Sub 3

Oh, and good to see you posting again Brian. Good luck for Eindhoven.

Morning all, Better news on my front, calf seems to be going back to normal, did 4ml and 6ml on the treadmill yesterday and today and it feels pretty good, I ramped the pace up for 1x1ml and 2 quick 400m bursts at the end and nothing untoward happened . Still working out my approach to Sunday's 1/2, definitely doing a bit of an inverse taper! Going to put in a steady road run tomorrow morning and see what's what. It's our club half champs and no one else particularly fast has entered so I might start of with a club mate (if he turns up) who's currently doing around 1:20:xx for a half and see if I nab the 2012 title 

Good luck to all who are racing this weekend (Munich, GER, assorted Parkruns)

Ps Chorizo is great 

TR, Sounds like a good, solid workout for you. Nice benchmark. Good luck with the conditions, hope it's not too windy. How did the nippers do with the leather on willow?

TT, The shame about it is, to lots of atletes and cancer sufferers he was a hero. They will feel shattered and let down. Hope it doesn't hinder spirit too much, and allow people stop people fighting against the big C.

Cheers ZaTTu. Great to see your back running again. You have had more than your share of bad luck. Onward and upward to bigger, better things?

btw, Brass Monkey entries now 7am next Saturday, 20th Oct. (Thanks YD).

Anyone doing the Cardiff half this weekend? A couple of runners from our club are heading up there in search of a fast time mid way through autumn marathon training (Solent half not really considered PB potential as TR has said)

TT - looks like loads were on the smarties, but its the rest of the antics that make it even worse, and what about anyone that gave up as they thought they werent good enough (clean) ?

Brian - good luck with the 79. My two had decent seasons, the eldest scored his first adult 50 (aged 14) and then hit 77no the next week to win the game as an opener,so he bagged 4th team bat of the year and U15 bat of the year. The younger one (who plays higher level) was U11 bowler of the year and scored the most U11 runs. After the first game of the season his is top of the U13 Indoor league bowling averages, as he took 3 wickets in the first game (which is quite rare), I told him to print the table out as teh only way now is down ! How about Brian junior ?

AL-P - you should be a minute or 3 ahead of me then, I'l look out for you. You can recognise me from my non-club t shirt and cap.

Padams - what about Primera ? given your Bournemouth connections ?

RJ - that guy works for the same firm as me, and I work with him quite a lot! Right, I'm sending him a message now!

TR - can I bagsy some Lords tickets when the nippers get selected? Good idea about Primera, my dad might be able to put me in touch with a decent contact.

TR, Nippers going great guns. Senior 50 at 14 - top banana! Did he point the bat at you? Bet you were dead proud. I remember filling up when laddo did it (he was 16).  Sounds like you will be watching them both in the same senior side before too long. A little nearer to those free tickets eh??

Brian jnr left the fold to move up a division. As it turned out a cracking move. The 2nd team he played with came 2nd in the league, won 1 cup and lost in the final of the other. He averaged 31 opening. But better still, the overseas had to return home following the death of his father, and jnr filled in for the 1st team the last 5 games. Batting 7, he got 133 runs averaging 66! And better still got his first 1st team 1st Div 50, helping the team win the last game of the season and win the title!!! So dreamland finish for him.

And he is now getting offers from other 1st teams, and therefore he will get a few bob for playing. Think you get what you deserve, and he has worked really hard. Think we are 2 proud dads!!! He's even bought hisself a new road bike, and is cycling regularly now (with his mate - thankfully) to improve his fitness. Roll on next season.

Padams - Armstrong?   All that testosterone you can see is completely natural. 

Ah cricket!  I think I only used to get in the side because I had use of a car, paid my match fee and didn't mind a spot of umpiring.  Also happy to keep wicket when proper wicket keepers weren't available.  Can't understand why more people weren't up for it - best view of the game! My high score was 35, and that's only cos the bowling was proper pants.

Good work TR and Brian juniors!

Best of luck to weekend racers.

Welcome back, Brian.

Nice stattage, ZaTTu.  

Session for me last night in the p!ss!ng rain: 10M incl. 4 x 1M at 6.30m/m.  The mile efforts felt harder work than I would have liked, but I guess it's always hard to push yourself when training alone.  Had a sports massage afterwards and the hammie is much improved on a week ago (not nearly so much yelping!).  I've got another 2 sessions booked before the Great South so hopefully it will be for 10M at pace by then.

Bkins - Possibly a little late for you now but it depends on your build up.  If you've had a periodised training schedule and you're coming into the peaking period then you'll need the first race and possibly the second to get into top shape.  If on the other hand you've been racing for months you'll do better to focus on the two races you really want to do well in using the other two as training runs.

Zattu - Always nice to take a big picture view of campaigns.  How long do you plan to spend in each phase in preparation for VLM?

Padams - Keep the blog going - offer space on it to a sponsor?

I always wanted to believe in Lance but developed doubts when I read his book where he talked about the treatment he went through for cancer and was utterly convinced by the arguments put forward by the science of sport guys a few years ago.  Am amused by the need to categorise him as good/bad.  He's human, he did some very bad and utterly reprehensible things in cycling and he seems to have done some pretty good things to help fight cancer. 

I'm a rare Irish man who did play cricket as a youngster growing up next door to a cricket mad family with 9 children.  A top score of 15 tells the tale of my talent though!

Running wise I'm finding out more about what I can and can't do.  35 mins to the gym at about 9mm pace, lots of stretching and core work followed by the return journey seems to be manageable 3 days out of 5.  I tried a single run of 45 mins this morning and couldn't really manage that so I guess that I'll stick to the split run and keep working away on the various weaknesses.  If I get frustrated I only have to look back at the last year to be reminded of how it could be worse.

Good luck to all the racers this weekend.  Should be reasonable weather for TR and Al_P at least.

Jools, Thanks. Nice session braving the weather. Hope you manage the hammy and do justice on the 10miler.

Clearly, Guess you're coming back from injury? Good luck with the rehab.

Good news on the calf Al_P. Good luck for Sunday.

Hopefully Brian. As you can see, my mileage has been lower than before. I basically undershot what I thought I could manage for Berlin to be a bit more on the safe side. I'll add a few more miles this time, and make some of my sessions a little harder, as well as allowing an extra 2 weeks for specific, and see where it gets me.

TR - agree. Paul Kimmage's book gives a good account of what it was like to deal with the pressure of doping, succumb, and then basically decide that it was clean or not at all.

Nice reps Jools.

Clearly - I'll be doing it a little differently to Berlin as I've got a few miles behind me now, so don't feel I need to do a dedicated base period ala Lydiard now to jump start things. It's still a work in progress, but, roughly, 7 weeks from Monday building up the mileage and doing a mix of sessions, with some shorter focus, and plenty of fartleks, etc. Then 10 weeks Canova style fundamental training (basically 10k-HM focus), and then a 10 week specific/taper. The fundamental style stuff is what I basically missed this time around so I hope that will make a huge difference to the end result.

Clearly - keep plugging away. I remember when I was struggling to run for 30mins at a time when I had Mortons in my foot a few summers ago and folks on here were weighing there trainers. So it can be tough at times to keep going.

PAdams - If you strike up a deal with Primera, then see if you can slip in the odd request for a bike to fit 5ft10. I can show them my RNF trophy !

Brian - brilliant stuff, great season there and opened a few more doors too. Most amazing thing for me was in the 77no game we lost 7 or 8 wickets chasing the win, and there was a 50 yr old captain and 9 others telling the next batman in just to get junior on strike as he'd win it for us, proud moments, and he did it. Best thing is my two are very humble, not sure he's mentioned it more than the odd time. The aim is to sit back and watch them play for the same team, but I'm already taking my youngest to another club for winter training (did it last yr too) as they have a structured academy and we dont (and "we" dont want one either, as much as I want one), so I manage a team with one club and take my lad to train with another.

LS21 - I might enter the Brass Monkey and spread my corporate wings up north a little.  Also, it would be the last race before I become a dodger V40 a couple of days later.  Will catch up with you at Abo.

Going to run the 8.2 mile race at Kingston this weekend.  Ridiculously pricey at £22 (I did the same race ten year ago for £8), but just fancy getting out for a race to stretch the legs before marathoning next week.

I'm also a not too good batsman, although I could keep wicket pretty well. Once opened the batting at uni and spent about 10 overs labouring badly to a career high 20 n.o.  Then a guy called Tim Stimpson (played rugby for England & Lions) came in and beat my score within four balls.

Clearly - he's done NOTHING to 'help fight cancer'.  His Livewrong.org is about cancer AWARENESS - not to be confused (or more accurrately precisely to be confused) with Livewrong.com which is purely to line his own pockets. Quite convenient not to know which one you're supporting when you buy (or hopefully used to buy) Livewrong.??? product.

As USADA were.