The Monday Debrief

Morning runners. How many of you are feeling a bit sore and tender today after a Sunday long run? I'm not, because I didn't do one. I've had a fairly minor bug for a few days - cheers small fry - and though I got some miles in over the weekend, I didn't stress out the system by slogging it round a pointlessly dispiriting 15 miler. So what's that got to do with technology? Well, coach Tom has me checking my HRV every morning. It's an app that measures your HRV using the phone camera, takes about 30 seconds and involves lying in bed breathing (I'm really quite good at that). If the resulting score is deviating strongly from baseline, it's a sign that something is amiss and the app will tell you to take it easy.

Now, I'm sure someone (or several someones) right now are rolling their eyes and saying "I don't need an app to tell me if I'm ill". Well, maybe, if you are perfectly in tune with your body. Most people, I think, aren't. …

Morning runners. Apologies for treating you all like my children but have you done your violin practice, did you put those clothes away and... oh no sorry, I mean look - I'm really busy - talk amongst yourselves, yeah?

Having spent the entire weekend at the National Running Show, talking running and The Running Channel, I had to do my long run of 15 miles first thing this morning and now I'm off filming again. So I've no time to deal with your grazed knee, and we'll talk about packed lunch later. Play nicely, and I'll be back later to check in on you all ...

Good morning, and a very happy new year. I am not big on resolutions generally, but the fact that the start of January is usually the start of marathon training does mean that it's usually a time to reluctantly push aside the panettone (if I had any left to push aside, that is) and start focusing a bit more seriously on training. It's not that I ever really stop as such, but I am quite definitely a runner motivated by specific targets, and therefore tend to drift slightly when I don't have a deadline looming. 
Many will be in the same boat. (It's a boat made of kale, quinoa and spinach and the sails are made of old copies of the Guardian, and it prefers to go by a gender nuetral pronoun, ok?) and are perhaps thinking about training plans or coaching advice. A clubmate, who also coaches, was writing recently against the 'tyranny of the training plan' and essentially saying they are mostly worthless. I think I disagree with this, because it presupposes a great d…