Hello Blogger - Switched away from Wordpress

BLOGGER Vs Wordpress.com

The old Blog is dead. Long live the Blog.

I considered transferring all my old posts across to here. But they were so sporadic and random that I've decided to just start this one fresh and keep it to training related info only !!!!

So the previous blog was a Wordpress blog. I've just decided to switch to Blogger from Wordpress. There has been a couple of reasons for this transfer.

First Wordpress won't allow me to use some of the widgets I want to use. I could have switched to a self-hosted Wordpress blog, which I already do for work. But I was getting fed up fiddling with upgrades and layouts, eventually I was spending too much time fannying about with layouts - this blog is just to keep track, keep focused and help me look back over training. I want it simple and quick to use.

Second, I use a lot of Google services, and have a few accounts which I am starting to link up and integrate together. 

However, one of my biggest gripes with non self-hosted Wordpress was that it didn't let me use my wordpress account to comment and interact with other accounts. So at the moment I'm on Blogger. That may change at any point in the future back to wordpress !

I will be playing around with the layouts including the dynamic layouts, simply to suit myself when viewing the blog on the ipad.

3.5mile Newhouse Stint

The weather has turned colder, rainier and windier..... even more so, and the slightly darker nights are coming in fast. For some reason I find I want to train more in these crappy conditions. Spring and summer running never seems to happen.

Anyway, my legs were a tiny bit stiff after the run on Sunday, so it was a toss up between a swim and a run. I asked peeps what to do on Facebook, they all said swim, so I decided on a run.

I'm fed up driving somewhere to go for a run, so I set off from the house.....  a fast walk to the bottom of the hill to warm up, and I was off. The problem in leaving from the house is that it's too hilly, and my legs tire out quickly, although I'm starting to get over this now.....

It was dark, cold but at least not pishing with rain this time. I was fairly happy for the first mile, although it was mostly uphill. I decided to go around Newhouse for a change of scenery, and my watch bleeped the mile marker. I decided to up the pace a bit for the second mile, and damn I felt I was going faster, heart rate was up, breathing was hard and I felt like I was pushing....... sadly the average speed didn't seem to reflect this :? Im putting this down to the slight uphillyness !!!!!

On the way out of Newhouse and into Eurocentral it was mostly downhill, and I felt that I was running faster as a result. Breathing dropped, heart rate also dropped although not as much as expected.

Overall I felt I was pushing quite hard, but the stats say otherwise. I'm right, they are wrong :/

Think 5k was still 27min-ish - again putting this down to the hillyness.

Parkrun Loop 5K test run

A Little 5k Test Run

It has been a long lay off from the running and I wanted to get an idea of my current 5k time. Although it's only 3miles, Im still not anywhere being comfortable at this distance at the moment.

So I thought the best idea to get an idea of my current time would be to run the Parkrun strathclyde event on Saturday morning. But eventually decided not to as I had been doing a lot of cycling all week and the pegs were still knackered. An easy cop-out, but still :)

I decided I would run the course on Sunday, offically untimed, but I know the course, so no problem there.