Sub 3

Happy New Year folks old and new!

Somehow I find myself slightly less fat than usual at this time of year.  Not had norovirus so must have a tapeworm or something.  Whatever the reason, I'm hopeful of putting some proper speed into the legs before VLM to go with the endurance base built last year.

Hope also to see a few of you at Brass Monkey.  I'll be the one looking depressed and skint having forked out 2 x £34 to see my footy team get kicked in the arse by Dirty Leeds the day before.

We’re not so dirty these day’s Njord, more of a soft touch, much to my dismay! But agreed on the crazy ticket prices at ER, hoping the new owners address this next season.

Anyway, lots of great running going on here, it’ll be good to see a few of you and put a name to a face or two at Brass Monkey. All things being equal I reckon a crack at sub 80 is on the cards for me, anyone else have a similar target?

Bratfurt? Dirty Leeds?

I was lucky enough to be brought up in Leeds during the magnificent (and very dirty) Don Revie era, and went all the way through the downs, ups and downs until 2004, when my I decided I was a glory hunter and my season ticket was duly not renewed.

However, before my Dad would let us loose in the boys pen at Elland Road, I served a sort of Apprenticeship at Valley Parade (1972 ish) , where I learnt the skill of standing for 90 mins when all I wanted was to go home and play with my train set. So, well done to them for last night.

These days I occasionally watch Accrington, Guiseley and Man City....oh and Leeds once a year, but lost any appetite for it years ago.

Let's not talk football.  I'm a Reading fan, insofar as I support any team these days...

My days of regularly attending football matches are long gone.  Matchday prices are obscence these days, and I live too far from Bristol to get a season ticket.  

Back when I did regularly attend Ashton Gate, I was grateful for Leeds and Bradford selling us two of our modern-day legends - Super Bobby Taylor and Brian Tinman Tinnion - albeit plying their trades for us in the lower reaches of the football league.  
I was in short trousers during our most successful period back in the late seventies, during which we played a robust style of football with ex-Leeds Norman Bite-Yer-Legs Hunter and ex-Man City battering ram Joe Royle.  Since then, we've been mostly playing expansive but ineffective football.  Ex-Pompey Tony Pulis managed us for a while, but he was ex-Bristol Rovers so hated us as much as we hated him, and he never hung around long enough to stop us playing football.

Leeds are one of those clubs (along with Cardiff, Sheffield United, Stoke, Birmingham and Millwall) that I've never warmed to.  The best thing about travelling to away matches for me is sharing a beer with opposition fans in the pub before and after games, but it's just not sensible at these places.  Unfortunately, my club is blessed with a similar contingent of morons as the aforementioned, so I'd be surprised if we weren't included in the equivalent lists of many other teams' fans.

Think I'll stick with beach volleyball.

x-post

sorry Joolska

Njord wrote (see)

Leeds are one of those clubs (along with Cardiff, Sheffield United, Stoke, Birmingham and Millwall) that I've never warmed to.  The best thing about travelling to away matches for me is sharing a beer with opposition fans in the pub before and after games, but it's just not sensible at these places.

That's hard to deny unfortunately.    You just need to be selective which of their fans you share a drink with. 

Sorry Jools.

With images of TR's garage in my mind I ramped up the usual 2 x 15mins on the bike to 2 x 20mins at the same level and it was relatively comfortable. (Level 10 @ 100rpm = ~240W apparently, although I guess that's fairly meaningless.)  Level 11 next time I think, at least for some of it.  That gym floor's gonna get damn wet.

You have one of those bikes that goes to 11?  Is that like, 1 harder?

Decent midweek training for me so far.  Yesterday evening I took advantage of taking junior to a club session (one of the local ones has a sizable kids group) to fit in 7.5m tempo, and the streets were for the most part well enough lit to keep a decent pace.  Today was lunchtime intervals, 7x0.5m and the quickest for a while.  Turbo tonight if other things allow.

Spinal Tap exercise bike threshold session!!

sorry to butt back in, just to answer a couple of queries (thanks for asking btw folks!), 2013 will not be my year (running wise) but hopefully it will be the getting back to running at some point year!   rehab still pretty bad, 7 months almost post op, and still no chance of running can't do a one legged squat (or small dip even) yet, but still things are improving a bit very slowly.  still of view op was a mistake at present and unlikely to even get back to pre op state my knee, but we'll see how it is later in the year.

Baby is awesome, really enjoying it, lack of sleep hard, but everything else just great. had a few ups and downs over past few months, cancer scare for wife, (still not really resolved so an op to remove a lump in March to look forward to) and myself having a bout of food poisining or noro virus (still that got rid of 3-4kg extra i was carrying at the time!! most of which i have managed to keep off for now).  and i have lost my job (well i decided not to renew my contract after the offer was at a reduced rate - so decided to head to NZ for a couple of months - off soon - so not really all bad).  anyway, its been interesting but 95% all good really!  and can't complain about spending mid Jan to mid March in NZ summer!!

anyway, will continue to lurk and put my oar in here and there, and good luck for everyone building for marathons in the spring or ultra/tri/duathlon glory!

hope to report a slow return to jogging in the spring myself, but we'll see.

Selbs - sounds like a tough time, all the best with it all.

PP- nice one, its worth trying to push bigger gears at times to build leg strength, but you might need to do shorter reps (depening upon how low you drop the cadence). I did a tough 60min turbo this morning and wondered if I'd be able to complete it after about 20mins.

YD - I saw on Keirs thread that you've been training hard and have more hard work planned. Make sure that you take some easy time after that 1/2 and make sure that you save enough matches for your marathon. You don't want to struggle first time out. It'd be very easy to get carried away with doing too much.

60min turbo and swapped my swim for a 5M womble. Thats gives me 4 running days/week, in a 4 or 5 weeks time I'll change Weds to another commute or a MLR.

Selbs - couple of tough things there, glad you're positive overall though and enjoying mini-Selbs.

Good reps from PP and CD and lots of midweek training going on from TR.

Toro - good luck with beating your work colleague.

Did 10 with some effort in last night, didn't really have a plan when I started, just ran the first 5 miles with clubmates at then sped up on my own for the last 5 which were done 5.48-5.50 pace, 10 was about 61.30 in all.  15 very slippery miles along the canal today.  Worryingly I'm starting to get some pain in my right shin now which feels like the problem I had in the other one last year so am going to be careful with that.

It's been a bit of a year for you, Selbs.  Hope things pan out ok for you, Mrs. Selbs and Selbs junior in 2013.  Enjoy your time back in NZ.

selbs - quite a lot going on there! Look after the family - as you say, there are more important things than a dodgy knee. In a few months everything could be sorted and you'll be in a better place than before (and I don't just mean NZ vs. UK!).

Easy run and turbo for me yesterday, Not much else planned before Saturday, probably just one easy run. Weather forecast is not great - possibly snow/rain and a stiff headwind the entire way!

AW - yes. Not quite sure how it's going to go, but looking forward to it in a way! I've heard it's pretty muddy, but it can't be worse than some of the XC I've done this season (famous last words!).