It is said that the English are not as warm as our European cousins, for example the Spanish are known for their fiestas - those colourful, noisy social occasions where the locals celebrate (not sure what, just having fun?) and drink Rioja, the Germans for their Beer Festivals - what can be better than just drinking beer for fun!, the French - where going on strike is a national past-time as people leave their jobs for a day or two, cause chaos for everyone else and protest together somewhere, how wonderful. So what about the English? In my view, it is clear that the English are just as warm, if not warmer than our European cousins - you just need to be able to press the right buttons. For example, whilst out on a jog, if you just say 'Good Morning!' to an Englishman, around 60% bother to mutter a reply (maybe I am just deaf, but that seems to be my experience), but if you offer the proclamation: 'Isn't the weather lovely/good/bad/awful today?', every Englishman worth his salt will respond. The response is likely to not just be yes or no, you are likely to hear an opinion - how lovely! If you are not careful, you might even get pulled into a conversation about the weather. It is also great to hear the little 'moan' that us English bring into a pleasant discussion - we are full of surprises:
Apart from chatting randomly to joggers and walkers on my long runs about the weather, I have been stepping up my mileage the last few weeks. It is 4 weeks to the MK marathon, 4 weeks! Its not long, but I plan to continue to increase my mileage up to around 20 miles next weekend. On comments made to this blog I have heard its advisable to do a long run to at least 20% short of the full distance on the 3 weeks before and 1 week before the race. I will be following this advice, so that means I will be running 20ish miles next Sunday probably followed by a 13 mile run the following week. I ran 14 miles today and generally felt good for the first 10 miles, while the final 4 were a bit of a trial. That might have been down to the burger and two pints of cider I enjoyed yesterday, but I am on the home straight now, not much more I can do but just get out and plod out these miles and make it as comfortable as I can. Gulp.
- 'Yes, well the weatherman said it was going to rain today, but the suns out - bloody useless BBC weatherman'
- 'The sun's out, but its bloody cold, what's the point of that?'
- 'It's overcast and it looks like its going to rain later and it looks like you don't have a rain jacket chap, oh dear'
Apart from chatting randomly to joggers and walkers on my long runs about the weather, I have been stepping up my mileage the last few weeks. It is 4 weeks to the MK marathon, 4 weeks! Its not long, but I plan to continue to increase my mileage up to around 20 miles next weekend. On comments made to this blog I have heard its advisable to do a long run to at least 20% short of the full distance on the 3 weeks before and 1 week before the race. I will be following this advice, so that means I will be running 20ish miles next Sunday probably followed by a 13 mile run the following week. I ran 14 miles today and generally felt good for the first 10 miles, while the final 4 were a bit of a trial. That might have been down to the burger and two pints of cider I enjoyed yesterday, but I am on the home straight now, not much more I can do but just get out and plod out these miles and make it as comfortable as I can. Gulp.
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