What's been happening recently

Thought I may as well spend some of my Sunday morning updating what'as been going on recently as I haven't posted anything for a few weeks.

Basically Newcastle Thunder are in the weird position of having being knocked out of The Challenge Cup and 1895 Cup and not having a game until Sunday 9th March at 17:00 against Swinton Lions at Blaydon. So there's no rugby league I've attended to write about.

On Friday night I finished work and booked a last minute ticket to go and watch England under 20's v Scotland under 20's at Kingston Park. Firstly, it was great to see a near full Kingston Park, despite not being a Falcons fan, I grew up playing rugby union in the north east and I want to see them get over their struggles and be competitive.

The game itself finished 57-13 to England and if i'm being honest it could've been more. At times England cut through the Scottish defence with ease but didn't take their chances which will slightly frustrate them. Kepu Tuipulotu was deservedly named player of the match, his play especially in the loose was outstanding. Bath have a talented youngster on their hands and there will be more noise forming around him but just remember Jamie George had to be patient with game time at Saracens initially. I'm sure Bath will do what they need to do to bring him on and at the moment there probably isn't a better environment to be in in English club rugby. A player who caught my eye for Scotland wearing 23 was Cameron Van Wyk, I'll admit I had to do a bit of research on him. When he came on in the second half he added some energy and made some meters for Scotland which they were lacking in the first half. At the moment he looks to be playing for Ayr but you would hope Glasgow and Edinburgh are keeping an eye on him as there looks to be a player there.

What else has been going on?

My other hobby is running, it is literally my sanity. Although i have a love hate relationship with it! Recently it has been a bit of a struggle getting out, a mixture of work tiredness and motivation but I have dogged it out to get sessions in. I have two marathons booked this year, the Rob Burrow Leeds marathon in May and the Richmond Runfest marathon from Kew Gardens in London in September.

This is where the love hate thing comes in, last year i set myself a target or going sub 3:30 which i achieved at the Yorkshire marathon in October with 3:27:02. I was delighted with it, then had an injury lay off picked up while training on a cruise ship on holiday for the race. Basically running round and round a deck puts pressure on your ankle at the turns! While injured, i set myself my target for this year which is sub 3:15:00. This is where i put pressure on myself to get to my target. I use the Polar flow app for my training so have a schedule through to marathon day on 11th May and tell myself to trust the process, it has worked previously. But the pressure i put on myself is unwarranted for what is a hobby! I read and listen to a fair bit of training is the hard part, just enjoy the race. I am so jealous of people who can do that!

In the main training is going well and to be honest i'm enjoying it mostly. When i first started running i was one of these "it goes on Strava, it better be good!" Now with a training plan I've learnt that it's about trusting the process and with how Polar flow works sticking to the target heart rate zone i need to be in for that session. I enjoy the variety of the training with the mix of hard efforts, tempo and zone 2 easy and recovery runs and appreciate it more now that i can get my head round not every run has to be at full tilt!

In other running related news i continue to volunteer at Leazes Parkrun here in Newcastle when i can. Currently i'm on 92 credits so will hit my 100th volunteer which have all been at Leazes at some point in the next few months. Parkrun is a great way to start a weekend and although i run it very occasionally, i get a lot from contributing as a volunteer to ensure the event goes ahead and people can experience the Parkrun community.

I'll check in again soon with a bit of a running update and also on Friday night my rugby union team Gloucester play at Kingston Park against Newcastle Falcons in the quarter final of the Premiership Cup so might do something around that.