Our holiday in Goa seems months ago, we've been back less than two weeks! South Goa has become our annual winter holiday destination. It breaks up the cold damp winter months and makes the spring seem so much closer. The hotel was fantastic, we would definately stay there again. We ran every other day on the beach first thing in the morning; it was great seeing the sunrise whilst running as well as the fisherman bringing in their catch. The 32 degree dry heat was perfect for lazing around reading and sleeping for the rest of the day!
It was a bit of a shock to the system when we arrived back in the UK where it was -4 degrees! I was keen to sharpen up as the Nowton Park cross country was scheduled that weekend. I got straight back into my morning gym routine on the Monday and completed half of the track session on Monday night. I had calf problems last year at a Monday night track session straight after our holiday and ended up having to take the rest of the week off so I was keen not to make the same mistake again this year. Fortunately my calves were fine this time round, and I was able to complete Wednesday's track session comfortably.
Whilst I was away the Bury Natural Health Centre, where the Suffolk Sports Injury Clinic is based, moved premises. The new location, Park Farm Business Park in Fornham is great with plenty of parking. The new centre was opened officially by Sally Eastall. Thanks to Sally and to Pete Golding for their help with this!
The Suffolk Cross Country took place at Nowton Park Sunday 22nd. We had a lot of rain during the week, although fortunately the windy dry conditions on the day took a lot of moisture out of the 2 lap course. I chose to run in spikes for a bit of extra grip on the corners, although to be honest I didn't manage to accelerate enough at any stage to need that amount of grip so would probably have got away with wearing my innov8 x-talons!
I started slower than usual and felt a bit flat. I got on the shoulder of the leading lady in the first mile who then put her foot down and pulled 10 metres or so away from me. I didn't feel sharp enough to challenge her again but she upped the pace to a one I was happier with so I'd go the response I wanted.
I decided to maintain the gap and try and keep the pressure on throughout with the intention of challenging for the lead in the latter stages of the second lap. My plan worked, and I was able to catch and overtake the leading lady 400m from the finish, putting my foot down all the way to the finish.
Pacers had a great turnout and there were fantastic performances from all runners. Steve Robinson won comfortable, and it was good to see Kevin Murphy running so well.
I swam on Monday morning and completed a recovery gym session on Monday night. Tuesday was a busy day at work so I had the day off. The Wednesday League was held at Shouldham Warren the following day. I hadn't run there for well over 10 years so was grateful that Pat Partridge was able to run and navigate!
The course was great, a shade under 3 miles on woodland tracks. I felt a lot sharper than I did on Sunday and set off with the leading men (remember that the men complete 2 laps of the course whilst the ladies only run round once, I wouldn't be anywhere near the leading men if I had to run as far as them!) The two leading men moved away after the first mile, but I managed to stay just off the back of the trailing two. I'm really pleased with my run and aim to stay on the shoulder of the men ahead for the whole lap at the next race.
I've got three weeks of hard training now in preperation for the National XC at Parliament Hill on Feb 25th and the inter-counties xc on the 10th March. The real training starts now.............
