Rest and Recovery

Last Friday I was absolutely cream crackered, I’ve been in a hard training phase and I feel like I’m running well off it. However last week I started to feel that my body was getting tired. I looked at the training I’ve been undertaking for the previous weeks and, as planned, it’s seen my long runs increasing in distance, the pace increasing and the intensity of my quality runs has increased. Understandably the overall effect has been to tire out my muscles. I’ve been doing some intensive training on an uneven grass surface and this has brought on aches around my ankles and knee. Non of this appears to be a problem but it’s time to take a little step back, ease off, allow my body to rebuild and come back ready for more intensity. So I made the decision to take a week off.

Now I should explain that a week off in Roger Alsopland does not mean a week sat on the sofa watching the sport, though I have to admit to having overdosed on that last weekend – and who can blame me, with the Tour de France, F1 German GP and the MotoGP. No a week off for me means a week off high intensity training. In fact it actually means 5 days off. I’ll still run but the runs will be steady, I’ll notice things that pass me by when I’m in full flight. I’ll still do my kettlebell exercises but I’ll do less sets and I’ll still work on my abs.

I was going to start my break last Friday but today (Tuesday) we’ve got the painters in and there’s a requirement for me to be here, some of the time at least, so a perfect time to ease off. Of course this meant that I had to run hard on Saturday and Monday and boy was that a struggle, plus I’m booked in for a session with Ray tonight and now Ray’s getting fitter that means the session gets harder for me. But come tomorrow morning, my break officially begins, and I’m feeling good already.

The other thing that’s tired me out a bit is that I took delivery of another kettlebell last week. I decided to jump straight up to a 12kg and yes, I know that’s miniscule to all the big strong guys and gals who use much bigger ones, but this is me, have you seen me, I’m the skinny guy in the Dennis the Menace singlet (mind you that could be any of Herne Hill Harriers distance runners, except ALG). So I’ve jumped from a 7.5kg kettle to a 12kg one and what a difference. I had fair warning, watching the poor post woman deliver it to my door, but I was keen to use it as soon as I could and threw it, pretty literally, into my regular session. And that’s when I realised what a difference 4.5kg makes. Actually the exercises weren’t a problem, I managed them ok, though I was aware of the extra weight, it was just the effect it had on my inner thighs for the next 3 days.

But this blog’s about resting and recovery, not kettlebells. Rest is important, for the body to recover, whatever the exercise. If you continue to train at a high level you’ll end up getting injured. Text books will advise you to rest the day after a workout, but generally that won’t mean complete rest. The way weight training generally works is that you will work certain body parts one day and whilst they are being rested you work other body parts. But you also need rest between sets, which should vary in length depending on whether you are building strength, muscle bulk or endurance.

As I’ve just mentioned rest does not mean that you should slob about, though if that is your preference so be it, in between heavy weight lifting you should be keeping your muscles working by gently stretching them. As a runner we would generally train hard on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays with steady runs on the other days. Once again I fly in the face of convention by training hard on Mondays and Wednesdays, it just suits me.

There are some people who never seem to take a day off from running, most notably Ron Hill, who even runs when injured. My old training partner, Charlie Dickinson, once told me he ran every day. At the time I was running well and found it hard to believe he wasn’t affected by constant training, but it affects us all in different ways. I myself always took Friday off. When I was a Mon-Fri worker this worked well as I could get into a regular pattern, it also meant I effectively gave myself a 3 day weekend; Mon-Thurs = work and train, Fri = work only, Sat-Sun = train only. However that all went up the spout when I moved into a shift work role. Now I’m training other people I don’t always get the chance to rest completely as I run or exercise with my clients, but I treat that as active recovery.

Active recovery is doing an activity different to what you would do on a hard day. So an easy run will help you recover better than doing nothing, or you might choose to go for a bike ride or take part in some other activity. It will help you recover, as long as you don’t give it the same intensity which you give to your main sport. And that’s where it’s all about finding the balance.

Obviously these are general conventions and there are people, who are well trained, who can push themselves day after day, take the Tour de France as an example, but even they will need a rest at some time. I myself sometimes train hard every day on holiday, but I do this by training less time or distance, e.g. I may do 25 minutes of intensive training each day instead of an hour one day of high intensity and an hour of easy work the next.

To become the best it’s not just about how you train but also about how you rest.    

Not only was I worn out but I was noticing my shoes were starting to feel a little less cushioned. I keep my trainers a long time but that’s because I use a different pair for different sessions, irrespective of what some conventions say – see I’m doing it again. I wear adidas supernovas for my intensive training, I have done since I bought a pair for the 2003 London Marathon. Where do I go when I need a new pair of trainers, I go to Belgrave Harriers, who still have some stock of older trainers from adidas. They no longer have my size as I just bought the last two pairs so I’ll be shopping around again in a few months. I also purchased another Herne Hill Harriers singlet, this time from Herne Hill Harriers, Belgrave don’t stock them. This one is on it’s way to New Zealand where my old mate Paul Coughlan will be wearing it. Paul is (or at least was) a distance runner, but he’s not skinny.

Last week they ran Pennington Flash the opposite way round, it would be interesting to see how that went. I was intending to turn up but both myself and Carole were exhausted we decided not to bother. Ray wasn’t available anyway so it wouldn’t have had the same picnic excursion feel about it. I don’t know when I’ll be back there next but I have just entered another 10k, I need to start setting some good times if I’m going to be considered for the England squad.

Inspirational Athlete – Paul Evans

As a pre-note to this week’s blog, I normally write my weekly blog from something that inpired me in the previous week, however I do have a list of ideas set aside for week’s when the inspiration just isn’t flowing. This week’s blog is one such subject, I’ve wanted to write about Paul for some time as I’ll never forget the inspirational run at Tooting Bec on 17 June 1992, in fact I mentioned it previously in my blog about the Surrey 10000m Championship. The funny thing is that since I started writing this week’s blog I came across Paul on Facebook and we’re now friends on Facebook, so I do feel a little embarrassed, writing about him, but I hope, if he reads it, he likes what I have to say.

I was once taken aback at the start of a race, when a competitor asked me who my sporting hero was. I hadn’t actually given it any thought, I didn’t tend to think of sports people as heroes, the word hero, to my mind, was reserved for those who risked everything to save a life, soldiers, members of the emergency services or members of the public who had done something extraordinary to try to save others. So I just shrugged my shoulders and then made sure I beat him in the race, for asking such a daft question. However it did make me think a bit about whom I might think of as a sporting inspiration.

Like so many people of my age group I was engrossed in athletics during the Coe and Ovett era. I loved watching Coe run but, of the two, my support was always with Ovett, he seemed the more down to earth of the two and the one I’d rather share a pint with. Sadly my support of Ovett seemed to dwindle when he grew his hair in a backwards attempt at a Bobby Charlton combover, and I found the experience of watching him cry at the AAA championships, over some misunderstanding about money, a little hard to watch.

An ex-girlfriend, out of frustration for me putting running ahead of her, used to say I wanted to be Steve Cram, but she never really understood my running. If she had she’d have known I didn’t want to be Steve Cram, I wanted to beat Steve Cram.

Inspirational characters, to me, tended to be people that I saw running really well and I always looked up to people who were better than me. I suppose the first person I looked up to, in that respect, was Adrian Thiemicke. Adrian went to the same school as I did, Crewe Grammar (later to become the Ruskin School and now a sports college!). I never really knew him that well, at school, as we were in totally different forms but on school sports day he always ran away from the 1500m field. Adrian is now involved in athletics administration with Cheshire Athletics, sadly he rarely races following knee problems, but I often bump into him at local events. As I took up athletics it was my team mates at Belgrave who inspired me, Don Anderson, John Mather, Martin Lake, Oli Foote and Marcello Bizio being some of the first, and then as I improved so did my inspirational focus.

However the person whom I would list as number 1, with respect to how they have inspired me, would be Paul Evans. For those who don’t know of him, Paul came to athletics lateish, at the age of 25. He was a talented local footballer but, having run well in a local 10k, he realised he had a talent to run, so took up athletics. I don’t know the full story of why he made this decision, I didn’t know him at the time and it’s not that well documented. From nowhere he became one of Britain’s best distance runners, at first succeeding on the track, then at the half marathon before making his name at the marathon, winning Chicago in 1996 in 2:08:52, a time that still lists him as 4^th on the UK all time rankings. He also represented Britain at the 10000m in the Barcelona Olympics, in 1992, and Atlanta Olympics, in 1996, plus the World Championships in Stuttgart, 1993, where he tackled the marathon.

I first met Paul at the National Cross Country Champs in 1990, at Roundhay Park, Leeds. This was my first National Cross Country Champs and I’ve gone into more detail about it in a previous blog. I was part of a weak Belgrave team that travelled up on the train. As I stood around, with some of the other Belgrave team members, Paul suddenly appeared. Bill Laws, the Belgrave team manager on the day, introduced me to Paul, and Paul chatted to me as though we were best mates, something you don’t encounter often from an athlete on the verge of international stardom.

The next time I saw Paul was at the Southern 12 Stage, where he played an important part in Belgrave’s victory. I kept up with his results after that and the next thing I heard he was taking part in a race from Glasgow to London. This was a running version of the Tour de France, even featuring a King of the Mountains prize, organised by British Satellite Broadcasting. During the event Paul emerged as the leading British contender, showing the sort of strength that would soon transform him into Britain’s leading marathon runner. Then the story emerged that Paul had to resign from his work in order to complete the race, as they would not sanction the time off. Whilst this must’ve been a stressful time for Paul, it was clearly the right decision as he earned more money during that race than a year’s salary in his job. It also transpired the company went bust a few weeks later so he would have lost his job anyway.

Paul started making a big name for himself, winning many races and clearly making a reasonable living out of the sport. In 1992 he attempted to qualify for the 10000m in the Barcelona Olympics. He’d already run the London Marathon in a time faster than those selected for the Olympic marathon, but the race came after selection had been made and Paul was only down as reserve. At the 10000m Olympic trials Paul came third, behind Eamonn Martin and Richard Nerurkar but his time of 28:13.71 was outside of the qualifying mark. With very little time to go Paul was left with no other option but to take part in a hastily put together 10000m at the end of a Rosenheim League meeting at Tooting Bec. I’d taken part in a 400m earlier in the evening but stayed on to watch what was to become one of the best track races I’ve seen. As the race set off there were just 4 competitors, Paul, Andrew Bristow (also looking for a good time) and two pacemakers; Colin Reitz and Steve Harris. As I saw it Steve struggled with the pace and only lasted to 3k, Colin took over and kept the pace (around 14 minutes) going to half way. By now Andrew was a long way back and Paul had to run the second 5000m on his own. But this was Paul’s strength and with his coach, John Bicourt, shouting out his lap times Paul managed to keep the pace going lap after lap. The atmosphere at Tooting Bec was electric and the whole crowd was willing Paul on. In the end Paul finishing in 27:59.8, inside the Olympic qualifying mark. What a fantastic solo race and how chuffed the crowd was to have witnessed the event.

I think the whole of the UK’s athletes must have been happy for Paul, such was his popularity with other runners, probably due to his willingness to chat to anyone. Alan Mead, of Belgrave, told me that he and his family were at the Barcelona Olympics and had tickets for the night the 10000m final was on. As the athletes were being led out they cheered for Paul, who heard them, turned around and when he saw them he put his thumbs up and shouted over a hello. In the race itself Paul finished 11^th in 28:29.83, looking tired after having qualified 3^rd in his heat, a few days before, in 28:15.70.

Paul pulled out many more fine performances over the years, he made the final of the 10000m in the Atlanta Olympics of 1996, at the age of 35, but he dropped out of the race, having, again, qualified a few days earlier, finishing 11^th in his heat in a time of 28:24.39. In 1993 he had run the marathon at the Stuttgart World Championships but had dropped out when highly placed. Perhaps his finest race was his victory in the 1996 Chicago Marathon. The last time I saw Paul was at a talk he was involved with, in London. That would have been around 2003/2004. He’s now involved in athletics promotion in Norfolk and, because he’s had some injury issues, he’s rarely competed, though he did set some pretty good times as an M40, before the injuries kicked in. He’s now an M50, could there be a Paul Evans comeback on the cards?

So, I’m back in serious training again and it appears to be working, I feel like I’m running faster and stronger, it’s taken a while to build the fitness up, following the two months I had off in the winter, but I now feel like I’m getting closer to good form. Of course the build up in my training means I’m tired, my muscles ache and I’m constantly hungry, but to combat these I’m being sensible, easing back when necessary, wearing the compression socks Ronhill supplied and eating, appropriately, when I need to. I’m not down to my previous racing weight of 10 stone 2lb but I put this down to the additional muscle I’ve developed from the weights and kettlebells. I’m now looking for some good races to show my form.

And, to finish off, speaking of old Belgrave team mates, and another of my facebook friends, I came across Dalton Powell in my Sunday paper, he’s fronting an advert for NatWest Bank, not sure if he’s on for a bankers bonus.

Illnesses and injuries - to train or not to train

I’ll dedicate this blog to former Edinburgh AC team mate and sub 4 minute miler, Kris Gauson, who gave me the idea after complaining about hay fever on facebook. Hope you’re no longer suffering Kris, looks like you’re ok judging by the weekend results. This blog covers more than just hay fever and is about how to deal with illness and injury when you’re a regular trainer.

The general advice is that if you are feeling unwell or have an injury you should rest until the illness/injury has passed. It is, however, perfectly feasible to continue to train with minor ailments or minor injuries, though it is advisable to ease back on the effort level somewhat. Don’t take this as my personal recommendation, you should always be careful not to overdo your training, but we probably all know people who will train through injury and illness and on many occasions they carry on without any serious implications. Each individual situation needs to be assessed by yourself, or a healthcare/fitness professional, there is no definitive list of when you should or shouldn’t train and I have done it both successfully and unsuccessfully. Also I’ve been advised to continue exercise whilst having treatment on many occasions, from the healthcare professional I was being treated by. The key is to recognise what has potential to cause serious illness and injury and avoid it. The wise man says, if in pain, don’t train. Of course that is a different sort of pain to that pleasurable pain induced by physical activity.

I’ll start with hay fever. I used to get it a lot in London and there was a period when my life was hell as my nose would run and sneeze all day. It was a particular issue standing on the tube in a full carriage, hanging onto the roof of the tube, with my nose running constantly. It also caused me problems sleeping so for about a month I was really tired and grumpy, for the other 11 months I was just grumpy. I actually found that my nose was much better when I was running, it gave me a relief, I probably should have done marathon training in that month. The other thing that seemed to relieve it was an air conditioned office, my favourite time of the year to work long hours. I did try homeopathic remedies, though I don’t really like putting any drugs into my body, but they never really worked for me so I just tried to ride out the storm. It never stopped me running and, although I worried it might do, I don’t think it had any effect on my form. When I moved up to Edinburgh I suffered a lot less, with hay fever that is, the only time I can actually recall suffering from it was when I went for a walk in the Pentlands and passed a rapeseed field. Back now in England and I am suffering again. So far it’s been the odd sneeze and itchy eyes but a couple of weekends ago I was at a Simple Minds concert in Delamere Forest and about half way through my nose started running and it was constant suffering for the rest of the concert. Thankfully, irritating as it was, it didn’t ruin the concert and I rate that as one of the best I’ve been to. So you can exercise through hay fever, however, because the sneezing comes on without warning, I would suggest you need to be careful if contemplating any exercise involving equipment, particularly any heavy lifting.

One thing we all get is the common cold. Colds can range from a little sniffle to the fully blown up flu like ailment. Flu is much worse and you should not consider training when suffering from it. I have continued to train through the minor cold symptoms, though at a lesser intensity, but I always stop if the cold is bad, my way of looking at it is, if I can exercise then I can work, if I can’t work I can’t exercise. Consequently I have a very low sickness record at work. My worst cold hit me in 1996, I’d had a good start to the year and was running into some good form. I was 2^nd in the Surrey 5000m and won the 10000m, but the rest of the summer turned into a bit of an anti-climax. However, I remained injury free and continued to train hard. As we approached the autumn my form returned and I produced some good road relay results. At the first Surrey Cross Country League I produced my best result to that point, finishing 13^th and went on to my first cross country race win in the South of Thames Junior Championship (more of that in a later blog). I was now in full swing and training hard, my focus was on the Surrey Cross Country Champs, I firmly believed I was a contender to win. Two weeks before the championship the guy who sat next to me at work got a really bad cold, but continued to turn up to work. Eventually it came my way, it had taken a full 8 days to reach me but when it did it knocked me sideways. It was probably the worst cold I can remember. I was desperate, 5 days to race day and I could hardly move. I spent a few days off work and training in the hope it would go away. Come the Saturday I went for a 1 mile jog. I can’t say I felt great but I convinced myself I was fine, big mistake. The race was that afternoon, at Coulsdon, 7.5 miles of cross country. I was still confident when we kicked off and hit the front row straight away, but then at about 1 mile I hit what can only be described as the wall, I suddenly had nothing left and started to fade. I continued to run as hard as I could, dragging my wall with me, but spent the next 6.5 miles watching other runners pass me. Understandably I didn’t win, I probably wouldn’t have anyway as it was won by Gary Staines (European Silver medallist) with John Solly (Commonwealth Gold medallist) in 2^nd, but I think a top 5 position was on the cards that day. 15 more guys got the better of me that day, as I faded to 18^th position. The one consolation is that I made the 6 man Belgrave team which won the team event for the first time in 30 years. No consolation really when you appreciate what damage I’d done. For the next few weeks I struggled with my training and when I came 34^th in the next Surrey League race, in what was quite a weak field, I knew something was wrong, so I went to the doctors for tests. I was lucky, I could so easily have caused serious damage, I’ve heard of Cross Country skiers having heart attacks by training through colds. I had strained my heart, the doctor told me it was just like straining any other muscle, I needed to rest and start back slowly. Ever since then I’ve been more careful about running with colds. Ten years later I got a cold the week I was due to make my debut for Scotland in the British and Irish Masters Cross Country event. I was still unsure if I should run on the day but my heart rate was close to normal so I gave it a go. This time I got away with it but I’m not convinced it was a sensible decision.

Following on from the 1996 cold story, I struggled to regain fitness for the rest of the winter, but only on the relative scale as to where I’d been in November. My heart recovered, I didn’t have any further issues, and still haven’t. So I was still fit but annoyed that I’d been in such great shape and thrown it away over one race. So what did the less sensible version of Roger Alsop do? Yep that’s right I drove myself hard to get back to that level of fitness. I remember I went for a week’s holiday to the Lake District and before I went walking I’d do a really tough hill session or a flat out run over a 5 mile undulating loop, no rest days for me I had races to win. It worked, I got my fitness back, but I was putting my body under too much pressure. I managed a 3^rd place in the Surrey 5000m, irritated that it should have been a victory if only I’d been in shape. Over the next three weeks I noticed a dull ache at the top of my foot, near the toes. It didn’t stop me running so I just kept training. It was getting gradually more painful but I’d had pains before and run through them. Then on 31^st May I ran a 1500m at Tooting Bec. It was a tactical race, with some good runners in it but I wasn’t looking for a win I wanted to reassert myself and run a good time, so I hit the front to push the pace on. Entering the start of the 3^rd lap I was still in the lead, with a bunch right on my shoulder. It was at this point that the biggest long jumper I’ve ever seen, got out of his sandpit and without looking stepped onto the track, right in front of me. We hit hard and I was stopped dead in my tracks, this felt like a thicker wall than the one at Coulsdon. I don’t know how many runners behind me were also affected but nobody fell over. The race continued and I finished a disappointing 5^th in 4:12. I hadn’t felt any pain during the race, but as I walked back to my kit I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my foot. I hobbled home and went to the hospital, nothing showed up on x-ray so I sought help for what I suspected was ligament damage. Two weeks later I was still in pain, another trip to the hospital and the tell tale deposits confirmed that I had actually got a very fine fracture to my metatarsal. 9 weeks off running, unfortunately not 9 weeks off work, but actually that was a godsend as my boss sent a computer home for me to work on and that kept me sane as I sat cooped up in my flat. 

But it’s not all doom and gloom I’ve been running for 22 years now and most times, I recognise when I shouldn’t train and usually seek out expertise when in pain or ill. However, training at my level I always get niggles and it’s sorting out the niggles from the problems. I’ve often run with niggles and they’ve eventually gone. Earlier this year I took two months off to get rid of a persistent knee problem. When I started running again I was ok for a couple of weeks but then my knee started niggling. I identified what caused the pain and adjusted my training accordingly. After a while the pain went and now I’m able to train properly again.

 

Tiredness and stress, whilst not an illness, needs to be managed as it’s very easy to run yourself down. During my first year in Scotland I worked nightshifts for the first time in my life and I was also under a lot of pressure to perform for a job that clearly wasn’t suitable for me. Consequently I was under a lot of stress. I was still training hard and, surprisingly, running quite well. I headed down to England for the BMAF 5k in Horwich and remember being on the start line feeling like I was going to faint. For a moment I was worried I’d have to pull out or drop out. Then the gun went and I was away. I ran 15:44, still my fastest 5k since I turned 40. A few weeks later I didn’t fare so well over the half marathon distance.

That’s all I’m going to say at this point, regarding training with illnesses and injuries. Obviously there is a lot more that could be covered, such as training after recovery from a serious illness or pregnancy but that would make the blog quite long and take away subjects for other weeks. I would say that I have continued to train on many occasions, with minor ailments, and I haven’t suffered any long term issues, usually if there is a real problem it will become apparent early, however I would advise that you take care if you think you may be ill or injured, and get yourself checked out by a professional.

To finish off a quick update on what I’ve been up to. If you’ve been following my blogs, weekly, then you’ll know I’m now getting myself into some good form by gradually increasing the intensity levels of my training and the mileage. I’ve got my Australian client, wwwthegirlthatruns.com following a similar programme, if a little less intense than mine. I’m now able to run for longer than an hour without getting any pains in the knee. I’ve also noticed that I’m running quicker, comfortably, in my steady runs, and I’m loving the grass reps, which are mentally stimulating and right on the cusp between speed and endurance. Last week I did 18 of them and I felt like I was running each one as hard as the others, though there is no scientific fact to base that on as I don’t track the times, that way it doesn’t shatter any illusions, if I feel I’m running fast and hard then there’s no point in trying to dent my confidence. I have to say, though, that as soon as I finished there must’ve been a lactic switch turned on, because I could barely move. It reminded me of a training session I did with Richard Nerurkar, but that’s another story. I’ve used the same grass session for Carole and she loves it too, less reps of course. Tonight it’s Ray’s turn to sample it. Last Saturday I decided to run Pennington Flash again. I didn’t really want to but Carole was keen, so I mentioned it to Ray (getting Ray’s buy-in makes it harder for either of us to change our minds). I woke up feeling tired and still didn’t want to run, but at the end of the day it’s just training and at least it’s out of the way early. It had been raining for a couple of days so I was anticipating the ground to be soggy, in fact it wasn’t too bad but there was a strong wind. As we parked up, who should park next to us, only Jeff Whittington, my rival for age group victory. It was the first time I’d actually spoken to Jeff and it was nice to find out a bit more about the character behind the man. It was a good attendance at the race, 59 completed the course. Once again I was allowed to take the early lead and set my own pace. I knew I wasn’t going to set a blazing time, with my tiredness and the wind but I pushed all the way, reluctant to ruin my average time around the course. I actually thought I was pushing to avoid running in the 17:50s so was amazed when I crossed the line in 17:20, my 2^nd fastest around the course. Ray ran great to improve his pb and, although not setting a pb, Carole was 3^rd lady and 1^st in her age group. We went for coffee in the Ranger’s hut and it was nice to chat to some of the other runners. So that’s 5 runs completed at Pennington Flash, I’m not sure when I’ll next be back, but I will be.

Why I like Northwich, from a fitness perspective and other reasons

From the age of 7 until I flew the nest at 18 I lived in a village called Holmes Chapel.

You may not have heard of this village, until the X Factor put it on the map as it’s the same village that Harry Styles, of One Direction, lived in at the time. He even worked in Mandeville’s, which I recall used to make a good pork pie. Holmes Chapel is situated about 8-9 miles away from Northwich but, because I went to school in Crewe, my friends and social life were very much in Crewe and Nantwich. It wasn’t until the Sixth form, when I became good friends with Simon Foster, that he introduced me to the drinking dens of Northwich.

Of course Northwich was much smaller in those days and, other than the Bee Hive pub, I don’t actually remember a great deal about it. Since I left school I’ve been living in London and Edinburgh, so Northwich became a bit of a forgotten place to me. Two years ago my partner was relocated to Cheshire, with her job, and, as I’d had enough of 12 hour shifts, I made sure I was in a position to be given redundancy to enable me to move with her. This meant we would come to Cheshire together to start another new life. Unfortunately the terms of my contract, and, as those in the know will know, I don’t break contracts, meant I wouldn’t finish up in Edinburgh until December but Carole would be down in August. What this meant was that Carole bypassed Northwich, in her search for accommodation, and we ended up in Hassall Green. Now I have nothing against Hassall Green, it is a nice little village (a little too close to the M6) and has some great running along the canal, plus it’s near to Sandbach which is a really nice small town and the scene of my first ‘Run with Rog’ sessions, however, it’s too rural for me, after 23 years living in capital cities.

When our contract, on that house, ended I was able to persuade Carole to take a look at Northwich. This would give us a chance to get to know another part of Cheshire, to help us to decide where to buy a place of our own. So last July we moved into a house in the Kingsmead area of Northwich (this area was just fields in my Bee Hive days but is now a nicely laid out area of Northwich). As is the case whenever I move somewhere knew, I quickly get out on a run and try to discover as much of the place as I can. I was pleasantly surprised, what a truly attractive place Northwich has become.

So lets start off with Northwich from a runners perspective, though you can count cycling in this as many of the running routes are also suitable for cycling. There are countless runs that can be done. You can run along the river Weaver, almost into town, and out as far as Winsford (I say as far as Winsford as I’m still on a max distance of 7 miles running and my bike’s still in Edinburgh, it may be that you can run further and no doubt one of my VRAC friends could point that out). You can also run along the A556 for some distance in either way, this is often a route I use when doing my repetitions and running with clients, though I’m finding more places each week (more about a challenging run I’ve just found later). There are a few small parks near town, which you could aim for but another of my favourite running places is the conglomeration of parks at the top end of town (Carey Park, Neumann’s Flash, Ashton Flash, Marbury Country Park, Anderton Wildlife Park, etc) which run for miles and offers some great terrain for training in, there is also a canal that runs through it as well as the river Weaver on the edge of it. It was here that I organised Lee Riley’s killer session on his way to breaking the Marathon World record. This is a great area of open parkland and I often use it for taking a nice casual walk after a hard training session. Parts of the park are also used for horse riding. Of course there are many more places to run, which I’ve still to discover but this is a good starting point. I’m sure my friends at VRAC know many more, I know they train at Gadbrooke Park for part of the year because I trained there with them for a while. And there is another point, if you are an athlete, like myself, Vale Royal AC are a really friendly club to be associated with. Of course my allegiance is still with Herne Hill Harriers, but I’m friendly with a number of the VRAC athletes – though work has meant I haven’t seen them in weeks.

Of course not everybody likes running but, as I’ve mentioned, a lot of the above is also suitable for cycling, walking or horse riding. You could also use in-line skates on the tarmac’d paths. Northwich also boast it’s own rowing club, why wouldn’t you when you have a great river running through the town, plus the Sir John Deane’s College appears to have it’s own club for pupils there. Rowing is something I’ve never tried for real, I’ve used a concept II as part of my training regime to great effect, though I’m currently waiting for a convenient time to bring that down from Edinburgh, but I wonder how good I might be. Maybe it’s something I’ll look into if I suffer from injury again, or, perish the thought, get board of running. Anglers also use the river, often my only company on my early morning runs.  

Tennis is another sport where there is a club in Hartford, is Hartford a separate place to Northwich or is it a bit like Leith in Edinburgh? I’ll leave the established locals to fight that one out, all I know is that you pay a lot more for a house in Hartford but you get a lot less for such a large amount.

There are gyms in Northwich, there’s LA Fitness, for those who like to be associated with a big gym, also Dave’s gym, which charges from £1 a session, and a ladies only gym (which I can never remember the name of seeing as I’m no lady). There’s Moss Farm Leisure complex, which hosts a number of leisure interests, Winnington Park Recreation Club, which hosts cricket, hockey, bowls, archery, football, and table tennis amongst other things, and Sir John Deane’s College which has football and badminton as well. There is also an outdoor fitness suite in Vickers Way Park, which is suitable for inexperienced people to try some light exercise. Having my own gym (more about that in a later blog) I have not yet tried out the Northwich gyms.

I read in the news last week that a new boxing club has been set up in Queen Street. It doesn’t just cater for boxing but will have martial arts classes too. I go past it on some of my runs so maybe I’ll check it out sometime.

There appears to be a good following for motorbikes, perhaps due to the proximity to Oulton Park, and every year there is a motorbike Thundersprint competition, which takes place in the town centre. I went along this year and it was quite fun, but if you’re really interested in motorbikes you would really enjoy it. You may ask where this fits in with fitness but it’s still sport, isn’t it! Plus I like to promote local things, as I’m now a local.  

Northwich also has football teams; Northwich Victoria and Witton Albion (don’t ask me which league, quite a way down from the Premiership) plus a Rugby Union club, there may also be other minor league teams, and of course you are not far from the heartland of Rugby League or the great football teams that grace Manchester and Liverpool, not forgetting Crewe Alex (or my nephews will be mad with me).

Northwich is where I base my Personal Training business, whilst I cover the whole of Cheshire, I’m looking to concentrate more of my business within the Northwich area, there is so much to take advantage of here and with my capacity for creating varied sessions in different locations I look forward to receiving more clients from the area.

Of course there may well be numerous other fitness / sports related things to do in Northwich, but I’ve only been here a few months and I don’t know everything yet.

But, getting back to the point of why I like Northwich. I think it is a great place to get fit, by whatever means you choose, and there are many different walks for pleasure along the river or in the parks. It’s also only a few miles away from Delamere Forest and Tatton Park. Communications with Manchester and airport, Liverpool and airport and Chester are really good and you are close to the M6, making travel up and down the country easy. The people appear to be friendly and the town centre does have it’s own charm to it, though it’s in need of a bit of a refresh. We could do with a cinema and some restaurants in town but then it would need the local people to support them. Now that we’ve bought our place, and I have my own gym, I really feel at home here and hope that the, promised, regeneration of Northwich goes ahead, as I believe, with the right planning, Northwich can become somewhere desirable for people to, both live and visit. 

Enough about Northwich, what about me. I’ve just started my build up to winter training. I know that sounds a bit daft with Summer just beginning, but because I was lacking fitness at the start of the year I’ve been gradually building this up. I’m now at the point where I can really put the effort in and build up on that 7 mile max I’m on currently. My quality efforts are scheduled to gradually increase in length each session, up to the 30 min marker (then maybe I’ll push out to 40), plus I’ve found a really good circuit of uphill grassland which I’m hoping will not only get me cross country fit but will help me knock Jeff Whittington off the top spot at Pennington Flash. Jeff ran a fantastic race last Saturday, setting a new pb and moving to the top of the age graded results, by a big margin. I think if I’m to knock him off that spot I’ll have to break the course record, that’s a pb by 40 seconds. Can I do it, you bettcha, well I’ll give it a go anyway. SMART or THICK goal, you decide.