MarcusX

8 hours ago, Harry said:

Yep, I can definitely confirm that playing football again has severely hampered my running. 
Played my first proper 11-a-side game for 9 years this afternoon. I knew I shouldn’t have attempted a comeback at 46 and a half years of age!! Did 15 mins, had to make a sharp turn and full pace sprint, lo and behold the groin went!! 
And that’s me done for a couple of weeks at least. 
Ah well. I’ll see how the recovery goes and maybe try some gentle running again as soon as it feels up to it. 
 

How did the ultra run go @MarcusX? 

I think it’s hard to try and play football after so much running as your body is only used to the continuous forward movement, the twists and turns are so demanding and need familiarisation again

Went really well thanks! Finished in 10:51:05. Initial goal (other than just showing up, and finishing!) was 10 hours and was looking good for it but fell apart around mile 38. It was a 3.3 mile course 15 laps, so after every 3 laps I got some food in(as I’d done in training). I took a 15 minute planned break after lap 9 (29ish miles) did some massage, changed socks etc and felt great but think I went a bit too hard for a couple of laps and pushed the pace too much. Mile 38-45 was an absolute slog and a lot of walking, the pain was unbearable but I got a second wind for the last lap, adjusted my goal to 11 hours on the fly and finished strong!
 

was a good little event, shame covid meant you didn’t really get to talk to people too much but the team running it were great, really friendly and supportive. 9 people did the full 50 out of 40ish runners and most were doing their first ultra.

In a whole world of pain now though and managed a couple of hours sleep but now wide awake 

34 minutes ago, jrabrewer said:

And yet rightly or wrongly France are letting considerable numbers into stadiums. Given that our government's (deeply flawed) response to covid 19 is extremely data driven, it will all depend on whether the data shows that cases are being transmitted at sporting events. My money is on very few cases being transmitted in this setting with all the social distancing and hygiene measures in place, plus the fact that it is largely all outside

well, this government didn't think there was any risk for 1000s of people to attend Cheltenham 

17 hours ago, Portland Bill said:

BREAKING:

The EFL will stage pilots with up to 1,000 fans at matches this weekend, following approval from the government.

EFL clubs were asked to put in requests by Today in order for their plans to be signed off in time.

As much as I want to get back to watching football, it's pure madness IMO that this is announced the same week as we're told too many people are socialising and strict rules about meeting families are brought in.

Quick update from me, after a few weeks of lacking motivation and injury I’ve been back out. Played first few games of football and like Harry said, different type of fitness and soreness next day 

My 50 mile ultra is still going ahead, next Saturday. Completed my longest run last weekend of 36 miles (day after playing football too!) and I’m feeling ready. Physio says I’ve got a bit of tendonitis in my hamstring but should be able to get through the run!

11 minutes ago, S25loyal said:

Are people really that desperate to watch football they want to view it sat like that?

If you think that’s bad, you should see what music concerts/festivals look like at the minute. Absolutely dreadful

21 hours ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

I didn’t say your claim was ridiculous - you said it was ridiculous to consider cancelling the season way back at the start of this pandemic, then leagues one and two had their seasons cancelled. Anyway, apologies, there was no need to go over this old ground again - it’s been an horrendously tough year for so many, I guess I’m just totally fed up with it all now. Can’t even get any enthusiasm back for football at the moment .... roll on Christmas!!

Can't wait to allocate family their own time slots for visiting hours. 2 per hour max, thank you.

Only joking... my whole family is small enough to adhere to the law 

I don’t think today’s “news” affects the sports attendance as much as it might seem.

The limit on groups of people outdoors was already 6 (unless all from no more than 2 households).

This change might actually help sport attendance because firstly, it will be in a “covid secure” environment e.g risk assessments, social distancing in place, etc etc same way pubs and gyms can operate still.

At present if 15 lads turned up together to watch football (thinking non league for example), the law has no power to split them up. Now there’s clear law in place that only groups of 6 regardless of the makeup of that group can attend together and if they persist on breaking the law, they can be split up.

All that said, I can see the outrage from people being told their family of 5 can only meet one grandparent while 3000 people attend a football match in the same way people are highlighting work/pubs/public transport etc. It doesn’t send out the right message to get people on side if on one hand you’re saying people are socialising too much - then the other saying it’s safe for thousands of people to attend a football match.

Someone pointed out the early posts and looking back, hold my hands up fully I never expected us to be in this situation at all. Can’t remember if/what I may have posted but I thought this would pass very quickly, remember texting a mate saying no chance the Euros would be cancelled get those flights booked!

As much as I want it, I just can’t Imagine a typical match day experience that remains safe. It’s easier to do at non league level as most is open air, less stands etc

How can you have thousands of people entering turn styles and congregating in concourses? Sharing toilets etc

Dont forget we’re still only meant to be inside with one other household at the moment (although that’s not being adhered to at all).

Only way I can see big crowds allowed in league stadiums is if there’s a big change in the general message from the government.

Theres already schools closing because a handful of teachers test positive. I really want to get back to watching football I just can’t get my head around it happening at the moment.

11 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Standard.

The latest reporter covering them, Sam Frost, comes out with this North Korean horseshit all the time.

Ben Garner 2 wins in 16 league games, bet he doesn’t print that.

Thanks for this, I’d forgotten about their end of season plummet!

On 14/08/2020 at 19:42, Busterrimes said:

Also the point of the interview was to talk about getting kits of teams the Sags have played yet he is wearing a Sampdoria shirt. Have they played them?

Not that I can see, assumed maybe Anglo Italian cup game but it didn’t resume til 92/93 and they played Southend and West Ham

54 minutes ago, Robbored said:

It’s a logistical nightmare to implement social distancing at a football match. Even with gaps between each seat there’d still be those sat behind and below you 

It would safer if everyone wore masks throughout the entire match day experience and not just when using the toilets.
 

It's an outside environment and not face to face contact, so based on current guidelines in the UK masks wouldn't be necessary or any safer - from what I've read. No different to sitting in a pub garden with someone on the table next to you. Its definitely the concourses and facilities plus getting in and out of the ground in crowds that is the big issue here - sitting in your seat distanced from the next group of people is the easy bit

On 03/08/2020 at 18:35, mozo said:

Incredible activity levels!

Thanks, it’s Tuesday and my legs still ache  but I had football training again last night. Rest day today

Training starts to ramp up this month, back to back weekend runs and about 200 miles in total all being well. Did 138 in July and 75 in June

Got a good long session in today

18.5 mile run along the canal. Walked in places where needed. 3 hours and 10 minutes

then 90 minutes of football training

and a round of golf!

47.3k steps 

6 weeks til my ultra marathon and time on the legs is looking good, and feeling less painful than I thought it might

18 hours ago, Lrrr said:

It would require some work but I'd say probably on a ballot where you can request to be in the next seat available to certain people ie family/friends so you can at least still talk to them. I say ballot because out of 23 games some fans may normally only attend 17 ish and to have a 1,3,5 / 2,4,6  game policy could mean all games you couldn't attend falling in your set and being hard done by. The trick with the ballot would be keeping track of how many games people attend so after 5 games or so the club start saying the people who have attended 0, 1 or 2 games take priority for games 6/7/8 and work on a similar process to try and ensure all the ST holders get the chance to watch a similar amount of games in the season. As said would require work to do but its possible.

I can’t see the club doing something that complex. They won’t please everyone no matter how they do it so I’d expect them to just allocate people every other game or 3 game rotation. If you can’t make it maybe you have the option to sell back your ticket or swap with another ST holder. The club will want it to be as simple as possible IMO

2 hours ago, wayne allisons tongues said:

Be interesting if season starts 12th September will it be economically viable for L1 and below teams. If not viable will they be allowed to postpone fixtures to a later date.

Kings Lynn received promotion to the national league on PPG but chairman was on TV yesterday saying they can’t afford to play games in empty stadiums and would even struggle in 30% capacity, they need the revenue from match day to survive. Such a shame for a club that’s just achieved promotion and should be celebrating.

There might be some L1/L2 suffering but the real problem will be in the lower steps.

I think that’s where the pro game will see issues, not from the top down but from the bottom up

40 minutes ago, E.G.Red said:

Many season ticket holders are in a ‘bubble’ ie live in the same house so the club should be able to account for that in any social distancing as you could have groups of 6 sitting together before there needs to be a spare seats

Then you have to consider who sits around them, presumably people couldn’t sit directly in front of behind? Or maybe they could as not face to face.

That isn’t even the biggest obstacle IMO it’s the concourse, the queues, the outlets and the toilets. 

Hit a bit of a wall today, 22 miles my furthest run of my training plan so far.

I think it's partly due to getting my food and drink all wrong. I didn't take much and planned to stop at a shop that I knew was on my route - didn't factor in the shop being shut 2/3rds of the way round my run!

I fuelled my 3 hours 45 minutes on 3 cliff jelly cubes and 3 digestive biscuits 

Legs feel awful and I don't want to run again for a long time!

How’s the training going chaps (and lasses?) 

A little update on my training, another 18 miles today.

Since I started my training plan I've completed 8 of the 16 weeks (though I'd say I'm maybe a week or 2 behind due to injury). I've got 11 weeks til raceday so plenty of time to recover it.

Started pulling it all into an excel sheet so I can compare stats, I love a spreadsheet 

8 weeks
24 runs
193.74 miles so averaging 24.2 a week
54 hours of running!

My pace for runs over 10 miles have come down by about 30 seconds, whilst staying the same kind of effort levels (zone 2 to low zone 3)

Also, completely injury free now in my ankle since changing trainers! Nothing during or after my runs which is great news. Put in 53 miles this week so really happy with that
 

16 hours ago, SydneyCity said:

If you’ve tried Zone 2 training for longer than two weeks, you’re more experienced than me

I’ve never really run with music as I felt it masked my footfall and I would come down too hard. That said, there is absolutely no chance of that happening right now as I pitter patter around at a pace that feels insanely slow.

I’ll give the lower bpm music a shot and see if it helps. Thanks for the tip!

Re: your blog post questions posted on Tuesday, I’ve built up quite a library of running books with an interest in vintage training guides - Percy Cerruty, Franz Stampfl, Guy Butler, Joe Bull to name a few. A decent amount of 70s and 80s stuff too, including some Russian manuals that I can’t understand but look cool. 

If you’d be interested in any knowledge from these, I’d be happy to share.

I did have a blog idea myself but the URL renewal request each year is a depressing reminder that I’ve never got round to doing it.

 

 

Oh wow that's an impressive set of books!

I think my initial pitch for the blog is going to be aimed at people new to running or at least running longer distances. I've started compiling a list of questions, mainly things ive been asked since I increased my running but also questions I've had to go and find the answers too.

Very much trying to stick to a fellow runner perspective than any type of expert. Someone who's had the same question, gone and done the research and compiled it into one place

If and when I start venturing into more advanced questions I'll definitely bend your ear

Anyone seen this?

I hate to discredit anyones achievements, however there's a lot of chatter online that the guy's a fraud.

Amazing feat if real, but seems loads of pitholes in his story but hes now up for/won a pride of Britain alongisde Major Tom.

Seemed to start as 50 halfs in 50 days during Ramadam too, now its 100 marathons round his dining room table, barefoot, in one direction, and has no answers to questions about nutrition or recovery  Also blocking and deleting loads of comments on his Social pages

26 minutes ago, SydneyCity said:

I never check the non-football thread so only just realised this was a thing. Great to see so many City supporting runners! 

I run mountain ultras with a preference of 100 miles and up.

So far I’ve run on every continent except Antarctica. There is a 100km race there that I’m planning to do one day but last time I checked the entry fee was 18,900USD which I can’t really justify right now.

Races I’ve competed in to-date include: The North Face 100Km (now Ultra-Trail Australia) x3, Great North Walk 100 Miles x2, Northburn NZ 100 miles, Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc 100 miles x2, Ultra Trail Mount Fuji 100 miles, Everest Trail Race 100 miles stage race, Comrades, Diagonale de Fous 100 miles, Ultra Fiord Patagonia 100 miles, Fat Dog Canada 120 miles.

This year I was meant to run Northburn again and the Tahoe 200 mile race but Northburn got cancelled and, while I believe Tahoe is still on, the cost of flying post-Covid - and the necessary quarantine to and from Australia - has now made it unfeasible for me.

Despite Antarctica, the only real dream race I have is the Hardrock 100 over in Colorado. I’ve qualified for for the past seven years but haven’t been lucky in the entry lottery.

Age and a two year old kid means I’ve recently started Zone 2 training (as opposed to my usual technique of just running a high volume at high speed) and it’s proving to be one of the most infuriating things I’ve ever done. Any tips, tricks and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

That’s a bloody impressive list there!

I don’t feel qualified enough to give advice as you’re much more experienced than me but I’d say in terms of controlling your heart rate stick on some music that’s lower BPM or a podcast, something you can switch off too and match the pace

I find it hard at the start of runs not to go out fast, but running zone 2 has done me the world of good in terms of increasing my distances

1 minute ago, 054123 said:

Nothing unlucky about tonight. 
 

A team battling for promotion wins tonight.

they did 

3 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

Did their goal keeper make a save?

A shot from Afobe and the Williams? header from the long throw. Feels like there were a couple more but only 2 shots on target according to flash scores