Training on Xmas Day

Let’s get this straight from the start, this blog is not about the religious or commercial aspects of Xmas day, if you want a Christian message my mate, Terry Lawton, does it well, at the same time telling humorous tales about his life on the beat, his time entertaining children of all ages and his fight against cancer www.triumphtraumaandhope.co.uk. My blog is about training.

It’s now less than a week until Xmas day, though I’m not feeling as Christmassy as I used to. Years ago, when I worked in an office environment, we used to put decorations up, making sure we followed very strict guidelines as to whereabouts they should be placed. Eventually those guidelines became so strict we bah humbugged the whole idea, but we still had the Xmas party. All that changed for me after the Xmas party of 2007, luckily I wasn’t working a shift that day or night so was able to go along to the one that RBS IT threw in Edinburgh. This was to be the last works Xmas party I would attend as RBS put a ban on people having fun, following a silly mistake made by an employee called Fred. As I’m now self employed it doesn’t seem the same organising a party for one. Oh well at least it won’t get in the way of my training as I put in the preparation for my next race.

Xmas to me is a family time, it’s about the family getting together in one place to enjoy each other’s company, play silly games, eat and drink too much and have some lively discussions. Last year Xmas day was spent at our place, I cooked for 9, it was great fun that very nearly didn’t happen as Northwich suffered a power cut in the morning, thankfully it came back on just as I needed to get started. All my family are either older than me or the children of my older siblings, so I don’t have any child ties to stop me from training on Xmas day. However I would say to people who have young families, it’s perhaps not a day to train unless you do some fun type activities that can provide a relative level of fitness but also be all inclusive of the family.

In his heyday Daley Thompson declared that he trained twice on Xmas day, in a bid to get one over on his competitors who took the day off. Was Daley really that dedicated to his training? I’m sure he was but I certainly couldn’t have trained after my Xmas dinner. But for those who aren’t looking at the Olympics perhaps making Xmas day a rest day is the answer to making Xmas day special for your family.

Generally I will train on Xmas Day, last year I went for a run along the river Weaver and came back with my face covered in frost, mind you I had to get up early so I was back in time for the cooking. Apart from the years when I’ve been injured, or the years before I ran, I’ve mostly gone for a run on Xmas day, but, with all the other activities going on, just going for a run doesn’t seem that special. I prefer something different which is why, when I could, I ran in the Lauriston parlauff.

The Lauriston parlauff is an event which takes place every year on Wimbledon Common, organised by the good crowd at Lauriston Cottage. Being a parlauff it requires teams of two runners to run around opposite ends of a lap on the Common, with a jog across the middle of the lap to meet your partner for your next half lap. The event goes on for 30 minutes, which means you’re running hard for roughly 15 of those and jogging the rest. It’s a great spectator event as the whole course is visible and, because it’s fun, runners tend to bring their families along to watch. Everyone has a good chat and afterwards there is a fire, food and mulled wine. It’s the sort of thing that you would only know about if you were a runner, so obviously I was unaware of it in the heyday of the runners I first trained with. Over the next few years, as I Xmased away, I was told various tales about how people had done in the parlauff, including a bunch of famous Kenyans who turned up one year. In 1992, my training partner, James Ryle, won the event partnering Marcello Bizio.

In 1993 I made my debut at the event, you don’t get to choose your partner, names are pulled out of a hat. I can’t remember who I got that year but he wasn’t the fastest partner in the hat. I was treating it as a hard training run so really pushing myself on my bits and I’m sure my partner was too, but we seemed to be going backwards through the field. Still it made for a good hard training run for me and it’s not really important to win anyway, it’s more important to have fun.

1996 was the next chance I got to run the parlauff, I was running hard but seemed to only be firing on 3 cylinders. It wasn’t until January that a doctor informed me I’d strained my heart at the Surrey XC Champs, back in December. I was recovered by the 1997 parlauff, but not the same athlete as I used to be, just as well that I got a good partner in Dennis Williams and we came 3^rd. I couldn’t repeat this in 1998, when partnering Nicky Harvey, but in 1999 I came 2^nd with Melanie Jones.

That was the last time I can remember doing the parlauff, I spent a lot of the following years away and then in 2005 I moved up to Edinburgh. 2005 was my most depressing Xmas ever, I hardly knew anyone in Edinburgh and those that I did know were with their families. I’d only just started renting a flat near Hearts football ground, so didn’t really know any neighbours and I couldn’t go back to my family as I was working 12 hour shifts on 23, 24 and 25 December. It wasn’t much fun at work on Xmas day and, with it being my 3^rd long day on the run I was having my rest day, so I didn’t even get to go out running on Xmas day – the one thing that could have kept me from having one of the worst days of my life. But don’t get too depressed reading this as I made up for it on 26^th, my friend, Jim Buick, took me along to the Beescraigs 14km handicap event. Unfortunately he also told the organisers I was a 30 minute 10k man, neglecting to tell them that I’d run that 12 years earlier. So I was last man off, a long way behind the next man, Mark Johnston. I ran hard, a good way of getting out some of the frustrations in my life at the time, but I didn’t know the course and although it was obvious to people who run there all the time it wasn’t for me. Each lap consisted of a long loop, cross a road to a small loop but the small loop involved climbing a steep hill and then descending the other side. On one of these descents I wasn’t quite balanced enough and went A over T, punching myself in the face as I did so. My teeth were sore but not as sore as my pride, I carried on, finishing 2^nd fastest but a fair way down on Mark, and I’m not even sure that I saw many people during the race. It was nice to get out and run my first race in Scotland and it was a friendly enough crowd – but I won’t be doing that race in a hurry.

So my idea of a great Xmas day starts with a run, preferably a race. But what if you feel the urge to do something on Xmas day, to justify that extra mince pie, and you don’t run. My suggestion to you is to think up a circuit, say 10 exercises, you don’t even need equipment to do an effective session. You can spend 5-10 minutes on each circuit and perform it as many times as you want – probably 3 is as much as the Xmas mind will allow. And the best thing about that is you can get the whole family doing it together, particularly if you’re not using equipment. Alternatively you could just unwrap the latest Wii or other such electronic gadget/toy and just play with that. Whatever you do, make sure it’s fun.  

This last weekend has been a cold and harsh winter weekend, certainly in my neck of the woods. It was snowing on and off as I was with clients on Friday morning, treacherous enough for me to abandon a planned run with one of my clients, thankfully she has a treadmill so all was not lost and the added bonus was I got to rest, my knee has been niggling a bit this week so a rest was welcome. As I drove home the snow was falling by the bucket load, not the best start to the weekend. On Saturday Ray, Sharon, Carole and myself had planned to do a parkrun, but, with the weather looking decidedly dodgy on Friday afternoon, and my knee niggling, I decided it was best to skip it. It was still icy on the paths and roads around us on Saturday morning, so I decided to do a big session in the gym. Carole joined me, little realising that she would have to do my session, not one I’d designed for her. Sunday morning and I was ready to run again, I got dressed up in my winter gear and stepped out the door, the roads and pavements had looked in a reasonable state, from the window, but as I stepped onto them it was clear there was still enough ice to cause a potential issue. So, not wishing to risk the knee and having history with ice, I went straight back in and changed for another gym session. Carole was much braver and, as I walked to the gym, she set off for her run. A couple of minutes later, as I was just setting up the healthrider, she popped into the gym, perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to run! Her running loss was her fitness gain as Carole experienced another one of my sessions, lucky girl! In the afternoon we went out for a walk in the Northwich Woodlands but the paths were covered in sheet ice and it was freezing cold so we didn’t stay out long.

Sunday night was another cold one and when I woke up on Monday it was clear it was a black ice day. I had a long drive to my clients around Cheshire but I was going to be careful. Black ice is no respecter of careful drivers, going slow I only just managed to stop at the first junction, I continued to drive slow but the next junction is slightly downhill and a tight turn and that was it, the ice took over driving and I became a passenger, we veered over towards the pavement and went up the low kerb. It was all happening in cinematic best slow motion and I was resigned to meeting up with one of the two lamp posts in my way, but before that happened my left hand tyres bumped into a raised bit of kerb and that sent me back in the right direction. Phew that was a close one. It was still a little icy when I got back, so I cancelled my plan for a quality session and just did a 5 miler instead, but today it’s all gone and I was back to doing proper training, boy it felt good.

A Soft Spot For Derbyshire

I’m going to start this week’s blog by stating something that may surprise a few people. I’m quite an emotive person, I have deep feelings and this includes a lot of sentimentality plus I don’t forget the good things that people have done for me. The reason I feel you might be surprised is because I do put on a bit of a front. I’m of an age, gender and grew up in a location whereby it was not the done thing to show your feelings. I sometimes come across expressionless and emotionally challenged but my emotions run deep though they tend to stay deep. There occasions where I’ve found it hard to suppress those feelings and they have slipped out at times when I least wanted them to, don’t believe me if I say I love you when I’m drunk (it’s not a lie, I’m just confusing love with lust) but if I’m sober you know you’re onto a good thing as I’m against lying. I rarely make any emotive signs when I win a race, it’s not because I’m unhappy it’s just I don’t really like to overly express the joy of my victories in front of the people I’ve beaten, preferring to congratulate them on the effort they themselves have put in. Mind you I will smile if I’ve had a good run.

So now I’ve explained all that, what does any of it have to do with Derbyshire. The point is I’m sentimental, I have soft spots for most of the places I’ve lived and Derbyshire is one place that I have strong feelings for. My family comes from Derbyshire, many generations of Alsops lived their lives in the county and there is even a place called Alsop-en-le-Dale, with an Alsop Hall built in the 16^th century. These were the posh Alsops that had an estate there since the 12^th century, I’m from the other branch of the family. My dad grew up in the Derbyshire countryside and my mum was born and bombed in Derby. I, and my brother and sister, were all born in Derbyshire, but when I was 4 we migrated abroad, to Wales. With relatives still in Derbyshire there were regular trips back to visit, so I grew up with a love of my home county.

My life choices took me to London, at 18, so the visits to Derbyshire stopped for a while, until I met the girl who would become my wife. She had been born and brought up in Derby and so the visits back to Derby and the surrounding countryside began again. I did some good training in Derby, either heading out into the countryside or running around the estates in the Oakwood area but I never seemed to race there and I was keen to, after all it was my heritage.

Patience is a great virtue and although my mum thinks I haven’t got any she’s very much mistaken. Eventually I started to enter races in Derbyshire. My first one was in 2002, so if you’ve been following my blogs you’ll know that I was well past my sell by date by then. It was December and I’d just finished 5^th in the LARA 10k at Horton Park, in fact I’d just missed out on equalling my season’s best by one second by running 31:56. After the race I got talking to David Denton, who organised the LARA races in Surrey and Derbyshire. I’d mentioned that I was going up to Derby for Xmas and he suggested I did the Queens Head 5k in Belper, which was taking place on 27 December. So it turned out, two days after sitting down to a generous Xmas dinner with the in-laws, and rest of my extended new family, my wife and I headed north to Belper.

It was a nice change for me, after so many years competing in the South, to turn up to a race where I knew nobody and nobody knew me. Faced with this situation I had no inhibitions and come the start of the race I shot off. Another chap also shot off, but he shot off slightly faster than me. I tried to keep up with him, but clearly my 37 year old muscles and joints couldn’t match the youthfulness of my opponent. It was an out and back course and by the time I reached the turnaround my opponent, Martin Whitehouse, was already well on his way back. It was a pleasant undulating course and I was pleased with the time of 15:37 for 2^nd place, Martin ran 15:12 in 1^st place. My wife was first lady in 20:10 so not a bad little outing for us. As always, David’s races seem to be associated around a local hostelry, so it was only polite to stay for a swift one.

The following year we weren’t up for Xmas but made it for New Year. It just so happens that David also organises a New Year’s Day race at Whatstandwell, so my wife and I decided to try that one. I didn’t know much about the area so didn’t know what to expect but I do like to race on these special days. As we approached Whatstandwell it was clear it was cold as the hills were snow covered. As is usual before I race I went to check out the finish, which was down a very steep hill, steeper than I like to run down, but hey it was the same for everyone, though if I was going to win this one I’d have to make a break early in case someone else was a braver downhill runner than myself. I chatted to Dave and he told me that there was a record for the first mile, I can’t remember what time he told me but it was around 6:15. I decided not to take a look at the first mile but just to attack it. Just before we set off David made the usual pre-race announcements and then stated that although the race was supported by adidas the prizes hadn’t arrived, but there were two adidas sponsored athletes present, pointing to myself and the wife (we weren’t sponsored by adidas but Belgrave were). It was a slightly embarrassing moment for a shy guy like me and meant I now had to win to justify my sponsorship! As we set off I went for it, David soon came past in his car, so he could get a 1 mile split. It was a tough first mile but I clocked what I thought was a new record on my watch (wasn’t confirmed by David so I still don’t know if it was), don’t ask what the time was as I can’t remember but it wasn’t that much under the old record and certainly wasn’t under 6 minutes. Then it just got steeper and the second mile took me over 7 minutes (which is getting into Mow Cop Killer Mile territory). Thankfully, soon after, I reached the top and we were onto a relatively flat bit, actually it was undulating but relatively flat compared to the rest of the course. As I came to a dip between two hills I could see that the road was covered with water apart from one strip in the centre. After my experience with the puddle at the South of Thames there was no way I was going through the water, certainly not in the freezing temperatures I was experiencing, but with a car coming towards me I had to make a choice, did I stop or risk my life. I chose the latter and put my hand up to gesture to the driver my intention, luckily they were either in a good mood or just so shocked to see me and they stopped, allowing myself a dry passage. Then it was downhill to the finish. Understandably the first bit was steep, not only that it was icy. Having risked my life with the car my nerve ran out and I decided to walk over the icy bit, I had racing flats on and they didn’t have much grip. I’m not one for walking in races, I’ve subsequently had to walk up a hill in a hill race in Holyrood Park (but then so was everybody in front of me, including the international hill runners) but it’s pretty embarrassing to admit to having to walk downhill. Still I can get over that, it’s not the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to me, and I was still in the lead, but I was sure I’d lost ground. Once over the ice I set off again and reached the final mile. By now I was sure I’d have a host of hill runners charging me down so I couldn’t afford to take that last mile easy, I went as hard as I could allow myself and came in the victor in a time of 28:54. 2^nd place came in about a minute back. My wife could only manage 2^nd in her race, I think the cold affected her more than me. What a great race though, certainly not an easy one. For someone who was essentially a track athlete it was definitely an experience and, like all David’s races, the atmosphere was friendly. Incidentally I’ve found a description of the course ‘A one lap AAA certified course...uphill for first 2.6 miles then good downhill running....and good lunches & beer at the pub’.  

The following May we were off on holiday to Wales to walk some of Offa’s Dyke. We decided to go via Derby, coinciding with the Derby 10k. The race started outside Derby County’s new ground at Pride Park, heading towards the city centre, a brief run though the shopping district, along the River Derwent and then back towards a finish inside Pride Park. I had a good run, coming 4^th in 32:47. Following the week in Wales we called back into Derby on the way home, main reason being that David Denton had one of his races in Wirksworth and coincided with the Wells Dressings taking place in the village. The race was described as a 4.2 mile trail run and I was keen to find out what a trail run was. Coming from Wales we were a bit pushed for time so I didn’t get my chance to scout out the finish. We lined up and were off. The start through the town was downhill and this got me off to a quick start, but I was joined by one of the local runners. I was feeling pretty confident so when we got to the trail part I pushed hard up it, up being the operative word here as it was another steep muddy hill with some big rocks almost blocking parts of the path. Not my idea of a trail run, particularly when I had my best racing flats on. I soon burned off my company but as I reached the top the climb had taken it’s toll on me too and I was a bit knackered. Now we were running in the countryside and the views were stunning, but no time for that I had a race to win. Coming back down towards the finish I was unsure which was to go and the marshals weren’t exactly helping, they must’ve assumed it was an obvious route so just stood there without directing. This slowed me down a little as I approached each junction. I came across the finish almost unexpectedly so never really got into my finishing burst but I’d held on for the win in 23.06. It was another tough race but another enjoyable route from David. I was chuffed to bits to win again, particularly as I was in the middle of Alsop country and I thought it was fitting an Alsop had won. I also bumped into one of my old pals and former Belgravian Ray Foley, who was also in the race, having moved to Wirksworth.

And then that was it, the following year I tore my hamstring so was unable to take part in the same races, not much after that I moved to Edinburgh and without a wife I no longer had a strong reason for making the journey back to Derbyshire. That is, until this weekend. Carole and I were thinking of taking a weekend away, we usually go somewhere for her birthday but this year she was on a work trip to San Francisco (some people have it tough), so we delayed it. I’d read some stuff about how Derby had changed over the past few years and I was keen to see it again, so we decided we’d go this weekend. With my cold not having affected me at the previous week’s parkrun it took it out on me the following day, my head throbbed and I was sore all over, it stayed with me for most of the week which meant less quality but some longer runs. I still wasn’t right by the weekend so decided to take some time off training whilst in Derby, though I did take my kit in case I changed my mind.

We started off shopping in Derby, the obligatory lunch followed, and then we separated so that we could buy each other’s xmas presents. Carole went to the Westfield Centre whilst I started down the side streets. This was just what I was looking for, non standard high street shops where I could get Carole something different. A quick jaunt around the shops and a few purchases later I headed off to the Westfield Centre. After what I’d read I was expecting it to be similar to the Arndale Centre or the Trafford Centre but I was a little disappointed with what was on offer, so I’ll have to finish my shopping in Cheshire.

Back to the hotel we stopped at a pub, Derby has built up it’s reputation for real ale and I fancied a pint, in fact I fancied it so much I had two. In the shops I’d got chatting to a shop assistant and she’d recommended a couple of places to eat but one was shut and the other was fully booked. I took away a couple of numbers and called them from the hotel, they were also fully booked. So we decided on a quick change and back we ventured into Derby to find dinner. We’d seen a bar/diner called Revolution, part of a chain and there is one in Edinburgh that we’d been in before so we decided to try there. There were people in drinking but there were tables available. It was now about 19:05 but when I went up to the bar I was told they were only doing food until 19:15. They didn’t have any of Carole’s first choice main but she found something else. 10 minutes later the barman came over and said they didn’t have my choice of starter so I had to pick again. A further 25 minutes and two waiters showed up with our starters and main, completely baffled I asked them why the starters and main had come together, they said it was because they had a big party coming in. You can imagine what our response to that was. It was now getting close to 20:00 and we hadn’t eaten anything and were aware of the situation in Derby re. getting a table but to be honest the food they were presenting looked pretty dire so we decided we’d try somewhere else. The saving grace was that they didn’t charge us for the wine we’d already drunk, which we were prepared to pay for. For the next hour we walked around Derby trying to find a restaurant that was open and had space for us, finally we ended up in a Thai restaurant, we did enjoy the food but it was a reminder to us that we need to book on a Saturday in cities, we hadn’t because we wanted to take a look at the restaurants before we decided and the literature I’d been reading was intimating that Derby was full of restaurants.

Sunday morning it was role reversal as I was keen to stay in my bed and Carole was wanting to get up for a run. After a couple of minutes of discussion she managed to persuade me to take her out. It was cold and windy but I’ll do anything for Carole. We set off at a comfortable pace, well it was comfortable for me, the route was nice and flat so I decided to take a turn to the right up Breadsall Hill. When you first see the hill it looks like any other hill in a residential area but as you turn the corner the full extent of the climb becomes apparent, it’s a good hill, one I would embrace and could enjoy using for a hill session. Now it was time to get Carole to embrace it, she worked hard but was clearly struggling, a bit of coaxing and coaching and a couple of cracks of the whip and she was up it, sadly the view at the top wasn’t worth the climb, which is usually my justification for getting Carole up a hill. Still it was all downhill back to the hotel. After breakfast we headed to Keddleston Hall, for some culture, and then intended walking in the hills, but as we emerged from the Hall it started to rain, that horrible big cold persistent rain, so we decided to drive through the hills instead.

And that was that, thankfully the break seems to have cleared my cold and I was back in hard training yesterday, 8 x 3 mins hard with 30 seconds recovery, it felt good. I’m about to enter my next big race, the first of the new year, so it’s important I get some good quality training in over the next few weeks, at the moment I don’t feel confident enough to win my category, but some hard work will change that, plus it’s important I get a faster time over 10k than Richard Meade, thereby justifying my decision not to eat chocolate, otherwise it’s all for nothing.

More good news this week when a local therapist, who treated me during one of my injuries last year, donated an exercise cycle to my gym. Fantastic, not only does this give me more scope to train my clients, it also gives me another excuse to push my body to the limit in a bid to get back to my best.      

Incidentally anybody who has survived reading this blog without falling asleep and is interested in taking part in any of David’s events (they’re not just in Surrey or Derbyshire), or renting his place in India, should visit www.runningwithdavid.com

And finally, here’s one for my non facebook friends, a picture I picked up from a New Zealand trail running page

Why Do I Run?

While I was assisting Lee with his recent world record preparation he asked me the question ‘why do I still run’. He didn’t mean anything derogatory by this, i.e. ‘you’re so old why are you still running’ or ‘you’re so slow why do you still run competitively’, he was genuinely interested in what made me tick. I gave Lee a couple of honest answers to his question but went away pondering on the question, because although I believed the answers were genuinely honest perhaps they weren’t altogether correct. So I’ve broken the question down a little to see if I can come up with the answer/s.

Why did I start running in the first place –

I’ve always loved playing sport, but I’m not actually that good at it. At primary school I was so slow at running (we only ran sprints) that every year, on sports day, I was demoted to the sack race. It didn’t get any better at grammar school, although I improved I was no footballer and couldn’t make the house team, let alone the school team. I did make the cricket house team, but more by lack of interest from others than by any talent on my part, which was apparent when I was out for two golden ducks in the only match I played. The one area that I did display any talent was in long distance running, I appeared to be one of the better runners in the year, despite only running on sports day and on maybe two or three other occasions.

In adult life I was again unspectacular at any team sports, better than average but no star in the making. I tried hockey and football but when it was clear I lacked any real talent it was time to revert to the only thing in which I had any potential. I’d been thinking about running for a few weeks and then I caught sight of an old school friend, Andrew Geddes, winning the AAAs indoor 1500m title. Well that was it, I was kicked into action and went along to join my local club, Hercules Wimbledon. Unfortunately they were shut, which is why I ended up around the corner at Belgrave Harriers.

My first training run with Belgrave Harriers was an absolute disaster as seasoned distance runners did to me what was all too common in clubs in those days, ran the new boy into the ground. Why did I go back to run again after such an experience? Something made me go back, I’d enjoyed the run, while I could keep up, and I felt I had something to prove. Besides I thought they’d been a bit rude to do that to me so I vowed to myself I’d do the same thing to them, which I did within a couple of years.

In my first year at Belgrave I tried many different running events and was pretty useless at all of them, but perseverance paid off and I became less useless over time. It didn’t matter how useless I was, there were always others more useless, or not quite as useless as me so I had company and someone to compete against. As I improved I started to beat the ‘not useless but not that good either’ crowd and with further improvement I started to beat people ‘who used to be good’. In time I improved further until I found myself able to compete reasonably well with some of the top athletes in the country but there would always be someone better than me, I never scaled the top of the peak. But it was this constant drive to climb up the ladder a few more rungs at a time that kept me going.

There were things I hadn’t even dreamed of achieving when I started running but as I improved so my goals became bigger. I didn’t achieve them all, but as my form declined so my years advanced and suddenly I was presented with a new lease of life as I entered masters athletics. So I hadn’t been the best in Britain, at my best, but I could be the best in my age group. I got close but still I haven’t achieved that one, however, with every year you get another chance and then at every 5^th year you’re at the start of a new age group. So ultimately there’s no telling how long I will continue.

Injury may eventually force me to stop, I really thought my time had come in 1998, when I couldn’t run for over 5 months, but somehow I managed to come back, and achieved much more since then. In 2005 I left Belgrave because I knew it was only a matter of time before I would struggle to make the A team, whereas Herne Hill had a number of other runners in my age group. I knew running with Herne Hill would keep me motivated and training hard to make their masters team, whereas I would only train hard to fail to make Belgrave’s team, so, just like the change from football to running it was time to move on from Belgrave to Herne Hill. I was proven right, being part of a successful squad has kept me motivated to train hard and we’ve achieved a lot together.

But what now, I’m miles away from London, so rarely run for Herne Hill, I have no team in Cheshire to compete with, how do I maintain that motivation. Well it’s all down to self believe, I still believe I have more to give, I don’t believe I have run my best, ok I ran my best times and some great races when I was younger but I still feel I have more to prove against my peers. Of course, every time I win a race outright, rather than just an age group win, it helps me to stay motivated. I find it hard to believe that, at almost 47 years old, I’m still able to give youngsters a good run for their money and the age grading of results helps to compare against those that finish significantly ahead of me but are around 20 years my junior. 

I now coach people to run and the people I’ve coached have had their own success. I don’t have anyone going to the Olympics but there are many people who can say they have benefited from the advice and training I have given them. Then there is Lee Riley, who has set three world records under my guidance. It’s a great feeling to be able to help others to achieve their goals, and even better to help them achieve beyond their goals. But, although I know I’ve helped, I can’t be absolutely confident that it was down to me, someone else could have guided them to their achievements and after all, it was them that ran to that achievement, not me. So this keeps me running still, everything I achieve in running, I know is down to me.

In life and work I’ve been reasonably successful, above average I’d say, but it’s running that has been the stand out success in my life. It’s also the cornerstone to my latest career choice, the more I run, the more I can use those experiences to help and inspire others to run or get fit, the more experiences I gain the more I have to talk about or blog about. And the more times I come back from defeat to attain success, the more I can motivate others to do the same, whether that be in running or other aspects of their life. But most of all I run because it keeps me alive, having something to aim for inspires me to work hard towards it, and that leads to all the other fringe benefits.

Why do I blog?

I started blogging back in February at the suggestion of a friend of a friend, who was into marketing, he was confident it was a way of getting people to know about what I had to offer. Whilst I’m not sure it has brought me any potential clients I know that some of my existing clients read the blogs and they have acted as inspiration for them. There are people who have picked them up via google searches, but that doesn’t mean they’ve read them and been inspired by them. The bulk of my readership comes from Facebook and I’m pretty sure most of those are my running friends. Thank you for reading, I know some of you are far better runners than I ever was so it’s nice that you take the time to read my tales of how it was for me. One of the things that keeps me writing about my life in running is that nobody knows the whole story about me, even my best man got some of his stories wrong at my wedding, so I’m putting the stories out from my point of view. Since February I’ve written 40 blogs and had 2500 viewings of them. The more popular ones seem to be about running with the top 10 viewings going to, in descending order;

2011 British Masters Road Relay Championships, a Personal View – probably thanks to my Cambuslang friends

The Mile

The Marathon

Why I Like Northwich From a Fitness Perspective, etc

Marathon the Final Tune Up

Illnesses and Injuries – to Train or Not to Train

Supplements

While I was Away

Memories of the Surrey 10000m Championship

Inspirational Athlete – Paul Evans

I’ve mentioned, over the last few blogs, that I’ve been fighting off a cold, it’s not really manifested itself properly, up to now. I was feeling a little run down at the end of last week but I felt ok to train. Ray and I had planned to go to Pennington Flash on the Saturday taking our respective ladies, it’s been a while since I made it up there. When I woke up on Saturday morning my throat was feeling quite sore and I thought I might be better off not running, however, after breakfast I was feeling well enough to give it a go. The weather was looking pretty miserable, it’d rained on and off for the whole week and I was sure it would be muddy at Pennington. But mud doesn’t deter me, I just thought it would affect the times. We arrived in the car park just as the heavens opened and chucked a lake full of water onto us, thankfully it didn’t last too long. When we got to the start, there was Bill and very few others, what a shame, xmas parties, xmas shopping and the weather must’ve had an effect. But as we waited, and tried to keep warm, runners came streaming round the corner to the start area, including an old friend of mine, Alex Rowe, who was down for a meeting of the Northern Masters. It was good to see Alex, but it also meant he would be aiming to beat me. I also noticed a young guy who looked like he might be talented but I lost sight of him as I talked to Alex, it was only when Bill set us off I realised he must’ve been standing next to me. As we set off I was joined by Alex, as expected, and this other chap. It was a solid start, the cold was playing no part in slowing me down and, in fact, didn’t affect me at all in the run, though the mud and strong wind did slow me down a bit (I had thought that conditions were so bad that this might be the first time I ran the course slower than 18 minutes). As we got to the gate, which signifies the start of the lap, the young chap upped the pace and soon pulled away, he seemed to have a graceful style that is somewhat lacking from my own running, he was long striding and confident and I confidently predicted it would be an end to my 5 race winning streak. Tom Doe was the young chap and he just pulled away from that moment on. Despite drifting further and further back I never gave up on the chase, after all I still had to beat Alex and while I was expecting to run post 18 minutes I still have a reasonable average time around Pennington. At the finish I was clearly 2^nd, nearly a minute and a half behind Tom, who smashed the course record (a fantastic achievement in those conditions), and almost a minute ahead of Alex. Not only did I run under 18 minutes, with 17:47, but it wasn’t even my slowest run around the course. I’d never heard of Tom before, I don’t follow general athletics, so I did a bit of research, which helped me to understand why he’d run so well, he was 5^th in the UK Steeplechase Final this year and has a 10k pb of 30:06, better than my pb, set 18 years ago, and 4 minutes faster than I have done this year, (though I took that from Power of 10 which isn’t always accurate, certainly they don’t hold my best times). Perhaps we’ll see more of Tom at Pennington, or maybe on the TV.

South of Thames Cross Country Championships

This weekend my club, Herne Hill Harriers, won the South of Thames 5 mile race. The South of Thames championships extend to any club south of the river Thames, that is affiliated to it’s association. This includes many well known clubs such as Herne Hill, Blackheath and Belgrave, plus many more big and some not so big clubs that fit that criteria. There are two races a year, the 5 mile race (formerly known as Junior) and the Championship race (formerly known as Senior). The 5 mile race, which takes place in November, is run over a distance of approx. 8k is competed for by teams of 4 scorers with a secondary 8 man team competition. The Championship race takes place in December, in the past it was January or December but was moved forward because of other cross country commitments, and is generally run over a distance of 12k with 6 men to score in the Championship race and a secondary 12 man team competition. The Championship race has been established since 1888, under a different title, with the 5 mile race commencing in 1910. I could go on but as this blog is about my personal experiences of the races I’ll refer you to the official website www.sotcca.org.uk/. 

I’m a great lover of established races, it’s fascinating looking back at the names of previous winners, some legends that we all know, others surprisingly unknown despite being good enough to win a significant championship. I have a particular soft spot for these championships as I ran in the South of Thames Junior Championship in 1989, my third cross country race ever. Having run previous cross country races in the Surrey League, where I came 126^th and suffered from a stitch and some derogatory remarks from Gary Staines, and the Reigate Priory relays, where I got confused at the takeover when our C team runner came in ahead of the B team runner, I’d, surprisingly, taken a shine to cross country. I’m not entirely sure why, perhaps it was the fact that, coming from 800m track races, I was now running in races surrounded by 100s of other athletes and it felt a friendly sort of place to be. Of course, unbeknown to me at the time, I was more gifted at longer distance races and because I started steady, using my stamina to surge through the field in the last two miles it was a nice feeling being able to beat a large number of runners, so perhaps that was the reason why.

On that occasion the race took place in Sevenoaks and was won by J. Thompson, of Herne Hill, I was just over 3 minutes behind in 95^th. This was a huge improvement on my previous two races, perhaps explained by the barring clauses, that kept many great athletes from this race, but then there were many more teams than in the Surrey League and I did surprise Colin Pearson, the Belgrave Cross Country Team Manager of the time, who had put me in the ‘B’ team, only for me to beat 3 guys from the ‘A’ team. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. I absolutely loved the race and couldn’t wait for next year’s event. The Senior event was won by Ben Reynolds of Tonbridge (now he runs for local rivals Thames Hare and Hounds). When it was time to enter the event I had declined the offer as I thought 12k would be too far for me, though subsequent to that decision I ran the South of England and National Cross Country Champs, both over 9 miles – and it doesn’t get tougher than that.

The 1990 Junior event took place in Havant and was won by Blackheath’s Dave Heath. I improved to 67^th position but still 3 minutes behind the winner. My most enduring memory from the race was the finish, that was uphill, I clearly had plenty left as we approached because I charged up the hill, passing a number of bodies but right before the line I edged out my Belgrave team mates Charlie Dickenson and Martin Lewington, though Charlie did stick his arm out to try to stop me. Having competed in more than a season of Surrey League races I was enjoying the different venues of the South of Thames races (though obviously a number would be held over Surrey League courses) and also the slightly easier fields of the Junior race, I was finishing about 30 places higher than in the Surrey League races. Once again I missed the corresponding Senior event, I can’t remember why, perhaps I was skiing. Ben Reynolds nearly did the doubly losing out on victory by 1 second to Portsmouth’s M. Harris.

The 1991 Junior event also saw me missing from the Belgrave team, I’d damaged one of my lateral knee ligaments and was having treatment and resting up. The winner on this occasion was Spencer Barden, of GEC Avionics, who would later become a team mate at Belgrave. But I was back for the Senior event, held on Wimbledon Common. Understandably I struggled with fitness over the 12k course, having had a few weeks off in December, and could only finish 141^st. Almost 6 minutes ahead, Ben Reynolds was winning another title, ahead of future team mates from Thames Hare & Hounds, Andy Thomas and Jerry Watson.

At some point during this period I’d made up my mind that I’d like to win the South of Thames Junior title one day, of course the Senior title was well beyond me but with a best position of 67^th in the Junior event I believed anything was possible. This is a great example of a THICK goal (read my blog about goal setting for an explanation of this). I made my first, premature, attempt at victory in the 1992 event, held at Margate. The race was won by Ian Hamilton of Invicta, I’d been in the top 10 for a while before fading to 21^st, but encouragingly less than 2 minutes behind the winner. Yes winning this race was a possibility for me, but for now I’d have to settle for a team bronze. The corresponding Senior event was held at Coulsdon. Ben Reynolds was missing but Spencer Barden took victory and, just before I was about to explode onto the track scene, I managed a pretty creditable 35^th position.

1993 was a real breakthrough for me, I had run some great times on the track and featured strongly in road relay events. I carried that form into the winter and, helped by the fact that Belgrave had been demoted to the second division of the Surrey League, ran into some good early form in Surrey League races. The Junior race was on home territory, Wimbledon Common, on 13 November and I was feeling pretty confident. But I couldn’t keep up with the relentless pace of Tim Dickinson and Liam Bulson, both of Blackheath, who I believed were joint winners, they ran exactly the same time, but the clipping I have states Tim was awarded victory. I was only 41 seconds behind, victory would surely be mine one day, and another team medal was in the bag, this time silver. By now I was being coached by Arthur Bruce, and between us we decided it wasn’t in my best interests to enter the Senior event which took place at Roehampton, it would appear that other’s in the team felt the same as only John Mather represented Belgrave and I have no idea who won the race.

I was missing again from the 1994 Junior championship, I’d sustained a groin injury towards the end of the summer season, I would have taken a break earlier, to get it sorted, but during the summer my Natwest colleagues and I had won the Corporate Challenge race in Battersea Park, the prize being a trip to New York to take part in the World Final. No way was I going to miss out on that so I kept training hard, and in a little discomfort. I finished 17^th in that race, NatWest coming 2^nd. But then I took a break and saw a specialist, which meant I was out of action when the race took place in West Wickham, It was won by Justin Pugsley of Boxhill. After two seasons competing at a higher level, I was more than ever convinced that I could win the Junior race, at this moment in time there were still barring clauses, so fearing I’d be barred from the Junior event I chose not to compete in the Senior event, at Esher, which was won by Simon Baines of Blackheath.

I sustained another minor injury at the start of the 1995 cross country season, which meant I wasn’t in the form I’d have liked to be in for the Junior race. It would have been a tall order to win it that year as it was loaded full of talent; Allen Graffin won from Tim Hyde, I was in 9^th place but some notable names ahead of me were; Graham Adams, Rob McHarg, Paul Haywood, Andrew Graffin and, of most note, 6 seconds ahead of me was Alan Barnes. Belgrave took more silver medals, a strong Windsor Slough & Eton team preventing me from being barred from next year’s race. Getting closer to an individual medal I once again avoided the barring clause by not entering the Senior event at Brockwell Park, won by team mate Gary Staines.

I’d had a good first half to 1996, I’d improved throughout the cross country season and performed well in the road relays. On the track I’d come 2^nd in the Surrey 5000m and then won the 10000m, but then I went a bit stale. I didn’t lose any fitness but I didn’t really seem to set anything alight. Luckily by the start of the cross country season I’d found my mojo again, finishing in my highest position, at that time, 13^th, in the Surrey League, even leading the race for a while. When it came to the Junior race I knew this was my chance, I didn’t care who turned up, taking into account the likes of Matt Yates were eligible, I was going to do my utmost to win. I was turning 32 in the new year and I figured I wouldn’t have many more opportunities when I was at a good level of fitness. The race was held at Pyestock, near Aldershot and I was expecting some good opposition, particularly from local club, Aldershot Farnham and District.

We arrived early, about two hours before the start of the race. That doesn’t bother me, I’m very good at chilling out before races, if I’ve got time, I’m not so good at chilling out if there isn’t much time (though this aspect has got better since running the parkruns). I decided to go for an early jog around the course and then just relax. After surveying the course I came back with even more confidence, it was exactly my kind of course, firm, mostly flat, with just a small hill in it that wasn’t too steep. No mud, just one large puddle by a corner, in an awkward position. The only other potential hazard was a ditch, so I’d need to get to that without having too many people in front of me. The thing that pleased me most was that it was a 3 lap course, I love multi-lap events. So I got changed and waited for the start. It was disappointing that more top runners didn’t turn up, I was ready to take them on but they didn’t want to know, still there were enough good runners from Aldershot to make it interesting.

Alan Mead, Belgrave Team Manager, had brought myself, Kevin Quinn and Said Chettati, but nobody else from Belgrave had turned out. No soft options of team medals today, if I was going to win a medal I had to do it all on my own. As I lined up at the start I was brimming with confidence, I’d had a quick look at the opposition and I didn’t recognise anyone I thought was going to give me any problems, though you never know, people improve and new faces turn up so no place for complacency. We were off and I quickly settled into a bunch of about 9 going round the initial field and into the woods. There was a bunch of about 5 guys from Aldershot in the lead pack and a couple of them were cutting me up. I could have let this annoy me and lose concentration and tense up but I’d gained enough racing experience by now and, despite being a very polite runner and quite slight in stature, I found a couple of well intentioned shoves told them I wasn’t going to tolerate their messing about. Before the end of the lap Alan Barnes took up the pace and he and myself quickly found ourselves on our own at the front. Alan was the guy who finished just ahead of me in this race the previous year, but this year I was in peak form and I made my move just before we entered the 3^rd and final lap. I stretched the lead and felt like I could go quicker if I had to. Towards the end of the third lap we came up against the large puddle, I’d avoided it on the previous two laps but it made me run awkwardly, this time, with a reasonable gap to Alan I decided to plunge through it. Big mistake, as I found myself in water that nearly reached my shorts, and in those days I wore shorter shorts than I do today. I waded through the puddle, trying not to panic, and checked where Alan was. Thankfully there was still a gap but as I set off again it was like running in a pair of slippers. Even so I got back into my stride and a few metres on we hit the field again where I was able to stretch out the gap a little more. So I finished with an uncharacteristic raising of my arms, my first ever cross country win and I was now barred from this competition for 10 years. I even got interviewed by Martin Duff, though you wouldn’t have known it as his race report focused mainly on the Aldershot runners (his own club). Since this race Alan Barnes has gone on become a fine runner, particularly in Cross Country, and is now a club mate of mine at Herne Hill.

A couple of months after this race I ran a hard race having not completely recovered from a cold and strained my heart. It took me quite a while to overcome that so, understandably, come the senior event, at Coulsdon, I could only finish in 21^st place, nearly 4 min behind winner, Barry Royden.

The 1997 Junior race was won by Dave Benton of Ranelagh, with Belgrave winning both the 4 and 8 man teams, thus gaining more barring for Belgrave athletes. Come the Senior event, on 14 Feb 1998, I missed out on a fantastic race as Belgrave took victory in both the 6 and 12 man competition, with Kassa Tadessa, Gary Staines and Jim Estall occupying the first three positions. I was in Munich that weekend, my partner was studying over there and she needed me more than Belgrave.

The 1998 Junior race saw another 1-2 for Belgrave as Jason Lobo took the gold, with new boy and New Zealander, and soon to become a good mate of mine, Paul Coughlan, taking silver – possibly his finest performance in his brief stay in the UK. Belgrave took 2^nd place in the 4 man event and 1^st in the 8 man event. I’d missed a huge chunk of 1998 with an issue with my back, it was a 5 month lay off and I was only able to start running again in late November. But I still loved cross country so within 3 weeks I was racing again. Unfortunately I’d chosen the county champs to make my comeback, 12k over my least favourite course with the worst weather conditions I’ve ever experienced. Not surprisingly I only managed 66^th position in a race I was used to making the top 20. But come the Senior event, at West Wickham, I was ready to help Belgrave take on the might of Blackheath on their home territory, for the 100^th Championship. I was far from my best but I do love this course and managed to dig deep for a creditable 16^th with Belgrave again winning the 6 and 12 man trophies. That was my 10 year ban extended, I’d be 44 before I could run again in the Junior event. In the evening I was a guest at a dinner to celebrate the 100^th Championship, along with a host of other previous winners. It was a great evening and so nice to be bracketed with superstars of the past.      

The 1999 Junior race again proved to be another big event for Belgrave as Geremew Wolde took gold and Kevin Nash Bronze, with Michael East of Portsmouth sandwiched in between them. Despite this, it was only 2^nd in the 4 man team event and 3^rd in the 8 man. In the Senior event, held at Tilgate, it was another great day out for Belgrave. No individual medallists this time, as Paul Haywood, of Boxhill, won, but solid team scoring meant Belgrave picked up the 6 man team trophy for the third year running, the first time this had been achieved since the championship began. They also picked up 3^rd in the 12 man competition.

In 2000 the Junior event was held at Lloyd Park and was won convincingly by a track sparring partner of mine, Stuart Major of South London Harriers. In silver position was another old sparring partner and now team mate at Herne Hill, Mickey Boyle. Belgrave had obviously run out of non barred runners and finished out of the medals. At the Senior event it was another Belgrave individual victory as 2^nd claimer, Richard Ashe, romped to a clear victory, but only entered as a guest the gold went to another old sparring partner of mine, Andy Weir of Thames Hare and Hounds, with his team mate, and back again in the medals, Ben Reynolds in Silver. After 3 years of victories Belgrave were understandably unable to get a non barred team entered. I should point out that I use the term sparring to refer to runners I had a number of close battles with, I wasn’t a boxer or even a particularly physical runner.

The 2001 Junior event, held at Coulsdon, provided another individual winner for Belgrave, Stephen Kennefick, though without significant backing only 4^th place in the 4 man team event. Herne Hill, the team I was to move to a few years in the future were starting their own build up towards championship glory with 2^nd place in this competition. At the Senior event it was Stuart Major who won the title to add to his Junior victory of the previous year. Belgrave covered the other medal places with Mike Trees in silver and Stephen Kennefick, having another fine run, for bronze. Out of the trophies again in the team event as Herne Hill picked up another 2^nd place in the 6 man event.

At some point around now it was decided to abolish the barring clauses and so for the 2002 Junior event I was back in the team as we headed back to West Wickham to see what damage we could inflict. Jermaine Mays won ahead of our top man, Padraic Buckley. I was just over a minute back in 5^th place but Belgrave, again finished just out of the medals, with 4^th in the 4 man event. We did pick up a medal for the best team in Surrey as consolation though. I have no recollection of the Senior event.

In 2003 the event was again held at Coulsdon and was won by Jon Hamblen of Walton. For some reason Belgrave didn’t seem to be interested in the race, with the exception of a lone runner. Yes I still had a soft spot for the event and at 38 years of age it was an opportunity to find slightly easier competition than the Surrey League. I had a great battle with Ranelagh’s Paul Doyle before I eventually managed to give him the slip and earn my 2^nd individual medal in this championship, bronze. I was pleased as punch to gain another medal, against much younger opposition. This was to be my last entry to the event as I was soon, not only to depart Belgrave but also London. So I’m leaving this story there. I don’t know the results of the Senior event in early 2004 but all the results from 2004-present can be found on the South of Thames Association website.

  

Also this weekend, in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, it was the British and Irish International Cross Country Champs. Even though I wasn’t selected this year I was intending to turn up to cheer on my friends, for I have many who were taking part, and run in the open event, but I had a lot of things to do at home so decided it wasn’t the best use of my time. It sounded like a very wet, windy and muddy event but I know that wouldn’t have bothered anybody who takes pride in representing their country. With thanks to Kerry Liam Wilson I’ve added a link to some footage of the men’s race, they may be old but they’re not slow (well actually some of those at the back are) http://t.co/gXiV7bi0  I found some other footage of these events on You Tube but haven’t yet viewed, perhaps I feature in one from a previous year! I was particularly chuffed to see local rival, Stu Doyle, achieve selection and finish in 5^th place in the M40 event, he features in the video, as do many of my friends.

I myself had decided to run a proper road race before the end of the year and on the suggestion of Rich, the client I trained around Queens Park, I entered the Cheshire 10k. Don’t get confused, this is just a name, not a Cheshire championship. The race was on Sunday in and around Queens Park, so perfect in that I’d covered much of the territory during my training with Rich. It’s so nice to know the territory, it gives you confidence in deciding your strike point. The race was a 4 lapper, fantastic, I’ve already mentioned how much I enjoy lap races so things were looking good. I did have a concern that it might prove difficult to pass lapped people in the confines of the narrow twisty paths inside the park, but that proved unfounded as most people were happy to move out of the way. There were some muddy patches and tight bends, which slowed the pace a little but all in all it was a very well organised race and I’d happily run it again. So how did it go I hear you say, well at the risk of sending you to sleep, read on.

Having done the bulk of my 2011 races on a Saturday it was quite a novelty to find myself racing on a Sunday. So I was stumped as to what to do with my Saturday, but not for long as Carole’s dreaded obsession with shopping engulfed me and we went in search of xmas presents. Well the shopping wasn’t too bad, I managed to get all my xmas presents sorted, with the exception of those for Carole, but the problem is that Carole views shopping as an opportunity to eat out. Now I love my food but I don’t like two big meals a day, however as we were planning on a light lunch I wasn’t too traumatised. Unfortunately the place we had intended to eat was full so instead we ended up at a pub and light lunch became burger, chips and beer.

The next morning I woke up still full up from that lunch. Naturally we had a debate about it, Carole blames the two portions of dinner I ate but they weren’t big portions, she served them in a breakfast bowl. Anyway, irrespective of who is right (me by the way) I had too much to eat on the Saturday. Carole and Ray were also doing the race but as we had to pick up numbers at the venue I made sure we had plenty of time to get there. It wasn’t a huge field and if I hadn’t had a big lunch on Saturday I would have been confident of a good position, but as I lined up for the start I was conscious that my belly was still feeling a little uncomfortable. To mirror last week’s start line conversation the chap next to me asked me to describe the course, so I obliged, omitting to say anything about not worrying unless he was in the lead. He looked like he could handle himself in a race so I was a little wary. Sure enough as the klaxon sounded, Mat Rushbrook(the chap) shot off behind the leading cycle. I set off a little more demurely but settled in behind him, with another chap settling in behind me. As we reached the first tight turn, at the clock tower, Mat and I were running together. My belly was still a little uncomfortable so I was reluctant to up the pace so that’s how it went, we dropped the chap in 3^rd towards the end of the first lap but Mat and I were running shoulder to shoulder, pretty much, all the way around the first three laps. What was nice about this was that we both gave each other enough space to avoid obstacles and other runners, often in these circumstances people will try to chop across you but Mat was the perfect gentleman racer and I’ve had my day I’m not about to ruin somebody else’s race. We reached 5k in 17:04, the same time as I’d won in Heaton Park the previous week, but by now my stomach had settled down and I was feeling comfortable, and, more importantly, gaining confidence that I would be able to pull away. But I didn’t want to push too early, Mat was clearly a good runner and if I overdid it I was sure he’d make me pay. A sub 34 minute clocking was off the cards but I wasn’t interested in the time this week, I could sense victory and that was all I wanted. Towards the end of the 3^rd lap I used my course knowledge to good effect and stretched out to create a slight gap. Mat was still running strong behind me so I kept the pace within my comfort zone until we reached the hill, about 1k from the finish. I’d been up this hill so many times with Rich that I’d embraced it and made it my friend, today it embraced me as I pushed up it and into the park for the last time. I kept the pace high, not looking back, luckily my old school chum, Adrian Thiemicke, was giving me notification of the gap I had. As I approached the final tight turn I looked back and it appeared Mat was coming back to me so it was push all the way down the long straight to the finish. And I won, my first outright road race victory (not counting parkruns) since May 2009, when I surprised myself by winning the Haddington 5. The time, I ran 34:17, so a fairly consistent second 5k, Mat was 8 seconds back and thanked me for helping him to a fast time. The friendliness continued into the prizegiving and I was surprised to win both 1^st prize and 1^st over 40, so I now have lots of Gatorade and a few more towels to add to the collection. Carole also ran a good race and Ray, well he got out of bed so what do you expect, another pb at 45:17.

Well that’s the end of a rather long blog, but before I go I’d just like to include a link that Lee Riley has sent me. Telling his own story on his successful attempt on the mile world record. There’s a video which, having worked so closely with Lee on the run up to the event, I found quite inspirational. It shows the enthusiasm, guts and determination that sum up Lee. It’s what I admire about him and makes it a pleasure to work with him. I hope you enjoy the video and if you want to see more, part of this will be on the big screen in 2012 and there are other videos on You Tube of his other races.

http://rileyfitness.co.uk/blog/2011/11/29/part-1-my-full-story-the-film-personal-account/

Supplements

As a Personal Trainer, and probably like a number of other people in the self employed sector of the fitness industry, I receive an awful lot of calls for people trying to get me to sign up for various things. Many of these calls are related to the use of supplements. Now I have no specific problem with supplements, I’ve even used them on occasion but I don’t use them as a matter of course. I think that people should make their own informed view on whether supplements are for them or not, I’m not there to promote any particular brand but I’m happy to give general advice. I’m don’t get paid to sell supplements and, in fact, generally people want me to purchase the supplements and sell them onto my clients. But I’m not a selfish seller at all costs kind of guy, I will purchase things on behalf of my clients but only when I feel that I can get them a better deal, on something they want, by getting it via me. In fact it’s one of the things my clients tell me they like about the way I operate, i.e. I don’t try to sell extras to them all the time.

Now I’ll openly admit that I do have my own nutritional planning programme, that I will sell onto clients and anyone else, but I don’t push it onto clients, there are other dietary planners out there, but I believe the product works and I do use it myself. I also do a certain amount of work for Ronhill and Hilly, for which they provide me with kit, they don’t expect me to push there products onto my clients either, but I do wear the products in public places and will happily endorse them to anybody who’s interested as I really do think the products are great and innovative, I just wish they made trainers too.

Well I’ve digressed a little but only to make the point that I’m not paid by anybody to sell supplements and I have no bias towards any particular products out there, the following blog will summarise my feelings about supplements. I’m not currently taking any supplements, and haven’t for some years but I know plenty of people who do. Whether they need to take them I’m not sure, we all have our own knowledge of what our body is up to and can make those decisions ourselves.

I first came across supplements as a child, though in those days they were called vitamin pills. All of a sudden my mum started bringing home sanatogen vitamins, horrible hard round sweet tasting things, and we would all have one each day. My dad, being bigger and older than us three kids, got to eat the horrible bitter tasting red ones which were big enough to make them hard to swallow. I didn’t envy him. As a child I didn’t really know why I was taking the vitamins, I just did what I was told, perhaps our diet in the 70s wasn’t as good as it is now, I didn’t even have my first Indian meal until I was 17.

When I left home I was still a student and, naturally, I didn’t really care much about healthy things, I didn’t take vitamins, did very little exercise, ate badly and drank too much too often. I did have a good time mind you. Luckily I survived any abuse I gave to my body. As a young man starting out a work, I continued to drink too much too often, I ate better, still not great, and I started to get involved in sport, occasionally.

It was only when I started to train properly that the question of whether to take supplements came up. I actually remember one of my training partners Adam Armstrong (incidentally Adam was an actor who appeared in Grange Hill, Crimewatch and various other things – in fact I must relay the story about Crimewatch latter in this blog, see if I can write it as funny as it was) telling me that one of the 800m runners we knew had been taking creatine and was complaining that it was making his legs heavy. In actual fact it was probably the fact that he was training harder due to taking the supplement that made his legs tired. Around 1992 one of my training partners, Nutritionist Alex Luce, asked me if I’d take part in a study he was working on. I said yes as long as it didn’t include taking any banned substances and didn’t impact my training. Alex didn’t tell us what the study was at the time but it was a study on the effects on vitamin c on the athlete.

I thought this was a great opportunity to help one of my training partners while gaining the benefits of taking extra vitamins, I even didn’t mind trying to swallow these gigantic pills every day, until I found out I had been taking the placebos. I’m not sure what the results of the study were but I was progressing better than everybody else, even with the placebo effect. As a thank you Alex did give me a proper consultation and, because I was having a few bowel problems, he gave me a detox and suggested a course of vitamins and minerals. This seemed to resolve the problems I was having, which I consider were stess related. I took these vitamins and minerals on and off for a while, whenever the problem returned. I also took iron supplements when I was feeling run down, as I’d previously been diagnosed with slight anaemia and extra calcium when I got a stress fracture in my foot, but I’ve not taken any supplements for years.

Due to my lack of supplementation I can’t really give you much information or recommendation on particular types. I don’t take supplements because I believe I can get the nutrients I need from fresh ingredients, though not everything you buy in the shops is fresh and therefore it may not be as nutritious as it could be. Food can be stored too long and lose some of it’s nutritional value and it can be overcooked with nutrients being lost in the process (I generally steam or stir fry my veg as I believe it is better nutritionally). I’m lucky in that my lifestyle is such that I am in a position to take care with what I eat but others may not be so fortunate. It’s worth considering supplements if you feel you’re not able to maintain a healthy diet because of your lifestyle or you are feeling run down, however, ideally, supplements should not be taken in place of normal nutrients they should be taken to supplement them and the bulk of your nutrients should still be gained from natural ingredients. 

If you are going to use supplements, make sure you understand what benefits you will get and if there are any side effects. Also be sure to check out what is in the product, particularly being sure of any hidden ingredients (this is particularly important for athletes who may undergo drug testing). Of course there is the worry that supplements can become contaminated during production but if they are made by a reputable company that is unlikely and of course natural food can also be contaminated.

I’m currently in a phase of hard training, in fact I’m training harder than I’ve trained for a long time and I’m feeling tired. Therefore I’m using a lot of the nutrients I’m putting into my body, do I need to take supplements? Well it’s a good question, I’ve been carrying a bit of a cold for weeks and it is affecting my breathing a little but taking supplements doesn’t necessarily protect you from colds and I do eat well. I feel like I’m replenishing all the nutrients I need but maybe I’m missing something, perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad decision to take some. If I did take them the one thing I would ensure I did would be to check the register of banned substances, yes I know I’m not going to be selected for London 2012 but I do still compete at a reasonably high level and don’t see the point of getting banned because of carelessness. Plus I like to know what I’m putting into my body. But in truth, I think I just need to eat a bit more, I’m burning calories at a pretty high rate (over 300 for 10 minutes workout) so I’m stocking up with more food and ensuring I take breaks in my day to eat.

This weekend I went to the Heaton Park parkrun. Heaton Park was the scene of my first parkrun, back in March, when I finished 8^th in 17:25. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve raced so I was thinking about going to Pennington Flash but then Ray got in touch and suggested Heaton Park, as it was going to be the last run on the course, before they changed it to another one in the same area. I was happy to try it, I figured I might get a chance to run faster on the, mostly, pathed course rather than the multi-terrain test that Pennington is. As it has been some time since I ran there I went to the website to remind myself of the course and found that it had actually been won, on a number of occasions by people running slower than 17 minutes. So there was a possibility that I could win, but then again there were a considerable number of winners who had run significantly under 17 minutes and a number of sub 16 minute winners with a course record of 14:49, so there was a good chance I wouldn’t win. But it wasn’t the win I was interested in, I was keen to get another sub 16 minute run under my belt and having run 16:56 at Pennington I thought I should have a chance, particularly when I saw my old mate and Santa Claus world record holder, Paul Simons, had a 16:58 timing. Paul and I go back a long way, we used to compete against each other in the British League when he was Shaftesbury Barnet and I was Belgrave, and that has continued over the years in road relays. Now us two ‘Londoners’ are both based in the North West we see each other at various races and are still finishing within seconds of each other. So I was confident of a sub 17 minute run, although I did notice that Tommy Prenders had only run 16:50 and he had a 16:40 clocking at Pennington Flash.

We were a little late setting off and only arrived at the car park about 10 minutes before 9:00. Not the sort of preparation I normally like for a race but this was a parkrun and I’m pretty chilled out about them, I treat them as time-trials rather than races, so as long as I get a chance to warm up my muscles I’m ok. Mind you there was no need to panic anyway as the presentation of t-shirts before the race meant a very late start. Before the off I, almost literally, bumped into Ron Hill. Although I do some work for Ronhill and Hilly I’ve never actually spoken to Ron before so I introduced myself.

It was a nice morning, sunny with a bit of a chill in the air. It was warm enough standing in the sun, so I wasn’t too bothered by the delayed start. As we walked to the start line I looked ahead and wasn’t really sure where we were going to head, as the path appeared to fork. I asked the chap next to me and he pointed out the route and then said ‘but you won’t need to worry unless you’re in the lead’. I didn’t say anything at the time but I was thinking to myself that it was a possibility. As we set off I did indeed find myself in the lead. The course was well marked with arrows, unfortunately, with age, my eyesight is starting to fade at a greater proportion than my leg speed and I was approaching the signs quicker than my brain could register the direction to take. Thankfully there were plenty of marshals and they were a big help on the three occasions I had to check the route.

After the initial small loop it was nice to pass the start line again in a clear lead, to generous support from the spectators. As I came close to the start of the hill for the second time I noticed a bunch of runners on the corner. I recognised Andi Jones and his wife, it looked like a group of Salford Harriers ready for a training session. Needless to say they let me pass then started their rep session, running in the same direction as me. It brought back memories of my old fartlek training in Richmond Park, where we had a 5 minute rep on part of Ranelagh Harriers cross country course, occasionally there would be a race on as we were kicking off our rep. It was good fun as it gave you a load of runners to chase but I remember one occasion when a guy worked really hard up the minute long hill to try to hold onto me, only for me to stop at the top. I wasn’t going to fall into that trap today I let them go past without upping my pace and then I was on the hill.

The last bit around the lake seemed to take an age but I’d checked my watch and was confident of running sub 17. I relaxed, perhaps a bit too much, and then the finish which seemed to stretch on forever. I crossed the line in first place in a time of 17:04 and it was hard to hide my disappointment. I know some people can’t see why I would be disappointed with winning but my focus wasn’t on winning, it wasn’t a championship race, I wanted to run sub 17 to give me a booster for the next race. But, as always, the disappointment was short lived and I started my jog back around the course to thank the marshals and cheer on the other competitors.

Ray came through, running yet another pb, he seems to be setting them every week now. Next was Carole, leading home Ron Hill. She’s quite proud of the part she played in pacing Lee Riley in his training for the marathon world record, now she’s outpaced another multi-world record breaker, albeit a septuagenarian. And then Sharon came home in a course pb. So all 4 of us had set course pbs, with Ray setting an absolute 5k pb. Not a bad day on reflection. The disappointment of not breaking 17 minutes was soon forgotten as I thought of the fact that I have 7 parkrun wins under my belt this year, not bad for a man approaching his 47^th birthday rather more rapidly than he would like.

All in all, though it’s not been my best year, the two months out through injury have definitely had an impact on my fitness levels and this is the first year since 1993 that I haven’t won a championship medal of any kind. But on the bright side I’ve helped others to achieve great things; Ray only has to wake up to set a pb, Lee has set 3 world records, and I have a number of other clients who are on their way to something great in the near future. And, more importantly, I am enjoying my running, even if it is a lot slower than my memories tell me I used to run. I know that I have the capability of running a good time in a race, it’s just a matter of when, so onto the next challenge, the next race is a 10k.

This weekend coming is the British and Irish Masters International Cross Country Championships. I’ve run it for the last 5 years, 4 times for Scotland and once for England. This year I didn’t make the team, but I know most of the runners who did, so I’d like to wish them a good run and enjoy the Scottish hospitality.            

Now for the tale about Crimewatch. In our little training group we had a guy named Vic. Vic had a certain amount of talent when he was younger but family responsibilities took him away from running. I’m not entirely sure what brought Vic back to running but he was a good man to have in the group as he was a good judge of pace and would lead out one of the sub groups perfectly, he was also full of interesting stories and had a great way of telling them. Vic also like a drink and would often go home after training, collapse into an armchair with a few tinnies and fall asleep in front of the TV. On one such occasion he woke up while crimewatch was on and it just so happened that Adam was acting out the role of one of the criminals in a particular scene. Vic opened his eyes, saw Adam, heard the request for anyone who knew anything to contact the police and promptly phoned up the police. 

While I Was Away

Those who know me quite well, or have been reading my blogs on a regular basis, will know that I have a couple of warm weather training bases that I visit on occasion. Well that’s where I was last week, at the Spanish one. On my return there were a few surprises for me, mostly good ones but one not so good. So as I’ve got a lot to catch up on I’m going to delay my intended blog about supplements and instead I thought I’d just present a blog on what’s happened over the period, events and happenings that have had an impact on me, and probably for some of you.

Firstly let me tell you about Spain. Carole and I regularly visit the village of Ciudad Quesada. It has lots to offer, many restaurants, a golf course, English beer and is close to many good beach resorts, towns and walks. It’s also easy to get to by airport. For me, it also has a fantastic double figure of 8 training area, roads that have been laid out for housing, currently on hold. This is where I do the bulk of my speed endurance work and it works well for me, and it would be a great place to do group training.

When I was a mere youngster of 31 I was never interested in warm weather training, I figured it didn’t matter what the temperature was, if you were of a mind to train hard, you would, whatever the weather. Now I’m a little older I appreciate the difference of getting up at 07:00 in November and heading out for a training run in singlet and shorts, I was positively toasting in Spain but think I would have returned home a little cold in Northwich. I used hot weather training, to great effect, prior to the 2010 European Masters Championships, but this time it was just nice to get back into summer clothing to train in warm temperatures, and then enjoy an al fresco breakfast.

I had originally booked the trip as a tune up for the Masters International, but as I haven’t been selected, completely justifiable by the way, I just treated it as a treat and just enjoyed myself, whilst still training fast. We did also do quite a bit of walking during the afternoons. Being on holiday I was eating and drinking a little more than usual, but thanks to the training I got away with only adding 4lbs to my weight. Now I’m back home I can get back to twice a day training and my nutritional menu plan (see www.rogeralsop.co.uk/nutrition if you’re interested in finding out more about this), which will see me back to my normal weight pretty quickly). So the weather was great, between 22 and 27 degrees C, I was really relaxed and so was Carole. I also managed to get through The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I enjoyed and have the other two books to follow, but they’ll have to wait until my next holiday I’m too busy to read novels at the moment.

Whilst in Spain I did catch the local paper which had an article about a Father and Son world record for a combined time at the London Marathon. Of course that featured my Pennington Flash buddy Jeff Whittington and his son, Russell, with a picture of Jeff holding the certificate. Nice one Jeff, not only a star in Wigan but Internationally too.

I’m usually ready to come home but on this occasion we were having such a good time and I was completely relaxed, no internet or phone for me on holidays, I believe in focusing my resources on having a good time. And of course once I arrived home that was the switch for me to get straight back into training hard, unfortunately it didn’t quite have the same effect on Carole who thought I’d be better placed putting curtains up, making more furniture and working on the garden, thank goodness she’s back at work today so I can prioritise my training over all that tedious stuff, I should remind her I’m not the handy man, just the cook, cleaner, butler and of course personal trainer.

Upon landing at Manchester Airport I received some good news. I’d been thinking about it all morning, it was the day Lee Riley was attempting to break the Mile World Record, carrying a 40lb pack (current record, which Lee had equalled a few weeks earlier, was 5:35). After having trained with Lee for the previous two weeks I was aware how he had improved since that attempt and I was a bit miffed not to be pacing Lee on the day, but the training trip was booked before Lee told me about the world record attempt and there was no changing it, unless I wanted to become a single man again. When I switched on my phone, Lee had texted me to say he had run 5:16.9. He’d absolutely smashed the record, which didn’t surprise me as when I finished training with him he was on target for 5:18-5:20 and he still had a taper to come. What a fantastic effort though, I’m really proud of him and chuffed to have played a part in it. Lee rang me later and it was nice of him to say that the training I’d done with him made all the difference. It made me wonder how many more people I could help to achieve their best. When I got home there was footage of Lee’s race on the BBC local news and the following day there was a shorter version of it on the ITV local news. I look forward to hearing what Lee’s next World Record attempt will be. He’s a superstar and just knowing him keeps me driven to train harder myself, I’ll have to if I’m going to be quick enough to keep training with him. Incidentally there should be a video of the attempt, uploaded shortly onto youtube, currently there are just the ones about Lee’s marathon record. Maybe I should add TV celebrity to my list of clients! Send him to the Jungle I say, he’d be more interesting than most of the mob they’ve currently got in Australia.

On my arrival home I switched on my email and had a couple of interesting emails. The first was from Rich, who I’d spent 4 weeks running training with. He thanked me for setting him off on the right track and told me how well he was progressing on his way to next year’s Edinburgh marathon. Hopefully we’ll be catching up for some additional training in the new year. The second was from my long term client, Ray. Ray had told me he’d set another pb at Pennington Flash on 5 November, just missing out on a sub 22 min setting. I don’t remember it but I’d told him some months back that he would break 22 min at Pennington Flash at some point this year, he hadn’t believed me at the time. Then I logged onto the Pennington Flash results page to find that on 12 Nov he’d run 21:55. Well done Ray, but there’s plenty more to come, sub 21 before the end of May next year.

The next bit of great news was that my club, Herne Hill Harriers, had won the Surrey League cross country that afternoon, again by a considerable margin, I don’t think they need me anymore. Finally the sad news, I learnt of the passing of one of my Belgrave colleagues. John Davies, a star of the 1950s and 60s, who had bests of 1:52.8 for 880yards and 4:10.8 for the mile (both achieved on cinder tracks). John was one of the old regulars at Belgrave Hall on a Saturday afternoon and we often chatted as he came around with his collection box for the shower fee, I also spent many a London Marathon afternoon at his and Pam’s flat in Covent Garden, celebrating the achievements of various Belgravians taking part in that day’s event. I was a regular from 1993 until the early noughties, and it was there that we celebrated my Wife’s 2:56 and my own marathon debut in 2003. John was a character and he always had something positive to say to me, in fact it was John’s encouragement that kept me seeking that International vest long after I’d given up believing I had the potential and so it’s thanks to John that I have run for Britain, England, and Scotland, albeit as a geriatric. RIP John, another Belgravian who will be missed by many.

With that I must conclude. I’ve got some ideas what I want to do for the next 6 months, but need to start planning my life around them. I also need to hit my gym for my third session of today, no I’m not obsessed, just committed and it stops me from having to put up more curtains. It’s getting cold in my gym, but I’ve trained in my Edinburgh garage during mid winter and that’s no contest, plus It’ll be pretty warm after 5 minutes on the healthrider.