Team news...

Well, 'team' is a loose term these days - what with Fit Mark finding himself new, young, fit men to run with and me and Ice Cream Sian not having seen each other since the Mud Runner (no, don't ask me how - I'm not entirely sure, we only live half a mile apart. In my defence I have been working hard and it's DARK at night now). Anyway, will Fit Mark still want to run with us next Mud Runner now that he's moving onto Serious Competitions like the 20 mile Sleepwalker? Should we be finding a new team-mate in the meantime?

I think we may have found someone....

I work with Beagle Nic. She runs with her dog, Rafferty (Raf for short) or, rather, she runs, he walks (he's been taking lessons from New Running Dog). As she was pounding the streets of Cardiff she passed a bus-stop as a woman laden with shopping got off the bus.

'Ooh,' said the woman 'Your dog walks faster than you run!'

'Thanks for that...' muttered Beagle Nic under her breath '...Fatty.' Class. Definite class.

So, once I get my new feet working properly (going ok, they get a bit tired with the orthotics, knees seem to be pointing in the right direction, thanks for asking) we'll go for a proper run with Beagle Nic and see how she measures up. If she's faster than us, fitter than us, quicker up the hills than us or says 'Eeeek' and 'Ooooooh' less than us, she's not our girl. On the plus side, she has invested in a pair of mud runners, and says she's spectacularly accident prone. Yay!

And I'm still thinking about the Ice Breaker in February (12.5k mud run, 20k MTB ride, 3k mud run). Guy and I met Fit Mark at the Ice Cream Parlour today (it's where all good meetings happen only Ice Cream Sian wasn't there) and I asked if he thought I could do it.

'No, but that's never stopped you before'.

Fair point. So we talked All Things MTB which I now know means Mountain Bike. (Passing thought - shouldn't it be MB otherwise surely it's MounTain Bike?) Anyway, me knowing what it stands for counts as progress round here.

Fit Mark reckons I need to actually TRY a bike out. Eeeek! He's offered me one of his (yes, it's a bit like guitars or melodeons - apparently you do need more than one) to try with him next weekend. Eeeek! In the meantime, he sends us a link for a bike he recommends and it must be good because it's got a Rockshox Tora fork with lockout and Shimano cranks! Yay! Hmmm, like I know what that means...

More importantly, it only comes in blue. Fit Mark says the colour is 'most definitely unimportant'. Such a boy response...

So, my targets for the next week are:-

1. Run with new feet. Any distance, any time.

2. Try a mountain bike. Or MTB as we now know to call it.

3. Run with Beagle Nic. And hope she doesn't break anything...

It's a bit of a week really...