Week 8 of 2012 was by far my easiest week so far, part planned, part forced.

Not sure it was the over vigorous clapping and animated encouragement from marshalling the Smartt 10K run or from the 13 mile run after with the killer hill known as Charlcutt but I pulled a muscle in my side. I’ve had my appendix out so knew that wasn’t the cause of the pain,  but whatever, it was a reality pain in my side. Masters swimming Monday night was first casualty as I laid horizontal on the sofa.

Did manage to get to my first club group turbo session for an hour on Tuesday and had a 40 minute run on the treadmill with Chrissie W. pouring out encouragement and motivation in my ear on Wednesday. In both sessions side felt OK.

Wednesday Mike & I celebrated 16 years of marriage, having know each other 20 years. He proposed in an Italian restaurant 17 years ago that sadly didn’t last the course so we went to the local one in Calne. The excellent food made up for the little atmosphere, there was only 4 tables occupied.

Thursdays hill run with Vic brought a stabbing pain in the side back when I ran up hills, of course we had chosen the circular route plenty of hills. Still 5 miles covered even if slower than usual and a few steeper hills walked.

Rest day Friday in preparation for Saturdays long slow run. Plus after relenting and getting a SKY dish on the side of our old stone cottage, I had to learn how to use SKY+ in preparation for the upcoming F1 season. The lure of F1 was too great so dish installed, but  it does blend with slate roof tiles and engineer used a white cable so not too obvious. The HD images and range of channels are mind blowing and so far I have to say its worth it.

Our first run in the sun for a long time was a pleasant change to the frozen fingers and toes experiences we’ve had lately. Steady pace, practising and testing different gels and drinks on route. Stopped at Talbot pub for 2 pints of iced tap water provided FOC with a smile, Karen even got an offer for sponsorship for London marathon.

Sunday we were invited to a feast at friends, 11 of us were in for an afternoon session with 5:30 hours of eating and chatting.  Starting with pre dinner drinks & nibbles we then ate our way through a full roast with 10 different veggies, treacle pudding with real custard & a gooseberry fool, cheese & biscuits, then before we left tea and coffee cake ! A right belly buster but a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. That’s probably my carb requirements for the week in one sitting done.