Vassos is a radio/TV presenter who is also a phenomenal runner, think 3 hour marathons and 100 mile ultras. He is also very inspiring writer, Running Up That Hill and Don’t Stop Me Now are both well worth a read.

And I think that quote was originally related to cycling time trials, it was either Chris Boardman or David Millar, but it works great for running too.

Cheers lunge.

Bought some new shoes at the weekend. Been running in trail shoes for years for everything but figured I’d treat myself to a pair of road shoes. My brooks cascadias have been great so local running shop sold me some brooks adrenaline GTS 20’s.

Ran my hilly 5k loop from home tonight I’ve been trying to get under 25mins for ages (25:33 PB)

Just ran it in 23:49.

Happy with that.

Fine work Jam Bo.
You can never have to many pairs of running shoes.
I reckon a nice pair of race shoes, either flats or the new carbon plated stuff, will knock another 30 seconds off.
Treat yourself.

Any brands that tend to have a particular roomy toe-box? I heard Nike but wasn’t sure…

For a roomy toe box look at Altra or Topo. I haven’t used either but my wife does prefer plenty of room up front and has extensive experience in this area!!!! She has quite a few pairs of Topo now, but be warned they are not cheap – check out Northern runner.

Re roomy toe boxes, Brooks are generally quite spacious, the Ghost is very roomy.
Some Nike are too, but it’s not consistent, the new Pegasus for instance is much tighter in that area than the previous one.

Brooks also do different width fittings I believe?

Saw some extra wide New Balance on Sportsshoes.com the other day.

Also, I find my Asiscs road shoes quite wide, my Asiscs trail shoes are narrower though.

Even extra wide New Balance are small.

Asics have plenty room, as for their trail shoes being narrow, I’m a shoe size 10 but wear 11.5 or 12 in trail shoes, so have plenty room in them. Last thing I want on an ultra or longer hill race is shoes getting tight due to swollen feet – happens on longer runs IME.

Weird that ASICS is mentioned, I’ve always found them too narrow for my feet. Or specifically, the 3 pairs of Cumulus’s were anyway.

ASICS is what I have at the moment and find they pinch my obscenely long middle toes (they are longer than my big toe) and I tend to lose a bit of skin.

Also, whether it’s the sock I’ve been using from Decathlon not offering enough protection and causing severe rubbing on the mid outside of my right foot, or that my shoes have degraded lately which is causing the problem, I’m know thinking I need new shoes!! But I’m also a tight-arse.

Weird that ASICS is mentioned, I’ve always found them too narrow for my feet. Or specifically, the 3 pairs of Cumulus’s were anyway.

You bought 3 pairs of the same shoes, despite them being too narrow, but it’s us that’s weird?. 🙂

I’m know thinking I need new shoes!! But I’m also a tight-arse.

How many miles have they done? I go no longer than 300 on road shoes now, which makes the folk moaning about how long 5 tens last look a bit daft!

It probably comes as no surprise to hear that I’m a firm believer in lots of preparation and planning before races, or more recently FKT attempts. I like my inov8 vest/pack, with the soft flasks located in the armpits with straws up towards your shoulders – very easy to drink from on the move and you notice the additional weight much less than on the chest I find. However, I discovered during my recce at the weekend that it’s quite fiddly to get flasks into the pockets while wearing the bag and I wasted quite a bit of time fiddling around clumsily as a result.

Mudstacle review picture

A few minutes with a sewing machine however and we now have some additional zips so that flasks can be inserted from the bottom not just slid in from the front

Next task will be to make some nice dangly tags on the 3D printer so that they’re easy and quick to grab while on the move

Nice work Turbo, that’s a good fix for soemthing that put me off buying that pack from the reviews.

Are you going to have anything broadcasting so we can follow your fkt attempt?

You bought 3 pairs of the same shoes, despite them being too narrow, but it’s us that’s weird?

Nah, bought 1 pair, the others were tried on or borrowed. I’m not that stupid.

🙂

the new Pegasus for instance is much tighter in that area than the previous one.

IMO Probably the best shoe ever (although not for everybody) I have told this story before but when at Uni I worked in a specialist running shop. Bought a pair of these (spent all my wages on running gear) then went our running in them with Benson Masya. Benson went on to become the world HM champion and ran 58:?? mins. Memories….. 🙂

With the travel restriction over, headed out for my first mountain run on Sunday since before lockdown, from Ballochbuie up past Lochnagar then back down via Glen Gelder to Balmoral. Suspected it would be busy at Lochnagar as it was a stunning day, coming round Carn an t-sagairt Beag (rarely see anybody there ever) was at least a dozen folk visible doing the white mounth circuit. Suffered a bit from the heat and carrying too much stuff (MWIS had said feels like -2 at 1000m) and despite doing sufficient distance runs, haven’t been doing anywhere near the same magnitude of ascent recently. Found a snow patch that allowed me to cool off a bit. Headed back down and was running out of steam, thought I’d get in the shade at the Balmoral cairns, but fly swarms meant I had to keep moving. 29k/1000m in total. Afterwards, a bit greedy to make most of the day out headed over to Cambus O’May, another 12k up Cnoc Dubh, through the Burn O’Vat and over to Loch Kinord, ill advised move as legs were now like lead, feet throbbing, hobbled towards the end. Taken a day or two for legs to recover from that.

Falls of Glas Allt

Nice clouds heading up

Past the Stuic

Made a wee snowman

Classic view

Glen Gelder

Balmoral

Cnoc Dubh

Burn O’Vat

Boardwalk thingy

Loch

@spawnofyorkshire I really like the bag, I have no idea how many times it has accompanied me to and from work bit it’s a lot, with no complaints, although I’ve only used it with fluids a few times, and the weekend being the first to refill on the go.

First attempt at pausing a print mid-way, this was to add a bit of string

seems like it’ll do the job 🙂

I hadn’t thought about broadcasting apart from a live location to my wife via WhatsApp (which will have to be refreshed part-way through as 8 hours is the longest duration possible). Do you have any suggestions as to what app/website would be appropriate? I hadn’t expected much interest in tracking during the run tbh!

IMO Probably the best shoe ever

As an all round running shoe I completely agree, the Pegasus just works. They do have the odd off year (I didn’t like the 35) but I will always recommend them to new runners. The new version, the 37, is an amazing shoe, does all the old one does but just feels faster.

I’d suggest Garmin Livetrack, I use it when i’m doing stuff by myself. When you set it up it’ll generate an email, but that just sends a weblink to your activity track and that can be shared as much as you want.
There’s an option to retain the activity for 24hrs after too which is useful as otherwise when you stop your activity it will just go and unless they were watching you they wouldn’t know you’ve finished or just disappeared off the map

lunge
Subscriber
IMO Probably the best shoe ever

As an all round running shoe I completely agree, the Pegasus just works. They do have the odd off year (I didn’t like the 35) but I will always recommend them to new runners. The new version, the 37, is an amazing shoe, does all the old one does but just feels faster.

Tried a pair recently and really wanted to like them but had huge amounts of heel lift. The inner material just seemed really shiny and I could hardly keep them on my feet 🙁

Tried a pair recently and really wanted to like them but had huge amounts of heel lift. The inner material just seemed really shiny and I could hardly keep them on my feet

There have been a few online reviews that have said that. I tend to use the “lace lock” method of lacing on all my shoes and have never had that issue, maybe worth thinking about.

alanf , Ive heard altra have plenty of toe box room too so will be looking at some of them in th future too.
Was a fan of pegasus until about 34/35 but the fit has changed and doesn’t suit me any more. Not wide enough toe box, tight across instep, and long at the back causing that heel lift like above. Keep going back in the nike shop and trying the new releases wanting them to work but not right yet. I have got feet like hooves though.
The “pegasus trail” one was a bit wider toebox but still slipped at back and the sole was far too flimsy for any offroad that has stones underfoot. Asics fujitrabaco has been alright and has a rock plate in there too but worth sizing up 1. Not tried the latest offering, but thats more a positive on the old ones lasting well.
Did find the nike zoom flyknit seemed to have a bit more room and stretch so got some of them from the outlet, and good reviews, but they’re more of a fast road shoe so they’ve gone in the cupboard until I’m ready to do that.

@spawnofyorkshire 2 issues with Garmin Livetrack – firstly it’s flaky as hell, I have it on as default to send an email to my wife whenever I’m running. It’ll work sporadically for a few months then not for ages, so it can’t be trusted unfortunately. Also I’m touch-and-go on battery life on my old Fenix 3 which has a longer battery than my Fenix 5S, so to try and stretch it as long as possible I’ll have bluetooth off for the duration of my run.

Therefore I’d be looking for something to run purely on my phone, not leveraging my watch. Strava Beacon seems to require you to record the activity on your phone at the same time, which may result in a dead phone battery

@loum – if you’re after trail shoes and like Nike, see if you can get some Terra Kiger or at least try them. They seem pretty wide in the toe box but I dont have much to compare to as I use Adidas road shoes (which are narrow). I picked some up from the outlet for £40 before lockdown. They are pretty grippy on rock and gravel but the sole wears out quickly too. I’ve worn that pair out but managed to get another off Ebay for £50. Worth a look.

Thanks alanf, will give them a try if I can find them.
I like the outlet stores , can try them on and get a decent price too. Only really go internet for shoes I already know will fit. Will get there again after lockdown and shielding. one near us has asics, nike, adidas and north face (surpisingly good running shoes) so one of them usually has something good.

eastcoastmike, stunnning pictures – looks a great day out.

Recently bought some Topo ultra fly road and ultra venture trail from northern runner. Like mentioned, not cheap but I’m sick of black, bruised toes and general pain. They have proved excellent. Still get a bit of toe tingle but much, much better. Wearing well after 300km on road.

Okay, if anyone wants to lose 5 minutes of their life they’ll never get back, you can watch this YouTube video of my 25km effort on Saturday. Perhaps the worst trail running video on YouTube? You decide.

Tore a ligament in my ankle about a month back and slowly building back up. Nice 12km this morning but hard work. I know VO2 Max is pretty unreliable but my Garmin has dropped me from 53 pre-injury to 49 now (which is as low as I’ve ever been I think). Took bloody ages to get from 49 to 53 in the past so pretty crap drop in a month(when I was still biking and not just sitting on the sofa eating Ben & Jerry’s!!).

Having started running from scratch in Jan, having never ran really at all in my previous 40yrs, I decided to try and do the Strava 100km in July challenge. Previously I guess I’ve been running twice/week on average and only covering 40-50km/mth.

47km done and my legs are really feeling it. Going to need a few more 10km’s to get over the line I think (this is as far as I’ve run) as not sure I’ll get there with just my usual 7-8km routes.

Going to be a wet run today but need to keep going! Hat’s off to you guys doing big mileage regulary.

@dooosuk – I set myself the challenge of 10k a day for 7 days in lockdown (from my previous 25-30k a week mileage). Day 3-4 were pretty hard but then it seemed to get easier and I could have probably kept going. Hopefully you’ll find the same and the last 53km will be easy 😉

Was TF doing his Capital Ring thingy today??

@dashed I didn’t run it today as the legs didn’t quite have the zing that I want them to have. Clearly the 9 hour MTB ride at the weekend took a bit out of them and they haven’t fully bounced back. There’s no time pressure so seems silly to run it while a bit fatigued. Maybe early next week, I’ll keep you all posted.

I see a few people have mentioned Altras. I bought a pair of Altra Timp trail running shoes a while back, very soft and comfortable, for walking anyway. I did want to try them for running but the grip was so poor I didn’t feel safe in them. I mean I was literally sliding about on wet pavements/ roads, it was so bad it was laughable. I wrote to them but received no response. Just my two pennies worth if you are considering Altra shoes.

The Fenix 3 lives again

Bit of old camera strap and 2 minutes with the sewing machine

Then a moment with a soldering iron

The main reason I retired the Fenix 3 was because it was a bit big for my dinky scrawny wrist and the button would gouge me, so the sweat band should sort the comfort factor

In the world of couch to 5k I’m into the second week (for about the tenth time!)

The day after the first run on the first week I woke up with the familiar aching calf that always gives me problems. I was expecting it to worsen as it always has in the past but it’s been absolutely fine ever since. It’s all going surprisingly well so far and really enjoying it. I need to resist the urge to do too much too soon or not follow the plan and hopefully it’ll be problem free.

I’ve now got something to aim for as if our planned move comes off we’ll be living a few hundred yards off The Ridgeway where there will be any amount of trails to run.

Good work notmyrealname.

The day after the first run on the first week I woke up with the familiar aching calf that always gives me problems.

The new runners foe that is.
Calf raises and calf lowers help, as does lots of stretching.

Didn’t have the the best session this morning, failed to hit LT pace as part of warm up, then only managed 1 of the planned 5x1k. Not quite sure what happened as never had this issue before. My watch did say 11hours recovery still beforehand.