All Blogs | Prev Blog | Next Blog

fetcheveryone

587 READERS
Jump to

Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes

9:55pm, 31 Mar 2014
A shiny penny to you if the title rings a bell.

Thanks for all the nice comments on yesterday's blog :-) Legs have come through it nicely, not too mashed :-)

Today I've been putting together an article about race time prediction. It gives a brief outline of a few methods, then goes on to compare them to some Fetch data. The next step for the article (which might be a part 2) is to look at the differences between those that do hit their predictions, and those that don't. Might get complicated :-)

So as part of that, I've built a little vo2max estimator, which you can see here if you're interested:

http://www.fetcheveryone.com/training-calculators-vo2max.php

I've also been watching some lecture courses on objective-C and iOS programming from some dude in Harvard. The only slight problem is that they're a year old, and therefore there's a new version of iOS and a new version of the coding platform to learn. Things move very fast these days.

Don't eat Crunchy Nut Cornflakes with chocolate bits. Send them all to me!

Accelerating through The Cuckoo's Calling now, and pleased to hear there's another one due in June :)
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Crunchy nut cornflakes with the chocolate bits in are my absolute favourite! Could eat a whole box in a sitting. I daren't buy them anymore. :-(
    Lemon10
    9:58pm, 31st Mar 2014
  • You can have my share.
    Elsie Too
    6:37am, 1st Apr 2014
  • {explaining cereal contest rules}
    Vyvyan: You have to write in 10 words what Cornflakes mean to you. So I wrote: Cornflakes. Cornflakes. Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes. Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes, Cornflakes.
    Rick: PATHETIC. You'll never win, you know.
    Vyvyan: Why not?
    Rick: That's only 9 words.
    Vyvyan: Oh, yeah.
    {writing}
    Vyvyan: Cornflakes.
    GregP
    6:54am, 1st Apr 2014


Sandy 10

8:26pm, 30 Mar 2014
Woke up pretty early this morning (5am in old money) to give Katie a lift to Luton for her teaching. Luckily the roads were nicely quiet, so that didn't take long.

Sat at home for a bit, trying not to think about the Sandy 10, but still managing to feel quite nervous about it.

It was a typical long-standing club-organised race (Biggleswade), and they'd done a great job with everything, and the organisation went like clockwork.

After a few nervy widdles, and a couple of toots on my inhaler, and trying my best to listen to my internal motivational soundtrack (of which, I could not name a single song), the message came that we all had to make our way to the start. It's quite a long walk, and there were big tribes of club runners. It's an important part of the local calendar.

Finally, with a very long blast on an air horn from someone in gold chains, it was time for the off.

1) 1m - 7:53(7:52/m) 109/161bpm
The first half a mile was at 7:30 pace, and the HR monitor was all over the shop, so I spent the second half of this mile trying to cool the pace off.

2) 1m - 8:27(8:27/m) 164/172bpm
The second mile has a bit of a double dip hill, but I'd resolved to stick with it, and not to try to do anything stupid that would mess up the rest of the race. It wasn't as bad as I'd talked myself into expecting :-)

3) 1m - 7:57(7:57/m) 163/169bpm
4) 1m - 7:56(7:55/m) 163/167bpm
Feeling pretty calm now - this is all nice and level, and although I know I'm working, I feel like I'm in control of the effort.

5) 1m - 7:44(7:44/m) 165/172bpm
WTF? Where did this pace come from? After half a mile I realised I was going downhill, mainly because I could see the uphill coming. I knew that the drop in altitude would have to be paid for later, but I figured that if you're paying for it, you might as well enjoy it.

6) 1m - 7:55(7:54/m) 168/173bpm
It was nice to be able to pick a few people off, and try to stay with those that were coming past. I kept looking at groups that were up ahead, and trying to narrow the gap. If nothing else, it helped me concentrate, even though it was starting to feel harder now.

7) 1m - 8:01(8:00/m) 169/173bpm
Round about now I passed two clubmates - the man was pacing the lady round to sub-8, which felt really good because it meant I could throw it all away and still get the sub-1:25 that I'd declared would be a good time today. And I didn't want to throw it all away.

8) 1m - 8:05(8:04/m) 169/173bpm
Those last few miles really stretch out, don't they? But I kept the pacers behind me, and kept pushing, knowing that the downhill was coming. I was wondering at this point whether it'd give me enough extra time to get a PB, but it wasn't bothering me too much - I knew that I'd beaten my expectations to a pulp today.

9) 1m - 8:06(8:05/m) 169/175bpm
Eventually it came, and I did speed up on the downhills, but the dip and subsequent rise gave my legs a real battering. The pacers were near me now, and I could hear the man encouraging the lady. He was doing a great job, and she was battling hard. We exchanged some brief encouragement, and I ran alongside them, keeping pace with their cadence, and pushing as hard as I could.

10) 0.98m - 7:31(7:38/m) 172/179bpm
Into the last mile, the mile that stretches on for ever. The man says 'it's just a lap and a half of the track', and I thought for one horrendous moment that we'd have to actually run round the track at the sports centre - but then I realised he was just illustrating the remaining distance. Pushing, pushing, a marshall with a chicken hat, an uneven pavement that was pummelling me with every jolt, cross the road, up a kerb, and into a tunnel of people, throwing everything at it. I can see the clock, and it's 1:19:3X, and I'm sprinting and yelling at the pacers.

Done.

1:19:35 on the chip-to-chip time, 200th position, and a big grin on my face. A BIG one :-) Not quite a lifetime PB (1:19:02 at Maidenhead *8* years ago), but those 8 years mean I've upped my 10 mile WAVA by a percent.

The race t-shirt is epic: pic.twitter.com

I had a nice catch up with RMo3B, HOD, Sarabop, and Vonny - and then went to the hall and filled my face with a cup of tea, a snickers, and get this, a freaking HOT DOG :-) Purely on that last thing along, I loved the Sandy 10.

I've spent the rest of the day walking round like a rusty robot, and finding new areas of chafing (front of chest from HRM strap, armpits - discovered when I squirted deodorant on them!) - but I've also been grinning like a rusty loon too :-)

Onwards!
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Well raced and great tee! :-)
    .B.
    8:34pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Great racing!
    GimmeMedals
    8:44pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Great racing :)
    Ness
    8:50pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Well done you! :)
    SarahWoo
    8:56pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • This blog must contain pealed onions as it made my eyes a bit leaky :)
    D2
    9:03pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Most excellent!!! :-)
    Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs)
    9:09pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Good to see you, great result! Well done Fetch
    sarabop
    9:23pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Glad you had a good race. I spotted you when I was on car park duty but missed you in both directions past my marshalling point. Was worried I was going to be reading a blog about getting stuck in a portaloo...
    EdJ
    9:24pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Wava-tastic
    McGoohan
    10:26pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Top bombing!
    Jigs
    10:46pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Nice one - good to see you and hot dog?!?! How did I miss the hot dogs ?!! Lol
    runningmumof3boys
    11:01pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Oh yes and it wasn't Sarabop who finished just befor me but after you as she came in 10 mins later !? So she has a double another Bedford harrier with a curly blonde ponytail ?!?
    runningmumof3boys
    11:45pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Oh yes and it wasn't Sarabop who finished just befor me but after you as she came in 10 mins later !? So she has a double another Bedford harrier with a curly blonde ponytail ?!?
    runningmumof3boys
    11:45pm, 30th Mar 2014
  • Excellent :-)
    Elsie Too
    9:18am, 31st Mar 2014
  • Wow, great performance there! :-)
    Lalli
    12:45pm, 31st Mar 2014
  • They gave out Beer in the goody bag a few years ago...
    The Teaboy
    1:03pm, 31st Mar 2014
  • To get near a PB set 8 years ago is flippin' good though innit? No wonder you're smiling :-)
    jennywren
    1:44pm, 31st Mar 2014
  • Glad it went well :-)
    Nightjar
    1:59pm, 31st Mar 2014
  • Great running :-)
    SharonD
    5:49pm, 31st Mar 2014
  • Great running!:):)
    Garfield
    6:47pm, 31st Mar 2014
  • *hands fetch some WD40*
    Great running :)
    fleecy
    8:46pm, 31st Mar 2014
  • Hurrah! Hope the oxters are a bit less tender.
    Dvorak
    1:12am, 2nd Apr 2014
  • Well done and great T-Shirt
    CStar
    9:13pm, 2nd Apr 2014


#bedfordhappy

9:55pm, 29 Mar 2014
I developed a new-found respect for my parkrun barcode today, having volunteered to scan them at Bedford park this morning. The runners brought them forth in all shapes and sizes, from the professionally printed on plastic, through Sellotape and cling film constructions, to the crumpled, faded, torn and downright soggy. They attached them to various parts of their bodies, including legs and feet, or else produced them from any number of orifii. One lady helpfully tossed her finishing token into the bucket with the other 75 chips that I'd scanned, before I'd had the chance to scan it. But it was good fun, and I'd recommend it, because all the runners were cheerful, as far as that's possible after a three mile slog in the sunshine.

We were also treated to a visit from #bedfordhappy, a squad of people wandering the town hoping to reward and instigate happiness wherever they went. It certainly did the trick.

After a coffee and cake at Fancy, and an hour reading my book in the garden, we took the dogs for a walk around Priory lake, which was exceptionally busy in the sunshine. We also stopped for a cheeky pint at the adjoining pub :-) On the way back, we had to borrow a carrier bag from a passing family to scoop up the final contribution of the day from Stephens increasingly prolific ass :-)

Although a day without our boys can never be considered perfect, we really made the most of it, with a Chinese takeaway, a few episodes of W1A, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which was lovely :-)

Bed time now. Pip pip.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • "Borrow a carrier bag" - you mean you gave it back afterwards:O
    ThorntonRunner
    8:27am, 30th Mar 2014
  • fantastic racing a big Wava WooHoo :)
    Smile2
    8:32am, 31st Mar 2014


Me on YouTube

2:26pm, 28 Mar 2014
Hey Internet, I've arrived :-)

I've just uploaded my first ever YouTube Fetch Tutorial - a little walk through of the new features of the training log. I'm hoping it'll be useful to help show it off, and if there was ever any doubt about the lack of professionalism on hand here on this site, then my stumbly gobby nonsense should help seal that particular deal! Actually I'm quite pleased with it :-)

It did take a few rehearsals to get through it all in one go. I haven't got any way to edit it just now, but I can see how that would be useful. A few takes were abandoned because I realised that I was boring even myself, and a few were abandoned upon the discovery of bugs in the code. I think it could be a great way to work on improving user experience.

Here's the link to it. If you could like it and share it and all that, I'd be very pleased:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROxBGTFoeVU
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Coooool :-)
    bigleggy
    2:34pm, 28th Mar 2014
  • Nice! :-)
    Bintmcskint
    3:28pm, 28th Mar 2014
  • Lovely, and very shiney. But I can't get past the way you say 'graph' correctly, but then 'Barth'. Very discombobulating.
    Iron_Mum
    8:42pm, 28th Mar 2014


New graphs live

11:22pm, 27 Mar 2014
Watching Bill Burr and just finished drinking a massive bottle of Stella :-)

If you click the glasses in your training log (assuming you import from a GPS), you should see the graph and map linked together. It's been several days of work, and putting it live has helped me instantly find *all* the things that are still wrong with it :-) I hope some of you like it :-)

Rest day today - needed a break after three running days on the bounce. Really tired after the dog woke me up at 5.45 needing a trip outside.

Tomorrow = closing off the bugs, maybe a gentle little run, and a coffee from somewhere.

I forgot to mention the play that we saw on Tuesday. It was called 'The God of Carnage' - one boy injures another boy in a fight, and their parents meet up to discuss it - and end up showing all their worst traits. The first 15 mins were difficult to watch - it took some time to get used to the characters - but after that it was enjoyable. I've watched a lot of am-dram plays in my time, my dad's been involved in plenty - so I always feel something like nerves on behalf of the cast - but they did well, and sucked me into the storyline. Peanut M&M's helped me to focus too :-)

Looking forward to the clocks going forward on Sunday - I like daylight. This winter didn't pull its weight, but it's nice to officially see the f**ker off.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • The new format map is great.

    I'm looking forward to the clocks changing too. The dark morning runs initially are well compensated for by the lovely light evenings.:)
    Ness
    6:22am, 28th Mar 2014
  • I really am going to have to get myself a Garmin (other GPS devices are available).
    Diogenes
    6:40am, 28th Mar 2014
  • I can't wait for the lighter evening runs. Roll on Sunday.
    ICanDoThis
    7:22am, 28th Mar 2014
  • I'm halfway through reading "The Slap" - your description of the play reminds me of it.
    Off to look at nice graphs now....
    paul the builder
    9:20am, 28th Mar 2014
  • Nice. 'This winter didn't pull its weight'. We *hate* February over on Smell.
    GregP
    9:54am, 28th Mar 2014


Follow the dot

9:55pm, 26 Mar 2014
Eight miles this morning round our usual loop. Pleasingly, it's stopped feeling like a long run, although with it being my third significant training day in a row, my legs were just a bit tired in the second half. Rest up now with Sunday coming.

Other than that, I've spent pretty much all day working on integrating Highcharts into the glasses view. I got it working so that when you mouse over the graph, it zooms in on the map and you can make your little dot move along the route at any pace you choose. As a result, I've had the Benny Hill theme tune in my head for most of the day too. A few more compatibility things to look at, and some tidying up, and it'll be ready.

When that's all done, my next little project is to make a video walkthrough :-) *warms up voice*
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Video walkthrough! Fetch, you spoil us :-) Looking forward to following the bouncing ball.
    LazyDaisy
    10:10pm, 26th Mar 2014
  • That sounds very interesting. :)
    Ness
    6:21am, 27th Mar 2014
  • Equity card at the ready.....lights, camera, action.....
    The Ant Hill Mob
    7:59am, 27th Mar 2014


Only the best for the Captain's table

6:46pm, 25 Mar 2014
That Captain Birdseye knows what he's doing, doesn't he? 14 fish fingers in a packet. Everyone knows that a fish finger sandwich requires exactly four fish fingers, so by the time me and Katie have had one each, we're already two down on where we need to be next time and turning our attention to buying more. Genius.

I did intervals today :-) medal 5 x 0.5 miles, with 2 min recoveries. I was half way through the first one, when I saw that the path up ahead was blocked by some tree people doing logging, so I had to do a handbrake turn, and find somewhere else to run. Overall, I think they were a smidgen quicker than a fortnight ago, and I can't find my HRM strap, so I couldn't compare HR to see if I recovered better and all that jazz. Tomorrow we have an eight miler planned, and then maybe one more very gentle short run before Sandy 10 on Sunday. I've looked at the hill that takes up the entire first mile, and compared it to one locally that I know - and it's fairly daunting as far as going fast is concerned. But that's ok, because this is a real bonus race, so I'll take it as it comes.

The Highcharts integration is coming along very nicely. On my test machine I can now move my mouse pointer over the graph, and it also updates the little dot on the map, so I can look at exactly where my pace drops - that sort of thing. It's not ready for general use just yet, but hopefully within another day or so I should be able to get it there.

I'm currently trying to avoid burning cabbage and bacon with pasta and pine nuts (Katie's recipe). It's a favourite in our house :-) Pine nuts a bit scorched :-/

The boy was top in his class in his comprehension test today :-) medal

We're off to the local theatre tonight to see a play.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • A box of 30 is the way forward!
    Elsie Too
    6:50pm, 25th Mar 2014
  • Don't ever turn your back on a pine nut :)
    fleecy
    6:51pm, 25th Mar 2014
  • You're probably too young to remember Cap'n Fishy's Cheesey Helmets - a 'one-of' Steve Wright in the Afternoon sketch, back in the olden days when he was cutting edge and cool (and on R1).
    Angus Clydesdale
    7:18pm, 25th Mar 2014
  • I do remember him being on R1 - would always listen to his afternoon show when I got home from school. And his posse.
    fetcheveryone
    7:23pm, 25th Mar 2014
  • Well done to the boy!!
    D2
    7:58pm, 25th Mar 2014
  • Very clever boy medal
    am rather partial to m&s giant fishfingers
    northernslowcoach
    8:25pm, 25th Mar 2014
  • Sandy 10 is a good race. You'll enjoy it
    colindglen
    8:27pm, 25th Mar 2014
  • Uzi 9mm - yellow is a girl's colour........etc! :-)
    Angus Clydesdale
    8:39pm, 25th Mar 2014
  • Teach Cap'n Birdseye a lesson by cramming 7 fish fingers in to each sandwich from now on. Take that, Beardy!
    paul the builder
    9:12am, 26th Mar 2014
  • As for fish fingers you're gonna need a bigger box
    Night-owl
    2:03pm, 26th Mar 2014


Mrs Diahann Wagner is GOING HORNY

9:57pm, 24 Mar 2014
Sometimes spam titles make me smile. If you know Mrs Wagner, beware. She's GOING HORNY.

[tech]
This morning I've (quite frustratingly) been fixing bits of my Mac that have broken since upgrading from Mountain Lion to Mavericks at the weekend. I do all my testing (yeah, I do test sometimes) on my laptop, so unfortunately it's really messed things up. It mainly seems like a bunch of symbolic links have been removed, so that Apache couldn't find a valid directory to serve from, and MySQL didn't start because the mapping from /usr/local/mysql to /usr/local/mysql-5.124325346 (whatever) had vanished. Also it had upgraded the version of PHP which produced loads of errors and warnings.

Once I'd gotten over that, I spent the afternoon working on integrating Highcharts into the training log. It's going to be very cool :-) When I've done that, I'll do a little screen grab tutorial vid. I will practise not saying "ummm" a lot.

Sandwiched between, I also had a great run with Katie, starting off with a 9 minute mile, gradually speeding up to an 8 minute flyer :-)
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Flying indeed. :)
    D2
    10:09pm, 24th Mar 2014
  • I've heard that said about Mrs Diahann Wagner
    McGoohan
    10:22pm, 24th Mar 2014
  • Eh? Me no speakee techie :-(
    Seratonin
    10:27pm, 24th Mar 2014
  • Erm I understood about the run, nice!
    .B.
    10:43pm, 24th Mar 2014
  • Great blog title. I called yesterday's ride 'The glittering career of Mollie Sugden' and it attracted a lot of attention for an unremarkable 15 miler.
    GregP
    7:04am, 25th Mar 2014
  • My SQL (Seriously Quick Loping) won't start either :-( Oh! - you're talking computers.... :-)
    LazyDaisy
    7:38am, 25th Mar 2014
  • I remember my dalliances into PHP and MySQL. I became quite adept at killing Apache or just my machine in general :-)
    bigleggy
    9:12am, 25th Mar 2014


Sport Relief Win

10:38pm, 23 Mar 2014


Proud of my boy today. He ran all the way at the mile, and produced a good sprint finish that left me yards behind :-) He wore a GPS but forgot to stop it at the end, but I remembered. I must have looked a bit of a prat stopping my watch as I crossed the line in the funnest of runs, but he was pleased to know his time. He's taking his medal, race number and possibly even his bottle of water into Show and Tell tomorrow. I'm calling that a win!

With big thanks to Nightjar, I've got a place at the Sandy 10 this Sunday. Will give it a bit of a push, but the big goal now is in 6.5 weeks at Silverstone 10k.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • well done to you both :-)
    .B.
    10:41pm, 23rd Mar 2014
  • What a great photo! Well done that lad.
    Alice the Camel
    6:43am, 24th Mar 2014
  • Great stuff :-)
    GimmeMedals
    7:21am, 24th Mar 2014
  • great pic
    minardi
    8:43am, 24th Mar 2014
  • Fantastic all round! :-)
    Lalli
    8:49am, 24th Mar 2014
  • Lovely photo. :)
    Ness
    5:09pm, 24th Mar 2014
  • Lovely photo. :)
    Ness
    5:09pm, 24th Mar 2014
  • Well done ;-)
    SharonD
    6:06pm, 24th Mar 2014
  • Isn't he gorgeous?
    fleecy
    10:05pm, 24th Mar 2014
  • Your boy and mine are the spit of each other! :-)
    Lalli
    9:22am, 25th Mar 2014


Hot dogs, quick blogs

11:56pm, 22 Mar 2014
Last minute blog today :-)

A windy hour at the rugby field was our only outing today - the boy scored one try, and could easily have had two more. One time he grounded the ball the wrong side of the line :-), and the other time he assures me that one of the opposition trod on his foot deliberately :-O

Hot dogs for lunch, and the slowest of lazy days.

We watched The Hunger Games Part II this evening - it was pretty good (lots of questions from the boy), although inevitably it had that Empire Strikes Back / Deathly Hallows Part I feel to it.

Tomorrow we're taking the dog for his haircut, then in the afternoon we're off to do the Sport Relief Mile at West Park - exciting :-)
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Phew that was close! :-)
    .B.
    11:58pm, 22nd Mar 2014
  • That was very close! :-)
    I do love it when Stephen gets a haircut. He looks especially cute when he has been shorn like a sheep.
    Enjoy the Sport Relief Mile.
    Bintmcskint
    8:28am, 23rd Mar 2014
  • Albuquerque :)
    northernslowcoach
    1:32pm, 23rd Mar 2014


Toton Sidings

10:57pm, 21 Mar 2014
Pretty tired this evening.

The boy went off to school in his rugby shirt as they all had to wear something red today.

After quite a lot of faffing (it's been a struggle to get running this week), I got out for a nice run with Stephen. We ran down through Toton Sidings, where Toton Station will be if HS2 ever happens. There was a local scandal a few years back when a property developer cut down all the trees in the area, damaging habitats etc. And now presumably the government will be buying that land and putting a station on it.

The wind was very strong from the south, and the first mile or so was quite a struggle, what with that and Bucky O'Tool on the end of the lead. It was a relief to let him off :-) Turning back to run up the canal path was much more enjoyable with a little bit of wind to help me on, and I ran a little further than I planned, just because it was feeling good.

Of course, I got payback when I had to turn back into the wind to come home, but I'd gone far enough to take a quick pic on my phone of my favourite bit of the canal path. There's an old stone bridge that's just about visible in the pic, and up on the hillside the church has a very interesting large window thing. For some reason I always imagine that it can swing open, and some sort of steampunk zeppelin would come out. If you go too far in either direction, you see the backs of factories, or a sunken boat - so it's a bit of a sweet spot.



The dog did very well - we did 6.3 miles, and he stuck with it for the majority, still running rings around me until the last half a mile, when I think he'd had a gutsful. Thankfully there were lots of puddles at the sidings, and a few useful drinking points along the canal.

Sport Relief this evening, and the boy has also drawn me a nice picture of the two of us running our mile. We seem to be a lot beefier than all the other contestants - we look like we're going to kick ass. We don't have umbrellas though. I've checked the weather for Sunday and it's not looking like the picture.

Planning to run the Sandy 10 next Sunday, though it doesn't feel like it'd go well if I try to push it. I might try it on for the first few miles (there's a 50m climb inside the first 1.5 miles), and see how I do - just to set a little benchmark. We've also entered the Silverstone 10k in May - now that sounds like a target :-)
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • I loved running the Silverstone 10k a few years ago. It was a bit of a drive after work to get there in time. Worth it though. :)
    Ness
    7:13am, 22nd Mar 2014
  • Canals are lovely :)
    fleecy
    7:55am, 22nd Mar 2014
  • No canals near here, I like the idea of running along by a canal, they mostly seem flat too!
    .B.
    8:30am, 22nd Mar 2014
  • We're going to try to get to Silverstone. Engine noises at the ready. Tough start to Sandy. Last time I tried to push up the hill figuring it was all level or down after that but it wasn't the right tactic!
    Nightjar
    9:40am, 22nd Mar 2014


A sign!

9:09pm, 20 Mar 2014
There's a metal sign sticking up in the middle of the river (Great Ouse), informing boats to keep left of a little island of trees - we walk past it most times when we're walking the dogs. And every time, I pick up a stone and try to hit it. I've been trying every day for months. I guess it's about 30-40m away, and it's maybe 50cm square. The dog even knows when we're coming up to it, and barks at me if I pretend to forget to do it.

Anyway (I expect you know where this is going), I hit it today, right between the eyes (the sign, not the dog, although I'm often tempted). I always tell myself that I'm going to. There was a pleasing clang, and it wobbled a bit, and I walked on, after an obligatory fist pump.

That was my main triumph today, apart from getting my hair cut :-)

I also rewrote the introductory thingummy for noobs - have a look, and let me know if I've missed anything potentially useful: http://www.fetcheveryone.com/cms-58 - it's a balance between giving a good flavour of things, without listing absolutely everything.

And there's also a competition! which is designed to encourage would-be participants to get involved around the site - you have to post in the forum, upload a pic, write a blog, log some training, and so on - there's 20 Great Run places to be won, including 2 GNR and 2 GSR places :-)

http://www.fetcheveryone.com/greatrun.php

Boy in bed. Word of the day = bungle. Any suggestions for tomorrows word?

Must fit in a run tomorrow.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • I have 8 ticks already!
    Tomorrow's word should be bumptious
    fleecy
    9:17pm, 20th Mar 2014
  • love the fist pump after the stone throwing :-) audacious is a good word!
    .B.
    9:20pm, 20th Mar 2014
  • flaunt
    GregP
    9:53pm, 20th Mar 2014
  • The word tomorrow will very likely be Friday, followed closely by another f-word.
    oi you
    10:12pm, 20th Mar 2014
  • Ah so you're one of the buggers who keep damaging the navigation signs. Most of them have bullet holes in...

    If the Word of the day is alphabetical then try "concatenate". see if you can link it in to anything else.
    ogee
    11:19pm, 20th Mar 2014
  • Zippy :)
    Night-owl
    11:27pm, 20th Mar 2014
  • Druthers
    Silvershadow
    6:43am, 21st Mar 2014
  • Why are there lots of bald penis people on the introduction?
    Chris
    3:29pm, 21st Mar 2014
  • Ooh, ooh, me Sir, me Sir, I know what 'concatenate' means without having to look it up first. I like the newbie introduction: it's very friendly and welcoming.
    Kittenheels Kath
    4:19pm, 21st Mar 2014
  • Vandal! I must read your intro, as despite having been here a pretty long time, I don't really know what's what and where
    forest plodder
    6:39pm, 21st Mar 2014
  • I wander what you would have written had the sign fallen off :-)
    Nightjar
    9:43am, 22nd Mar 2014
  • I wonder... :-(

    Perhaps you could introduce yourself in the article? Or get someone else to.
    Nightjar
    9:54am, 22nd Mar 2014


Owen Farrell visualisation technique

9:15pm, 19 Mar 2014
*looks at potential new users*
*looks at website*
*looks on the verge of tears*
*looks at potential new users*
*looks at website*
*looks on the verge of tears*
*looks at potential new users*
*looks at website*
*looks on the verge of tears*
*looks at potential new users*
*looks at website*

Time to write my blog whilst I wait for the boy to call me (he's not home from cubs yet).

Today was a busy one - I've rearranged lots of content on the clubs pages - go check it out. You can see a wee training summary and race results from the runners at your club. There's also a feed of local races, and a roll of honour for common distances. Lots more to follow, and hopefully in 'widget' form so we'll hopefully get cut-and-pasted onto a few club websites.

Also made some small changes to the menu at the top of the page - there's an 'Add training' link up there now that will give you quick access from wherever you are on the site. The underlying goal is to help make the site easier for noobs to navigate, but if it's easier for all of us, that's a win all round.

I've been working on the whole experience for new users, to see if we can retain a few more people when they sign up. Once I've got all that live we'll start trying to reach new peeps.

Pork chops for tea and Black Books on the telly, with hope of watching tonight's Line of Duty too.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • So do you think some people arrive and don't stay?
    D2
    9:30pm, 19th Mar 2014
  • I'm prepared to go around with a sandwich board with 'FetchEveryone' on both sides during weekends of most major cities if that would help.
    Watford Wobble
    10:03pm, 19th Mar 2014
  • I've been chatting to my OH who is a lapsed member on here and he says he only wants a place to log stuff, doesn't want to chat, blog etc, so uses strava now and his Suunto MovesCount site, as more multisport logging friendly. Shame on him!
    Lalli
    10:12pm, 19th Mar 2014
  • You have to look at the potential new users out of the corner of your eye, as if you don't really want them to notice you are looking at them, or you are scared to move your head in case it makes the website fall off its little tee.
    HowFar?
    10:57pm, 19th Mar 2014
  • I very loads like the new 'Add Training box' up there (points ^^). Much enticing interactivity with added easiness. I take it you'll now ditch the old(new), less good, 'Add Training box' over there on the top right (points >>), if only to avoid confusion for us auld buggers.
    Angus Clydesdale
    11:48pm, 19th Mar 2014
  • Or maybe you could upgrade the old(new) 'No Time? Add Training' box so that it's also great, just like the new one.
    Angus Clydesdale
    11:50pm, 19th Mar 2014
  • I'm liking the new changes too. Just keep it a gentle dribble, not too much too fast, so us technically challenged folk can keep up :-)
    Alice the Camel
    6:49am, 20th Mar 2014
  • Line of Duty is one of the best progs to come out the the Beeb in years. First series was excellent, this one is even better.
    Boab
    7:40am, 20th Mar 2014
  • Don't forget a list of the members on the club page. Like there used to be.
    paul the builder
    12:09pm, 20th Mar 2014
  • Crikey it's taken me 4 days to work out to where the signing in box went, I only found that yesterday...
    Dai Bank
    1:34pm, 20th Mar 2014
  • you forgot "stare at site gormlessly, with head to one side, trying to work out what it is"
    flanker
    8:31pm, 20th Mar 2014


Kebabs!

9:45pm, 18 Mar 2014
The dog seems to have recovered well from his near-jelly experience yesterday. He's back to being the big wooly tool we all know and love.

Today I worked over the code behind the club listings on the website. You probably won't notice too much difference just yet - it's the equivalent of a service I guess. I would like to make the club pages useful for clubs, and do all I can to encourage clubs to make use of them. All suggestions welcome.

Had a face-tinglingly tasty chicken sheesh kebab with chilli sauce for my tea :-)

Nice chat with the boy - we are going to buy some seeds and attempt not to kill them.

I ran :-) Everything feels ok after Sunday's efforts - maybe a little bit of tiredness, but no red flags. Got caught in the rain, and offset it all with a bacon sandwich when Katie got home from yoging.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Glad Stephen his usual self again. I'm going to try and grow some stuff with my grandkids they can use on Halloween... try!
    D2
    10:20pm, 18th Mar 2014
  • Peas are good. And beans. Even in years when I have to plant 3 lots of seeds (slugs) the beans eventually triumph.
    fleecy
    10:44pm, 18th Mar 2014
  • Sunflowers work well - quick growing, virtually unkillable (apart from the early days with slugs) and you have birdfood for the winter.
    Heavyweight
    1:34pm, 19th Mar 2014


Booster fails to ignite

9:20pm, 17 Mar 2014
Bought the license for Highcharts today, so watch out for some nice interactive graphs coming soon.

I've been collecting some ideas about how to reach more people with the website, and today I've been marshalling those into a big list of tasks, and trying to work out which of them need to come first. It's quite a project.

The dog went to the vet for his booster today, and by the time I got him back to the car he'd gone all jelly legged. Got him back into the vets, but he was distinctly dopey and annoyed. Thankfully after about ten minutes he rebooted, although he's been a bit more dopey than usual this evening.

Reading 'The Cuckoo's Calling'.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • The butler did it
    McGoohan
    9:28pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • The best way to reach people is by pointing out that FE is actually better than anything else out there. This is now a True Fact. Try straining leeks through that.
    GregP
    9:39pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • It's not just the best online running community, it's the best online community. And there is free stuff, like Garmins and pork pies. Free pork pies will draw in the crowds
    Diogenes
    10:03pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • Where are the free pork pies?
    VicksterH
    10:04pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • *pie*
    ChrisHB
    10:13pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • not there.
    ChrisHB
    10:13pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • I loved the book. I was really hoping that Cormoran Strike would get some good luck and turn his situation into something positive. Hoping too that JKR writes another one :-)
    Seratonin
    10:14pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • porkpie there Vickster! :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    10:11am, 18th Mar 2014
  • Why do you need big numbers? What is the target? Who says bigger is better? How big is good? Is it registered users or active users that you want? What do you want them to be doing? Buying merchandise and following ads and links or just logging training and chatting? What's your marketing goal? Without a goal, how do you measure success? Not criticising, just interested.

    Make it like a game. After you've posted a certain number of times or blogged or whateve, then you get into another, secret level. I think that's a game, others may call it a cult! :-O :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    10:14am, 18th Mar 2014
  • Hope the dog has his legs back!
    Nightjar
    1:40pm, 18th Mar 2014
  • maybe the dog had too many pork pies
    HellsBells
    3:56pm, 18th Mar 2014
  • I found you a new person today..... can I go to the next level?
    D2
    4:18pm, 18th Mar 2014
  • It is the only genuine online running community in existence.
    Snapstinget
    7:37pm, 18th Mar 2014
  • Love that book.....
    runnerbean
    8:31pm, 18th Mar 2014


Myton Rugby Run (5 Miler)

6:34pm, 16 Mar 2014
Before writing my account of the race today, I've just been for a look back at a previous blog where I'd talked about what I was hoping to achieve at the race. I said:

"...I would be very pleased to get under 7:40/mile for the whole thing, which would give me 38:20. That said, I will have a think about setting out at 7:25 pace..."

Our alarm went off at 7 this morning, and I stumbled downstairs to make some tea and toast. The night had been a bit restless, so everything was a bit automatic pilot. Google Maps suggested 1hr15 to get to Draycote Water, so we set off at 7.45, but we made it in 45 minutes. All the way there, we'd been watching the trees and the wind turbines, all of which seemed pleasingly still. Two smiley marshalls on the entrance road directed us to the off-site car park, which was about a mile further down the road.

Getting out of the car, we realised that there was a fairly stiff breeze, which meant that it'd be pretty windy up on the reservoir. We climbed onto the waiting shuttle bus, and were ferried across. There wasn't a huge amount of information about the race published on the website, so it was all a bit of an unknown quantity (although we're both familiar with DW). The start and finish areas are over where the Mick and Phil finish was (or thereabouts) - so we had a trek with our bag, faces directly into the wind, which was pretty chilly.

For a *long* time, we wondered exactly how the race was going to start on time - there were no marshalls anywhere near the starting area. But with a few minutes to go, they arrived, and with an elegant minimum of fuss, we were given a quick talk by a gravel-voiced gentleman, and then an even quicker "Get set, go" by the local MP.

1) 7:12
The race started on the 'lower' path, just a few feet before it banks steeply upward - so the first 10 seconds of the race were quite the most palpitating start to a race I've ever seen - but it was over so quickly it wasn't until I was a quarter of a mile down the road that my legs gave me a bit of a sarcastic glance. The first mile also included the slopes around the little boating / fishing dock, and the rather hectic turn around the visitor centre - so it was a bit of a rollercoaster. But I went at it, and turned in a very pleasing split which would probably have been even faster on a flatter course.

2) 1m - 7:22(7:22/m) 171/174bpm
I had a vague recollection that if I could get under 7:20/mile then I'd do pretty damn well, so I kept on pushing - but the pushing was accompanied by a flood of memories about just how Not Flat the route around the reservoir is. It goes away from the lake by a hundred feet or so, and goes up and down like a double entendre. So I think I knew at this point that I wouldn't be able to hold on to 7:20, but was pleased that I had plenty in the sack for getting 7:30 pace.

3) 1m - 7:32(7:32/m) 174/176bpm
More undulating, it's really hard work, and the sun is starting to warm things up, and I feel like I'm being gently cooked. Most of this mile is run alongside a young lad who's probably about 12, but running really well. Starting to struggle to hold on to the pace, but it's good to get past half way, and I know he's only a kid, but I want to keep in front.

4) 1m - 7:46(7:46/m) 172/177bpm
The lad pulls away, and I'm trying hard to hold on, but it's getting really tough now. Dig in, it'll all be over in 15 minutes, no matter what. The f**king undulations keep working me over. Trying my hardest to make the most of the accompanying downhills, and trying not to think about the next one.

5) 1m - 7:40(7:40/m) 176/182bpm
The first three quarters of this mile is at nearly 8min/mile, and I was flagging badly. A headphone man is making ground on me from behind, and at this rate, he'll take me. I try swearing at myself loudly, which helps a bit, but everything's tired. With the last undulation out of the way I spotted a bin or something on the right, and thought about how we sometimes do little fartleks on the way home from a training run down Route 51. So when I reach the bin, I pretend that's what's happening, and try to sprint from there to the finish. The word 'sprint' is wholly inappropriate for the ensuing mess of arms and legs, but I ran away from headphone man with the last quarter of a mile at 7:04 pace, finishing by running straight through a dense cloud of midges that had gathered to lick the sweat out of the air.

No sign of official results yet (and if the photographer took a picture when I thought he did, I may well be retching on a midge), but my watch reckons 37:38, which means 7:32/mile overall, which I'm very pleased with. Comfortably within what I was predicting beforehand, and yet a time that I'm confident of improving on, with some more intervals and tempo. PB is 36:23, oooh! I'm coming for ya.

Squash, medal, banana, Cadbury's Caramel :-) and the best sight of all - steaming down the home straight only a few minutes after me, the legendary KatieB, absolutely obliterating her 42:30 (60% WAVA) target with a 40:57. I knew she'd do way better than she'd give herself hope of beforehand :-)

Rose-tinted view or not, this was a lovely race with some lovely chatty friendly marshalls. We'll definitely be back.

Made it to the Dun Cow for a few buckets of cappuccino, a couple of bottles of cold lager, and some really nice pub food (Katie = nuclear hot pie, Me = burger). Euphoria got us all the way home, singing along to the School of Rock soundtrack, before we both hit the tiredness barrier half way through walking the dogs. Very restful evening planned, with a few more cold lagers, and a whole lot of optimism for the next few weeks training, and plans for our next race.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • bunting

    Way to go you two :)
    northernslowcoach
    6:37pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Great racing, and great PBing by KatieB there! I like the finishline fartlekking :)
    fleecy
    6:44pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • A grand day out for you both - well done :-)
    Alice the Camel
    6:50pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • so exciting to read, well done!
    D2
    6:56pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Well done both :) :)
    Ness
    6:57pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • *waits for "retching on a midge" picture* :-)
    Well done to you both. bunting
    Bintmcskint
    7:03pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Well done guys :D and great bloggage. What's the next race in the pipeline?
    Jigs
    7:31pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Not an actual PB but best 5 mile time for 5 years. :-)
    KatieB
    7:34pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Superb. The training pays off!
    GimmeMedals
    7:46pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • well done to both of you :-)
    .B.
    8:07pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Great blog and great racing :) You actually got a table at the Dun Cow?? Might have to do this next year.
    SarahWoo
    9:18pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Wow, all those 7.xx, fantastic running for both you and Katie. Well done.
    macapple
    9:40pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • :) :)
    Rosehip
    9:42pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Well done both! Fab! :-) :-)
    Lalli
    10:08pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Great work, well done! :-)
    DrBob
    10:17pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • A good day :-)
    Dvorak
    11:04pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Very good effort, TOOOO fast at the start.....
    Ocelot Spleens
    9:04am, 17th Mar 2014
  • Lovely bloggage and great running from you both! :-)
    Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs)
    10:09am, 17th Mar 2014
  • Lovely blog. Well done both :)
    jennywren
    12:50pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • Too quick on first mile there Lord F ;-)
    Hills of Death (HOD)
    1:28pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • Great pacing - proves you know where you are in your training, and that you can trust and believe in it. As you say, more fartleks or other speedwork and that is only going to improve. Undulations can really mess with your rhythm too, so possibly quicker on a flater "regular" course? Well done. :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    2:09pm, 17th Mar 2014
  • What happened to the new car park at DW then? The boat club taken it over?
    Nightjar
    1:45pm, 18th Mar 2014
  • Oh - well done both :-) :-)
    Nightjar
    1:45pm, 18th Mar 2014


Rugby before rugby

10:15pm, 15 Mar 2014
A quick one tonight.

ParkRuN went well, the running felt nice and smooth. Hope all is as good tomorrow :-0

Coffee and ginger cake at Fancy!

My boy scored a try, that involved catching a really high ball, and some weaving :-)

Wales made their mams all proud :-)

Pizza and pile up on the sofa with Katie watching Bridesmaids, which made me giggle :-)

Early night, Draycote beckons!
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Hope you have a nice day at Draycote. :)
    Ness
    8:19am, 16th Mar 2014
  • Shame about the disgraceful actions of one player; ruined the match for me. I had to take the dog for a walk and come back after full-time. Very much enjoyed France-Ireland though, much better rugby and the right team won! :-)
    Angus Clydesdale
    10:00am, 16th Mar 2014
  • Yes, it was a red card offence but it happened so early on it looked like a training game in places..
    Cracking game after, nice for BOD to go out with some more silverware!
    Tazsedai
    1:55pm, 16th Mar 2014
  • Hope Draycote was good. A few PBs around today! :-)
    Lalli
    3:22pm, 16th Mar 2014


Sweetcorn antidote

8:20pm, 14 Mar 2014
The boy jumped in to my bed at 6.30 this morning, but had the good sense not to attempt to engage me in conversation until 7. He's currently enjoying Plants vs Zombies on the Xbox, and was keen to get on with it.

Dropped him off at school, and had a productive day, replying to lots of people, and pulling together a plan of what I need to do with the site. It's got lots of potential, and I'm quite excited, which is good. I think I will have to learn Objective C once and for all though :-)

Mysterious invite to a product launch in London next month, where my shoe size and dietary requirements have been requested. They want to know where I'll be so they can collect me. If I don't report back, send help, and the antidote to sweetcorn.

I should get my hands on the license for Highcharts come Monday, which means I can start sharing some prototype interactive graphs with you all. They're pretty cool!

A nice tea time, alternately giggling and making pained faces at an hour long episode of You've Been Framed. All too soon it was time for him to go back to his mum, and he wasn't keen on going, but I think that was mainly because I know how to install minecraft mods :-)

So here I am sitting on the sofa with a big stupid 20kg puppy sprawled across my lap, waiting for Katie to finish her evening clients so that we can cwch up.

Aiming for parkrun tomorrow, but nowt quick, because of Rugby 5 on Sunday. But we will definitely have coffee and cake afterwards, which is the Best Part about going to parkrun.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Cake = carbing up for Rugby 5? Have a lovely weekend :-)
    sallykate
    8:24pm, 14th Mar 2014
  • Maybe the product launch is going to see you used as a guinea pig for something :-)
    Seratonin
    9:03pm, 14th Mar 2014
  • Mmmm, coffee and cake, wish we could join you but it will be a quick visit to Northampton parkrun for us and then back home so Jigs can catch up on some zzzzzzz's

    Have a good race on Sunday :-)
    Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs)
    9:03pm, 14th Mar 2014
  • It's a weird life you have, being kidnapped and fed sweetcorn and given trainers :)
    fleecy
    9:04am, 15th Mar 2014
  • Have fun on Sunday. We're in Wiltshire so I can't pop over to Draycote to say hello.
    SarahWoo
    9:44am, 15th Mar 2014
  • Have fun on Sunday. We're in Barcelona so I can't pop over to Draycote to say hello. ;-)
    Fizz :-)
    1:45pm, 15th Mar 2014
  • Have a lovely weekend :)
    northernslowcoach
    6:43pm, 15th Mar 2014


Custard factory

10:07pm, 13 Mar 2014
A day off running today, but we're officially entered into the Rugby 5 on Sunday, which is a bit exciting. My best ever 5M time is 36:23 (7:17/mile), 59.29% WAVA. I think it's one of the best runs I've ever done, the splits were great. I can't see me getting too close to that, but on current form I would be very pleased to get under 7:40/mile for the whole thing, which would give me 38:20. That said, I will have a think about setting out at 7:25 pace, which is where I've been doing my 85% tempo runs (4 miles) recently, and see what happens. Hope it's not too windy at Draycote :-)

The dog made it an early start for me, barking away at 6.30 until I got up to let him out, whereupon he did a massive pile of poo on the patio, and then over the course of his morning walk, produced the most custardy output I've ever seen from anything other than a custard factory. He seems better for it.

I submitted some stuff to my colleagues in London, detailing some of the reasons why Fetch is a special place. We have a big meeting for all the company where all the other websites will share their nice stories. I'm looking forward to it.

I've also been speaking to some Fetchies about ways in which we can bring more people to Fetch. I see big companies with pots of cash at their disposal, developing fancy functionality and selling it with big marketing campaigns. I looked at our new user stats, and a whopping 47% come from word of mouth. With no advertising budget it's never going to be any other way :-) But I think it's a better way to grow, because new users will tend to have some sort of Venn personality overlap with the friends that recommended the site to us. My challenge (in Fetching Everyone) is to bring more people to the site, and as far as I can see, helping that word of mouth connection is where we need to be. So I had a strategy meeting today, attended by me and Stephen, and the Fetchies from the Engineering Department who kindly responded to my request - and will be producing a strategy document for myself to follow. Or I might just dick about with the code a bit more.

I finished reading 'Stoner' this evening. POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT. I may be sitting on the fence here, but I didn't love it, and I didn't hate it. The sentences flowed with a nice elegance, and there were some proper lovely ones in there. I spent the book wanting him to stand up to his wife (or at least dive into her issues) in the way that he stood up to Walker over his false learning. I wanted him to seize opportunities with Grace and Katherine, but began to accept that his restraint and resolve and dignity would continue until the end. I wanted his life-long dedication to his learning to help him overcome Holly Lomax, but his joy was in the smallest of victories. Maybe he was so enveloped in his own analog of reality, surrounded by his knowledge, that everything else became a subset, a single case, except for those moments when learning itself, the framework that he'd attached himself to, was brought into question. I would describe it as a graceful portrait of a difficult life, and the best bit I guess is that it made me think, to try to work out what was underneath.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • I think I would have felt more warmly about Stoner had it not been for the ludicrous meeja hype around it.
    McGoohan
    10:18pm, 13th Mar 2014
  • I didn't see any of that :-)
    fetcheveryone
    10:19pm, 13th Mar 2014
  • (In fairness I only bought it *because* of all the meeja hype. Do we have a rolly eyes emoticon on here? I want to roll my eyes at my own gullibility.)
    McGoohan
    10:23pm, 13th Mar 2014
  • Is your dog called Mr Whippy? :-)
    Seratonin
    11:53pm, 13th Mar 2014
  • I'm so glad I was eating a M&S Caramel Dessert during paragraph 2.
    Nightjar
    1:56pm, 14th Mar 2014


Pooped

10:25pm, 12 Mar 2014
Up for an 8 mile loop to the Danish Camp this morning. It was crushingly chilly to begin with, but the run went pretty well. Left hamstring feels quite tight, and legs felt tired generally, but it was a longish run on the back of speed work.

Today I've done some more work on integrating the new graph software I mentioned yesterday - it's coming along nicely. I also got somewhere with preparing the stuff I need to send to the big people - thank you to everybody who's suggested something :-)

We had a Line Of Duty -a-thon this evening - good innit?

Pooped.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • good running. :)
    D2
    10:31pm, 12th Mar 2014
  • Line of Duty is a top top programme
    Diogenes
    11:01pm, 12th Mar 2014


I did some intervals :-)

6:46pm, 11 Mar 2014
Shocked and smiley to be the subject of two blogs today :-)

A techy blog from me about some updates coming your way (with an interlude for intervals).

I've managed to persuade the Powers That Be to part with £235 to get me a developer license for Highcharts, which is a Javascript toolkit for making very lovely charts.

So I've spent most of today starting to integrate it into the 'glasses' view in place of the static graph. Which means going through a lot of different types of training session and making sure it handles them reasonably well.

There are some very cool features!

1) Tooltips when you put your mouse over the graph:



2) You can highlight a section of the graph by dragging your mouse over it. When you let go, it will zoom in on that section:



3) There's a very handy button that allows you to save the whole thing as an image:



4) And fingers crossed, I should be able to get the tooltips on the graph to match up with the dot on the map:



I'm hoping to get that all working nicely within the next few weeks.

If you look at that first graph, you'll see I've done some intervals today! :-) I took the Timex out to see how it handles them - and after a frustrating start, I've got the hang of it. It's a bit different to the way I've been used to doing it on a Garmin, where I've just set "number of reps", "distance/time of efforts" and "distance/time of recoveries". Instead, you have to build a single cycle (so in my case, 0.5 miles of effort, followed by 2 minutes of recovery), and then set the number of repetitions. Sounds similar now I say it, but I was swearing like a wounded pirate when I'd set it up wrong initially.

So I did 5 x 0.5 miles, with 2 min recoveries (although I actually did a 0th one beforehand). Times for each effort were 3.27, 3.22, 3.28, 3.30, and a slightly disappointing 3.37, although the 'current pace' was jumping around a bit, so it was a little bit difficult to judge... BUT I was breathing out of my arse by the last one, so I can't really blame the watch. Looks like I got up to 95% of WHR for 35% of the session, and 85%+ for 60% of the session.

I seem to have damaged my stomach during 'refuelling' though. I had a couple of digestives and a banana, and then shortly afterwards, three chicken legs and two slices of bread and butter. Damnit.

Tomorrow I have to prepare some stuff for the big folks in London. The idea is to collect some nice things that have happened as a result of the various online communities, to share within the company. I'm not 'up against' anyone else, but there are some big names - Cosmo, Good Housekeeping, Harper's Bazaar, and of course RW and Men's Health. When they asked me, it brought back memories of lots of lovely happenings. I'm proud of what goes on here! If you've got a suggestion for something I should include, leave a comment.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • I remember a very early competition; was it fetch five? I think that was embryonic of lots of what goes on now. Others will be along to talk about friendships, relationships, fetchlings, events, competitions, fetchpoints and as is apparent from this; a new language!
    D2
    7:39pm, 11th Mar 2014
  • Anyone need a leek strainer? Don't need mine any more ;)
    GregP
    7:41pm, 11th Mar 2014
  • Fetch Wedding mile :-)
    Silvershadow
    7:50pm, 11th Mar 2014
  • RNR
    Fetchpoints a-plenty
    Various mawwidges
    I remember you using the phrase 'swearing like a wounded pirate' on one of your earlier finish photos (Reading 1/2?)
    McGoohan
    8:38pm, 11th Mar 2014
  • Oooh - me, Hammerite and Legless finishing comfortably mid-table in the Eastern Region Triathlon champs 2010 entered as 'Fetch Everyone Hotel Bastardos Tri Club'.
    GregP
    8:52pm, 11th Mar 2014
  • Mick n Phil half marathon fundraiser
    GimmeMedals
    9:02pm, 11th Mar 2014
  • People I'd never met sending gifts for my newborn children :-)
    Diogenes
    9:06pm, 11th Mar 2014
  • Aberdeen Fetch Mile (and all the associated swimming, biking, running and fellowship that one Fetch Thread has promoted in a small corner of the Sceptred Isle). Many boundaries quashed in one 'small' move.
    Angus Clydesdale
    10:42pm, 11th Mar 2014
  • Big Fetch Mile in Manchester (the one you came to) :) London Marathon Fetchpoint
    jennywren
    8:40am, 12th Mar 2014
  • you should try breathing using your lungs, the current pace is always all over the shop, Garmins are bad.
    Ocelot Spleens
    9:31am, 12th Mar 2014
  • Fetch miles and fetchpoints at marathons obviously (although I don't know if RW has something similar to those- I think they do their own fetchpoint-type thing at London) Almost *never* needing to be on your own at a race because (apart from perhaps the very smallest events) there will always be someone wearing a Fetch shirt and they are *always* happy to chat to another Fetchie (and despite being people 'off the internet' they're generally not weirdos;-) )
    BaronessBL
    10:15am, 12th Mar 2014
  • I don't usually both programming the workout into the Garmin. I just do this:

    I used to do all my 400m, 800m etc in miles. 0.25, 0.5 etc. 200m, 600m and 1km used to confuse me me a bit (0.12, 0.36 and 0.6) I never download or set up a workout on my watch. I just use Lap button. This is because I never knew exactly how long I would rest for e.g. 90s or 2 mins nor how long the warm up would be.

    So e.g. 400m x 6 reps off 90s recoveries. Hit Start button.

    1. Jog 1.5-2 miles to get to wherever I'm doing the intervals.

    2. When ready to blast off, hit Lap (note distance),

    2a. run like the clappers until distance has gone up by 0.25,

    2b. hit Lap again (Note time elapsed. if interested, glance at watch to see what time that interval took. Or just bend over and throw up. Whatever works for you.)
    3. Add 90s to time elapsed and desperately try to get breath back.
    4. When 90s has passed (which will seem like about 10s) Repeat from 2.
    5. When you've done enough of 4, jog back home (or hospital, depending on medical status). Hit Stop.

    Intervals, init? :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    10:57am, 12th Mar 2014
  • Loving the graphs. Also loving that £235 required a 3 year business case to justify. It's about 3 customers' subscriptions to RW (which as we know is used as toilet reading or toilet paper, if we're being unkind :-O ) :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    11:00am, 12th Mar 2014
  • FERC, Mick n Phil halfs, Fetchpoints, Fetch Wedding Mile, multiple Fetchie weddings, spreading the parkrun love, secret santa thread .....
    SarahWoo
    11:42am, 12th Mar 2014
  • homer's big fetch mile
    Ocelot Spleens
    12:08pm, 12th Mar 2014
  • Oh, and good things from Fetch: all above (did Mick n Phil half, benefited from Fetchpoint, loved BIIIG Mile etc) , plus:

    :-) Free Guided Scottish Hill Runs (see blog for details - took some folk, 40 odd, over 5 outings, to some fabulous places, safely).
    :-) Fetch Miles generally
    :-) TBOGUA thread has def saved a few souls
    :-) Virtually every race and place I've run and every distance and time, are attributable to Fetch friends and

    help and advice.
    :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    12:25pm, 12th Mar 2014
  • several marriages, even more divorces, RNR, fetchpoint (real & the game), training groups, etc etc
    flanker
    3:14pm, 12th Mar 2014
  • *puts hand up* Please sir, sir, what about the pesterers and lazybones concept. Bet they don't have anything like that on Good Housekeeping :-)
    BaronessBL
    3:43pm, 12th Mar 2014
  • PS - you had me at 'tooltips'
    McGoohan
    5:11pm, 12th Mar 2014
  • Ooh yes Baroness, I bet GH doesn't have Sharktopus like wot the 700 thread has :-)
    LazyDaisy
    7:18pm, 12th Mar 2014
  • The preg thread, it's helped many of us through the rough parts of pregnancy and its helped some through labour. Also I got some great support when Bodie got diagnosed with albinism.
    Elsie Too
    6:37pm, 13th Mar 2014
  • the proposal at Fetchpoint at VLM one year - I can't remember who it was now
    SherryB
    8:40pm, 14th Mar 2014


Speed work?

10:10pm, 10 Mar 2014
Ran today - a three mile loop round the lake with Katie and Stephen (I count six pooch-related stops in that time). Although my legs feel ever so slightly tired, the whole mechanism feels nicely strong :-)

We're looking at doing the Rugby 5 at Draycote Water on Sunday - that should be interesting.

Today I've been readying the Great Run competition. There's 20 race entries up for grabs and hopefully a bit of kit too :-) More on that soon.

We've watched 4 episodes of series 1 of the Bridge this evening! Last one tomorrow lunchtime. Exciting, tempered slightly because we've already seen series 2.

Another run tomorrow. Speed work perhaps?
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Good luck for your run at Draycote. :)
    Ness
    5:37pm, 11th Mar 2014


Many things

10:15pm, 9 Mar 2014
Today was a good day, with the exception of the rugby, although my feelings of disappointment were dulled somewhat because we missed the first bit of the match, and then only listened to the second half on the radio. We can still win the tournament I think, but we have to beat Scotland by 3 million points.

Another early start - just after seven, and another incoherent pile of me on the sofa. Crumpets for breakfast, and some more Minecraft mods, before we got to the point where we needed to get out.

It was such a lovely day, and we were torn between swimming and biking, so we decided to do both. Packing a ginormous picnic and a rugby ball into a rucksack with our swimming gear, we set off, down the canal path to West Park. It was a busy highway, but the boy is confident on his bike now.

We ate some food at the park, and did some kicking practice, kicking over the bar. Of course, I hit him in the face again, but he turned his head the other way, following my advice to even up the bruising.

Locked up our bikes and went into the swimming pool for an hour of splashing and diving under, then the mandatory post-swim sweets (skittles - him, snickers - me).

We timed our journey back, it was about 45 minutes, including a short stop to put his chain back on and to drink apple juice. It was lovely to pedal along and chat, unlike the sometimes monosyllabic (or sometimes non-syllabic) conversations I have with an xbox child.

No spud gun progress - I need an 18mm drill bit.

Back in Bedford I very much enjoyed some catch up hugs with Katie and some very happy English people :-) An energetic fun game of ping pong with youngest step son, ending when I mentioned I'd brought my bolster / cold chisel back. There's a row of sticky-out brick tiles in the wall of our utility room that we need to clear back before we can board it out, so we had some fun doing that. Slightly nerve-wrackingly, I held the bolster whilst he swung the hammer. But we both came out of it relatively unscathed :-)

Managed 15 miles or so this week - nice to look ahead now with a clean sheet, more or less fully recovered, ad looking forward to turning in some good sessions.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Judging by your aim with the rugby ball it was wise that W was wielding the hammer ;-)
    Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs)
    10:27pm, 9th Mar 2014
  • England currently ahead on points difference and our last match is Italy so likelihood is we will have a bigger score difference to Wales V Scotland (I hope :-P). Then France have to beat Ireland by just 1 point (no more) for England to win 6 nations - Will be a victorious win for England after having it snatched from our grasp last year :(
    *Anj*
    12:34pm, 10th Mar 2014


A bit cabbagey here.

10:22pm, 8 Mar 2014
Trademark early start to the weekend from the boy, with a 6.55 wake up. But to be fair to him, he let me slump on the sofa for a bit whilst he had his morning cuddle with the dog, and watched some YouTube.

Rugby training for him at 10.30, and we got there in enough time for me and him to have a bit of a chuck around, and enough time for me to hit him in the head with the ball. But he got over it after a few minutes ("you won't feel it when the pain's gone", "you always say that dad"), and got stuck in to training. They have a little match in the last part of the session, and it's nice to see them all starting to understand the game. He scored a nice try too, through a small gap :-)

Back home for lunch, and some more searching the internet for Minecraft mods and associated videos on YouTube. I think Minecraft is great, but after a few hours, I was starting to despair, so I gave him the Alternative Choice close of a dog walk at Elvaston Castle or at Bramcote Park. He chose the latter because it meant we could take the rugby ball and fling it around some more. The dog got plenty of exercise, but was also a bit of a pest - there seemed to be an unfeasibly large number of young children wandering around with very tempting sticks - so I had to do a lot of running after him and apologising.

We did some passing and kicking, and then the boy wanted to know more about tackling, so we did some slow motion tackles, and ended up with an impromptu game of Wales vs New Zealand in the World Cup Final, which ended in a draw when I hit him in the face with the ball again.

Dinner (sausages, roasties, cabbage'n'bacon and carrots, with gravy), and then The Sorcerer's Apprentice with a bag of Minstrels.

Tomorrow, maybe, the spud gun :-O
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Given the number of times you hit him in the face while playing rugby, do you really think the spud gun is a good plan?
    HowFar?
    10:26pm, 8th Mar 2014
  • I'm in Surrey: is that far enough away dyou think? :)
    fleecy
    7:16am, 9th Mar 2014
  • Being hit in the head with a rugby ball was called character building where I grew up...
    Tazsedai
    11:52am, 9th Mar 2014
  • Hopefully he slept well after all that!
    forest plodder
    12:43pm, 9th Mar 2014


Angry Wasp

11:24pm, 7 Mar 2014
Today started frantically. It was book day at school, and the boy wanted to go as Tom from Beast Quest. Tom's shield has six different things stuck to it, all of which we had to find on the internet, scale, print, cut out, and stick on - all whilst trying to get ready for school. Got there by the skin of our teeth, or the elastic of our pants, as the boy once put it. Normally before leaving the house I make sure that there are no tempting objects in the lounge for the dog to chew, but I was in such a rush this morning that the easiest option was to throw the dog in the back of the car.

Got back from the school run, and I let the dog run up the street (it's a dead end, so it's pretty safe) where he got into a crouch for his morning poo. All of a sudden, a man opened his window and started yelling about how my dog had been pooing on his garden all week. Despite me telling him that it couldn't possibly have been my dog, he refused to believe me, and finished the conversation by banging his window shut again.

Put the excellent DD's article live, which you can see here:

http://www.fetcheveryone.com/cms-57

Got out for a run along the canal with the dog - about 3.5 miles. It felt a bit laboured until the turn, but then as I ran back, the sun hit me with all its strength - and for the first time in a hell of a long time, I felt that delicious warm equilibrium when you can feel the sweat coming out of you, but you're soaking up the warmth in equal measure. It was lovely. My aching right quads seem to have eased off completely, but today it was the turn of my left hamstring to complain. I think that's what happens when you pick up a bit of an injury / strain / race fatigue. One bit of you gets it, and so the rest has to step out of symmetry to compensate. The original bit gets better, but then the other half of you feels awkward. So the first half compensates, and so on and so on, with decreasing intensity, until it's all faded back to symmetry again.

The craze this week is Minecraft mods - anyone know of some good ones? So far we like the one with lots of different kinds of TNT, and the one where you can go to the moon, and the Pokemon one.

Speaking of blowing things up, the new igniter for the spud gun arrived this morning :-) It's essentially a part from a gas fire or a boiler - a big button with a spark on it. Foolishly, I held it in my hands, and pushed the button. The spark leapt from the end of it straight to my fingertip. It was like getting punched by an angry wasp. Tomorrow we have to make an 18mm hole in our drainpipe to fit that bad boy into place, and then we're in business, hopefully.

Toodles.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Ah yes, that "Gee, I wonder what will happen when I do this?" moment! Sounds like quite a jolt!
    Garfield
    9:04am, 8th Mar 2014
  • I always had you down as a bright spark :-)
    Seratonin
    10:01am, 8th Mar 2014
  • Did you also put one of those little cuboid batteries on your tongue when an older boy suggested it was a good idea - or was that just me?
    HowFar?
    10:41am, 8th Mar 2014
  • That was everybody, surely. Did you know that if you do it when you're a grown up, it helps to prevent wrinkles?
    fetcheveryone
    9:52pm, 8th Mar 2014


Minty

11:48pm, 6 Mar 2014
Another quick one before turning in.

We ran 7.5 miles this morning - right quad still a bit achey, but it's settling slowly.

Parents evening for the boy - sounds like the teacher is pleased with how he's doing - says he's knuckled down over the last few weeks. Managed to get the Minecraft Pokemon mod working on my Mac for him - he had fun with that, and I sat next to him and read my book and watched him a bit.

Spent the evening moving photos from my old laptop - remembered the password at last. Planning to put Linux Mint on it.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • It's that time of year isn't it, I had parents evening yesterday too.
    Elsie Too
    6:42am, 7th Mar 2014
  • Glad the boy is doing well :-)
    Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs)
    6:48am, 7th Mar 2014
  • Nice one! We had parents evening for Dom last night too. All his teachers like him but say he has the concentration span of a gnat!
    Lalli
    7:06am, 7th Mar 2014
  • What are ya gonna do with it once you've got Mint on it ?
    bigleggy
    11:57am, 7th Mar 2014
  • Dunno :-)
    fetcheveryone
    12:15pm, 7th Mar 2014


Rainbow's End

10:38pm, 5 Mar 2014
A short blog before bed.

Dog walking, inbox wrestling and wishing the last bit of my cough would just completely go away please.

Not much happened today.

Oh, one thing. I defaulted on 'Gravity's Rainbow'. I got through 40 of 900 pages, and didn't have a clue what was going on. I will return it to the bookshelf where it will smirk at me for years.

Instead I've started reading Stoner. It's a curious read so far. I keep wondering where it's going.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • When you've read it... read my blog about it - we all had a really good fight about it :-o (Read the book first though cause my blog spoilerised all the bits where he starts to levitate and talks to dead people.)
    McGoohan
    10:50pm, 5th Mar 2014
  • We discussed wether to read Stoner at book club tonight. It didn't appeal to me at all!
    Meglet
    10:55pm, 5th Mar 2014
  • Rainbow's End is also a song by Camel. It's a lot shorter than "Gravity's Rainbow".
    Dvorak
    11:27pm, 5th Mar 2014
  • Defiantly read McGoohan's blog after you have read it, Stoner did nothing for me but others have absolutely loved it.
    Lorraine
    6:51am, 6th Mar 2014
  • Life is too short for bad books. Release it to Oxfam so it can smirk at others :)
    fleecy
    8:00am, 6th Mar 2014
  • I think only the first twenty or so pages of my copy of Gravity's Rainbow ever saw the light of day :-)
    Goofee
    8:06am, 6th Mar 2014
  • Same experience with Pynchon, but firmly in the pro-Stoner camp
    Diogenes
    10:37am, 6th Mar 2014


Core Dump

1:25pm, 4 Mar 2014
Damage Report Mr Sulu!

Captain, the quads are both mashed, range of movement in hamstrings down to 3%. The alien virus seems to have been eradicated from the mainframe, but the oxygen processing system is still cleaning itself up. Both nipples showing signs of damage, but as yet, the hull has not been breached. Diagnostic run this morning shows signs of improvement.

:-)

Not bad really. Still a little bit of a cough and a bit of a sticky throat, but it's all receding. My quads were pretty sore when we started the run, and being pulled along by the dog harness was a bit more jerky than I could have done with - but after a mile or so, my left quad had settled, and the right one has improved.

Thanks for all the nice comments on previous blog. I'm pleased that I dug in, but stayed sensible.

Targets for this month:

1) Hoping to find a way to squeeze in 20 miles this week (Sat and Sun are both out) with maybe a 10 miler on Wednesday / Thursday morning with K. No hard stuff, I just want to get through the week and out the other side with no remnants of illness. Draw a line, that kind of thing.

2) Possible races: Draycote Water for the Rugby 5 on March 16th. Sandy 10 on 30th March.

3) 10, 11, 12 for long runs.

4) 3 tempo runs of 4 miles each.

5) two interval sessions.

Longer term:

I really want to sort out my half marathon time. And by sort out, I mean have the sort of training build up I had for Bath, but without the kick in the chest that took out the last 2.5 weeks of training. MK Half on 5th May? MK Half on 6th Jul? Or wait until Sep/Oct, but that seems a bit of a waste. Finding a race that works on a weekend that works is pretty difficult.

And yeah, I'd like to beat my 10k time :-) It's been bugging me for a while. I ran 44:37 at the Aberdare 10k in 2010. The race starts out in Penderyn at about 235m above sea level, and by the time you get to the finish at the track in downtown Aberdare, it's only about 120m above sea level. It doesn't feel like a fair time to beat at the moment, so yesterday I took its time out of my race portfolio, which leaves me with a more realistic best time of 46:54 (7:33/mile) that I ran at the Derby 10k back in 2008, the week after VLM. I've been running my 4 mile tempo's at 7:24/mile, so everything bodes well. Oxford T&G? MK EMGP? St Ives?

It's tempting to keep reeling off endless racing targets. I'd like to get my parkrun time back under 22 again too :-)
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Do you need a Sandy 10 place? I have one and can transfer it to you if you like.
    Nightjar
    1:32pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • Maybe it's time for that "Official PB race" field to be made off-and-onnable again ;-)
    paul the builder
    1:40pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • NJ - do you need to know by a certain date? I'll fmail you.
    Paul - lots of other people seem to be happy with their times :-)
    fetcheveryone
    1:46pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • Windsor Windsor Windsor
    McGoohan
    2:25pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • range of movement 3%! lol
    D2
    2:41pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • Indeed, I think, now you are better, a bit of pacey speed work and you'd get under your 2008 time, you've run at the very least as consistently s you did back then. You are older though ;-), not nagging or anything.
    Ocelot Spleens
    3:08pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • There's this great website where you can list your goals, then tick them off as you achieve them. http://www.fetcheveryone.com/userprofile.php?id=3&show=goals ;-) Seriously, I really like that feature. Go look at my list. If I've achieved some, I add some more. The ones that said, "Maybe, one day." etc. are now DONE! and I've moved on to the "No way, never, well..." ones!

    I'd say set a half goal for later in year Aug, Sep, Oct. They find 10K and commit to some 5Ks twixt now and then, and those times will tumble as you set off on a e.g. 16 week or 12 week plan for the half. Enjoy! :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    3:47pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • Then find, not they find...
    HappyG(rrr)
    3:54pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • How far will you travel for a 10K PB? One of Scotland's fastest 10Ks will be even faster this year, it is in four weeks time in beautiful downtown Grangemouth. (I eulogised it in a blog. Accommodation probably still bookable near the start, if you hurry.)
    Dvorak
    4:05pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • Love the damage report :-) glad you are on the mend
    .B.
    5:00pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • Here's another vote for the Silverstone 10K
    Silvershadow
    5:52pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • As .B says....pressed the "Like" button :-)
    run free
    6:39pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • Silverstone 10k rocks...
    VicksterH
    7:58pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • Oxford T&G is a good flat course, a PB would definitely be on there.
    LazyDaisy
    10:19pm, 4th Mar 2014
  • Glad there were no Klingons on the starboard bow! ;-)
    Lalli
    10:34pm, 5th Mar 2014


Bath Half (in detail)

11:17am, 3 Mar 2014
A bit more detail on the half marathon in Bath yesterday, now that I've had 9 hours sleep :-)

One thing I'd noticed in the days preceding the race was the amount of organisation that goes into a large city race like this. Signage, barriers, cabling, parking restrictions - and that was just the stuff that was on our street.

Race day bustle started at 6am, with the sound of something reversing continuously. Our hosts told us that (despite notices of parking restrictions that had been in place for weeks), some people still parked on Great Pulteney Street, and so the vehicle noises we heard were cars being towed away.

A bit of a nervous night meant we were both a bit tired, but we made it upstairs for a big bowl of porridge with honey in it, and some marmite on toast. Finished that, back downstairs and got into bed for as long as possible. Still pretty nervous really - fear of the unknown.

With an hour to go I'd crept into my kit, and made a plan with Katie. She was torn between the potential disappointment of not giving it a go, versus the potential of screwing up the next few weeks of training and work. So she decided to start off, with some planned bailout points, and in the worst case, she'd have got a run done, and experienced some of the atmosphere.

Half an hour to go and after a hundred trips to the loo, we climbed the basement steps and went over the top.

Unlike last year, the weather wasn't so kind, with a constant drizzle - although thankfully it was not bitey cold, just a little chilly. I'd gone with just shorts and vest, which isn't a great combination in the wet, as it usually means I come home with a couple of bullet wounds in my chest.

The rain meant that it felt like a long time standing in the pens, but in fact the race started bang on time.

1) 1m - 7:58(7:58/m) 156/169bpm
The start felt pretty 'busy', and there was a lot of 'cutting in', which made it a bit of an edgy experience in the first mile. Generally though, everything feeling ok.

2) 1m - 8:00(8:00/m) 167/177bpm
Still doing ok. Because it's a two lap course, there are cones along the centre line of the road, so that they can segregate the first and second lappers. But with so many marshalls, and such fabulous organisation, I think they could look at laying the first few miles of cones out after the field has passed through. I think it would be doable, as even the fastest runners would not be back for half an hour. The only reason I'm saying that is because I nearly speared my colon on one.

3) 1m - 7:58(7:58/m) 169/177bpm
4) 1m - 7:50(7:50/m) 171/177bpm
Things are starting to feel pretty hard - my heart rate has gone up into the 170's. When I've done 4 mile tempo runs recently, I've typically done 7:30 pace at this sort of heart rate. So that tells me two things: (a) that I'm not quite at the level of fitness I need to be, maybe because of the virus, or maybe because of the corresponding two weeks of Not Much Running; and (b) this pace isn't going to be sustainable. But I promise myself that I'll do another mile to see how it goes.

5) 1m - 8:04(8:04/m) 172/178bpm
Another mile, heart rate still climbing, but pace dropping.

6) 1m - 8:14(8:14/m) 173/175bpm
I try easing off a little bit, but it still feels like very hard work. I give serious thought to stopping at this point, but I'm also wondering how Katie is doing, and take some inspiration from her courage to have given it a go this morning.

7) 1m - 8:42(8:42/m) 170/173bpm
I made it to the six mile point, but decide I need to bring my HR down, so I stop for a little walk and a bit of swearing. A marshall asks me if I'm ok, and tells me that the 10k mats are just ahead, so I start running harder again, thinking that if all else fails, I should get a nice split out of it. I go through them, and then very shortly after, I see my eldest stepson and his friends in the crowd - the momentum of both keeps me going. The lack of gaps in the railings around Queen's Square also proves to be the salvation to my race.

8) 1m - 9:00(9:00/m) 168/174bpm
9) 1m - 8:54(8:54/m) 170/176bpm
So I drop right back, and try to get myself under control. My HR still stays quite high, but everything feels a good deal more comfortable, and I put myself back on one of our training runs. It means I can take in a bit more of what's going on around me, so I clap the band, high five some kids, and feel a bit more relaxed.

10) 1m - 9:28(9:28/m) 168/175bpm
More of the same - I stop for a wee behind a big metal container :-)

11) 1m - 9:06(9:06/m) 171/175bpm
The back straight of the second lap always feels like the home straight, but you've got to try not to think about the fact that it very much isn't. Trying to offset my own uncomfortableness by encouraging the occasional walker within the field. My favourite bit happens. A little old lady is sitting in her bay window, watching the runners - she's just a face over the top of the sill. I give her a big wink and a grin, and a double thumbs up, and she grins back :-)

12) 1m - 9:16(9:16/m) 173/176bpm
Someone says to their friend - "only 15 mins to go", and that feels good, although I know it's more like 20 for me. I pass stepson and his friends, and mime blowing my brains out :-) They're chanty and smiley, and push me on a bit further.

13) 1m - 9:42(9:42/m) 173/177bpm
Really struggling again now - got that feeling where everybody else is going forwards and I'm going backwards - dozens of people coming past me. I have a couple of very sweary walks, but a couple of other runners give me some encouragement.

14) 0.25m - 2:12(8:38/m) 177/179bpm
Such a relief to turn back onto Great Pulteney Street, and hey look, I even have a bit of a sprint finish in me :-)

The finishing funnel is not 'chaotic', but it's certainly very crowded - it feels like we're standing still for a while, just creeping down the slope towards water and lucozade. I think 1:54 must be quite a busy finishing time. Everybody's coughing and rearranging their innards. More stop-start, where all I really want to do is get something to eat and get out and get warm again. But once through the bottleneck, the goody bag collection is nicely arranged (by t-shirt size), and I grab as many free things to eat as I can, and inhale a Mars. My t-shirt goes straight on for a bit of warmth, and I'm very pleased to see that my nipples have survived the experience intact.

I was so tired afterwards. We went for some really lovely food afterwards, but I barely had the energy to chew my chicken and roasties. Katie (legend, love you) drove us back, and I was enjoying a powernap by the time we reached the M4.

In summary:

1) still a great event. Some people say it costs a lot, but it also takes a lot to manage something of this size. Good on them.
2) As @cityben1983 says, 'you can't kid a cold'.
3) Really pleased to have fought hard for it. The last 2.5 weeks have been shit thanks to the virus, but the three months of consistent training before that was what got me through.
4) I heart heart rate training.
5) Keen for more racing. Came home and looked for races. That's a good sign.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Gutsy effort, nice running :-)
    Ron Burgundy
    11:52am, 3rd Mar 2014
  • Onward and upward. Next target? ;-)
    McGoohan
    12:51pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • Well done Fetch, massive effort when you're not feeling well so that's a great result :-) Next!
    neems
    1:02pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • That's a really honest blog and though you can add on at least 1 min/mile for my time when I did Bath I am hugely reassured to know that other people have sweary walk breaks too :-) Very well done - you showed real strength of character.
    LazyDaisy
    1:27pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • Inspiring race description, well done
    D2
    1:35pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • Good stuff, impressively fast wee there! Hope you're better for the next race, that's the problem with targeting a single race, if you come down with a lurgy you're stuffed! Better luck next time :)
    fleecy
    1:40pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • Nice one Fetch, time for some tempo runs a la Bargoed-Deri path, but obviously local to you once you've recovered to reinforce the training benefit of that race.
    Dai Bank
    3:14pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • two words: micropore tape!
    And two more twos: well done; great effort.
    flanker
    3:17pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • Well done nice work
    Turbo Meff
    5:51pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • Good that you're looking for more races to reap the benefits of the training, and well done on sticking with it
    forest plodder
    6:13pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • You'll smash the next race :)
    northernslowcoach
    7:43pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • At your age too high HR at start ;-) good digging in there mate
    Hills of Death (HOD)
    9:45pm, 3rd Mar 2014
  • You didn't give up, it'll have done you good in the long run (excuse pun)
    Diogenes
    7:16am, 4th Mar 2014
  • I'd run a 10k ASAP, you'll wreck your pb judging by the first 5 or 6 miles.
    Ocelot Spleens
    11:16am, 4th Mar 2014


A quick overview

9:30pm, 2 Mar 2014
Only a quick blog today because I'm ready for my bed.

Bath followed plan B - after 5 miles I was ready to actually completely stop, chest struggling a bit, but I chugged it out and tried to enjoy the atmosphere - some nice moments in the end :-) First five in 39:51, the remaining 8.1 at survival pace :-) More detail on the whole Bath experience tomorrow.

Had a lovely lunch (Bathwick Boatman) and a sleep in the car (angel Katie driving), and an evening catching up on fluids and digestives.

Well done to all the racers everywhere today - I'm so bad at saying individual "well dones", but it's all really impressive and inspiring.

Tired beyond, but already planning more races and looking forward to getting my teeth back into training. Today didn't go fabulously well, but if I can struggle my way through 13, I'm ready to get back to the rest. Just after I have this little sleep.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Well done :-)
    Seratonin
    9:48pm, 2nd Mar 2014
  • Well done, sir :-)
    Bintmcskint
    9:51pm, 2nd Mar 2014
  • You still ran :-)
    Lorraine
    10:05pm, 2nd Mar 2014
  • sleep well
    HellsBells
    10:13pm, 2nd Mar 2014
  • Yay!
    D2
    10:15pm, 2nd Mar 2014
  • medal and you are impressive and inspirational too
    northernslowcoach
    10:16pm, 2nd Mar 2014
  • Well done. It doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that.
    The Ant Hill Mob
    11:22pm, 2nd Mar 2014
  • Well done. :)
    Ness
    5:41am, 3rd Mar 2014
  • Well done. You can only do what your body is up for on the day, irrespective of training plans and training. And you did it. :-)
    Lalli
    6:50am, 3rd Mar 2014
  • Job done, medal in the bag :-)
    Irontubs
    9:34am, 3rd Mar 2014
  • I don't know how folk can race with the lurgy. Muchos respect to you for turning up and putting in a shift and finishing. :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    10:10am, 3rd Mar 2014


Down to business in Bath

10:25pm, 1 Mar 2014
Here we are then, on the eve of Bath Half.

A relaxing day, with a lovely cooked breakfast made by our excellent hosts,
Ian and Henry. I also had some toast with extra old marmite, which is extra extra old, being the same jar on offer last year. Was really nice :-)

Coffee shops and wandering, and a trip to the little theatre to watch Her - the story of a man who falls in love with his operating system. It was pretty good, and J Phoenix did a good job of being the only person on screen for most of the show.

This evening we've had another meal cooked for us. A mackerel pâté with a gooseberry sauce thing to start, then a pork/bacon/sausage not-quite-hot-pot main with cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage. Then a panacotta with peaches in amaretto for pudding. I am stuffed, but it was so nice.

Tomorrow then. What's the plan. Porridge to begin, around 8.15, then a lot of trying not to be nervous until we skip up the basement steps on jelly legs to join our pens.

I will try to do a controlled 8/mile for the first three miles, and see how I'm doing. If all goes well, aim for 7.50's, which should mean a 3 min PB. If it's feeling rough, drop right back to 9/mile and enjoy the atmosphere. But hopefully the first one. Magic figure is 1:45:57, which is now over six years ago. Nearly did it last year, but I followed the GPS miles, rather than the mile markers. Bring it.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Good luck for tomorrow * luck*
    .B.
    10:33pm, 1st Mar 2014
  • Take care on the basement steps - it's always the stupid ways I manage to injure myself on raceday.
    McGoohan
    10:35pm, 1st Mar 2014
  • horse run like the wind horse
    Dvorak
    10:35pm, 1st Mar 2014
  • Good luck!
    Goofee
    11:02pm, 1st Mar 2014
  • Exciting!!!!!
    D2
    11:06pm, 1st Mar 2014
  • Good luck tomorrow.
    GimmeMedals
    12:12am, 2nd Mar 2014
  • Best of luck! :-)
    Lemon10
    6:40am, 2nd Mar 2014
  • Good luck, hope you feel good.
    Diogenes
    6:54am, 2nd Mar 2014
  • Have fun :)
    Ness
    8:13am, 2nd Mar 2014
  • You should be enjoying porridge about now. Hope you have a great race, KatieB too.
    Elsie Too
    8:23am, 2nd Mar 2014
  • Have a great time :)
    SarahWoo
    8:40am, 2nd Mar 2014
  • Hope it is going or went well.
    Sarah64
    11:38am, 2nd Mar 2014


About Me

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Blog Archive


Expand All
2024 (29)
March (10)
Oscar the Grouch :-(
If a Fetch fails in a forest...
Trialling a new weekly update email
Lasting Power of Suspicion
Fetch Virtual Challenge 2024 *bunting*
Swittle's Funeral
Cadence
Tea & Trails Podcast
Down to my last pen
A bench for swittle
February (8)
The Lightning Struck Tower
Swittle
Cholesterol
This year so far in pictures
Three Noahs
Fetch is as strong as you make it.
100k - what do I need?
Paywalls are BS: I'm on a podcast!
January (11)
Chasing Round Numbers - A Cautionary Tale!
MOTM - Decision Made (and a competition for EVERYONE!)
MOTM - a chance to rethink
Training Home Page updates
How much walking will I do?
Training Plans - Further Updates
Training Plan List
Butter Police
Why no app?
Useful Chat!
Festive Fetch Calendar - Winners
2023 (136)
December (6)
Nearly forgot...
Jam today
Removing another bit of Google's invasiveness
Fancy an extra challenge over the next 12 days?
Chewie, we're home!
Two tips for today's advent challenge
November (13)
Spammy McSpamface
40 days and 40 nights
EfM confirmed!
New Training Log Beta! 😲 (aka Change Is Not Good)
Escape from Meriden
Waiting for your training?
Route of the Century?
I didn't know I owned a nutcracker
Design our anniversary shirts/vests!
Holiday Reading - plenty of fiction :-)
Swimming in a metaphor
Hello
Off World
October (11)
Fl'update
To think I tried to mop it up!
Vote Please: How many F'Laps will you try to do?
F'Laps 2024
Long Run
So it still needs a name...
Front Garden Ultra?
The Boy is a man!
Festive Fetch Calendar
Creative K's
Signs
September (7)
Training Edit Screen - time to ditch it...
Stock check
The Doctor K Cup - October 7th!!!!
Removing the training edit screen
A Happy Applecart
Happy 19th Birthday!
Forgotten pictures
August (14)
Just in case
Weekly Total Hours
Dim Brys Dim Chwys
All hail our robot overlords!
Your local parkrun
Fool on the hill
Survey Follow Up
A survey?
Did you know?
I made a thing
VC Day
FBI Agent
What keeps you going?
Be careful what's in your paste buffer (and July training update)
July (13)
Delight
Respecting your eyeballs since 2004
Hot Stuff, coming through
Ocean Colour Scheme
18 years, 10 months, 13 days and counting...
Ooof #fail
Our listings need you!
Pics from the end of the swim
A whispered, half-remembered dream
Try the Heatmap!!!
Teaser
100 Running Words (and my June summary)
July Virtual Mile
June (8)
Last Big Swim
I can't be the only one...
Which is the real me?
#EveryoneDay
The legendary sixth samosa!
WSW Main Page Layout Changes
May Summary (contains swimming!)
Hoodies pre-order closes at 10am
May (17)
A new WSW challenge
Tagging images
Hoooooooooooooodies!!!!!!!!!!!
Another Sweatshop Competition
Did you get an email?
Fifty Years Ago - Part VIII
Fifty Years Ago - Part VII
Fifty Years Ago - Part VI
Help on a slippery slope
Fifty Years Ago - Part V
Fifty Years Ago - Part IV
Fifty Years Ago - Part III
Chuck-off: Round 2
Not my king?
Fifty Years Ago - Part II
Fifty Years Ago
And that was April
April (10)
Centurion Safari!
Sheep treats (and a routes feature)
And I’ll sail her up the west coast, through villages and towns.
15,746 places to 💩
Track Your Blood Pressure
A couple of quick fmail updates
Rusty Metal and a Cycling Grudge Match
Please help me kick the fmail tyres!
Onset of Summer Watch. Have you got Onset of Summer? +fmail!
Premium?
March (10)
And that was March
Try the new fmail system
Can you help my boy?
Tell A Friend?
Some Sweatshop Competitions
Sign up to our 2023 Virtual Challenge
Review: FORM Smart Goggles
UTMOST vs Treadmills
33,258
Embranglement!
February (13)
And that was February
This year's Virtual Challenge
What does Points make?
Automatic Everything Collector
Peaky Finders
FAO Fitbit users
My favourite training graph
You've got this.
Coffee Survey (for my stepson)
Access all the tips
Tiny Usability Changes
Cod science
Hot Tips
January (14)
Monthly Infographic Bug Fixes
No, but really...
Have a play with the monthly infographic
It's not ready yet, but...
Introducing Fetch Premium
Help me design a new Monthly Infographic...
Still following?
Fettle
Definitely Not Betting
Do you follow? (plus burp chat)
Advance warning for stalkers!
I'm back (and the Fetch LS, SS and NS shirts preorder is open)
Attention Fitbit Users
Review 50 albums in 2023 (badge!)
2022 (144)
December (8)
Treasure Hunt Day 1 - the best gift
Important updates to the Fetch Relay
Introducing the Fetch Relay 2023
Who Am I? (Solved, thanks) And How Am I?
Confessions :-)
12 Days of Christmas Treasure Hunt
Chewie, we’re home!
A few pics from the Foffice :-)
November (24)
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







Back To Top
X

Free training & racing tools for runners, cyclists, swimmers & walkers.

Fetcheveryone lets you analyse your training, find races, plot routes, chat in our forum, get advice, play games - and more! Nothing is behind a paywall, and it'll stay that way thanks to our awesome community!
Get Started
Click here to join 112,106 Fetchies!
Already a Fetchie? Sign in here