Twiggy

A short and easy 5 miles at darkest dawn on Monday left space for college again last night and my first full body massage routine. These Monday night classes are starting to feel a bit of a bind in these seemingly endless dark and drizzly winter nights. The only perk is the subsidised canteen where mountains of bargain priced cake can be purchased; spoils from the patisserie & bakery students. The standard issue navy massage trousers could do with an elasticated waistband though, the squeeze being most noticeable post tea break.

We put together our first full body routine to the stopwatch last night - tutor bloke John shouted with a stopwatch in hand, (in a very relaxing and therapeutic way of course), when we needed to switch legs, swap arms, hack or knead, ... a whole dizzying hour of massage it was, from head to toe. The plain physical effort of it all made me realise what a pathetic wimp I really am. I'm often heard complaining about my now rather sizeable and manly calf muscles but these arms are a pair of spindly albino twigs in comparison. So, I'm thinking free weights. This could help reduce the embarrassment of my huge legs and tiny arms dilemma. It might even enhance the running a bit...

Tonight saw a return to some roughtie-toughtie stuff. I'd planned mile efforts but this reduced to 1k efforts as M & I were turned off at the thought of a track trip. Instead we opted for road reps over an uphill course to build up leg power as well as speed. We both did good with a long one from Sunday in our legs. The 20 miler was still lingering but I still felt strong and ran the 6 reps pretty evenly. A proper rest tomorrow and then a medium long run on Thursday should set me up nicely for a weekend of racing. Yep, its that time again. The Calderdale Way is calling.