My Forum

DS2 - nooooo! I didn't realise it was that bad. Really feel for you. Get some quad stretching in too. I had really bad knee pain a couple of years back - worried the hell out of me. However, once the osteo looked at it and told me to stretch the quads 3-4 times a day it soon eased off. 

As you know I started this year with medial problems and it didn't do me any harm whatsoever so don't worry about making a late start.

Obviously you have your mammoth cycle challenge to deal with first so I'd focus on that and try not to worry about the running for a bit. Easy to say I know but you've been injured before and came back stronger. You'll do the same again.

Jen - I think we are all ready for TR24. Tigger has the kit fully under control. I'm running with the guys I did it with last year and we'll be "Team Adam". The other two teams are "Eclectica" and "Zombie Shufflers" I believe. Not sure which is RRR's pair and which is the 8. 

I have been incorporating some woodland running into my pre-marathon training in prep. for TR24. It's good acclimatisation for the uneven footing but more importantly gets you used to those pesky mouth seeking insects! I have developed a new way of breathing to stop me from swallowing the buggers.

The probelm is there are always a few that get through the defences. I can't help thinking about what said insect was last sitting on as it slides down my throat

Jen - many thanks and best of luck with the shoes. Sounds like you are acclimatising well.

That hill sounds like a killer. I know what it's like around there. I attempted to run up Swiss Valley hill once - never again!

Clive - you are a braver man than I. Nice job! I remember Mrs Malcs being told about dunking her head before her first tri. I don't know how you can do it.

Can't believe they had people doing breast stroke! Was there a doggie paddle wave? If so I could have a chance

We'll see how my programme goes - I guess it does look a bit mileage heavy. I did 4 20 milers last time so I wanted to get 6 in this time as a minimum. The higher mileage seemed to work for me as long as I kept it very slow.

Whoa - moving next Friday! Blimey, that came up quick. I think that's the part of the whole process I am dreading the most.

We are under offer again (hurrah). However, we've been struggling to find anything. We have quite a small search area due to schools and nothing is coming on - not even things we don't like!

I say this but we have offered on a house that we looked at a while ago. They dropped the price but it's still too much for us. Our first offer was turned down so we had to do a bit more thinking about whether we could stretch further. Decided that we could and upped our offer on Saturday. Not confident that it'll be successful though.

Sorry to hear about the bang on the foot. I'm sure you'd know if it was anything more than just a bruise. Bit of regular icing should sort it I'm sure. Bit of a pain but at least it's easily fixed.

Re. the parkrun - it was my first one at Orpington. I have done one other with Jen in Wales. I agree, it was very difficult to judge. The temptation is to fly off at the start but it's still a fair way. I'm confident I'll breach 21 next time. Longer term, like a few of us here, sub 20 is the ultimate goal. 

Mrs Malcs has been doing the parkrun for a while. She's training for a tri so she bikes it there, runs and bikes back. We decided we'd get the children involved as they like sport. My youngest is 7 so she needs one of us to go round with her. So we decided we'd take it in turns, racing one week and playing chaperone the next. I think it could work well.

I'm already thinking about York. 6 weeks to TR24 then 12 weeks to York! Seems very close when you look at it like that. I wanted to be up to 18-20 mile long runs by TR24. It's still possible so I'm going to be gradually increasing mileage over the next 6 weeks. I'll then do a 12 week programme with hopefully 2 to 3 20 milers per month.

How about you, got a game plan or are you too consumed with moving to even think about it?

Sarah - The pocket rocket returns!

I thought the days of the English nipping over the border to steal from the Scots were long gone but your little raid nicking 4th place and twenty quid clearly confirms otherwise!

That's a great time and an excellent result. Well done to Chris too - looks like he is slowly being converted.

Sounds like you had a fantastic trip too. No Nessie pics to post or are they still being photoshopped?

Wowsers - moving next Friday! Scary stuff. That seems to have come around very quickly. I don't think we would ever be able to pack in that short space of time. Best of luck with it all.

Parkrun was 21:04, 9th place...and yes, there were more than 9 running! Thought it might have been quicker but I faded badly at the end. Loads of kids there. There was a little fella in front of me who was flying. Must have been all of 11 or 12. There was no way I was catching him. That said he stopped at 2K. Clearly not man enough to do the full 5K (just joking before you all boo me off the thread). 

PS. we seem to be duplicating ourselves across this and the 26.2 threads at the moment

Angela - thanks for clarifying the origin of the yellow liquid. Always fancied Alton Towers but you've just put me off. 

TR24 is going to be epic. I have decided that already so it better damn well be so. 

Mr P - can't believe that thoughts are turning to autumn marathons already but I have to admit I've been thinking exactly the same. 18 weeks until York now. I think even less until Chester? So that's only two weeks until a standard 16 week programme would start. Scary stuff.

jenf wrote (see)

Malcs- can't believe you were cold last sunday! castle relay runners were suffering from heat exhaustion!!  you were still delusional after gig!!

oooh hobnobbing with the famous now are we!

Just the kind of circles I move in Jen. What can I say

Regarding the heat (or lack of) - no joke, it was nobbling. There was a serious East/West divide that weekend.

What kind of shoes did you get? Are they the hobbit's feet kind which just cover your foot in rubber with sections for each toe? One of our TR24 team uses them and swears by them. Took him a while to get used to them but after he did all the lower leg problems he'd been having just evaporated.

Sarah - welcome back! Congrats on an excellent, prize winning HM time! When you stack that up against the long drive etc. it looks even better. Nice one!

My Parkrun time was 21:04 - not too bad but I really wanted to get under 21. That was my first one and I reckon I went off a bit too fast. By the end I was staggering to the line

That was a very good 15 you got in. I did 10 today but very slowly (8:50 pace).