keep on keeping on running

Congratulations Hat and Mr Hat !!

Popsy - I'd get another check on your foot if I were you.

ok lovely running ladies. I am "turning the computer off". but feel compelled to tell you that dh and I were married 15 years ago today. amd tonight have poloshed off 2 bottles of chmpagne between us. sweet.

Sounds a bit dodgy to me Popsy. I'm no expert but I'd want someone used to checking out x-ray detail to have a look..

moshi - I would recommend it for kids but you'd need a decent guide book, and to be reasonably laid back about food. We were with a czech friend and she suggested all the places we visited - without her (and without a guide book) we would have been a bit lost - she was the only member of staff in the hotel we stayed in who spoke decent English - and while there were lots of leaflets about the area and activities - they were either in czech or a bit uninformative. the reason I say you need to be laid back about food is you (and the kids) either need to be able to order stuff without worrying too much about what it's going to be, or be happy ordering chips. don't get me wrong the food's good - and some of it is excellent - you just can't always be sure what it will be!

Moshi - we were in a little village called Acequias, about half an hour's drive south of Granada. Got the villa through Cottages4you (one of the companies with whom you can get a discount through MN). It was lovely - near enough to the coast to go to the beach, but also in the mountains. Great for eagle spotting and mountain walks. There were definitely riding stables nearby too. Let me know if you want more details.
Wheelybug - yes, that was my thought too. Wasn't sure if I'd manage to run much, but thought I'd take my trainers anyway.

MOshi - meant to say v. jealous of the horse .

Sorry to hear about the injury Popsy - take it easy and fingers crossed for the great north.

Czecholslovakia does sound good Hat. Are there any beaches nearby .

SFX good luck for getting back to it !

*Gold - well done for running in the heat in spain. I am still deliberating whether to take my trainers to Greece or not. Even if I just do a couple of (early morning) 5K's it'll be better than nothing.

I did manage a 10K this morning - MIL was staying to babysit last night so I took advantage, decided to do something different and went on a completely different route - going further afield (I tend to stick close to home and run round loops round small roads) and ran to Richmond Park (surprisinly only 3K away) ran a bit of the park out another gate and home and added on some loops on familiar territory and included some big hills (well big for me). Managed to do it in 55 mins so v. pleased. I feel better about the fact I may do nothing in Greece. But then should be able to pick up again and be fine for 10K in October !

hat your holiday sounds amazing. I hear it is great value in the Czech Republic too. Would you recommend it with small children?

sfx we nearly camped but bottled out at the thought of the 14 month old being cooped up in a tent if it rained. Maybe next year and we may invest in one of those huge bell tents that seem very popular now.

gold where exactly were you as we mag disappear for a long weekend in a week or so for some sun and were wondering about Spain (plus I can usually ride there!)

Off to see my horse on Friday. Yippeee!

popsy - both can be affected although historically my right suffers the most. Overpronation contributes but is worse when I overstride and don't engage my glutes properly. I counteract this by running with smaller steps (which is what is recommended to run more efficiently anyway) and as if straddling a line which feels like I am running John Wayne style but is probably more normally. My overstriding came about due to all the buggy running I did as I wasn't using my arms but kept pace and managed this by taking bigger strides. I was also very quad dominant which was evident by my flat bum and over developed quads in relation to my hamstrings.

So to summarise: 1. Use arms more 2. Take smaller steps 3. Straddle a line (aka John Wayne running) 4. Kick legs back more so the movement is down and back (rather than forwards and up). I also do various exercises to strengthen my glutes and work on my hamstrings to stop my running being so quad focused and engage my glutes more.

Poor you, Popsy! I deal with my tendinitis by trips to the physio when it flares up and thinking about preventing the cause as I know when I run in a particular way it happens often. Any chance of looking at it scientifically?

Hockey training last night which involved plenty of fitness work which I enjoyed. Then fit in 5x200m afterwards with press ups, tricep dips and crunches and killers afterwards. Feeling it a bit today so will have a gentle go at Bootcamp and try fit in a 50 min recovery run this evening when DH is back from work.

Happy running one and all!

Ooh, Czech Republic sounds lovely, hatwoman. Was it hot? We've just come back from Southern Spain. I managed to go for a couple of rather half-hearted runs out there, but it was very hot. Plus we were on the edge of the Sierra Nevada, so also very steep! Know what you mean about meltdowns. My 2 year-old decided that he didn't like the swimming pool at our villa and screamed blue murder every time we tried to take him in. Until the last day of the 2 week holiday, when he decided he liked it .
My 10k is drawing ever closer and although I've managed to increase my running time from 30 mins to 45, I've still got a way to go before I can manage the full 10k. Ah well, keep at it, eh?

hello people

fab pep talk Moshi

back from tents and far too much junk food but great time

dh&me are keen to get back on the horse as it were so are working out times so we both can run

hope everyone is well will have a proper read soon

happy running all

Hi everyone, the hat family is just back from a week in the Beskydy mountains in the Czech Republic. If you like outdoorsy stuff and castles I can't recommend it enough. Beautiful scenery, amazing fairy-tale castles, very geared up for kids (Czech kids - not another English family to be seen - no offense to you lot but I quite liked that!). I got a couple of early-morning runs in. Would have been brilliant for cycling/mountain-biking too - loads of well-marked tracks. We did manage to scoot down a mountain - you take a chair-lift up, hire scooters at the top and scoot down - I thought it was brilliant, but, for some reason dd1 had a huge strop and declared it horrible. hey ho. family holidays wouldn;t be complete without one melt-down. need to gear up my runing now - falling behind on my schedule. no idea how I'm going to increase with the school holidays here...

Ha ha Wheely. Was imagining you struggling under piles of stuff, like at end of Crackerjack!

Popped into shop for 2 bottles of fizzy water on way home from run this afternoon, but never considered running with them. Could only imagine dropping one or both of them and have them explode around my feet.

Noah Good for you! You could set a target of sub60 as an added incentive!

It was only a cucumber, a ciabatta and a tub of flora (but not the smallest tub I hasten to add ). I wasn't going to run, just walk back from the shop but then I thought I would get home faster if I ran that bit. So I did. Wouldn't repeat it in a hurry though.

LOL at Moshi's DH rant !!

Noah - I second Peach's recommendation of the runners world site. I often look there for runs that I don't do .

Thank you peachsmuggler Am still feeling inspired to do another race and have looked on the runner's world website and found a 10k on 5th September. Looked at last year's results and I would be about three quarters of the way down, but not last

I may enter (is also near a National Trust place so maybe will be a nice day and we could have a picnic afterwards)

Running with shopping Wheely? are you mad woman ???

Moshi - didn't realise you were such a bike geek!

Well done Noah, that's a great time! You should have a look on the Runner's World website. You can search for events on there. If you have a local running shop they also usually have lists.

Hello

I posted here in about January. Had break from running from February until July but saw a 10k advertised here (York) for yesterday and so did it.

Was really pleased with my 1 hour 1 minute and 40 second time especially as I thought 1 hour 10 min was about my limit.

Really enjoyed the road race - was great having people cheering along the route.

How do you find 5k or 10k races that are near you? Is there a website that shows them all? Don't think I want to run further than 10k although would love to go under an hour.

Oooh. Somehow managed to post a bit of an email on the end of my message. Was obviously not pleased with DH at the time . that is the problem with an iPhone. As well as rubbish spelling.

Highfibre - the only thing I would say about bikes is:

1. Road or tri?
2. Carbon or aluminium?
3. Which type of groupset?

1. I went for a road bike and added tri bars which seemed to make me plenty fast enough to burn up the cycle leg. Tri bikes are more limited on hilly course and, as you can imagine, are tri specific. Having said that, they can be much faster and some swear by them especially on flat course where they add disc wheels and you can hear them coming up behind you like a swarm of bees as they whizz by as if you are standing still.

1. There are far more types eg titanium but these are the main two categories. The difference being weight and price. The lighter the bike the more you will pay. It us said that a weight difference can take minutes off your bike leg (on a standard distance tri) without any adjustment to training or your weight. I went for carbon and found that I took minutes off my bike leg.

1. Blokes get very het up about groupsets I think because this is the more technical aspect of the bike. When I last looked it was either Campag or Shimano although Twink may have more uptodate knowledge here. For the record, I went for a Campag as I got a Bianchi Veloce carbon fibre bike which takes this. I think you are stuck with the sort you opt forE, Think it's a yes to next weekend but my annoying husband is enjoying holding off confirming until tonight. He is hungover and not willing to be pressgang once you buy your bike.