jasonb

I didn't realise Saints Ladies had such a glorious history. Winning the women's FA Cup 8 times and appearing in 11 consecutive finals in the 70's/early 80's. Impressively lead by Sue Lopez who spent 20 years playing for Saints with a year at Roma. She was also my PE teacher at Applemore School. If only I'd known what a legend she was. 1-1 in the semi.. Game on.

@swannymere What line of work did you do? I'd love to work it with my wife and son. It's getting bloody expensive.

Finding it hard to keep the faith if I'm honest. Decent player for us and will be an improvement for them. Pfffffffffttttttttttt

Not a stellar year agreed but highlight for me was The Fall followed by GOAT straight after them. Mark E. Smith set the tone the second he walked on stage with his p*ssed-wet-through trousers by announcing "Thanks for turning us down you c*nts!". Classic MES

If only all thread digressions were as interesting as this one. No name calling or bickering, just some insightful posts into an industry I know little about.

I didn't follow Swindon's season at all despite our two lads being there. Do you know if they played regularly together as a CB partnership? From your reply above you were not impressed by what you saw?

Times Sport ‏@TimesSport 16s16 seconds ago Southampton have accepted improved offer from Liverpool for @Nathaniel_Clyne, worth up to £12.5m, @TonyBarretTimes reports. Link to follow A bit gauling we didn't hold out for the extra £2m just because its Liverpool. However, with only the one year left we had to play it farily cool I imagine. Hope the add-ons are not too silly.

Whatever it is its providing absolutely no support at all. And they say money can't buy you happiness. It can however, buy you tits that defy gravity.

Yeah my thoughts tbh. Those Stokies do like a good 'everyone hates us' moan. For a club trying to become more progressive they don't half remind me of Wimbledon circa 1989.

Sourced from the 'right-backs' thread over on the Oatcake (Stoke City) forum: http://m.stokesentinel.co.uk/Stoke-City-Cedric-Soares-pursuit-doomed-start/story-26724101-detail/story.html WTF is all that about then?

Gaaawwwwwrrrron Ralphie !!

Liverpool at St. Mary's and another plucky, narrow defeat against "one of der big oneshs"

Mixed emotions on this. I'd like to think we are a well run friendly club who uphold the spirit of the game in all its facets. However, the higher we climb the more I'm convinced we have to be ruthless and 'play the game' just like the 'big ones' - to coin a Koemanism. A fine line needs treading for sure.

There must be nice parts of Sunderland but Newcastle is a decent city IMO. Middlesbrough is the real arse-end of that region... think Portsmouth and you're on the right tracks for those that haven't been. I spent a year in Middelsbrough doing a Masters degree and its a real sh!t hole. The 'scals' start collecting for Guy Fawkes night in August. They do have a Claus Oldenburg though so there is that I suppose.

This is not a problem... How has that Leeds right-back been playing this season ? He's only 21 I think and we have been linked before.

MLG.. what do you do for a living mate ? You're always all over EVERYTHING! The attention to detail is pathological... are you old bill or something ???

The kit reveal will be at 5:29:59... Just as they log off their Mac's and swan off to the pub. A job well done.

I failed in my pace-making duties to get my bro round in 1:45... we crossed the line together in 1:46:59 although to be fair to me he was struggling from 8 miles on with a tight hamstring and even my encouragement couldn't lift him until we got back to the Avenue on the run in to the finish. On the whole I thought it was a decent event. I thought Hoglands Park served as an excellent starting venue (I managed to meet Le Tiss and get a photo). However, as the organiser has already said on the Echo website, route changes might happen next year. I think this is necessary in a few places if they increase the numbers to 10,000 as also mentioned in the same Echo article. The narrowness of the route through the Ocean Village section as highlighted by Ewell will need a re-think. I also agree the finish area was badly thought out. The sharp right-hand turns into the finish line were bad. Its the last thing you want to do at the end of a race especially as runners invariable sprint for the line. Also the finishing chute fed you straight into the bottleneck of the end of the course so runners couldn't escape back down the high street but had to squeeze down the congested pavements either-side of the finishing chute. I can't imagine the congestion improving with an extra 5,000 runners (official results suggest less than 5,000 completed yesterdays half marathon). Surely the race has to finish in either East Park or Palmerston Park? I personally would cut out the Uni and Common sections and use the Avenue as much as possible as an out-and-back section. I few of the climbs could be cut out too as making the course faster will raise its profile in the running calendar but that's a subjective opinion. Highlights for me were the Itchen Bridge and the crowd support. Fantastic to see so many people out supporting and a lot offering sweets/drinks etc. I wish I was running it flat out in a way because the support was great. A good start and with a bit of tinkering could become a very good race.

How quickly did you step up the training? I'm as guilty as the next runner for trying to get the mileage up too quick. I have had very off / on training over the past few years because of family issues and work commitments and plenty of CNBA. So I basically had to start from a fairly low base again. The key for me was as I mentioned in my previous post - lots of slow paced stuff to build a base. I used a HR monitor to stay low in my HR zone which at first had me running so slow it was painful. I kept this up all last autumn. This gave me the platform to start running 50+ mpw in January and I kept that up with the exception of cut-back weeks. They are really important to incorporate if you don't already. Give yourself an easier week every 3-4 weeks to allow the body to adapt/recover. Also be careful not to run all your runs too fast. I have slowed a lot of my basic running down now as I get older. I am 41 and so can't hammer every training session. For marathon training there is no need to run a lot of sessions fast anyway since the marathon is 80% aerobic. So, a lot of my training paces for recovery runs and long runs were 8 - 8:30m/m pace. Long runs can be MP (marathon pace) + 60 seconds. Recovery paces can be slower still.

Cheers guys, I can walk unassisted up and down the stairs today so should be ok to run on Sunday. I will go for a little jog to test things out later today. As for being a different species... That was my third sub-three albeit last one was in 2010 so quite a break! I achieved them all on roughly 50 miles per week average over a 16 week build-up. It's not that hardcore really. I think to get down to 2:45 - 2:50 I would need to up that mileage to around 70 mpw which is probably too much time commitment for me. The training basically consisted of the long run which I built up to 22 miles. I did 6 x 20+ milers in training. A medium midweek long run of around 12 - 14 miles and a tempo run which I built up to 10 miles (faster than planned marathon pace). All other running was slow stuff just to get the mileage up. I should say I also did 8 weeks of base building before Christmas which consisted of lots of running at 8:00-9:00 /mile just to get the legs prepared for the marathon training. Having done all that I still had cramp in my right hamstring on Sunday resulting in a couple of stops to stretch and possibly a minute lost. I'm not sure I will do another marathon this year as Sunday's time gives me a 'good for age' entry into London next year. @adriansfc I recommend Manchester as an alternative to London (if you are unsuccessful again) as its a fast, flat course with great support.

MLG quick on the Wikipedia update!

2:58:15 today at manc marathon. Nursed some hamstring cramp home but delighted to post another sub 3. Legs are wrecked tho. Will be a very slow jog round next weekend.

How's everyone's training gone then? I am running the manchester marathon tomorrow and then a recovery week before pacing my brother next weekend. Hoping to break 3 hours again tomorrow but won't trouble my PB next weekend.. Just looking forwards to running with my bro and seeing the city from different perspective.

You'd think at the very least these mercenaries would sign a one year extension ensuring Saints get a fair transfer fee. I'm sure this has happened in the past.

Good win in the end. Frustrating first half but credit to Hull for attacking with pace and forcing us into mistakes. Fonte MotM for me. Loved the co-commentator on my TSN stream pointing out that many thought Lovren was the lynch-pin of our defence when now it is obvious it was Fonte. Form is temporary.. Class is permanent.