Danwichmann

1 hour ago, bickster said:

Fred West's ashes were scattered on the beach at Barry (not an) Island

 

I know he wasn't very nice, but that seems a harsh punishment for him.

Running season over me now, no more racing until Autumn. Just finished 30km trail race in brutal humidity. I was trying to take it easy but still felt spent and was walking a lot of the last 5km. At least I finished because now the heavens have opened and they've stopped the race for the runners still out there. 

4 hours ago, TreeVillan said:

Quick update. I downloaded the C25K app and went out to give it a go before work.

I don't have any earphones to listen along though so thought I would pop into Sainsbury's to pick some up but Argos doesn't open until 9 (What's that about?) so I just used the timer on my phone and found it quite enjoyable. Amittedly I'm not sure what I was doing could be considered running rather than jogging but will definitely be doing this more and hopefully the migraines stay away.

Doesn't matter, keep at it and you'll see improvements in no time. 

9 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Something isn't adding up, your 1:31 half should have you down at a sub 3:15 marathon at least. Maybe you need to tweak something minor like pacing or fuelling.

Could be. That half was about 6 years ago and I was new to marathon distance then, so pacing and fueling were still being learnt. It's been a while since a really raced a half but I don't think I'd go under 1:35 now. 

2 hours ago, andyjsg said:

Totally agree with this, I started at 34 after being a 20 a day smoker, trained for a few months and dragged myself round a 10K in 55 mins, didnt think I could get much faster and mixed it up with cycling and as I got fitter from both, times started to come down. Year on year consistent training has done it, sadly I get injured a lot but can usually drop in a couple of good performances a year, managed a 1:15:30 half last year, ran 2:57 this year despite jogging (and stopping for over 5 mins combined) the last 10 miles. Have a PB of 2:45 but think if I can finally turn up to one of these races fit I might break 2:40. At the height of marathon training Im doing 10 hours a week, 3 in one run and maybe 1.5-2 in another and the rest made up of mileage here and there and a lot of it at easy pace with a couple of hard sessions a week (or races, not both). 

 

That's all pretty familiar, I started out very unfit, worked up to 10km and then got that under an hour, half marathons under 2 hours. I kicked it up about 6 years ago, more racing and smarter training, times came down a lot and managed a 1:31 half and a 3:31 marathon. I also started doing ultras and although they were much slower they did wonders for my endurance. 10 hours or more at peak training load sounds about right as well. A few weeks ago I managed a marathon PB of 3:27 off the back of a couple of months of excellent training, where everything went to plan, but it took absolutely everything, I had nothing left at the end. That's as well as I can train, I had the easy longs, the speed work and the other easy miles with plenty of cycling and a bit of strength work as well. My 5km/10km are gradually getting slower even with that quality training, I just don't think there is a way to get significantly faster for me. 

Maybe if I'd started serious training in my 20s instead of my 30s, I could have run sub-3. But I've been training consistently for 10 years, I do a good mix of speed work, endurance, cross training and recovery but I just don't have the top end speed needed for sub-3, and however I train now I'm past 40 my top speed is getting slower. I still love running and I'll keep going but any chance I had of sub-3 can be filed under 'what might have been'. 

5 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Ah running is about adaptations, just stay consistent running and the times drop and fitness rises. 

It is, but we all still have our own ceiling that no amount of training will take us beyond. I'll never run a sub-3 marathon however train. 

37 minutes ago, delboy54 said:

Only ever watched a couple of episodes as I dont have access to sky or HBO or whatever it was on.

However I am reading the first book in the series and the first half, approx 400 pages, is deadly dull scene setting stuff, hopefully it gets better.

I agree with some comments and complaints about the author explaining to the minute detail the colour of someones armour or flag etc, and it is pretty tedious to be honest. However, it is nothing compared to Tolkiens Lord of the rings novel, where the description of some hobbits clothing goes on and on seemingly for pages and pages of drivel....

I think the worse for that is Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Gave up that one when I got fed up of pages of fish genus and species. 

9 hours ago, mjmooney said:

SERIOUSLY??? 

Not really. Occasionally, I glean some information from comments in off topic, and as I scrolled through the football section on the guardian website recently I saw we were playing Ajax, so I guess we qualified for Europe last year, but that's about it. And I don't miss knowing or feel curious about it. 

There are quite a few but football is probably the biggest one, including Villa. Just no interest at all any more, don't have any idea how Villa are doing now. 

I still enjoy a glass of wine or a beer now and then, but less than one a week and almost never get drunk, that's another big change. 

I used to be able to sit and watch 2 or 3 films back to back, now it's a struggle to sit through a two hour movie in one go. 

I don't know the last time I went to a gig, it's been years. 

That stuff has been replaced with an obsession for running and more recently cycling. Definitely healthier and feel better for it, rarely miss any of the old things. 

3 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

Marathon is 42.2 km give or take for me because I'm not a psychopath

Same, but if you are racing in UK you'll be passing mile markers 26 times along the way. 

50 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

14 pounds in a stone.

I typically have to use imperial for a person’s weight to get a sense of things. Kilograms I always have to take a little longer, I typically associate it when I see a maximum weight a lift can hold and it’s usually, I don’t know, 800Kg or 10 persons, or something.

I also run in miles, well I think of them in miles. Mainly because we calculate speed in miles (not that I’m bothered about my speed) and a marathon is in miles (not that I’m running a marathon).

I started running in England so ran and raced in miles but since moving abroad it's always km and mins per km. Feels faster!

Another branch to add to the flowchart. Are you racing? > Is it a marathon? = miles > Is it a park run, 5km or 10km? = km

4 minutes ago, Genie said:

I bought some digital scales off Amazon a few weeks ago, I was a bit confused initially at the weights in stones and realised it wasn’t stones and pounds it was stones and the tenths of a stone. What on earth is that about?

So for example 12.5 wasn’t 12 stone 5 pounds, it was 12 and a half stone (12 stone 7 pounds).

Sent it back.

I grew up using stone and pounds but to this day honestly don't know how many pounds are in a stone. I just use kg now and it makes a lot more sense to me. 

Recent conversation with American colleagues went something like this:

"I saw a driving video from UK earlier, they were using miles per hour. I thought you guys were metric?" 

"Driving distance and speed is always miles, but if we're talking about height it can be ft or cm. Other things vary from person to person."

"So what about weight, do you use pounds or kg?" 

"most people use stones" 

"Wtf is that?" 

"I've no idea, I don't think anyone else uses it except us." 

7 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

I did the Stafford Half Marathon on Sunday. My P.B is 1hr50 and I thought as I’m in the middle of marathon training I could probably knock a few minutes off.

I set off at 8 minute miles and tried to stay with the 1hr45 pacer. Either my maths is wrong or he was going way too fast as he disappeared over the horizon early on.

There’s a few big hills and I never really recovered from the one on mile 5. Finish time of 1:52:15.

Never mind, lessons learned. I’m doing the Leamington half in June, so I’ll try again then.

If you learnt something from it, it's good. 

3 hours ago, Risso said:

Excellent work!

Less than three weeks now until my first half marathon. Bricking it that I'll have some stupid injury in the next three weeks.

Be sure to have a proper  taper in the last two weeks. Reduce the chance of injury, let any niggles heal and go into the race feeling fresh. 

16 minutes ago, bickster said:

I once flew on a Bulgarian state carrier (just after the collapse of the Bloc), I don't know the exact model but it was Russian (obv), you could literally see the rivets in the plane and some of them were definitely rotating.

The aircrew just kept us plied with enough alcohol so it didn't matter (I particularly remember something they described as Red Champagne  ), free cigarettes even (make it hazy so they cant see the rivets) and yes we hit turbulence too.

That was nothing compared to the taxi drivers in the resort. I was convinced the Bulgarians had a secret plot to dominate the World Rally Championships and Borovets was the training school  

Similar experience in Borovets, and this would be less than 20 years ago, long after the the collapse of the block. Taxi driver literally driving up against the snow drifts at the side of the road in order to slow down, and tail gating cars while blasting the horns on roads that seem pure ice. 

I work 4 days a week, about 20 hours a week. 4 months holiday a year. It's pretty sweet, although I doubt I'll be retiring until I drop. 

22 minutes ago, Rolta said:

Check out the app Run Kaizen/Kaizen (I do their blogs). It's better than other apps for really aiming to beat PBs as it simplifies your training load, while calculating everything around your target time. It gives you a very accurate (more than other apps) race prediction. I know this sounds a bit salesy—I can't stop! My writing is normally better than this I hope (I am so tired).

I am not trying to actually sell it to you, but I use it and it's useful. There's a free trial. I'm a believer in it as much as anything. It's not my main job, but a side thing I do because I like the app. Working with Kaizen really got me into running, and I echo the statements above about it being so good for mental health. I have half an eye on the Madrid marathon in April.

The app is still young, but it's the brainchild of an uber keen sports scientist. The next update has some important new features. In a couple of updates I think it's going to be quite special.

I've noticed posts about it in my Strava feed recently so it's interesting to hear about. I'm only a week from race day so to late to adjust my training now, just enjoy the taper. My couple of races will be on trail and I don't believe any app in the world will ever be able to predict race times for those, there are just too many variables. 

8 hours ago, bickster said:

Interesting. I live in China and all the women i know have been working normally, although I know some companies give them some small gifts or something similar. Seems a pretty rubbish holiday. 

4 hours ago, andyjsg said:

Marathon Majors Completed  

Actual race was a little bit of a mare, been struggling with a hamstring issue for last few weeks and have had days off and just doing light running during my taper. Anyway decided to ignore that and go out with a bang, which involve a 1:20:42 first half, followed by a 1:35:50 managed jog/stop stretch to pull a sub 3 out of my arse. Still finished with a smile, other than the discomfort I actually enjoyed and took in the last few miles and most importantly I got the 6 star medal I’ve been desperate for. Totally worth it, what a journey and now a couple of days in Kyoto before I go back to the wife and kids (who I miss very much - but you know )

I don't know what's more impressive, the sub-3 time or completing all six. Huge congratulations all round. 

I've done a few cycle races now but today is the first time I've done one where the riders had to cycle over the pavement and use pedestrian crossings Pretty special and hilarious.