My Forum

I was surfing around various club websites recently, looking at race results and such like, and I came across a club site that included an on-line database of all their club results. It appeared to be a commercially available database for recording and managing all the race results for club members that you could plug into a website, and I remember thinking that I must write down the details and look the company up as that would be very handy to replace my spreadsheetof 10,000+ results that is now creaking at the seams. Except of course that I didn't as I got distracted by work of something similarly annoying

So can anybody help me out? Have you seen a club website that includes something like this, or do you know of any software that will do this?

Greetings Gang

Still alive but I'm not yet running - basically been out since May now but I think I may be not far away from running again. In fact if I hadn't had my worst dose of lurgi in years last week I might well have been trying it out this week.

Anyhow, my reason for popping in is to invite any of you within shouting distance of Windsor to come along to our free marathon training run on Sunday March 24th. It's 20 miles starting at 9am from Home Park in Windsor and going out through Datchet & Old Windsor to Virginia Water, then a lap round the lake and back to Windsor. There's one serious uphill and downhill plus a few undulations, but it's a nice course on pavements, quiet country lanes & paths in Windsor Great Park. There will be marshals at all junctions, and 4 drink stations spread more or less evenly around the course. And it's FREE. We usually have 60-70 runners of all standards from local clubs. If you're interested drop me an e-mail at chairman@datchetdashers.com and I'll send you details.

I'll now return you to your regular scheduled programming.

Scooby Dudek wrote (see)

BOTF bad news. 3 weeks off, is it not possible to build up and then go for a 12 week schedule?

I've barely run since May and have done no other exercise either, so even assuming I'm given the all-clear in 3 weeks time, I just don't think there'll be enough time for me to get back to at least GFA pace. If I can't do that then I'd rather defer the place to 2014.

Bad news from the physio - at least another 3 weeks out, so I think that comfortably puts the lid on any attempt at VLM. I'm wondering about an autumn marathon (Abingdon or maybe the new Bournemouth race), but I'm not very good at running distance in the summer, so maybe I'll just be focussing on shorter distances in 2014.

Greetings one and all, it is I, BOTF *lifts glasses*

I trust all is well in the sub 3:15 world, but I hope you’ll excuse me for not reading back about 5000 posts. You may or may not have noticed I have not been around for ages. A couple of reasons for this:  firstly because I’ve been unbelievably busy, and secondly because I haven’t been running. I injured my right knee back in May and it took forever to recover, and still isn’t totally 100%. It got to the point where I thought I could just about start to run again whilst I was on holiday in the USA in September, so I copied PMJ and popped into Livonia parkrun and only won my first race in 21 years. Never mind the fact my time was my slowest for years, I actually won a bloody race!

On my return home I found a number for the Windsor Half waiting for me. I’d completely forgotten I’d even entered it, so with a grand total of 10 miles of running since May I decided I’d just jog round. I started right at the back and passed 2973 people to finish in 1:44:01 a little faster than the jog I’d intended, but everything felt ok. Until the next morning that is when I couldn’t put any weight on my right ankle. So now I’ve been out for another month with damaged ankle ligaments. I managed to find a physio near work so I’ve been having treatment, and she says she’s going to say yes or no to resuming running on Monday. It’s close, but at the moment I suspect I’m still at least a week away, maybe two. We’ll see.

So here I am then, 21 weeks out from the race where I was hoping to have a serious attempt at sub 3, and I’m almost certainly the unfittest and slowest I’ve been in 7 years. A month ago I was also the fattest I’d been as well, but a switch to a paleo diet has shifted 8lb in 4 weeks so at least my weight is under control. After my 3:07 this year I was really in a positive state of mind about pushing on and aiming sub 3 at 50, but now if I am given permission to start running again next week am I going to be able to make it anywhere near my target? Certainly my plan to be up to 20 miles by Christmas is out the window, as is my plan to do at least 6 or 7 twenties before the race. Can I go from practically a standing start to sub 3 on a curtailed program? Personally I doubt it, but I plan to at least give it a try once I’ve eased myself back in. At the very least I have to give myself a shot at keeping the GFA, but if that looks like it’s a step too far then I’ll defer to 2014. Most likely I’ll do too much too soon and find a new and interesting way to injure myself again. I know what I’m like L