 1kg of diced beef, some veg, soy sauce and rice. As you can probably guess we decided to make a Stir-Fry. The others arrived back just after us, and I then went to the pool (or as Shane just corrected me, tanning salon) with Fairbourn in order to stretch to try and improve and yesterday’s diagnosed horrendous flexibility. Once that was done, Mariani and I started to prepare the evening meal. The meal turned out ok and there was enough to go round, which was our biggest worry, having never cooked for 7 people before. The rest of the evening was very uneventful, as I think we all just wanted to get to bed in anticipation of tomorrow morning’s session.

Day 3 – “key tanning day!”

As I said in my blog yesterday, today would see the earliest start on the trip so far, as we all decided to run together at 8am. This was a relative luxury though, as I run before 7 sometimes when in Loughborough. I therefore woke up at 7.35 in order to allow time to foam roll and stretch before the run given the state of my Achilles yesterday. This really didn’t help that much though. Emery didn’t get up as stated, sticking to his guns that he never runs on a Thursday morning! Despite the beautiful run around the Golf Course, my Achilles just didn’t feel right, and so I just did 30mins with Mariani, whilst Seb, Fairbourn, Shane and Dave Howe continued and got an hour in.

The weather was gorgeous today and so this became my key tanning day! I hit the pool at around 10am with Griff, whilst the rest went for a coffee. They then joined us an hour or two later. Most the girls in our group were sunbathing too, and even Dolly (Alistair Donaldson) joined us mid-morning! Dolly is George’s new assistant coach, and being the 1^st of April, he got well and truly fooled! At present Dolly is living in the UKA endurance house in Loughborough whilst he finds his own place. Becky Lyne is still there, as she is going to Fount Romeu next week, and she called Alistair telling him his car had been broken in too! Becky is usually quite sensible, and so Dolly bought this for a few hours!!! He was literally crapping himself!

Anyway at we all went back to the villa to have lunch at around 1pm, and get a break from the sun. However I was back out there at 2, in order to make the most of this key tanning day before my massage at 4.35. Heather see’s Leslie, when she comes to Loughborough every fortnight, and she always says how good she is. Her assistant Tom has come out to Portugal with her this year and he was massaging me. I said to a couple of the guys before I went that I wanted a lot of pain to try and sort my legs out! Well I got just that. Tom tried to loosen everything off, in order to relieve the strain on my Achilles. We established that I am tight absolutely everywhere up my left side, probably the reason my Achilles is so sore. Having never had my IT Bands or Glutes massaged before I knew this would be bad, as I knew they were tight. Let’s just say it really was not pleasant!! Tom then stretched me off, and I really did feel so much better straight away. I have booked another session on Wednesday to pretty much just do the same thing.

 Today was Shane’s Birthday and so we all decided to head down to the Marina for a meal. We all got ready and set off down there at just after 7. The place we ate did a carvery, however I went for a Steak and Guinness pie. After the meal we watched the Liverpool game in “Rui’s Sports Bar”, and after the game we got involved in some Karaoke. There was no way I was going to have a go, but Shane and Seb did an interesting Roxanne cover, whilst George/Gandy/G-man/GG got involved with a bit of Elvis! Sensible Emery and I headed back at just before midnight leaving just Shane and Seb to carry on singing, as the others had already gone back. Hopefully tomorrow’s weather will be as good as today, so I can once again optimize my tanning time on rest day.

N.B – I have been trying my best to take lots of pictures but I forgot to bring my usb cable. I am hoping to get hold of one on Saturday so that I can add my pictures to the blog....

Day 2

Last night we agreed to meet some of the lads from Preston at 10am outside the supermarket for our morning run. Wednesday usually means a medium to long run and today was no different, just in the much more pleasant Portuguese climate. Myself, Mariani and Emery met with Pete Street, Nathan Bibby, Stephen Bennett and a few more the Preston gang and set out on our way to the cross country course at Alfamar. I believe this was used for the World Cross in the 90’s?! Anyway we met another large group from Loughborough and Liverpool on route and so a huge group of around 40 of us made our way along the trails to the cross country course. The run was very pleasant and I ended up doing 55mins with just mild discomfort in the heel area when I stopped. When I got back, Bennett showed me where to sign up for a massage with Leslie (the OCWK masseuse) and then we stretched by the pool, before icing our legs. I then went back to villa, showered and had brunch consisting of museli, a banana and two marmalade rolls. I am trying really hard when I am out here to lose some weight, as I am currently close to half a stone over racing weight. The weight should come off naturally in the heat, but I am being careful to eat enough but not too much in order to help this process along. So far I think I have found a nice balance.

Last night I labelled today as a key tanning day, but unfortunately the weather was a bit overcast, and so sun-bathing wasn’t a great option... So instead Fairbourn and I went down to the bar and used the internet for a couple of hours. We then spent the rest of the afternoon playing Chinese Poker and Fifa. In Seb’s case he spent most of the afternoon playing Championship Manager on his Ipod Touch, presumably trying to broaden his football knowledge! At 5pm most of us trained again, with Shane doing another 60mins, Fairbourn 45 and Emery 20 whilst Seb and Mariani did nothing. When Emery got back, Griff and I joined him to do some core and stretching out on the grass. Shane cooked for us tonight, and came up with a little surprise. For everyone else the chocolate cake he made for desert was a pleasant surprise, but not so much for me! I have given up basically all nice things for lent, Chocolate, Cake, Sweets and Biscuits..... All I can say is I cannot wait for Sunday! Anyway he made a tuna, pasta and sweet corn dish in a creamy onion sauce, which went down a treat. I finished it off with a coconut yoghurt, whilst everyone else smashed the chocolate cake! We then went back to the bar to watch the Arsenal game, which wasn’t actually on (it was the Inter game instead) so we just used the internet and debated over whether Phil Hinch should have been picked for the World Cross. Whilst we were there I had a chat with Heather (my girlfriend) on Skype and she seemed pleased to hear from me!

Sensible Emery 'ladding' it up!

We got back to catch the last 5 minutes of the Arsenal game and then played a little more Chinese Poker. During the game, when discussing the hierarchy of Queen’s, Seb came out with the quote of the day; “That’s like saying the Queen of England is more important than the Queen of Scotland”. On that note we all hit the sack, in anticipation of tomorrow morning’s 8am run. I am hopeful we can run on the golf course, whilst Emery insists he will not be out of bed to join us! We shall see....