On the seventh day I ran seven miles

Day 7 of Janathon was a wet one. Steady drizzle led me to delay running until mid day when the rain had ceased. I had decided yesterday and prepared mentally to run a longer distance today after successively shorter runs during Janathon. So the seventh day of Janathon called for 7 miles though I won't be carrying this on for the rest of the month and running 31 miles on the 31st Of January.

Physically I felt fine and I was happy with my mile splits up until 6 miles when I really slowed for the final mile 8.27,8.43,9.02,8.59,9.02,9.17 and 10.15. The last mile includes a couple of hills but even so I was gritting my teeth to keep going and complete. This just goes to show my level of fitness and stamina as I am currently not doing any long runs this 7 miler being the longest.

An hour on the road around the villages of Fornham in Suffolk gave me time to catch up on a few podcasts from Running from the Reaper. Unfortunately after 4 years of podcasting he has decided to hang up his microphone. As an Itunes subscriber to his podcast over several years I will miss his running updates from down by the canal. However with the amount of time involved in doing a podcast I can understand his reasoning but a big thank you to Nigel it kept me entertained on a many run. It is a pity there are only a few UK based running podcasts.

Keane at the beginning of his reign

Also on my mind today was the sporting news one of success and the other of failure. The good news was the success of the England cricket team in wrapping up the test series 3-1. The domination that Australia has had in world cricket for many years  has hit a blip whether that is temporary time will tell.  Until England meet India and South Africa it is hard to tell how good a team England have.

The other side of the coin was the announcement from Portman Road that Roy Keane had been sacked as manager of Ipswich Town. As a season ticket holder I have watched the last 2 seasons of  poor football under Keane and backed him all the way. However the final straw for me was the embarrassing defeat against Norwich which wasn't acceptable and from then on I have wanted Keane to leave.

There were very few highlights I could pick out of the reign of Keane but perhaps the most bizarre was the recent game against Leicester a 3-0 victory played on a snow field! For me his failure to appoint an assistant manger to help support him was his biggest mistake along with his transfer dealings, the worst being the sale of the talented Jordan Rhodes.  So a sorry day for Ipswich Town and our next 2 games couldn't be much harder Chelsea away and Arsenal at home.

So seven days of running Janathon and my totals are this

Day 1 - 5 miles
Day 2 - 5 miles
Day 3 - 4 miles
Day 4 - 4 miles
Day 5 - 3 miles
Day 6 - 2.52 miles
Day 7 - 7 miles


Total 30.52 miles


More good news today was when I jumped on the scales and found I have lost a kilo ( 2lbs) . The Christmas excess has been burned off that is the power of Janathon !

Short Run and a tale of two goalies

A short run recovery this morning. My 25 minute run was an easy paced effort following my long run yesterday.I decided to set my Adidas miCoach to do a 10 week half marathon training schedule as I am feeling more confident of being able to build up the mileage and hopefully lose some weight and improve my times.

All of the runs in my schedule are time based rather than distance and of course are based on my heart rate monitor training zones.

Yesterday afternoon I went to see Ipswich Town play Bristol City in the Championship. This is really Division 2 in England the Premier League being Division 1. Ipswich have made a decent start to the season registering a win in their first game this compares with last year when it wasn't until the 31st of October that they won a game.

Both sides have new goalkeepers this season both internationals. Our keeper Martin Fulop is a Hungarian International and City's keeper is the well known  David James who has played for England for many years including this years world cup.

I can only say he had a stinker yesterday and both goals were the fault of James. For the first he came for a cross and missed it allowing a tap in and the second he failed to turn a cross around the post patting it out for new signing Jason Scotland to score no 2. A good win for Ipswich. The video may not play too well but is a recording of the Ipswich fans baiting James who has just messed up for the second goal. I am sure he won;t have  a worse game all season and he is a good buy for Bristol but not yesterday!

Fornham Circular Seven Mile Run

I got in a seven mile run this morning around Fornham. It was a fairly standard run at an easy pace before setting off for the football at Portman Road. Ipswich Town v Scunthorpe Utd in the Championship. Both sides struggling at the wrong end of the league fought out a dour game spoilt by the tactics of the away who constantly wasted time.

However they got what they deserved in the end as Ipswich won 1-0 scoring in the 2nd minute of injury time. The goal coming from Conner Wickham who is just 16 years old.

Icy 5

It was only 5pm but already there was a heavy frost on the cars and a crispy glint on the pavements as I set out for a steady 5 mile run.

For the first time this autumn/winter I felt the need to wear a hat and gloves. I hesitated there as to whether it is still autumn or are we in winter? The answer is it that it doesn't matter as whatever season we are officially in nature doesn't run to an official clock. Astronimically winter solstice begins on December 21st so it is still autumn. However Metrologists would go by whole months with December , January and February being winter in our Northern Hemisphere. So take your pick!

My run was pretty good without any obvious back or leg pain. I ran a circular route along Newmarket Rd in Bury St Edmunds with a white visable top over an Ipswich Town football sweat shirt, Ron Hill tracksters and my Asics Gel Stratus 2's. I picked up some excellent sweat shirts from Portman Road about 2 years ago for about £3 which were ex players training wear. I haven't looked at what they are made from but they are just perfect for running being warm and also wicking away sweat.

My laps times were 8.43, 8.35,8.44,8.35,9.12 for 43.51 for the 5 miles. This is better than my last 5 miles times which have all been in the 44 min plus region so perhaps some small improvement.

Sir Bobby Robson Statue

Ipswich Town 2 Norwich City 1 April 13th 2008, originally uploaded by Running in Suffolk.

A legend in his time. A familar site for any visitor to Portman Road are the statues of both Sir Bobby Robson and Sir Alf Ramsey two of England's finest ever mangers.

Sir Bobby Robson

Sir Bobby Robson, originally uploaded by Running in Suffolk.

Sir Bobby at the final match of the 2007-8 season at Portman Road

Ipswich Town visit Feyenoord

Ipswich Town visit Feyenoord, originally uploaded by Running in Suffolk.

Here is Sir Bobby and the Ipswich Town team visting Feyenoord. Sir Bobby is in the front row wearing the captains hat.

Sir Bobby Robson

Ipswich Town 1981-2 EUFA Champions Autographed Memorablia, originally uploaded by Running in Suffolk.

It is a very sad day for all football fans with the passing of one of our greatest ever managers and gentleman of football.

Obviously at Ipswich we were fortunate to have the benefit of Robson as manager throughout the 1970's taking us to sucess in winning the FA Cup and the Eufa Cup. The league alluded us but I thank Sir Bobby for the fantastic memories which are unlikely to ever be repeated at our club.

He was a regular visitor to Portman Road even in recent years and I will load up one or two photos.

Running in the Heat

After a trip to a car boot sale at Woolpit this morning I left any plan to run until the early evening at 6pm. The car boot had been a success and I bought a woolen hat just what you need in this weather! Actually it was a supporter who could no longer afford to go to games at Ipswich Town selling his collection of badges which I debated whether to buy and then did 35 badges and the hat was £20. I thought it was worth it others might not.

The weather on Sunday was never particularly bright blue skies and wall to wall sunshine but it was humid hot and sticky. When driving in the car the outside temperature meter recorded 30c or 86 f in Bury St Edmunds. The humidity levels were around 75% when I ran.

As a runner the internal battle that goes on in your mind as to whether you can a) get out of the door to run in the first place and b) run a certain distance or time is probably the biggest adversery you will face I find.

However after this as a runner you are always battling the elements, whatever the seasons chuck at you. Running in the cold in mid winter may seem daunting but you can always put extra layers on and combat this. Spring and Autumn are just about the best for me and summer is also wonderful but is an adversery to respect. Two conditions can result from running in the heat overheating and dehydration.

When you start to heat up the body sweats and more blood is sent to the skin surface where it is cooled. However your muscles demand oxygen and blood to run at a pace and as a result less blood flows to the skin resulting in overheating. I find I slow down in heat as the blood tends to go to the skin more than the muscles in an effort to cool down. In humid conditions like today there was no way my sweating was going to evaporate and therefore give me a chance to cool down so running slowly was my only option.

As you sweat and lose fluids from the body dehydration can start to occur. It is the combination of losing both water and electrolytes.

I have never enjoyed carrying water on a run but will now plan to do so perhaps a sports drink with electrolyte replacement.

I do wear sunglasses but not a hat something else to think about buying along with a bandana perhaps.

My concusion is that I could do more myself to combat heat by a little more preparation . Anyone have any good tips on running hats and sports drinks?

The Suffolk Show 2009

One of the highlights of the Suffolk Show at Ipswich at the end of May was the chance to meet John Wark at the BBC Radio Suffolk tent.

Back in the days when the FA Cup was a well respected tournament and both Ipswich Town and Leeds United were two of the top teams in England I well remember an epic replay that took place at Filbert Street Leicester. It happened to be the debut of John Wark for Ipswich Town. The 27th March 1975 was a Thursday night and was the 3rd replay between the two teams. Ipswich winning on the night 3-2 thanks to a Clive Woods banana shot goal still one of the best goals I have ever seen.



Football managers complain bitterly about fixture congestion these days but part of the cup fighting tradition and romance of the FA Cup was lost when a decision was taken by the Football Association to limit replays to just the one game. Having said this after seven hours of football both Ipswich and Leeds had so many injuries that it probably cost Ipswich there chance of winning the league that season and Leeds went on to lose the European Cup to Bayern Munich.

It was a great priviledge to meet John Wark and I of course mentioned his debut at 17 when Bobby Robson was forced to throw him into the side to mark Allan Clarke. He said there is a section of the book that deals with this story and I look forward to reading his autobiography Wark On








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Now playing: Rezillos - I Can't Stand My Baby
via FoxyTunes

Ipswich Town V Norwich City

Ipswich Town 3 Norwich City 1

At long last Ipswich finally managed to beat our rivals from over the border in Norfolk and things are looking a bit brighter on the football front.

Norwich took the lead through a schoolboy error from Richards in defense allowing new signing Chadwick an easy tap in. Before this Ipswich had started brightly forcing a number of corners and coming close so it was against the run of play that the Norwich goal came.

However Ipswich continued to play the passing football and just before half time a deservedly equalizer came from a flowing passing move with good ball control by Legwinski who slotted home. The crowing canaries were silenced and half time came with home fans in a much brighter mood.

The start of the second half was some what subdued and it was fairly even with Ipswich creating chances but it seemed poor finishing would come to Delia's rescue.One or two decisions from the ref when he didn't give a penalty though every one else in the ground could see he was being held down for a Norwich centre half didn't help and when Billy Clarke limped off I feared the worse.

Enter Danny Haynes the destroyer of all things green and yellow. It only took 2 minutes before he headed in a cross to give Town a deserved lead. This was followed by a lovely curling shot to make it 3-1 to Town. Danny Haynes scored the winner last year at Carrow Road and has scored against Norwich at all levels of football, to think he once had a trial at City and was rejected.

The 3pts were sorely needed by Town we are inconsistent and I would predict a mid table finish.

Jim Magilton is beginning to mold a side but it will take 2 years and if we retain our new crops of Academy youngsters we could be a force in the Championship. It has to be said that there is little difference in quality between top and bottom sides in this league.

As for Norwich the new manager was honest enough to admit that his side were well beaten on the day and that his side have been winning games despite not playing well. If they do start to play then of course there is still the play offs to aim for but if they don't succeed their parachute payment dries up at the end of the season and they will be 7 million worse off.

I don't think either side will be good enough to make the play offs this season.

Ipswich Town v Sunderland

A comfortable win against Sunderland by 3-1. The victory represented the first managerial defeat for Roy Keane as manager so will always be remembered by him.

Two goals for Alan Lee changed the game around in the second half after Darren Currie had scored an equaliser after Sunderland had taken the lead from an own goal.

Ipswich Town v Southampton

A win for Ipswich Town by 2 goals to win. Was it a fair reflection of the game well no but in our situation we will take the points. What came out of the game was another goal for the super sub Billy Clarke. Harding was my man of the match though Williams and Walton were also in top form.

Southampton should have scored 5 and you can see them going close this year under George Burley.

Ipswich Town v Crystal Palace

Town 1 Palace 2

A disappointing result as Ipswich slipped to defeat in the opening game of the 2006-7 Championship Season. This was Jim Magiltons first competitive match as a manager and for him and Ipswich this is going to be a tough season when I am expecting nothing more than a mid table finishing position.

The Championship is the most competitive league in English football with anyone of about 10 clubs who can potentially win promotion. You cannot say this about the Premier league.

After a first half in which Palace failed to pose any threat and Ipswich had scored an opening goal through Forster who outpaced a slow centre half to convert in the corner the old Town habits of sitting back on a lead emerged.

Palace made a telling substitute bringing on Freedman for Morrison and he seemed to immeadiately link up well with Scowcroft and suddenly Palace looked a threat. Two quick goals from sily defensive mistakes left Town chasing the game. However the attack didn't pose much of a threat apart from at the end of the game when Lee and Haynes arrived as subs and a little more luck would have resulted in a draw which on balance would have been a fair result.

Bury Town v Ipswich Town Reserves

Bury Town Ram Meadow - St Edmundsbury Cathedral in the distance.


Bury Town 1 Ipswich Town Res 0

I visited the Ram Meadow in Bury St Edmunds to watch Bury Town play Ipswich Town Reserves in a pre season friendly. Just over a 1000 attended this match which is about 5 times the normal gate for a Bury match. The kick off was put back to 8pm as most people like me arrived at the ground just 10 minutes before kick off as you never usually get any que to get in.




These are exciting times at Bury Town as they have been promoted to a higher tier of non league football to play in the Rymans Divison 1 North. They certainly seem to have a decent squad and one that is capable of doing well in this league.




Daniel Cunningham scored the only goal of the game which was a well taken volley after 20 mins. For long periods Bury defended in depth and played counter attack. Barber in goal for Bury was man of the match.



For Ipswich Scott Baron and Danny Haynes were given full games. Jim Magilton was there to view his young players of whom it is hoped 1 or 2 will make the step up and start pushing for the 1st team.

A good fitness work out for both sides

Ipswich Town Demo Video

Click here to view a video from Portman Road before the recent Ipswich Town v Sheffield Utd match. This is a very short film and is just me playing around to see how to load videos on to blogger.

The Cock Inn at Clare Suffolk

It was only the other week I was discussing with Ruby at livinginburystedmunds her visit to Clare in Suffolk and she made mention of the Cock Inn. By a very strange coincidence I picked up a load of second hand football programmes at Ipswich on Saturday and inside was a lovely black and white picture.

I was trying to work out where it was when it twigged that of course it is the Cock Inn at Clare. I can only guess the date but assume it must be from perhaps the 1950's by the fashion. Look at the girl about 15 people in from the left wearing what appears to be a bowling or teddy boy kind of drape coat.

Not sure what the occasion would be perhaps a wedding as some of the men have flowers in their jackets but then again no bride and groom. It looks more like an outing to the seaside and the group is just about to get on board the buses.

I have copied this picture to the webmaster at clare-uk.com hopefully some relatives may recognise themselves in the picture.

Ipswich v Norwich of the North

Ipswich Town were very unlucky not to have won today against Sheffield Utd at Portman Road. A late equaliser robbed us of the 3pts. the referee wasn't bad but he didn't keep up with play and missed the clear foul on Lee which would have meant a free kick to us rather than Norwich of the North.

Oh well I feared the worse before the game and I had predicted a3-1 win to Sheffield. However they were rather disappointing . I have seen most clubs in the Championship now and clearly Reading are the best side. I am not sure about Sheffield they are well clear in 2nd place and should go up but they rely heavily on some experienced hard men . I hope someone else catches them - in fact anyone apart from Norwich of course! What is it with Warnock has he got a screw loose?

At the end of the game he stormed on to the pitch and headed toward the North Stand where he got plenty of abuse for his dirty tactics. In fact I think he may well end up in hot water with the FA for his strange behaviour. Richard Naylor had to be restrained for politely telling him where to go.

Anyway this was a good game capped by a great goal from Jimmy Juan from a free kick - an unstoppable shot went in of the cross bar and bounced up into the net. Look out for this goal it was a cracker. The Sheffield goal they scored was rather fortunate - poor defending and a soft goal to give away. Having said that Sheffield could have been 2-0 up at half time. However second half we finally went to a 4-4-2 formation bringing on Danny Haynes to partner Alan Lee on his debut and we looked on top.

What a pity not to get the three points we deserved.

Ipswich Town v Reading

Ipswich Town 0 Reading 3. I was at Portman Road on Tuesday night for a game I expected we would lose but not in the manner of a comprehensive thrashing. Our formation of 4 - 4 - 1- 1 was a surprise. I really felt this was surrendering our home advantage by not playing both Parkin and Forster up front.

After Reading scored their first goal and Parkin had limped off we changed formation bringing on Wilnis as centre half and sending Naylor up front to partner Forster in a 4-4-2 . For the only period in the game we matched Reading. However throughout the game the side constantly gave the ball away, never got any width and looked slower to the ball.

3-0 was a flattering score line to Town. Confidence after this game must be at rock bottom. There is a real possibility that this side could drift into a relegation dogfight. This is the worst Town side I have seen for many years.

We lack any kind of goal threat. Midfield is full of ponderous slow coaches. I am afraid Jim Magiliton as great a servant as he has been for Town has stayed on one season to much and his legs are gone. Darren Currie is a bit of a luxury player. He has no pace, he can beat a player with some skill but unless you have several workhorses in midfield then he looks lazy. Horlock again is average and he really is part of the dead wood that needs clearing out. McEveley has no ball control plays like a centre back out of position as a wing back and as a result looks like a donkey. De Vos has no pace and is being caught out time and time again.

What assets do we have in the first team ? Hard to pick many out though I would say Sito Castrohas impressed. Both the goalkeepers Price and Supple will improve. Naylor gives 100% .
Both Westlake and Bowditch will return to form we hope! Owen Garvan is going to be a star.

Its not all doom if we can survive this season then the future is bright. There is some terrific potential in the Reserves and Youth side. Billy Whizz Clarke can't be far away from a first team place even though he is only about 17-18 years old.

Things are desperate at Portman Road it isn't any fun going there this season.

Ipswich Town v Crewe Alexandra

A win for Ipswich against lowly Crewe thanks to an improved second half performance. In the first half although Town created a few chances they didn't make the Crewe goalkeeper Williams work that much.

Crewe scored a bit of a fluke after half an hour from a free kick. David Vaughan crossed the ball from near the touchline and no body got a touch on it as it looped in to the top corner. After this Crewe gained confidence and to be honest they could have and perhaps should have gone in at half time 2 up. Steve Jones is a lively centre forward and I can see him being the next player to depart Crewe for a good transfer fee.

At half time Royle made a change bringing off Sam Parkin who had largely been ineffective replacing him with Fabian Wilnis. Wilnis played at centre half and Richard Naylor pushed up front to spear head the attack.

The best moment of the game came on 54 minutes when Darren Currie scored from a free kick sending his shot into the top corner a goal that David Beckham would have been proud to have scored.

Royle then made two further changes bringing of Jim Magilton whose legs don't last a whole game anymore and Dean Bowditch who is still to reclaim his form from a year ago. On came Juan and Nicky Forster. Less than 10 minutes later Forster scored what proved to be the winning goal. Naylor flicked the ball on for Forster to run on to and he confidently tucked the ball away giving Williams no chance.

Ipswich looked down and out at half time so to turn it around and gain a win was all important. This is a transitional season for the club and I don't expect much more than a mid table finish. What we are seeing are many of the clubs youngsters being blooded in to the side and again Owen Garvan looks a class act.