New Mature Runners Thread

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  • Mel, well done for all that grafting! Who are you sending the invoice to? I used to knock around with a couple of carpet fitters during my drinking days. They were hard, tough lads.
    I know what you mean about the demands of physical work. I'm a nut-case when it comes to exercise and that includes upper body stuff. But half an hour digging on the allotment reduces me to a sweaty wreck!
    Soon it will be Allan who enjoys the benefit of the handicap if you keep improving like this.

    Not much going on here. Will do an evening 10k run when I tag along to my mate's running group. It's raining here but should be fine by then. Also it's a 'pick up the grandkids from school day'. I love their school - it's very old and relatively small, so it gives off a very cosy vibe. It's also - big factor! - 5 minutes walk from their house and a short drive from ours. Parenting (and now, I've found grandparenting) is a matter of logistics as much as love!  

    Look forward to reading HS's account of his - gulp! - 20 mile run.
  • Morning all,

    21 miles off road successfully achieved yesterday. I will post this afternoon, but in the meantime, here is a Strava screenshot. 

  • Good afternoon everyone,

    JB, thanks, the LSD run went really well, see the Strava screen shot above.

    I saw that the Brighton Marathon was 500 metres long. That's really frustrating for the runners, but perhaps better than being short. This happened to me a few years ago in the South Downs  Half Marathon. They had to alter the course at the last minute, as a cycle club claimed that they had a race which was on part of our course, and we couldn't run through it. The solution was to run up Butser Hill for a second time, and loop back. This added nearly a mile to the race. To add insult to injury, it turned out that the cyclists had no authority to prevent us running through "their patch."😖

    Congratulations to Lily for her PB and not finishing in last place!

    I hope your evening 10k goes well, and the rain holds off.

    Small old schools always have a nice feel about them, and probably interesting history.


    WtnMel, I note that Alan is considering adjusting your golf handicap, which would make you have to try harder to remain on par with him.

    My new extractor fan is so quiet, that when the electrician switched it on, he didn't think it was working. It was though, and is working fine.

    Glad your trip to Tring went well. We used to visit there sometimes, when I lived in Aylesbury.

    You must have been burning off a heck of a lot of energy with all the improvements to your house.

    Good luck with the golf on Friday, after your commitments before hand.


    The 21 mile forest run went very well yesterday, and the temperature was much cooler than the previous Monday. We didn't have to refill our water bottles, which gives an indication that running was easier. To make the distance, we ran out to what will be the start of our marathon, did one circuit and then ran back. On marathon day, we will drive to the start of the course and run 2 circuits. The venue is only about a 5 minute drive, so we will have some support, and some will run parts of it with us. 

    Today is a rest day, and I haven't done any exercises, except the usual walk back from the supermarket with 4 heavy bags of shopping.
  • HS, 21 miles: terrific effort! Must give you confidence for the full distance, especially over the same course. I'm not surprised you rewarded yourself with a rest day - most folk (especially those of a certain age) would need a rest week!

    I've got 2 10k races coming up in the next few weeks. This is a distance that I typically under-perform on and it's deservedly so because I don't prepare properly, rely on my 5k speed and fade badly. So last night in perfect conditions I ran the distance as hard as I could and managed a (respectable) 46.04, which I'd hope to improve on in a race.

    I think that one of the issues with longer distances, for me anyway, is the concentration factor. With a 5k I'm pretty much 'on it' the whole time, but with the 10k I notice that I tend to drop into an easier pace unless I concentrate. Therefore, goodness only knows how I'd cope with 21 miles, as per HS.
  • Good afternoon everyone,

    JB, thanks! We were very pleased with our LSD run, and Sarah F, who is running the actual London Marathon should do very well, as it is all on roads and fairly flat. Sarah H, Mike and I will be slower, as our course is off road and quite hilly. Probably muddy too if we have much rain before hand.

    Well done for your 46.0410k. That must be very competitive in your age category!


    This morning was an interval session comprising 10 x 60 seconds fast with 60 seconds jog recoveries. My fastest 60 seconds was the 10th which averaged 7.22 minute miling.

    Sarah F is running in the Bristol Half Marathon on Sunday to get more time on her feet on roads, as most of our runs are off road. She has promised not" to push the pace."
  • Morning all,

    JB - its been nice to not be ripping up carpets etc. for the last few days. I've booked another trip to the recycling centre for this afternoon to get rid of the old stair carpet and anything else I find in the garage that needs to be dumped. Alan's golf handicap is about 6 strokes less than mine - I doubt mine will change by more than 1 or 2 strokes when we re-calculate it so I'll not be at too much of a disadvantage.

    HS - well done re that 21ml run .. impressive stuff! As mentioned above, Alan and I will re-calculate my handicap in light of recent improvements. He belongs to a golf society so his is constantly monitored by them. I may have burnt off some extra calories with the carpet removing etc. .. but the 'treat' of a cold beer afterwards or an ice-cream probably undid any good it did ;) 

    The decorating ladies are doing a grand job. They put lining paper up in the hall, stairs and landing on Tuesday and started on the white paintwork and did the ceilings. Yesterday they painted the walls and carried on with the white paintwork. They were almost done so today they're 'finishing' off and I expect, knowing them, they'll be done by lunchtime.

    We left them decorating yesterday while we went out and had lunch with some friends - it was nice to get back to 'normal' stuff.

    Off to meet the manager of the leisure centre shortly. I'm there to speak to him about getting our swim sessions back to normal but lifeguard cover seems to be the main sticking point. Wish me luck persuading him to go ahead with them. We (the club committee) discussed some ideas for helping with lifeguard cover if it's still an issue but I'm keeping them up my sleeve and will bring them out when (if?) they are needed to get him to agree to the proposed changes.
  • Afternoon all,

    I thought I’d better try to pop in quickly to say hi. 

    WtnMel - I thought I was busy until I read your recent posts! How is it that life these days is so full of things to do? I’m just glad we’re retired, i can’t imagine having to fit these things around work, although I suppose we must have done so when we were still working. I hope all the furniture moving and decorating is going well, and that you had a successful meeting with the leisure centre manager today. I wouldn’t blame you if you gave golf a miss tomorrow, you need a bit of time for yourself. (Reading on I see you are booked in for Friday’s golf after all. I hope it goes well for you and your recent run of good form continues.)

    JB - I see you have two 10k races coming up in the next few weeks - did your son manage to get his 10k place transferred to you?  Woking was quite some distance to go for a parkrun, I hope you weren’t too dizzy from the 45 corners. I think I would have found that many turns and twists a bit frustrating. A good result for you though (and Mrs JB), but best of all ………Lily’s outstanding performance at JPR! I knew she could do it, congratulations Lily! Not such good news about the Brighton marathon, I wouldn’t like to be the person responsible for that mess up.

    HS - Well done for your 21 mile forest run, your training seems to be going really well. You must be feeling very confident for race day having already run the course, fingers crossed that the weather is kind to you. I hope Sarah F has a good race on Sunday in the Bristol HM - lets just hope it doesn’t measure too short or long. :| Your account of the  South Downs HM a few years ago sounded a bit of a disaster. You’d think the respective race organisers could have communicated a bit better with each other and prevented that happening on the day. 

    Still running here, and still very busy with people viewing our house (by this weekend we’ll have shown 20 couples around). I think I’ll refuse any further requests for viewings and see what offers we have (4 so far with promises of others to come). Our main problem is that although there is no lack of interest in our house we cannot find anything to view in the area we want to move to. We did see one property that looked promising appearing on Rightmove on Monday morning. Within a couple of hours over 30 people had expressed an interest in it and some had submitted offers before viewing had even opened! When I rang up to ask to view the property I was refused, because although we had received offers on ours, we hadn’t actually accepted an offer yet so the estate agent wouldn’t consider us. It seems there are a lot more people looking for properties than there are properties available. It’s all rather depressing. We’ve run up against this problem on other properties we’ve enquired about, it seems we have to accept an offer on our house just to be able to view a potential property. Even if we did that there is no guarantee that a) we’d like the property once we’d looked around it and b) we may not be successful with our offer (they all seem to be going to “best and final offer” at the outset, so you only get one chance to get your bid right). In other news our son (the one staying with us with g’daughter while looking for a house himself) has been successful in an offer he made for a house, so if all goes to plan, he will be moving on in the next few months. 

    I’ll try to post again soon, and hopefully will have more time before then to properly catch up with all your activities. 
  • HS,  a good idea for Sarah to run that HM, but were it me, I'm not sure I could be trusted 'not to push the pace'. I think women are generally more sensible about that sort of thing. How's that for a sweeping generalisation?

    Mel, good luck on the negotiations. I should be able to had on some tips as I was once the lead negotiator for my union branch, My mates used to joke that the management would offer 5% and I would negotiate it down to 3%! ( Well I think they were joking!)

    Aquarius, that business of selling/buying a house sounds so stressful. I guess you have to keep your eyes on the prize. I think this business does generally bring out the worst in people (not you though!). Glad to hear that your son is sorted. Quick audit: we've bought 6 houses. Only one of them was a nightmare of stitching up. Yes, I did manage to get my son's entry to the 10k, thanks. It's a week Sunday.

    I managed my usual - and rather mad - interval session today. I knocked 13 seconds off last week's time, so I must be in reasonable nick. This week's Parkrun is in Littlehampton; much nearer to home (7 miles or so) than some of my recent ones. It's a prom based one.

    I  had an odd but rather nice encounter in the week. I was chatting to my mate's running coach who is a top local runner. I asked him his predicted time for one of the upcoming 10ks and he said 35 minutes. I was genuinely taken aback and said that I'd be delighted to be only 10 minutes behind him. "Well", he said "being polite, there must be a decade between our ages." He's 41 and I'm 66 so I was very flattered. Perhaps he just felt sorry for me!
  • Good afternoon everyone,

    WtnMel, thanks, we enjoyed the run, being that it was cooler than the previous Monday.

    It will be interesting to see what difference is made to the results of your matches with Alan, once he has recalculated your handicap.

    Good to hear that the decorating ladies are doing a great job.

    I hope you are able to get the manager of the Leisure Centre to return the swimming sessions back to normal.


    Aquarius, thanks, our training is going really well, and we have "stuck" to the marathon training programme. I'm hoping that Sarah won't push too hard in her half marathon. She won't be running Saturday or Monday, so hopefully won't do any harm.

    What a nightmare for you trying to sell your house and buy another. There are always snags. I presume gazumping is still fairly common, which makes matters even worse. Good news though that your son seems to have been successful in having an offer he made for a house being successful.


    JB, I'm not so sure that it was a good idea for Sarah to enter the half marathon. Apparently, she only entered it because a relative, who was a fairly new runner had entered, and she thought it would enable her to run slower by running with her.

    Good luck for Saturdays parkrun, I expect it will  be another fast time, especially after your interval session. 

    That's rather flattering isn't it, being assessed as being 10 years younger than you actually are. On a similar theme, there was a comment on the Over 70's Facebook runners page " It's strange to think that we are the same ages as old people!"


    This morning was just an easy pace 40 minute road run, in accordance with the training schedule.
  • Evening all,

    Aquarius - a bit of a pause with the decorating/furniture moves. I have one small job to do before the new carpet goes down - fixing a creaky floorboard - but once the new carpet is done, we can think about finishing things off. The meeting with the leisure centre manager went okay - see below. Twenty couples have been round to view your house - that's good going. And I see you've had some offers too - even better news. It's been a while now but I vaguely remember the 'hoops' you have to negotiate re having accepted an offer on your house before you can view ones you might want to make an offer on. Good news that your son has had his offer on the house accepted.

    JB - not so much a negotiation as trying to find a way to organise things within certain limitations (see below for more info if you're interested). Well done re knocking 13 secs off your interval session time. I think I'd be taken aback if someone suggested they'd manage a 10k in 35 minutes - that's 6 min miling which if I think about it is (to quote my friend) "uncredible" (unbelievable and incredible).

    HS - Alan only 'hinted' my handicap might need adjusting. I guess if I start winning more regularly, he might start dropping bigger hints :)

    The meeting with the leisure centre manager went okay but he's still not in a position where he can guarantee to be able to provide lifeguard cover (due to having to have let people go through the pandemic and now trying to employ new people). One idea he's suggested is to split our session between the main & small pools - that might go against the grain of what some want. Either way, I think the next stage is to canvas our members and see what they think. In the meantime, I've emailed the rest of the committee with the details and will see what response I get (slightly akin to lighting the blue touch-paper and retiring backwards at speed). I think we'll get there with organising these longer swim sessions - but it will involve people getting use to some changes (but hopefully only short-term ones until the leisure centre is back up to full numbers of lifeguards).

    As I suspected, the decorating ladies were done by mid-morning and disappeared. We have lovely bright walls and white paintwork now but we've got to live with bare wooden stairs until next week when the new stairs and landing carpet should be fitted. I hope it's the same guy comes to do it as the bathroom door could do with a little off the bottom and I'd rather pay him another £20 than faff around doing it myself.

    I've been to the recycling centre again today to get rid of the old stairs carpet, the underlay and some other 'stuff' that was in the garage that I managed to fit into the back of the car. I told Margaret not to worry but the garage is almost getting to the stage when you can move around in it without tripping over so much stuff ;)
  • Rest day for me today. For one thing the knee is beginning to feel a bit sore.

    Mel, your point about the garage made me think of Parkinson's Law: work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Here's an amended version: rubbish expands to fill the space available for its storage. If I pay your guy £20 will he take a little bit off my bottom?

    HS, hope that Sarah's HM doesn't impact negatively on her marathon plans especially as so fa everything seems to be going to plan. (She needs you to be pacing her.)
  • Afternoon all,

    JB: Your mention of negotiations around pay offers made me smile, can you imagine any employer offering 5% these days? Well done for knocking 30 seconds off your interval session time, that’s quite an improvement isn’t it? Good luck for tomorrow’s parkrun, I hope your knee is better by then. That was a nice compliment when your mate’s running coach commented on there being a 10 year age difference, Despite what you think I’m sure he wasn’t just being polite or feeling sorry for you. (Has he had these problems with his eyes before?).  :p
    £20 to get a bit taken off your bottom - that may be considered taking a bargain too far.

    HS: It must be just over a fortnight now until your marathon, do you start tapering soon? 

    WtnMel: You are making good headway with your plans to get the 90 minute swim sessions back. I suppose it’s not surprising that some compromises are needed in the short term, and the leisure centre manager does sound like he is doing his best to accommodate you. I hope the other swimming club members appreciate your efforts. Did you go ahead with your golf match today? 
    (I like your friend’s “uncredible”).


    A short run out today comprising a 10 min warm up then 6 x 20 seconds at 8.49 pace with 60 second recoveries, then 10 minute cool down. Garmin shows my fastest set was 7.34 and slowest was 8.10. I found it very hard to judge my pace over such a short space of time. I have to repeat this session next week, so will see if I can get closer to the target pace. 
    I don’t think I got around to reporting on my 10k at Druridge Bay a couple of weeks ago. That’s probably due in part to it being such a tiring race. A combination of the heat, the inclines and two beach sections of about a mile each resulted in a run I really didn’t enjoy. Which was a shame because I normally look forward to this 10k, but Covid considerations along with a junior race at the same time meant the 10k course had to be changed. Apart from having two sections along the beach instead of the usual one, the new course felt like it had more inclines than usual. The strange thing is though that although a lot of runners commented on the constant inclines when you look at Garmin you can see that wasn’t actually the case, perhaps it was just the heat that made it feel that way? Whatever it was I felt I had no energy in the last half mile or so and really had to ignore my heavy legs and just concentrate on finishing. My finish time was a disappointing 1.05. I hate having runs like that because they are so disheartening, you feel that any improvement you may have been making was just an illusion. So you can imagine how pleased I was to see the published results for my previous 10k (the one that sets the handicap for the GP series of 5k runs over winter). Out of 179 runners who took part on the night I’m ranked 7th (remember the finish times are adjusted by the handicap weighting) and I’m listed as 4th out of the top 5 ladies. I’m quite pleased with that because we’re a new team and I hadn’t met any of the other members before the run, and no doubt they were a bit concerned about having a little old lady on the team (I was the second oldest runner that night), so all I can say is “hooray for the handicap system” as it puts us all on an equal footing. (Also I worked out my WAVA was much higher than the younger runners on my team so that made me feel even better!) 
    We’re getting used to our new hybrid car now, and are pleased we made the change. So far it has hardly used any petrol and runs a lot on the battery, although when it does switch over to petrol it charges the battery back up at the same time. It doesn’t completely recharge it though so you still need to plug it in when you get home. We’re still waiting for our electricity supplier to change our smart meter over to a different generation of smart meter, and until that happens we can’t take advantage of the cheaper tariff, however even on our present tariff it doesn’t seem as though we are using a lot more electricity (although our next monthly statement should give us a better idea). 
  • Good afternoon everyone,

    WtnMel, I hope that you will keep winning so that Alan considers recalculating your handicap, to equalise again.

    It seems that it might be a while before the swimming sessions are sorted to everyone's satisfaction.

    JB, today is a rest day for me too. I hope that your knee doesn't cause too many problems.

    I'm also worried that Sarah's half marathon might adversely effect her marathon training. A shame that I won't be there to pace her, but she knows what she is doing, and I'm sure will be sensible.

    Aquarius, we have already commenced tapering. Monday was our last and furthest long run. Our marathons are on 3rd October, Sarah F doing the London, and Sarah H, Mike and I doing the virtual.

    Your 20 second efforts this morning were speedy. I think that it is difficult for accurate reading on the garmin for such short efforts. It's the same with heart rate readings. 

    Your 10k race time seems very respectable to me. The conditions weren't ideal for a pb time; the heat is very strength sapping. Our 18 mile forest run a couple of weeks ago, was on probably the hottest day of the year, and you will have seen from my run report that we had to do a lot of walking. That's great that the handicap system gave you a better result than you first thought. I found the same thing when we were running 5k's every Saturday. My WAVAS were usually superior to those of the younger runners with much quicker times.

    I'm glad to hear that you are getting used to your new hybrid car. It certainly sounds as if it is more economical to run than a petrol or diesel car.  
  • WtnMelWtnMel ✭✭✭
    edited September 2021
    Afternoon all,

    JB - hope the knee soreness goes away (can't imagine you resting it for very long!). The 'stuff' in the garage has certainly expanded over time - mostly on purpose as I didn't have any plans to go to the recycling centre for quite a few months. But I'm making a concerted effort to clear/tidy it now I've started. 

    Aquarius -  I've had one reply to my swim club email from our webmaster saying he's no intention of returning to the swims until both pools are available for the entire session .. still waiting to hear what the rest have to say. The golf got cancelled as my friend Alan got a puncture (he sent me a photo on WhatsApp - the offending thorn was 2" long!). Apparently, modern cars don't have a spare tyre, just a kit to fill the tyre with foam - who knew? So he had to get the RAC out (he was close to home so able to use a taxi). Reading about the Druridge run I wouldn't be too disheartened .. running on sand, inclines or not, is always going to be harder then roads and will result in a slower time. Don't go to Druridge early on Sunday btw - there'll be hundreds of people running down the beach and I can guarantee they'll all have forgotten to pack their kit ;) As you say - hooray for handicapping. Glad to hear the hybrid car is working out okay so far.

    HS - oops, cross-posted with you. As mentioned above, the golf today got cancelled. And as mentioned, still waiting for the rest of the committee to reply. But until we have canvassed the members and got their opinions, we don't really know what is going to be the best thing to do about the swims sessions.

    We had a new cupboard fitted to hide the fusebox in the hall and the decorating ladies painted it the same colour as the walls. Margaret tried to put the doors back on and couldn't manage it so I did it this morning and found the 'ladies' had fitted the hinges back on upside down on one of them - so I'm not surprised Margaret got confused with it. The other small job I've done today was on the landing. We're still without any carpet there until Thu and there was one particularly squeaky bit of floor. I've used some expandable filler underneath the offending piece of flooring to try and stop it flexing/squeaking every time you walk on it. So we'll have to see if that improves things.
  • Aquarius, interesting to read of your 20 second intervals. I do 25 second ones (then a mere 5 seconds rest) and I thought they were short. Maybe I should have a longer rest between the intervals as the hear rate is still pretty high when I crack on with the next one (I do 20). I'm sue a coach would cry in frustration if he/she saw my training.
    Great news on the handicapping.  Whilst any specific handicapping system might be imperfect, you've got have something - and preferably one that over-rewards oldies! 
    That 10k run sounds like something that I for one, would enjoy. 
    Nice to hear that the hybrid car is proving it's worth. Well done for getting one.

    HS, I'd love to know what your taper look like. I realise that a marathon requires far much more discipline than my 5ks where you can get away with over/under-training, poor diet, going off too fast/too slow, slapdash preparation (sleep?) and the like. Anyway one of these, including a poor taper, can get you into serious problems.

    Mel, the hinge anecdote made me giggle.  Your house must be just about immaculate by now! Is there anything more that needs doing?

    So, did a bit of 'local tourism' today and went to Littlehampton, some 7 miles west. This is really 'more of the same' i.e. a prom side course, flat as a pancake and often windy. Today the wind was no more than a stiff breeze so conditions were set for fast times, although for some reason this parkrun doesn't attract the out and out speed merchants that we get a few miles to the east. (The course appears to be a tad long, but I don't think this is common knowledge!)

    Anyway: 21.50 with an 80.32% AG. Won my 65+ category and achieved the 2nd best AG on the day. Most pleasing of all was to find myself with the 2nd best time ever in my category - I told you the speed merchants don't go there.


  • Evening all,

    JB - back in the day when I did intervals regularly, the 'rest' between was usually twice the time spent doing the interval. I don't think there's any more major decorating needed in the house - the cupboard doors I mentioned around the fuse-box need touching up (the decorating ladies are quick and efficient but a little bit slapdash at times and they missed a few small patches. We also noticed the study walls need touching up - they were done when it was really warm so we think the paint dried out too quickly.

    As you know, I've left Almost Athletes. Or rather, it left me last year when no-one I knew from the Thu group appeared to notice I had not been able to train for weeks, let along give a f**k. I never thought the lady who organised the Thu runs particularly liked me - especially after some outbursts when some of the group ran off ahead and didn't wait for us slower ones and I let them know what I thought. I liked her originally - but grew to dislike her as time went on. She's just blogged on Fetch about buying xmas decorations - in September. A tasteless acrylic reindeer family that light up, for her front garden, and she thought she'd got a bargain because she got 15% off and they were just under £200. She justified the purchase by saying a friend who was widowed last year said "if something makes you happy and you can afford it, you should buy it". I left a comment suggesting there's a difference between being able to afford something and paying over the odds for over-priced stuff. 
  • Ha ha, you tell her Mel 😄
  • Hope all is well with you all. I can't post at the moment as my daughter has had an accident and needs stitches. Hopefully she will be ok.
  • Sorry to hear that HS, I hope it's not too serious. x
  • Thanks Aquarius, I don't think it's too serious, she was waiting for a call back from the nurse when she last contacted me, and will keep me informed x
  • HS, hope is is well with your daughter. No matter how old they are, you can never switch off from your children. 

    Mel, thanks for the advice on intervals. Now - crack on and get that study sorted!

    6k run yesterday, and then watched Lily beat her 2k PB for the second successive week. At this rate of progress she will be a world record holder in a few years. But for now, it's just nice not to come last! Today  will be a rest day although with a cycle to have breakfast with some ex-school friends.

    Not that this matters a jot, but I just noticed an inaccuracy with my race report from Saturday: for 21.50, please read 21.05!

    A real nip in the air today...........



     
  • WtnMelWtnMel ✭✭✭
    edited September 2021
    Morning all,

    Aquarius - needless to say (like every other time recently) she studiously ignored my comment. I used to like her but no longer and I guess the feeling's mutual. The fact they have a second home they use occasionally - thereby pricing locals out of the market - is something else I can't agree with.

    HS -  saw your post about your daughter having had an accident and needing stitches .. glad to hear it's nothing too serious.

    JB - can't remember if I mentioned the 'decorating ladies' like to use quick-drying satinwood paint on the white woodwork. But we know the previous paint had worn away on the areas that get the wear (banister rail, newel posts at top & bottom of the stairs). So we got some white gloss and while I was cooking Margaret's roast dinner yesterday, she put a coat of gloss on those bits. There's a tiny amount of difference in the look of the finish - but to be honest, I doubt we'll notice after a week or two.

    Slightly jealous of my friends who took part in the North East Skinny Dip yesterday. No official figures yet but I've heard whispers it was over 800 this year (last year was a new record of 720).

    In other news, I had been sending a £1/month to Fetch to support the website. But with no running these days, and just the occasional swim/walk, I've not been logging much either. Coupled with the fact I've got tired of posting on the forums too, I've decided it's no longer worth it. So I've just cancelled my standing order. No idea what I'll do with the extra £12 per annum that has freed up :)
  • WtnMel - sorry to hear that your golf was cancelled, how annoying for Alan to get a thorn in his tyre. We haven't had a car with a spare tyre for ages, the BMWs we've had used to supply you with "run flat" tyres, the idea being if you got a puncture the tyre would be ok to drive on until you reached a garage. We noticed with our new BM however that the run flats are no longer fitted, and instead we've got the inferior foam kit. Perhaps all manufacturers are switching over to that system? 
    Has the expanding foam fix make any difference to your squeaky floorboards?
    I saw the reports about the skinny dip, stating over 800 people took part. I did wonder if you wished you could have been part of it. Never mind - there's always next year. 
    Your comment regarding Fetch reminds me that I seem to have been kicked off Strava. I must admit it's probably my own fault because after signing up for it I only used it for a few weeks. I decided to log on a couple of days ago and although I still have an account there's nothing recorded as regards my runs.
    Have you given much thought to how to invest your £12 windfall? 

    JB - I told you Lily is a legend, she's obviously got your competitive genes. Crikey, your parkrun time on Saturday just gets more and more impressive. Well done. I'm no expert on intervals, but like Mel I always understood the rest period should be about double the effort period, but from your race times it seems your 5 seconds rest seem to work for you. Hope you had a nice time this morning meeting up with your ex-school friends.

    HS - any news about your daughter? I hope everything is alright.

    An easy 40 minute run for me yesterday, but with the surprising bonus that my return section, which is on a slight incline, was faster than usual although I didn't feel I was trying any harder than I normally do. This morning was a time trial (it looks as though this may be a weekly thing on this training plan). Warm up for 10 mins, run a mile quickly, then cool down for 10 minutes. Last week my mile time was 9.21, today it was 8.54 so a slight improvement. Again though it was a bit of a surprise because I slept badly last night and felt pretty sluggish this morning (I blame Steve's curry - it was so hot he had to keep mopping his brow while eating it. I thought it was just women who had hot flushes :D )
  • Aquarius - it sounds like the foam kit is what they do with cars these days then? Sounds like a backward step to me and I'd not be happy with not having a spare of any sort. Maybe a spare is an 'extra' you have to pay for these days! :) Re the floorboard - the expanding filler hasn't completely fixed the squeak but it's better than it was. I expect by the time the new carpet and underlay is down, it'll deaden the sound and we'll probably ignore it like we used to. Re Strava - I don't use it much as I used to as I'm not logging much, but when I'm on there I always try and remember to give you and HS kudos for your efforts. So you're definitely still on Strava even if you haven't been logging on, and the details are being sent to Strava by Garmin Connect. Well done for your recent training and the improvements you are seeing. Here's your Strava account ..


  • Good afternoon everyone,

    Thanks for your good wishes for my daughter! She didn't have to have stitches, as they were able to glue the wound. They gave her antibiotics and an anti tetanus jab. She says that she is ok now, which is good. She lives in Aylesbury, a bit too far away to just pop round to see how she is.

    There's a lot to catch up with, but I've read back and will comment briefly.


    WtnMel, I see that you fell out with a lady at your ex club which was one reason why you left, the other being that no one missed you when you hadn't attended for some while.

    I note that you have cancelled your subscription to fetch. I also pay £1 a month,  but do spend quite a time on it, so is worth it for me.


    Aquarius, I see that there has been some discussion about cars not having a spare wheel these days. Thankfully my Volkswagen Up which has a 65 number plate does have one. It also takes CD's which is good, as I'm not into streamed music which seems to be the norm with newer cars.

    Your training seems to be going very well, and 8.54 for a mile is very good.


    JB, well done to Lily, she seems to be getting quicker week on week. Well done to you too, you seem to be getting quicker and quicker. You must be doing something right!


    My running has been going well and I ran 41 miles last week. The furthest this year. On Saturday we did 10 minute reps at different paces, with no recoveries in between. Sunday was a solo 6.84 hilly road run at an easy pace. Yesterday was a 90 minute forest run with the Monday Group. I met up afterwards for lunch in a lovely old fashioned tea shop in the village with Karen, Alice and 2 year old Rosie.

    Today is a rest day, and this afternoon I had a dental appointment. I've got to go back again tomorrow afternoon.

    I nearly forgot to say that Sarah F did really well in the Bristol Half Marathon on Sunday, running it in 2.18. Her mile splits were very consistent, several consecutive being identical. She obviously can pace herself without her usual pacemaker🤣 
  • Mel, my paper had a photo of that skinny dip. It was (thankfully) taken some distance away but my word it looked like a place and time I'd rather not be! That £12 must be burning a hole in your pocket..............

    Aquarius, any news on the house sale/purchase (this one could run and run)? I've never been on Strava (just another log-in/password to have to fiddle with), but in many ways it looks right up my street as I could track some of my rivals in my slightly sinister way.

    HS, good week's running. Glad that Sarah did well. Good luck at the dentist! 

    Monday was a rest day and meet-up with 2 old schoolmates, one of who had an angina attack since I last saw him, Bit of a shock, to say the least as he's always been a healthy, fit chap (ex-runner) never happier than when digging his allotment.

    Tuesday, I did my 10k time trail, the idea being to duck under 46 to give me a bit for confidence for upcoming races over that distance. I went for precise splits, but not as precise as I'd hoped as I ended up with 46.01! Pleased in many ways with the time but also just a tad frustrated.
  • Evening all,

    HS - glad to hear confirmation your daughter's wound wasn't too serious. Not so much falling out with the lady from the club - just mutual disinterest in each other (same goes for the rest of them I used to run with). I used to spend more time on Fetch but not so much these days - if I ever get back to logging walks or runs regularly I might re-start sending £1 per month just to get rid of the irritating adverts. As I've mentioned, I use my ipod for music - but like a spare wheel, I'd like to have the option of a cd player available if I got a new car. I'd seen all your recent training on Strava - well done! And a well done to Sarah F - send her the 'Mature Runner' thread's best wishes and congratulations.

    JB - apparently, 830 'nutters' at the skinny dip this year. The numbers have been steadily growing and Jax the organiser is hoping for 1000 for the 10th anniversary dip next year. I'd recommend looking at Strava as it gives you plenty of nerdy details to pore over and you could keep an eye on your rivals easily. There are some 'premium' options - but I'm quite happy with the free version. If you do decide to use it, you'll find me, HS and Aquarius are all on there (well, Aquarius is for now anyway! :) ). Nice to meet your old schoolmates but as you say, a bit of a shock to hear one of them had an angina attack. Well done re that 10K run - but sooo close to breaking 46 mins. Must have been very frustrating when you saw the time.

    Garden waste bin on Friday - so been sweeping up leaves and cutting lawns today. I should have done some more de-cluttering in the garage - but I'll get round to that soon. Need to save my energy for Friday's golf.

    Tomorrow we should be getting the new stair carpet fitted in the morning. Hope so - and hope it doesn't get re-scheduled to the afternoon because it's Margaret's birthday tomorrow and I'm taking her out for a late (2:30pm) lunch. She was a bit hesitant about eating out last time we spoke about it. But she's changed her mind so I've booked a table at the hotel where we had afternoon tea a couple of weeks ago. Her 'main' present isn't going to arrive in time (not had any updates on the delivery date - grrr). So while I was in town yesterday, I got some chocloates and biscuits that I know she likes which will suffice for now. And I've written on her card- main present to follow! :)
  • Mel, thanks for the nudge towards Strava. I'll check it out. Good luck with the stair carpet. You sound as if you are going to give Margaret a very thoughtful birthday. I'm sure she'll be really pleased. Are you going to follow the Ryder Cup? I've got Sky so I'll zone into it. It's the only golf I ever watch. I'm not sure what the odds are this time, but home advantage must help the Yanks. And yes I'll brace myself for their more raucous cheering. (Might turn the sound off!) 

    Today I did my weekly 5k made of of steady runs (3k) and intervals (2k). Given that I've got a Parkrun on Saturday and a 10k on Sunday I'm not sure that this was sensible. A strong wind on the prom and I did my 'sprints' into it.

    Funny watching Johnson give his global warming speech when in 2007 he was writing that overpopulation was far more important. Ironic for a man who has fathered 6(?) children. 
  • Good afternoon everyone,

    JB, thanks! The dental appointment went well, and Sarah was pleased with her half marathon time.

    That must have been a big shock, seeing an old school mate had had an angina attack.

    Well done for that amazing 10k time, just a second shy of 46 minutes. Good luck for Saturdays parkrun and Sundays 10k.

    Nothing surprises me about Captain U Turns!


    WtnMel, thanks, my daughter did have to have stitches after all, but she is ok now.

    Thanks for your "well done'" for my Strava runs and Sarah's half marathon.

    The free version of Strava is perfectly adequate for our running, or other activities. Fetch has all the bells and whistles that premium Strava has.

    Good luck for Fridays golf!

    Happy birthday to Margaret🍷🎂. Hope you both enjoyed your late lunch!


    We ran 5.23 miles in the forest yesterday incorporating 5 x 60 seconds with 60 seconds jog recoveries. My 5th effort was the quickest, average pace 7.31 minute miling.

    Today was an easy pace 3 miles on roads, in accordance with the marathon taper schedule. The marathon and virtual marathon are a week on Sunday. I can't believe how quickly they have come round. 
  • Good evening all,
    Nothing much to report, today is a rest day. 
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