It's Turbo Time

This is something I have been looking forward to these last few weeks and that was getting the go ahead off big Dunc to do a 10 minute spin on the turbo trainer.
I'm not going to write a full blog on the 10 minute workout I had, I could go on about my heart rate maybe talk about my cadence. But I know nothing about either for the workout.
As my legs were spinning and occasionally I would yell out " IT'S TURBO TIME "
For anyone who doesn't know that quote it came from the Austrian mouth of possibly the greatest action movie start of all time Arnold Schwarzenegger, from the greatest Christmas movie of all time " Jingle All The Way "

With not working and not putting any of my time and energy into my running it leaves me with a lot of time to think, whether that's wondering what Tim Henmans up to nowadays or keeping up with current affairs in th media, like the Team Sky Wiggins scandal.
This certainly had me thinking of the affect that performance enhancing drugs or TUES which is the same thing basically. PEDS is like going to a brothel and TUES is like getting a happy ending massage, although they are both different it's still cheating!
What I was thinking exactly was what affect PEDS had on Arnold Schwarzenegger and did they actually make him a better actor?!
The short answer is NO.
Although the steroids might of helped him pile on mass and get a physique your mate Darren at work is trying his hardest to get by living off whey protein and eating raw chicken.
The drugs don't make you a brilliant actor! Sure they might of helped him get the odd role as you can hardly see Tom Hanks playing the Terminator or any other Arnie roll.
So let's for now not frown at the drug abusers lets just have a think about what affect they have had on is.
For out the use of PEDS would the scene from Predator featuring Arnie and the second greatest action movie start of all time  Carl Weathers actually looked that good?
Imagine two paper thin arms embracing in a handshake, it wouldn't look half as good and for the use of PEDS for me this is probably the greatest ever scene in movie history

Although in acting the use of PEDS might be encouraged and they certainly helped in getting together the most iconic action duo of all time Arnold Schwarzenegger & Carl Weathers.

In sport it is certainly frowned upon unless your organisation is ruled in a dictator styled fashion like Vladimir Putin of the Russian athletes, Kim Jong Un of North Korea or maybe you are Dave Brailsford of Team Sky

Now although Wiggins hasn't been caught in a brothel (on PEDS) he is however getting accused of getting a  cheeky handjob on the Team Sky bus (TUES)
Like I said before cheating is cheating.
I think the message in this blog is let's not condemn all drug cheats, sure if they are involved in sport why not ban them for life and make them walk the streets naked like Cersei Lannister while  we all yell SHAME  and throw shit at them.

Let's celebrate the none sports PEDS takers.
 I will finish this blog with a simple question, a question I already know the answer too.

Name one bad movie that Arnold Schwarzenegger has been in?

None

Exactly!

Life is one big obstacle course

Normally when I have wrote a blog it has been about a fun and Interesting race or a training trip away with Nick.
However this isn't about racing or having to use bread as toilet roll ( see Kenya 2011 )

This is about how life is a obstacle course.

Sometimes when you think things are going well in life and you are well on the way to smashing through the tape at the top of the travelator like in smash hit 90's tv show Gladiators, a obstacle gets in your way, it could be the beam or maybe the hand peddle bike, you could even be one of them people you get annoyed at who climb the net badly.

My obstacle was my Bimalleolar fracture which happened in the middle of January, not only did it put a end to my running season it also affected my daily life, I can't drive and the pain from the surgery had pretty much kept me in my bedroom for the last 4 weeks.

I'm not writing this out of sympathy, it's just something else to do as I feel like I have nearly completed the life of a normal person. I have binged on tv shows, read a few books and even started to learn the guitar, I am even doing a acoustic set at Satsumas nightclub at the end of the month where I will be playing all of your favourite Hall & Oates songs

Anyway getting back to it, so I can't run at the minute and I can't even walk so my obstacle course is just getting stared at. I have had times where I have buried my head in my hands hoping it will all just go away, at times it has been pretty depressing  to say the least. It wasn't just the running it took away from me it was pretty much my livelihood, I actually enjoy my job and I'm not one to sit around so to be  confined to my bedroom was pretty shit.

But in the last few weeks through fed up of being down all the time and the realisation that eventually I will be able to walk again and then the big aim to RUN.

However it's not going to be plain sailing and it's going to take months of regular physio and daily rehab exercises. My approach to getting back to doing what I love is called " The Eunice Huthart Project" 

Why The Eunice Huthart Project you ask?! Well if I'm going to try and become the best person I can be and if I'm going to face this obstacle of overcoming this injury then why not try and become one of the greatest contenders of all time Eunice Huthart.

My positive frame of mind has made me stop dwelling on this injury and instead I'm looking forward to the challenge of being able to use my ankle properly so that I can run and then dance with middle aged women at weddings.

First thing I want to do is build my leg muscle back to its normal size as I feel like someone has replaced it with a long pepperami, now don't get me wrong I like pepperami but a pepperami certainly won't power you to the top of a mountain and it certainly won't be able to impress Janice the  64 year old divorcee at your mates wedding.

So for now Jon Anderson at the minute please don't blow your whistle because I have no fucking chance of getting over them barriers. So for now I'm going to be doing my best to ensure I tow the line of the obstacle course and will make sure I'm going on the first whistle.

I know it's not going to be a smooth path and I'm probably gonna have to tackle Jet and possibly Lightning is going to wrap her pins around me on hang tough, thrusting away trying to defeat me.

I'm looking forward to that the most.

Josh

Run for the Toad,Chopping pints and nice shoes

So each year I decide to incorporate a race into my holiday, for the last few years I've done Smarna Gora mountain race in Slovenia and Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia.
Early this year it was decided by my friend Tom Cornthwaite that we would do a trail race in Canada called run for the Toad, which was part of the 50k Canadian national championships

                                              Tom was ready for this race all year
Also doing this race was my bird Dionne and Lizzy Adams, we all decided against the 50k and decided to do the 25k which sounded more fun and well less painful!
Anyway I'm going to come back to this race as I don't want to make this a running blog, if you are a big fan of running blogs look no further than Ben Fish's blog http://www.eightlane.org/training/author/ben-fish/ here you will get to read about lots of miles, epic sessions and confrontations with dog walkers. All in all a good read!

When it was decided we was going to do this race, Tom got in touch with the race organisers George & Peggy enquiring about the race and managed to get us free entry and accommodation for 3 nights which was greatly appreciated!! I must say George and Peggy are by far the best organisers I've ever come across, passionate about what they're doing and very helpful.
The second thing we needed to do was look into the flights, we needed to fly into Toronto and then head up to Cambridge where the race was near.
I saw this as a good opportunity to visit New York somewhere I've always wanted to go! Early June Tom had booked his flights to Toronto with Lizzy and then a few days later I booked mine and Dionne's flights to New York.
The only person yet to book his flights was Nick Swinburn

                                    Nick was honoured when we asked him to come

A few months later and the trip had finally arrived, me and Dionne was boarding a plane in London, New York bound and Tom and Lizzy where in Manchester ready to fly to Toronto. We arrived on the Tuesday and the plan was to fly to Buffalo Niagra on the Thursday and Tom had kindly offered to pick us up from the airport.
So when me and Dionne arrived the plan was to do a bit of sightseeing, on the Tuesday evening we went to the top of the Empire State building which was pretty epic

On the Wednesday we went to Madame Tussauds which was good fun, upon arriving there to our surprise we were greeted by the actual Nicholas Cage who has been finding it difficult getting filming jobs due to his bad hairline and his ability of not being able to act

Thursday had arrived and it was time for us to fly to Buffalo where Tom would come and pick us up

When he arrived the plan was to cross the border to Canada and then go to Niagra Falls, upon arriving we were greeted by a singing Elvis and a epic view! we decided to do the Maid of the mist tour which takes you right up the the falls on a boat

By this point you might have figured that Nick Swinburn didn't come on the trip, the reason being was family commitments and I'm pretty sure his trying to discover who he is as a person

                                    Nick's new found love for shopping for household items

I will admit I was a little disappointed that he couldn't come as it would of been nearing our 4 year anniversary and with him due to be getting married soon and not to mention all the kids his going to have it would of been good to share another adventure together. I think the only adventure I will be going on with Nick will be to Ikea to look at furniture.

So skip a few days and it had finally arrived, Race day!! The day before we went to pick our number up and also the press conference for the 50k which Tom was apart of

On that day we finally got to meet George & Peggy the race organisers and some of the other race competitors who were all very friendly, and lived up to my reputation of Canadian's being the friendliest people in the world!!

Another thing to mention is Skechers were kind enough to sponsor all of us for this race by supplying us the smartest and best trail shoes I have ever worn and some amazing green jackets that when we wore them people wanted to stop and talk to us because we looked proper fashionable like the movie star Ryan Gosling or Tom Selleck

Right back to the race, Tom had set off 10 minutes before us in the 50k (4 laps) looking good in his Skechers Gobionic trail shoe and me Dionne and Lizzy were ready for the 25k (2 laps)also looking good in our Skechers Gobionic trail shoe. As the gun went off my plan was to set off really fast to test out the field and then to settle into a group and try and maintain a good pace, however I managed to have about a 150m lead after 1k and was commited to staying there as only 2 people had gone off with the pace. At this point I was feeling good and really enjoying running in the Skechers shoes which made me feel strong like Susan Boyle hitting a high note.
When I was picturing the race route beforehand I was expecting flat fast trails around a forrest but I was wrong! it was very hilly with some good climbs little bits of road sections and some great fast downhill sections, all in all it was a brilliant course well organised and perfect for my Skechers Gobionic trail which are available now to buy http://www.skechers.co.uk/style/53610/skechers-gobionic-trail/orbk.
By the first lap I had about a minute lead, I wouldn't exactly call it comfortable as the course really was tough!
At the end of the second lap I managed to extend my lead by about 3 minutes and come 1st place which I was extremely happy about! I think the Skechers shoes helped, I think it's like the same feeling Tony Stark gets when he puts on the Ironman suit.
Also to make things better Dionne also came in 1st place and manged to break the course record which earned her (us) a $500 bonus which massively helped out for the rest of the trip. Lizzy also had a decent run considering she's been injured pretty much all year and it was good seeing her race again!

After the race me and Dionne had to make a speech to a few hundred people about the race which I was very nervous about as I'm not exactly a public speaker!

About 45 minutes after this speech Tom had finished in 5th place to a class field, which was pretty good for his first ever ultra!

After the race there was food on for all the runners in the giant tent, it was pretty amazing as George & Peggy had managed to cater for over 1000 people! It really was such a brilliant well organised race and the course is probably one of the best I have raced on. As a group were already thinking of coming out again next year to do this and I really do highly recommend buying some Skechers Gobionic trail and feeling dead powerful like Ironman and taking part in this great race!

The evening had arrived and it was the post race party, we started off at a pizza place meeting all of the friendly Canadian and American runners we had met. After a hour or so of talking and eating pizza or cheesecake like I did, things started to get more lively and Tom decided to show everyone a tradition that we like to do in Britain that our friend Steve taught us, CHOPPING. The picture below is self explanatory

Tom had pretty much set the standard for the night, and after this it got canny wild! After the pizza we headed to a karaoke bar which was a 20 minute drive away. One of the Americans who wasn't drinking drove a few of us there and that's when it went uphill for me and then a few hours later massively downhill!!
It was pretty steady when we got in there, just a typical karaoke bar with girls trying to sing Adele songs the best they can maybe hoping Simon Cowell is hiding in a bin waiting for the next big thing.
A few chops later it was mine and Tom's turn to go and sing. We sang Don't stop me now by Queen, this was a very lively performance with lots of dancing and even more shouting. I'm pretty sure we did a good job and everyone clapped when we had finished, not because we had finished but because it was the best performance they had ever witnessed.
I used a lot of energy in that performance and after that it went downhill for me, this didn't stop me chopping away though. I think I must of chopped at least 8 pints that night and not long after that it took a turn for the worse. Lot's of throwing up, down the rental car and the next day a hangover to remember!
Despite that I still enjoyed the night and had a great time with some great people.

I could go on and on about how good this trip but I would like to keep this short, I'm happy with the ratio of running/non related running in this blog.

I hope after reading this you decide to buy some Skechers Gobionic trail and maybe consider doing Run for the Toad next year.
I'll finish off by putting some nice pictures up that might make you do this

JT

One year on

It's been just under a year since I've last blogged so I thought I would give everyone a update on my life and others who are in my circle.
I haven't wrote a blog for the simple fact I haven't gone to Kenya this year and I don't feel inspired to write about my daily runs or how I work as a wood craftsman just like Harrison Ford did before he came a big movie action star like Jeremy Renner.

So anyway I will give you a quick review on last year starting off from getting back from Kenya.

I got back just before the Northern 12 stage relays which happens to be taking place in Blackpool tomorrow were yet again I will be representing the mighty Salford harriers and hoping to help them challenge for a medal!
This year though we have two new great additions to the team and fellow Lancastrians Stuart Robinson and my very good friend Gary Priestley.
For anyone who doesn't know what Gary Priestley looks like here is a picture of him with some female fans

Don't be surprised to seem him tomorrow head to toe in Inov8 gear wearing big aviators despite the bad weather and fighting off all the girls with he's big strong personal training arms.

Another highlight for me last year was going down London to watch Nick participate in the Virgin London Marathon as he chased the Olympic qualifying time after living and training in Kenya since November 2011 eating biscuits and doing lots of hopping sessions.
Here is a picture of Nick in action well on his way to qualifying for the Olympics

Unfortunately Nick didn't manage to qualify for London after a drop in pace but yet despite this setback he's determination is still intact and I'm hopeful of him trying to qualify for Rio.

Shortly after London Nick decided to take a break from running and become a goalkeeper for his local football team.

In May I had planned to go and race in France for the first race of the World Mountain Running Grand Prix but unfortunately I missed the flight because the night before I was out partying with my good friend Tom Cornthwaite in Yeovil, whilst out in Yeovil I had a dance off with Christian Slaters personal trainer and won.

Luckily though I managed to find cheap flights to Switzerland that very day and I even managed to find a mountain race, Roggen Berglauf. This seemed to work out better for me and also mi bird Dionne because we both managed to win and become household name in Switzerland. After the race at the big ceremony were everyone celebrated the race by eating sausages and drinking beers we received some nice flowers and some money. We even managed to make the Swiss papers too!

Skip a few months to August and this is were I came up with one of many great ideas I have.

I came up with a idea for a TV show which will involve a massive competition to become my best man (presuming one day I get married) this competition will be mainly endurance based and expect to see some dance offs chopping of pints and probably a handicapped race thrown in,probably up a mountain because I like mountains I do.

This competition will be open to members of the public which will make the TV show a lot more interesting. I'd like Dale Winton to narrate the programme and Sir Trevor Mcdonald to present it, expect to see cameo roles from Jeremy Renner and advice to all of the competitors from Saracen from the 90's hit TV programme Gladiators.

I've also come up with a good idea for a advert for Nokia which is sure to improve sales of the once leading phone brand and have them mixing it with the big boys of the phone industry Samsung and Apple. I would hire Beyonce to front my campaign. I'm still yet to get in touch with the boss people of Nokia but when I do I am expecting the advert to go ahead.

Another thing to look forward to later this year is the xc race that me and Nick Swinburn will be planning on hosting on his farm in Newcastle, expect it to be quite tough and interesting. I'm sure all of the big sports brands will be fighting to sponsor the Mudton 10k xc race.

So far we have the following people confirmed

• Nell Mcandrew
• Ian Dowie
• Darren Day
• Lembit Opik
• Dale Winton
• Gazza
• Paul Parker
• H from Steps
• Bradley from S club
• Joe Bailey

And Lot's of other high profile celebrities have shown some interest in participating in what could be the best xc race of the year. Expect a night out in Newcastle afterwards and I'm sure Nick will let you sleep on his hay bales.

All of the money made from the race will obviously be donated to charity as me and Nick are two charitable people and are well know for helping people less fortunate than us.

JT

Dennis Irwin Crocodile hunter

Friday

after Thursdays session I was pretty tired so I just did a 40 minute run in the morning to the track to watch Karl, Nick,  Jake and Zane do a session. The session went pretty well for me as I just lied on the grass listening to music whilst watching all of them train hard. I think watching a session at altitude is more benificial than watching a session at sea level so overall I was quite pleased with myself. 

                                                 Big track session

I was also happy that Nick managed to run the right way round the track and the fact that his willing to train hard in order to loose much needed weight. Keep it up Nick, You're no pussy man!

Saturday


Me and Nick got up early to do a hill session so that In the afternoon we could go cliff Jumping like Sly Stallone in the film Cliffhanger. We did 15x100m hill sprints with hop down recovery, I struggled with the hopping after the 8th rep but Nick was going strong with all the previous hopping his been doing before I got here, he could tell I was struggling a little with the hopping but kept saying "aye man were no pussies man" I found this really motivating and managed to get through the next 7 hop recoveries quite well.
after we had our rice and beans for dinner we headed up to Kerio View so that we could practice our cliff rock jumping

                                   Jumping from cliff to cliff being lads

Before the cliff jumping began me and Nick had to decide what was the best footwear to use, we had to decide which had the best grip, what would take the most impact and most importantly what would make us look really stylish like David Dickinson or Trevor Mcdonald.
I choose to wear the Salomon Crossmax and Nick choose the Salomon Speedcross, after all of our jumping we knew we made the right choice as we managed to jump really well and most importantly we survived. Karl didn't take part as he didn't have the right footwear but he did do a good job of taking the photos.
Me and Nick decided after all the jumping that when we get back home we will concentrate on getting to the Krypton factor and winning it.

Sunday


Me Karl and Jake got up at 6am to do our long run so that we had plenty of time to go crocodile hunting like my childhood hero Dennis Irwin. The run went quite well, I managed 2 hours and felt that as each stride went on I was getting strong like I RON MaN.
We headed into town around 10 am and got a taxi to the lake. It took about 50 minutes to get there and was all downhill, it was ridiculously hot in the taxi and at times one of us would say " It's quite hot in here"
Like yesterday Me and Nick had to decide the correct footwear and yet again we both choose the Salomon, this yet again was the RIGHT decision.
When we arrived we walked along a steel girder bridge with a 100ft drop into the Croc infested water, only me and Nick did this as Karl didn't have the right footwear.

               Walking the steel bridge just like on Gladiators before the travelator

Soon as we both crossed we looked down into the water and we could see a Crocodile sunbathing, it looked like the crocodile who modelled for designer brand Lacoste

                                               The Lacoste model

One thing that worried me about this day is that Me and Nick would be challenging each other to do stupid things like see who could go into the water for the longest or wrestle one of them, luckily we didn't challenge each other to do anything and without saying anything we both started climbing down the cliff trying to get as close tho the Crocs, Karl stayed on top of the cliff and did a good job of taking the photos, this was mainly due to the fact he wasn't wearing Salomon footwear.

                                     Climbing the cliffs like Sly Stallone 

When we got to the bottom we waited for a couple of minutes to see if a Crocodile would come out to try and eat us, they didn't as they were being pussies man. We then had to cross the river and climb up the other cliff to see if we could get any Crocs to come out.

                            The Salomon footwear are built to tackle any terrain

I'm quite confident that after all of our climbing that we both have a good chance of making the Krypton factor final or being stuntmen in Cliffhanger 2. Luckily we both managed to survive probably due to the fact that we choose the right footwear Salomon. It's safe to say that me and Nick are like the Hall and Oates of Crocodile hunting/rock climbing.

                                                      Cliffhanger 2

Nothing much happened on Monday or Tuesday due to the fact we were recovering from the weekend and we were training hard like Rocky in Rocky 4, like when his training in the snow lifting trees up and big weights. The best thing that happened was Tuesday afternoon when we did a photo shoot with Tuskins Snr.

                                          Serious faced Tuskins Snr

We're hoping that we can get Tuskins snr a movie career, our dream would be for him to play the dog sidekick in I am Ladgend 2 starring our favourite movie actor/singer of all time Will Smith

                                                Zombie Tuskins Snr

Tuskins Snr is like the dog version of Hollywood movie mega Star Johnny Depp, he can play various roles like comedy + action but his main speciality is horror, particularly Zombie movies.


Eldoret to get the last of our food shopping and to book Nick's flight back to Narobi. We went to one of the main supermarkets Nakurmart, soon as we walked in me and Nick spotted the two most stunning things you could ever lay your eyes on.
3 Litre chrome flasks

                            The thought of having 3 litres of tea made us happy

after the shopping before heading back to Iten we decided to have dinner in Eldoret, Karl had chips and beef burger and me and Nick choose the ultimate lads dinner. Ugali Matumbo which is intestines and a Malta Guinness. This dinner set me up for the big battle the next day.

                                           The ultimate lads dinner

Thursday


Yet again this was another group fartlek session but this time Karl joined me for battle and Nick came along on the warm up for team motivational speaker. During our warm up three Germans passed us who were on the way to the start of fartlek. Me and Karl both looked at each other and nodded as if into say let battle commence.

                                            Just before the big battle

We arrived at the start of the fartlek and as usual there were around 200 Kenyans waiting to tow the line for the battle with me Karl and the Germans all at the back. Few words were spoken we looked at each other like when Rocky looked at Tommy Gunn in Rocky 5 before they had a big street fight.
The session was 2 minutes off 1 minute, I did 12 and Karl did 10. The Germans were quite away off us and Victory was ours.
I make that two world wars, one world cup and to add to that one fartlek.

JT

Fartleks, Tempo's and Boybands

So I've got my daily routine down to a tee down, my alarm goes off at 7.30 I get up and stuff my face with bread (3 slices) then I get back into bed, sometimes If I'm tired I go back to sleep but most of the time I read a book or do my tiger drawing.

                                                         My tiger


I usually run at about 10am get back do some core whilst listening to Will smith and then I have a cold shower and head into town for some rice and beans. Whilst walking into town we discovered a new place called California Hotel, here you can get Rice & beans 2 cups of tea and 3 Chapatis for about 80p, I know the price is quite expensive but it all goes to the upkeep of the building.

                                                  New food place


Thursday
I started the day off as I usually do but today was a session day, I met Nick biscuit chin Swinburn outside my house and we both ran to the hill we call Steven Seagal after the famous Hollywood actor mega movie star man, we call this hill Steven Seagal because it's big and you wouldn't mess with it. 
We did 3 minute 2 minute 1 minute off jog down recovery, before we started Nick said "aye man I'm not doing them hard like as I'm doing a session in the evening like" we ended up racing every rep, after the 3 minute effort I felt sick, after the 2 minute I could breathe and after the 1 minute we felt really fast like a super market sweep contestant. We were both happy with this session as we got to progress through to the next round.
Rather than relaxing in the afternoon we played a game of keep'y up's and Nick got what was coming to him after shooting at Victor.

                                       Zane shooting at Nick and Jake


I got roped into doing a 9K tempo in the evening with Zane Nick Karl and 4 other Kenyan's, I only ended up doing it because Nick said "aye man don't be a pussy" with only 10 minutes left to go and get ready for the session I ran to my house and put on my running uniform. I'm no pussy man.
Zane set off ridiculously fast with the 4 Kenyan's closely behind followed by Nick Karl then me. I was still tired from the morning session so struggled to keep up, after 4k I caught 3 of the Kenyan's with Zane leading from Kenyan alex the 26 year old World Junior hopeful then Nick Karl and me. It stayed in that order till the end and I ended up finishing in 30 minutes which was enough to help me progress to the next round.


We were pretty restricted on what we could do at the weekend as we all wanted to watch the World indoors. Friday evening me Zane, Jake, Karl and Nick went to watch the 3000m heats at The Lornah Kipligat centre. Whilst there I noticed it was full of foreigners looking really miserable not talking to one another sat staring at their laptops, us on the other hand were all laughing having a good time. It's a nice place but for £30 a night that Is what you would expect, I'm quite happy paying £1 a night for my house with a cold shower and mattress on the floor.
When leaving I was thinking of what it reminded me of, then it came to me. It was like the film Titanic, there all on the top deck dressing up smartly pretending to be enjoying themselves where as where on the bottom deck having the times of our lives dancing on top of the tables.


We ended up watching the World's at Sylvia Kibets house on Sunday, it was pretty strange as she was competing in the women's 3000m final. Pretty much all of her family and friends where there watching, roughly about 30 people. It was tense on the last lap as she narrowly missed out on a medal, after we watched this we went back to Nick's and had a brew with Big Denzil who has somehow managed to get a gunshot wound and is now leaking, I'm sure he will pull through and will still provide us with our daily brews.


The most exciting thing that happened on Monday was going to the water tank and filling up 20, 10 litre water bottles so that we could wash our dishes and make food with it.

                                                 Collecting water like


Nick wasn't helping as he was to busy stuffing his face with Spaghetti.

                                          Nick doing what he does best


I've been having my usual weird altitude dreams again, I think Wednesday's Nights dream topped them all off.
I dreamed that Duncan from Blue rang me up asking me if I wanted to join a reformed Blue that Consisted of him Anthony Costa and Bradley from S club, I was a bit taken back as I'm more of a dancer than a singer. Before I knew it I was performing on stage in front of a packed out arena, I was quite nervous as I knew I couldn't sing and I didn't want to let the fan's down. 2 minutes into the song and I was struggling to sing and really letting the band down, all of a sudden Duncan stopped the song and mistook my singing for Bradley from S club, luckily I was off the hook.
I'm not to sure if I should be worry about having strange dreams like this or if I should feel honoured that Duncan picked me out of millions of other people to join a reformed Blue.
Not sure why I dreamed


Early this morning I jogged 20 minutes down the road from my apartment to join one of the fartlek sessions. When I arrived there was about 200+ Kenyans hanging around waiting for the session to start. I felt that I really stood out as I was the only person there wearing green trainers.
The session was 1 minute on 1 minute off, I started at the back as I wasn't to sure which direction we were heading, we all jogged for 1 minute and started the reps. 4 reps in and I was still feeling good, I could still see a few women in front of me but wasn't to worried as it was still early on. after the 6th rep I went past all of the women and as Karl would say I showed them the way to the kitchen!
The only thing I struggled with was the recovery as it's tough to breathe at altitude after running fast, I was in front of a lot of people after the 10th rep but the leaders were quite a way in front. I'm pretty sure a lot of the people at the front are tempo running it as they didn't seem to be slowing down. I ended up doing 16 reps in total and was quite pleased with the session, I feel that after doing this session I'm on the road to discovering who I am as a person. When I finished the last rep I decided to do a long cool down but ended up getting lost, I cooled down for 53 minutes and it was safe to say I was the most cooled down I have ever been!


I'm looking forward to this weekend as me Nick and Karl are going Crocodile fishing at one of the lakes about 30 miles from where we live, we plan on going to the butchers and getting some bait. I'm sure I will be fine as I used to watch Dennis Irwin Crocodile hunter when I was young so my knowledge on Crocodile fishing is pretty good!


JT

High altitude eating

Big session day!

I started Saturday off with a morning session at  10am, my alarm goes off at 7.30 so I can eat some breakfast which is just 3 slices of bread. I lie in bed for another hour psyching myself up by listening to some Will Smith.

So I'm out the door at 9.45am and do a 20 min warm up with Karl and Nick who are both going to the track. My session was a 9k tempo starting across the road from my house, when I set off I felt like I was the bus in Speed starring Keanu Reeves. If I dropped below 6 minute miling I would blow up or just have a rubbish session which is the most realistic of the two.

I managed to do the loop in 31 minutes which meant I didn't drop below 6 minute miling, I really feel that Keanu Reeve's would be proud of me!
In the afternoon we watched Zane's brother Jake on the Internet compete in the Olympic trials in Melbourne in the 5000m, he ran 13.28 just missing out on the Olympic standard. Whilst we watched this one of the Kenyan's Alex told us how his hoping to qualify for the world juniors this year, he was laughing as he told us this as his real age is 26!
The second session of the day happened in the evening. The chapatis challenge. The competition was between me Zane, Karl and big Nick Swinburn, we got Victor who helps out around the village to go into town on a bike and pick up 80 chapatis and 3 ndengu which is a sort of lentil based soup. He arrived back about 40 minutes later with the food and the competition was underway. Karl went for the single eating with ketchup on technique, Zane cut his up and put it into the ndengu, I tried folding mine up and eating 10 at once

                                                 The 10 technique

 but after 2 bites I realised this was a bad technique, as usual Nick was stuffing his face as fast as he could, which he does on a regular basis.

                                        It's rare you see Nick without food

 3 Hours later and the competition was over, Zane was the quickest and managed 18, Karl ate 11.5 and I managed 11.85. It took me about 1 hour to eat half a chapatis, it wasn't so much the amount it was more the taste of the oil and watching Nick eat them barely even chewing the chapatis.

                                         after the competition in a bad way

 He managed 20 so was joint winner with Zane, I'm a little disappointed with my performance but I put it down to the altitude and not being as fat as Nick who is kind of like the Neville Southall of running.

                                                       Nick in action

Sunday morning me and Karl went for a 90 minute run starting from our house to the rainforest and back, it's kind of weird when your in the rainforest as it doesn't feel like Kenya it sort of feels like being in Borneo Malaysia or the forest from the film Predator starring Ron Schzanheider. Once we had finished the run me Karl and Nick went to Kerio view  to watch the Newcastle vs Sunderland game, which is about the Geordies vs the strange breed of people the Mackems. Near the end of the game we where joined by Myles Edwards who arrived out here for a second stint on Monday, during the Man United vs Tottenham game we sat down and stuffed our faces at the buffet, me Karl and Myles went up twice and Nick went up 3 times due to his eating problem.

Monday was another session day for me, I did a 15x30 seconds off 30 seconds hill session. It was pretty good doing the session as there were a few Kenyan's doing longer hill reps so I had people to pass, when I was passing the Kenyan's i felt really strong like Don Cheadle or Anthea Turner. On my last effort to spur me on I pretended that I was at the bottom of the travelator  on the 90's hit TV programme Gladiators, when I  finished the rep I got hold of the rope and jumped through the barrier, after I jumped through the barrier I did a interview with John Fashunu who told me well done and see you in the next round. Overall I was pleased with this session.
Later in the evening me Nick, Karl and Victor played headers and volleys, after a few games we decided to play keepy up's and if you dropped the ball 3 times you had to line up against the wall and the other players got a free shot at you. Nick seen this as a perfect opportunity to get revenge on Victor ( 13 years old ) who had accidentally broke our flask on Saturday.

                                            Nick getting his revenge

Nick kept trying to set Victor up so he dropped the ball so that he could kick the ball at him, when Victor lined up against the wall with his back turned, Nick rather than kick the ball he picked it up and threw it narrowly  missing his head. Me being the nice guy I am purposely missed so that I had to join him against the wall.

                                           Karl chose to shoot at Victor

 The good news is out of all this I purchased a new flask and named it Denzil after Hollywood super mega movie star Denzil Washington.

                                                        Big Denzil

Nothing much happened on Tuesday apart from going for a run early morning for 60 minutes, a trip into town for some beans and rice and some sunbathing training, after the sunbathing training we found a dog wandering outside the house, it has red eyes and runs at you with it's mouth open with it's mangled teeth, it sort of looks like it's going to attack you but it's probably the most friendly dog you will ever come across. I sort of see it like a Ian Dowie of the dog world, it's pretty ugly but means no harm and if it bites you more than likely you will get a disease.

                                                     Tuskin snr
 Later in the evening me and Nick teamed up on the cooking kind of like Will Smith and Martin Lawrence did in Bad boys and Bad boys 2 apart from they where fighting crime and we where chopping onions and tomatoes. Overall the meal was pretty good and no doubt there will be a sequel to our cooking.

JT