PauloBarnesi

I think as long as you can be consistent in training improvement is always possible (up to a point!)

Old enough to be a dad of a 17 year old; 47 this year! I think its interesting how you can find a pace which is hard and run a half marathon, with what appears to be little ‘effort’ and ‘easy’, yet if you are 10 seconds quicker per mile you feel like you are on the edge. Also racing is always a surprise; some days you are on fire. Others its a nightmare. Hip is a little bit iffy, so backing off a bit. I see Darren has now become some kind of nutritional guru

People have gone very quiet again...

Did Watford Half; great HM, well organised, nice (but hilly course). Ran it at the equivalent to a 3.15 marathon, found it nice and easy. Amazing how different running a 1.31.30 marathon feels to a sub 1.30. Hope you are feeling better Darren. Here’s a thought on the long runs, is that you run the first slow and then do the second closer to marathon pace (7.30-7.45). I ve started using this and find it gets you used to running long runs at something nearer to MP.

Its not that easy. Long term I know Bruce will probably take us up, get us to about tenth and then probably not be able to make the improvement. The point is he will get us to a place and then be replaced. Same with the players. If the long term plan is to win the premiership, we don’t have the manager, and the same goes for the players. But we can’t sign a manager who will win us the premiership, nor the players. Doesn’t mean we won’t sign players like Lansbury who will take us so far. We need to be pragmatic.

In my opinion every manager has to have time and resources they deem to seem fit within reason. Bruce has bought the players he appears to have deemed fit and now its a matter of giving him the time. If in xxx months we are losing games, then its time to think again. He’s done enough IMO at Villa and other places to be given the time.

Its all stepping up. That stage where the first five miles of a long run just seem inconsequential and the speed work starts to pay off, when you start running the miles five seconds quicker, and you don’t notice. And you feel knackered most of the time. And hungry.

This seems to be a constant with all players who don’t make it; if only they were surrounded with better players. Sometimes it just don’t work out, sometimes they just aren’t as good as they think they are. For Ayew its somewhere in the middle. We took a gamble on him at £12 million and it simply hasn’t paid off.

Gabby was fast. He’s not as fast as he was; speedy enough, but his loss of acceleration and top speed is a major part in his decline (and his loss of appetite for one thing and his gain of others). Westwood. He was part of an experiment to buy players on the cheap from lower league clubs and see how they developed. He was a £2million midfielder, and he’s pretty much stayed that way. I can think of many more players to get angry/upset about

No one has ever quite ever perfected his golf buggy driving (or the Porsche incident) like Lethal Lee, or not as the case maybe. Grealish has a long way to reach Lee’s level.

Gabby ala of old ain’t coming back. Gabby 2.0 might appear, which is something else.

They are called alternative facts.

All of this talk in other threads about what it takes to become a club legend; Taylor in my eyes was that. His achievements, his genuine love for the club, the manners of his departures, everything points to a very classy man. That the same could be said by another club, Watford, speaks volumes.

A thoroughly good man who genuinely loved us and football. Will be very missed. Thanks for everything GT.

The logo looks like an enormous tennis ball riding a bike....

Its not just the intense stuff; its the recovery from the intense stuff. Recovery Recovery Recovery is the mantra....

I think also you need to be doing at least two strengthening/stretching sessions. Dead easy to miss those out, but I think essential to success, especially as you hit 30s/40s. Also become a big fan of long runs where first half easy, second race pace. Too many people are running for marathons with long runs laboriously slow. But each to their own, and spot on that consistency is king.

Back in the game. Slow 10 on Sunday, but thank goodness the illness has gone. I read a book over christmas “Run Less, Run Faster”, based on just running three times a week for a marathon; thesis is better to have high quality work outs, than running loads of sessions and cross training on the other days. Then gives a load of plans to qualify for Boston. Seems though only to get to running around three hours, suggesting that you can’t actually run a certain time without doing more than three sessions. I don’t think its a catch all for people, but it kind of reinforces that three of your sessions must be quality; long run, tempo and speed work.

Isn’t Veretout a target for Juventus Legendary status also seems to entail how you depart from the club, how you play against the club and what you say afterwards about the club.

This thread just makes me yearn for days gone by.

Interesting; so its been theft where they follow you on Strava? I thought you might have chosen the name of a Villa legend; Djemba Djemba or Gustavo Bartlet....

Nothing worse than getting the mothers of all colds; training reduced down to a trickle. Very frustrated.

As we have no idea of the terms its impossible to say what it really means.

Running intervals in wind is ridiculous; one way you have to work, the other you are flying...

Treadmills are the devils work. But if you live in vast parts of the US its the only way to run; too hot in places, too cold in other.