Monday 27 June 2011

Training in the Heat

No blog last week, we decided we needed a holiday. Mind you this being a Roger Alsop holiday it involved a certain amount of training, and that meant for Carole as well as me. We went to one of my warm weather training bases. I have two: one in Ciudad Quesada, Spain, and one close to Dermirtas, Turkey. This time it was Turkey time.

I used this venue to great effect, around the same time, last year. I was preparing for the European Masters T&F Championships, taking place in Hungary. I figured it would be hot in Hungary, I wasn’t disappointed, so needed to get my body used to the conditions. Normally on these holidays I do reduced sessions but last year I was fighting fit and pushed with everything I had in very hot conditions. It paid off too, as I came away from Hungary with a European bronze medal in the 10000m, 25 times round a track in full view of the sun, or so it should have been, but for some reason I ended up running 26 times and gained my medal the hard way. Actually I should have won gold in the 10400m championship, because nobody else was stupid enough to go the extra quarter mile.

This year I don’t have a championship in mind, numerous problems and changes have made this year a more low profile one for me, but now we’re starting to get things settled I’m looking forward to some late summer form in the hope that I can gain selection for England in the Masters International Cross Country. Don’t write me off yet, I’m usually flying in October when things have been slow at the early point of the year. But back to Turkey, once again it was very hot, so I decided not to travel up to Mahmutlar where we usually train on the promenade, instead I attempted the hill on which the property is situated, Sultan Hill.

Day one - it was hot but I was feeling fresh. I remember the hill from 3 years ago but think I can still make it up 20 times. It’s not that far, perhaps 80-100m but it gets steeper as you get further up and the last 10m are a real struggle as lactic burns and the steepest point is reached. It’s the sort of hill you drive down in 1st gear and we noticed other people were having to stop a number of times when walking up, what a joy it is to be fit, you get to run up, again and again. The first one seemed so easy I thought I might have to add a few more reps but then I hit rep no. 2 or perhaps I should say rep no. 2 hit me, I made it up but boy my legs felt like jelly. I got to about 14 and my legs were asking me to stop, but I ignored them as I generally do. Finally I made number 20, a short warm down followed, which required running back up the hill again and then a quick abs session before heading back down to the pool for a cool down. Carole gave it everything and managed 15 and a bit hills, not quite up to the top but still a good effort for someone who trains a fraction of the time I do.

 
View from the bottom of Sultan Hill, view is better from the top but you have to get there first, 20 times.

 
 
The swimming pool that awaits you after a hard session



 
Day two – it was hot, Carole was unfortunately busy! but that meant I could run into the interior. A nice little run for about 38 minutes but it was a busy road and Turkish drivers are the most scary I’ve ever come across, so I won’t be doing that again.


Carbo loading with an impending sunset, in preparation for another Sultan Hill session. This isn't me by the way

Day three – it was hot as we attempted Sultan Hill again, but now I remember what a killer session it is I decide to just do 18. Mentally I’m telling myself I did 20 on Sunday so 18 should be a doddle, physically it wasn’t, as continuous days and nights of hot temperatures took their toll. But we did it and followed up with another abs workout.

Day four – I think you know what the weather was like, and it didn’t change all week, except the temperature seemed to creep up day by day. We didn’t feel like running today, we’re on holiday, so I came up with a body weight and cardio session similar to the sort I take my clients through. These sessions are tough with very little rest but I manage to motivate clients into their 60s to complete them, obviously I tweak them for each person and quite rightly I tweaked ours to make it extra hard – 30 squat jumps is a bit of a killer but followed by 30 walking lunges with a twist is the sort of training that makes me smile. Not sure that was a smile coming from Carole but she didn’t complain, probably didn’t have the breath or the energy. I have to hand it to Carole, when I’m giving her a session I tailor it to her ability and fitness but if she’s doing a session ‘with me’ it’s at my ability and fitness levels, so good on her, oh and no additional breaks….

Day five – I’m sick of that hill so we head off into Demirtas, where they’ve built a new pavement just outside the village. It’s a nice pavement but not terribly long as we run up and down it to get in the required number of reps. 20 x 1min with 30 secs recovery for me and 15 x 1min with 1 min recovery for Carole (I was in a good mood). It was dry as anything and the wind made it even harder, by rep 15 I was desperate for a drink but the drink was somewhere else. I survived them, as did Carole. No abs today.

Day six – I decided we’d do another body weight and cardio session. This is great for me as I don’t do them myself very often, they’re designed as an alternative to doing cardio blocks in a session and they’re very effective.

And that was it, back home overnight on the Friday/Saturday, we arrived home at 3am (5am Turkish time which meant I’d been awake about 18 hours). The next morning I was up by 8am, I don’t lie in as I have too much energy to burn off. I attempted a 20 x 1min session with 30 secs recovery, I knew I’d be tired so didn’t want to make it too tough. But when it came to it my legs felt like somebody else’s, not sure who’s probably Colin Moir’s, so I switched to 15 reps, which was enough. The rest of the day was spent in relative limbo, a bit like I used to feel after a night shift (boy am I glad those days are over).   

So what can you deduce by all this waffle. You can train hard in hot conditions but be prepared to do a little less and make sure you’re properly hydrated. Sun cream and hats are a very good idea. I have some ultraviolet protection running gear, kindly presented to me by Ronhill and Hilly Clothing Company, not only do they protect me from the harmful rays of the sun but the hat is the most comfortable baseball cap I’ve ever worn. Roger Alsop creates great sessions for his clients. Driving in Turkey is not for the faint hearted.

While I was away I missed one of my favourite races, the BMAF 5k at Horwich. It was a shame as I’ve always run well there and I love the course but sometimes you have to prioritise. However, my pal Ray, who’s benefiting from my training and advice, went there and ran another pb – knocking a further 11 seconds off his time – well done Ray.

View from the balcony


If you found this interesting and fancy following my footsteps in Turkey, get in touch and I can put you in touch with the owner of the property.

Monday 13 June 2011

The Highs and Lows of Racing

I’ve been competing for 22 years and, like most other athletes, I can confirm that my racing life has been littered with both highs and lows. The highest moments for me have been when I’ve won a race, whether that was as an individual or part of a team, in particular when it was something I’d been aiming to win a race for some time (South of Thames Junior Championship springs to mind). But it’s not just about winning and I’ve always felt great satisfaction in achieving a personal best or even just a faster time than I’ve run for a while. I was also pleased as punch when I finished my London Marathon, without stopping or suffering any issues along the way, the fact that I was slower than I had hoped for became irrelevant in that battle of attrition.

However I’ve also suffered the lows, coming 4th and missing a medal, being outsprinted for victory, tearing my calf in the Surrey 5000m championship when in a strong position to win and my shoe falling apart 1 mile into a 9 mile Southern Cross Country Championship, amongst others.

It’s a little like life, you have think beyond the bad stuff and look for some positives. I often use the mantra ‘look for the positive’ when I’m talking to other runners who are disappointed with a run, it’s often the case that there is something positive that can be taken from every situation, if you just seek it out.

This week’s Parkrun at Pennington Flash was a good example of how a race was filled with highs and lows. We had the Mother-in-law down for the weekend, so in anticipation of a shopping trip I decided to do the Parkrun and informed Ray. Ray’s wife, Sharon, was also going to run, her first Parkrun at Pennington Flash. Then Carole decided she’d like to do it, obviously still on a high from the previous week’s Hollins Green 5k, afterall, with a 9:00 start, we’d be home in time to go shopping, oh great.

I woke up early on the Saturday, it was a sunny day and the curtains don’t quite fit yet so the light woke me up. As usual, once awake, my brain gets active so I decided to get up. The last 3 times I’d run at Pennington Flash I’d just had a banana for breakfast, but with extra time to play with I reverted back to my normal breakfast, albeit a smaller bowl, of porridge. I’d had niggles in the week and had taken Friday off training to help my body settle down, today my body felt relaxed but full of energy. We set off up the road, with the sun out, but as we got towards Warrington it was becoming decidedly dull. I had visions of there being a downfall during the race, that’s what the BBC weather had suggested. But the weather stayed fine, at least until we went shopping.

We did the usual stuff, very little warm up, chatted to other competitors we recognised and Bill, the organiser. As the race began I set off at a pace that I thought was steady, I could hear footsteps behind me on the first section towards the finish line but by the time I got to the gate I was on my own. It was windier than I had thought and by the time I got up the first hill I was starting to breath heavily. The wind was in my face all the way round the bottom of the course and it didn’t abate until I’d climbed the first hill. With the wind in your face for about 2/3 of each lap, I’d given up on running a fast time. I used to hold the age graded record but now I was lying in 3rd place behind Stephen Williams and Jeff Whittington, my aim had been to try to regain that top position, but with this wind I now wanted to just maintain my average between 17:33 and 17:37. I could see there was nobody close to me so this helped me to push on, even if I were to overdo it I was still likely to win the race. It’s so easy to just ease off the pace on the third lap, knowing the end is near but suffering the consequences of this tough multi terrain, hilly, course, but I kept pushing, at least the surface was dry and this gave me a good springboard for each step. By now I was lapping people and it was nice to get some encouraging comments as well as issue a few words of encouragement back. As I passed the gate, with just the finishing straight to go I glanced down at my watch and miscalculated, thinking I was going to be around the 17:40 mark I gave it everything to try to get to the finish below that 40 seconds.

As I crossed the line I stopped my watch and couldn’t believe it when I looked down, 17:15. I was tired as anything but still managed to find a few words to express my delight. As always Bill and the team were on hand to congratulate me and take my barcode. Then it was back down the course to thank the marshals and encourage other runners, during my cool down. It wasn’t long before the 2nd man home came into sight and then Jeff Whittington finishing strong in 3rd. I was keen to get back to Ray, he’d been training well and I was sure he was also going to set a new pb, afterall, if I could, so could he. More and more runners were coming in, but no Ray. Then he came into view, he was running strong and I had no idea what his time was so I gave him a shout and carried on encouraging others.

By the time I’d jogged round the course again most people were settled at the finish. Carole didn’t time her run but reckoned she’d done ok (she knocked 52 seconds off her pb), Sharon had done a fine run for her first effort on such a tough course, with 29:19, but Ray had run 12 seconds slower than his pb. At this moment in time I was still chuffed about my time so didn’t pay too much heed to the other’s times but as the day went on I started feeling a bit disappointed that Ray hadn’t managed to join the others in setting a pb, I started to question myself as to what it was I hadn’t done, afterall I’m his coach. Over the weekend I thought his training through and decided what it is I need to do this week so that he can run well at Horwich. Then only this morning, during my efforts, it suddenly dawned on me, Ray and I are at different stages in our training development, I’ve just taken a step up and will now stabilise around this new level, Ray has already stabilised and will take his next step up when his body is ready, of course I’m still going to give him some good hard training this week anyway.    

So my time, officially 17:14, moves my age grading up to 82.88%, I’ve moved above Jeff, who also ran a pb of 19:55 and now has an age grading of 82.68%. Both of us are a long way off Stephen Williams 84.39%, I reckon I’ll have to run about 16:44 for that. Yes I know I can find the site and look up exactly what I have to do but I don’t want to limit my ambition to that, afterall the faster I can go at Pennington Flash the better I’ll be able to go on a flat road course. The age grading makes for an interesting concept, I may not have had anyone close to me in the race but knowing that Jeff is so close on the age grading I’ll have to keep pushing hard each time to ensure I beat him in the age grading race, and I’m sure he’ll be doing the same. Here’s to the next time.

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Moving Home

Anyone who has been reading my blogs over the last few weeks will know that I have been moving home, with some degree of difficulty. I’ve managed to continue with my weekly blog, though due to moving around between computers it appears to have caused some formatting issues. Also there have been a few typos creeping in. So apologies if you’ve considered moving onto someone else’s blog, but I hope I can get back on track and write blogs that keep you both informed and entertained. On that note, it would be nice to get some feedback on what you think of the blogs, any subjects you’d be interested in me covering. There is a place for entering public comments, I know that doesn’t always suit everybody so feel free to email me at rogalsop@googlemail.com.

I’d always known that moving home was supposed to be stressful, but if you search the internet you’ll find lists that vary it’s position from top 5 to top 10 to out of the top 10 completely. One has going to jail as higher, which I suppose it would be if you went to jail. Clearly the stats can be weighted any way you like, I’m sure more people move homes than go to jail, but how stressful is moving from jail to another jail. Anyway to cut a long discussion short, yes I agree, moving home can be stressful.

I don’t do it that often, at least I try not to, but this time, like the previous time the move was instigated through a change in job. I thought this time would be different, I’m self employed so I thought it would be easy to juggle my work commitments around house purchase activities, as long as I made sure I kept a clear space each day when I could be close to my solicitors. We left it a few weeks, from making the offer, to handing in our two months notice on the rental property, which gave us 10 weeks in a supposed chain freeish situation. Plenty of time, with a good amount of contingency, which could be put to good use decorating, etc, if we got the chance.

But as it turned out, the original expected completion date was missed, in fact it was only then that we realised how far we were away as many things had not been carried out by the vendors, on the plus side we’d done everything the solicitors asked, ahead of time – planning never too far away from my heart. Despite missing the first expected completion date we still had the contingency and the vendors were now pushing to get their end sorted, but as it turned out this didn’t work out either. An extension of a few days in rented and then the short move from Northwich to Northwich became a move from Northwich to Holmes Chapel to Northwich. Half our stuff went into storage and the other half went into my parents house, along with us, and my sister’s house. Thank goodness for families, though they may not be feeling the same way. Of course mum and dad wouldn’t take any money so I gave my mum a free kettlebell session instead, boy was I impressed as she swung the kettle around like a sprightly teenager, managing two sets of 5 exercises, not bad for a 76 year old. She would have done more but ‘Loose Women’ got in the way.

Naturally my training had to suffer as I was packing and shifting, but I was still able to continue training on a daily basis. Runs were kept short, to 6 miles, and abs/core and Kettles were kept to 15 minute segments. Completion took place on 3 June and, as I was due to race the following day, it coincided with a rest day. Some rest day, spent directing, and helping, the removal men, moving carloads of stuff from Holmes Chapel to Northwich and spending the afternoon cleaning the kitchen, which I have to say was in a pretty poor state. Once again my mum showed she’s not ready for the retirement home yet as she joined me on scrubbing duty.

Saturday, race day. The Peter Lowe Memorial 5k at Hollins Green. I ran this race last year, finishing 5th in 16:03, and really enjoyed the friendly atmosphere. Spectrum Striders organise the event and they’re a really nice bunch too. Bill, who organises the Pennington Flash Parkruns was also there and it was nice to see him get a run for a change, though he was the official last man so I’m sure it was an easy one for him. After all the cleaning and shifting, I wasn’t exactly in the mood for a race, but with it being a nice sunny and warm day, and seeing an opportunity for a break from unpacking and cleaning I decided to give it a go, albeit I decided on taking it steady and having a social run instead of trying to achieve anything. (Social runs don’t feature in my vocabulary very often, I usually use the term cross country). I did run steady, though I ran a faster steady than I expected, I really enjoyed myself, though the last km was uphill and into the wind and seemed to go on forever. Surprised with 12th position and first M45 in 16:39. Ray, who’s been training really well with me, knocked over 30 seconds off his pb with a 22:17 clocking and Carole, who doesn’t get out much, found it really enjoyable too, but obviously didn’t run hard enough as she had a kick left at the end. Once again the organisation was faultless and the fun run went smoothly too. The only down side for me was the attitude of a runner from Styal AC. I’m always very grateful for all the support I get at races so as soon as I finish I jog back along the course, thanking the marshals and encouraging the runners still coming in. This particular idiot, not happy with my support, told me to F Off. I had the last laugh though as I jogged back I saw him lying on the grass totally breathless, that’s the kind of attitude we don’t need in athletics, particularly at an event where there are so many children around.

It’s now Wednesday, a little later than usual for my blog, but I’ve had a busy time with clients, shopping and unpacking. Today we’ve had a washing machine and dishwasher fitted and we’re thinking about a new cooker and decorators and doing stuff with the garden. Last night I had my first client to use my new gym, it also needs decorating and I need to organise my equipment and also bring some stuff down from Edinburgh, but it was nice to use it.