Fab Feb

[El Gordo]

What a very nice snap.

I've never tried Young's Chocolate Stout, though I have heard about it. We don't see it too often. The label is interesting. The colour scheme and the stylised rams (mascots of the brewery) are reminiscent of chocolate wrapping.

The Old Peculier is often found as a draught beer though I confess that it's not one I drink often. Not that it isn't a fine ale, but in general I prefer what we call "session beers" which are lower in alcohol and less rich. In other words, I am a quantity, not quality, sort of chap.

Yes, a bit like my running...

Hopeless week to report on at some point.

[Sweder]

Theakstons OP . . . funny you should mention that now; I just arrived in Houston today where, when resident in the mid-eighties, the Richmond Arms used to stock the stubby wee bottles of TOP. I drank little else for a while. Then I went on a round the States tour working on trade shows for about 4 weeks.
As soon as I got 'home' I went straight to the 'Arms.

'Bottle of OP please, Ted'
'Err - we don't have any in, Ash'
'What! No OP, Ted?'
'Well we haven't sold a single bottle for the last month so the gaffer said don't bother re-ordering.'

I got hooked on Fullers ESB after that.
Which reminds me, as they say in these here parts, it's beer-thirty.
G'nite y'all.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

If my forum entries lately seem to have been more about beer than running then that's because... I've been drinking more than running... well, hang on, no, that's not really true. But while I am running, I am also going through the most diabolical form slump, with a total inability to find any speed or stamina. So it's a case of (literally) plodding through shortened runs until I work through this bad patch. Urgh. I don't even want to think about it.

Hence the numerous more positive references to beers

However, to be positive about my running for the moment (and isn't it weird how this came about almost immediately I posted here saying how wonderful everything was and how confident I had become about my running)... um, anyway to be positive about things for the moment, I am at least still determined and optimistic and actually perservering. These slumps in the past would more than likely knock me out of running for weeks or months at a time.

Rewarding myself with a beer after a run could have something to do with it of course. If I don't run, I'll generally have a coffee Nothing wrong with coffee, and I'll sometimes have one before a run, but the thought of a cold beer as a reward gets me on the treadmill or track more often than not.

Which is OK so long as you don't run in the morning before work I guess

I'm off to see the lovely, but evil Rebecca for another dose of hell-fire physio this afternoon. Hopefully she'll work her magic and I can put in a decent run tomorrow.

I'll report back then.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

The lovely, but evil Rebecca found new pleasures yesterday afternoon... It makes me shudder to think of it, even now, after a night of torment and nightmares. I never realised that the words... sorry incantation "shin splints" could be so powerful. I think it opened a portal to hell (never a good idea in my experience), because the moment I uttered them, the ground shook, the lights dimmed, I'm sure I heard a clap of thunder, and Rebecca's eyes lit up with an enthusiasm that turned my blood cold

She called what followed massage but what she in fact did was run her thumb down my shin, seperating the muscle from the bone on the downward motion, and then scraping the bone clean of any bothersome ligaments and such like on the upward sweep. I'm sure she trained on the job in an abbatoir, although she foregoes the leather apron these days.

Of course she says I'm just a wimp, and that I exaggerate. But you know me better than that don't you, gentle reader?

After seperating flesh from bone, in some bizarre satanic ritual, she then wrapped both feet in flesh-eating tape, drew some mystic symbols on a sheet of parchment (allegedly instructions for repeating the flesh-tearing taping should I be overcome by a bout of extreme masochism) and sent me out the door. I immediately lit a candle at St.Mary's cathedral down the road, but some malevolent force kept snuffing it out.

The really odd thing is that everything feels pretty good right about now. I think I could even go for a run. Although perhaps not. She told me not to run again until tomorrow. Something or other about waiting for the portal to close I think she said...

Sigh.

[Sweder]

I wouldn't risk it, MLCMan.
A Demonic spell along the lines of, oh, I don't know, every beer you sup from now on tasting like Budweiser . . .