Yesterday the small boys and I paid a trip to the new Riverside Museum in Glasgow.

I first saw the design for the museum in New York in a Zaha Hadid exhibition at the Guggenheim and it was brilliant to see the building completed years later.

The snaking silver building houses the old Transport Museum’s collection and is a huge improvement with loads of space to show off trams, trains, cars and bikes.

To give you an idea of scale…

Those are proper cars on the floating shelves.

I loved seeing Graeme Obree’s ‘home-made’ bike.

It’s a great day out with easy access by train from Partick.

My only two criticisms:

Why can’t kids choose what goes in their lunchbox?  Chicken crisps aren’t every-one’s favourite.

And beware the Tall Ship.  £15 for an adult and £5 for a child is pretty steep, especially compared to the free entry to the Riverside Museum.

My half marathon training began in earnest today.  I’m using the Adidas miCoach app on my iPhone and today was run 1 of 103 before the Half Marathon in September.

I’m going to post about my runs once a week because I know some of you couldn’t care less.  I do know that you care about why I’m doing it and I’d be very grateful if you could support Christian Aid by sponsoring my run.  Just click the JustGiving button on the right.  I’ll write more about Christian Aid soon so you can find out just what they do and how they work with partners throughout the world to try to end poverty.

Yesterday I had to do an ‘assessment run’.  Basically the GPS measures your pace.  The app tells you to run at 40% effort for 2 minutes, then up it to 50%, 60%, 70% then 90% for 90seconds before slowing (rapidly) to a walk.

The graph is supposed to go up in steps.  I found judging the effort really hard.  I knew what 90% was… a full out sprint, but what on earth does 60% effort feel like?

Anyway, the line goes up, mostly, and the app decided that I was quicker than it first predicted and reset the zones accordingly.

So, today I had my first run proper.

As you can see, I was supposed to run for 5 minutes at the blue zone pace then up it to green for 10 minutes then back to blue for the last 5 minutes.

The big dips are roads but as you can see I was really struggling to get up into the green zone and stay there.  My pace seems to be very erratic, possibly because the zones were too high.

The green zone pace is 5.18m/km – 4.34 m/km and I should be able to talk in sentences without having to take a breath during a sentence.  Well, I couldn’t and so by the time I got to the end of the green zone section I was knackered.

I’ve now adjusted the Zones down a notch.  Tomorrow is a ‘steady state threshold run’ which involves runing in the yellow zone (faster than green) for a bit!  Yellow is supposed to be a pace I could maintain for an hour if ‘motivated’.  Well, in these settings a man with a gun couldn’t motivate me to run that fast!

I also bought some new gear yesterday.  New Balance is this week’s running apparel supplier of choice, mostly because JJB Sports have a sale on.  I picked up 2 NB Tempo t shirts (one black, one blue) and a pair of black NB shorts.  I also got a blue Nike miler long-sleeve top because I live in Scotland and it ain’t summer yet!

The shorts have an ICE (in case of emergency) tag inside a pocket.  It’s a nice feature but a little alarming!

Anyway, my legs are starting to stiffen up so tomorrow’s run should be interesting!  I’ll let you know how I get on next week, or if you can’t wait that long follow me on Twitter for regular updates.

Sat 27 february 2010   10.30am – 4pm

Cost £10 – includes lunch

St Silas Church, Glasgow, 69 Park Road, Woodlands, Glasgow G4 9JE

The event is a must for anyone interested in building a Christ-centered community where parents, carers and children can share their creativity, eat a meal and worship together outside of Sunday worship.  It’s ideal for Worship Leaders, Local Preachers, Ministers, Deacons, Sunday School teachers – the sky is the limit! There will be time to learn from Lucy Moore, to try out activities and make plans for the future.

Book soon. Places are limited and this even sold quickly out last time.

For bookings contact Fiona Inglis – Email: meth [at] scottishchurcheshouse [dot] org – Phone: 01786 820295 – Methodist Office, Scottish Churches House, Kirk St, Dunblane, FK15

You can download the Messy Church Training poster 2010

Holy CITY 09-10
Revised Standard Visions: Imagining another world
25 Oct/ 29 Nov/ 20 Dec/ 31 Jan/ 28 Feb/ 28 Mar/ 25 Apr/ 30 May
@ 7pm, Renfield St Stephen’s, 260 Bath St., Glasgow. www.holycity-glasgow.co.uk

Climate change, the credit crunch, the still-unfulfilled demands of justice & peace… our generation faces a multitude of challenges…

The history of faith and culture speak of each generation facing similar critical times, when prophets and visionaries have re-framed and re-formed the way we think about our world. It’s said that ‘without a vision, the people perish’.  Holy City’s 2009-10 programme addresses this urgent need in all its facets, and seeks to explore the re-imagining and re-visioning of faith, our lives and our times.

Holy City is the Glasgow city-centre monthly, ecumenical workshop & worship event. It’s enabled by the Wild Goose Resource Group of the Iona Community, in collaboration with a motley crew of Glaswegian citizens.

I’ve been invited to lead one of the workshops at Holy City in Glasgow this Sunday evening.  The stop this month in the journey to discover the demands, delights and dilemmas of discipleship is ‘Speaker’s Corner’.

The blurb for my bit says…

‘Telling signs?’
‘Emerging Church’ is one (of many) tags given to odd, quirky, marginal forms of being church that exist in or outside of the mainstream? What and where are they? What do they mean? And do they matter? A man who has his finger on the pulse of such things is STEWART CUTLER. He is Children and Youth Development Officer for the URC in Scotland.

Like all these kinds of invitations I’m delighted to be asked then gripped by fear about what to do!  I might talk about that.  It seems kind of apt…  After all, it is Pentecost.

Come and join us at 7pm in Renfield St Stephens, Bath Street, Glasgow.

I do a bit of guest teaching and supervise some placement students at ICC in Glasgow.  They are having an open day on Saturday.

International Christian College Open Day: Saturday 21st Feb 10am

For anyone who wants to discover a bit more about who we are and what we do. You may be a prospective student, you may be interested in seeing what opportunities we have for people who want to combine some study with their ongoing work, or you may simply want to have a chance to look round the college.  Whoever you are and whatever your interest you will be very welcome.

From 10am – 4pm there will be tours of the college, stories from students about life at ICC and about some of the ministries they are involved in, taster lectures delivered by some of the college’s staff, and music from some of our students. Staff will also be there to talk to people individually to answer any queries people may have.
For more information visit our website: www.icc.ac.uk or contact college [at] icc [dot] ac [dot] uk

It’s not often that Social Workers get immortalised in song but Glasvegas have in their new single ‘Geraldine’.

When your sparkle evades your soul
I’ll be at your side to console
When your standing on the window ledge
I’ll talk you back from the edge
I will turn your tide
Be your shepard and your guide
When your lost in the deep and darkest place around
May my words walk you home safe and sound

When you say that I’m no good and you feel like walking
I need to make sure you know thats just the Prescription talking
When your feet decide to walk you on the wayward side
Up upon the stairs and down the downward slide
I will, I will turn your tide
Do all that I can to heal you inside
I’ll be the angel on your shoulder
My name is Geraldine, I’m your social worker

I see you need me
I know you do

It’s a great song and you can see it here: