Author: Buck

I was talking to a noob runner years ago and I had to explain that she shouldn’t be worried about the miles I was doing, “After a while it’s just another mile. But starting out, and getting faster, is always hard as nails.” Last year, when I was training 5 and 6 days a week for 10 months, I managed to get quick enough to do a 5K (3.1 miles) in under 20 minutes. It’s a bit of a benchmark. Not for the young and fast people, but for old duffers like me, running 3.1 miles at 6.27 m/m is pretty damn tough. Then I blew my target fast marathon and my training went out of the window. I’ve been back to fairly regular (about 50 miles a week) training for the last few months, but going fast is still the hard bit. I’ve not actually completed a 5K in ages. I’ve started a bunch of them, but on some of them my Garmin was totally inaccurate so I quit, others I’ve gone fast enough in the first mile but then dropped off the pace so much in the second mile that I was on for a lousy time so I quit. I had a moment of revelation on that ‘fast 10K assessment ‘ run last week. I’m out of mental practice at accepting the pain, ignoring my brain screaming to stop, and pushing on. You have to accept it and push through. After the test my watch revised my race time predictions. It said I was good for a 20.04 5K, 1.32 half marathon, and 3.12 marathon. I’m only a few months into the training plan again, and it’s not been adhering strictly, so I thought that was a bit optimistic. I thought I’d best test the claims, perhaps sneak one a week into my training. This week I started with the 5K, It was the day after doing half an hour of hill repeats on an 8 mile run, so I was a bit dubious. To help myself out I cunningly changed my race route. Normally I jog out 4.1 miles. Stop. Then sprint back for 3.1 miles. Stop. Jog home a mile when I’ve put my lungs back in. This time I jogged out 2.5 miles. Stopped. Then ran 1.55 miles ‘out’, turned around and ran 1.55 miles ‘back’. Died. Then jogged home 2.5 miles. That way, psychologically, I was only doing half a mile to my first know mile marker. Then it was just a mile to half way. A mile back. then just around the corner for the last half mile. The watch predicted 20.04, obviously I was going to try to go a second or so faster per mile to break the 20 minutes barrier. I was wearing my Coros (accurate) watch with the footpod as well to be a precise as is possible. I did it in 19.52! Believe me when I say the difference that 12 seconds makes is * IMMENSE!* It […]

After blogging the other day about how my bike just wasn’t doing it for me, I got into a situation. I was going to town, to get some new veggie meat substitute when some cars got behind me at the lights. They were being bolshy and trying to race each other. One of them beeped their horn. As soon as the lights changed I set off in earnest. I had the front end trying to come up as I shot off. I take back all I said. That bike is a hoot if you throw the throttle open. I think the problem is I’m only doing a few miles each way to work. By the time I’ve got the tyres warmed up enough to start throwing it around, I’m parking up. If I ever want to go for a blast or need to commute, my little Honda is more than enough. The meat substitute I just mentioned is called Fable. It’s a mushroom based product. Someone on twitter recommended it. We are seeing a lot more “not for sale in EU” on the supermarket meats now, so god knows what crap they are flogging off. Another Brexit benefit, food not fit for human consumption in the EU. The point being, I’m looking to reduce/ stop my meat intake. I know it’s what I should do for the planet, the animals, and such, but meat is such an easy food source. Anywho, I thought I’d give it a go. The Fable website has recipes so I tried their spaghetti bolognese. I can’t say definitively, because of my fickle taste buds, but on this occasion it was the best spag bol I’ve ever tasted. I think it was mainly due to the homemade sauce. That took 2 hours to make. Wendy, who has fully functioning taste buds, thought the sauce was delicious but the ‘meat’ had a bit of a tang to it. I will be working through their online recipes. Definitely the way to go for me. It’s £4.59 for a 250g box, but the spag bol could easily do 4 meals. I’ve had another search today for where I bought my Garmin watch, to try and get a refund. I still haven’t found out where I bought it, but whilst looking for clues I found out I bought it at the end of July, 2022. I could have sworn I bought it a few months ago. I didn’t buy it from Garmin directly, so I’ve given up looking. I doubt I’ll get a refund on a watch over a year after buying it. I’m not getting much work lately but at least it’s giving me plenty of time to train. And I’m doing it. So that’s good. Someone mentioned today was the last day to enter the draw for the Berlin marathon. Why the devil not? I’ve put my name in the hat. It’s a dear do for a marathon, but it’s an event. If I get in I’ll have […]

I’ve not been blogging for ages. 8 months without a real blog. I think because I lost my running focus. I tried so hard last year to get sub 3, then failed dismally. After that I was just doing runs when I felt like it. I’ve turned it around over the last two months and got back into regular training. I bought a super duper new Garmin running watch earlier in the year. A brand new model that was at the cheaper end of ‘bloody ridiculous’, but has the latest, top of the range spec GPS. I paid an extra £50 to get the version with music capability on the watch (so you can listen to your music via bluetooth on your headphones, you don’t have to take your ‘phone out with you). It was great. For 2 months. Then the GPS was everywhere. I mean seriously everywhere. It lost nearly 5 miles on an 18 mile run! I tried everything I could think of, then I contacted Garmin support, but it was useless. I asked around and somehow found out about the new Coros Pace 3 watch. “Cheap” (it’s a relative term, the top of the range Garmin ones are over a grand!) at £219, got the same top tier GPS system, and comes with music capability as standard. All the reviews said it was a great watch if you don’t want all the bells and whistles (that I never use). To test it I wore the Garmin on one wrist and the Coros on the other and went for a run. Corros. Exactly right. Garmin. Seriously, what is the point of wearing it? Really I need to track down where I bought it and try and get a refund. I didn’t buy it directly off Garmin, unfortunately. I’ve had the Coros a few weeks and it is a great little watch. There are two issues I’ve noticed though. The Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) on the watch is wildly inaccurate. I’ve pushed myself until I was kneeling on the floor, gasping, fighting panic because I simply couldn’t get enough air in my lungs, and only got my pulse to 166bpm. The watch HRM said I was doing 190+. That’s a problem, because when I get an accurate measurement of 166 (flat out, near killing myself) it reads it as coasting and gives me bad feedback. The other irritation is although it is spot on for average pace for the mile, when you do a fitness test (a cool feature of the watch) it measures you pace second to second, your pace at that exact moment, and it’s a bit jerky. One second 6.12 m/m, the next 8.12. I’ve worked around the first issue by getting a chest strap HRM (they are always more accurate than wrist based anyway) and the second I’ve smoothed an awful lot by getting a foot pod. It’s a little device that you can put on your trainer. It has forward and sideways sensors and […]

Same shit, different day. The slogan had been on the ‘fridge so long that John opened the door without consciously registering it. Had he been asked about it he would probably say it was true; get breakfast, go to work, come home, have a pizza and a beer, watch some TV, play some games, go to bed, and repeat. That was just the routine of existence, common to most. He’d originally put the magnet on a different ‘fridge when he was fresh out the army. He’d been young, disillusioned and as cheaply cynical as the statement. But that was 12 years ago. John poured milk onto his muesli and shut the ‘fridge door. He made a fresh coffee and took a moment to look out of the window at his garden. This was the best time of the year for it. Spring was really getting into gear and the garden was bursting with potential. Vibrant greens and freshly minted leaves were bringing hope and life back after the frigid void of winter. He took a sip of too hot coffee and just enjoyed the moment. Perhaps if he’d have been asked about the sticker he would just be a little embarrassed by its trite nihilism and dismissed it as an old memento. After breakfast he ran through his mental checklist; food, flask, ‘phone, keys, boots, then set off for work. He worked for a van courier firm. He lived in Runcorn, between Liverpool and Manchester, so there was always plenty of work. He parked his Mercedes Sprinter van by the loading area and went in to collect his run paperwork. “Morning Petr.” The office manager looked up from his laptop to grunt something noncommittal. “What exciting things have you got for me today?” Petr always gave the impression of doing ten jobs at once, always under immense pressure. It was just how he made himself feel important, John thought. “Actually,” Petr said, as if suddenly remembering from the host of things he was currently juggling, “you’ve got an interesting one today.” John was instantly suspicious. “Define ‘interesting’.” “Well, you are going off the map.” ‘There be dragons!’ John thought, but didn’t know if Petr would get the reference. “It’s in Wales. We have instructions from after some place called Llangadog, but on Google maps it doesn’t exist.” “Hang on, Petr. If I’m pissing about looking for a drop in Wales that’s off the satnav, I am going to be losing serious money.” “It’s a special. The customer has agreed..” he paused a little too long “£200 for the one drop.” “Nice try, Petr. How much is this drop worth?” “£400.” That was a lot of money for one drop. John suspected Petr was holding out on him, but he didn’t want to push his luck. “OK. So what are the details?” Petr tossed him a folder and went back to being performatively busy. John looked through the pack. Go to Wales, LLangadog, then hand written notes, presumably taken from ‘phone […]

Somehow or other I got caught up in motorbikes again. I wasn’t getting much work due to the strikes and I wanted to be prepared to travel to a new job. Or at least that’s how I rationalised it. Possibly (probably) it was just my obsessing and blatant bike desire. I had resisted and turned my nose up at some really great VFR750s recently. I kept telling myself I didn’t need a bike, and if I got one it would be a modern one with fuel injection to combat the problems of the new ethanol additive fuel (rotting seals in carbs, gumming up carb jets, rusting tank if unused). I regret not getting some of them quite a bit, in retrospect. I saw one at the bottom end of London (of course. No bike is ever local. It’s the law). It was at the lower end of the price bracket for a VFR, it’s only done 30,000 miles, supposedly full service history (faked, I think, the first few have been loosely stamped then smeared to illegibility) with a near perfect MOT history. The thing is I’m not fond of the colour. A sort of purpley blue with gold wheel rims. I decided I wasn’t going to be the guy who turned down a brilliant condition, low mileage, example for something as petty as the colour. After I’d decided I wanted it, I had to wait two weeks to get a train. First the roads were a mess with a week of frozen snow and ice, then the trains were on strike. I managed to get a ticket on New Year’s day, the only one for the fortnight preceding and following. 4 trains. They had to do a cross country diversion to avoid one striking company. Anyway the bike was a good ‘un (good job, really) and I got it. Because it’s a 25 year old bike certain things get soggy. The hydraulic brake lines stretch so you lose pressure to the brakes, and the rear shock absorber gets old and saggy. This bike had had the brake lines upgraded to new braided lines and the rear shock recently reconditioned. Sorted. Also it has heated handlebar grips, which are a huge plus for winter riding. Then the bank kept me sweating for an hour before sending an “instant payment” to the seller. I thought I was going to have to get a hotel room and pick it up the next day. It finally cleared then it was just the matter of riding home 197 miles in the cold, dark and rain. And it turns out my super-duper, big, thick, padded overtrousers I got about 15 years ago had lost all their waterproofing so I was soaked within the first 10 minutes. Joy. Anyway. Bike! I thought the throttle was stiff at a certain point, on the ride home, but it seems fine now. I tried to recreate the problem by slamming the throttle open, but all that happened was my back […]