Bucko's World

Training diary - 6

Since my last update, training has consisted of the usual schlepping on a running machine in the gym, and a rather enjoyable evening run in Swanley Park.  Along the way there has been some incidents though...

The first involves my running shoes - a lovely pair of Nike Air Max that have done me proud for the last nine months.  At an average of 30K a week that's over 1,000K under the soles of those shoes.  And that means that now, they are shagged.  But worse than that, they fucking stink.  So much in fact I can smell them while I am running - they are rank.  So this gives me a problem.  Run in a pair of shoes that are worn out and disgusting, or break the cardinal rule of race running of never wearing anything new, and sort out a new pair asap.  Luckily I have a new pair of Nike Air Max sitting in the cupboard, so the plan was to have a couple of runs in them and if all is ok, go with them for the race, and if not stick with the old ones and hope they last the race for me...

Straight away though, there was an obvious problem with the new trainers.  Not the fact that they were full of dust and general crap from the back of the wardrobe; not the fact that they are a hideous luminous orange and grey colour scheme that can only have been designed by someone colour-blind, or even just blind; nor that they look almost bigger than the box they arrived in.   It is that fact that, compared to my current pair, they weigh a ton!  Balls, bit of a non starter then.  Plus, they look like I'm wearing concrete blocks when I put them on.  The horns of a dilemma indeed...

Talking about new gear at a race, we have of course been sent our lovely red Brain Tumour Charity running vests.  And I have to be honest here, they are shit.  I don't know what kind of material they are made from, perhaps hemp from the weight of them, but they're certainly not made of the modern sweat-wicking fabric my normal running tops are made from.  I wore it to the gym on Tuesday and by the time I'd been running for ten minutes it had soaked up the equivalent of ten litres of sweat and was hanging down to my knees.  It was like running in a wet tent.  Even worse, the tide of red sweat dripping onto my trainers is not helping the pungency of them one little bit.  Oh dear...something has to give before race day...

On Wednesday I managed to meet up with Caitlin for a sighter round Swanley Park, where a new route has been found giving us an almost 1.5 mile loop to enjoy in the evening sunshine.  As soon as we get there, we notice something is up, as the park is packed by people in running vest and numbers.  It seems that a group of school kids, or perhaps their running club, have taken over the park.  and a fair few adults too.  This should be no problem, except they all seem to be running round the park in the opposite direction to us!  Every few seconds we seems to be leaping out of the way of turbocharged children, heads down and taking no prisoners.  It does add some colour to a run I must admit!

The run actually goes really well with pretty much 7K covered in a reasonable time which puts on course to build up to 8 and a bit maybe next week, leaving a little to be run on instinct on the day.  I think with the progress Caitlin has made so far, from being a non-runner, to all the knee and sickness problems she has had, and now being close to running her first 10K, Uncle Shaun would be mighty proud of her, as indeed I am.  And let's not forget that with a week to race day, that's why we are doing this, in memory of Shaun, and to raise some can in the hope that other families don't have to go through what the Denney's have.   If you're still on the fence over sponsorship, please have a think and if you can bung us a couple of quid, we'll be really grateful!