One big hurdle cleared

I woke up Monday morning with a number of aches and pains in both my legs, but with a good feeling inside that these pains weren't injuries and that I had completed the Brighton Half Marathon in a solid time of 1 hour 36 minutes and 44 seconds.


Looking good after 8 miles- hmm maybe not?

I expected to finish around 1 hour 40/45 minutes so I was delighted with my time as my training had been stunted by injuries which has therefore led to less training. My target is still to complete the full marathon in April with a time around 4 hours, but preparation is the key. This time last year I had just got back from Australia with very few miles under my belt, this showed during the marathon last year as i got to 15 miles my body just crumbled. Those last 11 miles were so hard and I don't want to be suffering for as long this year! (I can hope can't I?)

Good and bad preparation has been part of England's build up for the cricket world cup too, the retaining of the Ashes followed by the 6-1 one day thrashing by their Aussie rivals. Once again as always with English one day cricket, the right team and their batting line up changes up and into major tournaments. This continued today in England's first match with the ever consistent Mike Yardy dropped for Ravi Bopara, England scrapped a win against the Netherlands but it does make you wonder do England know their best line-up yet? Again!
English cricket is still on the up and they did scrape through their first few group games on the way to winning the T20 world cup last year. But the chances of lightning striking twice are slim with the slightly longer form of the one day game not allowing for as many rash decisions. If my marathon training from the past two years is to go by they should stick with their tried and tested method and stick with the nucleus of the team that sealed glory in the West Indies whilst preparing earlier and more efficiently. It's not like the world cup was a secret that has just came out of nowhere, they knew it was happening since the last one finished. We will know by April (Yes April!) when the world cup finishes whether the chopping and changing of a team is the best method to bring home glory.