NOVEMBER 2007

'All I want to do is drink beer and train like an animal.'

  Rod Dixon

  1983 New York marathon winner

A bit of a mixed bag this month, although I feel like I have achieved more of Rod's first ambition than his second. A series of weddings, birthdays and bahmitzvahs meant that for the first few weekends of the month both a lack of time and an excess of booze conspired against my good intentions. But in an effort to make up for it my mid-week efforts were fairly good, until a dose of man flu (a bit like the common cold but much, much worse) laid me low for a week with no training at all. But then the month ended well with a solid 35 mile weekend, my longest and hardest session for quite some time.

And the reason I know it was a 35 mile weekend is that I am now the proud owner of a very clever but unnecessarily expensive GPS running watch. The main reason for getting one is that I thought it would be a cool gadget to have in the desert. However, being the genius I am I managed to buy one which has a battery life of just 10 hours and needs mains electricity to recharge. So unless I can find a plug socket in the middle of the desert I won't get much further than day one before it becomes completely useless.

In November I also started running with my rucksack for the first time, which I have weighed down with a 10kg bag of cat litter to simulate all the kit and food I will have to carry across the desert. Strangely, carrying the extra weight isn't as bad as I remember, although it definately forces me to slow the pace (which is hardly electric to start with). This is no bad thing though because as I know from previous experience, it is just as important to train to walk for ten hours with a heavy pack on as it is to be able to run for five.

Finally this month I have been a bit of a naturalist (they're the ones who keep their clothes on) and have been spotting all sorts of wildlife on my night time runs. So far the list includes lots of rabbits and mice, some deer and a couple of owls. And trumping them all was a close encouter with a wild badger, who dashed out in front of me one night so close that I could see the blood on his fangs and look of steely menace in his eyes. Or at least that's how it seemed lto me when this suprisingly large beasty suddenly appeared out of the darkness just a couple of metres away, scaring the absolute bejesus out of me.

Bill Oddie is welcome to them.