September

[Sweder]

Definitely. I want a PB in Almeria, and another in Brighton next April.
It's going to hurt, but what the hell?

[Antonio247]

Thanks Antonio
I may have a NEW RECRUIT for Almeria, a lady by the name of Louise who lives on Twitter as @PinkyAndNoBrain
Louise is relatively new to running, but is pushing her training to be able to complete the half in January.
So it may well be more than just me to join you for the next edition.

Good news re. Almeria Half Marathon. Both Cam and myself are definates with Marian being a possibility at the moment.

Been trying to get out running a bit more over the past couple of weeks hoping to be quicker than last year. It would be good to try and aim for sub 1hr40 again. What do you think Sweder??

This is a wonderful piece of news, J.

Looking forward to meeting you all and doing a sub 2 hour. This is going to be the year.

[Sweder]

This is a wonderful piece of news, J.
Looking forward to meeting you all and doing a sub 2 hour. This is going to be the year.

Yes, this is the year.
PBs R Us

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Looking forward to meeting you all and doing a sub 2 hour. This is going to be the year.

Woot! Way to go Antonio - make it happen!

[Antonio247]

Looking forward to meeting you all and doing a sub 2 hour. This is going to be the year.

Woot! Way to go Antonio - make it happen!

Gracias, MLCM. I'll do my best.

By the way, congratulations to your son for his sub 2 hour half in Sydney and good luck for both of you at the Point to Pinnacle race.

Saludos desde Almería

[El Gordo]

This is a wonderful piece of news, J.
Looking forward to meeting you all and doing a sub 2 hour. This is going to be the year.

Yes, this is the year.
PBs R Us

At what point can we start using age as an excuse?

I was 55 this year. Lingering injuries aside, I have to reveal the terrible news (if you've not already discovered it) that once your age gets a 5 at the front, horrible things start happening. Some of you might be still in the convivial transfer lounge, but watch out! It'll getcher!

[Sweder]

I'm all too well aware of the Curse of Five, old chap.
I simply cannot shift this permanent beer barrel that looms over my belt. Oh, hang on ... it's full of beer! All joking aside, I'm finding weight loss through exercise alone is futile. I may have to stop shovelling copious amounts of food and drink down my neck. This is harder than I thought.

Call me naive, but I feel my best is yet to come.
*puts on The Optimist Of Nine Elms, weeps softly*
No, really. A half PB may be beyond me. Perhaps I'll never break 100 minutes. And yet ...
Something somewhere in the back of my noggin tells me I can. I can work harder, certainly smarter, than I have in training.

But for the Big One? The 26.2? I'm convinced I can improve. Brighton gave me a glimpse of what's possible, even with a lousy five weeks leading into the race. It's not so much age as life - work, other commitments, stuff - that gets in my way.

But I do need to address two areas or all this is just tish and piffle.
Weight loss.
Core strength.

Everything else is simply getting out there and getting on with it.

[glaconman]

How right you are Sweder. Training is the easy bit. We all love running right? But just think how fast we'd be at our fighting weight after working on a farm for 6 months.

Have you watched the Horizon: eat, fast and live longer. It's on YouTube. I know it's 'the latest thing' but it's difficult to be sceptical about it after watching.

It could be part of a winning strategy in 'PB Year'.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

How right you are Sweder. Training is the easy bit. We all love running right? But just think how fast we'd be at our fighting weight after working on a farm for 6 months.

Have you watched the Horizon: eat, fast and live longer. It's on YouTube. I know it's 'the latest thing' but it's difficult to be sceptical about it after watching.

It could be part of a winning strategy in 'PB Year'.

Well worth a look that is... thanks for mentioning it, Iceman. Also mentioned earlier on somewhere here and well worth a look is Horizon's The Truth About Exercise, by the same guy, Michael Mosley. Fascinating stuff!

[Sweder]

Thanks G-man, I will seek that out today. I need a radical change of tactics on the weight front. That said, I don't seems to be getting a whole lot bigger, either. I've found a middle ground, or, at least, a middle, that my body seems happy to accept. Spinning furiously didn't help much in that department last year, and running every day is not scratching the wobbly surface now.

It's all about the type and quantity of fuel.
It may be time to run lean.






No sooner had I posted that than I cracked up laughing.
I'm off to Southern Ireland with SP, Captain Tom and Tipster in 3 weeks for a long weekend in the dark vaults of County Cork.
Washing my mouth out with stout-flavoured soap as I speak ...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I'm off to Southern Ireland with SP, Captain Tom and Tipster in 3 weeks for a long weekend in the dark vaults of County Cork.
Washing my mouth out with stout-flavoured soap as I speak ...

Three weeks? Plenty of time to bank some run cred OM. At 50km/week you could bank 150km of hills and interval training and get through a 3 day assault on the Guinness-stores of County Cork with no detriment at all.

And the dogs will love you for it.

[Sweder]

Yes, but that's not the point. Three weeks of fasting/ eating well, laying off the ale etc. will disappear like Nick Clegg's last, gossamer-thin thread of credibility once we touch down in Ireland. Don't get the Clegg reference? Fear not, all will be revealed here

[Sweder]

Squeezed in a cheeky little five miler at lunchtime today. I'm working at home anyway - not a euphemism for a skive (that's tomorrow - golf). I'm building an app for my business. Yes, I know, and no, I don't know what I'm doing. But there are a series of self help websites designed to have Luddites like me tied in knots for days and nights, and I'm just the sucker to go for them.

Overcast skies greeted us (the dogs had waited for me to stop typing, at first impatient, roaming about whining, latterly resigned, slumped on their beds in my office, watching me from behind furrowed brows, issuing the occasional heavy sigh). The cloud formations were far from dull. Across the ridge of the Big W lay a rolled duvet of a cloud-head, running the full length of the hills, looking a lot like the on-rushing alien cloud banks in Independence Day, the risible yet enjoyable Will Smith vehicle of the mid 1990s.

I slogged along into a medium headwind, determined to go 'all the way' to Blackcap. Yesterday I'd left my morning run late, but with the urgent call of the Big City in my ears I'd cut the run to barely three miles. After two weeks of running most days my legs feel OK. They still feel generally weak, as in lack of miles, yet I can detect improvement. More of the same to come next week, with the promise of a longer Sunday run at the end. Today I entered the Lewes Downland Ten, a tough ten miler scheduled for October seventh. I won't be in the sort of shape needed to get close to my PB, but it will tell me where I'm at, and hopefully spur me on to bigger and better things. 2007 LDT Report.

Track du jour: Van Halen, Runnin' With The Devil

[Sweder]

At 50km/week you could bank 150km of hills and interval training and get through a 3 day assault on the Guinness-stores of County Cork with no detriment at all.

Ha ha ha ... just downloaded my Garmin data for the first time in a while. I'm averaging 9 runs a month in 2012, by far my leanest running year since I started in 2003. I banked 54 kms in the entire month of August (I'm up to 52 in September and we still have a week to go - exciting). 50 kms a week would be quite some ramp up, though the lack of weekend long runs has seriously impacted recent stats.

On the plus side I've run 9 out of the last 12 days.
A new start. Again.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

50 kms a week would be quite some ramp up, though the lack of weekend long runs has seriously impacted recent stats.

On the plus side I've run 9 out of the last 12 days.
A new start. Again.

I went back through my data and found that all my vital statistics - weight, body fat, average running pace etc. all dramatically improved when I consistently ran 50km per week.

Of course everyone is different, but I suspect there will be a level of running for most people where they will see a dramatic shift. Worth seeking out, anyhow.

And by the way, that was running just three times per week, too.

[Sweder]

Yes, but then I won't have the excuse of not having done the mileage.
Oh ...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Yes, but then I won't have the excuse of not having done the mileage.
Oh ...

That's OK, you can just conveniently 'forget' to log your miles. Or get miles and kilometres mixed up. Easy.

Coach MLCMM.

[Sweder]

An ugly scrape in perfect conditions; thin yet uninhibited sunshine, high, wispy cloud, a cool breeze and damp (but not wet) underfoot. Yesterday's golf had taken a heavy toll. Not, as you might expect, via hearty imbibing, but through five hours of trudging up and down hills, swatting unresponsive, elusive pills and wondering how it is that a man can strike the ball perfectly well one minute and like a punch-drunk novice the next.

I chugged about without enthusiasm, turning my back on the shortest of circuits. I'm moving on up, even on days like this, so the minimum run has to be over three miles. Another scheduled for the morning, this will be a five mile minimum, hopefully closer to seven. An early night seems the best way to see off my current lethargy, so it's Dr Who and bed for me.

[Sweder]

More local outings to report, a couple of BlackCap efforts and a few shorter trips. Rain has arrived in Biblical proportions, creating vibrant streams along the flint trails. I'm having a lot of fun splashing along, seeking grip amidst the slime-covered rocks.

I was interested to see that Antonio has opted for a similar approach - lots of short, sharp runs to get back into the swing. I've thrown in a few rest days, running three out of every four days at the moment. My next challenge is to know when to ramp up the distances, specifically when to feed in the long runs. My maximum so far is five and a half miles. My aim is to get to a point where this is both regular and comfortable, then add a few miles on. I'll probably start Sunday runs with the Jog Shop crew in October. They start from eight miles (Wire and back), so that should fit right in.

Building base is all I'm looking for right now. No speed, no Fartlek, no mad hill assaults, just steady, undulating plods. My paunch is refusing to budge, but I'm not letting it get to me. I've reached a stage in life where radical dietary change is required to make an impact, and I'm not ready for that just yet. Mrs S has been banging on about Alkaline diets, cutting out acidic foods and the like. It may well help. For now it's all about getting out the door as much as possible, rain or shine, to cultivate that flame of running passion. It flickers still, for sure. Anyone who gets out of bed to run into an angry deluge on consecutive mornings must hold a candle for the sport. The trick is not to let those fierce autumnal winds blow the damned thing out.

[Antonio247]

I'm glad you're enjoying your runs in the beautiful South Downs, S.

I also find it hard to lose weight. I have a friend who has followed the Dukan diet with very good results but I don't like eating only proteins for a few days. I think it can be dangerous. It's better to follow a balanced diet and do some exercise every day.