SwissDanny

200 viewings!! I can imagine though having seen some newbuilds in the UK. Swiss building is for sure very high spec, and the trades are very specialised and generally very skilled and proud of their work, so as least it defintely shouldn't leak! I hadnt really thought about the energy cost of such builds. It's ironic as it is basically specified as a "passiv haus" to minimise energy use, triple glazing, ventilation with heat recovery, automatic blinds, solar roof, hot water from community heat factory etc etc. I guess it's the same claim as electric cars with zero [tail pipe] emissions.

It looks beautiful Kit! Had a virtual visit courtesy of google street view. Delighted you have both found a new nest to settle in after some quite tumultuous years! Do you have a mooring for the boat nearby too? Our place is gradually revealing itself in 3D having committed the project off 2D plans and site visits. The first floor slab has been poured, the amount of concrete and rebar is mind boggling. The lake is the Vierwaldstättersee, about 250m away, you can just see the "Badi" bathing area and there's a rowing club next to that I will definitely look into. Patience. We cant influence the US outcome so there's not much point fretting about it imo, but the quality of the people and debate is indeed depressing.

Great North Run half was last Sunday. Considering much less diligent training and dragging an extra 4kg around 2.5 minutes slower was fine, especially as set out on a goal pace that would have been about 6.5 minutes slower then decided after 5k that was way too slow, and cranked it up and ran quite a heavy negative split, last km in 4'30, 45s faster than average pace, so still had too much in the tank. Most importantly no injuries and very little DOMS afterwards. Definitely time to focus a bit more on strength and mobility and find some variety from the running heading into the cooler weather and shorter days. Otherwise on the golf front having some good matchplay success but scoring rounds have hit a bit of a plateau. Generally life is more settled though still a bit waiting for the big move next year. House goes on sale soon so it's becoming more real progressively. Hope all are well.

Hello Campers! Northern Hemisphere days are getting shorter already. The weather has continued to be fairly wet and it sort of does feel like Spring has not finished let alone Summer started. Golf has continued enthusiastically, consolidating last year's progress and starting to play for the club in various modest leagues. I'm getting more involved in club life in the knowledge will be living only a few minutes away by this time next year. Running has continued somewhat dutifully with 9 weeks tomorrow until A race. Perhaps a bit of a negative take as I equalled a 10 year historic 5k PB and set a new 10k PB earlier in the season. Last two months suffered a lack of motivation as around here it is a very solitary activity. In the last few weeks I was happy to use ST techniques to get over a bout of hip flexor vs glute tightness that hampered running, but really should do more of that for prehab reasons, and strength training hasnt had enough look in at all. Otherwise our energies are focussed on the home move due next year after 20 years in our current home. So far it's going well, although we are impatient with another 10 months to go before the big move. Hope everyone is keeping healthy and well.

Here's wishing eveyone a most excellent next rotation around the sun! What a crazy few months; both Jane's mother and my own mother passed away with two weeks of each other in early November, both after long illnesses and end-of-life diagnoses, but still. Luckily out of choice have few work commitments atm, and was able to keep busy by dealing with both estates in record time. On the positive side, after a long and frustrating search, we've just signed for a new home. It's a new build project where we can chose all interior finishes and fixtures etc, the exterior and floorplan are fixed, so lots to get on with over the next months. It's great to have something to feel positive and excited about. Despite or maybe as an escape from these travails, I've kept on a decent level of running over the winter and maintained a really solid base, in the end just over 1000 miles in 10 months. I also avoided the worst of the Christmas and winter weight gain of the last few years, so heading into this season enthusiastically and reasonably light. Great North Run half marathon in September is the A race again, but Im going to try and do some more 10k races as preparation. Though injury free all season, I was noticing and concerned about lack of strength work and I've finally managed to get into the gym with decent regularity for a simple machine based upper/lower split, with some barbell DL and squats. I've become a fan of Theragun, but cant admit to doing any stretching.. The European weather hasnt been friendly for golfing this winter, but I've been doing some "swing speedtraining" before gym sessions, basically some over/underload swings with heavy/light weighted driver shafts. After a good warm up you do a sequence of swings with the sole aim of getting the clubhead moving as fast as possible, any which way, technique be damned. It's interesting because you do non-dominant swings too. At first this was horrible, but then I realized I got more proprioceptive insights from that side than from the dominant side where the movement is so engrained by 1000s of swings. Over about 20 sessions my final max effort swing of the day has gone from 100 to 117mph clubhead speed. Take care everyone! Swiss D

Hello Gang! It's been a while, almost six months in fact, but happy to report that I was not idle in the meantime. My now annual (I've just signed up for next three years too) half marathon was on 10/9. I trained very diligently all through the Summer under Simon's guidance, lots of miles with several cycles of long weekend runs each building up to 2.5 hours and 26km, combined with a much lower volume of intense interval and race pace work than I've done before, all together with a few b races: several 5ks, a 10k and a 14k event. Race day was a bit warmer than ideal 22c, sunny and fairly humid. Ran with my now trusty Stryd power meter. Also got some Saucony Endorphin Pro carbon plate race shoes which after about 100k of habituation I found to be awesome to run in, but definitely are to be kept "for best". Anyway, was very very very happy to do 1:47:30, approx 9 minute PB on my 2013 run. Funny enough this was also the race that has left me with the least soreness, which I'd put down to both the training mileage and the shoes and maybe even a bit conservative due the relative warmth. Golf was my other focus and after a long plateau everything has started to come together in the last weeks. I no longer have "imposter syndrome" scoring in the (high) 70's. Really looking forward to testing this progress in Scotland next week. The days are closing in here and Im really motivated to get back into the gym and training room and work on strength and mobility as both are no doubt going to be important to unlock progress next year. I do think having a reason for being in the gym building on recent success will help discipline. Instead of stopping running until March, post race cold aside, Im going to try and get a new 5k PB before the end of the year, Simon figures 22' which seems very fast but he wasnt wrong yet. Otherwise, like a few of us, life has been busy with supporting ageing relatives and thinking about and trying to execute on the next phase of ones own circumnavigations of the sun... Swiss Danny

Been working on the running with Simon Oliver for a month, focus was a base of lots of really slow running much slower than I would normally go, initially very hard to do, but I think with hindsight very beneficial, frequency upto 5x per week now too which is a first. This weekend did a ParkRun as a time trial, CP back up to a more usual 320w, so the runs are going to get tougher, but it will be nice not to get overtaken by absolutely everybody! Golfing season kicked off with a week in Spain. Played better as the week went on and well by the last day. Will get back to Switzerland tomorrow so will find a way of getting some strength work woven in to all that.

Nice freudian slip. Jokes aside, there's no doubt that the satiation derived from primarily fat+protein bias is completely the opposite of the more-ish-ness of fat+carbs. It would be interesting to see how blood sugar is working.

My good efforts continue, and Im finding an hour most days for some physical activity. I decided in the end to set a goal of a PB at this Sept half marathon, and to support that got a remote running coach, a chap based in South Africa who is my age and accomplished senior triathelete, plus also very much into Stryd power based training. So far so good, this month is base work at a speed way lower than my normal slow. Continue to mix in some strength sessions, time on the bike, some golf range work and cut back on carbs etc, 6kg down in the last four weeks. Golf season kicks off next week with a trip to Spain.

Getting sorted. Signed up for my traditional September half marathon. Daily mobilization work continues, supported by the recent addition of a Theragun massage gun which we are finding an excellent tool. Been out for a couple of very genteel jogs just to get some distance in the legs, and will be using the Stryd power based training again, where I am a total convert. I've pretty much decided to ditch Strava in favour of Runalyse as this looks at training load across all activities and Strava has too much social and marketing clutter these days. I dont want to get into an multisport events, but building on the power theme I am interested in combining cycling and running. Building up saddle time on the bike trainer and decided to go for TrainerRoad as the training tool as it also looks at all training load and uses AI to adapt your training plan based on activities and feedback. Finally, found a conditioning routine with a golf specific focus ie build power, rotation emphasis etc. Now just need to combine all this! At least I have more time at the moment and investing some of it my health.

OK. After a couple of false starts, more life distraction a couple of cheeky old schools colds and a hip injury Im back to trying to be more structured towards fitness. My fitness tip for today is: Dont get on a bike trainer for the first time in 3 years, and after a couple of gentle 30 minutes spins in the previous couple of days do a full on 20' FTP test... the lungs were fine, but boy did the body protest. On the plus side after the massage therapist answered "yes its *really* bad" when I said "oh that feels gnarly" I've been doing my daily five and starting to work some other bits and pieces in to my daily routine for the last three almost four weeks and starting to get some progress.

Although this is from a golf podcast I found it a very clear explanation of tendon injury, how they protect themselves and repair. I thought there was a lot of synergies with stretch therapy. I was reminded of @Kit_L comments about practice being ahead of the science, and science eventually catching up. Also some very interesting thoughts on how (very) fast tendons can repair with the right protocols and post trauma approach https://open.spotify.com/episode/6q4npQVx4DGIR5Ag2IxOHi?si=w-3yFg_1Q62IaUa5RNrDOA for anyone who doesnt use spotify for podcasts it's episode 29 of Fit for Golf by Mike Carroll. He is interviewing a Dr Keith Baar (@musclescience on Twitter).

Yikes. Another 10 months. The "way too busy" continued, the turnaround was all consuming until we sold that business in April. Then we got into a big contract dispute with the buyer of another company. No sooner that was resolved than yet another business I support started a sales process that finally finished at the end of July. Throw in the mix some health concerns in Jane's family and some substantial "re-modelling" at home. This was not the plan! I used my Great North Run entry to drag myself out on some runs in March, then lost focus and motivation again, before finally managing to stick fairly well to a 12 week training plan despite some niggles, especially left achilles. With modest expectation the run went really well yesterday and I snuck in under 2 hours. On the golf front, managed to get out most weeks and was more disciplined with practice when I only had a bit of time to hand. Continued working with my coach remotely and when back in the UK. After a long plateau where I was playing better but not scoring better, in the last weeks have managed to progress my handicap to the lowest ever, and a hair's breadth from the "single digit" that was the goal. Im definitely missing both strength and flexibility work and thinking of ways to focus on that in the next weeks and months. Will keep you posted. Nice to be back!

Yikes. Another month. Way busier than anticipated, a bit of a turnaround situation to deal with in one company, nothing that cant be put right I think, but time consuming. Some golf, with a major swing wobble after coming back to play on the narrow and unforgiving Swiss home course, but learnt a lot getting back on track to consolidate the things I have to focus on to get the new swing under pressure. Nothing more energetic than golf, and now just getting over a nasty cold (of the garden variety), but resolved to get jogging and lifting again as soon as its safe to so do.

Half. Was a great day for it cool but not cold. Kept a really steady 320w going until I have to ease off about 10w as a cramp was looming. The course was a one off loop to avoid 50k+ runners and greeters trying to get away from the coast where it normally finishes. The last few km caught a lot out being uphill, havent seen so many walking or cramping before. Finished in just under 2 hours, but seemingly ran 22km. I suspect a calibration problem on the footpod as other Strava users were reporting more normal distances. It's a good tool but the setup on Garmin units is too complicated and I think their instructions are inconsistent. Anyway stuck to my race plan and couldnt have gone much harder so good with that. Havent run a step since! But will get back to some cardio and strength. Did play a reasonable amount of golf and continued lots of range work.