Racing and Training 2022

 SLOGs at Tredegar House We did three sets of  600, 300, 300 (90 secs, 1m, 1m) I took a Gel just before I started training (Clif Razz) it seemed to work well with fuelling my leg muscles.

 I did Body conditioning with ? , followed by Abs Blast with ? 

 I did a 9 mile LSR. We did the Lliswerry loop out and back via Traston Road (the shortest out and back).

 I did the Newport parkrun. It was the 23 in 23 5 year anniversary and the 500th newport parkrun

Bum feels a bit sore after yesterday's Body Conditioning  Yoga with Chris

 am Body Conditioning with Tracy pm Caerleon Cycle path intervals 3 * 3 * 200 (30s, 5m)

 Pilates

 SLOGs at Tredegar House Intervals (a pyramid) 200, 400, 600, 1200, 600, 400, 200. I cut the 1200 (turned early) as I was quite a way behind the rest.

 Yoga with Chris

I plan to be at the NISV for 8am Tampere... I have booked my National Express coach journeys to and from Heathrow. I expect to stay at the IBIS again. There are 7 rooms left. I have requested the BMMS bank account details from Carole Filer.

 I jogged to the Riverfront. I did the parkrun. I walked & jogged home. Tampere... I have booked my National Express coach journeys to and from Heathrow. I expect to stay at the IBIS again. There are 7 rooms left. I have requested the BMMS bank account details from Carole Filer.

 In the morning I did Yoga with Chris. In the evening I did a short relaxed strides session on grass in Beechwood Park .. 6 * 80 metres down the gentle slope with wind behind. Walk back recoveries. I have parkrun in the morning. I need to get my massage gun on my glutes!

In the morning I did Yoga with Chris. Later,  I collected Maisie from Pen-y-Lan country lodge for cats and dogs, Maisie was pleased to see me!

  I met Emmie out of school, Emmie and Evie were pleased to see me!

  Another early morning. The breakfast at La Pace was very interesting. There was everything! Even a make your own Nutella pancakes machine. My review on Booking.com was thus: An excellent value for money stay close to all amenities - I will be back!   Liked  · The hotel is in a great location for the station, the airport and the centre of Pisa. I was staying for one night, this was a good place to stay. The breakfast, which is promoted quite heavily, is excellent. Unlimited coffee was something that I really appreciated. The breakfast supervisor was helpful. There was a wide and varied choice - you can even make your own Nutella pancakes but, after chosing a more traditional British breakfast from the buffet, bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes etc.. I was too full to even attempt the making of pancakes. Disliked  · There was some noise in my room, it may have been the air conditioning or perhaps the lift shaft workings.. I'm not sure; I was too tired to...

  I headed back to Pisa. I had a one night stay at Hotel La Pace. I had an early night and a reasonable sleep (I woke up once and then drifted off again). After breakfast I booked a train ticket to Pisa using the Trenitalia app on my iPhone. I paid using apple pay and I stored the ticket in my Apple wallet. My review of Hotel Airone was thus: I chose a great place to stay for my first post-pandemic trip abroad   Liked  · I had a comfortable and very relaxing stay. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. The breakfast was high quality. I used the spa twice; the pool was a bit small but it was good to get in there and enjoy the jacuzzi style bubbles. The sauna was good too. Pampering with sparkly wine is available, but that was not for me. The roof terrace was an excellent place to spend a relaxing hour in the sunshine. The hotel is just a short walk away from the historic centre of Grosseto. A wonderful experience!   Disliked  · I can't fa...

  This year’s half marathon starts at 8:30am from Via Mercurio. It will take me 35 minutes to walk there. I need to leave the hotel before 6:30. My alarm is set for 05:10. This Sunday in 2015 was also Half Marathon Day in 2015 only then it started at 09:30 from Piazza Del Duomo (The Cathedral Square). I walked to via Mercurio. I stopped at Costa café near to the end of via Nazaria Sauro and had a frutta della bosca croissante with a cappuccino.   I had got the start time of the half marathon wrong and was an extra half hour early. It was a warm and sunny day. Very hot towards the end. GBR didn’t feature in the team medals this time round. On the way back to my hotel I stopped at the Atlantic café just a couple of hundred yards from via Mercurio (I had stopped there a few times in 2015). I drew out some euro cash using my R-Card. I got back to my hotel and had some food and a sleep. Oh yes! I ran the half marathon in just over two hours.

  This is the day of the 5K road races. Timetable thus: Sandro Pertini Park ·          9:00 AM WOMEN OVER 60 ·          9:45 AM WOMEN OVER 60 ·          10:30 AM MEN OVER 60 ·          11:15 AM MEN M45 / 55 ·          12:00 PM MEN M35/40 I was up early to have breakfast just after 7am and I walked to the Park at via Sandro Pertini to watch the 5K road races. As I left the hotel I noticed Claire Elms and her partner leaving at the same time. As Claire was racing and looked stressed I let them carry on. Our paths crossed a couple of times and eventually we walked together to the railway bridge. They ran off from there. It was part of Claire’s warm up! I got a bit burnt in the sunshine while watching the races. I returned to the hotel and stopped at a pizzeria for two pizza ...

  This was the 10K Day. Call room schedule was to report 30 minutes before the race. The organisation was a shambles.   I got up early and had breakfast shortly after 7am. I had my breakfast before my shower! My plan, was to do the 10K slowly to maximise my chances of doing a reasonable time in the half marathon. I would like to be third Brit in my category (at least) in each race just in case there is a medal team opportunity. We may have two very good runners in the half marathon, Brian Martin and Phil Jones. Fingers crossed for that one. This morning went to the hotel’s rooftop terrace and just relaxed for an hour, doing a bit of sunbathing. I rested for a while and left the hotel just before 3pm to walk the 2.7 kilometres to via Mercurio Sports Centre. After I had been walking for 10 minutes, I realised that I had left my Oakleys in my room so I had to go back for them. Never mind, I had plenty of time. The organisation was a bit chaotic. The race went pretty muc...

 Grosseto Trip TIC opens today at 3pm -  It is just under 2 miles away from the hotel . It opens at 3pm. Centro Sportivo Polivalente Mercurio  Via Mercurio 1, 158100 Grosseto GR I was up early after a long sleep (more than eight hours). I went to breakfast before my shower. I started thinking about my journey to the TIC. It is just under 2 miles away from the hotel. It opens at 3pm. It is at the Centro Sportivo Polivalente Mercurio, Via Mercurio 1, 158100 Grosseto GR.   A note from Archie: I will arrive in Grosseto in Thursday afternoon May 12th. I will make arrangements for my notices to be on display on the Thursday morning if not before. I`m not guaranteed to be at the Opening Ceremony but will be at both the TIC (late Thursday afternoon) and the Race Walking on the Friday morning. Also, no way compulsory, but I`ll be at the TIC for a `brief meet and greet` meeting at 10.30am on Friday morning. Official team meetings have always been difficult to arrange due to...

 Grosseto Trip I got up early, had a shower and had breakfast before 8am. I did a bit more organising in my hotel room and then booked a hotel pool session for 4pm today, before walking down to the old town for some lunch. Lunch included a stop at Caffe Tubino, after one at Mimi. I had my hotel spa session in the afternoon. The pool is most definitely a spa pool with jacuzzi jets and very little room to swim around. I took advantage of the sauna. In the evening I walked to the old town. I had a stop at Mimi then a second stop on the corner of Piazza Dante where I was “given” so many snacks that I decided to head back to the hotel. I stopped at Carrefour and bought some bread, cheese, ham, butter and yogurt and some coke zero. I had an early night and slept for eight and a half hours.

 Grosseto Trip I woke before the alarm at about 04:30 so I got up and was able to leave my hotel room by 05:20. I walked to the Harlington Corner stop and caught a bus almost immediately. This time I tapped in with my credit card. I was at Terminal 3 by 05:45 and I was through security before 06:00 am. I had breakfast at “The Curator” which was nice, being so early meant there was no queue for a table. https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/restaurants-a-z/the-curator My 08:35 flight with BA was late, we left the gate at about 09:00 but had to join a queue of aircraft and we actually took off at 09:20. I had a tapas box and some red wine on the plane which I ordered from my seat by accessing a BA web site via the plane’s on-board wi-fi system. We also got a complementary bottle of water and a Kellogg’s “Nutrigrain” bar! We arrived at Pisa Airport at 12:08. Passage through the airport was pretty good and I got on to a fairly empty Pisa Mover light rail system with no difficulties...

 Travel to Heathrow - Stay at the IBIS - 112 Bath Road I had plenty of time to take Maisie to Pen-y-Lan and get the 13:40 National Express coach to Heathrow. I discovered that the Heathrow free travel zone to travel from Heathrow to Harlington Corner no longer operates. The single fare at the moment is £1.65. I took the bus and then the short walk to the IBIS hotel at 112 Bath Road. The hotel  “restaurant” was fairly poor quality but I had some food and drink and retired to my room by 8pm ready for an early start in the morning.

 Rest day.. Packing for Italy

 Riverfront parkrun Newport County v Rochdale with Emmie

 Yoga with Chris at 10:30

 Weston Prom Race 9 of 9 Legs were tired. Started off chatting to Alison from Yeovil. Was chatting for mile 1. Miles 2 and 4 were into a very strong head wind. Miles 3 and 5 were half tidy. Free chips at the end. NB.. series entries get an award. A "T" shirt perhaps?

I had a sports massage with Jo Adams

 I did a SLOGs speedwork session from Tredegar House. We did 8 * 400. My legs were a bit tired from Sunday so I did these at below threshhold pace.

 Rest Day.. although I did do a 3 mile walk with Maisie. We went through St Julian's woods because th motorway footbridge was closed of due to police presence on thet top field.  

 Race for Victory 5K - Whitchurch Cardiff I drove on on Sunday morning to check the lie of the land and to collect my race pack. When I did the same journey for the race I arrived at about 6pm. The race HQ was already very busy and the school car park had been full for an hour. I parked in Heol Don (off Velindre Road). This was a decent place to park. After the race once the roads had been reopened I was able to travel further down Heol Don and loop round (via Church Road) past the race HQ to then head out to Coryton. As for the race itself. There were 1,380 finishers, my position was 626. I was 14th MV65 out of 26. It was quite crowded at the start but the coloured schemed bibs and starting gates meant that there was not really any much slower runners out of position. I ran it hard and fast.. going by my current fitness level. The first 1200 metres was flattish and then there was a short steepish drop followed by a more gentle descent. At about 2.75 K there was a climb which I fou...