Gladstone

I know, I know. But a weekend of snowboarding and hunting does sound cool.

I first read that as "Hunting" That would have been far cooler.

And a lot of Rangers fans seem to still believe the SPL is worse off without them. As Hugh Grant said in Mickey Blue Eyes: "Geddoud of heeeeee"

Confession: YoungA is my illegitimate son.

Welcome to the world of running! As above - SLOW DOWN is probably the best advice you'll hear. Pretty good if you can knock out a 28 minute 5k already, but don't fall into the trap of trying to beat that all the time. If you run a couple of times a week and try to run 5k as fast as you can all the time, that's the equivalent of someone racing 5k twice a week, which is not advisable! Try going a bit slower and then build on the distance / time on your feet. So, for example, try making your next target 30 minutes but slow down. You might not even get to 5k in 30 minutes but that doesn't matter. Then try to go for say 35 minutes, then 40. I would stick at that for a while though until you get used to it. But as said a million times, keep it nice and slow and enjoy it. I went out for a "recovery" run today. My target is to run a sub 40 minute 10k, which equates to 6:24 minutes per mile. My average pace today was about 9:40 minutes per mile. I'm gradually getting my head round the fact that I don't need to always try and go fast all the time!! Tomorrow I'll be out on a 10 mile "easy" run - about 8:00 - 8:30 minutes per mile. You get the idea - miles slower than my race pace!

I was just having a look through the Scottish Running Guide and spotted the Ballater 10 - not one I was aware of. I'll be away down in Glasgow town that weekend though for the Commonwealth Games. Otherwise I would have been up for that - I fancy a cheeky 10 mile race but there are hardly any at that distance in our neck of the woods. Guaranteed PB (as I've never raced 10 miles before).

Yeah - great motivator. I struggled with motivation over the summer last year due to not really having any targets later in the year. I nearly joined Fraserburgh Running Club last year but to be honest, I would be struggling to benefit from it at the moment because evenings are pretty much a no-go. Maybe later this year or next year I'll think about it again though. Fraserburgh's handicap series is made up of 5 mile races. My neighbour goes along sometimes - he's a 47-48 minute 10k runner and he's came right up there (maybe third in the races) sometimes. They also do a cool "Runbuchan" thing in the summer where every second week they pick a different location round about the Buchan area for the club run - route picked by whichever member wants to pitch in basically. And, they do a yearly Mormond Hill race which is just a couple of miles down the road from me. I'd actually love to join their club, but it's just not feasible at the moment. 30 minutes recovery run for me today. 9:40ish per mile. Felt very slow - I've never forced myself to go that slow over such a short distance before - cool though. Discovered paths in Westhill that I didn't know existed!

That's great - more of this sort of thing in Scotland would be good!

Chris - I glossed over this last time. Great effort indeed! The handicap series is a great idea for running clubs to provide everyone with a very good chance of winning a race or an entire series like you did! I've never won anything at running. I once came second in a one mile race at New Deer Show when I was 15. No fucking clue what I was doing - just went out at nearly full pelt and was way ahead of everyone until about half way when this guy from Fraserburgh Running Club (who clearly knew what he was doing), ran me down and then finished almost a lap (of a 6 lap course) ahead of me. He told me later that I had him worried because if I'd kept up that pace he would never have caught me and he invited me to join Fraserburgh Running Club. It's one of my few "regrets" in life. I played football for 3 teams at the time so didn't want to give any of that up. I could have probably been a decent runner if I'd got some proper training / advice at that age and might even have been one of these guys running sub 35 10k or quicker by now... (Maybe - fuck all to back that up with really...).

10 mile run on Saturday followed by watching Aberdeen beat Celtic at Parkhead (on the TV, I won't actually be there). The big question is whether or not the Aberdeen fans return Neil Lennon's unicorn.

Aye - like I said, I didn't actually get to hear the fully story/debate. I did watch a decent chunk of the Panorama documentary and was taken aback at how backwards the views were. One guy (very high up in the Russian Government - forget his name / position (I was watching in a bit of a haze after a night of no sleep and feeling terrible...)) basically trying to sound all welcoming and open to all pretty much used that old fashioned: "Nothing against raging homos, so long as they don't do it in public or try to shag me" sort of thing. I know very little on the subject - was just interested after hearing that snippet on the radio the other day if this was something getting blown way out of proportion but it sounds like it isn't at all. The thing that does still irk me about the whole thing is that there are still an awful lot of people who think like that Russian guy I mention above. I hear shit like that from people I grew up with (including my family) quite a lot. Stuck in the past, narrow-minded, never been south of Stonehaven types.

I have a 78rpm gramophone at home. Nothing but scottish country music 78s though. I'd love some richt good music to play through the gramophone.

Yeah - okay. Get the point with gay propaganda. There is still a valid point that there is outcry around the world at this, including from nations who have similar laws. That's the real point the thing I only briefly heard was trying to make I think. So - yeah, what I'm trying to say - back to ca_gere not being sure if he will watch or not - would you watch it if it was in the US? Probably. Apparently, they have similar laws in some US states. So the "over the top" reaction that I was speaking about - I agree, it isn't an over the top reaction, but more like double standards perhaps?

I heard the beginnings of an interesting take on the gay rights thing yesterday, but it was only the headline / intro part - didn't actually hear the debate (and I haven't read any further, so this may all be a tad misinformed...). Anyway - I've heard the sensationalised stories about banning gay people in Russia and saw some of that Panorama documentary the other week and the attitude towards homosexuality is shocking. But - the thing I heard yesterday was that the law that has been passed in Russia is to ban homosexual propaganda. THAT's the law that everyone's so het up about? I disagree with it but it's hardly chopping off the dicks of gay men. And the interesting take on it was that there quite a few US states that already have similar laws along with many other countries in the world. As I said - I didn't hear the full story/debate, but if that's all correct, there seems to have been a bit of an over the top reaction to it all.

Crazy own goal. The Sociedad defenders must love a HOOFED clearance close to their own goal. One of them sent one just about over the stand in the first half, which must have just missed his own goal by a couple of feet.

Haha - I watched the first half of that last night. Wasn't that great to be honest, and Sociedad were very unlucky to lose the goal when they did - right after they could have had a penalty. That's surely the only way to stop Messi though.

So - it seems I was preaching but not following my own advice... I've managed to get in tow with a guy from a running forum who's one step away from being a qualified running coach and runs off something like 33 minute 10k. Got some great advice from him and have changed up my training plan. Slowed down the intervals and tempo runs a touch, slowed down the long runs a lot and added some easy runs in between. I'm planning to now run 6 times a week, but only 2 of those will be at high intensity. This week's been good so far - Tuesday, intervals session - 6 x 1km (slightly quicker than 10k PB pace), Wednesday good core strength workout and later a 20 minutes recovery run. Today I'll be heading out for a "threshold" workout. 6 x 5 minutes at threshold pace. Tomorrow a 30 minute recovery run then Saturday 10 miles at easy pace. Should be a good week!

I've never quite understood why it's okay for the name of accused persons to be released. Not just high profile cases but anyone. If I was wrongly accused of sexually assaulting someone or worse (or even of something far less serious) I would be devastated for my name to be published in the papers as an accused person whilst a trial was going on. Being found innocent is nowhere near as big as the story itself. People would always have their doubts. A guy that went to my school committed suicide a few years ago after a girl accused him of rape. Now, nobody actually knows the truth here but his family and friends strongly believe that it was a false accusation and the thought of going through the trial, his name being dragged through the mud, his word against hers, etc. etc. was too much for him and he threw himself off a cliff. People who knew him well (I didn't) don't think he was even remotely capable of doing something bad, let alone rape - I'm inclined to believe he was innocent. Absolutely brutal if that was a false accusation and it led directly to his death. Anonymity may have been enough to make him see the accusation through with the police and any trial if there was one, knowing that his name wouldn't have been reported. Maybe not though.

Aye - the guy who plays Kevin Webster? That's exactly who I was thinking of when I was writing that post. I was sure he was going to be guilty as there's no smoke without fire etc. etc. and just about everyone we've heard of recently since the Jimmy Saville story broke there has at least been something to it. I was astonished when it came out that this guy was innocent and ashamed of myself for automatically thinking the guy was guilty.

The only thing I've heard about this so far is on the news a couple of days ago that Woody Allen had been accused of molesting is adoptive daughter, then reading this thread and reading that Daily Beast article. I know fuck all about Woody Allen - I hadn't heard of this allegation previously and I didn't even know he was married to his ex girlfriend's adoptive daughter. My immediate thought when I heard of the accusation on the radio was "oh fucking hell, not another one." I don't like the fact that there is so much of this in the news just now that my automatic reaction is to think that the accused is a child molester. That's fucking grim. I then read this thread and ca_gere, self-confessed Woody Allen fanboy is thinking that it's stuck on that Woody Allen is guilty. I then read that Daily Beast article and it now seems to me that it is more likely that this has all been fabricated by Mia Farrow and that her daughter probably does believe that it happened, but it actually didn't. That's based on about 2% of the facts though - I don't have time to read all of the articles etc. The timing of all of this coming out again is quite suspicious too.

The classic Gibson with the big curly wig attached.

It's surely just to do with being in the public eye and seeming like a nice guy as well as being a great actor. He isn't just a statistic when you've seen him on screen loads of times and heard about his personal life etc. I dare say that if he was portrayed as an utter cunt most of the time in the media / screen that the sympathy wouldn't be the same. A guy on the street who you've never met / heard of / spoken to just doesn't tug at the same heart strings. In a lot of ways that scenario is more tragic but it just doesn't touch people the same as losing someone they know or think they know through their TV screen.

I don't care for Super Bowl or American Football in any way. But only because it's almost completely off my radar. I'm proper furious that some people enjoyed the Super Bowl the other night whilst I was sleeping. The cuntbastards.

This. My mum used to moan like fuck when one of her soaps was moved. MOVED. Not fucking cancelled or anything. Moved to a little bit later or whatever. Once every 4 years. For the rest of the time the same soap is on about 8 times a week. But - if it was Wimbledon that was on the telly all day for 2 weeks she was ok with that.

Aye - I hadn't realised that actually. Still fancy the Dons for the cup tho...