Growing Old Disgracefully

2012 Here I Come!

2011-12-30T06:49:00.000-08:00

2012 should be a good one. Has Paula Radcliffe got one more fast marathon left in her legs for the London Olympics? Can Haile Gebrselassie turn back the clock and put the young pretenders in their place?

My personal target for the year is Berlin. Whatever you do in 2012 have a good one!

2501

2011-11-10T01:58:00.001-08:00

The Athens Classic Marathon is run in memory of Grigoris Lambrakis every November.

WANTED

2011-05-10T02:41:00.000-07:00

DEAD OR ALIVE

For the betrayal of voters, students and crimes against the climate.

Tim's adventures continue

2011-05-02T07:35:00.000-07:00

Read all about the perfect race. Slightly too much information in places but another good post from Tim Sander.

Sport's Holy Grail

2011-04-12T02:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0105ymz/The_Sub_2Hour_Marathon_Sports_Holy_Grail/

Sub 4

2011-03-08T03:52:00.000-08:00

Marato de Barcelona by bryangreenatkinson at Garmin Connect - Details

Cruise intervals

2011-02-08T13:15:00.000-08:00

Cruise intervals by bryangreenatkinson at Garmin Connect - Details

Tales of mountaineering and bee keeping

2010-11-05T04:31:00.000-07:00

My mate Tim has started blogging from the Canadian wilderness.

http://smilinghills.blogspot.com/

Guy Fawkes 10 by bryangreenatkinson at Garmin Connect - Details

2010-11-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

Guy Fawkes 10 by bryangreenatkinson at Garmin Connect - Details

Amsterdam Marathon by bryangreenatkinson at Garmin Connect - Details

2010-11-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

Amsterdam Marathon by bryangreenatkinson at Garmin Connect - Details

Last minute nerves before the start of the Amsterdam Marathon

2010-10-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

Quote of the week

2010-10-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

“It’s the Tories who have been putting the ‘N’ into cuts.”

Sandi Toksvig

2011 and all that

2010-10-07T01:26:00.000-07:00

I’ve still got a couple of races to complete this season but already my thoughts are wandering to what races I will enter in 2011. Annoyingly some of the races I want to enter fall on weekends I’m not free.

I’ve already registered an interest in next years Great North Run, even though I said this year would be the last. Despite its many faults (over priced and over crowded are two of them) I did still feel genuinely excited when my race number dropped through the letter box this year. The best solution would be if the Great Langdale Marathon were to be held on the same weekend as the GNR. That would give me the perfect excuse to bugger-off to the lakes for the weekend and avoid GNR withdrawal symptoms as well as the Metro queues.

I’ve wanted to run the Great Langdale for a while now but haven’t been fit enough. Having recced some of the course last weekend I realise I’m still not fit enough! But I could be in eleven months time. I live in hope…

End of week report

2010-09-24T00:21:00.000-07:00

Posts have been a bit thin on the ground due to time constraints. My training this week has consisted of the Great North Run on Sunday, a relatively easy session on Tuesday and a 20 mile run yesterday. I’m feeling a little bit stiff today!

Down with this sort of thing

2010-09-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

The BBC takes up the story.

Careful now!

2010-09-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

Burn in Hell sinners!

2010-09-07T02:48:00.001-07:00

Assclown?

Respect to Brian Paget for introducing the phrase "Tactless religious assclown" into the lexicon.

Read all about it in the Gazette.

Look North!

2010-09-05T02:30:00.000-07:00

O. Ivar Lovaas RIP

2010-09-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

“If I had gotten Hitler… at the age of 4 or 5, I could have raised him to be a nice person.”

Obituary New York Times

Summer Holidays

2010-08-25T02:41:00.000-07:00

Finding time to train and blog in the school summer holidays is always a challenge. This week I’ve managed to squeeze in a 400 X 12 interval session and a 16 mile run. The last one-and-a-half miles of the 16 miler were very tough going.

Parkrun PB

2010-08-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Technological breakthrough or expensive gimmick?

2010-08-08T01:43:00.001-07:00

Starting to get serious

2010-07-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

Intervals

2010-07-25T02:30:00.000-07:00

Many a true word spoken…

2010-07-25T02:18:00.000-07:00

The accidental duathlete

2010-07-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

The Start time of the Ryton Triathlon was approaching but the anemometer on the roof of the Sailing club was consistently showing gale force winds. The race organiser, keen that we should all have the opportunity to go for a swim in the Derwent reservoir, delayed the start of the race by 30 minutes. We continued to get changed into our tri kit. My brother rubbed his bodyglide wetsuit lube onto his testicles then offered the bar to me. I un-politely declined.

The organiser decided to ask the rescue canoeists to paddle the swim course to get a more accurate idea of conditions at water level. The wind prevented them from even getting their canoes into the water. At about the same time a 65mph gust almost flipped the rescue rib over in the middle of the lake. The decision was reluctantly taken to turn the event into a duathlon.

My relief was short lived. The cycle course was very tough. The scenery was superb on the route but cycling along the A68 with strong cross winds isn’t my idea of fun. Me and Bob leap-frogged each other throughout the race; he was stronger on the bike but I had the edge on the run. About ten minutes before the end of the race we agreed we’d both given it a good go so decided to finish the race together. At several points during the race we’d joked that ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ The joke didn’t seem quite so funny when we heard after the race that one of the competitors had died during the swim at the Ripon Triathlon.

What a difference a day makes

2010-07-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I struggled to run two-and-a-half miles at a very sluggish pace. Tonight I ran fourteen and felt great. Life is like that sometimes.

Good Luck!

2010-07-10T02:50:00.000-07:00

Good luck to Emily today in the Ripon Triathlon. When we next meet up (probably in 2011) we can swap tales of unforgiving hills and getting tangled up in pond weed.

Mash It!

2010-07-10T01:38:00.000-07:00

It’s better to give than receive

2010-07-02T01:29:00.000-07:00

Oh wow! I’ve received a blog warming virtual present from Brian Paget. It’s very kind of you but you shouldn’t have. You really shouldn’t have!

Click here and follow the link to see my new gift.

2010-07-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

I always knew that these fad diets were dangerous

2010-07-01T02:41:00.000-07:00

I’m attempting to ‘lose weight and get fit’ but I can safely say that this has never happened to me.

Ooops!

2010-06-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

I forgot to enable comments; sorry about that.

Too good an opportunity

2010-06-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

I know I said I was taking a couple of days off training but sometimes you just have to grab opportunities as they occur. Swimming is by far my weakest triathlon discipline and I’ve been struggling to fit in any open water sessions. In fact the last time I swam was in the castles challenge tri off Bamburgh beach. This evening I had no excuses. The weather and tides were right and I was available. I grabbed my wet suit and was off. I put in a good 800m or so, confidence building swim and the only down side is a few wetsuit armpit burns. I’m now drinking a nice Italian red to numb the pain. Must remember the wetsuit lube next time.

When your body (and your HRM) is telling you to take a day off

2010-06-29T01:34:00.000-07:00

Training has been going well and I’ve been making slow but steady progress. At least I had been until I attempted some interval training yesterday. On Saturday I’d improved on my best Parkrun time by a colossal 4 seconds and was feeling that all was well with the world.

An interval target pace of 07:23 min/mile was always going to be challenging while running on sand, with a stiff breeze and what passes for a hot day in South Shields. But I didn’t realise just how far off the mark I was going to be. The mind was willing but my legs just wouldn’t go any faster. The next training session in my diary is a 13 miler; I think I’d better take a few days off before then.

What I get up to on a Saturday morning

2010-06-27T03:50:00.000-07:00

On your marks...

Photos taken by Mark (can’t find his surname) and lifted from the Newcastle Parkrun website.

2010-06-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

2010-06-27T03:46:00.000-07:00

2010-06-27T03:44:00.001-07:00

Beasts

2010-06-27T03:40:00.000-07:00

Nice Shorts Bob!

2010-06-27T03:34:00.000-07:00

Thank you to the race marshals

12 miler (with a couple of quick dips in the North Sea)

2010-06-24T01:25:00.000-07:00