Running

Pleasantly surprised! The only AF beer I'd tried before was Nanny State, which I thought was a bit thin and astringent. The Erdinger seemed much more like the real thing.

Good work dude!

Id agree with something like this. I like a little rowing or swimming as part of a cross training.
If you are in the gym you can always jump on the treadmill for an easy few k’s too.

Kettlebell swings between teams meetings ftw.

Cheers @duncs and @Well_is_it, I should have specified that I have the fortune of not working Mondays, hence why I do a long ride that day. I agree that I could probably ditch a z2 run during the week and add in some speed work. That's what is missing from the picture right now and while the bike is pure endurance, I would like to improve my top end running. I'll give the Tuesday recommendation by duncs a go. Cheers!

Conversely to this.

I’ve had really good success with getting 90% of my intensity from bike workouts and doing almost all my runs at zone 2.

There’s been speed runs but they’re not every week and I have a new 5km pb

Yeah, agree weekly speedwork isn’t needed, just every now and then. It’s too taxing.

Worst course ever. The longest unbroken straight is the first 1km. Constantly turning through 90° or 180°

Lol

Thanks for the tip! When’s a good time to arrive for this? Would taking a toddler be ok do you think?

Depends who you want to see. My wife isn't going to get to 14 miles much before midday, so that's what time I'm aiming for. There is a very small park just off Poplar high street, next to some flats that mine played in when they were toddlers

Did two thirds of a parkrun yesterday after not running for nearly a year. JFC. It's going to be a long road back

I'm reading that the Chinese are starting to catch up on running shoes. A handful of brands that would compare favourably to Nike etc.
Any of you tried them? Thoughts?

Perfection

Yep, I lived in china so have worn a bunch of chinese stuff - I quite like li-ning shoes! I also love some of their garish tracksuits.

London Marathon Ballot open: https://www.tcslondonmarathon.com/enter/how-to-enter/the-ballot-explained

London Marathon Ballot open: https://www.tcslondonmarathon.com/enter/­how-to-enter/the-ballot-explained

I'm liking the option to upgrade (their words...) from Brighton for £10 if you get in on the Ldn ballot. Was considering Brighton anyway, so this has sweetened the deal.

Yearly rejection soon. Yay.

Random things are random. I've had about 9 rejections for London but I did get a place one time.

I've done Brighton twice but each time I've spent £££ on a nice hotel. The first time I stayed both the nights before and after the marathon and was able to make good use of the pool/spa/etc at the hotel after the race, and then travel home comfortably by train the next day. The second time I only stayed the night before, and ended up standing on the packed train the whole way back to London.

My BiL has since moved right next to the start so I'd stay with him if I did it again. Meanwhile it's so much easier for me to get to/from the London Marathon on the day so I'll always try and get a place there.

My goal is, as always, to get in to good enough shape to actually "run" more than 30km of a marathon. Whether that ever happens or not is another matter.

Well done to anyone who did the marathon yesterday.

I'm wanting to know if anyone has experience of running in orthotics? and if they have helped with muscular problems.
I've been through 6 months of barely running due to constant calf muscle soreness and missed doing the Brighton Marathon due to this.

I have done 6 physio appointments then had an MRI followed by 5 rounds of electro shock therapy and loads of strengthening and it just goes back to square one.
Yesterday I could barely manage running 5km.

I'm thinking of trying orthotics before finding a new doctor and my insurance going sky high.

A lower limb surgeon friend of mine in the States thinks I might possibly need surgery because it could be something called Exertional Compartment Syndrome. He seemed to think my original specialist was a bit vague by ordering the electro shock therapy for a low level of fluid build up.

My OH had a series of low grade stress fractures and muscle tears over the last 5 years.
She ended up with orthotics about 18 months ago while building the mileage back up and it seems to have helped.
She does plenty of S&C too and when switching to posh carbon race shoes a month or so ago (getting used to them before marathon) then she was told by both physio and the specialist that originally made the orthotics that they shouldn't be used with the carbon shoes, and that, given she was essentially recovered, then she should be good to ditch the orthotics and run without from now on.
They had a place in aiding the recovery for addressing specific imbalances, but not ongoing.
She PB'd at London yesterday, so is pretty pleased with the advice.

Thanks Duncs, I'll look into them.
Good work on her PB.

Entered...

I’m still in a fair amount of pain.
Got back in touch with the specialist and said “ok MRI and guided injection please” she said yeah cool £500 for the MRI, I said “I found one for £300 not with your company can I do that one, would you accept their image?”
She stopped communicating.

I have the physio this week so I’ll get his steer as he works in her practice.

He’s got me doing c25k and it’s pretty annoying and shit.

I have custom orthotics and they are fantastic.
I had a lot of knee pain from hyper mobility and over pronation.

Orthotics fixed it instantly