Gladstone

Looking forward to the Celtic v Aberdeen match on Saturday. Probably the tastiest tie between the teams for some time. The Dons are on good form and Celtic are cruising. Lennon will desperately want to win the cup this season because in this post-Rangers era, JUST winning the league and getting papped out of the CL early will be seen by many as a failure. With the riches they have, they should probably be scooping the treble every season at a canter. The Dons are good enough to win the cup double though - with Celtic being the toughest tie they will face en route to the potential final. Would be great to see Aberdeen actually deliver two finals (long way to go obviously) this season and maybe even win two cups. It's been a pretty shit few seasons until now. The difference in this team from every one I've watched since probably the early 90s is remarkable. There is a real belief and confidence as much as anything. As Lucky Rathen predicted a couple of years ago when I declared that I'd lost all love for my boyhood team (Celtic), I think it's fair to say that Aberdeen is now 'my team'. I never thought I'd be able to fully shift alliance but watching the transformation over the past couple of seasons has been so refreshing. I've always wanted Aberdeen to do well but I didn't realise how much I wanted it - I've been fucking delighted to watch them put the past few seasons behind them and look like the 'best of the rest' for most of this season. Who knows? Keep this up and they might even start to challenge Celtic's dominance. I hope Rangers go bust before they get back into the top division and start to fuck things up again for everyone. This season has been by far the best for many a year.

Just saw a clip of Nirvana Unplugged. The bassist looks like Adam Easy Wishes. No idea how to post a photo... http://www.nme.com/news/nirvana/32183

Inverness beat Hearts on pens. Fancy the Dons to win the cup.

Took on the 10 miler today. Thought it was going to be shit as the first couple of miles were really tough, mainly due to the wind being a dick. Once I got into my stride though it was pretty good. My training plan says 7:12 per mile on the 'long tempo' runs - decided not to sim for that on the first 10 miler of the year, especially off the back of the cold and missing the last 2 long runs of 8 and 9 miles. Averaged 7:52 per mile which given all of the above and the cuntiness of the wind I'm quite chuffed with that. Hopefully I'm close to getting back on track with the plan.

I watched the first half of Portugal vs Russia in the Futsal Euro 2014 group match today. It was reasonable but not much happened. 0-0 at half time. Went through to the kitchen to feed my daughter. Came back about 20 minutes later. Fucking 3-3. Went to the kitchen and back again. 4 fucking 4. So yeah the Euro Futsal tournament is on Eurosport this week - some good skills should be on show. And Russia have a player called Robinho in their side.

Yeah - kind of what I was thinking but I'll just wait until tomorrow to make sure I'm clear of any nastiness.

I had a cunt of a cold brewing Thursday afternoon and felt pretty shitty yesterday - aches and stiffness and all that shit that goes with it. Woke up feeling infinitely better today. My nose is still a bit stuffy but it's such a fine looking day - I really want head out for my 10 miler today. Bad idea? Should probably give myself another day and go tomorrow... Hmmm

The story of Wigan winning the FA Cup last season was great. 'Americanising' it would be shit in my view. I do agree that I have less interest than I did and the romance and excitement seem to have gone. That's probably down to there being so much football on TV as much as anything else. The Premier League is blown into this enormous spectacle of itself that that's all that fans are interested in and the FA cup is a sideshow. Fuck, even the Champions League seems to be a bit of a sideshow these days. I also think part of the dropping interest could be to do with not being excited schoolkids anymore. Maybe.

I like this idea. I barely play anymore so I'll go for 3 that shaped how I wrote lyrics starting out as a teenager (a fucking long time ago) and then developing as I got a bit older: 1. Gold Against The Soul - Manic Street Preachers 2. Bring It On - Gomez 3. Whatever People Say... - Arctic Monkeys

Another weird one from the US: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/weird-news/metal-band-skinny-puppy-send-us-government-invoice-after-finding-out-their-music-was-used-as-torture-device-in-guantanamo-bay-9100005.html

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/31/president-obama-gun-control-push 30 per day!! Fucksake.

Euro 92 first!

Damn that fucking headwind!!! It's the second biggest cunt in running. The biggest one being injury. Chris - surely that sub 50 has to happen this year. You entered into the Garioch 10k? Possibly not PB material as there are a couple of hills - not proper hills but enough to slow you down a little. Fraserburgh 10k is pretty flat actually - maybe worth a go in June?

That's a lot how I used to be actually. I'm not really sure what changed. I read a lot of running material. The thing that probably inspired me most was "Born to Run" - excellent book written about ultra marathon running and about a native American tribe who are basically the best ultra marathon runners ever. I forget who wrote it, but a quick google / amazon search would find it. It's a very inspiring read as is the book by Scott Jurek "Eat and Run" - he beat those American tribe ultra marathon runners - that's how good he was! As well as that, the best piece of advice I got was to slow down. I was going out attempting to run like 10 miles or even 20 miles sometimes as part of marathon training but simply going too fast and not being arsed to go much farther than about 4 miles. It sounds really simple, but for some reason I just thought going out and running at the same speed all the time, would mean that I would be able to go that speed for a further distance. I'm not explaining that very well, but to go out for a long run, it's really easy (comparatively speaking) to just go mega mega slow and keep going). It's really rewarding mentally and physically each time you run a bit further. So, it might be a good thing for you, if you're not entering any races/events, to give yourself a weekly target of x miles, or to go for a PB once a week of adding a little bit to your longest run. So, if your current longest run is say 2 miles, try for 2.5 miles the following week, then 3, then 3.5 until you get to about 5 and stick with that for a few weeks (as well as adding in another 1 or 2 runs per week in between). Then up it to 6 for a few weeks, then 7 for a few weeks etc etc. You would be amazed at how soon you are capable of running about 10 miles without stopping. The secret to doing something like the above is to be absolutely unconcerned with how long it takes you to do each run. Slow and steady - doesn't even matter if you're not out of breath or anything like that. In fact, that level of exercise (slow and steady where you're not even out of breath) is a really good intensity for fat burning, so could be really beneficial. Just ideas! Oh - and writing a target down to really affirm it can often help. So if you write something like "be able to run 5 miles without stopping by the end of February" or whatever, then you've got something definite to aim for. EDIT: Hardly anyone looks cool when they're running by the way. It's a weird action!

Loch Ness is a cracking course. Advice from me for that one would be to not go mental in the first 10 miles or so. It's all downhill and feels like the easiest thing in the world. I was aiming for sub 4, so about 9 minute miles. To be fair, I was probably kidding myself a bit if I thought I could do that over 26.2 miles a year and a half ago, but that was the target. I set out with my mate at the start and ran alongside him for a few miles at 8 minute miles. Bad idea. Despite it being downhill, it knackers your quads and you feel it in the second half of the race where it's mostly uphill. I had to walk up the hills at about 17 and 21/22 miles, which killed any hope of sub 4. Until about 16 miles I was probably still on for it. Still enjoyed it though - it's a great atmosphere, and a great course! EDIT: How are you training / planning to train for it? Do you just get the long run in at the weekend and "fill in" with 2 or 3 runs during the week or are you following a structured plan, aiming for x miles per week etc.? Last year when I was going to to run the Loch Ness Marathon, I'd conjured up a training plan based on the Pfitzinger & Douglas "Advanced Marathoning" book. I was actually quite relieved when my best mate asked me to be best man at his wedding because the training plan was pretty brutal. Up to about 70 miles a week. I had got hung up on aiming for a 3 hour (ish) marathon but no way was I ready for that last year, so I'm glad I didn't break myself trying. Marathon plans are on hold for a couple of years I think.

I'll go first... Brief(ish) running history: I was running sporadically for years as a back up to football training / fitness (as in going out for a run now and again, sometimes once a week for a while, but never with any structure or with any clue what I was doing). I had ran a handful of 10k runs and one half marathon for charity and then a couple of years ago I decided to run 100 miles' worth of events as a fundraiser. The D33, Edinburgh Marathon, Petrofac Challenge and Loch Ness Marathon. I was intending to train properly for them but never really got round to it. The D33 was abysmal - the toughest single physical effort I have ever endured and probably ever will. 7 hours 20ish (I forget the official time) on my feet for that one. Trudging through the second half was horrible. Edinburgh Marathon was marginally better though not much and then the Loch Ness Marathon was much better than both but I still hadn't really trained for it - finished that in 4:24 which I was chuffed with in the end. Towards the end of 2012 (just after the marathons etc.) with my wife due to give birth in December, I decided to ditch all other hobbies in favour of giving running a serious go. Garioch 10k, Mull of Kintyre Half Marathon and Loch Ness Marathon 2013 were the new targets, aiming for sub 45 10k, sub 1:45 HM and sub 4 hour marathon. The marathon never happened as I landed up being best man at my mate's wedding on the same day. Training went very well though and I came in at 42:52 at Garioch 2013, and following a couple of injury scares, came in at 97:33 at the Mull of Kintyre HM, then a couple of weeks later PBd at the Fraserburgh 10k in 42:01. About 6 weeks later and after poor training in between (due to the bloody heat of last summer as much as anything) I ran in the National Lottery Anniversary 5 miles in London (finishing up in the Olympic Stadium). PB was always going to happen as I hadn't raced 5 miles before - came in in 34:19, which was a bit slower than I'd hoped for but it was hot, twisty, and very busy, so a decent time in the end. I was only 2 minutes behind Paula Radcliffe and I beat Sporty Spice and Victoria Pendleton! Chuffed with that! I also ran the BRG Coastal Challenge from Fraserburgh to Gardenstown in August 2013, having used it as a training / practice run for Loch Ness Marathon 2012 - it's a 17.5 mile hilly beast. Knocked 13 minutes off my previous year's time, coming in in 2:27 - a tad disappointed as I was hoping for sub 2:20, but my legs gave up after the bastard of a hill at about 14 miles, and I just had to plod home from there (instead of sprinting the last 3 miles as I'd hoped I'd do as it's pretty much downhill from there!). So, that was then, now I'm back training for the Garioch 10k - target for 2014 is to run sub 40 min for the 10k and sub 1:35 for the HM (but aiming for closer to 90 minutes, possibly even slip below that if the training goes very well). So far the training hasn't gone to plan due to illness, and being hoorin' busy at work but got back to it this week with a couple of decent workouts, but I've been hit with the fucking cold again, so not sure if I'll manage the planned 10 mile run tomorrow. I'm following the 3 + 2 "Run Less, Run Faster" plan as I did last year - it's based on 3 "hard" workouts per week, supplemented by a couple of cross-training sessions. I'm not very good at doing the cross-training sessions, but normally get the 3 runs per week in (one interval session, one tempo session and one long run). I try to do a decent strength workout once a week too, but so far this year, I've only managed one. Anyway - that was long. Anyone else care to share what they're doing / have done / etc?

So, not sure if many others are into running as a hobby / competitive sport on here? I know Chris is a running club and has been running for a few years, anyone else? Thought it might be good to share some training tips / stories / goals etc.

So last night, we happened to go to the Holiday Inn at Westhill for our supper on the way home. For the first time in my life, I avoided all meat on the menu and had their 5 bean burger. It was really affa fine and I didn't walk away from the table feeling as if I'd ingested a basketball.

What the fuck?

Indeed. The Doge step by step guide I was sent is all about using virtual servers and doesn't need a huge amount of computing power. Not in the early stages anyway. That's about the extent of my understanding. It all seems a bit too late as well. I heard about Bitcoin before it went absolutely crazy (it had shot up already) and thought "I should buy some of that" but then forgot about it. A few months later I was hearing stories of the guy who had chucked millions of pounds worth away in the skip when he'd ditched his old hard drive. I was kicking myself slightly as I could have made a bit of money had I just went out there and taken the risk, but that guy must wake up every morning and punch himself in the face, very hard.

Yeah - pasta was a bit of a staple in my diet for the early part of last year. I'm all for the lazy option of the pre-prepared fresh pasta options you can just throw in for 5 minutes and add a tiny bit of sauce. Tastes really good too. I don't not eat fish, but I'm not mad keen on fish. My wife can't eat fish at all, so there's never any in the house. In fact, almost the only time I eat fish is if it's in a fish supper from the chippie... Not healthy but tastes great! I do like a chicken salad though, but I'm going to try and not eat any meat (including fish in that - which won't be difficult as I never eat fish anyway) during the day during the week and see how I get on. Starting next week. EDIT: Oh yeah - and Scott Jurek's book is a brilliant read. More for the running aspect for me than the food aspect. But, some of his recipes sound amazing. The chilli in particular. What a dedicated human being he is.

I will give that a try! I used houmous on pitta as a snack for a while but haven't eaten that in months. Need to get back into this sort of thing. EDIT: This may sound like a stupid question... Do you get falafel just as the "soft" stuff or is it always sold as a deep fried "ball"? And if it is just in the "ball" do you just mush it down into your wrap / pitta?

Thread revival. I was thinking about this earlier. I'm not about to go vegan or vegetarian, but thinking about trying to eat less meat. Realistically, the only way I could do this is by trying to cut any meat out during the day - so a meat-free lunch. Reason being that my wife generally prepares the evening meal for the family and I'm not about to go home and cook myself an alternative (and my wife won't buy into eating supper with no meat in it...). Anyway - looking for some advice on easy things I can eat for lunch (either by buying something prepared or ingredients that are easy to come by and make for a quickly prepared lunch). Basically, I'm a bit lazy when it comes to lunch making for when I'm at work. It's important that I get enough carbs and enough protein in my diet as I do a lot of running / exercise. Any tips? I've read the book by Scott Jurek (Ultramarathon runner) "Eat and Run" which is full of vegan recipes and the like, but really, I'm looking for easy to get hold of, easy to prepare snacks / lunch stuff. Easy. Yeah? Cheers!

Before Jan says it. GET THEM IN THE ARMY.

When he first signed for United I was sure he would develop into the next Ronaldo. Ronaldo was very similar in his first season - full of tricks but his end product wasn't really there. Then something clicked and he learned to release the ball at the right moment and he started to create lots of goals and then he learned to score 50 goals a week and now he's world player of the year.Nani had a couple of good seasons but just hasn't hit the heights. The best thing I remember him doing was showboating against Arsenal, balancing the ball on his head and someone (I forget who) absolutely breaking him in half for it.