3-2-1 and you're back in the room!

Blimey so long since my last post. A lot has happened. I moved to Munich in November and had no internet access. I still don't really. Luckily I am near a fon spot which allows free access to Google and it's many sites; which as luck would have it is blogspot!

After moving in November training took a bit of a dive. I lived in a hotel for a few weeks and had access to a crappy gym. The only good thing was a decent treadmill. Sadly they only had one and it was in demand by others. I was lucky to get more than 30mins a few times. I tried outside but Munich was unusualy cold for mid November.

Saying all that on boxing day (Dec 26th) I did the Barrow-upon-soar 6 mile handicap. Amazingly I managed it in just over 42 mins! Which of course is roughly 7 minutes per mile! I was quite shocked and I was pushing most of the way around. The good news was that at as I approached the finishing line I felt like I had just warmed up and could do it again. Amy was fantastic support and on hand to take plenty of photos. She got a bit cold waiting for me to come back. It was pretty cold. A very well organised race. Oh yes I will be back next year!

As I had a couple of weeks off in December I managed to keep a good gym routine too. Plus do the infamous Shepshed and Loughborough loop a few times.

I was feeling good in mid January but sadly the usual work "compensation" nightmare was to start a few days after I returned to Munich which basically through all the hard work out of the window. The compenation nightmare is basically trying to resolve my pay rise and bonus. Every year it's the same. I'm forbidden to talk about it under my contract. But lets say they don't make it easy.

Coupled with all the snow and cold weather in Munich and training pretty much stopped until last week...... I have now found the swimming pool at Olympic park and did a long run today. I'd better pull my finger out. I easily did 12km in an hour. Which isn't too bad. Little was I to know my legs would tell me a different story this afternoon. I'm sure they will be fine.

I need to lose a bit of fat. Being on expenses is not always good. Beer and steaks are probably not the best diet. I have had enough of booze though. I went out last night with a colleage from work. While I was not forcing it down. I was not enjoying the beer. A move to raddler (shandy) or diet coke (better idea!) is order of the week.

The next race is Ashby in exactly 4 weeks! EAK! Well 20 miles isn't that far is it? I have a goal of under 3 hours. Which sounds more than do-able..... very do-able. I hope I can run a negative split. We shall see how training goes. As the nights stay lighter training in the Munich darkness doesn't seem so bad. I just hope all the snow goes from the pavements. It's not great to run on.

I have promised myself to at least do the Vienna half marathon. It's more of an excuse to see friends in Vienna. But the half would be good. How about in roughly 1:30? A man can dream.