My Forum

Hi everyone! How's the training going? I'm feeling a bit sore as I write this, I had to compress my midweek runs into back to back sessions yesterday and today, I prefer to have a day's gap, but work got in the way

Happily I did manage to join the gym running group again this lunchtime, we did a tempo run for about 20 mins and then a really interesting sprint session - several laps of a circuit, sprinting the first 20%, jogging the rest and then doubling the sprint distance on each successive lap (theres probably a name or easier way to describe this activity?) it was a lot of fun and without doubt I worked harder than I would have done just doing my usual lunchtime 5K. (maybe even harder because I was the only guy in a group of 10 rather athletic young ladies )

I was planning on doing a night time 6k trail race up a local hill on Saturday night, but I think I'll give it a miss - my legs are feeling a bit tight this week, so I'll rest until Sunday and do a moderate 10-12k . I'd hate to tear my calf again.

Anyone used a foam roller? The sports massage girl at the gym recommended I bought one - I'd be intrested in hearing about any experiences with them.

Is it worth trying for an on the day entry? It looks like they already have 1000 runners listed, but I can't find any information regarding on the day entry.  I suppose if I got there early enough I might get in?  Does anyone have any experience of trying this?  I'm quite new to the race scene so I don't really know how these things work.

I'm sure the day will come when I no longer care about trinkets and medals, but right now I cherish every single one. They live in my bedside drawer and get loaned out now and again to my daughter who is 6 and loves wearing them.  I also keep my race numbers and in a way, I cherish them even more.  2 years ago I was a fat, lazy tub of lard, I'd pretty much spent most of my life that way, at 17.5 stone I decided to change my life, running helped me do that and the content of that drawer represents the most importnt thing that has ever happend to me aside from marriage and becoming a father.  I am aiming to do my first half marathon this year and even if it does take me 2:20 I think my medal will be well deserved - some of you may agree with this, some may not, but the point is that nobody has the right to judge what constitutes an achievement for someone else. I set my own goals and run my own race, and at the moment, I'm winning.

Good grief, I turn my back for a couple of days and I'm 7 pages behind allready

Some impressive running going on there, enough to motivate me to get off my lazy bum and train a bit harder

I've now started my new contract in Edinburgh, there's an on-site gym that's abssolutely fantastic, it has a pool, in-house physio and even a weekly lunchtime group running session (that moves to twice weekly in April). I joined them this Thursday for a hill training session, I've never trained with a group before, it was a lot of fun and I certainly pushed myself harder than I would training on my own.

I ran the Blymhill 10K yesterday (Shropshire) It was a lovely race but I was slightly disapointed with my time - 1:01:40 the course was flat so I expected closer to 55. Plenty of time left though to speed up and get some more miles in before the GNR.

I'm currently trying to figure out the logistics of running from my hotel to the office every morning, it's about 3.5k, but I could easily strech it out a bit to make it worthwhile.  The gym at the office are currently considering renting out permanent lockers which would make things much easier so I'm crossing my fingers that they will get moving asap with this.

Anyway, I'd better log off and go to bed - I need to get up at 4.30