andyjsg

1 minute ago, Xela said:

Used to love it. When did it stop becoming good? Late 90s?

Didn’t it just become lots of Geordie Shore type shows? I remember it being great having MTV Europe on Eutlsat as my Dad had it pre-sky, only place I could ever really get Rock videos.

Two things made me feel old today:

- I saw my samurai sword in the loft, I brought it home from Florida as carry on baggage.

- my kid asked me what MTV is

This is the worse defensive performance for a single player I have seen in a while - so so bad

I was pacing two friends today at Manchester Marathon, all going swimmingly until 23 miles when I went out the back and lost 2 mins in last 3 miles to run 3:01:30 and came very close to collapsing. Usually good with fuelling but couldn’t quite get all my breakfast down due to stomach being a bit off and being 1 1/2 stone over weight means I just wasn’t quite there with the fuel strategy.  Hopefully a GFA for London next year and can now concentrate on getting my weight down and do some racing in the summer.

1 minute ago, MCU said:

I know it's been briefly touched on above, but I did my first ever HR run last week. I'm not sure my garmin was all that accurate but I stayed in the aerobic/threshold zones (basically hovered around 165 bpm). Have to say, the run was so nice... no struggling for breath and actually enjoying it for a change. Is this an effective way of getting faster? It's no biggy, I just like to stay fit and healthy but usually I push myself a bit too much which actually makes me dislike running. I don't have goals as such because I only have chance to get out 1-2 times a week as I balance running with the gym.

So HR is a difficult one as everyone is different, my max HR is like 185 but I only ever see it when I'm not very fit and trying to race (usually cross country), at the moment I imagine its probably high 170s (I hit 171 at the weekend during 5K/parkrun but I wasnt quite at that "I need to stop running now feeling")

The only way in reality of finding out your max HR is battering yourself to the point you need to stop (but over a decent period of time so like 15 minutes gradually upping the effort). From there you can work out effort for BPM.

As for what works, its really about mixing it up, I mean just on a basic level, just going on a mostly easy run with a few efforts (i.e. run the hill as hard as possible for 30secs/1 minute) will give you improvements without turning into proper training sessions.

38 minutes ago, icouldtelltheworld said:

Did another 5k this morning and managed to do it in 25.15, so a minute faster than last week's effort. Definitely got the buzz back and planning on taking @andyjsg advice and doing Cannon Hill Park run next Saturday 

Its amazing what a little consistency in running can do to your times, after that it is doing specific sessions (5 x800m reps is a golden one for 5k - I am a coach for the adult road/trail runners at the local athletics club so I have lots of this sort of stuff if anyone wants session recommendations).

12 hours ago, KentVillan said:

On the subject of endorphins, I've found that reducing my alcohol intake and eating healthier, combined with doing a lot more easy / low heartrate runs, I get that strong endorphin buzz most times I run now.

Whereas before I was trying to push quite hard (or very hard!) on most runs and often running through a hangover. It still worked to clear the hangover out of my system, but it was much more of a mental struggle.

As much as its nice to occasionally empty the tank and see what you can do, those easy runs where you've got a bit left in the tank at the end just leave you feeling great, especially on a nice day.

My marathon training is 80-90% easy/recovery pace - just lots of it.

Managed to rile up a couple of mates to race me at parkrun today, I enjoy a bit of healthy competition, plus I won that little battle (a 17 year old who was fastest this morning was about 2 1/2 minutes quicker than me and I came 4th - seriously rapid)

1 hour ago, icouldtelltheworld said:

Massively! I was off the drink for 3 months towards the end of last year, running regularly and playing football twice a week. Physical and mental health was much better than at probably any other point in my adult life.

I was considering signing up for the Sutton Fun Run but think I might have left it a bit late for this year, I might sign up for a 10k over the next few months though. I generally always run the same route, so would definitely be good to challenge myself somewhere else 

I will always recommend getting into a competitive environment to boost PRs, I ran a good 10K last Sunday even though I am about 20lbs over my usual racing weight and it was purely out of stubbornness and trying to keep my mate in sight did I run as fast as I did.

2 hours ago, icouldtelltheworld said:

First run since early November this morning, managed 5k in just over 26 mins, a few minutes slower than I was managing a few months ago, although I took it fairly easy.

Towards the end of last year I was in pretty good shape, managed a 10k in around 47 mins which is the best I've ever done. Hopefully won't take long getting back to that.

Definitely got the motivation back after this morning - funny how the build up to the first run is horrible but once you've got it out the way you get the buzz back.

Those Endorphins are like crack, I get proper cranky if I don't run (or alternative) for a few days.

I would always recommend Parkrun if you want to test yourself, I know its a "community weekly 5K run", but is a race if you want it to be, just don't kick little kids out of the way if the course has laps  With a week to go for me until Manchester I will use it as a blow-out to wake the body up before the usual week before a marathon where I think I have the flu and my legs are going to fall off.

18 minutes ago, stuart_75 said:

Ohme make EV chargers/cables that can be programmed for your tariff and switch on and off automatically when the off-peak rate kicks in. Most home EV chargers have some smart functionality that let you set a charging schedule from an app.

My plug-in hybrid Rav4 I can set the time I want it to charge

25 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Anyone tried Maffetone running before? Basically keeping your heart rate below 180 minus your age.

Just did a 10k MAF run today... very slow, but think I can see how it works... very gentle on your legs, and definitely feel like I'll be able to increase my mileage a lot doing this.

I’m not sure how scientific that is as different people at the same age and fitness could have very different HR. I mean i am mid-40s this would be what I do most of my running at. Anything that wasn’t a session or race would be that sort of HR for me. I would say possibly even another 10bpm down from that for what would be “recovery” effort.

interesting 10k for me yesterday, I was within 2 minutes of my PB at 20lbs (10% of my body weight) over my racing weight.

6 hours ago, El Zen said:

I typed out a response to this that somehow never was posted. 

In summary, I don’t really disagree with much of that. 

But I’ll maintain that sugar, being energy, is useful - not just ‘not harmful’ - in limited, moderate and ‘right’ amounts. As I’ve said upthread, I work out a lot. Almost daily and at fairly high intensity/heavy weights. I rarely eat crap food and watch my diet quite carefully, but I need a lot of calories. Getting some of that energy from, say, a drop of honey on my cereal or a sugary protein bar is, even though I could get it from other sources, useful.

Further, you can very easily have a Mars bar or a donut for lunch every day and still lose a tonne of weight/keep a balanced diet. I wouldn’t recommend it, of course, but you categorically wouldn’t be ‘poisoning’ yourself if you did, as long as your overall diet is balanced and right. 

It’s also horses for courses, i tend to do a lot of running/cycling and it would be horrendous without easy access to sugar.

It tends to be quite simple for me, when I’m injured and can’t train my weight fluctuates badly (I got up to 17 stone last April after slipping a disc and couldn’t do any training) but once I can train I tend to be able to eat properly with it, as the body demands the right sort of food and by October I was down to just over 12 1/2 stone. Again since then I have fluctuated a bit as I got injured over the winter but weight is dropping fast again now as I’m training consistently. In each of the times I have shifted weight I’m still eating simple sugars as it’s still very useful for fueling training sessions.

I will be tapering after a 10K tomorrow for Manchester Marathon in 2 weeks, lots of weeks of injury early in marathon training and my lack of self control means Im too heavy to be running PBs but still hope to put down a decent time but I'm probably a couple of months away to be back to my great condition from October last year.

Still means hopefully a good summer of racing and then try and get back into shape for Amsterdam marathon in October.

What a finish

2 minutes ago, a m ole said:

So it wasn’t a foul on Bailey?

I mean what is the point of VAR def a foul on Bailey?

we have struggled with the physical side against West Ham and hasn’t helped the ref has let at least 8 go.

Didnt he go off injured in the week after scoring?

Maybe thats why he didnt play?

1 minute ago, Demitri_C said:

Bit strange we havent organised either the Burnley or leeds games during this time off? Surely we could have fit in one of the games?

Burnley are already playing another one of their re-arranged fixtures.

7 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I wouldnt mind Trossard if we ever needed an attacking player. I think he’s their best player. 

Agree, seems unglamorous but whenever I have watched them he has stood out for me. 

We have only seen this guy proper fit for a few mins and he was awesome. I think he and Bertie will be Plan B and will probably end up winning us games again.

3 minutes ago, Farlz said:

     Ings/Watkins

Coutinho - Buendia

If that's not the setup against Everton then I'll be very concerned with whatever Gerrard is trying to do. It's clear as day they can't work together, Coutinho will be ready to start by next week so there's absolutely no excuse for it. Watkins and Ings are frankly both as shit as each other at this point so I don't care who starts just make sure it's only one of them. 

I doubt he will be ready for next week, another 2 I expect, he clearly isn’t fully fit (despite that performance)

Still the better of our two strikers. Def shouldn’t be playing both, Ings is a passenger 

26 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

3 games in a row he's made awful subs. Day to day, he's class and a step above what we've had before. But I'm starting to believe he can't manage games. He is struggling though and not finding the gaps to allow us to win games. 

Really?

Just now, The Fun Factory said:

Meant big Keinan 

Out on loan (and not convinced he has a future) so only the 3 currently in the squad

2 hours ago, gwi1890 said:

Why? Need 4 good player in the 10/wide position, Bailey, Traore , Buendia and Coutinho as well as Ashley Young would be crazy to get rid , bringing Bert of the bench for Buendia or Coutiniho sounds way better than bringing Trezuguet on for Buendia or Coutinho, honestly I think people are scared of depth.

Also this dude is mustard and has (and will) win us games. Yeah he looked rubbish after his lengthy injury but he is pretty classy and as essentially an option off the bench he really is high quality.

I love Anwar but we have moved on in style of play and level of players and he deserves for his own sake to have opportunities to play.