Introduction

[El Gordo]

Very interesting stuff, Glaconman. I can't disagree with anything very much.

You're right about gadgets. I love the idea of running without them, enjoying the activity in its purest, most uncluttered sense. BUt. But I love gadgetry too, and I find that being a number slut (as they call it), does help me to measure progress or lack of, and does make it easier to have targets, which seem prettty essential. Maybe there's a good compromise. Maybe training for specific, long distance events requires a methodical approach that can best be tracked and achieved with a watch or a GPS gadget. But perhaps shorter races (certainly 10 miles and below, and perhaps even half marathon and below) could be approached with more simplicity.

I'd love to have that attitude to food. Trouble is, I can be pretty self-disciplined about it, then it all sort of explodes, and I need beer and chocolate and nothing better stand in my way. If I could crack that periodic urge I'd be fine. Any ideas?

Interesting points about the 'glamour' of cycling against that of running. I agree that cycling, with its sleek chrome machinery and lycra-ed bodies and space-alien helmets, has its own glamour and high style. But I think it's one of
attractions of running that it's the opposite. It's about sweating and grunting and cursing in the dark, when it's cold and raining. It's about atavism, something primeval, reaching back and touching something that we used to be. It's about reconnection.

Yes, that's probably most easily found on the moors or along a cliff path, but it's one of the great things about running that this sense of 'solitary figure in a landscape' can be found anywhere - even a city street. But it does require a leap of faith, a suspension of disbelief. And I can't always do it.

Good to have you on board.

Andy