2005 - November

[El Gordo]

...

[Seafront Plodder]

Well quite.

[Sweder]

Yes, I must admit, from the depth of my wallow in dark self-pity, amidst the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth common place amongst followers of the fromer Most Unloved Football Club, a small ray of sunlight touched me. Good old Real Betis - thumped by Liverpool, crushed by Real Madrid at the weekend, they battered the Blues and stole the points.

On the subject of last nights' footie, I notice that the Anderlecht sub was dismissed for racist abuse by everyone's favorite Dane-in-black.
The offending player said 'F**k off black', apparently.
It got me thinking - if he'd said 'f**k off you c**t', insulted the players' mother, questioned his parantage or worse had made reference to his extremely silly hairstyle, that's alright then.
It's a funny old finely balanced world.

[Sweder]

I know what you mean about bounce. And weight.
I was told this April by a man who should know that if I want a sub-4 26.2 all I need to do is lose some blubber. Everything else is in place, he said. But like you I refuse to bow to the tyranny of the scales, and besides, running makes you hungry.

For me the 'bounce factor' is 'stride'.
My stride patterns remain limited, almost dainty. It feels a bit like Fred Flinstone bowling. I know that as the fitness (and confidence) returns my stride will lengthen along with the time on my feet/ distance run.

Isn't it great to feel those first signs of rejuvination?
It almost justifies the weeks of summer sloth. Almost.

[Tim]

Hi Andy,

Just a wee word of caution from me. Unless you've been keeping quiet about your running over the past month or so, you seem to be doing quite a lot all at once for someone coming back from injury. Just take care.

Regarding what to do next year, you know I'm going to tell you to ignore all the horrible road races and go for the trail ultras. They're just so much more fun. ;-)

BTW, have I ever bored you with my Devil O the Highlands report from last year? Might help to sway your decision (one way or the other!).

http://www.zen31010.zen.co.uk/Files/DOTHreport.doc

[Seafront Plodder]

Tim.......















































You're a nutter. :p

[Tim]

Tim.......

You're a nutter. :p

I prefer to think of myself as "differently sane".

[El Gordo]

Tim

I'm always delighted to get advice that tells me I might be over-exerting myself...

Seriously, you are absolutely right, and I'm well aware of the dangers, but thanks for saying it anyway. I always bear in mind Hal Higdon's advice that over-training causes more problems for marathoners than under-training.

As it happens, my normal midweek runs are pretty small beer - usually between 3.5 and 4 dead flat miles. Even then, I'm taking them very easily. I have been taking my GPS watch with me, but this is really just to have a record stored somewhere of date and time and distance, in case it's a while before I update my spreadsheet. I think strain, and with it, the risk of injury, come when you clock-watch too much, and do speed sessions before you're ready. At the moment I'm just doing what I call "fitness runs" which are nothing more than steady plods. If I need to walk for a minute here or there, I will. The idea is to get my head trained as much as my body; getting back into the routine of getting out there.

As for next year, thanks for prompting me again about off-road. Your previous messages have definitely filtered through. In the diary, I mentioned The Thames Meander, Compton Challenge, Ridgeway 40 and Dartmoor 32. The first 3 are off-road, not sure about the last one. I won't do all of these of course, and I may not do any, but I'll certainly aim to sample something like this. I need to try something different.

Thanks for the report. I'll read it later, when I have more time. Not sure if you've posted it before.

[Tim]

Tim

I think strain, and with it, the risk of injury, come when you clock-watch too much, and do speed sessions before you're ready. At the moment I'm just doing what I call "fitness runs" which are nothing more than steady plods. If I need to walk for a minute here or there, I will. The idea is to get my head trained as much as my body; getting back into the routine of getting out there.

Sounds like I was worrying unnecessarily. I would wholeheartedly agree with your first comment above and you're obviously aware of the risks.

[Sweder]

As for next year, thanks for prompting me again about off-road. Your previous messages have definitely filtered through. In the diary, I mentioned The Thames Meander, Compton Challenge, Ridgeway 40 and Dartmoor 32. The first 3 are off-road, not sure about the last one. I won't do all of these of course, and I may not do any, but I'll certainly aim to sample something like this. I need to try something different.

There´s an open invitation to sample some fine Sussex off-roading, any distance, any time Andy. Not the same as a full-on race, I know, but you just might get bitten by the mud-plug-bug . . .

[El Gordo]

There´s an open invitation to sample some fine Sussex off-roading, any distance, any time Andy. Not the same as a full-on race, I know, but you just might get bitten by the mud-plug-bug . . .

For sure. I'm in Sussex quite often.

If this Thames event falls through, as seems reasonably likely, I might just be tempted by the Sussex Beacon Half, though I don't think it's off-road.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Andy, on your last diary post you said;

"sometimes I wonder why I should want to improve. Seriously. We take it as given but should we?"

Just to tell you that each of my last 5 road marathons has been slower than the previous one. I generally lose 5-10 minutes every year. Perhaps I peaked too early! It doesn't really worry me although sometimes I feel slightly envious when you lot start talking about PBs. It's as if I'm missing out on something.....

[Sweder]

The Beacon half is 80/ 20 pavement/ turf, flat for 8 miles with the last 5 getting jiggy with the hills along the cliff tops. The Brighton 10K covers some of the route (the flat part).

On the subject of Rotterdam, one of my fellow clifftop lopers ran that a couple of years back. He's a bit swift, and said it was one of the quicker marathons that he's taken part in. Not sure if that has any bearing on your choice, but there it is.

Apropo of nothing, here's a photo from November 5th in Lewes taken by my mate Tim. It shows one of the Bonfire Bishops reading the Bonfire Prayers in front of a rather impressive bonfire.

[Sweder]

. . . a Seafront Plodder was also spotted in the vicinity . . .

[Seafront Plodder]

...and that was before I got changed to go out.

[Tim]

It's a funny phrase but seems to sum up that awful feeling one has during a race. I really don't know what drives us on and makes us enter race after race after race.

You'd think by now we'd remember just how much racing hurts? In fact this weekend, I managed to forget the pain so quickly (whilst hating it at the time) I ran not one but two races. The first a hill race (Tinto), the second a very muddy and sticky XC race.

During both I can distinctly remember thinking about how nice it would be to drop out and to stop torturing myself. Are we all masochists?

[Sweder]

It's weird, huh? I love training runs, where one's thoughts are one's own, the worlds' your lobster and you can daydream unmolested for ages. Races are hideous, tense affairs; too much consideration for others required, pressure from within creating tension in the muscles and tightness in the chest.

Go figure.

[Sweder]

Cracking film, Gromit. This movie frequently makes the top three 'all time greatest' lists in journals such as Empire. It's one of those films that didn't make too big a splash on release, one that we all feel we 'discovered' and that we know is great but no-one else really appreciates. And yet there it is, top of the charts, year on year.

The trouble with shifting lard is the terrible lard over age divided by exercise equation. It simply doesn't drop off as it should. I left beer on the subs bench for four weeks (pre Bilbao) yet still look like a candidate for the M&S Father Christmas.

I've sent PMs to you/ Nigel/ SP on the rendezvous point for Sunday.
It'll be fun!

[Tim]

The trouble with shifting lard is the terrible lard over age divided by exercise equation. It simply doesn't drop off as it should. I left beer on the subs bench for four weeks (pre Bilbao) yet still look like a candidate for the M&S Father Christmas.

Ain't that the truth (the age over exercise bit)! Doesn't seem to matter how much I run these days, nothing seems to alter my weight.

I've got so desperate I'm actually forsaking alcohol from Monday to Thursday. I don't know if it's going to make me live longer but it sure as hell feels like it!

[El Gordo]

I can lose weight, mainly because I have plenty of it to lose. Oh yes, I can lose weight in the short term, but in the long term? Much harder. I end up undoing all my good work with my frequent R 'n' R periods.

I lost around 15-20 pounds during the Hamburg campaign for instance (depending on where it actually started), but 75% of that is back on after my lazy summer and autumn.

If you don't have much to lose, but just have a bit of a paunch, it must be much harder. You have to be a bit fanatical to get rid of it with plenty of sit-ups and other specific exercises. Whether it's worth it is another matter.

As for alcohol, yep it makes weigh-loss harder. In my case, I think it's less the stuff itself (though it's undoubtedly calorific) as the havoc it wreaks on my self-discipline. Who doesn't fancy a good curry after a few beers? Some cheese and biscuits to go along with that glass of red wine? The peanuts and crisps I eat in the pub are more fattening than the beer.