Stick you time in, find out how you measure up against everyone else in the country, and find out what you need to do to increase your ranking. Here is Liz Yelling’s.

So, if you are doing the Bristol Half this weekend, there couldn’t be a better time to try this tool out, and add to the motivation and reward.

Oh, and I’ve added this site to our links page.

I think it sums things up really well. To quote the final statement from Daniel Lieberman:

I disagree with the notion that somehow modern runners are biomechanically disadvantaged and require fancy, expensive shoes. But I also reject the notion that we should return to life in the Stone Age. If you want to wear shoes, that’s fine, but if you want to try barefoot or in a minimal shoe running, you might really enjoy it.

You can read more here.

The obvious thing to do to cure this was repeat the exercise so I trotted off to Blaise again this morning. I have learnt such a lot through running. Drills and exercises on a beautiful day in a lovely park brought the following learning outcomes:

• Press-ups on grass give you a close up view of worm casts while on the spot sprints make the worms come to the surface.
• Side steps make children on the playground stare
• Two women (aged 60+ and 40+) sprinting towards a bench where a man is sitting make the man (and his dog) move away pretty sharpish
• I need to do more upper body work.

But looking on the bright side, I wasn’t wiped out this time.  Looking forward to next time.

Well, if you were inclined to think that, then you would be wrong. It was me, taking my experiment a little further.

I have been to innumerable physiotherapists, podiatrists, and gait analyzing running shoe shops. I’ve had all manner of diagnoses ranging from knock kneed, bow legged, over-pronating, stiff-arsed (it was more technical than that) through to “fine”. I’ve had a broken leg, broken foot bones, sore knees and shin splints. And, of course, I’ve spent quite a lot of money as a result. I came to the conclusion quite some time a go that it is all bollocks, because I could never tell the difference.

I did not run barefoot today because I think it is better than all of that. It would be nice if it were, but I think that would probably be as hard to prove as all the stuff listed above. I simply like the idea of running with just my body - unencumbered. It feels good. And it feels good not to be taken for a ride by the professionals described above.

My point? Perhaps anyone can run barefoot. Perhaps we are “Born to Run”. perhaps all the technology is rubbish (mostly).

This was my first proper excursion without shoes. It felt fine on the grass and the asphalt, although I did slip in the mud. I intend to do more as it felt good, and I am interested in how it changes my gait. I found I ran more upright, flicked more with by trailing foot, and on the asphalt could sense my leading forefoot reaching out to find the ground.

Furthermore, it felt very odd and rather disconcerting when I put my shoes back on to run back down Redland Road - almost too padded and splodgy.

My tip for running injuries? Start back slow and small. Build up gently. Don’t waste your money.

So, after baby steps, and having just returned from Connecticut where running is like doing something really tiring (like running) in a sauna, leaving my family behind, I found myself able to finally contemplate a return to Chris Elson’s “intermediate group” up at Coombe Dingle. Chris is one of the Bristol & West AC crew. I don’t think he runs now, but he does lots of coaching, and he’s a jolly nice guy.

What is interval training? Is this the same as speed work? Don’t ask me. But as far as I can tell, it involves doing shorter, faster periods of running with little rests in between.

You should try it. It’s pretty good fun, if you are sick in the head or want to get faster - probably both.

In the past, I’ve found doing these sessions quickly makes a BIG difference to my race times - be that a 5k or a half marathon. I think the theory is you are training your muscles to work more efficiently at speed, without making it a ball-ache for your heart and lungs. I would also say it makes me MUCH more confident to go faster - one becomes more blase about the fear, the slightly panicky, “oh jesus I might die if I carry on like this” thing, which isn’t really a helpful attitude if you want to go a bit faster.

Well, that’s how it is for me. But I don’t mean to make it sound like a big deal. I would recommend it for anyone who is thinking things like, “I hope I can do the Bristol Half Marathon a bit faster this year. Honestly - you’d be surprised. I know you are out there. I see your tweets.

So, tonight we did longer “reps” (as we say) than I’ve been familiar with. We did: 800m, 1600m, 800m, 1600m, with a fair bit of gentle jogging (that’s walking but going up and down more) before, during, and after.

This was all a short jog from Coombe Dingle, at Coombe Lodge. Never been there before - peaceful, lots of lush grass, and about a mile in circumference. Nice people too.

I went with the slower group, took it easy to start and as my confidence grew, went faster.

The point is, it felt really good. Warm summer’s evening, that tired feeling in the legs - different to a normal long run. Sweating. Breathing. I love it.