Well, a little bit of an update (some me, some club-based). Not much in terms of goals, but more achievements and progress on stuff already mentioned.

The Club first :

Our latest 'Run for fun' recruits have done great, especially bearing in mind that Denbigh isn't the flattest of towns to run around. Next Monday is 14run/1walk, repeated twice, and the following week they'll be running for 30 minutes. Not bad at all, when you consider that in September some of them really struggled with the 2:1 (10 sets), and a couple hadn't done any real exercise for 20+ years ! Anyway, they get a supported 5k at the end of it. This time, it's the Conwy parkrun on November 14th, with (hopefully) 20+ club members attending (Denbigh Harriers) to marshall, cheer them on, pace them, and support them over the line.

Self :

I've been coaching and helping along with the aforementioned Run for Fun group, (I'm a qualified 'Run Leader'). Will be pacing a couple of 'my' runners on the day, as they are hoping to crack 30 minutes for the 5k. Apart from that, doing my own shorter run in the week (2-4 miles), and a long run on the weekends. This morning's run was 8.5 miles, keeping those nice and steady as I'm intending doing a small, local half-marathon in early December. Must admit, I do hate these early dark evenings, my midweek run I go straight from work, as no streetlights at home. Apart from that, we're now into the Badminton season, so matches most weeks, along with another training session on one evening. Thankfully, my long-suffering wife is also a badminton player and a runner, else I don't think we'd see each other much.

Would like to do the Level 1 coaching qualification at some point, but Welsh Athletics have just released the course details for 2016. And every single Coaching course next year is down in Cardiff. Which is 4-5 hours of driving each way. *Sigh*. Might look at joinging a Chester-based club, and see in I can get on an English course, if any are held up here. But that's another matter, and a rant for another day !

Good luck with the 10k Antony i think you will break 42 min no problem

Roland i hope the mara goes well

Robert 25 mins is well within reach

I am now back running 3 miles is the most i have done, i have run on consecutivedays for the first time since doing my knee, and strated back to karate as well. Knee feels good, although i can still feel it sometimes, maybe its just in my head now.

Wow, that's some mileage, Roland !

For myself, my (considerably) more modest goals are still going well. Running a race in every calendar month (even if only a parkrun), and do 365 miles in the year. I'm marginally behind my mileage target, but I'm now starting a bit more longer-distance running in readiness for a December half-marathon, so will be catching and overtaking that in the next few weeks.

Interestingly, did a parkrun on holiday in Australia a few weeks ago. They start them at 7 am there, to by all finished before the sun gets up to strength and temperatures rise. I got a parkrun PB, with my lowly 26:18 an improvement of 39 seconds on my previous best.

Here's going for breaking 25 minutes !

I thnk dipping under 42 would be a good goal to aim for Antony.

In terms of my goals, I'm at 927 miles for the year - the highest I've ever racked up. Target was 1000, so I think I need to extend that to 1200.

I've beaten my 10k PB twice, and my half PB, but failed in my marathon PB attempt. I was hoping to achieve it in Abingdon in 3 weeks time but I'm nowhere near ready. Just getting round will be an achievement. But that's ok, it gives me good motivation for next year already!

Rotten news Ian. Best wishes for a safe recovery.

The inflamed maniscus turned out to be knee ligament damage, so haven`t been able to run for about 9 weeks. Last week i started a couch2-5k course to get me back into things slowly. but I have had to withdraw from the Derby half, Cannock chase 10k and the Nottingham half which is the end of September. So my goal for the rest of this year is to get back where i was before the injury. 

Hey Ian. I couldn't get on with Runners Connect I'm afraid. I found a few things hard to get to grips with, and although I think it's a great concept, I felt I couldn't justify the cost. Perhaps if I had a bit more patience...

I am, however, following more of a plan at the moment. I realised I'd got to the stage when every run was "recovery", even though I wasn't doing any hard or long runs! Hopefully next few weeks I'll see some improvements.

What you done Antony? I too have been out for a couple of weeks with an inflamed Meniscus, going out tonight for a short run.

I missed the Ramathon half due to the knee so next target is the Ikano Nottingham half at the end of September.

Roland, how are you getting on with the Runners Connect training plan?

Let me know how you get on with it.