Alan Murchison's blog by Alan_Murchison

Hello realbuzzers. This week I had what you would call a proper 'jolly' courtesy of Aston Martin Racing. The day was held at Millbrook, the world renowned test track and filming venue for Top Gear, 5th Gear and most famously the car rolling scene in Casino Royale when Daniel Craig flipped a Aston DBS. I have been to Millbrook before and it's a truly amazing place and my day included doing doughnuts in a DBS, flat out on a one mile straight in a V12 Vantage (hitting 169 mph) and lapping the famous Alpine Circuit in a Vantage S and getting the thing completely airborne over a hump!

I also drove an Aston Virage at 90 mph round a 2 mile banked speed bowl with my hands off the steering wheel, something to do with physics?! I then nailed the car to 155mph on the banking which was fun. The highlight of the day was 15 minutes being driven in an Aston GT4 race car by an unhinged racing driver. Oh my god, he can drive and I nearly threw up due to the G forces in the car. Awesome! No cars pics I'm afraid as Millbrook forbids photos, due to it being a test track. It's owned by General Motors and many manufacturers also use it to test their cars. There were lots of Ferraris tearing about (slowly I might add) and lots of cars in 'disguise'! Not wearing moustaches though I hasten to add again.

Now as you no doubt have been aware, I have been carrying a running injury for a while now. A long boring story short, mis-diagnosis by a very expensive consultant - so I got a second opinion. A quick sportsman's hernia operation followed by full bed rest for a few days. Bingo! I am now effectively brand new and have been back running very easily for a few days and hopefully racing my way back to fitness very soon. I  had the same operation with the same consultant, Rob Hicks, as my training partner Lou Damen and we are now founder members of the Winchester & District Groin Club, along with clubmate Justin Corrie who rather randomly had the same operation with the same surgeon! It must be something in the water?

Lou has been helping me with re-hab exercises and I will be easing myself back into full training and hopefully be race fit for the next Hampshire League Cross Country race in mid November at Goodwood. If I get a good spell of training under my belt, there's a chance I can still win the M40 Cross Country League title in Hampshire. But I need to push on with the training I think. The good news is I have no doubt been carrying this injury for quite some time, and with all the cross training and now the operation, I should come back faster and stronger than ever.

All those hours on the bike and mind-numbing time spent in the pool aquajogging, means running again is a pure joy. I cannot tell you how happy I am to be doing some gentle and somewhat slow running again. Even though the weather is now a little bit inconsistent, I am loving it! Bring on the mud and hills I say. I shall be goal-setting for the 2012 season soon, and I have a few ideas and challenges for next year. I have entered a Half Ironman in May 2012, which should keep me out of mischief for a while?! Next week back on my Olympic challenges and a very expensive lunch!