I've just got time to fit in a blog before I do some high intensity sleeping to recover from the last three days with the boy and the pup. Summer holidays are always a bit all over the place - but we're seeing Katie tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that such a lot.
Today I managed to get a lie-in until 7.30, then we were downstairs for our third consecutive fun-athon. I heard they are considering replacing the 10 in 10 marathons with fun-athons, just to make it a bit more challenging.
We put up a tent in the living room, and did a fair bit of xbox, which is a chance to relax and also pretty tiring at the same time. Today we discovered Rayman Origins, which seems to be holding its own thus far. We had eggy bread (which I grew up knowing only as 'gypsy toast' - is that just something that happened in my family?), and in an unrelated incident, we hit a washing machine gel capsule with a mallet, to see what would happen. The eggy bread was delicious, but the washing gel tasted awful.
Discovery of the day was the WWE Superstars programme on Sky 1. I pointed out to the boy at the very start that they were all pretending, but following 30 years of not really understanding the appeal, I watched it through the eyes of a seven-year-old, and we laughed a lot at the comedy violence, at the showboating and trash talking, and at the set pieces ("if I can... just... reach... the... hand") that came up over and over again. It's on again tomorrow morning, and we're recording it. And remember kids - it takes years and years of training to be as wildly talented as me - so don't try this at home!
Took the dog for a walk over to the canal, and persuaded the boy to track one of the footpaths, just to extend the walk a bit, for the dog's sake. We ended up finding a plant with about 15 black and yellow striped caterpillars - I've looked them up, and it looks like they turn into Cinnabar Moths, which are surprisingly striking. A few yards along we also saw a green and white diagonal striped caterpillar that was about the size of my finger. I've tried to look that up, but I should have taken a picture, as it seems there are some subtle variations. I've settled on it being the Tobacco Hornworm - look it up, they're gross.
Then the dog decided to roll in sh*t, so he was back on the lead. At this point we had to cut back through a wooded area (past a Special Brew man) to get back to the main canal path. All too soon we found ourselves on a path narrowed by stingy nettles. With the dog on the lead, a poo bag in my hand, and a boy quietly freaking out about the nettles, all tangled together in a heap, just ten yards away from the safety of the canal path, I thought for a few moments that we would end up on 'I Shouldn't Be Alive'. But following a few futile attempts by me to poke the nettles away with a short stick, the boy had the bright idea that I should pick him up and carry him. I think it was probably me that was freaking out, not the boy.
We had time for one final highlight, when the boy pointed at something in the water, and started referring to Fa-JJ's. You find all sorts of stuff on and around the canal, so it was a relief to spot an empty bottle of Frijj bobbing past.
Back home, sausages for tea, and we watched Paranorman - which was okay, but not great or anything. We ended the day with a bit of silly K'nex on the mat, and ten minutes reading HP & TOOTP (the Death Eaters are fighting the Order around the stone dais). I feel like I've sat down quite a lot, but I think it's always more of a mental challenge, and I certainly feel challenged right now.
In more family news, my grandma (85) is settling into a care home - she has enough dementia to mean that she was quite a risk living by herself. She's told my sister in a carrying voice that everyone around her is nuts - so I think she's settling in well. I've a letter to write after this, to do my bit in gently encouraging her to accept her new home, and also just to make sure I say hello. Would you like to write to her too? I'm sure she'd like that.
My dad has a suspected infection that's left him peeing blood after running this week. He's on some strong AB's, and the doctor has also referred him to a kidney specialist to check that it's nothing more serious. I've also suggested he looks at whether he's drinking enough liquid beforehand - he predates anything to do with drinking eight glasses of water a day.
Two bits of work-ish news: first, it looks like I might be doing a series of six articles for RW mag. They like some of the stuff I've written, and they want to use some of it. I'm really pleased, because I've always enjoyed writing. At A-Level in school, the advice was "you can't do maths *and* english boy", so English got the shove. So I'm exploring that all again, and enjoying it lots. I'd love to be a writer of things, with or without that bit where you sit in Costa and drink the profits.
Secondly, I'm putting together a directory on the site for users to be able to find local businesses near them that complement their training e.g. physiotherapists (of course), sports massage, osteos, chiropractors, nutritionists, race photographers, PT's, coaches, and all that shezazzle. It's FREE to get listed, so it'd be super helpful if you could add some of your local listings, and even forward this on to the businesses in your area:
http://www.fetcheveryone.com/directory-add.php
That's me for now.
Today I managed to get a lie-in until 7.30, then we were downstairs for our third consecutive fun-athon. I heard they are considering replacing the 10 in 10 marathons with fun-athons, just to make it a bit more challenging.
We put up a tent in the living room, and did a fair bit of xbox, which is a chance to relax and also pretty tiring at the same time. Today we discovered Rayman Origins, which seems to be holding its own thus far. We had eggy bread (which I grew up knowing only as 'gypsy toast' - is that just something that happened in my family?), and in an unrelated incident, we hit a washing machine gel capsule with a mallet, to see what would happen. The eggy bread was delicious, but the washing gel tasted awful.
Discovery of the day was the WWE Superstars programme on Sky 1. I pointed out to the boy at the very start that they were all pretending, but following 30 years of not really understanding the appeal, I watched it through the eyes of a seven-year-old, and we laughed a lot at the comedy violence, at the showboating and trash talking, and at the set pieces ("if I can... just... reach... the... hand") that came up over and over again. It's on again tomorrow morning, and we're recording it. And remember kids - it takes years and years of training to be as wildly talented as me - so don't try this at home!
Took the dog for a walk over to the canal, and persuaded the boy to track one of the footpaths, just to extend the walk a bit, for the dog's sake. We ended up finding a plant with about 15 black and yellow striped caterpillars - I've looked them up, and it looks like they turn into Cinnabar Moths, which are surprisingly striking. A few yards along we also saw a green and white diagonal striped caterpillar that was about the size of my finger. I've tried to look that up, but I should have taken a picture, as it seems there are some subtle variations. I've settled on it being the Tobacco Hornworm - look it up, they're gross.
Then the dog decided to roll in sh*t, so he was back on the lead. At this point we had to cut back through a wooded area (past a Special Brew man) to get back to the main canal path. All too soon we found ourselves on a path narrowed by stingy nettles. With the dog on the lead, a poo bag in my hand, and a boy quietly freaking out about the nettles, all tangled together in a heap, just ten yards away from the safety of the canal path, I thought for a few moments that we would end up on 'I Shouldn't Be Alive'. But following a few futile attempts by me to poke the nettles away with a short stick, the boy had the bright idea that I should pick him up and carry him. I think it was probably me that was freaking out, not the boy.
We had time for one final highlight, when the boy pointed at something in the water, and started referring to Fa-JJ's. You find all sorts of stuff on and around the canal, so it was a relief to spot an empty bottle of Frijj bobbing past.
Back home, sausages for tea, and we watched Paranorman - which was okay, but not great or anything. We ended the day with a bit of silly K'nex on the mat, and ten minutes reading HP & TOOTP (the Death Eaters are fighting the Order around the stone dais). I feel like I've sat down quite a lot, but I think it's always more of a mental challenge, and I certainly feel challenged right now.
In more family news, my grandma (85) is settling into a care home - she has enough dementia to mean that she was quite a risk living by herself. She's told my sister in a carrying voice that everyone around her is nuts - so I think she's settling in well. I've a letter to write after this, to do my bit in gently encouraging her to accept her new home, and also just to make sure I say hello. Would you like to write to her too? I'm sure she'd like that.
My dad has a suspected infection that's left him peeing blood after running this week. He's on some strong AB's, and the doctor has also referred him to a kidney specialist to check that it's nothing more serious. I've also suggested he looks at whether he's drinking enough liquid beforehand - he predates anything to do with drinking eight glasses of water a day.
Two bits of work-ish news: first, it looks like I might be doing a series of six articles for RW mag. They like some of the stuff I've written, and they want to use some of it. I'm really pleased, because I've always enjoyed writing. At A-Level in school, the advice was "you can't do maths *and* english boy", so English got the shove. So I'm exploring that all again, and enjoying it lots. I'd love to be a writer of things, with or without that bit where you sit in Costa and drink the profits.
Secondly, I'm putting together a directory on the site for users to be able to find local businesses near them that complement their training e.g. physiotherapists (of course), sports massage, osteos, chiropractors, nutritionists, race photographers, PT's, coaches, and all that shezazzle. It's FREE to get listed, so it'd be super helpful if you could add some of your local listings, and even forward this on to the businesses in your area:
http://www.fetcheveryone.com/directory-add.php
That's me for now.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.
I know I’ve done a lot of blogging about Club La Santa, but I feel like there’s one more left 
Back in June, I asked if there was anything you wanted to know about the place – and although you’ve had the ‘official’ answers from the owner / tour operator, I wanted to give you my viewpoint.
Mushroom asked: “Is it the kind of place that could support a family as a family destination (kids clubs, activities etc), and is relaxing for non-runners, or would all the sweaty sporty types just annoy everybody else who isn't trying to train? Is there a bar? Does it serve beer, or protein shakes?”
I’d say yes to this one. The first thing that struck us was the big fun pool, which we think is completely undersold. It has a separate toddler pool, an island in the middle, and a deeper bit with a springboard which is very popular with kids of about 6 upwards. My boy is 7 and I know he’d love the pool. There’s mini golf on site, and a kids club, which seems to have activities like egg painting and baking, and the windsurfing lagoon has enough sand and shallow water around it to do sand castles etc. The actual beaches around CLS are a bit ashy / rocky / currenty – but if you end up getting a hire car, there are some beautiful ones down in the south (about a half hour drive), near Puerto del Carmen. There’s evening entertainment (some singing, some variety), and there seems to be a general respect for not being too noisy late at night (although if you’re close to the ‘square’ it can be a bit noisy ‘til around 10pm). There’s a bar overlooking the pool / class area – it has a big telly with sports on it, and they do beer and ice cream and various food. There’s also a ‘sports bar’ in the square which is worth a nosey at, and there’s a late night disco, which I’m pleased to say was far enough away that we didn’t hear it once – although the number of bottles on the tables outside it the following morning suggests that it’s quite well used
Girlie asked: “LMG will be 12 so would be interested in stuff for her age group, and especially swimming and the pools as that is her main area of interest.”
See above for the fun pool. If you mean lane swimming, the 50m pool is great, and they may have finished another two by the time you get there. She’s at the upper end of the kids clubs, but I did see that they have ‘teen beach parties’, and a lot of the available sports have 11-15 sessions. Unless there’s a class on, it doesn’t seem too tricky to get a slot on the tennis courts. Again, if you hire a car, the beaches on the south coast are great for snorkelling. If she likes being on the internet, there’s free WiFi in lots of places throughout the resort (if we were lucky, we could get a signal on our patio table) – and it was common to see people all over the hotel perched in alcoves and on steps looking at stuff. They’ve upgraded the service in the last year, and it was strong enough that we could Skype / FaceTime with the folks back home.
Hendo and AngusClydesdale said: “I heard it was a bit tatty round the edges these days, but then aren't we all” and “We'd also heard it was a bit 'gulag-style' on the accommodation front. Up-to-date info would be welcome.”
It looked fine to us. The apartments are basic (terracotta tiled floors, cream walls, mix of Ikea and pine furniture, and some slightly tired looking kitchen / bathroom cabinets) – and they don’t seem to have air-con (the new ones they are building do have that) – but it’s in no way out of line with other ‘hot’ places I’ve stayed. Sleeping in an unusual bed took a bit of getting used to, but other than that, it was just a base for all our stuff. We spoke to our neighbours, who own a time-share apartment, and they said that it’s had its dips over the years, but the standard has definitely improved a lot. Apparently the walkways used to be plastic matting - and consequently they provided a wonderful habitat for cockroaches – but now they are all tiled, and there’s a man riding a disinfecting machine around every day. Over the entire week, I saw one live cockroach, and a couple of dead ones. When I went to Tenerife as a kid, the first game we’d play in kids club was ‘see who can stamp on the most cockroaches’ – so I think CLS is pretty good.
The new accommodation is coming along – I think they’ve done the majority of the buildings now – the cranes were lifting in the window glass, and the builders were building walls around the edge. I think they’re going to be of a higher standard again, and also they’re refurbing the older apartments too.
AngusClydesdale asked: “And do they do other sports? MrsC likes sailing and windsurfing and tennis. My kids are 8 & 5 this year. Is there stuff for them like sporty childcare? “
Yep, lots. Over the course of the week, I tried out tennis, squash, wind surfing, snorkelling, swimming, and ‘Stretch and Relax’. There are loads of different exercise classes, like Pilates, Zumba, BodyCombat, Body Conditioning, Body Most Things Actually. There’s a five-a-side pitch, basketball, spinning bikes, kayaking, stand-up paddle surfing, padel tennis, a running track and a boxing ring. I went there expecting to get my runs done, and watch the rest from the side – but trying stuff out is infectious, even if you suck at it. For kids, alongside the stuff I’ve described above, there’s ‘Fit’N’Fun’, swimming lessons, a football school for 5-10’s, tennis instruction for 7-10’s, Padel (sort of like tennis) for 7-10’s. Plus of course if they fancy it you could take them on the 2k/3k morning runs – the routes are pretty straightforward.
Pestomum asks: “What’s the food like?”
At breakfast they have masses of fresh fruit, which was all very juicy (I’d regularly come back to the table with several slices of melon and pineapple). Then there was a mixture of croissants, pain au chocs, various types of bread rolls, jams etc. On the cooked side, there was always a massive trough of bacons, boiled eggs, and for some reason, hot dog sausages (a European thing?). On the griddle there were fried eggs and squares of omelette, the latter also forming part of my regular morning omelette and bacon bap. On a few mornings the egg had gone a bit cold, but other than that, all good. There’s a water fountain, and a juice machine, although it was made from concentrate which was a bit disappointing. The coffee machine was pretty decent, although the cappuccinos tasted pretty sweet.
For dinner, they’d have a different theme each night e.g. Mexican, Lanzarote, Spanish, Italian etc. So there’d usually be a few special dishes (e.g. steak, chilli, paella) alongside the stuff that they prepare every night (big salad bar, rice, chips, pasta, tomatoey pasta sauce, chicken breasts). It’s entirely possible to have several platefuls of food without repeating yourself. If I’m nit-picking, the lasagne was a bit mushy once or twice, and there are only paid-for drinks available with dinner – it would be nice to at least see a water fountain available. Whilst it’s not ‘fine dining’, considering they are feeding a couple of hundred people every night, I would say it’s really good. On our way to Katie’s dive, the dive instructor told us that they got a new chef at Christmas, and that since then, all the dining room staff have been much happier.
Our meal ticket (which we got for free) would have cost about £200 for the week, which works out at about £15 per head per day. You could probably save money by buying and cooking the food yourself, but even if you only spent £10 per person per day, that’d mean you’d be saving about £30 each per week. We came to the conclusion that paying £30 each to have someone cook a wide variety of meals, with all the preparation and clearing up, was well worth it. You could perhaps do your own breakfasts with cereal and croissants from the shop, but you wouldn’t get the variety.
Ness asks: “I want to try [to] convince Mr Ness he'd like to go so could you check out the facilities for non-running partners. For example, what are the gym facilities like? Ta.”
The gym looked pretty good – lots of machines, and didn’t seem at all busy whilst we were there. I think I saw somewhere that it doesn’t have air con – so it might perhaps feel a bit stuffy – but certainly the equipment looked good. However, if Mr Ness is in any way willing to give things a go, then there loads of non-running things you can do. I’m probably the last person I’d pick to do a ‘copy the instructor’ class, but by the end of the week, I was more than happy to join in. Although I feel a bit self-conscious, there was absolutely no feeling that you were surrounded by experts sniggering behind their hands at you. There’s a colour code – green for beginners, blue for intermediate, and red for experienced – and the green sessions really do take you through the basic skills in a clear way.
SarahL asks: “How many apartments have they now done up? What's the time scale for doing up all of them? Will prices go up once renovated? How is the 5 star hotel development Coming along?”
I think Brendan from Sports Tours gave you the figures on this one Sarah. One thing we did find out was that the ‘noisy’ work seems to have been done. Had we not gone past the builders on our running route, we would probably not have noticed they were there.
Velociraptor says: “Am I still allowed to say that it's a f***ing eyesore of a place even by the low aesthetic standards of the Lanzarote landscape? The most important question for me will be, did you and Katie enjoy your stay?”
If there comes a time when you don’t feel you can shoot your mouth off about subjects of your choice, it’ll be a bad day for the website I’m not going to try to change your mind about the hotel (even though I like it myself) – but I would argue the point about the landscape. Sure, there are large swathes of ugly chewed up rock, and life has had to work hard to establish itself – but it’s hard to hear about the eruptions, and the flow of lava, without having some respect for the power of that rock – and with that, some feeling of beauty. And some of the ways in which the farmers have used the rock to protect their crops are definitely worthy of appreciation. In answer to your most important question - yes, it was great
Minnie Mad says: “My main concern is whether or not the rooms have been refurbished and so on since then as they were pretty daggy then! The accommodation was in 1960's concrete blocks and it was very noisy - mainly the reps partying all night as I remember!”
Judging by the evidence, they certainly seem to be doing a lot of upgrading. As for the noise, I think the green team have to do a bit of a performance on Wednesday nights – and our long-term neighbours have told us that they often have a bit of fun afterwards. Most days we were pretty knackered by 10pm, and we didn’t hear much.
Boab says: “I'd like to get an understanding of the quality of the accommodation. Are there different levels of accommodation and what are they like? Food quality and what's around the resort, outside its walls.”
I’ll include a photo album from our stay. I think the apartment interiors are similar, but the difference comes in terms of location within the hotel. I think the yellow (basic) ones face the road, or the ‘square’ (where the entertainment and a few restaurants are), and don’t have much of a view. Ours was a red apartment, and had a little patio table out front, with a nice view over the pool, the sea, and the sunset. Anecdotally, it’s good to get one facing towards the track, because it’s furthest from the noise, and from the people moving about the place. I think the new apartments may have air con and TV, with a nice view over the lagoon - and undoubtedly the build quality will be that bit sharper.
Immediately outside the resort, things are a bit barren, but I think there are enough roads to run on to get your mileage for the week. I found our off-road route pretty tough (sand and cinder paths, climbing 168m over the course of four miles, then a similar descent over the next three miles). La Santa village is a mile or so away, but most of the built-up areas of the island are on the south coast where the beaches are nicer.
City Runner asks: “Is it full of noisy kids or a more adult place?” and Ultra Kanga Kazzaaaaah!! asks: “is it the kind of place that someone could happily go to on their own and if so are there quieter corners where you can escape kids?”
There were quite a lot of kids there, but at the tail end of July, I think we caught a mostly Danish audience, so naturally they were all like super-humans and all seemed incredibly well-behaved. In fact the only time we ever saw anything unsavoury was the sight of a dad on the other side of the lagoon, berating his son for stopping running – there was shouting and pushing! The one thing about the location of our apartment was the proximity to the diving board, which was a big favourite amongst the under-20’s – so there were times when the boinging could get to you slightly. But I don’t recall coming anywhere close to wanting to throttle any of them
We also met a lady who’d come away for three weeks by herself – there’s a thing in the sports department where you can ask for people to cycle / tennis / run etc with. She seemed to be having a nice time. I wouldn’t say that there are any deadly quiet bits anywhere, but equally I didn’t see any feral kids causing trouble. We’d like to take our boys there in the future, but equally if they weren’t around, we’d also be happy to be there.
Right... that’s it on the CLS front I promise I will be collecting all the blogs into one place and sending them as an email to the wider Fetch population, but if you’ve been reading my blog regularly, it’ll just be stuff you’ve already read.
Normal ranting will resume as of my next blog (I’ve enjoyed blogging more regularly, so that’s good). Ciao Ciao!
Back in June, I asked if there was anything you wanted to know about the place – and although you’ve had the ‘official’ answers from the owner / tour operator, I wanted to give you my viewpoint. Mushroom asked: “Is it the kind of place that could support a family as a family destination (kids clubs, activities etc), and is relaxing for non-runners, or would all the sweaty sporty types just annoy everybody else who isn't trying to train? Is there a bar? Does it serve beer, or protein shakes?”
I’d say yes to this one. The first thing that struck us was the big fun pool, which we think is completely undersold. It has a separate toddler pool, an island in the middle, and a deeper bit with a springboard which is very popular with kids of about 6 upwards. My boy is 7 and I know he’d love the pool. There’s mini golf on site, and a kids club, which seems to have activities like egg painting and baking, and the windsurfing lagoon has enough sand and shallow water around it to do sand castles etc. The actual beaches around CLS are a bit ashy / rocky / currenty – but if you end up getting a hire car, there are some beautiful ones down in the south (about a half hour drive), near Puerto del Carmen. There’s evening entertainment (some singing, some variety), and there seems to be a general respect for not being too noisy late at night (although if you’re close to the ‘square’ it can be a bit noisy ‘til around 10pm). There’s a bar overlooking the pool / class area – it has a big telly with sports on it, and they do beer and ice cream and various food. There’s also a ‘sports bar’ in the square which is worth a nosey at, and there’s a late night disco, which I’m pleased to say was far enough away that we didn’t hear it once – although the number of bottles on the tables outside it the following morning suggests that it’s quite well used
Girlie asked: “LMG will be 12 so would be interested in stuff for her age group, and especially swimming and the pools as that is her main area of interest.”
See above for the fun pool. If you mean lane swimming, the 50m pool is great, and they may have finished another two by the time you get there. She’s at the upper end of the kids clubs, but I did see that they have ‘teen beach parties’, and a lot of the available sports have 11-15 sessions. Unless there’s a class on, it doesn’t seem too tricky to get a slot on the tennis courts. Again, if you hire a car, the beaches on the south coast are great for snorkelling. If she likes being on the internet, there’s free WiFi in lots of places throughout the resort (if we were lucky, we could get a signal on our patio table) – and it was common to see people all over the hotel perched in alcoves and on steps looking at stuff. They’ve upgraded the service in the last year, and it was strong enough that we could Skype / FaceTime with the folks back home.
Hendo and AngusClydesdale said: “I heard it was a bit tatty round the edges these days, but then aren't we all” and “We'd also heard it was a bit 'gulag-style' on the accommodation front. Up-to-date info would be welcome.”
It looked fine to us. The apartments are basic (terracotta tiled floors, cream walls, mix of Ikea and pine furniture, and some slightly tired looking kitchen / bathroom cabinets) – and they don’t seem to have air-con (the new ones they are building do have that) – but it’s in no way out of line with other ‘hot’ places I’ve stayed. Sleeping in an unusual bed took a bit of getting used to, but other than that, it was just a base for all our stuff. We spoke to our neighbours, who own a time-share apartment, and they said that it’s had its dips over the years, but the standard has definitely improved a lot. Apparently the walkways used to be plastic matting - and consequently they provided a wonderful habitat for cockroaches – but now they are all tiled, and there’s a man riding a disinfecting machine around every day. Over the entire week, I saw one live cockroach, and a couple of dead ones. When I went to Tenerife as a kid, the first game we’d play in kids club was ‘see who can stamp on the most cockroaches’ – so I think CLS is pretty good.
The new accommodation is coming along – I think they’ve done the majority of the buildings now – the cranes were lifting in the window glass, and the builders were building walls around the edge. I think they’re going to be of a higher standard again, and also they’re refurbing the older apartments too.
AngusClydesdale asked: “And do they do other sports? MrsC likes sailing and windsurfing and tennis. My kids are 8 & 5 this year. Is there stuff for them like sporty childcare? “
Yep, lots. Over the course of the week, I tried out tennis, squash, wind surfing, snorkelling, swimming, and ‘Stretch and Relax’. There are loads of different exercise classes, like Pilates, Zumba, BodyCombat, Body Conditioning, Body Most Things Actually. There’s a five-a-side pitch, basketball, spinning bikes, kayaking, stand-up paddle surfing, padel tennis, a running track and a boxing ring. I went there expecting to get my runs done, and watch the rest from the side – but trying stuff out is infectious, even if you suck at it. For kids, alongside the stuff I’ve described above, there’s ‘Fit’N’Fun’, swimming lessons, a football school for 5-10’s, tennis instruction for 7-10’s, Padel (sort of like tennis) for 7-10’s. Plus of course if they fancy it you could take them on the 2k/3k morning runs – the routes are pretty straightforward.
Pestomum asks: “What’s the food like?”
At breakfast they have masses of fresh fruit, which was all very juicy (I’d regularly come back to the table with several slices of melon and pineapple). Then there was a mixture of croissants, pain au chocs, various types of bread rolls, jams etc. On the cooked side, there was always a massive trough of bacons, boiled eggs, and for some reason, hot dog sausages (a European thing?). On the griddle there were fried eggs and squares of omelette, the latter also forming part of my regular morning omelette and bacon bap. On a few mornings the egg had gone a bit cold, but other than that, all good. There’s a water fountain, and a juice machine, although it was made from concentrate which was a bit disappointing. The coffee machine was pretty decent, although the cappuccinos tasted pretty sweet.
For dinner, they’d have a different theme each night e.g. Mexican, Lanzarote, Spanish, Italian etc. So there’d usually be a few special dishes (e.g. steak, chilli, paella) alongside the stuff that they prepare every night (big salad bar, rice, chips, pasta, tomatoey pasta sauce, chicken breasts). It’s entirely possible to have several platefuls of food without repeating yourself. If I’m nit-picking, the lasagne was a bit mushy once or twice, and there are only paid-for drinks available with dinner – it would be nice to at least see a water fountain available. Whilst it’s not ‘fine dining’, considering they are feeding a couple of hundred people every night, I would say it’s really good. On our way to Katie’s dive, the dive instructor told us that they got a new chef at Christmas, and that since then, all the dining room staff have been much happier.
Our meal ticket (which we got for free) would have cost about £200 for the week, which works out at about £15 per head per day. You could probably save money by buying and cooking the food yourself, but even if you only spent £10 per person per day, that’d mean you’d be saving about £30 each per week. We came to the conclusion that paying £30 each to have someone cook a wide variety of meals, with all the preparation and clearing up, was well worth it. You could perhaps do your own breakfasts with cereal and croissants from the shop, but you wouldn’t get the variety.
Ness asks: “I want to try [to] convince Mr Ness he'd like to go so could you check out the facilities for non-running partners. For example, what are the gym facilities like? Ta.”
The gym looked pretty good – lots of machines, and didn’t seem at all busy whilst we were there. I think I saw somewhere that it doesn’t have air con – so it might perhaps feel a bit stuffy – but certainly the equipment looked good. However, if Mr Ness is in any way willing to give things a go, then there loads of non-running things you can do. I’m probably the last person I’d pick to do a ‘copy the instructor’ class, but by the end of the week, I was more than happy to join in. Although I feel a bit self-conscious, there was absolutely no feeling that you were surrounded by experts sniggering behind their hands at you. There’s a colour code – green for beginners, blue for intermediate, and red for experienced – and the green sessions really do take you through the basic skills in a clear way.
SarahL asks: “How many apartments have they now done up? What's the time scale for doing up all of them? Will prices go up once renovated? How is the 5 star hotel development Coming along?”
I think Brendan from Sports Tours gave you the figures on this one Sarah. One thing we did find out was that the ‘noisy’ work seems to have been done. Had we not gone past the builders on our running route, we would probably not have noticed they were there.
Velociraptor says: “Am I still allowed to say that it's a f***ing eyesore of a place even by the low aesthetic standards of the Lanzarote landscape? The most important question for me will be, did you and Katie enjoy your stay?”
If there comes a time when you don’t feel you can shoot your mouth off about subjects of your choice, it’ll be a bad day for the website
I’m not going to try to change your mind about the hotel (even though I like it myself) – but I would argue the point about the landscape. Sure, there are large swathes of ugly chewed up rock, and life has had to work hard to establish itself – but it’s hard to hear about the eruptions, and the flow of lava, without having some respect for the power of that rock – and with that, some feeling of beauty. And some of the ways in which the farmers have used the rock to protect their crops are definitely worthy of appreciation. In answer to your most important question - yes, it was great Minnie Mad says: “My main concern is whether or not the rooms have been refurbished and so on since then as they were pretty daggy then! The accommodation was in 1960's concrete blocks and it was very noisy - mainly the reps partying all night as I remember!”
Judging by the evidence, they certainly seem to be doing a lot of upgrading. As for the noise, I think the green team have to do a bit of a performance on Wednesday nights – and our long-term neighbours have told us that they often have a bit of fun afterwards. Most days we were pretty knackered by 10pm, and we didn’t hear much.
Boab says: “I'd like to get an understanding of the quality of the accommodation. Are there different levels of accommodation and what are they like? Food quality and what's around the resort, outside its walls.”
I’ll include a photo album from our stay. I think the apartment interiors are similar, but the difference comes in terms of location within the hotel. I think the yellow (basic) ones face the road, or the ‘square’ (where the entertainment and a few restaurants are), and don’t have much of a view. Ours was a red apartment, and had a little patio table out front, with a nice view over the pool, the sea, and the sunset. Anecdotally, it’s good to get one facing towards the track, because it’s furthest from the noise, and from the people moving about the place. I think the new apartments may have air con and TV, with a nice view over the lagoon - and undoubtedly the build quality will be that bit sharper.
Immediately outside the resort, things are a bit barren, but I think there are enough roads to run on to get your mileage for the week. I found our off-road route pretty tough (sand and cinder paths, climbing 168m over the course of four miles, then a similar descent over the next three miles). La Santa village is a mile or so away, but most of the built-up areas of the island are on the south coast where the beaches are nicer.
City Runner asks: “Is it full of noisy kids or a more adult place?” and Ultra Kanga Kazzaaaaah!! asks: “is it the kind of place that someone could happily go to on their own and if so are there quieter corners where you can escape kids?”
There were quite a lot of kids there, but at the tail end of July, I think we caught a mostly Danish audience, so naturally they were all like super-humans and all seemed incredibly well-behaved. In fact the only time we ever saw anything unsavoury was the sight of a dad on the other side of the lagoon, berating his son for stopping running – there was shouting and pushing! The one thing about the location of our apartment was the proximity to the diving board, which was a big favourite amongst the under-20’s – so there were times when the boinging could get to you slightly. But I don’t recall coming anywhere close to wanting to throttle any of them
We also met a lady who’d come away for three weeks by herself – there’s a thing in the sports department where you can ask for people to cycle / tennis / run etc with. She seemed to be having a nice time. I wouldn’t say that there are any deadly quiet bits anywhere, but equally I didn’t see any feral kids causing trouble. We’d like to take our boys there in the future, but equally if they weren’t around, we’d also be happy to be there.
Right... that’s it on the CLS front I promise
I will be collecting all the blogs into one place and sending them as an email to the wider Fetch population, but if you’ve been reading my blog regularly, it’ll just be stuff you’ve already read. Normal ranting will resume as of my next blog (I’ve enjoyed blogging more regularly, so that’s good). Ciao Ciao!
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.
Comments
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Sounds great! Will there be a "Fetcheveryone does CLS 2014" week next year (obv!!) with a huge group discount booking?Nightjar2:13pm, 6th Aug 2013
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ThanksLisrun3:59pm, 6th Aug 2013
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Brilliant reports Fetch. Would be really nice to get Mrs S(rrr) to go, but not sure I'll ever be able to convince her. There wasn't horse riding, was there?! :-)GHappyG(rrr)4:58pm, 6th Aug 2013
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i think you've summed it up beautifully. personally i think it's excellent value for money and will always go as often as i can. we stayed in an apartment just off the square last time and can confirm that the noise does stop at 10pm once the entertainments are over.runner duck6:04pm, 6th Aug 2013
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And we had an apartment around the back towards the road that was fine and had its own little courtyard, table and chairs. We went for the activities and sports and had no issues with the accommodation - although air con would have been wonderful.Lalli9:16pm, 6th Aug 2013
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Thank you for the reports. You managed to pack in a lot, but did you manage to visit the bike sheds?Helegant10:33pm, 6th Aug 2013
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Oh yes, I forgot that bit. You can take out a £700 Cannondale for 4hrs for free, or for €15a day you can upgrade to a £2k carbon fibre one. According to various cyclists we spoke to, there are lots of great roads around the island. The off road also looks entertaining.fetcheveryone10:50pm, 6th Aug 2013
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Oh and they replace the fleet annually.fetcheveryone10:52pm, 6th Aug 2013
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Thanks for the blogs, very informative.Dvorak12:21am, 7th Aug 2013
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The cycling around the island is indeed excellent. We noticed that the roads became much busier with bikes around CLS, and the free 4hr thing would explain it.Velociraptor8:32am, 7th Aug 2013
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Also from memory I think they have in excess of 100 bikes.fetcheveryone9:07am, 7th Aug 2013
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They have Garmin-downloadable routes for the road biking, but it's much harder for the off road running because every time the wind blows all the paths movefetcheveryone9:09am, 7th Aug 2013
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thank you for all that - looks worth looking into (but not this year or the next!) - interestingtulip1:54pm, 7th Aug 2013
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Good price for hiring bikes of that standard too. If I was going to CLS, I wouldn't bother taking my own bike. And the downloadable routes is a nice touch, though Lanzarote is such a compact island that you'd have to be very careless indeed to get lost or to fail to locate a POI or aVelociraptor
and 
destination.2:06pm, 7th Aug 2013 -
Thanks for your reviews over your time there. Now to try to blackmail hubby into going there...he might not see much of me. Then again, he'd probably be quite happy with the weight room...:)Garfield7:41pm, 7th Aug 2013
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It sounds great! I reckon even Mr fleecy might enjoy it, I better put our email address on their mailing list so he thinks it's his idea...fleecy5:50pm, 11th Aug 2013
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Lol at this sentence ".....so there were times when the boinging could get to you slightly" :o)Albert O Balsam
Thanks for the review - loved my week there a few years ago12:25pm, 23rd Aug 2013 -
I find interesting that somebody can consider CLS an eyesore. If we come down to it *any* building in this setting could be considered as such. Anyway, Lanzarote has lots of things to see and do, so when you are not running (or cycling, which is in reality the strongest point of being in Lanzarote) you can see very interesting things, normally associated to the name of artist Cesar Manrique, who also set up the building standards for all the island to stick the same construction guidelines.Tzctfetc
I have ran in the fields there (be careful, some of the paths are un-runnable) and there are very few places in the world (I have ran in more cities and places than most people I talk about this activity) that come close.
CLS isn't perfect, but golly, by no means is the worst.10:56am, 26th Sep 2013 -
Good Blog.Argie11:57am, 30th Dec 2013
Time for a catch up blog. Yesterday was a bit disrupted with a visit to the on-site doctor as Katie has a very sore ear. She's on antibiotics, strong pain killers, and ear drops that make her giggle. Fingers crossed she's improving for our flight on Saturday morning because we'd hate to have to stay in paradise for an extra day
After a wonderful morning on Wednesday, the afternoon session was a good deal more difficult. It started with a half an hour serve class where, as with backhand, it seems I've been doing it wrong for ever. But it turns out that the right way is pretty tough. You have to use the hammer grip, which means that a natural swing of your racket would hit the ball with the side of the frame. So you've got to twist your wrist as you swing forwards, so it's pretty tough. I wouldn't say I'd cracked it by the end of the half an hour, but I'd at least managed to hit it forwards, rather than into the next court.
Then a short break before the off-road run - 12k (everything here is in k) at 5:30/km. I don't know what the off-road is like where you are, but the kind I'm used to is fields, usually with a nice little beaten-down path, pretty trees, butterflies, bubbling streams etc. About half a mile from the hotel, we turned off the main road and onto a dirt track leading up towards some mountains. It undulated quite a lot (I'm looking forward to getting an altitude profile of it when I get home), and the dirt turned into uneven cinders, which in turn gave way to sand, that gave way underfoot. It was difficult to run on, and I spent most of the run just behind the main group. There were 14 of us in all, and the main group had 12 people in it, then a gap of about 20 yards, then me, then another 20 yards, then a Danish lady. I did wonder just how far back we'd have to drop before any concession was made. I felt better for reaching half way, knowing that most of our climbing was done, although the site of animal bones at the side of the path was a bit unnerving The first 4 miles were around 9:00/mile, and then we ran the last 3 at about 8:30, giving an average of 8:48. There were a few handy hairpin turns which allowed me and Danish lady to catch up a bit, but in all honesty, it was a tough run, and although I managed to hang onto the tails of the group, I don't know how it would have panned out if I was any slower. I doubt I'd have been left alone to survive by gnawing the remaining meat off the animal bones, but we think there's a bit of room for improvement when it comes to catering for varying standards. Just to return the spirit of wonderfulness that imbibes this place, I've got to say that I feel great for having done it, and it certainly helped me push my running boundaries, so in a way it's good... I could go round in circles here
Yesterday morning we had our wind surfing lesson. Katie was absolutely elated by the experience, and she looked very good scooting about the place. As for me, I found it pretty tough going and felt a bit flustered. I think I've just about understood the maths of it, and I managed to do a little bit of sailing about, but when it came to remembering the process at the right time, and thinking on my (very wobbly) feet, I was a bit flummoxed. If I was in a car, I would have rivalled that Maureen woman from that driving programme. But it was ok - and there were people falling off all around me, and it felt like a wonderfully safe environment to try it out in. It's a lagoon, mainly pretty flat, with a sandy bottom. The deepest bit I fell into was about 6ft, so I didn't feel in danger at all. So I'll chalk it up as 'not my sport', but like all the lessons we've had here, it's been clear, thoughtful, and encouraging. Push those comfort zones, and you might find some natural talents you never knew you had.
We had our usual lunch of fresh bread, Serrano ham and few bits of honey / jam / nutty spread left over from breakfast, and had a lazy early afternoon (I've read 'One Day' whilst I've been here, very good). At four, it was time for me to try intermediate tennis. I wasn't especially hopeful - they take eight on the class, and I was 16th on the list, so I was hoping there'd be a lot of drop outs. Luck varies here - Katie was 22nd reserve for body conditioning, but got a space, whereas we were 2nd and 3rd reserve for wind surfing and missed out.
My luck was in - there were a few drop outs, and I did big eyes at the instructor, and he took ten of us. Intermediate was a definite step up, but not out of reach if you've got the hang of forehand and backhand. We warmed up with random partners, two pairs sharing each court. Balls were flying everywhere as we all tried to play our best shots in one go. This was all part of coach Lucas's plan, and he explained that we would learn to control our shots. So we played right up at the service line (that's the little box), and weren't allowed to move back until we'd completed a rally of 14 shots. It was good fun, and by the end of it, I felt like I was placing the ball better. The coach told us that over the space of 40 minutes, we'd played about 800 shots each The session finished with a 'winner stays on' game, so I now have permanent nodding rights with my homey Reneé from Norway.
I was due to go straight from tennis to try out beginners Body Bike, but I stopped to say hi to Katie, and arrived at the class a minute late, so they'd already allocated all the bikes. I didn't mind at all though - when I peered in through the door, the body bikers turned and blinked in the sunlight, staring at me like laboratory mice on their treadmills At least that's my story, because I missed out. I expect it's another good class - they all seem to be so far.
Yesterday evening, Katie's ear was getting sorer by the minute. There's an on site doctor here, and though his normal clinic is 5-7pm, I spoke to him on the phone via reception, and he came back to the site at 9.30 to see us. I wish he was my doctor - he grins and winks and shakes your hand and has lots of interesting memorabilia on his shelves. We haven't had a bill yet, but so far the service has been very good.
Today, with Katie feeling a bit better, we set out for a few miles around the lagoon at our own pace. You go past the beach at one point, and it's all massive chunks of rock, and some beautiful white water.
Back to the hotel, and we go to try out 'Stretch and Relax' - a very Danish lady speaking in a slow and soporific way, leading us through a body stretching routine to some ambient / chill-out room music, culminating in a 15 minute lie down whilst she continued whispering lullaby stuff - a bit like Björk on horse tranquillisers, and very relaxing.
Time to get this posted - all being well we fly tomorrow morning (sob), so I expect the next blog won't be for a few days. I think you'd like it here
After a wonderful morning on Wednesday, the afternoon session was a good deal more difficult. It started with a half an hour serve class where, as with backhand, it seems I've been doing it wrong for ever. But it turns out that the right way is pretty tough. You have to use the hammer grip, which means that a natural swing of your racket would hit the ball with the side of the frame. So you've got to twist your wrist as you swing forwards, so it's pretty tough. I wouldn't say I'd cracked it by the end of the half an hour, but I'd at least managed to hit it forwards, rather than into the next court.
Then a short break before the off-road run - 12k (everything here is in k) at 5:30/km. I don't know what the off-road is like where you are, but the kind I'm used to is fields, usually with a nice little beaten-down path, pretty trees, butterflies, bubbling streams etc. About half a mile from the hotel, we turned off the main road and onto a dirt track leading up towards some mountains. It undulated quite a lot (I'm looking forward to getting an altitude profile of it when I get home), and the dirt turned into uneven cinders, which in turn gave way to sand, that gave way underfoot. It was difficult to run on, and I spent most of the run just behind the main group. There were 14 of us in all, and the main group had 12 people in it, then a gap of about 20 yards, then me, then another 20 yards, then a Danish lady. I did wonder just how far back we'd have to drop before any concession was made. I felt better for reaching half way, knowing that most of our climbing was done, although the site of animal bones at the side of the path was a bit unnerving
The first 4 miles were around 9:00/mile, and then we ran the last 3 at about 8:30, giving an average of 8:48. There were a few handy hairpin turns which allowed me and Danish lady to catch up a bit, but in all honesty, it was a tough run, and although I managed to hang onto the tails of the group, I don't know how it would have panned out if I was any slower. I doubt I'd have been left alone to survive by gnawing the remaining meat off the animal bones, but we think there's a bit of room for improvement when it comes to catering for varying standards. Just to return the spirit of wonderfulness that imbibes this place, I've got to say that I feel great for having done it, and it certainly helped me push my running boundaries, so in a way it's good... I could go round in circles here Yesterday morning we had our wind surfing lesson. Katie was absolutely elated by the experience, and she looked very good scooting about the place. As for me, I found it pretty tough going and felt a bit flustered. I think I've just about understood the maths of it, and I managed to do a little bit of sailing about, but when it came to remembering the process at the right time, and thinking on my (very wobbly) feet, I was a bit flummoxed. If I was in a car, I would have rivalled that Maureen woman from that driving programme. But it was ok - and there were people falling off all around me, and it felt like a wonderfully safe environment to try it out in. It's a lagoon, mainly pretty flat, with a sandy bottom. The deepest bit I fell into was about 6ft, so I didn't feel in danger at all. So I'll chalk it up as 'not my sport', but like all the lessons we've had here, it's been clear, thoughtful, and encouraging. Push those comfort zones, and you might find some natural talents you never knew you had.
We had our usual lunch of fresh bread, Serrano ham and few bits of honey / jam / nutty spread left over from breakfast, and had a lazy early afternoon (I've read 'One Day' whilst I've been here, very good). At four, it was time for me to try intermediate tennis. I wasn't especially hopeful - they take eight on the class, and I was 16th on the list, so I was hoping there'd be a lot of drop outs. Luck varies here - Katie was 22nd reserve for body conditioning, but got a space, whereas we were 2nd and 3rd reserve for wind surfing and missed out.
My luck was in - there were a few drop outs, and I did big eyes at the instructor, and he took ten of us. Intermediate was a definite step up, but not out of reach if you've got the hang of forehand and backhand. We warmed up with random partners, two pairs sharing each court. Balls were flying everywhere as we all tried to play our best shots in one go. This was all part of coach Lucas's plan, and he explained that we would learn to control our shots. So we played right up at the service line (that's the little box), and weren't allowed to move back until we'd completed a rally of 14 shots. It was good fun, and by the end of it, I felt like I was placing the ball better. The coach told us that over the space of 40 minutes, we'd played about 800 shots each
The session finished with a 'winner stays on' game, so I now have permanent nodding rights with my homey Reneé from Norway. I was due to go straight from tennis to try out beginners Body Bike, but I stopped to say hi to Katie, and arrived at the class a minute late, so they'd already allocated all the bikes. I didn't mind at all though - when I peered in through the door, the body bikers turned and blinked in the sunlight, staring at me like laboratory mice on their treadmills
At least that's my story, because I missed out. I expect it's another good class - they all seem to be so far. Yesterday evening, Katie's ear was getting sorer by the minute. There's an on site doctor here, and though his normal clinic is 5-7pm, I spoke to him on the phone via reception, and he came back to the site at 9.30 to see us. I wish he was my doctor - he grins and winks and shakes your hand and has lots of interesting memorabilia on his shelves. We haven't had a bill yet, but so far the service has been very good.
Today, with Katie feeling a bit better, we set out for a few miles around the lagoon at our own pace. You go past the beach at one point, and it's all massive chunks of rock, and some beautiful white water.
Back to the hotel, and we go to try out 'Stretch and Relax' - a very Danish lady speaking in a slow and soporific way, leading us through a body stretching routine to some ambient / chill-out room music, culminating in a 15 minute lie down whilst she continued whispering lullaby stuff - a bit like Björk on horse tranquillisers, and very relaxing.
Time to get this posted - all being well we fly tomorrow morning (sob), so I expect the next blog won't be for a few days. I think you'd like it here
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.
Comments
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I think I would like it there too....D21:39pm, 2nd Aug 2013
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Hope Katie's ear improves and she is feeling better. These have been great write ups and I'm v. jealous. Windsurfing is a classic "gets easier as you get better at it" sport. All that standing up and falling off and climbing back on goes away and with decent winds (that you get in Canaries) you can actually let the sail pull you out of the water (a water start), use a harness instead of your arms to hold the weight of the sail and generally just mooch about looking cool! Give it another go! :-)GHappyG(rrr)1:40pm, 2nd Aug 2013
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It sounds good...many thanks for the reviews!:) Hopefully Katie's ear will improve for the return journey.Garfield2:28pm, 2nd Aug 2013
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have a good trip back. CLS sounds great but you've confirmed it's not for me - I'd never keep up with the runs and am too basic at the other stuff tooHellsBells5:36pm, 2nd Aug 2013
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oooh you and your big eyes. you'll be batting your lashes next.runner duck
i agree, they need to sort out the pacing for the less speedy amongst us. although when i was behind the rest of the field by a good 15mins in the weekly half marathon (middle portion is off-road, too, hard work) the kindness of the green team chap made me weep.8:08pm, 2nd Aug 2013 -
Safe trip home. We loved it too. And no way could I have managed their organised runs, but I did my own stuff at the track after the morning jog, so that worked for me. We will be back at some point in the near future.:-)Lalli7:37am, 3rd Aug 2013
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I've enjoyed your blogsVelociraptor
You've also managed to confirm for eL Bee! and me that CLS very much isn't for us. Different reasons from HellsBells. The accommodation sounds like poor value in comparison with a package holiday in a resort, I didn't get the impression that you had more social craic with the athlete community than we have with random grockles, and the booking classes and hoping people wouldn't turn up would irritate me even more than other people's kids do (and I'm sure there are a few of those too!)
But I'm glad not everyone wants to do the stuff we do too7:46am, 3rd Aug 2013 -
Sounds like you've packed a huge amount into the week, great advert for the place! Hope Katie ok xxsantababy11:55am, 3rd Aug 2013
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Yesvember - Day #30 (and Festive Fetch Calendar Eve!)
The Fetch Festive 160.934 :-) [Yesvember #Day 29]
You'd better watch out... (plus Yesvember Day #28)
Brace Yourself (and there's one spare bobble hat!) and Yesvember - Day #26
Hats in the post! Plus Yesvember Day #25
Look what arrived!
Yesvember - Day #24
Training Graph Manager - usability update (Yesvember Day #23)
Yesvember - Day #22 - Cheating?
Last chance to enter the Advance Performance comp
Yesvember - Days #11 thru #14 (plus Jumpy Boy)
Weather on the training home page watch. Have you got weather on the training home page? (Yesvember - Day #10)
Oh, and... it's Yesvember - Day #9
Another bit of the internet fenced off
Yesvember - Day #8 - taking steps
Yesvember - Day #7
Yesvember - Day #6
Yesvember - Day #5
The curse of swimming GPS
Yesvember - Day #4
The Les Mis effect
Yesvember - Day #3
Yesvember - Day #2
Yesvember - Day #1
October (15)
October gives way to Yesvember!
Anyone fancy a threeway?
More thoughts on races
Racing, post-pandemic
Contracts exchanged!
Competition Time!
Last call for Flobble Hats
A record year for swimming?
Woburn Lido
Order your Bobble Hat! If you like.
I appear to have entered a race! (plus new Garmin import queueing system)
Eric the Eel
Get your hobbit on
The Doctor K Cup: Saturday 8th October!
I felt the touch of the kings and the breath of the wind
September (16)
Take This Bus To Cuba
Fetch Bobble Hats
Trumpeting
Training View tweaks (switch maps, game overlays, mile markers)
Training View tweaks (and a play button bug fix)
A long ride and a cold swim.
Play Button
UTMOST Wava & Bike Division Rebuilds
New UTMOST leagues for cyclists and WAVA fans
The Doctor K Cup
Chance encounters
Do I ditch our Facebook stuff?
A keeper, from my feedback inbox...
Ultra distances - update
Adding ultra distances to Fastest Fetchies league.
Try the new Training Groups pages
August (11)
Training Groups Update - Coming Soon
Garmin Queue Issues
Donations without reference numbers :-)
New Elbow Laws
No longer the 3398th fastest Fetchie over 10k!
Pulling counties into league tables
What was I thinking?
County Champion?
Just bear in mind that you asked for this.
Wahoo and Coros users
How to make half a million quid (batteries not included)
July (6)
Club Listings
Book giveaway :-)
Updated Race Portfolio
Updated Targets Page
Exactly ***1*** Spare Ladies L Cycling Jersey
Search All Blogs :-)
June (10)
Imagine you could search all the public blogs...
Banking Scandal at Fetch Towers!
7pm on Baker Island #everyoneday
#EveryoneDay - Sunday 26th June 2022
Spare Challenge Coasters
The North West Passage
Feature Request Voting - Know Your Limits!
UTMOST Division 8: YIKES!
Shepperton Weight Gain Programme
UTMOST Division 9! Sub-50 10k :-)
May (16)
Four hours left :-)
Division 10: No hope of escape?
Book giveaway :-)
Division 11: No place left to hide
New HR Analysis
They're here! Well, not exactly *here*, but...
A quick Darth Mode update
Darth Mode! And a few biscuits for the hyperdrive.
Division 12: Two hours of pushing broom
Dark Mode: Beta
PB Potential? Fancy a quickie? ;-)
Division 12: Running Out Of Road?
Thank you everyone!
Making UTMOST moves :-)
Do you want a Fetch shirt?
I did my UTMOST :-) (plus new sharing infographic)
April (7)
Today's plan
NEW UTMOST BADGES!!!!!
A plug for some races
Raspberry Pavlov
Win a book :-)
United Colours of Cross Training
A little Streetview adventure
March (11)
The lockers are a pound.
Advice for Gym Noobs!
Feedback made easier
#EveryoneDay June 26th 2022
Fetch Virtual Challenge 2022 🎈
Thanks Chunky: parkrun routes!
Sniffer Dogs
Yikes!
Fetch Cycling Jerseys - Update
Route Plotting tweak
The Crow: A Pipedream!
February (7)
Fetch Kit Spares
Updated Race Listing Pages
Introducing Rundle!
I appear to be training for an OWS event!
Fetch Cycling Jerseys!!!
Does you wantz free shoez?
Post Office tomorrow - kit spares
January (13)
Updated Flanci Design (now with more Fetchness)
Badge Collection Graphic!
Updated elevation trace
Book Lists :-)
Updated sharing infographic - do you like it?
Spare Fetch Kit
Badge page refresh / feature requests
Flanci / Fetch Leggings
New Badge Pages
New hill badges
Join me on my fitness journey!
Are you the farmer?
Blog every day challenge - finishers
2021 (187)
December (14)
Book List
Ten years ago today...
A big slobbery elephant snog.
If you don't like hills, this must be getting tiring :-)
When does a hill end?
Hill finder - prototype v2
Hill Finder - prototype
2022 Targets
Chewie, We’re Home! Happy Fetch Independence Day!
Embed badges, plus a new badge :-)
Updated people page
Seeking map
Streak Watch
The new Fetch buffs are here…
November (23)
Almost there...
The Fetch Library
Update your thread titles
Ascent dissent
Mute a thread
Shortcuts
Training Import Queue
I fell off (but not really!)
Croeso i Fetcheveryone. Ydych chi'n siarad Almaeneg, Swedish neu Eidaleg?
New mobile nav
Last call for shirts
@
Just a trim please
Brought to you by wind power
300 miles later
Golden Ticket Shocker!
Banjobax (aka KOG)
Home and Away kit preorder - with long sleeve option
A little competition - win a copy of Daniels' Running Formula
Garmin testers - thanks
Add your grub stops!
Points Of Interest: Grub Stops
Garmin-owning testers wanted
October (19)
New home and away shirts and vests
Benchmark league - a few more updates
Benchmark league table
Hill areas
Preorder is now open!
'b'uffs then
Necktube design #1 & #2
Buffs (well, neck tubes)
Report dodgy GPS stuff
An apology for people who follow my training
New cycling and swimming badges
New Conquercise Feature: Grids
Sprouting a tiny biking antler :-)
Have a try of the cycling gradient analysis
Struggling with my big ring
Cycling: gradient vs pace
A question for cyclists
For Doctor K
Shan't.
September (14)
New comments (FID 1212)
Forum post previews
Garmin imports with a snippet more info
Gallery upload options
Golden Tickets
"No need to panic donate", says Williams
Forum Quotes
Spoiler Alert!
20th of March and all that.
Have you signed up yet?
This bit of crappy Upminister nearly cost me my f***ing life.
A guide with no pages
To steal a catchphrase from a wise lady...
Multiple choice polls
August (11)
Pre-Race Training - Updated
A connection!
New Member of the Month sponsor
Best Weeks - bug fixes
Your Best Week Ever
Rainbow Kit - preorder is open
Age Bests - filtering out the mistakes :-)
Sign up, sign up, for the Doctor K cup
A message from my lovely wife ❤️
Another batch of rainbow kit?
Spares: Event Clips, Swim Hats and a few rainbow tops
July (10)
A bunch of site goodies :-)
Hello kitty
Holy Simmering Mercury Batman!
Settings
A heart rate question
Sleepy Shuffle?
365 graph
Slipping on ma noob shoes
Meatronomes
World's Sexiest Bridges
June (11)
Benchmarks - a *tiny* little improvement
Race Leaderboards - some small improvements
Race Finder - Update
Up there ^
Routes - more updates
Last call for FE Event Clips
Server update
Minor code problem
Some little updates to your route list
Feature requests - two years on!
More than just a rainbow
May (8)
Rainbow Kit - update on delivery time...
Fetch Ron Hill Cycling Jerseys
Pre-order your rainbow kit now :-)
Jimi Hendrix vs Run DMC
The return of parkrun - a poll
Something in the woodshed...
Default to walk
A tour of the Fetch Office
April (11)
Instabanned :-)
I has Instagram
Fetch Event Clips
FERC
Castle Challenge Coaster!
My chess rating
Jab - symptom watch
This just in...
REVIEW: XMiles selection box
Let FE pay for your coaching qualifications :-)
Castle Challenge - A Quick Blog
March (18)
The Fetcheveryone Castle Challenge
Running vs Cycling Cadence
Fetch vests and shirts (and swim caps)
Elevation vs Follow Roads
£500 of England Athletics courses up for grabs!
TomTom users
Music by year: 1993
10k Analysis: Part 7 - Length of Training Runs
Music by year: 1992 (plus some 1991 additions)
Bot sniffing win :-) plus daily blogger count!
User profiles
10k Analysis: Part 6 - Training Pace Again
Time to update your injuries :-)
User profile - sticker button.. EDIT and race standard
More user profile adjustments
User Profile tweaking
Cute story of the week*
10k Analysis: Part 5 - Training Pace
February (17)
Year on Year mileage comparison
Elevation graphs
It's all kicking off in chess club!
Music By year: 1991
10k Analysis: Part 4 - Weekly Training Habits
Tagging virtual races
Chasing rainbows
Rainbow Shirts
Lance!
Blog writing improvements
10k Analysis: Part 3 - Accuracy of human predictions
Music by year: 1990
Smacking bots
29 slices - my seven days of dinner
10k Analysis: Part 2 - Age and Performance
Pass it on
10k Analysis: Part 1 - Distribution of best 10k times
January (31)
January
Mobile Usability Team Helping All Fetchies...
Salmon Ramen Recipe :-)
Salmon Ramen (for TBR)
Backup dog
The best GPS watches in the world... volume 1
Pick it...
People who liked...
Obscure bugs
Zen & The Art of Heart Rate Training
FIT file import - temporary issue
Keep the change, ya filthy animal
The honeymoon is over
Dirty data
Mobile Usability
Oops
Readership!
Stay sticky
It's Hip To Buy Squares
Related Threads - Exposé :-)
The Batshit Association
Jobs
Tag Team
Feed the monster!
An ad for Fetch Chess Club :-)
Estimating VO2Max
Three little birds
A not uncommon swelling
Church Mouse January
Honey, where's my super suit?
Not here.
2020 (128)
December (6)
Blog A Day 2021?
9 years ago today
Chewie, We're Home! Happy Fetch Independence Day :-)
Be Prepared
Becoming an effluencer
A few Fetch Mugs left
November (10)
The Festive Fetch Calendar is back!
FIT file import
Mugs!
Thank you, mysterious Fetchie!
Chess
UTMOST in the age of COVID-19
This'll cheer you up for sure...
Lost in translation?
Annual Infographic... updating now.
In theory...
October (11)
Training Plan Analysis
Mini plans with the training plan
5k with The Boy :-)
Welcome to tomorrow
Thank you
Become tradeable!
Pre-Race Training Volume
Doctor K Cup Week
Last orders
Advice for a friend
Trader Makeover
September (6)
The shop is open!
Hoodie Colour!
New Fetch Hoodies
A big up/holler!
VO2max
A benchmark derailed by GPS data *nerd*
August (8)
10k analysis
Officially a Sheepy Shuffler!
Pi Watering
Pre-order Avoid Everyone Face Masks
I got sent these...
Other sites? :-O
Benchmarks - an infinitely configurable set of ladders.
Try the monthly infographic :-)
July (10)
Update on Monthly Training Infographic
New Infographic
Monthly Summary (with a little tweak)
A quick Garmin update
Open Water / Wild Swimming Database
Avoid Everyone - spares
OWS Locations
Thread-level search
New Sharing Graphic & New Pastures
My first lamp post
June (16)
Replacing the Who's Training page
Combining some pages
In pursuit of the Gridmaster Ultra
15th Anniversary Kit - Spares
Shoelaces
A new How To video
Training Plan Updated
Black Lives Matter
Avoid Everyone Spares + Second Batch
Wikipedia page
Another YouTube video for sharesies :-)
Getting data to Fetch from **other places**
Feature Voting - some further updates
Feature Voting - speeded up
Another How To video - this time, Conquercise
Fantastisches Tweeten
May (13)
A video for sharing
Bees!
Fetch Introductory Zoom Presentations
A promise to all Fetchies
Fetch Virtual Weekend: Replacement Bus Service
How has Fetch use changed?
Fetch Weekly Virtual Races
Zoom Meeting - Thursday 9 til 10am
WAVA Standards Update
WAVA Standards + Poll
Fun with Age Grading :-)
New Badges Day
The test shirt fabric has arrived :-)
April (14)
Zoom Podcast - watch the video
What is WBC?
If you did the free Amazon trial...
Some small amends (and shirt version)
Pre-orders open
I was only joking, but...
If Fetcheveryone did lockdown merch
Site outage - Thursday 16th April 11pm
On exercising responsibly
My Sports Quiz - how would you have scored?
Your creative thinking required
WBC My Favourite Teacher (a bit later than the deadline)
Updated Training League
Server Downtime, Thursday 9th 00:01BST to 04:00BST (and thank you!)
March (13)
New Fetch Game: Hide and Seek
Free trial of Audible
Do you have a good memory?
New Opt-In for Fetch Miles
New Badges for Fetch Miles
The Fetch Five: Don't Let CV19 Win!
Amending event dates and notifying of cancellations
A green light comes on over your head, and you can get on with life
Most Popular Shoe Brands 2019
A review
Android: Session I
Compare Your Training
Book Now to avoid disappointment :-)
February (10)
Imports from Suunto, Fitbit, Polar and TomTom.
Plot A Route - mobile improvements
Happy tugging!
Something to play with
Adding A New Feature
February Treasure Hunt
Server Downtime
Miles = Smiles
Build Your Mile
Pop Will Eat Himself: Update
January (11)
Clarence the Cadence Kitten
Trim your trails :-)
Seven Day Leaderboard
Let's try that again
Some minor blog amendments
Try the new Forum Search Prototype
Pop Will Eat Himself
A card from HowFar?
Thank you HowFar? (Statement, not a question)
Take the red pill
Climb every mountain
2019 (134)
December (7)
The Christmas Poem
Where your treasure is...
Listen to the dog breathe
Chewie, We're Home
Thursday's Challenge
Which GPS?
Fetch Shop (of sorts)
November (12)
The zeroth challenge
Polar users - auto import
Calling all Polar users
Mobile Optimisation
Calling all Android users
Did your ads disappear?
Pin that sucker down :-)
Easier tagging
Category now editable from VIEW
Kit now editable from VIEW
Working towards tagging
Manual Add Training bug
October (16)
Boring Cricket Blog
Books Part 2
Books :-)
42
Training tags Part 2
Training tags
Let's Jazzercise
My precious
Cricket Week 4: Footage :-)
Forum Training Threads
Benny Neutrino Returns
Cricket Week 3: Wingardium Leviosa!
Benny Neutrino's Filter Tips
Cricket Week 2
Continuing Amazon Affiliate Saga
In case you haven't seen...
September (11)
Updated: Spare Anniversary Kit
Affiliate links
I did a cricket!
Fetch365 - enjoy responsibly
Filth
My dear old things
Buddies vs Follow
Server Invoice Day
Our new MOTM sponsor
Fetch Power!
Race Listings: Please Read
August (5)
Everyone *rainbow*
Almost there...
Quick blog
Country Badges
A new set of badges
July (6)
Pre-orders open
Anniversary Shirts v2
Fetch 15th Anniversary Shirts
Fetch Fest 2020
Shout Outs
Missing imports from Garmin yesterday
June (13)
Who Squares Wins: 64 screenshot
Who Squares Wins: 64 Player Edition
Training summary - older pages
Training sub-menu rejig
Try the infographic
Steady Edina
Annual Summary Infographic
The height of daft things
The training summary - the morning session
The training summary - a wordier blog
Try the annual summary thing
How to listen to the Fetch Podcast
12 month summary mega-graph!
May (15)
£79.99 off the bottom line
Competition
parkrun reviews - now with routes
Fix It Friday; Project Joker Week 2; and some shout outs.
Fetch Kit Cupboard Sale
The bonus ball
Project Joker - Week 1
Fix It Friday
A quick update on the server
Fetch 15th Anniversary Kit
There is a good service operating
Oof.
In case you're wondering...
Trouble auto importing from Garmin?
Fix It Friday: Stuff that came to me in dreams
April (12)
Feature Voting - now with virtual badges :-)
The moment of triumph!
New Feature Voting
Fix It Friday: What would your horse be called?
Marathon Pacing: tyre-kickers required
Fix It Friday: Back to Basics
Podcast Poll
Fix It Friday: The League Of Everyone
Dom, dom, dom, I've got DOMS, I've got DOMS!
Crouch, Touch, Pause.... longer pause... what am I doing again?
Training Log - Update
Site Update: New Font
March (15)
Fix It Friday: An Endless Mission
Naming and faming :-)
2nd in my age category!
Fix It Friday: Brought to you by Surprise Inset Day
New training log
Route Matching - Ready :-)
Fix It Friday
What's your unit of measurement?
Ciderthon competition
Fix It Friday: Stroopwafels of Doom!
Route Matching - Update
This week's cool list
Me in the river
Big Fetch Miles 2019
Fix It Friday: Fingerprints!
February (13)
A Maths Challenge
Fetch Legends: Activate!
Whose coat is this jacket?
Fix It Friday: The Fix Awakens
Joining the awesome list...
Fix It Friday
Naming and faming :-)
Fix It Friday - Monthly Summary
Training Month Summary
Podcast Q&A
If you can't read this, don't panic.
*redsaber* The force is strong with these Fetchies!
Fix It Friday *bluesaber*
January (9)
Some shout outs :-)
Fix It Friday!
Podcast Ep 3, plus some naming and faming :-)
Fix It Friday
Fetch Chaos
Oooh! Second chance Berlin trip! And new subbers, podcast episode, and Trader.
My week of running
Naming and faming - this week :-)
Naming and faming :-)
2018 (138)
December (8)
A Christmas Message (in podcast form)
Rungeon :-)
Hey, Everyone!
France Trip Vote
Happy Fetch Independence Day
Actual free trip to France (incl. flights)
Litter
Sombrero's Lovely Cards
November (14)
Hoodies + other spares
Spare Fetch Kit
Festive Fetch Calendar 2018
Avatars
Book Giveaway - Can We Run With You, Grandfather?
Fix It Friday
Bedford Harriers Half - place offered
Updated Kit Bag
Family Fortunes :-)
Any adidas experts out there?
No Fixes Today - just two challenges
Big Fetch Mile Cardiff
Fix It Friday
Festive Fetch Calendar 2018
October (14)
Hello landlubbers
Embedded polls
Member of the Month
Fix It Friday
Spare Fetch shirts and vests
Abingdon
Fix It Friday
My Fetch Mile
One thing's for sure, we're all gonna be a lot thinner.
Fix It Friday - 'Ave It!
Automatic route matching
Automatic route matching
One last reminder for those cycling jerseys
Fix It Friday - Forensics and User Experience
September (14)
Fix It Friday
Server Downtime 2.30pm 26th September
Never Again
Fix It Friday!
Handling your weirdness
Cards ordered :-)
Just wondering...
Fix It Friday :-)
Try the Fetcheveryone Tutorial
40 days and 40 nights
Fix It Friday
ARION insoles - review part 1
Fetch Shirt - Black Ones, and sizing
Shirts and Vests Pre-Order
August (14)
Fix It Friday
Blog Height squished
Site Outage Last Night
New Mobile Nav
Fix It Friday
New feature - how you doin'? :-)
Sunflower spread
Fix It Friday
A new pre-race mileage graph
Fetch Social: Draycote Water September
Fix It Friday: The Supermarket Analogy
A run with _andy :-)
Suunto 9 Review
Fix it Friday
July (5)
Fix It Friday!
Five Get Wet In Devon
Big Glasgow Weekend - Part 1: Gies A Cwtch
Tom Williams Interview - Final Part
Glasgow Big Fetch Mile Results and Pics
June (17)
Abingdon Week 17 - P&D Booster rockets
Interviewing Tom Williams: Part III
Walking League (and one just for Nellers)
Follow Roads - continued
Week 18 in the bag
Tackling turds
Abingdon Marathon Training: Week 18
Interview with Tom Williams - Part 2
Server
Five Questions (ready for serious answers)
Kick some tyres for me
Interview with Tom Williams - Part 1
Five Questions
Follow Roads saga
Google maps progress, plus Abingdon plans
Training Summary - Infographics
Who Squares Wins - ranking update
May (10)
Training log maps converted
More mapping updates
Who Squares Wins - The Wizard's Hat
De doo doo doo... another one bites the dust...
Invisible changes
Silverstone 10k
Three year throwback
Why your support makes the difference
Some high mileage Fetchies
dryrobe winner
April (14)
Interviewing Tom Williams
Swimming Caps!
#finishformatt
New batch of shirts and vests
You make big mistake my friend
Fetchpoint
Glasgow Big Fetch Mile announced
Two tickets to the Running Awards
Pics from Dudley Big Fetch Mile
Notes for London Marathon Fetchpointers
Results from today's Big Fetch Mile
Who Squares Wins - prototype board
Attention London Marathoners!
New game - coming soon
March (9)
Intervals, Solidarity, Swimming and Fmail
Ready to give the new fmail a try?
More on fmail
New fmail system
Win a dryrobe :-)
For jabberknit...
Updating the Training Home page
Pics from Bedford Big Fetch Mile
Sledgends :-)
February (13)
Buffs On Sale
Big Fetch Mile Bedford
Vlog :-)
Marathon Talk
Important GDPR stuff - PLEASE read
A page of historical importance
Vlog :-)
Road Rash, Marathon Prediction and T-Shirts
This :-)
Capturing the dog
It's BACK!
Enter Wilmslow Half Marathon
An advertisement
January (6)
Local Fetchies - Opt In
Revealed: World's Best Shoes
How I chose the Big Fetch Mile venues
Big Fetch Mile 2018 - Venues & Provisional Dates
Try adding an image to your training entry
Mileage Targets 2018 - Update
2017 (147)
December (12)
Mileage Targets 2018
Thank you
Brownie Recipe :-)
Phew
Fetch Hoodies + Buffs SALE Update
Chewie, We're Home
Fetch Hoodies SALE - what's left
Fetch Hoodies! SALE!!! (and Buffs available too)
Chewie, We're Home
Sharing pics
Fetch Jingle Mile Cambridge photos
Glorious Failure: Bedford Harriers Half Marathon
November (20)
Serpents, hamstrings and inversions
A special anniversary approaches...
Hamstring and prototype updates
Training Log Prototype - Today's Improvements
Red Venom sale
For what it's worth...
Training Log Prototype - Update #2
Training Log Prototype - Update
Big Fetch Mile - venue hunt
RT for a Garmin
Training Log Prototype - To Be Fixed
fetcheveryone.com/amazon
The Weekly vLog (by me)
Thanks :-)
New Training Log Prototype - Available Now
Thanks for following
VLog - footage from the Cardiff Big Fetch Mile
Big Fetch Mile[s] 2018
Win a place in the Surrey Half
I vont to scan your barcode.
October (12)
Big Fetch Weekend :-)
Fetch Mile Results
Festive Fetch Calendar :-O
Calling Parkers everywhere!
In which I decorate a cake.
Regent's Park Fetchie Discount
Elevation in colour
"I didn't come here to walk to Sparta!"
New elevation info
Chicken Ballot-ine, with a side order of beef
New training log headers
Ballot day tomorrow - help needed
September (19)
Weekly vLog - COCONUTS!!!
River Thames Half Marathon
The lollipop update
On failing gracefully
Doctor K Day
Fetch Kit Sale - Updates
Weekly vLog
Fetch Kit Sale
Training Log View Update
Fetcheveryone Weekly? Vlog?
Fetchie Race Discount - Regent's Park 10k
Training Log Tags - Live
Training Log Tags
Weekly vLog - Derby Mile, and a pause to salute the legendary Doctor K
24 hours later
Doctor K donation page
Doctor K
Fetch Weekly vLog
Derby Mile - tomorrow!
August (8)
Race Prices; and an alien earworm
Straight outta Cromford - the Fetch Weekly vLog!
A Fetch vLog! With prizes!
Quick search location for sharing
New WAVA graph
Weird FIT file thing
Back from me 'olidays :-)
Linking race results to training log entries
July (12)
Race Pricing - crowdsourcing
Appdate for Android and iPhone
Inhalers
Fetch Mile - Cardiff?
Bookends
Race listing omelette
Coding and town planning
Please review your races
A2B winners
Motivational Sounds - the final 10
Two more Big Fetch Miles? :-)
Bedford Fetch Mile Results
June (19)
Big Fetch Mile
Motivational Sounds
Fetch fug - updated design
Fetch fug (available at the Fetch mile)
I've done the naughtiest thing ever.
Donating Blood - my Vlog
Fapp In the App Store :-)
Can I kick it?
A***biscuits
This just in...
For Bean
Your app status is Waiting For Review
A2B
Fetch Caps
Garmin Communicator Plugin
Fetch App - strong and stable testing
HTTPS is here
Fetch App progress
https access to the site
May (14)
Fetch App
Apostrophes
[Untitled]
[Untitled]
Site down at 11pm
Round and round the garden
Try the new home page layout
Server down tonight @ 11pm
Browser testers wanted
The Big Fetch Mile!!!
Site *NOT* down tonight. [cough]
Bluffer's Competition - Winner
Bedford parkrun timelapse
Return of the cap
April (8)
Fetchpoint (London and Milton Keynes!)
Base camp, VMLM
Bronze!
Just for D2
Off to the awards
Bloodvlog
Hoodies - it's on!
Updated Training Home Page
March (6)
'Train' page
Project Joker
Hoodies and Londons
Hands up, hands UP! Draycote Water 10
Bluffer's Competition
Project Joker
February (12)
Draggable?
Running Awards shortlisted
Route Plotter now with OpenStreetMap
Plan for Bluffer's comp
Update to Route Plotter
First update to the route mapper
For Angus
Virtuous Circles
Competition coming soon
Race Guide Ads
Club La Santa vLog
Fetch Fixtures
January (5)
Word Clouds
Buckets Ready
New Home Page
Do me a favour...
Limited Companies, filing accounts, that sort of thing
2016 (128)
December (11)
Festive Fetch Calendar - Winners
Festive Fetch Calendar - Winners
Five Years Ago Today
Pantsfest! May the stains be ever in your favour!
#FEXIT
Photoshop SOS
Attention: Fitbit users
Bedford Half 2016
Luton Fetchmob: Breaking Point
Vote Fetch!
Breaking news: Paris Marathon
November (21)
How to end a LiveChat.
Define wrong
TomTom Runner 3 Review - Any Questions?
Deliveryman
Movember: Project Beard: Day 24: Beardraggled
Festive Fetch Calendar 2016
We're gonna be in the Hudson
Hey Chiefy
I've written summat
Going Postal
A special mention
Training Log Beta
Spare Hoodies
Updates to Training Beta
Movember: Project Beard - Day 8 (The Seven Day Itch)
Vote for Fetch
Training Log Detail View - Some Changes
Aberdeen University Study
Consultation V2
[Untitled]
Fetchpoint - October Winners and November Prizes
October (16)
Alien nuggets!
Keeping a tight lid on the biscuit tin
Training Log Beta
100 Running Words
Pssst....
Fetchmob, December 3rd
Where to mob?
Little things
That All-Time Mileage League
The sudoku that keeps on giving.
Sub-25 for 1km :-)
Fetchmob - December 3rd
New Training Log Preview
Fixed the overlap...
Why the new training log isn't ready yet...
vLog
September (12)
Doughnut or Donate
Training Log - Sneak Peek
Fetch Shop Sale! Old stuff clearout!
vLog!!!
The consultation system...
Garmin support for timezone info
The GMT/BST/Timezone problem
Training Log Consultation...
Training Log - Consultation
Fetch Social Runs
Subscriber shirts, vests and hoodies, and determination.
Fetch Voluntary Subscriptions
August (3)
Ze Gryndylows! My first #OWS :-)
Testing Fetchpoint exclusion zones
Fetchpoint scoring system
July (7)
Conquercise Prize Draw?
Fetch Games: Checkpoints (and what's wrong with them)
More owls...
Your Favourite Fetch Game?
Even More Utmost Than Before...
Chiswick!
15 days later...
June (10)
Five days on...
[Untitled]
A quick thank you...
What do you think?
If you'd be so kind...
Poised
Which watch?
Run Bedford 10k
Import from a TomTom
Attention TomTom users
May (10)
Race Distance poll
An ungainly fish
A five year plan
What Club La Santa can learn from parkrun
Cream Me Up, Scotty
Greetings from Club La Santa
And a quick poll...
Club Charter
A poll about intervals
More owls!
April (11)
Robin Hood and his Merry Dad :-)
Warning: Dull - some screen res stats
Responsive Design Update
For all you marathoners
A Poll
Fetchpoint
Ditching the forum categories?
Moving to Responsive Design
Sandy 10: Be Kind To Horses
Owls!
For Adam and Jamie
March (11)
Bacon Smoke!
Benchmarks Update
Bath - Race Report
PB!!!!!!!
An annoying eight-year-old.
Let's Cook and Cut and Paste :-)
Let's Cook :-)
RIP Gramma
Book Winners
Dog farming
Site header update
February (5)
Book Giveaway
Pi Club
Pi Project Update
Because I'd like to check the blogging badges are working...
Crapruary
January (11)
Snooker Freak
Badges - Another Update
Unlockable Badges - Update
Unlockable Badges
TomTom Runner 2 Review
Gallery updates
Snowball coding and Fetch Unlockables!
Achievement Medals - what do you reckon?
Run The Sum
2015 Book List (and a bit of a review / plan)
Festive Fetch Calendar - Winners
2015 (175)
December (7)
Red Red Wine
A Poll
Gis a job!
Bedford Half
REMEMBER!!!
Vote for Fetch
Now you've hopefully got the idea...
November (13)
The Festive Fetch Calendar
Don't get excited or anything...
Slightly Dismal Friday
Pre-order your Fetch Buff now :-)
A message from our sponsor
Dr Fetch will see you now
Only the grumbliest, achiest chocolate... :-)
The Stanford Experiment
Buff Design
Snugs - Review
Love, Commitment, Support
The pre-wedding blog!
Good morning Fetchers, good morning Everyone
October (9)
Monthly Totals
Did you write a blog yesterday?
The First Rule of Web Server Maintenance
The gain line
Fectch
The zipper challenge!
Sugar daddy
Now in colour!
Competition Time!!!
September (14)
Teach your kids (or yourself) to code
Sticky Training Choices
Goodies: GetMore water and the Alcatel OneTouch Watch
Shirt size guidelines
This nearly made it...
Subscriber Shirt Design
I've got wood!
Humbled
New Beginnings
Some more questions answered
Swimming
Some responses to your comments
Standing on the shoulders of Fetchies
Funtleks
August (8)
24 hours in the south
24 hours in the north
Fetchies Assemble!
Thank you
Better knowledge than riches
Fitbit Urge
The villainous Mr Fetch!
Uncomfortable rear
July (8)
Why don't you play Conquercise?
Another week of strange training
Book Giveaway - Winners
GPS Reviews
Criteria for reviewing a GPS
Auto-bike-detector :-)
Win some bookses :-)
Half Way!
June (13)
Time Lapse Clouds
TomTom Bandit - very QUICK first impressions
My wings are like a shield of steel!
Running plus Cycling update
Embarrassingly...
Stalkers Paradise!
Recommend me a bike :-)
Holy Steamrollers Batman!
Rest day (no such thing)
Sqveeeeze!
We will now imitate the flight of a goose :-)
You made me ink! Snorkel safari :-)
Good morning from CLS :-)
May (10)
Club La Santa :-)
The AWESOME Power of Fetchies!
Home Insurance Shaftage :-/
Editing Forum Posts
The Future!
Some London Marathon stats
Walking On The Moon
Hardest parkrun?
New found wisdom
Week 1
April (11)
Marathon vLog
I owe some hugs!
And that concludes the voting from the Danish judges
Adventures in geocaching
Your video clips wanted!
Jelly with no spoons
Random Ultra
Suncream in my eyes - a review of 'Running and Stuff'
Books what I've read this year
Measuring the effect of wind
Wind Roses
March (18)
Watching the tide roll away
A great week of running!
Happy Jigs Wisdom!
Mobile Fetch
I don't do this very often...
Breathless Optimism
20 miles yesterday
This Week's vLog
Decision Trees and the sub-4!
Democracy Street
Mayan Maths
Bath Half (at last)
Still a chicken
Costume Drama in Bath
TomTom importing
Updated 'Train' page
Zonked
Nearly
February (29)
Pheasant
An Unexpected Journey
Wind picking up...
An unplanned kit alarm
Race Pace Test
2nd place
Week ends
Bounceback
Barking carrots
Bedroom pizza
Top of the mountain
Blogs get the mobile treatment
Supersonic Katie, and a marathon pace question
Back home
Racing parkrun ;-)
Unblocking the sink
Start in Darkness
Some times I'd like
Mobile Site - Forum Section
All-Time Leaderboards
Batteries
Sword fighting
PB Attempts
Duct tape and WD40
Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants
Lessons
Shoe horning
Training vLog Week 13
Big February Project
January (35)
Cake, invalidated
Small sips
LiRF, award shortlist, beginners, books, boy.
Dog Available :-)
Cutback
New Recipe Section
Lazy
Another threshold run
New Beginnings
Blah
But far more importantly...
Fetch Beginners Programme
Give it a go :-)
Training vLog - Week 11
Threshold Run (a running blog)
Long day, short blog
(Lack of) Pump Action
A thread to follow
This Boy Can
Local Leaderboards for Checkpoints
Choking.
February 18th
Godzilla!
The Travelling Checkpoint Salesman
Acorn Antiques
Bearing Up
Deleted Bridges and Dodgy Lasers
I'm Batman!
Healthy and Appy
Punch O'Clock!
The plan, then.
Ten mile toes
On Parliament
[Untitled]
Bold Claims, and a Challenge for 2015
2014 (262)
December (9)
A trip to Wales (vLog)
Christmas Messages from Fetchies
Various
FERC London Marathon Places - Draw
It's gone in my sock...
Festive Fetch Five
This Week's Training
To the Post Office!
Training vLog - Week 4
November (12)
I Am Groot!
Slightly Dismal Friday
Week 3 - in which I nearly drown my wife!
I said yes :-)
Free Daps! aka Test GORE-TEX® footwear this winter!
Training vLog - Week 2
More chances for VMLM entries
Marathon Talk
My first training vLog :-)
Second place?
In :-)
Questionnaire about personality traits amongst runners
October (16)
Adidas API
Horseplay minimiser
Running with the big dog
Flat and Windy
Who'd like to test the Garmin API then?
Advantage Borg
Deal?
Jumble
Milk Tray Reps in the Rain
Geneva
Quote
Hatfield 5k, and some other running thoughts
Site layout changes
Vote for Training Plans
Maths help
3-2-1
September (8)
A quick device poll
Garmin Connect API
Cake at the lake :-)
Empowering Women
This Week's Training
Tick :-)
Article help
First outing with the Harriets
August (7)
Book club and Harriers
A treasure trove for bookish types
What I did on my Summer Holidays
Local decoration
The Fisher King
Mojitos and no mosquitos!
Cake-athlon
July (26)
James Mason
Missing Week
Camping View
Wild Camping
Quick
Transalpine Race
In brief
Urgent! Pair of runners wanted!
Fetch Kit Available to Pre-order :-)
Fetch Anniversary Kit - Preview
API and FAK!
That dog has a puffy tail
More books
Reverse Moses
Zombies vs Plants
Shovel required
Nightfever
Dayfever
Catcher in the Rye
My sister the psychologist
Drink your strong limey drink
Keep me in the loop
Bread knives, hedgehogs and the dog in the night time
Whoops
Pinteresting
Q&A?
June (34)
Checkpoints video
Walden
Happy boys and giggly imps
Spring loaded
Elbow grease
Fetch 10th Anniversary Kit
Fetch YouTube Tutorial - Race Guide
Finding the Library folder on a Mac
Stoat!
Sonic screwdriver
Live wires
Wiring help needed
Garmin Express Experiment
Scalded sloth
Garminge
Potching
New Forum Layout
Further updates to the blog layout
New blog layout
First woodpecker
Beastin' parkrun
Pantoball
All was well
USA! USA! USA!
Marking Territory
The People's Poet Is Dead :-(
Holy Water
Throwing shapes
Life moves pretty fast
Recursion is beautiful
Win an OS Explorer / Landranger map of your choice
Intervals with a Suunto Ambit 2S
Tick
Economy done two ways
May (31)
[Untitled]
Vorsprung Durch Lego Technic
How do I liberate my boy from his XBox?
Questions?
Life in the Woods
Lazy
MovesMissed
Intervals with a TomTom
Electioneering
[Untitled]
Tree fluff
More camping
Zen and Camping
Not eaten by bears
Bear food
Camping List
Camping Venn Diagrams
Floppy dog
Routes but not Rathbone
Illustrator wanted
Masking
Highlights
The Cosmic Ballet Goes On
Silverstone 10k :-)
Quick one
[Untitled]
Superhuman snooker
Dogturdflagman
Numbers!
Whittlin'
Chapter 1
April (29)
King Bin
Quiet day on Feedback Mountain
Listing
42
Go directly to parkrun. Do not pass Godzuki.
A day in Wales
[Untitled]
Spanner
The Lost Diadem of Fetchbook
Falling asleep in my dinner
Egg
Sofathon
God gave rock and roll to you.
Sugar Mule
Not bad, consid'rin.
Tinkering
Can U Dig It?
A weekend in Wales
Looking forward to Oliver!
Thank you, and more App talk
RIP Nan
Blah
Appy
Pyjamas at both ends.
Thump. Saturday has started.
Sore tum :-/
Zombies aside... first impressions of the new TomTom
TomTom Runner Cardio Press Event
Am I pregnant?
March (31)
Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes
Sandy 10
#bedfordhappy
Me on YouTube
New graphs live
Follow the dot
Only the best for the Captain's table
Mrs Diahann Wagner is GOING HORNY
Sport Relief Win
Hot dogs, quick blogs
Toton Sidings
A sign!
Owen Farrell visualisation technique
Kebabs!
Booster fails to ignite
Myton Rugby Run (5 Miler)
Rugby before rugby
Sweetcorn antidote
Custard factory
Pooped
I did some intervals :-)
Speed work?
Many things
A bit cabbagey here.
Angry Wasp
Minty
Rainbow's End
Core Dump
Bath Half (in detail)
A quick overview
Down to business in Bath
February (28)
Made it to Bath
Unexpected hugs
Slider
I like to go a-wandering
Spring cleaning
Tongue-lolling
Because We're Worth It
I don't know what!
Thanks Jim
Enough now
Clearing the pipes
Crouch, Touch, Pause...
Medication, that's what you need.
Symptom Tour
Hello FBI
Dazed day
Why I'm an optimist
Mobius birds
Snotty knuckles
In this house...
Retch Everyone
Carrots
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also
Ultrahalfmarathoner
Angry Birds
Belching
Clarkson averse
Good day :-)
January (31)
*bunting* *cake*
Bigger Boys
Zombies!
Pretending to be Saga Norén
Waiting for the AA
Ship shape
Readthrough
Technology takes you further
Love Garden
Cushions
High Heel Striker
Bit of a rubbish one
Ta
Hot Re-fills
Coding Grinch
An august prediction
Some Running Goals for Q1
Wipe-clean dog
Breaking it down
Snakes and Ladders
Bigger Ponds
Drink Your Weak Lemon Drink
All in All
Panning the pancake
Does JK Rowling own a dog?
Back to the kitchen table
Steve Davis shoes
Pigs on a water slide
Sloshing
Protocol
19 books :-)
2013 (29)
December (3)
Oh...
Engine Management Light
Hannibal Vector
November (3)
Speed skating
Stew-pendous
Cool Hand Grandpa
October (3)
Bookish
Minecraft Cake
Random dump
September (2)
Blog by Email!
Catchup blah
August (3)
Big Green Caterpillar
Questions answered - final CLS blog
Last Days at Club La Santa
July (10)
A nice morning of swimming and tennis
Please Read: Questions for a sports coach
Snorkeltastic
Hitting the straps
First Impressions at Club La Santa
Mile High Blog
Clocking off
For the second week running...
Another Club La Santa catchup
The Floor In The Plan
June (3)
Club La Santa
Bulk Uploading, and win a book
FERC Charities 2011-2012
March (1)
Bath Weekend
January (1)
Meet Steve
2012 (39)
December (2)
Tired Now Boss
Bath - Week 14 + Foodbank
November (3)
White Level Reading
Bath - Week 15
Bath - Week 16
October (2)
Onwards!
C'mon Dave
July (1)
RIP Arnie
June (2)
Rub some bacon on it
18 weeks
May (9)
Techy not tetchy
Time for a techy blog
Time to walk the dog
Stevington 12k
Properly coldy
Still a bit coldy
New blog design live
A bit coldy
Blogs Redesign
April (2)
Easter
SERIOUSLY LORD FETCH, SORT IT OUT
March (8)
A long run up
Running Tick
Weekend
Sport Relief Mile
Back once again
Swimming sweetcorn and other vegetables
Joy Rides, Sticks and Medals
Training Tip
February (9)
And...
Katie, ICT, and some more MySQL
May The Ground Force Be With You
Functions
Well done Batman.
Optimisation Crossword
Snow Days
Gallery, and parkrun
Pleased
January (1)
There Are Some Really Sexy Girls On Fetch
Comments
Happy wrestling watching
I did have a moment where I thought that you had gone home to watch Panorama with the boy and thought "Blimey, that's a bit highbrow"
*reaches for glasses*