January 2009

[Sweder]

Despite the company seasonal do last night and a blink-of-an-eye trip to Amsterdam I felt reasonably fresh. This reflected in my finishing time of 22:46 (Garmin), pleasingly close to a PB despite a 3 x 100 metre detour onto slippery grass to avoid roadworks.

The post-run coffee chat centred on forthcoming races. The Terminator is on the same weekend as Brighton Half and I've now managed to enter both - now that would be a neat trick! If anyone fancies a Brighton Half place they're welcome to mine; otherwise I'll contact the organisers and tell them I can't make it.

Almeria is but two weeks off. I feel . . . OK I suppose; not exactly flying but certainly on track. Another hilly session tomorrow, either 12 or 14 depending on how I feel/ how much sleep I get tonight. My knees are . . .OK (that word again); not entirely happy, just grumbling gently with the occasional sharp twinge. As ever a watching brief is in order. If I do go 14 I'll step back next Sunday (12 or maybe even a gentle Wire); less, after all, is still more.

In the week I caught up with Some Kind Of Monster, the disturbingly brilliant rockumentary following Metallica during the writing and recording of St. Anger. It's a fascinating piece of work, filled with the traumatic ups and downs of being trapped in a room with three other people (four if you count their retained therapist, six if you include the film makers), suffering varying degrees of paranoia, egomania and alchoholism, for more than 600 days. The highlight for me was not (as I'd expected) Lars Ulrich totally losing it and screaming FUCK! uncontrollably as he stalks around the umpteenth 'team meeting' (where the band members are encouraged to 'let out their true feelings to keep the creative process on track'). It was the moment when they tell Robert Trujillo he has the gig as their new bass player. Ulrich does the formal stuff, casually announcing
'We want you to be an integral, functioning member of the band; so here's a million dollars to show we're committed.'
'Obviously' interjects James Hetfield, singer, 'you'll also get a share in the business from here on in. We just want you to know we're serious.'
That'd do it for me boys.