The Griswalds in Bali

Recently I was lucky enough to spend a week in Bali.

To be more specific, my six month pregnant fiancee, the twins, my brother, my two sisters, their husbands, my two year old niece, my parents and I have been on an incredible family holiday in Bali.

My parents had their four children within five years, which has meant we were a formidable challenge to raise, but in adulthood we have become four very different, very close friends. I count myself very lucky. Having the four of us together in Bali with our respective families was an enormous buzz.

This, however is a running blog, so I should talk about running. The holiday does raise an issue that all runners blessed with a family will face from time to time: how do you train on a family holiday?

I've always found it is not overly difficult, but the same sacrfices you make in your everday life you will have to adapt and find new compromises. I don't mean that in a "negotiation" way, more in that I have to find that balance of what will be adequate for my training and what amount of time I am comfortable being away from the family.

In Bali I found beach running in the morning was the ideal solution. The beach where we were staying in Legian was not the most pristine on the planet, but it is very long and firm. I ran on it every second day for up to about 11K, and I discovered how much a good run can build the hunger for a buffet breakfast, which I overindulged in every single day. I think I put on a good 2Kg while I was over there.

Possibly as a result, I've struggled a bit in the week since I got back. During the week I went on a couple of tough little training runs and then had the bright idea of running the "Colin Double": the Twilight 10K at Silverwater on Friday night (organised by Colin) and the SMC half (race director: Colin).

The week at work was torture, and I showed up on Friday having encountered two car accidents on the way to the race and ran like a sloth. 51:13 - two minutes outside the PB I'd set on the same course four weeks earlier - and I wasn't bludging. I'd lost form.

So with a dip in form and a temperature forecast of a squillion degrees I decided to use the SMC as a training run.

I'm glad I did. I drank so much before the start that at 3K I had to duck behind the bushes. At 11K my quads started screaming and By the last 2K the temperature was nudging thirty and I'd nearly sweated my own body weight. I finished in 2:10 and felt like I'd run a tough half. As I write this (14 hours later) my legs are still very sore.

Stay tuned: Ben's 2007 goals - coming real soon.