Back in the groove

Finally, a good training session tonight.

This week has been rather painful for me to say the least. My legs have still been aching from Sunday's exertions and for the first time since I started running, my feet have been hurting. It appears the old, tough skin on the balls (don't laugh) of my feet became dried and cracked during or after the event. Ouch. So even walking this week has been hard work.

I managed to drag myself to the gym on Monday - knowing I was not going to be able to run, I managed to get into RPM. Quite a good class, even with no Alex, and we had a new release which featured some quite good music. At the risk of sounding bigheaded, spinning isn't a challenging workout for me any more, certainly not aerobically. Such has been the improvement in my cardio-vascular fitness resulting from my PT sessions.

Afterwards I had a sports massage on my legs, which was quite possibly the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life. Ali, who did it, said my legs were in "a pretty bad state" and that was probably why I hurt on Sunday. Simple lack of maintenance, which is something I will need to address in the months ahead. His neighbours probably think they have a serial killer living next door as a result of my screaming. It was like having spikes pushed through my legs.

I had a PT session with Anthony on Tuesday but we had to abandon just after half way through. It should have been a jog out, hills and sprints, a jog, then more hills and sprints before heading back to the gym. I was so knackered I had to stop and walk before we could do the second round of hills and sprints.

I treated myself to a day's rest yesterday to ensure I could make tonight's PT session count. And it worked. I was given a choice of hills and sprints or 20 hill reps. That's about double the hill reps than I have ever had to do before. I chose it because I thought it would be a good mental barrier to break down, and it is closer to the marathon training I'll have to do after the Reading half marathon.

I didn't think I could possibly manage 20 reps on that hill but I did. Six months ago I was doing half that number on a hill not as steep or as long. So after the disappointment of not getting a sub-2 hour time on Sunday it was a timely reminder of just how much progress I have made.

As usual, Anthony was talking and giving advice the whole time and most of it was about my diet. I can't say that I liked a lot of his suggestions (self-abnegation is just not my bag, baby) but I am so focussed on running now I'll try anything to get my weight down.

He also made a very good point which I hadn't really thought of before, and that is that running must be the only sport where Mr Average can compete in the same event as world-class athletes (I was talking about the elites I had seen on Sunday). I mean, a five-a-side player can't play in the same match as Beckham and a village green player can't take the same field as Flintoff can he?

I forgot to mention previously that the deaf and blind runner I had seen at Longleat was running the Bath half marathon, as was the elderly gentleman in the picture my sister had spotted in a local paper with the caption "Age was no barrier in the 10k race".

As I have stated previously, these people make me feel very humble and make me realise what a truly great hobby I have found.

Copyright © Jonathan Weedon March 2006

Bath Half Marathon - My biggest event yet

This Sunday I competed in the 25th Bath Half Marathon. It was very much a dream come true.

I think my ambitions of running a half marathon go back a few years. Very often over a pint or 5 I would say to one of my mates "Fancy training for and running in the Bath Half Marathon next year?” We would make pledges to do so, which of course never came to anything. We missed it this year, but there's always next year, we would tell ourselves. If I'm honest, at the time running a half marathon was about as realistic a goal for me as flying to the moon.

But why Bath you may be wondering. Why was it the Bath half marathon I wanted to do?

The reason is simply my love of the city. Growing up in Melksham, which is about 10 miles from Bath, I spent a lot of time there, especially as a teenager. I would spend many Saturday afternoons in Bath, walking round the shops and spending my pocket money on the latest Madonna 12”, or a trip to the cinema.

As well as the wonderful architecture and its Roman history, Bath has some lovely little shops, especially in places like the corridor, and some great pubs. I remember celebrating finishing my A levels in the Crystal Palace (my personal favourite, especially in summer when you can sit in the beer garden) and I still go there now, usually when I meet up with Pete for a mid-week drink.

I got my place for Sunday's event last September, before I had completed my first half marathon. I was very pleased to do so, as it is notoriously hard to get a place - it sells out quickly and I went online as soon as applications were open. I think it says a lot about the event that it is so popular.

My last half marathon was in November and whilst I have trained hard since then - increasing the duration of my long runs - I did feel nervous leading up to the event. I did a 10k at Calne the week before, which proved to be less than ideal - advertised as being on road, it was mostly cross-country. I had to take it pretty steady, as it was not worth risking an injury.

Anthony said in my last session with him that he would be surprised if I didn't complete Bath in less than 2 hours. Whilst this was obviously a compliment it did mean I felt a little pressure not to disappoint.

The 10k at Calne aside, my final preparations seemed to go well. I wrapped up my training with a steady run on Wednesday and then allowed myself 3 days complete rest. I thought this would mean I turned up feeling fresh on Sunday. I also had a fantastic sports massage on Friday to make sure I was nice and loose and suffered none of my occasional lower back problems.

I woke up nice and early on the day and made my way to the station. The train seemed the best way to travel (the traffic going into Bath can be a nightmare, and parking is not great either) and I travelled down with Grace, a lady of similar ability from my running club at the gym.

The runners "village" was in a familiar spot for me - on the cricket ground where I go to watch Somerset play a one-day match every year in June! I had never seen so many runners – 1600 people had entered the Swindon half marathon, but there were around 10,000 entrants for Bath. Everything seemed well organised and we dropped off our bags and made our way to the start.

As we lined up I noticed what a great day it was. The weather has been miserable this month, and the forecast for Sunday had not been good. What a welcome surprise then, to see a clear blue sky.

I set off at a fairly decent pace, allowing myself a couple of miles to warm up and trying not to go too quickly at first. I was therefore alarmed when my legs started to hurt soon into the race. The rest days did not seem to have worked. I hoped the pain would ease off but it didn't. It soon became obvious that I had a choice of not completing the race, or just biting the bullet. No prizes for guessing which one I went for.

It was agony. My legs often feel heavy during a long run but this was different. In the end I decided that running a marathon is going to be agony (especially the last 6-8 miles) so this would be a good test of my mental strength, if nothing else.

I did manage to keep smiling however. It was great to see some elite athletes in action (especially those from overseas). I saw them overtaking as I was finishing my first lap (they were obviously on the second and final lap!). It was great to be part of such a major event, and nice to see people in fancy dress, including one guy in a Sumo wrestler costume!

The event was extremely well marshalled and there were 4 drinks stations on the course, some of which were manned by people in Army uniforms. Obviously the local regiment had agreed to help out. What a great idea to hand out lucozade sport as well as water - but would someone please explain why some people were pouring it on the ground??

My second lap did go a bit quicker. I think I just got a boost knowing I was halfway and could start counting down the miles.

At about mile 10 it really started to hurt. I kept telling myself to keep going, how much I had wanted to run this race, how I could wear my race t-shirt with pride afterwards, and how I could treat myself to a Schwartz burger (best burgers ever!) and as much booze as I liked after the race.

It must have worked because despite all the pain I got to the line. I will always remember turning into Great Pulteney Street for the home straight, seeing all the people, smiling broadly and sprinting to the end.

According to the clock I had made it in 2:03:41. I later found out my chip time was 2:00:50. Gutted not to have got round in under 2 hours but Anthony said earlier that had I had fresh legs I'd probably have cruised round in 1 hour 50 mins. I don't know about that.

I did indeed treat myself to a burger and a couple of quick pints before heading home. A special race calls for special beer and I had bought some "Schneider Weisse", a dark German wheat beer that I used to drink on my year abroad as a student in Regensburg. It did taste lovely but I managed to save a few bottles for the Reading half marathon in 3 weeks time..

So was it worth all the pain? You bet. Will I be doing it next year? Come hell or high water I will.

Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, March 2006

A big hundred at last..

What a pleasure it was to see Andrew Strauss return to form with a big hundred in the third and final test against India this morning.

England have not had an easy time of it in the sub-continent this winter, to say the least. Much of it, certainly as far as this tour is concerned, is due to the loss of key players - Simon Jones, who last summer established himself as a key part of England's awesome pace attack, has been unable to take part in either tour due to injury, and nor has Ashley Giles. Michael Vaughan, the captain, has had to return home from India due to a recurrence of his knee problem, and Marcus Trescothick, the most dependable of England's batsmen for the last couple of years, has returned home for personal reasons and will also miss the one-day series.

It seemed losing Steve Harmison to injury, just as he seemed to be getting back to his awesome best, would be the final nail in the coffin. Certainly it will be a lot harder to bowl India out twice without him.

The other main reason why England have struggled in Pakistan and India, in my view and that of many pundits, is the failure of the batsmen to post big totals, especially in the first innings. Most of them have looked good at some stage or other, and by and large they have all got starts. There have been positives, such as Alistair Cook's hundred on debut and Paul Collingwood's 134 not out in the same match. In Mohali, however, no one scored a hundred and England lost.

This was especially disappointing when you take into consideration the fact that all of the top seven got into double figures in the first innings, and a score of 300 looked well below par.
Consequently all the talk before this match was of the need for someone to score a big hundred. If England were going to end the series on a high, someone really had to step up.

The man who stepped up on this occasion was a certain Andrew Strauss. Whilst he has struggled on this tour, and scored just 44 runs in two tests against Pakistan, you always know that with a player of his class a return to form and a big hundred is always just round the corner.

Strauss, or "Brocket" as he is known to his teammates, can consider himself unlucky not to have been appointed stand-in captain on this tour. The reasons for this, I believe, are two-fold. Firstly, I think making Flintoff captain was a shrewd move by Duncan Fletcher to ensure he would not fly home during the series to attend the birth of his second child. Fletcher knew he would rise to the added responsibility of captaincy and put the needs of the team first. Secondly, Strauss was going through a lean patch for the first time in his career as an England player, and this was clearly not the time to complicate matters further by saddling him with the captaincy.

I have no doubt that his time will come, however. Strauss seems born to the captaincy - he is an extremely bright individual who, after graduating, turned down a career in the city to play professional cricket. He is 100% committed to the cause, and no one should forget the contribution he made to England's Ashes triumph last year. Being the only player on either side to score two hundreds was a fine riposte to Shane Warne's claim that he would be the next Darryl Cullinan (Cullinan was known for struggling against spin, especially when facing Warne).

Another nice thing about the first day's play was seeing Owais Shah playing well on debut, reaching a composed half-century before retiring hurt with cramp. Whilst England have lost to Pakistan and can no longer win the series against India, some of the debutants have been superb - Cook and Panesar previously, and now Shah. Having a large pool of talented players and the concomitant competition for places augurs well for England's ambition of usurping Australia's position as the best team in the world.

And how nice, also, to see the Indians attending to Shah when he was suffering from cramp. As one of the commentators said, which other sport would you see that in?

Hopefully Shah will come out tomorrow and build on his good start and England will go on to score an imposing total. But things can change rapidly from one session to the next in this game, which is another thing I love about it.

Not long now until the cricket season begins here in England. I have my tickets for Lords, a one-day match against Sri Lanka in June, and the Saturday of the Test match against Pakistan in July. I can hardly wait.

Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, March 2006

And the winner is..

Well, I don't think Reese Witherspoon winning Best Actress at the Oscars last night surprised anyone did it?

I, for one, was delighted. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Reese and she has made some wonderful films over the years that have brought me great entertainment. It's hard sometimes to remember she is still only 29 - it seems like she's been around forever.

It seems particularly fitting that the award has come just after Reese has overtaken Julia Roberts as the highest-paid actress in Hollywood (she will earn $30 million for appearing in Our Family Trouble).

I remember seeing her in a film for the first time quite well. My friend Matt and I were a bit bored one rainy day, so we decided to go to the video store and rent a film. We chose Fear, a low budget thriller in which Reese starred alongside Mark Wahlberg. Neither of us had seen her before, and we were so smitten we went back to the video store to see if there were any other films with her in! There were - we rented Freeway and watched it the same day.

For me, the hallmark of a good actor or actress is the ability to play different characters with equal aplomb. It's hard for me to think which of Reese's many roles I have liked the most - the innocent virgin in Cruel Intentions, the obnoxious over-achiever in Election or the ditzy blonde in Legally Blonde (the execrable sequel being probably the only blemish on her record thus far).

Another thing I like about Reese is her down to earth nature - she admits having been in therapy (who doesn't have issues, she argues - fair point) and having attended marriage counselling with her husband Ryan Philippe. They have problems like any other couple, she maintains.

Most of all I like the way she never seems to bad-mouth any of her contemporaries. If she speaks publicly about anyone else it always seems to be complimentary. I remember seeing on a documentary about Britney Spears how chuffed the pop princess was that Reese had said something nice about her in a magazine. “That made my day,” Britney proclaimed. Also, I was very impressed to read somewhere that Reese had described working alongside Dame Judi Dench on the set of The Importance of Being Earnest as "like being in the presence of royalty".

You could argue that this is a sign of insecurity or low self-esteem on Reese's part. I like to think it is more a genuine appreciation of her profession and the people in it that she regards as her role models.

Talking of being in the presence of greatness, I have very fond memories of a day when I saw Reese in the flesh. A couple of years ago she was in Bath filming Vanity Fair. I had a day off and read about in the paper. Having nothing better to do, I jumped on a train and decided to have a look at the film set. It was a fantastic experience, seeing how they had made a part of the city look as if it were in the 19th century, as well as all the extras in their costumes. I only saw Reese from a distance – nowhere near close enough to get an autograph - but it was still very exciting.

From what she said about Dame Judi, I can only surmise that she plans to tread the boards at some point in her career, so hopefully it won’t be the only time I ever see her in the flesh.

For most actresses winning an Oscar would mark the apogee of their career. In the case of Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon, I can't help but feel this is only the beginning.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000702/

Copyright © Jonathan Weedon March 2006