The Eagles’ virtuoso guitarist Joe Walsh has a signature gig number called Life’s Been Good.  On a June day of cloudless skies here in Jersey life is certainly pretty good right now.

(OK – forget about England’s embarrassing exit from the World Cup with hardly a whimper.)

Running-wise though I’m lacking motivation and I didn’t get out until Thursday – a gentle jog to St Aubin and back of five miles.  Yesterday (Saturday) I determined on eight miles and headed off up the Railway Walk to Don Bridge.  It was a struggle as the temperature rose and I finished the run at only marathon pace – at which point I had to hold on to things as a dizzy spell hit me; it passed soon enough.  Today (Sunday) I gently jogged a total of six miles split into three parts!  First was First Tower to the track, second was the track to the coffee concession at Green Street slip before the final plod home.  I’ve still to decide on what direction my running should now take.

Down at the track it’s perfect training weather and there is some good stuff going on at Spartans.  I’m dipping into a bit of coaching only as invited and I’ve no intention of immersing myself in club life to the extent I did in the past.  I am however concerned at the lack of young throwers coming through, and this doesn’t seem to have improved in the couple of years I’ve been away.  The excellent Zane Duquemin and Kathryn Rothwell have both achieved Commonwealth Games qualifying marks in the early season.  Shadine Duquemin has the ability to follow them in due course.  I think there are one or two promising youngsters, Hannah Johnson for one, but generally we are in danger of losing our traditional strength in the throwing events.

I was therefore pleased to see three young athletes – aged only around 12/13, throwing well this week.  A young man named Yuri Perreira is raw but strong and willing to listen.  Kenya Smith (younger sister of Romy, lost to netball at present) and Olivia Blampied are, if I’m any judge, good prospects.  I hate predicting the future for youngsters (who knows, they might not show up at the track ever again) but these three have something about them.

And for my local history fix this week I drank my coffee at Green Street slip at the site of the old German machine gun emplacement, and the German storage bunker raided at least once during the Occupation by rebellious local lads.  And it’s unmistakeably a Jersey summer when the lanes are busy with strimmers and chainsaws ahead of the visites du branchage when recalcitrant landowners are fined for allowing hedges and trees to encroach onto the public highways.

Miles on the week             19.0
Miles ytd                            807.9