Rasco's Blog

Rugby

rasco@a18tor.co.uk — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:09:00 GMT

Well I suppose its about time I came out and took the flack for Saturday, for what can only be described as a lack-luster effort on behalf of the Welsh Rugby Team! Now I am no rugby pundit, however I am an ardent Welsh supporter, and therefore was devastated by the poor show displayed by out boys in Scotland!

I will say one thing, every dog has its day and until this tournament is over Wales is STILL the reigning GRAND-SLAM CHAMPIONS!

Health Advice

rasco@a18tor.co.uk — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:23:00 GMT

I had decided to take my training and exercise to the “Next level”. Unfortunately I made the monumental error in asking Gerard Dyson for advice! Two excruciating hours later a phone call and a quick visit to his “specialist” I concluded that I would stick to the programme I have in place.

Gerard suggested that I consider Colonic Irrigation; he intimated that he was an avid fan of the procedure and that it had helped him considerably in the past.

I like to consider myself a man of the world, and therefore open to suggestions, Gerard furnished me with the details of his “Specialist” so that I may contact him for a consultation. The alarm bells should have rung out loud when a gruff sounding “Gent” answered the phone with the strap-line: “Good morning the Colonicshop, No job too big, no job too small, we are open minded, we’ll jet-wash em all, Big Jon speakin”

I tentatively made an appointment for that day, however I never went through with what “Big Jon” referred to as the full werx, including “ring-pull”!!!!! Not sure if was the terminology he used, the tattoos on his arms and face, or the fact that he was wearing pink marigold gloves, an abattoir apron and welly boots!

As you all know, I am open minded, not one to cast aspersions, I am quiet, some say reserved. However I would suggest that everyone thinks twice before accepting health advice from Mr Dyson!!!!!

Im Back

rasco@a18tor.co.uk — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 12:15:00 GMT

I see that my blog has been mentioned in despatches, and not wanting to disappoint I will continue where I left off.

Contrary to Gerard’s reports, my training regime has not been put back three weeks; in fact the trip to Dublin has accelerated my programme forwards by a month!

Because of the almost magical qualities of Guinness I am now bordering on having super-human abilities!

I began my visit to Dublin by attending one of the many exercise-houses in the heart of the city, a warm and welcoming venue, with a live band and a menu to match, I decided to join the local spots-men and women, with a drink and a meal.

Now you are all probably wondering where I learned about the magical properties of Guinness?......A leprechaun told me! After the sixth or seventh pint of the black stuff, followed by a similar number of whisky chasers (Powers, of course) a little fellow dressed in green from head to toe; skipped over and sat beside me at the bar, it was he who told me the secret of Guinness, before I had a chance to quiz him further, he jumped on his Unicorn and trotted off into the distance.

Anyway I awoke on day two with the mother of all hangovers; however this did not deter me, as I knew the vast amount of food and drink consumed the night before was only of benefit to my sportsman-like physique. I decided to go down to the hotel restaurant and sample the delights of a full Irish, followed by cereal - three bowls, half a carton of orange juice, several rounds of toast and a pile of bacon, smuggled out in a napkin, and eaten in the lift on my way back to the room! (The food had been paid for; I was getting my monies worth!)

The reason for my visit to Ireland was that my lovely wife was scheduled to attend a meeting with the Irish D.O.T (work stuff), this left me with a day on my own to wonder round the capital, because of the extremely cold weather I found myself being drawn back into the bars dotted around the city, fortunately the thumping headache and churning stomach assisted me in overcoming that temptation.

Eventually Mrs Rasco called me to tell me that the meeting was over and that she was ready to be collected and chauffeured to the ferry port! Unfortunately because of alterations to the sailing times we had a mere 8 hours to kill before we left for Sunny Wales! As the weather was lovely we decided to spend the time by taking a drive. Initially we called in at Howth Yacht Club, as always there was a warm welcome and we stayed for an hour watching the world go by accompanied by a soft drink. (As requested by Gerard I offered them his best regards, twenty minutes later they sort of knew who I was talking about and with a look of bemusement thanked me). Being Monday there restaurant at the club was closed, so we travelled the short distance to the Quayside Chippy (at the bottom of the hill on the left) Fresh and chips for myself and Smoked and chips for Mrs Rasco AWSOME!

Finally we found ourselves back at the ferry port awaiting the arrival of our ship. Three and a half ours later I was leaving the port at Holyhead and heading for bed!

Hitting the wall!

rasco@a18tor.co.uk — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 09:24:00 GMT

It is a problem faced by all top-level sportsmen/women and is called: “hitting the wall”. As someone who is considered by many as being at the panicle of my sports “chess” I have experienced this phenomenon!

It happened to me on Friday night, I was out training with Tim Jones and Dave Miller, (Two other semi-professional sportsmen) working on the drinking element of our tough training schedule, in preparation for the 2007 Nationals.

We have all been giving it 100% commitment for some time now and I suppose on some level I knew it was bound to happen at some stage!

I think I first knew I was in trouble was after about the eighth or ninth Vodka with DIET COKE! I began to feel as what can only be described as “full”, I said nothing to the others, not wishing to alarm them and just tried to drink my way through it, unfortunately four or five drinks later I was almost facing defeat! I racked my brain trying to think of what Paula Radcliffe would do in this situation, however urinating by the side of the bar was not going to make me popular with the landlord, nor the burley bouncer in the corner of the room.

I decided that a change of location could possibly be the answer, and a short walk later I found myself in new surroundings at a different venue. “Dave’s round”(not what we call him) meant that I was able to tackle my demons head on, to my relief this beverage was consumed without issue, and I quickly found myself enjoying the rest of the night and looking forward to a “Sports Kebab” with chilly sauce and SALAD, followed by a long walk home.

On the walk home I thought about something a sports hero of mine (Eddy the Eagal Edwards) had once said to me “Stop stalking me or I will call the police!” good times…..

Day three

rasco@a18tor.co.uk — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:29:00 GMT

Things have not gone well today, I may have overdone the healthy eating yesterday, I now feel light headed and weak!

I have decided to push through this stage of my de-tox in an effort to overcome these obstacles!

I have just been down to the shops to get some fruit, I got strawberries, oranges, limes, lemons and raspberries, all of which were neatly packaged in a small red bag called "Skittles".

Day two

rasco@a18tor.co.uk — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:44:00 GMT

After throwing myself into the exercise programme yesterday, I thought I would take it a little easier on day two.

Woke up bright and early and did my stretches! climbed out of bed and carried out my usual morning routine. I then drove to work where I started on the healthy eating element of the programme. My food consumption for today will consist of the following:

(Brunch) 2 packets of pickled onion Monstermunch (half my usual intake) washed down by a bottle of DIET coke.
(ellevensys) A toffee APPLE !
(Lunch) a DIET Potnoodle - (Welsh food), and a Donna Kebab (WITH SALAD) and a deep-fried Mars bar and a healthy bottle of Sports Lucozade to wash it down

For my evening meal I plan to have another SALAD with a side order of chips, steak and kidney pie, mushy peas, bread and butter (three rounds) and a healthy fruit-based crumble, with clotted cream and syrup sauce of some description.

Evening supper will consist of three bowls of Cornflakes with SEMI_SKIMMED Milk and ONLY two heaped spoons of sugar.

Watch out come June I will be like Superman in that boat!

Eexercise regime

rasco@a18tor.co.uk — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:31:00 GMT

My preperation for the 2007 Nationals