Does anyone know about how healthy your feet will become after using Nike Free Trainer's. I've sported them to work on occasion and found them to be supple and a welcome break from rigid running shoes.

I'm chicken enough not to run in them however - I'm worried that they don't provide the needed cushioning.

Those are the ones on the above right. I bought them like so many impulse buys - meaning well enough to warrant expenditure but then using them as carpet slippers due to their comfort. I like the look of them. They own cosmetic credibility due to their prescence coupled with an ipod nano on the Nike Ipod crossover deal but they are also rare and rarely used by serious runners.

found it difficult over the weekend to run particularly after a party friday night so I chilled saturday and went for a two hour bike ride to bath and back on sunday, this hurt the outside of my right foot in an alarming way to therefore warrant another rest on monday.

A swift 2 mile home run yesterday led to a 4.5 mile this evening, so I feel back in the mood.

Evening darkening - getting cooler, I sported an insulating headband as a result.

Disrupted running this week, boiler broken with consequences of smelly doom.

No hot water so a reliance on Fitness First showers means a re-jigging of routine and not a happy one. Fitness First relies on customers not wanting to improve their fitness but just their aesthetic and cosmetic look.

I tire of people not actually thinking about what is going on inside their lungs, skin, capilaries or arteries but boosting their self-esteem via the act of curling a dumbell in front of a mirror. This phenomenon grows on the monday evening for the populace to diminish as the time approaches friday. This is when the clientele will be frequenting the nightlife of bristol to show off this hard earned "look".

Back to it to burn off the excesses on the monday then.

I don't mind the idiocy too much to want to overtly leave, but it does make me long for my shower at home. I must have joined years ago and cling to the membership (a good rate) due to a fear of injury and a need of rehabilitation through the gym's steppers and cross-trainers. I do wonder though.

will have to really go some in order to be as lazy as this week. Gardening had taken over schedule on Sunday only for a monday 3 miler to precede drunken antics on wednesday night after the victorious 4 - 1 England match.

Suffering as I was at work for the next day, the evening run resulted in 20 minute sweater of a crawl before last nights 3 miler again, I feel I'm letting myself down. This will all change for a 6 miler this morning.

Gardening
Football
Work
Food
Drink
Birthdays

are all taking precedence over this marathon training and I'm wanting to cut back on the above.

More thinking during the run on Saturday, missed the Sunday's run due to Gardening responsibilities.

Can there be too many obstacles, hurdles and distractions on the pavement during a normal run? To try and add them all together during a run is too taxing

Glass
dog eggs
dog's leads stretching across the path
wobbly bicycles
airbourne insects

another 3 mile easy one, easy on the legs, lungs and nipples.

Instead of the run home from work - it was the dreaded walk in the rain. past the temporary urinals in the centre of bristol and past all the flunkeys trying to stagger toward them, it was only 1800.

I am grateful for the extra bounce for the run after the day-off. we'll see what happens tomorrow. Running without a pack full of office produce - therefore - lighter.

4.7 mile run, rainy, thinking........

5 de-motivating tunes

The Smiths - Heaven knows I'm miserable now
Blur - No distance left to run
The Flaming Lips - The Sound of Failure
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Muse - Blackout

If you can think of 5 better, please comment

reduced effort today, back to normal hours at work brought its toll.

I started up my hill at Brandon Park and then descended toward the SS great Britain, Its at this point when doubts enter your mind, should I do more? Less? I then settlled on the old adage of conservation and then opting to do more later in the week -

3 mile short run in the rain (or misty drizzle - dry rain?). An opportunity to try the new watch and sunglasses sent over by Wiggle. As per usual with new kit, you look forward to the usage beforehand during work, and then the pain and monotany during the run takes away the gloss of new purchases.

Was it ever not so? Like a toy which does'nt live up to its premise.

I got some cheap sunglasses which have gaps at the top line of the frame so as to give ventilation, I wisely avoided expensive running glasses by considering that the collection of mist inside will always occur no matter what the spin of the branding and advertising. Perhaps I'm missing out by not shopping adidas.

I saw £135 shades with the most brilliant description of anti-mist proofing on the inside. Is it ever wise to invest in something that we only see through?

The rest of my kit adopts a kind of used and bedraggled look but I'd like it to improve. Aiming for the seasoned look but avoiding the old-school cotton shirted 'T' and anything involving campri, bukta or flourescent bum-bags, (that goes for fanny packs too) I'd rather go for shorts than the Ronhill classics, New Balance than Nike (sweatshop issues) and running after work to get away from the place.

Lots of excitement this week due to a countdown to the Bristol Half, lots of participants in the streets wishing they'd done more before. I've chosen to avoid the event due to the slow build-up to April but I cannot help feeling left out - No Matter though.

This is the rainy glaze on the road of the Portway approaching the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge. The Half takes a course around the centre and then out and back along this long road.

Day Off,

I always get anxious as if I should be doing something active.