Speed play

Emily decided to be a nightmare last night (the mysterious cough which only seems to surface at night) so i got what seemed like about three hours sleep. The alarm went off at 5.45 and I could barely open my eyes. I could hear the rain lashing down outside (Lord knows we need it but still....) and the planned workout was losing its appeal. Still, as usual, headed out and met Tim at the prescribed time. There I am running across the trails to our meeting point in almost pitch darkness, drenched to the bone and I'm thinking "most people would think I'm nuts for doing this" but anyway there I was

Workout ended up being 8.5 miles including fartlek of 1,1,2,2,4,2,2,1,1 min 'on'/off. As we were half way through our third 'on' segment a guy flew past us coming the other way. It was the guy who won the 5k on Saturday- that is why I'm out in the dark and rain too! So it went pretty well. we started off at about 5.30 pace but were down to 5.10 by the end. Still felt flat from doing Tuesday's workout but I love doing fartlek as you can run as hard as you feel like it and aren't aiming to hit a specific split or distance, etc. 'Speed play' indeed.

Was supposed to be getting a sports massage tonight but have had to reschedule because of work commitments. I bet Paula Radcliffe doesn't have these problems!

England play Austria tomorrow in what must be the most meaningless and irrelevant friendly international of all time. If Russia and Croatia win on Saturday we are out of the 2008 European Championships and I won't know what to do with myself for that month!