Gladstone

Lee Mair?

So - another good session yesterday. Ran 8 x 1km with 90 second recovery between reps. The target was to do the first 4 at current 10k PB pace (6:46 per mile), and the second 4 at 6:35-6:36 per mile. I was a bit anxious as to whether I would cope with the second set of intervals but nailed the session - a good confidence booster. Did 30 minutes easy on Monday and 30 minutes easy today. Threshold session of 4 x 8 minutes @ threshold pace (6:55-7:00 per mile) lined up for tomorrow. How's everyone else been getting on?

If you're going to get sent off at least do it for punching the twat... [only kidding - violence is not cool]

I was never in attendance at the original Drakes but I'm pretty sure it was on Castlegate.

Calm down - I was only kidding.

Can anyone tell me if there's a quick place on the internet where you could say type in a couple of words and it would find relevant related websites to those words? It it doesn't already exist, someone should definitely invent it. I bet there's money to be made in that sort of thing.

Hahaha - that is great. A YouTube clip with at least two 'twists'. Brilliant.

Maybe not - but under Fergie, they've generally played attractive attacking (if direct at times) football. I'm not saying Moyes should have a magic wand (or that anyone else coming in would have) but that surely has to be the aim at a club like United? United first and foremost will want to win things, but I think more and more these days, to win things, clubs are having to play attractive football anyway. Like Joda Serk has said a few times, the punting it out to the wing, punting it into the box isn't going to work. You may grab a few goals like that here and there, but it isn't going to work all the time. So - what I'm trying to get at is "Does David Moyes have what it takes to turn Man United back into a real force in English football and in Europe?" Whether you think that can be done with "ugly" football or "attractive" football probably doesn't matter.

I agree with PAndroid. I think Mourinho wanted the United job. But I think what happened was Fergie saw Moyes as his natural heir to the role and handpicked him for the job. Part of his moving on from the role possibly included allowing him to pick the successor and that successor getting x number of seasons to prove himself before ditching him if it wasn't working. That's all guesses, but I wouldn't be at all surprised. As for "any other team would have sacked him by now" - I also think that Man United would have sacked him by now if he hadn't been handpicked by Fergie and Fergie wasn't still heavily involved in the club.

I understand all of that, and agree that it's refreshing that Moyes hasn't been sacked. I'm just not sure how much leeway he should get. Looking at the evidence thus far, is he going to be capable of adapting enough to have Man United not just winning games of football, but playing attractive attacking football for the fans? I'm not sure that he is. Would be happy to be proven wrong because I hate the knee-jerk sackings as much as the next guy. This isn't just Man United struggling to be on top of the league having lost 2 or 3 games against the big guys. This is Man United languishing in 7th place, 14 points off of Chelsea, having lost 8 league matches and unable to see off bottom placed Fulham at home. I'm not saying they should sack Moyes - I don't think they should. I'm questioning whether it was the right appointment and if it wasn't the right appointment, does Moyes have what it takes to turn them back into a side to compete for the title and compete in the Champions League? I'm not sure that he does. I'm also not saying that Mourinho would have dropped what he was doing to come to Man United. Pep definitely wouldn't have because he just started his stint at Bayern. Mourinho, if approached at the time when Fergie announced his retirement would definitely have considered it and may well have gone for it. I don't think he would take it now though. He might watch Moyes fuck it up for a couple of seasons and then swan in and turn it around for a couple of seasons and then leave again, but that's not what Man United want or need really. They've probably missed the opportunity to pull in Mourinho at the right time and make it a relatively long term appointment. Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville and Gary Neville for the dream team.

Just stalked him on FB - Andy his first name? Must be the same guy. /getaroombro

Could be a coincidence but I'm sure that must be the brother of my uni mate. Is he from Torphins originally? /coolstorybro

I'm relatively confident that Moyes will be there at the end of the season, but less and less so after every shit result/performance. Man United will still see themselves as one of the biggest clubs in the world and their current form in the current football climate is unacceptable by their standards. They're in danger of not even being in Europe next season which is unfathomable. I always thought they'd done the right thing by appointing Moyes and that it would be a good long term appointment. It just doesn't look to be the case anymore. Is there still a view that Moyes will be able to turn it around if he stays into next season? I'm not sure he's the right guy for the job anymore. His tactics have been shit. Really shit. How long will he be given to change his footballing philosophy? They might have been better to do something like bring in a Fergie disciple than Moyes. Someone that learned their trade under Fergie through years at Man Utd. That's risky though. A big name proven manager is probably the next step for Man United. In hindsight, they maybe should have gone after Mourinho. He's looked like the kind of guy that goes from job to job, but he seems to want to stay in England now.

Yeah - only ever heard good things about this and know a few who go regularly. It's very handy if you're in or close to Aberdeen. Not so easy for me so I've never got round to going yet. I will do though. An officially timed 5km race is a great way to see where you are and to base training paces on etc.

Nice one going sub 50 first time out. Tough going having to train in that kind of heat or exclusively on a treadmill. Treadmill running is difficult to get your head round in my experience. Going really slow with a distraction like you mentioned is a pretty good tactic. Maybe try to gradually work that 10k time to under an hour on the treadmill and maybe increase the distance to increase your aerobic fitness. I don't really know what else to suggest other than maybe introducing some "speed" work on the treadmill - you'll find some good 10k plans on the Runner's World website - see if you can adapt some of that for treadmill only training perhaps? Or - can you get out when it's cooled down a bit outside? Maybe late evening or early morning? Had a very good week last week - just over 29 miles in total - biggest of the year so far. 5 days' running in a row, with a good speed session on Tuesday, good threshold session on Thursday, couple of shorter recovery runs and then a good easy 10 miles on Saturday. Aiming to run 6 days a week from now on. Easy 30 minutes yesterday and out for a good speed session at lunchtime today. 8 x 1km - first 4 at current 10k PB pace, second 4 at slightly quicker than that. Will see how it goes...

The Brazilian one who plays for Shakthar.

Fucking hell - apparently Maicon has died in a car crash.

That at Pittodrie would be great.

This was the show I think - haven't listened. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer/episode/b03sztx5

I said 'apparently' because that's what the radio said at the top of the debate. I didn't hear the actual debate itself. So 'apparently' they do but I don't know. It was a Radio 4 show which I'm sure would be available on the Iplayer I'll see if I can find it. But yeah - I agree there hasn't been an over-reaction. The start of that show seemed to belittle what the law had been passed was to do - I just thought it was an interesting take on the whole thing.

You're grounded.

Aye, okay cuntypunts.

Oh well son. Only one thing left for you. OFF TO THE FUCKING ARMY.

That took a couple of reads. I approve.

Sorry - I feel partly responsible for not being there for you over the years.