Secrets and bees

Ray Sievey Monday, 12 March, 2012

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Monday this week, for the first time I felt a little jaded. I think this was down to a combination of a few things. Firstly as mentioned in my blog last week, my prep for the Eastbourne Half (arriving 5 minutes before the start) wasn’t great, plus spending two hours driving there are back wasn’t the ideal warm up or warm down. Secondly, I think an accumulation of the miles was maybe catching up with me a bit. Thirdly, I will let you in on a secret! After the Barcelona Half I wore tights, nothing kinky you understand, but compression tights under my tracksuit bottoms and I wore these all day. Last Sunday due to the weather, driving and then shooting straight out when I got back home, I didn’t put my compression tights on. I definitely felt the DOMS on Monday! Tuesday, Nick had a 654321 session planned for me, this an interval training session where as each interval decreases in time you have to up your speed (with only 90 seconds recovery between each interval). It took me a while to warm up, still feeling a bit stiff, but I got into it and on the one minute interval managed a 6:16m pace and even carried on for two minutes instead of one. Thursday I had a planned progression run. One thing Nick has told us is listen to your body, so I decided to take it a bit easier and went for a gentle 10K run with some colleagues along the South Bank and Embankment, where I decided to make a spectacle of myself by falling flat on my face in front of a few hundred tourists! I got a couple of cuts on my hand and elbow, but mainly a bruised ego. Saturday, I ran my 20^th Parkrun and had an easy jog with my mate FatPants. Sunday was the Silverstone Half Marathon. After three coastal runs, it was time to go inland. Fat Pants was picking me up at 08:15, I was just about to leave when I had an emergency situation and had to remove a large bumblebee from my flat. Due to 50mph restrictions and congestion, we parked up at Silverstone about 11:15. We managed to get ourselves sorted, but I didn’t get the chance to meet up with Laraine and Lorraine (two of the Project 26.2 girls) before hand. I made my way to the start with 15 minutes to spare, but then there was a tannoy announcement stating due to the congestion, the start would be delayed by 15 minutes. A bit frustrating when you are psyching yourself up and then you think you need a pee and there is nowhere to go! I had a quick chat with a fella named Craig (@craighinch), who said he had been following me in Men’s Running and then we were told that the start would only be a five minute delay. The weather was divine, as warm as Barcelona and a million miles from the monsoon the previous week. And now I will let you in on my second secret, Nick had earmarked this race as the one where I could go for it and aim for a PB. So I started faster than I normally would and managed my first mile in 7:42 and then managed an average 07:30 for the next five miles. The full race stats can be found here http://connect.garmin.com/activity/157012773 The result was that I managed a new PB and finished in 1:41:25, so to say I am happy is an understatement. Race day highlights:

• People running on the track trying to take the racing line, doing apex to apex cornering, very funny except for one woman who managed to cut up about four of us, just so she could get the racing line?
• Being overtaken by Batman and Robin in skin-tight Lycra, but then being overtaken by somebody in a one-piece tri-suit. At least Batman and Robin had capes to cover a bit of their dignity.
• Me racing another bumblebee, well I presume it was a different one, for about a half mile. Literally, it was flying next to me for ages, it then went off in a different direction, I think it was getting tired and I was getting the better of it!
• At mile 11, a chap (who I now know from Twitter was Mike Wells @mikew30) come up to me and say ‘Hi Hippo, I have been following you in Men’s Running’ which was nice, but then he kicked on and overtook me!
• Seeing two crazy people doing the half marathon on stilts, yes you read that right stilts!

I managed to meet up with Laraine and Lorraine afterwards who both did brilliantly well. I won’t steal their thunder, so read their blogs to find out how they got on. So that is now four half marathons on four consecutive weekends, topped with a PB. I am loving Project 26.2. Finally before I leave you with a couple of photos, I just want to say that I think I have moved up a couple of letters on the celebrity status now, after being recognised twice and also having a comment on Twitter saying I didn’t realise how high profile you are (shucks), I think I am now at the dizzy heights of being a W-list celebrity! Until next week The Hippo A thorn between two roses Hippo and Fatpants – Two fine athletes

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