Gracii Guns

On 1/9/2021 at 5:42 PM, rocknroll41 said:

For whoever is interested: I wrote a book. Hope you guys don’t mind the shameless promotion: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SGWD2G4/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Congratulations! I've bought it and shall write a review. 

As with much of the US justice system, the death penalty is inherently racist. The people campaigning to end the death penalty are usually the families of those on death row. People who end up in this situation aren't privileged.

Until the US state guarantees that a black man can have the same chance at life as a white man, they should stop killing the ones who fall through the cracks.

4 minutes ago, ssiscool said:

And what have you deduced so far watson? 

I've told him. Let's not embarrass the poor soul further. 

2 hours ago, action said:

... aren't you making people remember now, on the first page of the new thread? 

Yes, but it wasn't exactly last week, I'm happy to laugh at myself.

Good riddance. I still haven't worked out why he was elected to begin with. 

This is a really sad case. It's similar to Linda Carty in many respects. I really hope it doesn't set a precedent for her end too. 

Nice one Downzy. It's about time as I once snogged one of the posters on the first page of the last General Chat and it has constantly haunted me. 

Wow, Slash was always very private regarding his boys. I remember catching glimpses of them as toddlers backstage at Live Aid. 

I suppose that was 15 years ago, and I've grown too. 

We're all adjusting to the idea that the end of coronavirus is going to be gradual, even with a vaccine. I've learned that if something isn't allowed in the USA, is sure as hell won't be happening in Europe. 

All of England has been put on Tier 4 lockdown now. But for some reason, childcare is still open, so I'll continue to take my daughter to nursrey. It's all very confusing, but having spent the majority of 2020 mopping up spills, I'll take what I can get. 

5 minutes ago, Graeme said:

And the award for bump of the year goes to... 

(In fairness, the year is only two days old, but yknow...)!

F'n Budweiser returning and winning all the forum awards again!

22 minutes ago, Budweiser said:

Fuck yea I do!

That was Kevin's thing, wasn't it?

I was made a mod on that forum, even though I had no idea at all how to play Mafia. 

Is drinking an entire bottle of wine over a six hour time period, acceptable, if not positively healthy? 

Happy new year boys and girls. 

As the restrictions in the UK are changing today, many restaurants will have bought food in preparation for new year's eve. As they can't open anymore, consider ordering takeaway from a restaurant tonight. 

This is such an emotionally strange time. We have vaccines, but cases are still soaring, which will lead to greater restrictions. Tied in with the new year approaching, knowing what a disappointment 2020 was, I really don't know how to feel. 

On a personal level, I'm really lucky that I am doing OK and didn't have to apply for the third grant self employment support offered. I've heard that banks are now considering that in mortgage applications (something we weren't warned about before applying for the first two).

I'm having to self isolate for five days. I'm only going to miss the running. 

I'm no longer a huge fan, though nostalgia is very powerful. I enjoy what the band used to be. Since the reunion didn't happen as fully as anyone hoped, I'm fine with enjoying the past. 

Overall, I feel that GN'R's attitude towards this forum has been a huge wasted opportunity to connect with the people who still care. 

A sincere, heartfelt Merry Christmas to everyone here, especially to those whom I disagree with. 'Tis the season of goodwill and all that. 

6 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

Some of the airlines were allowing flexible rebooking and cancelations when things were relaxed a bit in October - I think BA allowed you to cancel at anytime with refund if memory serves. There is a variance here between different airlines (I have heard bad stuff about Ryanair) so you'll have to read up on their policies. And there are travel insurance companies that have adapted to the situation, insuring you against corona flight cancellations and so forth. Try https://www.coverforyou.com/.

PS

Free cancellation of course on booking.com and tripadvisor and those type of websites. Sometimes you have to pay an extra tenner I think. This existed during normal times. Think you can cancel very close to the check-in, 24hrs or 48hrs or something similar. 

Thank you DieselDaisy. That all sounds very helpful. I can't control the state of the pandemic, but I can control my bookings. 

Are any other married people jealous of the folks who had microweddings this year? 

100% of wedding stress is caused by guest politics. And one has to invite their family to their wedding. For us that included the two aunts who didn't get on, my overbearing grandmother and that's not even mentioning his side of the family... I'd loved to have a good reason like that not to invite them. 

As this is a place as good to ask as any:

I've been invited to a wedding at the end of April in Spain. 

They are both close friends of mine, and I'd definitely attend in normal times. 

They have said that they might cancel the wedding reception and get married with no guests, if they have to. 

What do you think? 

What should I do? 

I'm particularly adverse to losing cash this year, as we're in the final stages of saving up for a house deposit. So I know I'd need to book fully refundable flights and accommodation. 

But it's really hard to tell if we'll be in a better or worse position than now. What would you do, please? 

4 minutes ago, Destiny said:

Merry Christmas forum people I don't know and will never meet

Don't be so confident in your chances of not meeting any of us. Regarding meeting forum members, I'm in double digits now. 

Haha brilliant! 

Merry Christmas! 

It's my daughter's birthday tomorrow, so I'm finally all prepared for that. 

7 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

Some thoughts:

Do you run with a watch to keep track of your pace? If not, I would highly recommend it. It is really helpful to know how you are doing on larger runs and if you have a goal, it can help you steer towards it. They don't cost a lot and you don't need a fancy one. I only use it to measure my pace (minutes per km), distance run, and average pace. 

You indicated that you ran slower at the end. This is entirely normal and especially when you run a longer distance than normal for the first time. What you should aim for, though, is "inverse split". This means that the second half is run faster than the first half. In a competition run, the last kms will also be a sprint, which further strengthens the inverse split. To do this you really need a watch, or to really, really be familiar with your own body while running to know what speed you are at. So if you did the half marathon in 3 hours (resulting in an average pace of 8:30 min/km), an ideal plan could have been to run the first half in 8:40 min/km and then the second half in 8:20. More likely, the next time you were to run a half marathon, you would attempt to shave off some time, say 2 hours 45 minutes (translating to 7:49 min/km), giving you an ideal pace of 8:00 for the first half and then 7:40 for the second. Having a watch helps you execute on this plan.

The reason I asked about how you felt after 15 km is that by now you have likely exhausted your readily available sources of carbohydrates, unless you ate/drank something while running. For shorter runs (< 10 km), you don't need to fuel up, only water will do, but when running longer you will be running on fumes and that causes all kinds of unpleasantness. During competitions they usually hand out bananas and sugary drinks. It really helps although it is hard to eat while running. But yeah, next time bring with you something or have something sugary on your water bottle.

How about footwear? You run a lot so you are probably already very mindful of this, but make sure to replace your shoes often enough, especially if you run a lot on tarmac. Active runners may buy new shoes every half year or so. Keep a couple which you alternate between. It helps to prevent injuries. Buy proper shoes, from proper shops. Sometimes they can study your foot and recommend special shoes for your running style/foot. A popular brand is Hoba (I personally don't like them because the roll too much on my heel). You just need to figure out what works for you. But don't wear them down before you replace them, that can cause injuries. Replace often. And running is such a cheap hobby (compared to many other sports and training at a gym - spend some of the money you save on protecting yourself against injuries).

That's all I can think of right now.

And yeah, well done!! It is very different to run a half marathon compares to a 10 km. Things happen to your body. I get aches in my neck and shoulders, and some times my nipples bleed 

Cheers Soulie. Yes, I run around with my phone in my hand. I do have a Garmin watch, but gave up on it as I didn't find it's tracking as accurate as I'd like. 

As for shoes, I run with an Adidas pair. I think in the new year I'll get kitted out with a more specialist pair. When I started running, I was just using a really cheap pair of generic trainers. While I managed to reach 5K in them, getting a proper pair of running trainers made such a difference. Thanks for your advice regarding nutrition and hydration. I think I'll get a little hydration pack for further longer runs. 

I'm not sure if I'll have much time to commit to running further than half marathons, so I'm thinking of just running around 10km three times a week next year, and looking at another aspect of my health to improve instead.  

32 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

How did it feel after 15 km and how did it feel when you finished? Was it much up and down or pretty flat? Congratulations

It was fairly flat, I live in a flat city. A couple of bridges here and there, but that's it. 

After 15k it was a real slog. But I thought about it like this:

The final 1.3k I can walk in my warm down. 

That left me with only 5k to run. And I was slow, really slow. But I took it 1k at a time. All it is, is a case of running further. It was so, so boring. But I knew that effort would be nothing compared to the regret I'd feel if I stopped prematurely. 

Now I'm done, I feel relieved.

Physically, I had to go to the toilet as soon as I got home and compulsively... went.  My body was feeling it! 

My legs will feel it in the morning, but it's a really nice way to end this year. Thank you for asking