Billy no mates - (Tuesday 27/05)

With a part of the group recovering from the weekends Edinburgh marathon (great Edinburgh runs from Mike, Lee, Neil, Lee and Andy) - the size of the group down at track tonight was small and they decided to go and do a Fartlek session out on the road.

My session was set to be 5 x 1000m with 2min recovery so even though I was on my own that's what I'd do - my quads were aching from yesterdays fell race, but I was reasonably happy with my split times tonight 3:45, 3:37, 3:42. 3:44, 3:40.

We had some 'private' viewings today as well (still as part of the weekends Derbyshire Open Arts event) and sold another three pieces so Amanda was really pleased.

Off to Alton Towers tomorrow - help !

Shutlingsloe - (Monday 26/5)

The summit at Shutlingsloe - approx 515m

A very busy morning for the last day of the Derbyshire Open Arts exhibition - I think round about 70 people came round for the final day. Its bizarre having complete strangers (or randomers as the kids call them) just turn up to wander round most of your home. Still it was a great experience and everyone's comments were really positive.

The next exhibition starts tomorrow at the New Mills Heritage Centre so its 'non stop' at the moment.

I left just as it was starting to get busy as I had to get to the other side of Macclesfield for the fell race.

Shutlingsloe is a great place, a very busy May Queen fete, lots of races for all age groups and the Junior races were part of the British Championships.

I'd decided to go off quickly as it was a downhill start and get across the river and through the steep part of the woods before hitting the rocky climb up at the top (approx 515m elevation) - all went well and I got to the top in about 12th or 13th position. I lost 4 or 5 places on the way back down form the top as I haven't yet perfected the art of running down rock faces quickly without falling. Had a strong finish in the last 400-500m back up to the hall and overall was really pleased with the day.

Finished it off with a curry (we even had one invented specially for us that didn't exist on the menu).

I highly recommend Shutlingsloe for a great fell ace and a great family day out.

Ruth 'top cook' - (Sunday 25/05)

A nice day at home helping out with the Derbyshire Open Arts exhibition then a short run with Amber alongside Kinder reservoir before going off up to Ruth and Tony's for a a fantastic meal - I'd always thought that Ruth was rubbish at cooking (only joking) - but what a spread, amazing... and souffle to finish - even ended up going home before getting blind drunk !

Really looking forward to the race tomorrow even though it says it may be windy !

Potts Pork Pies - (Saturday 24/05)

Well the new shoes were PUMA Trailfox and I think I will use them today running over Kinder with Tom and Tony.

(pause whilst Sean runs over Kinder with Tom and Tony)

Great run but so so windy - we tried running in pelaton fashion (one behind another) but it was so strong it didn't really help.

We covered just over 12 miles of the Kinder Trogg route and I pushed in two or three hill efforts - new shoes felt ace !

Poor Tom - not once, not twice but three times he fell going over Kinder and its real shitty stuff to fall on (Grit stone which is like sand paper).

I'm sure he must be black and blue - the run was rounded off by one of Potts Pork Pies - many thanks Tom you can come again !

Amanda's Exhibition is going well and she has sold a couple of paintings which is great news !

Derbyshire Open Arts - (Friday 23/05)

A needed rest day after yesterdays exertions as a navvy and on teh track and also as I wouldn't have had a minute to run today.

For the next four days we turn our house into an Art Gallery as part of the Derbyshire Open Arts Exhibition - tonight was a preview with just invited guests, but Saturday-Monday the world and his wife turn up ! (so if anyone is passing please feel free to drop in as its well signposted when you get near !)

A new pair of running shoes has turned up in the post and I'm going to wait till bed time to open the box - what an exciting life I lead !

Champions of Europe - (Thursday 22/05)

Well what a game that was yesterday evening - it had absolutely everything that is great about football and also a stupid penalty shoot out - despite my team winning I still think that a final should not be decided by a penalty shoot out.

Great to see Ryan Giggs pass Bobby Charltons record appearance for United - I doubt if that will be broken again as so many players are mercenaries these days - yes Anelka you are one of them and well done on missing your penalty !

It was a great evening at Tonys and I think I managed to eat my own body weight in curry.

I worked most of the day down on the Torrs Hydro New Mills project today, its getting pretty close to completion with The Big Lift due on the 8 June - its tough work labouring (tougher still when your doing it voluntarily) - today's task was dismantling scaffolding.

It was back to track tonight with a 12 x 400m session with 60s jog recovery in between each rep - apart from the first rep which was 86s the rest were on target or below ranging from 79-84s.

The Grouse - (Wednesday 21/05)

Well the blog is up to speed again and this morning did a nice hill session with Tony - ran to the Grouse pub and then two reps up to the top gate (5m22s and 5m:19s) which got the heart rate right up - I'm planning to try and get this down below 5m:00s before the Kinder Trogg - we will see !

No training this evening as its the biggest game that I can ever remember for United versus Chelski in the Champions League final - both teams have done fantastically well and I expect it to be a low scoring game which will go to extra time and maybe even penalties.

So its Simply Indian takeaway, the big match on Tonys big screen and maybe even a beer !

COME ON YOU REDS !

The small jobs - (Tuesday 20/05)

Today was a day of finishing off small jobs that tend to get left - little bits of painting, fixing the pond pump, getting rid of rubbish, sending emails that you should have sent days ago - you know the kind of stuff that just never normally gets done.

Managed to squeeze in a steady 9 miles with Tony along the canal to Buxworth and back and then loop round The Torrs - no problem with the leg so back to business tomorrow.

Saw the farmer taking his two pet Llamas for a walk whilst out running - only in new Mills could this happen.

Thinking about work - (Monday 19/05)

The weir in The Torrs which will soon turn water into electricity.

Back to Pets at home to buy an aquarium for Daisy which will have to sit full of water for a week before she can put fish in it - whatever happened to fairground fish in a plastic bag ?

No running today to let my calf recover.

I am being inundated by agencies and head hunters since I made myself properly available again - must be careful who I choose.

The Hydro Power project is going great guns and I will turn into a navvy for the day again later this week. http://torrs-hydro-new-mills.blogspot.com/

Great performance by Steve yesterday with a sub 3h:02m in the Windermere marathon - brilliant !

Fish - (Sunday 18/05)

My legs were tired after Saturdays run so left my Sunday run (10 miles steady) until as late as possible.

Decided to run along the canal and then cut across to Disley then up through Lyme Park and round The Cage with a goal of keeping the average below 8m:00s which is bordering on an effort given the amount of hills on the run.

Just about managed it but had to throw in a 6m:40s at the end to get the average down.

Calf is sore now so will take an impromptu rest day on Monday and give it lots of TLC.

Trip to Pets R Us (or whatever it was called) to look at getting Daisy some fish for her room, and a big tank and filter - looks like we may be going back again tomorrow !

County going to Wembley - (Saturday 17/05)

Really busy day today - loads of gardening then off up to see if I can get to Big Stone quicker than ever before - I failed by three miserable seconds, but this time it was on my own rather than with Tony and I'm sure its harder to put the effort in on your own.

I've sussed out where I can gain a few seconds and it was quite breezy on Saturday so hopefully I will be able to reduce the 26:48 a bit next week - we will see.

Tom popped in for a coffee this morning - he's now working for the probation service and sounds like he is really enjoying it.

Went to watch County in the 2nd leg of the play offs at Edgeley Park with Tom, Paul and Michela - Amber was supposed to come but she had a 'teenage' moment at the last minute and didn't come - shame as it was an exciting game which County won and they will now meet local rivals Rochdale to see who gets promoted to Division one.

Me and Tom even did a pitch invasion - well more like a stroll - after the game finished.

Steves taper - (Thursday 15/05)

It was the 5km time trial at track tonight and as my session said 8-9 steady miles myself, Steve, Simon and James went off on an off-road session to match.

This was Steve's last run before Sundays Windermere marathon so needed to be nice and easy with a couple of marathon paced miles in the middle.

Along the river, over to Chadkirk, canal to Reddish Vale and along the river and disused railway line back to Woobank Park - slightly longer than planned with a fastish mile in the middle (6:25) and a couple of 7m:00s as well.

I'm taking a rest day tomorrow and then plan another assault on Big Stone on Saturday.

Party in the park - (14/05)

Last minute dashes for birthday presents and an impromptu 'party in the park' at High Leas Park in New Mills as the weather was lovely where everyone was nourished with Crispy Cod fish and chips, beer, wine and cakes and strawberry's.

Lads v Dads football match turned out the normal score with the Dads beating the Lads convincingly - when will they ever learn !

Once the sun went down hypothermia started to set in but fortunately we had brought blankets with us for the older folk (Cheryl !)

New Garmin - (13/05)

I've treated myself to a new Garmin (405) - surely the fact that it is much lighter than my Garmin 301 will make me run quicker (!) well that's my theory.

I've put my 301 up for sale on ebay to see how much I can get http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=250248011026 - don't you just love ebay, not sure if I prefer to buy or sell - just the thrill of final bids coming in for something you are selling (snipers) is ace.

Training session tonight was 6 miles with a set of 20x30s efforts/30s recovery in the meadows near track, felt good and led the front group until the last couple of efforts when some young toe rag came zooming past (apologies if he is reading this).

Its Amandas birthday tomorrow and I'm struggling for ideas... help !

Big Stone and Champions - (12/05)

Another 'time trial' up to Big Stone from home with Tony - the goal is still to try and go sub 25:00min before the Kinder Trogg race but its going to be some effort to do that.

The first mile is up and down through New Mills before you hit the two mile hill up to Big Stone, I've not yet worked out properly if you can gain more time by going eye balls out on the flatter section or save it for the hill - think I will compare some mile splits to see where I can improve most - its great when you do get to the top as you can see for miles and miles.

Great effort by United yesterday to become Champions again - I've decided not to go to Moscow for the Champions League final now as it would cost a fortune.

Derbyshire Track and Field Championships - (Saturday/Sunday 10/11 May)

Well with a few days of 'rest' in Valencia I should have been all be set-up for my first track races for nearly 30 years.

Off to Nottingham (Harvey Hadden Stadium) for the joint Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire Championships where I had decided to run 5000m on teh Saturday and teh 3000m steeple chase on the Sunday.

Ambers race was first on the Saturday and she got silver in her 3000m - the time was nothing to shout about but she has been concentrating on her exams at the moment and boys ! Still as long as she is still enjoying running then I'm sure if she wants to put that extra effort in she will do.

5000m - 12.5 laps of the track and my goal was to not get lapped by everyone - as expected I went off too fast and tried to stay with the lead pack for the first mile and ended up doing a 5:47 mile. Not only did I not get lapped by everyone I ended up nearly lapping someone myself and came home 4th Derbyshire runner in 19:05, which given the three previous days prep I was pleased with.

Sunday was even hotter than Saturday and I was half hoping Amber would suggest that we don't bother going, but off we went and she came first in her 2000m steeple chase in a new U20 county record (Derbyshire is not famed for its steeple chase runners!).

My race was an hour later and I nearly missed the start by being at the wrong part of the track - I assume 3000m was 7.5 laps so wandered over to the 200m start - not so - with the water jump it brings the star back by another 60 metres. Anyway off we go and I decided I would play it cagey and stay steady for the first 800m to judge the pace, it was a little slow for me so I put in a 1200m burst and before I knew it was leading and would come home in first position - me a County champion - bizarre !

Great day out and in total the four Stockport Harriers athletes got five golds and one silver - brilliant !

Need sleep - (Friday 9/5)

With two hours sleep under our belts (or 4-5 for the lightweights) it was off to the airport to get home and sample some Derbyshire sunshine - whilst there had been rain in Spain there had lots of sun at home - super quick flight back and most of us managed to get three seats each so another 90 minutes sleep was much appreciated.

Decided not to go to bed but instead pottered around the vegetable garden like a modern day Percy Thrower - a great weekend of football ahead with County in the play-offs and Man Utd hoping to win the League again, I'll take a rest from running today as tomorrow is the Derbyshire track and field Championships and I'll be running my first track race for nearly 30 years - why ?

Valencia - (Thursday 8/5)

Radio City - Valencia

... so 08:30am down in reception, bad head, dehydrated waiting for my good running buddies to come and join me for a run to the beach and back - I should have known better, bunch of lightweights !

Decided to go anyway and ran a different route down to the beach and looped round and back to the hotel.

We grouped again up soon after 10:00am and found a great place to have breakfast - our limited Spanish ensured we feasted on orange juice, toast and coffee... and then 20 minutes later we had the same again. By this time the weather was awful, pouring with rain so we headed into Valencia old town to do a bit of shopping (buy a football) before trying to find somewhere to have our much waited for game of football...

... first though we decided to have a couple of beers hoping the weather would clear up - it never did, but the beers were nice anyway !

After walking for about 10 miles we found our much sought after football pitch, in fact it was the only place you could play without getting covered in inches of mud - the game would never have made match of the day, but myself, Tony, Steve and Simon gave the others a sound thrashing, with a combination of superb footy skills, higher levels of fitness and we were also a far better looking team than they were.

The phrase I am looking for is 'piss wet through' - after the footy match which lasted an hour or so we were drenched, absolutely soaked to the skin - it was a good 5k back to the hotel so some of us ran back to get dry, warm and sleep for a couple of hours before setting off for another evening in Valencia.

All dry, dressed to err kill ?! and feeling more lively after a couple of hours kip we got taxis back to Valencia old town and found a fantastic authentic Spanish restaurant - we opted for the set menu which worked out at about 30 Euros each but included stashes of red and white wine and an amazing array of food - salads, meats, cheese, steak, fish, potatoes, rice, snails, prawns, squid, desserts, coffees - best meal of the holiday !

We spilled out of the restaurant and then some headed back to the hotel - more lightweights - whilst the men in the group found a bar that sold ridiculously strong bottled beer (10%), from here we headed to bar that with a couple of chaps at the back playing the drums... the evening then disintegrates as the bar order changed to Bacardi and cokes... after that it was to a club called Radio City which really was good - it even had a darts board for us old guys !

Eventually we rolled back to the hotel some time before 3:00am and had to be back up for 5:00am !

Valencia - (Wednesday 7/5)

Up at the crack of dawn for the team chauffeur (Tony) to take me, Steve and Simon to Liverpool Airport to meet Lee, Neil, Pete and Andy for our short break to Valencia.

Subway sandwich for breakfast and a pretty uneventful flight out which landed 20 minutes early which was good news.

The weather as we left Derbyshire was set to be 22-24oC and brilliant sunshine for the whole week - as we arrived in Valencia it was 16-18oC and was to piss it down till the moment we left for home on Friday - such is life !

The hotel was fantastic and we dropped off bags and decided to go for a group run for 60-75 minutes - down through the old river bed which is now full of gardens and sports facilities then along the sea front before following the tram line back towards the hotel... I say towards as on the way back we found a cosy little bar and decided to have a swift drink, then another, then another.... getting back to the hotel just in time to get changed and go out for the evening.

We headed off to the old town and found a great tapas bar where we did some significant carb loading and the odd bottle of wine also. A quick shopping expedition to a second hand clothes shop found Tony with a tasty new (sorry old) shirt and me with my long wanted brown leather jacket - 15 Euros 'bargain' !

It was now time for a cocktail so a round of 8 Mojitos (http://www.whats4eats.com/recipes/r_bev_mojitos.php was quickly consumed before heading off to the next bar to watch Valencia play in a football match.

Hunger pangs soon found us heading towards a restaurant and after 10 minutes of deliberations as to whether or not this place smelled of shit or not we sat down to a really nice meal.

The dessert was a chocolate fondue and Lee soon started the 'chocolate' war which was bound to end in tears.

After the meal the drunks carried on drinking and a various assortment of bars before returning back to base some time after 02:30am.

The last words of the evening were 'see you at 08:30am for a brisk run to the beach....'

John Lennon - (Tuesday 6/5)

Nice set of 1km reps in Woodbank Park this evening, weather was great for running too. I'd spent most of the day laying concrete as part of the Torrs Hydro project so was weary but managed to knock them out inbetween 3:30 and 3:40 per rep which is OK for now.

Off to Valencia tomorrow morning - nice early start to head across to John Lennon airport (what a stupid name for an airport) - must get some sleep first !

Shutlingsloe - (Monday 5/5)

Great hill training session today near Wildboarclough. Theres a fell race here on Bank Holiday Monday at the end of May which I'm tempted to do so we drove up there (Me, Jackie, Amber, Leah and Sarah) to spec it out and do some hard core hills.

Really hard session, wet feet too as you have to cross a river.

Followed this up with a pig out at a local farm tea rooms with sandwiches, oat cakes, tea and ice cream.

Stockport County - (Saturday 3/5)

What a really busy Saturday it turned out to be - it should have been a rest day by all accounts but I had a medium (but very hilly) run with Tony up to Big Stone, South Head and then back via Hayfield and the Sett Valley trail - about 12 miles in total.

We are going to use the three mile run up to Big Stone as a bench mark leading up to the Kinder Trogg race - the target being sub 25:00min for the three mile climb - today it was just over 29 minutes for me. Ended up in a two mile race with another runner on the Sett Valley trail just when we should have been warming down - he went a bit fast, so we went a bit faster, so he went he bit faster....

Watched Stockport County in the afternoon with Amber, they are playing really well at the moment and hopefully will get through the play-offs and move up a division.

Greggs for breakfast - (Friday 2/5)

What a crazy 24 hours, track session on the Thursday, then mad dash over to Leeds for a great night out with Tony, Tom, Alex and Gibbo - all of them legends in their own life times. Headingly must have know we were coming as the place was rocking. we met another legend aka 'bunny' a fried of Alex's who is mad as cheese and better still doesn't even realise it.

I stayed at Alex's house which made me feel good about my own house (Alex currently has a toilet in the middle of his kitchen and hot and cold running nothing and weighs 7 stone more than his picture above !)

Now let me tell you about breakfast - we all met up and drove down to our local Greggs - Cornish pastie and a vanilla slice at 8:30am is the way to start the day believe me it was ace !

The reason we were in Leeds was for a charity photo shoot (cant show you any pics yet as its top secret and there will be a press release in a couple of weeks) - suffice to say my feminine side came out and I look great with long blonde hair.

Helen Turton took the pictures http://www.helenturton.co.uk/ , now I don't know much about photography but these pictures are awesome (thanks H!) - the pics were taken at the Emmerdale studios in Leeds and just before that myself and Tom got our 'big break' on TV with a little walk on part in the Woolpack - what a great day.

Digging a big hole - (Thursday 1 May)

Wednesdays training was a nice circuit session down at Dialstone with a short run before and after - I'm starting to look forward to my next race now which I think will be a 5000m track race in the Derbyshire Championships - my goal will be to not get lapped !

I seem to be spending a lot of time at IKEA at the moment and today was no different, buying it is the easy part putting the bloody stuff together is not so easy !

Tomorrow I will be helping pour many tonnes of concrete as part of the Torrs Hydro New Mills project - I'm a Director of the company who have commissioned the installation of a Hydro Electricity scheme right in the middle of New Mills - its a great idea and we are now getting to the interesting stuff - http://torrs-hydro-new-mills.blogspot.com/ It started with having to dig a very big hole (see pic) which is now below river level, we will then have a 15 tonne Archimedes screw delivered form Germany and then as if by magic we will start to produce electricity with all profits being pumped back into the local community.