Risso

1 hour ago, Danwichmann said:

Run with a sports drink and sip it regularly while you're running. Plenty of belts available that will hold a soft flask and aren't very intrusive during the run. 

Good advice. I just bought a cheapish one off Amazon. It's quite small and unobtrusive, with a variety of handy pockets for phone and keys etc, and two pouches that hold a couple of flexible rubber water bottles at upper chest level. The bottle spouts aren't far off mouth level, so getting a drink just requires a slight bend of the head and a squeeze of the bottle. Used it for the first time last weekend and it was great, hardly noticed it was there, unlike running belts. I think if you were to make sure you'd had a decent drink before setting off, and then used something similar on the way with a sports drink with electrolytes, you'd fare much better.

4 hours ago, Danwichmann said:

I would love to do a major some day. Enjoy the experience! 

Same here, New York would be top of my list.

2 minutes ago, bickster said:

Was that a Midlands thing? I never really encountered it anywhere else

Happens all over the place. Used to be at least a couple of my locals in Wigan and Bolton that had blokes coming round with tubs of cockles and whelks etc.

On 25/12/2023 at 22:48, maltesemike said:

Keto is not a life long sustainable diet. Ketogenic diets stem from a starvation mode our bodies have developed in time of need and clearly people do benefit for short periods of low carb intake. But it’s just not sustainable as it’s too difficult to stick with over the long term and regular fasting can give similar benefits anyways.

I get why people see positive results when trying Keto to lose weight, because you lose it fast. But that weight is largely water and not fat. Low-fat high-carb diets are actually better for losing fat over the long term. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-01209-1

The default food our brains process is glucose. Carbs are probably the main reason why our brains grew so large in the first place! The idea that carbs are “the problem” is simply not true. Refined carbs are bad yes, complex carbs are anything but. The cornerstone of the healthiest and longest living people on earth revolve around diets that are predominately based on complex starchy carbs like corn, rice, oats, sweet potato, whole grains and plenty of legumes - the ultimate source of good carbs, protein and fibre. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these foods and we would all be much healthier if we ate more of them. The experiment has been done for us by people who have eaten such diets and live the longest to prove it.

 

 

 

I'm sorry, but I disagree with the entirety of this post, and in my opinion it's really, really bad advice.

Firstly, I looked up that study you posted. The actual results state the exact opposite to what you say, ie the low carbohydrate group lost 1.77kg in 14 days, the low fat group lost 1.09 kg. In any case, this was over 14 days, so no conclusions can be drawn about the "long term" but even so, more weight was lost eating high fat/low carbs than was lost eating high carbs/low fat.

There are just some basic, factual inaccuracies in your post. Weight loss in a keto diet is not just water at all. The very word 'keto' comes from 'ketogenic' which means fat-burning. Basically, you massively restrict carbohydrates; the carbs which your body usually uses to turn into fuel. Because thse carbs aren't available, your body turns fat into ketone molecules. It's true that you'll lose water in the first week or two, but after that it's burning fat. It's also absolutely nothing to do with starving yourself.

There is an obesity and diabetes epidemic in the western world, and it's mainly caused by processed sugar, but includes other high carb rubbish like fructose, which can cause high levels of triglycerides (which if high can lead to heart disease). Triglycerides fell for the high fat, low carb group in the study you mentioned above, they shot up in the high carb/low fat group.

And there's loads of research that a restricted carb/keto diet has positive benefits for diabetes/cancer/epilepsy/alzheimers outcomes.

From a personal point of view, I've been on a low carb diet (mostly) since 2020. In that time:

I've lost 5 stone - down from 18.5 to 13.5.

My blood pressure was dangerously high, it's now normal.

My blood sugars were considered pre-diabetic, they're now normal

I've never counted a single calorie

I'm never hungry

My resting heart rate has gone down from 74 to 52

I eat a wide and varied diet, just no bread/pasta/sugar/starchy vegetables

I run 4 times a week and am training for a half marathon

Emery goes absolutely ballistic at every slight misplaced pass and any other error. Despite his nice guy image and unerring politeness in interviews, on match day he's an absolute winner, and anybody not listening to what he says 100% is going to be told. And it clearly isn't any sort of problem, because the players all love him to bits, you can see that from all of them.

Did a 16K long run yesterday. Didn't enjoy it as I didn't fuel properly I don't think, and I also did it the day after a parkrun into which I put a fair bit of effort. Also did the 2K junior parkrun with my two daughers in the morning. Felt like every last bit of energy had been drained out of me. I think I therefore need to make sure we have a rest day, and also eat properly beforehand.

Wordle 981 4/6*

Wordle 980 4/6*

Rutland Water, it's our closest one. It's a really nice, scenic run, an out and back 2.5K each way. It does get a bit congested for the first kilometre, which can be annoying, as most people don't keep to the "stay left" requests. I've only been doing them (with my daughter) since the first week of Jan this year, so this weekend will be number 8, all done there. Once we get to ten, we're going to get going on the tourism, and will do the ones closest to here first, ie Market Harborough, Kettering and Peterborough. I'm up to 62% on the age grading now (50-54) but am getting to the point where I'm pretty well flat out, so any gains from now on will be small if at all. Like you, I've found the )half) marathon training really beneficial. My daughter (18) has as well, she's knocked 30 seconds off her PB every single week so far!

19 hours ago, Paddywhack said:

I just did this. It was horrible 

I only managed 5 miles though, I had to head home because of stomach cramps. I think that’s the 3rd time I’ve had that whilst running that in the last few weeks, first time I’ve had to stop though.

I got a parkrun PB at the weekend though - 22:14. I took 8 seconds off the time I set in 2018, so I was really happy with that. 

Great time that fella, well done. I'm aiming to get 23 something this weekend, whether I do or not remains to be seen! Which parkrun was that if you don't mind me asking?

16 hours ago, bickster said:

See postcodes, your address has nothing to do with your local authority.

Pear Tree Rd, great Barr, Birmingham, B43 is a postal address, it’s in Sandwell

Bedford, the county town of Bedfordshire, has an 'MK' Milton Keynes postcode, a town in Buckinghamshire.

Yes, it can be tricky to fit them into a programme. We're following one for our first half marathon too. We really enjoy the parkruns though, as running with hundreds of other people is quite inspiring, so don't like to miss it. Our rule is if we go all out on the 5K, we'll do the long run on Monday, or if we do it at easy pace, we'll run it on Sunday.

I almost don't want to mention it for fear of the Villa curse striking him down, but his fitness and lack of injuries is absolutely sensational.

Clearly the main reason he isn't playing more regularly, is that he's absolutely shite.

20 minutes ago, Jenko#4 said:

I’ve recently started running again and I’m currently training for my first half marathon in May. Since January I’ve followed a plan and gone from struggling to run for more than 5 minutes, to being able to run 3 times a week and up to 5 miles without stopping.

The problem is that all of my training so far has been done on the treadmill. I live in a small village that gets flooded easily and is not safe to run in the dark before or after work at the moment, as street lights are limited.
 

My question for my fellow Villa runners is, have any of you ever trained for a longish run mainly on a treadmill, and if so, how did it go?  I know I’ll be able to get outside soon, but I’m worried that if I build up to say 6-7 miles on the treadmill, then go outside, I won’t be able to get anywhere near that distance when I start running ‘properly’ and it’ll put me behind with my training plan. 

Nice one!

I can't speak for anybody else, but personally I find running outside ten times easier than on a treadmill, so if you've got used to the absolute monotonous drudgery of treadmill running, you'll love running outside and will find it really liberating!

There are advantages to treadmill running, ie you can do it in any weather, you can control your pace more easily, and it's relatively easy on the joints. You can also keep a bottle of water on the machine so you don't have to cart anything around. However as I said, I just find it boring beyond belief, and struggle to do more than 2K before I'm ready to kill myself. Having the coordination of a pissed giraffe on ice, I also find it takes a bit of concentration, and if I look away for a few seconds I start to lose my balance and feel disoriented. I much prefer the fresh air of outdoor running, and the feeling you're actually going somewhere rather than staring at the same screen.

Me and my daughter did a 14K long run round Rutland Water today. A lovely spring day, albeit with a bugger of a wind. It was nice to do it around some beautiful scenery and to see other runners out doing the same. We live in the middle of nowhere as well, where I wouldn't run at night due to the dark, narrow country lanes, and dickhead farmers speeding round in their pickups. So instead we bought a couple of head torches and ran around the nearest town which we drove to in the evening.

Have you got an official parkrun near where you live? They're every Saturday morning at 9am, and there are hundreds all over the country. Free to race, and a really good atmosphere where there will be people at the same level as you who you can run alongside. (Just realised I said that abovem but it bears repeating. parkruns are ace.

Wordle 975 5/6*

On 15/02/2024 at 21:06, villa89 said:

At breaking point now with shin splints. Seems to be no cure other than 45 mins of calf stretching a day which I am not going to do. Even after rest periods there's still pain. 

Sorry to hear that mate, they're a bastard. Only thing I found that helped was to have a break for a couple of weeks (not great if you're training for something specific) and then make sure you stretched really well before going out, and then slowing your speed down. In terms of stretches I found walking on my tiptoes, and then on my heels backwards and forwards works well. Also doing some general leg strength work a couple of times a week, eg lunges and squats holding something heavy.

5 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Did my 30k there today, was meant to be the 28k but was feeling good so did additional 2. Have a 30k next week then 32k before the taper. 

Well done CV, that's excellent mate. What race are you training for?

4 hours ago, Mozzavfc said:

Other end of the spectrum to most of you but I'm due to finish the couch to 5k program this week. Now that it's getting warmer hoping to get out more and maybe do a 10k by the end of sunmer

Excellent, well done. When you first get into running, the couch to 5K bit is the hardest thing you'll do. I remember starting it a few years ago, and almost feeling sick when I looked ahead in the plan a few weeks and saw I'd have to run for 20 minutes straight at week 7 or whtever it was. I just couldn't imagine being able to do it. Once you've finished it though, the move from 5K to 10K (and even longer) is a whole lot easier.  If you haven't already, have a look at your local parkrun. 5K every Saturday at 9am, most places with a few hundred runners of all ages, with times from the people finishing first at 15 minutes, to people walking and taking an hour, and everything in-between. It's a really good way to keep your running going, and motivate yourself to try to get a bit quicker/fitter every week. Just stick at it, and there will come a time, a bit like learning to drive, when everything just clicks into place.

I'm currently training for the London Landmarks Half Marathon in April, which I'll be running with my 18 year old daughter. We're following a training plan, which at the moment looks comething like this:

Monday - long run - currently up to 14K

Wednesday - intervals. Usually something like a 1K warm up, then 4 x 1K at 4:40 pace with a minute cool down, and then a 1K cool down to finish.

Thursday - an easy 5/6/7K run

Saturday - 5K parkrun. My current pb for this (according to them) is 24:22. According to my watch it was 23:55. Ho hum.

3 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Also, can you at least concede he made an absolute balls of announcing the cancellation? Clear as mud.

Yep. Organises an in house interview in which the bloke asking the questions starts with “the fans are excited about the North Stand development, what can you tell us about it?” (not verbatim)

To which he replies he’s cancelling it.

 Bellend.