On the Road Again - Canned Heat

Well after a month of virtual inactivity, for me anyway, I feel like I'm back out there in the world of running banging in the miles again. We are told that a rest from exercise does you the world of good and gives the body time to recover from the stresses and strains it undertakes when doing extreme exercising... I'm sure it does but during the time off it does make you feel just a bit rubbish and does make you wonder if you'll ever get back to your previous best.

I've got quite a few marathons coming up this autumn and some renewed vigour will hopefully help me bash out some over 50+ performances that I can be proud of...

Do you ever take a break?

More tomorrow...

Lady GaGa - Born this Way

Now if you are a regular blog-reader, you'll know I'm not into the old Lady GaGa music, I'm more of a Radio GaGa man... however, I am interested in what is trending newswise and what is seen by the general public as news or as being important to value comment etc.

Take the picture of GaGa for instance and it's top news on MSN this morning showing a rather more rounded raunchy songstress than we have previously been used to seeing. Apparently it's her 'Body Revolution'...On further investigation, GaGa has gone on to say that she is happy with her new +25lbs size on twitter. I'm sure she's not...

Is the Lady heading down a Britney route of self image destruction? Let's hope not eh... she needs to take heed of Madonna's best part of  30 year s'success has been based around being lean and sexy... There's a lot to learn from Old Maj about longevity in the limelight as you have to work extremely hard to get your goal but even harder to stay there...

I'm not sure if The GaGa is coming to Cardiff but if she is I'll quite happily get her down to the gym and run a few miles with her to shake off those extra pounds like lots of my clients do, very easily.

I'll even give her a free 12 week plan... as long as she promises not to sing! Can you run in fishnets btw?

More tomorrow, might give that a try :-)....

19 - Paul Hardcastle 12'' Mix

Whatever happened to the good old 12 inch record eh? For the young at heart, this was a 30cm vinyl record the same size as an LP but played at 45rpm which were extended mixes of popular songs mainly of the 80's with lots of added scratches, blips and wow and flutter.

I've been out running today listening to some great songs, rather poorly extended in some cases but strangely motivating none-the-less in glorious MP4's.

There's nothing better than a bit of extended Spandau Ballet or Duran Duran you know... What's your favourite as I would love to know....

Forever Autumn - Justin Hayward

Well it's Autumn and it's official as it's been lashing it down all day. I have finally managed to get my trainers on and get back out running following my three week sabbatical in Poland and Ireland. It turned out far better than I thought it would and I really enjoyed my 6km tempo run. So I am off to a good start... Let's hope that tomorrow's 10 miler proves just as easy...

I must say that I'm looking forward to stacking in a lot of running this Autumn especially after the Nottingham ULTRA in early October as I have to get race fit for The Woolwich Foot Tunnel and Beachy Head Marathons later in the month.

Might shift some of my M2M Ultra spare tyre!

More tomorrow...

Been Around the World - Lisa Stansfield

Jenny with Heike Christ at the 24hr World Champs

That's how it feels anyway as I've been to Poland and then to Ireland on two very different running events with some amazingly driven individuals. The World 24 hour Championships in Katowice gave me the opportunity not only of supporting Jenny on her maiden voyage into international running but also to witness the worlds top endurance athletes battle it out for the World and European medals.

I even got to see Greek running legend Yiannis Kourous in the flesh too... and yes he's still awesome at 56 years of age. I'd like to say there's hope for us all but there isn't in Yiannis' case as he is literally one of a kind.

Anyway, less of Poland and more of our M2M Ultra event in Ireland... and it was a brilliant 11 days as our runners ran the 345 miles from Malin Head to Mizen Head. It was a shame that we didn't have more runners and potentially some help from the 100 Marathon Clubs of Great Britain and of Ireland might help swell the numbers if they remove a rather silly rule that the daily stages of 30 miles or so don't count as marathons... as if they did people could add 10 to their tally of marathons in one easy go. I'm sure the organisers of Brathay 10 in 10 would agree with me on this one.

What I do know is that you can share the highs and lows of the M2M on www.m2multra.blogspot.co.uk and if you are interested in running in the event in the future please let us know. And also that it's great being back home in WALES... ARAF...

More tomorrow...

A New World Record - ELO

Well it was a great Woverhampton Marathon on reflection...4 of the 5 runs looking for times made it including two new pb's for Anthony Taylor (3:07) and Andy Saville (3:13). I crept in at 3:59:47 to make it my #734th Marathon with the help of Ian Calder who also beat his 4 hour target. It will be a sub 3:30 for Richard Oram at Luton! You watch...

The refreshing thing for my Perfoemance Caiching is that for the guys who beat their previous personal bests it has really, really worked and I beleive they will do even better next time. Andy said that it's had been an easy progression this year from 3.49 to 3.13 as all the thinking has been taken away from him and that 'It's a been a piece of pi55 with his Coach'...

Let's hope all the coaching pays off for Jenny this weekend at The 24hr World Championships in Poland... she's worked so hard for this one.