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JB, I wish I could run 3 miles in that time. I can run 1 mile at sub 8 minute pace, but not 3. I'm still trying to go sub 26 minutes for 5k. I'll be trying again tomorrow, but I've got a slight niggle again in my right knee. I don't think that it has ever completely recovered since June 2017, but this year it's been relatively trouble free, considering the speed work, and weekly 5k's that I have been doing.
I can't believe that you were once "the fat lad in the class!! You certainly proved your Dad wrong for having low expectations of you.
Today was a rest day, so as I've been rather bored , with nothing but doom and gloom on the radio and TV. I've been watching vintage Deep Purple live in 1970 on u tube. John Lennon would have been 80 years old today if he hadn't been murdered. I bet he would have been red hot on Twitter! I was living in Liverpool at the time he was shot, and a few of us went to Mathew Street, to pay tribute with cards and messages. He died on 8th December 1980, an unbelievable 40 years ago.
Eventually the pressure of living there got to me and we moved on. But even today, if I hear a Scouse accent I’ll always try to have a chat with its owner. Even writing these few lines has brought a smile to my face.
Look after that knee. I more or less live with permanent discomfort from mine but on this thread I bet we’ve all been members of the bad knee club at some time.
Good luck with the sub 26 campaign........
PS to complete the picture not only was I the fat lad but also the shortest, most myopic, 11 plus failure from a broken home on the council estate. I didn’t answer to the name of ‘lucky’!
HS - hope by now you've been able to charge up/update your satnav. I had to adjust my head torch strap on Tue .. last time I used it I was in the Winter when I was wearing my woolly hat so as you can imagine, it was a bit loose to begin with. Hopefully the lack of batteries for your smoke alarms was just down to being scarce generally rather than suddenly being much in demand. I was never much good at football or cricket either when I was younger but I did keep trying it for a while. But after a bit I gave up playing cricket - and then got a job as the scorer for the 3rd XI (but never got promotion to the 2nd XI or the giddy heights of the 1st XI!). You mentioned watching Deep Purple on YouTube .. 'Smoke On The Water' immediately started playing in my head. I got slightly miffed at Radio Times last week with their 'John Lennon at 80' feature. I felt like writing to them to say, but he isn't is he? .. because he was murdered at the age of 40! I must have been having a 'Victor Meldrew' moment that day.
JB - going back to me getting calf cramps during the Bath HM .. I didn't feel I had the option to stop running as I was doing it for 'charidee' and didn't want to let down the people who had sponsored me. Glad to see you've been exercising while you've not been running. But glad to see you are back running now after that layoff. Huffing and puffing round a 3ml route - that sounds like me last Tue - apart from you doing it in 23mins compared to my 35 mins.
Redmist - you mentioned new-fangled screens to emulate a 'proper' run on a treadmill .. I've never checked but wouldn't mind betting you can link some treadmills up to Zwift to do just that (but at what cost, who knows?). My mate and I used to play golf on summer evenings and at weekends when we worked and always promised ourselves we would play regularly when we retired. As I've mentioned on here in the past, my mate retired a couple of months before me and had me out on the golf course the day after I retired!
Did a 'silly' bit of DIY this morning. We have a newspaper delivered at the weekend which with all the supplements, are difficult to get through the letterbox. Last weekend the paper got soaked in the rain as the newspaper boy (sometimes a grown man tbh) left it sticking out of the letterbox. So we got a plastic crate with a lid and I painted 'Milk' and 'Papers' on the lid, hoping they get the hint and leave it in the crate instead. Just have to rely on them putting the lid back on tightly as well I guess
Hoping to get out for a run early tomorrow morning. As my left foot was fine after Tue's run (and has been fine ever since), I'll see if I can do a bit more than Tue's 3.25ml route (with short-cuts back to base if needed!).
Having to do some actual admin work for a change this afternoon rather than chatting on forums etc. There's a possibility my swim club may be able to re-start sessions. But given the situation at the moment re coronavirus, I'm having to check our insurance status and re-visit the rules about how we book our swim sessions. I've also got to get my Treasurer's report ready to circulate to our members. I had it ready back in April for our AGM which was cancelled due to the lockdown. So I'm having to refresh my memory where we were and do a quick report to accompany the accounts we're going to send out to our members.
Have a good weekend everyone
Good to hear that your Steve is a dab hand at DIY. Could he pop around to my place when he’s finished, please?
The North is certainly getting the worst of the Covid virus. I’m not sure that it fits in very snuggly to the PMs levelling up agenda.
Are you planning to return to training again soon? It’s a bit soul destroying when all the fitness acquired through hard work simply evaporates after a few weeks off.
My best game by far was football. I had a reputation for not passing, but this was due to the fact that I couldn't see my team mates.
Brill time for 3 miles, by the way, especially as it was a come-back event. As I've said before, such times are what I dream of. Instead of the normal punishing Thursday evening 10K treadmill session, I decided to take to the road, without a stop watch and have an easy 9K run in view of the Tatton 10K on Sunday. Can't believe how much I enjoyed my run. Need to include more of these to remind me of exactly why I run.
Hillstrider: Sorry to hear of your knee pain. Hope that it doesn't get any worse. Great to hear that we have a few Deep Purple fans. This was my era of music. I was a Motown guy for many years but moved to progressive rock after hearing Voodoo Chile for the first time. Must have played that track fifty times on the day. They told me that I would grow out of it eventually, but I'm still listening to modern bands of the same ilk. Can't beat the originals though.
WntMEL: Must look in to Zwift and similar, thanks. Good luck with the DIY crate. Hope they don't take the sign literally and place both milk and papers on the lid. Good news on the foot front as well.
Aquarius: I tend to agree with you re JB. Not easy to sympathise with anyone doing sub 8 minute miles. As I mentioned above, Tatton is this Sunday, with an 8:30 start. This won't involve me, of course, as I'm in the fifth wave for those hoping to finish in under 61 minutes.
Good weekend all.
Aquarius - the leisure centre will have sorted out the changes needed re social distancing so we'll just 'go with the flow' with how it all works. We're going to canvass our members to see if there's enough interest in these 'temporary' sessions (45 mins rather than 2 hrs; lane swimming only; no sauna, steam room or small pool) and if so, we'll have to work out how much to charge and how to arrange for payment. We'd normally collect money on the door but as no-one is willing right now to be handling cash, we'll have to find some way of them paying up-front. Have to say, my tiling has been limited to sticking on the odd one back on the wall that has worked loose in the past. One of the diy things I know NOT to have a go at!
JB - re covid, I've been keeping in touch with my younger son who lives in Leeds. More of a levelling-down agenda where Johnson is concerned. The levelling up idea was just b******s to persuade people to vote for him - unfortunately, it worked.
Redmist - I eventually had my eyes tested and got some glasses for reading when my arms were no longer long enough to bring things back into focus
As I was sat having breakfast the paperboy turned up. I sat expectantly and waited .. and the new crate was used rather than forcing the paper through the letterbox - result!
Ran just over 4mls earlier - cool & dry so I wore my thermal top under my t-shirt. But haven't started wearing my tracksters yet - still in my shorts. I needed my head torch for the first couple of miles and foot seems fine which is good.
Mel, glad to hear that the new paper arrangements were successful. During lockdown we have been going out every morning to buy the paper for our very elderly neighbours. Unfortunately it’s the Daily Fail. I live in fear that someone I know might see me carrying it! As an ex paperboy, it’s apparent how much bigger papers are these day, esp the Sundays.
Just to wind up RM, I have to report that I knocked 30 seconds off yesterday’s 3 mile time this morning with 22.56.
Looking forward to hearing HS report that he ducked under his 5k target time and of course a full race report from RM.
The 5k went well, details below.
WtnMel, I've managed to charge up the satnav, but it still won't sync with Garmin Express to update. It searches without success. The other tip it gives is to ensure the correct USB Cable is used. It says that some cables only charge up, but don't sync, so ensure that the cable that came with the satnav is used. It is the one I use, so I've given up now.
I managed to get batteries for the smoke alarms; they had restocked practically the whole range. I've tested them and they both work now, but oddly neither flash now at minute intervals.
That was a novel idea, using a crate for milk and papers. On that subject, a couple of weeks ago, my postie was struggling to push my virtual half marathon t shirt through the letter box without success. Luckily I was indoors, so was able to open the door and take it from her. My milky delivers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but I still have to buy milk in between at times.
Good luck with the admin work for your swimming club. You seem to have your finger in many pies!
Aquarius, thanks, my right knee was ok for this mornings 5k , and the run went better than expected in the circumstances.
I did manage to get some batteries for the smoke alarms, as mentioned in my reply to WtnMel.
I hope that you are feeling better now, and will be able to get out for a run soon.
Redmist, I had to start wearing specs for reading whilst still in the infants school. I had a lazy eye and in those days I had to have drops in it and wear a patch over the spectacle lens. I couldn't understand why people asked me if I was Nelson😂 I have two pairs of specs now, one for reading and the other for driving. thankfully I don't have to wear glasses all the time.
That was a good idea, running 9k without a watch. I think we put too much store by them, which does add pressure.
Thanks, my knee was fine for this mornings 5k, much to my surprise.
I'm lucky that my son and daughter are into heavy metal, but neither are into running. My first tastes in music were in the blues, with the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Muddy Waters etc. Then country folk with The Byrds, Grateful Dead etc. I only really moved on to the heavier stuff when I moved to Liverpool.
WtnMel again, well done for the early morning run. I also wore a thermal top under my t shirt, cap and shorts this morning.
JB again, well done knocking 30 seconds off your previous 3 mile time. Have you calculated your WAVA?
I was a bit apprehensive this morning before running the 5k with Sarah F and Mike. I decided to run out to the start with them to see how the knee was. Thankfully it was ok and I managed to run 26.09, my second quickest this year, a WAVA of 71.26%
This afternoon I met up with Karen and the twins in the local park in the children's play area. They love the swings, slides, climbing frames etc. It was hard work looking after them, but good exercise. Also a 25 minute walk there and back, so I'm quite tired now.
Old Swan was quite near where I worked, Millbank College of Commerce. It’s claim to fame was that Cilla Black had gone there. Cut no ice with me as I couldn’t stand her!
JB, that was still a very good WAVA.
I was doing speed work one morning in Sefton Park, and who should come whizzing past me but Hugh Jones, who was living near there at the time. It looked as if he was jogging, and I was running flat out.😒
6 miles in the forest this morning with Sarah F and Mike. The first mile was a warm up and then 5 miles recce for the Club's 5 mile off road challenge.
JB: 22:56 for 3 miles! I'll have to measure out a 3m and a 5K road circuit so that I can begin to compare times with you and HS over those distances. Not that I'm competitive, you understand. You are spot on with your football suspicions. I was famed for my robust tackles and at both 11 and 5-a-side games, when I wasn't suspended of course.
Tatton 10K: What a great morning. Just a little chilly to start with but actually too hot for me when the sun appeared half way round. Supposed to be a limit of 500, but there were 677 finishers. Nevertheless, the event was extremely well organised and, for the most part, distancing measures worked very well. I managed a PB of 57:15, which represents an improvement of 2:20. For the second time at this event I was 3rd in my 65+ category (or put another way, next to last). Overall....chuffed to bits and encouraged to endure more pain on the road to further improvement.
Very well done for your impressive improvement in the Tatton 10k.
Hopefully being on this thread is helping with your competitiveness! The WAVA grading is perfect for us veterans who have inevitably slowed over the years, but can still be competitive against the younger and faster runners.
A rest day for me. Recently I’ve been doing long runs on Sundays but I’m having a bit of a rethink. I want to go a bit easier on myself and I reckon I can either do short, sharp or long slow, but not both. In terms of my abilities, I’m much better suited to the short sharp stuff so I might stick to that.....especially as in terms of WAVA I have HS in front of me and you snapping at my heels, as no doubt you’d have done if I was playing footie against you.
HS, good Liverpool anecdote. Can’t match that but a certain G. Sourness once cut in front of Mrs JB in his red Mercedes.
Off for a session on the rower.....
JB, hope you had a good session on the rower yesterday.
Ran 6.4 miles in the forest this morning with Sarah F and Jane. This included another 5 mile recce.
I’m not surprised you and HS have got out your thermals, there has been a noticeable drop in the temperature recently. (What’s happening on the U3A front btw?)
I see from your posts that you are still managing to run with your club mates, I hope whatever new rules Boris comes up with today won’t put a stop to that. I think that now the virus is spreading to a lot more areas the government is starting to panic. It didn’t seem to matter too much if us northern louts were dropping like flies, but it’s just not cricket if the Tory heartlands are affected too. I’ve managed to avoid watching the news all day, but I suppose I’d better go and catch up with the latest developments, and see what he has in store for us now.
Aquarius, I’ve never been accused of being patient. Or a perfectionist. Sorry to hear you’ve lost your mojo, but reading through your post, you’ve clearly got a lot on your plate. Plus, as you say, we are living through some very difficult and grim times. It’s not surprising then if things get to us.
I spend far too much time following CNN which I believe to be the voice of reason in the madhouse that is Trump’s USA. I’m not sure if it does me any good in terms of peace of mind. I’m a bit of a news and politics junky and feed the addiction rather too much!
Even the weather has taken a turn for the worst and it was too tempting to abandon my planned run. I also spent a long time waiting to speak to someone at HRMC after getting a pretty horrendous looking tax estimate. Luckily there was a very good tax official who explained that it was an error from a former employer and it was fixed very quickly. She basically talked me down from a ledge!
And then it was time for Johnson’s Covid statement......... Mustn’t grumble!
JB - had to chuckle at you surreptitiously carrying the Daily Fail in public. At least you are doing long runs and can choose when to do your LSR .. I haven't done anything more than 5-6mls for months.
HS - shame Garmin Express didn't recognise your satnav (I had that problem with ours but persevered and it eventually 'got it'). Glad to hear you've had more success with the smoke alarm batteries. Well done re 2020's 2nd best 5k time. Re Hugh Jones whizzing past you while you were flat out - a similar situation at the Bath HM when you've gone 3 miles or so and the elite runners fly past on their 2nd lap.
Redmist - glad to hear the Tatton 10k went off without a hitch and well done for managing 3rd place in the 65+ category.
Aquarius - my brother-in-law is like Steve .. he's a perfectionist when doing DIY and has never been known to rush and ensures he gets it right first time. Sorry to hear you've lost your running mojo - getting up early in the mornings is harder now the weather is getting colder. Hope you re-discover your mojo but pleased to hear you are still managing to do your pilates and yoga. Chuckled at your milkman playing 'hide the bottle'. You asked about U3A - the science & technology group is still going strong via Zoom. Most groups are suspended but the rambling group have just re-started and are having socially-distanced walks (max. 6 in each group, people in a group walk 2 metres apart, groups of 6 set off at 10 min intervals). I recently asked to join Book Circle 4 (1-3 were already full) but it turned out they don't have vacancies either as they meet face-to-face and already have six in the group. I enquired about using Zoom instead but the leader said that wouldn't work. The upshot is, I'm chatting to the groups co-ordinator tomorrow on Zoom with a view to setting up Book Circle 5. That would meet via Zoom if there's enough interest and if the people interested are technologically-able. But I have no idea how it would work other than that as I have no experience of belonging to a book group. I think your analysis is correct btw about covid only becoming a real problem when the Tory heartlands start being affected - and the Red Wall constituencies too who were promised the earth in return for their votes?
One other thing to mention. I love Craghoppers trousers and practically live in them. They have a 'guarantee for life' which I used last year when a zip on a hip pocket broke. Although I'd had those trousers for two years or more they exchanged them for a new pair, no questions asked. I have some zip-offs where the zip is coming away from the trouser leg. Just checked and I only bought them in July last year so I shall get onto the Craghoppers website shortly to see about exchanging them.
As for your book group, Mrs JB is in one and they are a cultured bunch. She’s reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austin, so I make sure I ask about the Jayne Mansfield novel at least once a day. You need to be pretty old to have even heard of Jayne Mansfield.
Hope you got some good advice from your financial adviser. Coincidentally my son is training to be one and has got an exam tomorrow. He taught in quite challenging schools for 7 years and had to get out before he went under. He actually earns a lot less but is playing the long game. Quite a contrast in terms of a career change, though.
I still do the occasional bit of work which today consisted of sitting though a 2 hour exam board via Zoom and giving a 15 second comment at the end.
Getting a bit of form back, thankfully. Now need to avoid consequent injuries!
I ran 4.5mls this morning. Slightly chilly so I was glad of my thermal top under my t-shirt. Starry skies as I set off with a crescent moon and a bright 'star' alongside it - which I found out when I saw the weather forecast later on was actually Venus.
Having said that I reckon that the decision to be born in the 1950s was quite a good one, on balance, and I’m glad I made it!
Did my regular treadmill 5K5G run last night with another 39 second improvement. This is the last time that I will post such improvements, as I feel it's akin to saying my 100 metres PB was 45 seconds and I've just bettered it by 2 seconds.
A little distracted yesterday as I received my new pull-up bar, which is now installed onto a very large beam in my garage. I will master this exercise if it kills me (and it probably will).
As for pull-ups I am no expert but here's a few tips:
- don't be afraid to do 'partial' ones at first i.e. not all the way down/up
- equally at first you might find you can't do one. It's not a bad idea to jump (or step up) to the chin position and simply lower yourself slowly (a 'negative'). This is so painful that it must be doing you good.
- if you end up in A&E following this advice, do not consult a solicitor
- when you get to 100 on the trot, give yourself a break!
Aquarius, thanks for the kind comment. I make the mistake of watching PMQs every week.
Not good for the blood pressure!
I miss a day and discover that you have all been busy posting!
Aquarius, I'm sorry to hear that you appear to have lost your mojo. It could be the result of overtraining. that can make us "go stale."
I really enjoyed my afternoon in the park with Karen and the twins. I don't have any grandchildren as neither my daughter or son have graced me with any. I expect the twins see me as a grandfather, which is nice.
Thankfully we are level 1, medium, at the moment and still allowed to meet with up to a total of 6, and pub closing time 10pm. I haven't been to a pub since the start of the pandemic, and keep within a running bubble of a maximum of 5, including me. Shopping just twice a week, wearing my running buff as a face covering.
JB, thanks. It's never a good idea to go for pb's in any activity. We discovered that in our Saturday 5k's. We only try in every third run now to improve our times.
You were lucky to eventually get through to a tax official, and one that was helpful. Most people hang up after about an hour!
Well done for todays 3 miler, with a 7.11 final mile. You will soon be catching me up WAVA wise!
WtnMel, the supermarket had stocked up with batteries, and I have fitted and tested the alarms. They operate when I press the test button, but no longer flash, so I'm wondering whether they would actually work in an emergency. I noticed that on the casing it said to replace the device after 5 years. I've had both for much longer than 5 years, so perhaps I'll replace the other one too, and keep the batteries for future use.
I remember you telling us about your craghopper trousers, and me saying that I had never heard of them. I live more or less permanently in jeans.
I wore a thermal top again under my t shirt, but still running in shorts.
Redmist, well done for another improvement in your 5G5K treadmill run!
Good luck with your new pull up bar!
Aquarius again, I joined a book club many years ago, but only stayed with it for a year or two. At the moment I'm trying to read some of the books in my bookcase that I haven't yet read. I'm now reading "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott. Many of my books were purchased from charity shops, and I think that I have got the complete collection of Charles Dickens books. I've read them all, but don't expect to read them again.
I'm glad that I was born in the forties, just after the end of the Second World War. I've seen so many changes over the years, and we didn't have a TV until I was 11 years old. A 9" screen, black and white and just BBC 1. I remember the Test Card with a picture of a clown, and the interludes. There was a vertical and horizontal hold, which were to stop the picture spinning up or down, or narrowing. Good luck with the ironing.
I ran 5 miles in the forest this morning with Mike, which included 7 x 400 metres with 100 metre recoveries. The 7th was the quickest in 1.53 which was an average of 7.29 minute miling. We actually "touched" 5.53 miling pace briefly.
I'll be having a garage calisthenics session in a bit and giving the old pull-ups a go. Many thanks for the tips. My favourite is the one about 'partial' pull-ups, like I have a choice. My 9 year old granddaughter challenged me yesterday to do a one armed 'hang', which she managed with ease. I did two seconds and was convinced I'd done some permanent damage, but feels ok today.
RM, that one armed hang from the bar was risky! (But hanging around bars always brings certain risks, eh?) It's a grandchildren (3 and 5) day for us today. I'd rank this as a medium to hard 10k. My younger son passed his exam, which is good news career-wise.
We've been given a really important role in the local community. We've been asked to feed our neighbours' fish while they (the neighbours, not the fish - who seems to lead a pretty quiet, tank based life). Because I'm one of nature's worriers I've now got to more to worry about
- the lock on their front door (I hate door locks);
- the right amount of food for the fish;
- the daily worry that he (or she) might die overnight, of natural causes
- anything else that could happen before they return (burglary, flash flood, global warming)
Sometimes I wonder how I managed to get a qualification, hold down jobs and help bring up two kids.
PS I'm not quite sure why my name appears twice. I'm tempted to reference the old pop song, 'New York, New York - so good they named it twice'. But I won't.
Is it just the one fish you're baby sitting. Hope it's a goldfish, as they are reasonably easy to replace without anyone noticing....trust me. Also, not to add to your anxieties, but can a fish get Covid.
Never regarded 'New York, New York' as a pop song, but either the last song at a wedding reception or something my late mum would listen to.
No lasting effect to arm or shoulder, brought about by the ill advised 'hang'. That won't stop me trying it again in a few weeks though. Treadmill 10K tonight, unless it's nice outside, in which case I may be tempted to take to the road again. After a couple of trips on uneven pavements last week, I may invest in a head light. If I do purchase one, am I required to have one with a dipped beam option for road running.
Are you able to include any uphill short sprints within your restricted training. I believe this type of exercise, albeit on a treadmill in my case, is the main reason behind my recent improvements.