Binge and a nearly close encounter with Mark Foster

Things started to look up today, my cold abated, teenage triathlete was out of the house in time for the early bus, and I had a relatively stress free morning and leisurely drove into Newcastle for a court hearing late this afternoon.

Now the walk from the Quayside Car Park down Broad Chare to the court, whilst architecturally extremely appealing is usually inhabited by Newcastle's barristers and the detritus of the crown court system.

The latter particularly are usually shaven headed and adorned with such works of art as Love and Hate across their knuckles not to mention frequent proclamations of their love for the "Toon" on any other exposed part of their bodies, and that's just the women. So it is unusual in the extreme to see anything remotely attractive on the journey.

But on looking up from my mobile there he was. I had to blink in disbelief as walking down the other side of the street was none other than Mark Foster of "you look like a God but dance like a Geek fame"* (and a notable swimmer in his own right of course). Wow, I was too shy to speak to him and by the time I thought to take the above photo he had wandered off down the riverside, see the above. (I know he's in town for the Strictly Tour)

Well it made my day, and the Foster effect obviously carried on into the swim session tonight as although Evil Mutant Swim Coach 1.0 had set a ridiculously complicated warm up with way too many words and changes of pace for my liking, we all sort of settled down and ground out the main set which was 3K swimming on average less than 30 seconds a length....result (maybe the clock wasn't wrong yesterday.)

10 x 133's ' 2.20s (complex set)
5 x 166's @ 3.20
4 x 133 @ 2.30
3 x 100 @ 1.45
2 x 66 @ 1.10
1 x 33 @ 33
1 x 166 @ 3.20
2 x 133 @ 2.30
3 x 100 @ 1.45
4 x 66 @ 1.10
5 x 33 @ 35
100 swim down
4500 metres total


*B Tonioli