Harry

Ha ha. I knew you’d bite Nick ? Course I’m not serious. But I did want to make the very valid point that the real upturn didn’t happen until Divvy gave them a good talking to. ?

Yes. I think there is a fair amount of selectivity when remembering Cotterills reign. Let me be clear, I totally loved him in that double winning season. It was fantastic. But think back to his early days. He arrived when we were 2 points from safety and a -5 gd. After his first 14 games, he only had 4 wins and we were still 2 points from safety and -8 gd. It was only when a member of the CSF was allowed in the dressing room vs Gillingham that the players started taking our plight seriously and the last 13 games after that they won 7 and drew 5. I put that superb run of results as much down to Divvy and his honest assessment, as much as to SC’s motivation of the troops who’d just won 2 in 10 games!! Of course, the rest is history and if I ever see Cotts (which I have done) I am always forever grateful to him for that 14/15 season. But let’s not kid ourselves to think he was an instant success - it was only Divvy’s intervention that saved us that season! Cotts struggled at the start, was excellent in the middle, and then struggled at the end. But he’ll always be well regarded.

Not sure what league table you’re looking at. Lost 1 less than Bournemouth?? The table I’m looking at says we’ve lost double the amount of Bournemouth. And yes, we are in turmoil. We need 11 points from 15 games to stay up. We’ve only managed 12 in the last 16!! Unless something drastically changes, we are definitely going to be in a relegation scrap. I don’t wish to be rude, so please forgive me, but some people really need to wake the hell up.

Yep, I’m wondering if it was technique and footwear related. A few days before I started getting the pain I’d run 14k in the icy conditions which had me slipping a lot and so not running correctly, plus I did a few km of that route off-road, where it was also slippery and I didn’t have trail shoes on. Perhaps a combination of both of those might’ve had a bit of an impact. Swelling has gone down a little bit today, currently led down with it in the air and icing. Hopefully get the swelling right down tomorrow. Nearly 2 weeks now since first pain!

Was in enough pain today to finally say “I gotta go see someone about this”. Foot still painful and swollen. Swelling not reduced since last Wednesday. Been painful for 10 days now! Anyway, popped into Yate minor injuries unit. Was seen by a nurse practitioner who is a big city fan. We had a good old chinwag. Says he’s had people turn up there before in rovers shirts and he’s told them to bugger off “the only thing wrong with you is your bloody football team”. Ha ha. He knows quite a lot of the “old faces from the 70’s/80’s”. Anyway, he reckons I’ve got tendinitis. Which is what I suspected. But he also said I’ve got lots of bruising on the bottom of the toes which he thinks is from the running. Thinks I need to get a gait analysis and a properly fitted pair of running shoes. I know this chat has been on here before but I can’t remember which page, but what’s the place up in Clifton that does the gait analysis, and what’s the make of the specialist running shoes that people recommended?

Yeah, I actually do those calf stretches regularly, using the steps. Still not good at the mo. Very swollen. Was at its worst on Monday probs and gradually going down. Had a video consultation and Doc reckons it’s an infection of some kind and nothing to do with any ‘impact’. Just patiently waiting (and dropping ibuprofen).

Yeah, I’ve checked the shoes, they’re still in decent nick but are on 590k now, so ought to think about some new ones soon. Started feeling the foot a bit last Wednesday but I did 2 runs on it Weds & Thurs so probably aggravated it more. Started becoming uncomfortable on Friday and have to say it hurts like hell today!! Can’t put hardly any pressure on at all and it’s much more swollen. I wonder if it was caused a bit by running in the ice last Saturday - tend to have to change the stride pattern and the way the foot falls, maybe I just impacted differently on the footfall than normal. Hopefully back soon, but in serious pain today!!

On 96km for January so far. Was hoping to easily pass 100km, in fact was hoping to get that up to about 120km with a couple of long runs this weekend. But... got a massive pain in the bottom of my foot. Just all along where the toes meet the base/ball of the foot. Hurts like hell today and can put very little pressure on it! Not sure what it is or how I got it, but I might be stuck on 96k for Jan, which is disappointing. Is this some sort of ‘runners’ injury??

Nice. Yep, the road up to Hawkesbury Upton is the one with the tasty hill. Although, can’t quite tell but I reckon that route just avoids the biggie. If you go straight on instead of that 90 degree right turn just before you head up to Hawkesbury, you should carry on straight for a km or so and then do a right. That’ll take you up the big one.

Excellent. Good to hear you’re active. Yeah, I’m just over in Charfield and have ran up Chase Lane a few times, then along toward King Lane. It’s a lovely route. I’ve only noticed a few dwellings up there - a row of houses just up from the entrance to Lower Woods, and then another row just by the turn to Orange End. Aside from that just a few farmhouses. Whereabouts are you? I think I might run that route again this weekend maybe. Silvio Dante is the other who’s run along there, having run from the Wickwar side of Yate/Sodbury. I’ve yet to do the hill all the way up to the monument, which Silvio did the other week. Might have to try that this weekend, doing the route straight on at Orange End.

True. I enjoy running in the rain and also enjoy the cold. But never wind - hate running in wind

Ah bugger. No running this morning with all this snow ️

@Rob k Mate. Just seen your Strava from today. You’ve done another bloody marathon! Wow. Congrats mate, that’s superb. And 4:35 too. Mint time. Proud of you bud. I know you’ve worked damn hard for that. ????

Hi mate. On Strava. Go to analysis. It breaks down certain ‘known’ parts of your route. JWR (0.53k at 6.9%) is easier than Bridge Valley (0.7k at 7.6%), judging by this. Here’s your effort today :

I did. It’s a tough climb even for those pro’s. In comparison, this climb today would be more like the Planche Des Belles Filles!!!

@SuperDziek @Silvio Dante @Rob k Interesting to see you mention Bridge Valley Road SuperDzieck. I always considered that to be a super hard climb - and it is. I thought I’d have a quick look at the climbs we all did this weekend. Bridge Valley - 0.7k Grade 7.6% Somerset Monument - 0.7k Grade 8.3% Old London Road - 0.7k Grade 10.7% I knew the other 2 were biggies but had no idea they were beastlier than Bridge Valley. You were right Rob K - she’s a bloody brute! To think @mozodid this blighter on Xmas day, 15k into a half!!! Maaaan!! I absolutely hated going up there this morning and yet I absolutely loved it too. And I absolutely never want to do it again but know I will love it when I do ?

Yeah, I was surprised at the time to be fair. I usually clock around 4:45-4:50 per km on average, those massive inclines had me at 6:30!! However, on the way down I was sometimes hitting 4:00 pace - I felt half Kenyan for a few minutes ?

Fair play mate. Just looked at your route. I’ve done a couple of 10k’s along Chase Lane and King Lane, the initial hill as you go into Chase Lane is manageable. I usually turn at King Lane and towards Horton. I see you went straight on toward Hawkesbury, up to the Monument - that’s a big climb!! Fair play. It’s then pretty lumpy all through Horton and Vinney Lane. Tough half marathon that - good stuff.

@mozo I mentioned I was keen to run up that brutal hill climb you did on Xmas day. Managed it this morning. Wow!! That was tough. Eased myself into the run to start climbing at 1k and got to the top by the golf club at 5k. That 4k distance was quite literally vertical for about 2.5k and only levelled off temporarily a couple of times. An absolute beast!! Was nice turning at the top and running back down it though ?

That’s a hit rate of over 3% for the EFL. The equivalent of over 2 million people in the U.K. testing positive today. And yet football carries on.......

Ridiculous isn’t it. That football is still being played. Utterly ridiculous.

I’ve lost a fair bit of weight since then ? But you’re right. I am ******* angry. More positive Covids among 30 or so people at BCFC than there has been in my school or many hundreds!! More positives today with Derby cancelling. Loads of teams have had positives. Players regularly flouting rules. Yet they can carry on as normal whilst our children suffer ????

No, not announced yet. But the narrative this afternoon, and multiple press speculation (often founded on government insiders) certainly suggests that much stricter measures are going to be announced at 8pm tonight. As for the bit in bold, ie school closures, which you correctly say I’ve mentioned a few times. I’ll fully explain myself. I have a daughter in primary school. I view primary school as the most important function in early years development in children - not just in an educational sense, but in a socio sense. It’s where they learn friendship, relationships, how to interact with people, how to conduct themselves, learn right and wrong and discipline, consequences of actions, essentially it’s where they learn to ‘live’, how to become part of a social society. Early years education is the most important thing in this country. If you don’t have primary age children able to learn all of those socio-skills, then in 10 years time you’re gonna have a cohort of kids who don’t know how to function with each other, and from that you will lead on to increased mental health problems, increased drug dependancy, increased crime, increased poverty, etc etc. During lockdown 1, I saw the impact the lack of proper education, but more crucially, interaction with other children, had on my daughter. She began to stutter. Began to lose self-confidence. Began to behave poorly. Nothing extreme, just little signs here and there that if the lockdown went on much longer, there would be bigger problems. So, given that primary education, in my view, is the single most important thing for a functioning society, I would be incredibly disappointed if our children are once again denied their schooling, whilst a bunch of footballers could still kick a ball about, a bunch of celebs can pop off to Dubai for the week, a bunch of over-politicised gits can ‘protest’ or ‘march’ for whatever cause takes their ire this week, a bunch of bored folks can pop to B&Q to fill their time with unnecessary house adjustments etc etc. I’m 100% NOT in favour of lockdowns. However, if you HAVE to do it, then you have to do it properly. No leeway, no excuses, no ‘you can meet 3 people in a park as long as you have a poodle’ nonsense. Closing schools should be THE absolute last resort. If it’s 1 in it needs to be all in. If schools have to close then everything needs to close - sport, shops, borders, everything. Otherwise, we’ll be back in the same situation in 2 months time ad-infinitum. I hope that explains my position for you. ?

Yep. Lockdown 2.0 is coming. Let’s face it, the November lockdown was just a Lockdown shandy. This one will be proper again. But....will it? If they’re gonna have to go for a strict national lockdown again, and they’re gonna close schools, then they need to do it properly and go the whole hog. If my kids school is closing, then fine. But if people are still flying in and out of the country, playing football, going to The Range/B&Q etc, allowed to ‘protest’ etc etc, then I’ll be ******* angry. If they have to do it, do it properly. If it’s piecemeal, then there’s no ******* point. If my kids education has to be put on pause, then so does football, holidaying, browsing diy stores etc.

How was everyone’s 2020 then. Mixed bag for me. Started the year doing just a few runs on weekends between weekly 5 a side. Lockdown allowed me to really ramp up the running, hitting a high of 157k in July. Started playing football again in August and went back to full 11 a side in September (not a great idea at 46 and a 9 year break!!), which had a knock on effect on my running and also gave me lots of niggles. Was hoping, with no 11 a side football since Nov that I’d ramp up the running again, but a combination of a few little tweaks and niggles here and there has limited my distances. Ended the year with 1,213kms in total. 1,083 of running and 130k of football in various guises. I’ve got a target to beat for 2021 now - obviously football/injury dependent!! I reckon there a few of you on here who’ve done at least 1,500k and beyond......