Goodbye to Herne Hill Harriers

In many aspects of our lives there comes a time when you need to change something, be it a job, house, relationship, habit or whatever. Some decisions may be made on a whim, whilst others take a little more thought and discussion. I’ve had such a decision to make recently. The decision of should I stay or should I leave Herne Hill Harriers.

You might think it would be an easy decision to make, but it’s not for me. When I join an athletics club that club becomes a part of me and hopefully I become a significant part of that club. Despite the fact that I’ve moved houses, jobs and locations on numerous occasions, my athletics club has always been important to me. I stayed at my first club, Belgrave Harriers, for 16 years, and only left because I felt there was no longer a place for me to compete in the team. It was a tough decision to make and took me well over a year before I decided it was time to move on.

Moving to Herne Hill Harriers, local rivals to Belgrave Harriers, was possibly not the best thing for Belgrave, but it was the best thing for me, a local club that was competing in areas I could be competitive and I was already friendly with a number of the team. I was made welcome at Herne Hill and our Masters section has been very successful during my stay. But now it’s time to move on from them.

When I left London for Edinburgh, Herne Hill were no longer my local team but I was able to continue with them, whilst running, in Scotland, for Edinburgh AC. But when I left Scotland for Cheshire, the rules, in England, were different and so I’ve been running a mostly lone race for Herne Hill Harriers, in local races. I haven’t been down to London for three years so my opportunities to run for the team have been limited and being a team man at heart this just isn’t working for me.

I’ve spent a good deal of time thinking through what I should do, I’ve held off because I was never absolutely sure I wouldn’t go back to Edinburgh or London, but my life has started to settle down in Cheshire and it looks like we’re here to stay. So now’s the time to move to a more local team, who I can compete with locally, particularly in the cross country events that I’ve missed so much. So last week, after 7 happy years, I handed in my resignation to Herne Hill. It’s a good time to move on, the club’s ladies have just won promotion in their UK Women’s League and the men are on target to reach the top in their League. So everything is positive at the club and I’m sure I won’t be missed.

Now to find a local team. My requirements are simple, it has to be local, running teams in cross country leagues. They should have a history, with great runners, past and present, to inspire me. Lastly they should have an active Masters section. I pulled together my wish list and looked at all the local clubs and one club stood out, head and shoulders above the rest. It’s an obvious place to go as I’m already friendly with a number of their members. So at the end of last week I sent in my application to join Salford Harriers and AC. Hopefully I’ll be accepted into the club at tonight’s committee meeting.

So I’d like to say goodbye to all my friends at Herne Hill Harriers, and I hope we can all remain friends, even if we’re now on opposing teams. Thank you for letting me be part of such a great club and I wish you lots of future success, unless of course you’re competing against me. And now it’s hello to Salford Harriers and AC, I look forward to running with you and hopefully playing a part in your future success.

This weekend it was exactly a year since I set my Pennington Flash parkrun pb. I’m running much better this year and after last week’s BMAF 5000m I’ve been training hard and with confidence all week. So on Saturday Carole, myself and Carole’s mum set off for Pennington Flash. It was my full intention to have a crack at Jeff Whittington’s age graded record, after all a few week’s ago I ran my 2^nd fastest time around the flash. Incidentally Carole’s mum wasn’t running, she was staying with us for the weekend and I didn’t trust her being left alone in the house as she’d start cleaning everything and putting things away in places I’d never find them again. So we volunteered her to marshal.

Come the race, and after the usual chat from Bill, I set off with intent. I knew instantly nobody had come with me and I focussed solely on the job at hand. I ran hard and I felt good, the rain shower on the first lap dampened my enthusiasm a little but I managed to ignore the stiff breeze. It was a little more slippery than I’d anticipated and I did have to navigate around the worst bits, but I really thought I was running a fast time. Starting on the 3^rd, and final, lap I felt a slight twinge in my hamstring but it didn’t stop me pushing. I took a look at my watch as I came into the final minute area, it had passed 16 minutes, well I must’ve got my checkpoint wrong, I was flying! But obviously I wasn’t, I crossed the line in 17:19, a full minute slower than my run, on the track, the previous week.

The fact that I was so far off the 16:40 I was aiming for could have had a negative effect on me, but I just reflected on how hard it is to run well around Pennington Flash. It was also a time trial, the next person in was over 2 minutes behind, and I’ve always run better in races than in time trials, though I do have quite a good reputation for relay events. So funnily enough it’s made me feel even more confident about my next race.

Also this weekend the Olympics started. I did enjoy most of the opening ceremony, I’ve never watched one before. But I have to say the BBC have really talked the Olympics to death and I do believe there is far too much coverage on BBC1. They should try to cover as much as possible on BBC Two, Three and Four, plus all the digital channels they seem to possess, and then round up all the highlights on BBC One at about 8pm. That would allow other, less sport minded people to get something out of their licence fee. Even I, who loves sport, can’t keep up with all the channel hopping.

And finally for the bad news, I thought the hamstring twinge was just a one off, but this morning, during a hard rep, it pulled painfully. Of course this just happened to occur at the furthest point away from home. Sensibly I stopped running hard straight away and jogged home. It’s tender and I don’t think it’s a significant pull so I’m hopeful a little rest will do it some good. Unfortunately I’m due to run with a number of clients this week, or not as may now be the case.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

British Masters Track and Field Championships 2012

I was in Derby again this weekend, taking part in the British Masters Track and Field Championships. It served as a great reminder as to why I rarely take part in track and field events these days. Don’t get me wrong, the volunteer staff did an excellent job in very hot conditions, but I’m just not one for hanging around doing nothing waiting for my event to happen. Mind you I do have one complaint, though I’ll admit I’m a smidgen to blame for the outcome, but more of that later.

First let me tell you about the strange occurrence that happened on Saturday, I went to Pennington Flash Parkrun, and didn’t run. The reason’s fairly obvious, I was running the BMAF 5000m on the Sunday and a tough 5k over Pennington’s hilly trail circuit would not be the best preparation for me, but because Carole wanted to run I decided to volunteer. I’ll admit I’m not great at volunteering, not that I’m shy of it it’s just that when I normally go I want to run, in fact when I arrived on Saturday the weather was so nice I did want to run, but common sense prevailed. This was the second time I’ve volunteered, though on the first occasion I was actually volunteered to hand out number tags by Bill, after I’d finished my run. Now Bill you know I’m always happy to do that, as long as you give me 10 seconds to catch my breath. This time I’d warned Bill I was after a job and was sent to the far flung corner to marshall.

Because I wasn’t running I walked off to my position, surprised at how far it was, normally I run it in not much more than a minute but it took a fair while to walk. I’d been sensible, on this sunny day, and had my hat, sunglasses a newspaper and my ipod, though I’d forgotten the deckchair. As I waited for the athletes to arrive I enjoyed the view, it’s quite picturesque but I’ve never really noticed it before, when I’m running. After a longish wait, I can only assume Bill was waiting for people to turn up due to the Ironman preparation in the car park, the athletes started up the hill towards me. I was surprised at how many of them were walking on this first lap, but it is a pretty tough course. I think sometimes we fit people forget how unfortunate it is for those who have yet to discover real fitness, but don’t despair as it’s my job to get people fit and it’s so rewarding when people make their goal, irrespective of how big or small it is. But that’s another story.

Having almost finished my newspaper, listened to a fantastic album and cheered on all the runners/walkers I headed back to the finish with Les and Val, the final two athletes. Les was helping Val to get to the end without stopping and she looked great as she strode alongside Les at her own pace. She even kept up a conversation with me as she pootled along so there’s more to come there Val. And this is a classic case of perseverance paying off, Val hasn’t been running that long but has worked hard, with Bill, to push her boundaries and today was a reward for all their hard work. Many of the people who take part at Pennington, and know me, may find it hard to believe, that I was once in that position. I went a whole summer in my first year of running, going out for 2 miles then having to stop and walk before I could run the 2 miles home. I even remember how difficult it felt. But perseverance meant that eventually it became more comfortable and I was able to run the whole way, without stopping, by the start of autumn. Had I given up I would have been just another failed runner, as it was I kept pushing myself and eventually became a British Champion, so if I can do it, so can you.

Then it was back home, a bit of gardening and preparation for Sunday’s race. I’d been sent details of the timetable but the 800m and 5000m, being held on Sunday afternoon, were down as TBC. Note: this is where my complaint is about to start. Why rough timings couldn’t be given I don’t know, but then I’ve never organised a track and field event. I’d been led to believe that the race would occur around 14:00, though I was prepared for delays to take it nearer to 15:00, but for some reason we had to report by 13:00, whereas all other events could report up to 1 hour before their event.

With this in mind, and thinking that I would be racing at 14:00, I had my pre-race meal at 09:30 and then we set off. On arrival at the stadium we had to wait until 13:15, when we were told we were the last event of the day, at 16:30. By now I was hungry and there was nothing for it but to eat my post race nutrition, which wasn’t actually suitable as my pre race nutrition. I didn’t eat much and by 16:00 I was starving again, so lesson learnt, make sure I have effective pre-race nutrition available, in case of delays, and eat nearer to the start time.

On paper, out of all the M45s listed I had the 5^th fastest time and there were 3 guys I’d never beaten, though admittedly two of them I’d only raced once. So I wasn’t 100% confident I’d get a medal. Actually I wasn’t at all confident, my confidence had taken a bit of a battering lately. Since the bronze medal I’d picked up at the road 5k champs my 5k times had gone to 16:48 and 17:08, yes there were reasons but it still bothered me that maybe I’d reached my peak at Horwich. To compound this I’d done a track session with Lee Riley on Monday and I was absolutely rubbish, in fact I just managed to sneak a mile rep under the 6 minute mark, hardly inspiring training for a fast 5k. However I kept telling myself that I’d done the work and you don’t turn into a rubbish athlete overnight, I’d been tired before that session so it was understandable. I also tried not to worry about my opposition as it could be their bad day today.

Anyway without going into minute details about the race, Gordon Lee ran away with the M45 title, I had a rather interesting and enjoyably tactical race with Simon Wright (who won in Horwich), he finally got the better of me in the last 500m. I ran the race partially astute but I also made a couple of schoolboy errors, which possibly cost me the silver. I ended up with bronze in a season’s best 16:19.68, and it was the fastest track 5000m I’d run in 3 years. So I was actually happy with that. Now to go away and think about what I can refine in the next 4 weeks, how to keep my confidence on the rise and how the hell I can beat Gordon Lee, who’s currently on another level. That’s going to take some work, but I don’t actually see why it can’t be achievable. Whilst at Derby it was nice to catch up with some of the people I’ve become friendly with over the years, particularly my Scottish friends who always seem to get to these events.

I’ve been doing some other thinking about my future in sport lately. I’ve made a decision that I think will make me a better athlete and make competing more fun, but more of that another week.

After a tour around the beautiful Derbyshire countryside and a meal out, I’d taken my mum and dad and Carole along too, we finally got home at 20:30 and then had to catch up with the Formula 1 and the Tour de France. Fantastic result for Cav, Wiggo and Team Sky, what a brilliant lead up to the Olympics.

I was actually going to devote this blog to a review of Gabby’s book, but for two reasons I changed my mind. Firstly, I believe it’s being reviewed in Athletics Weekly this week, secondly, I’ve been so busy I’ve only read 4 chapters. Despite the fact that it’s the sort of book that once you pick it up you want to keep reading it, I’m too strong willed and my work and training take up too much time, so I’ve been snatching reads when I can.

What I can say though is that if anybody has a fascination (Richard Meade) with the marathon in the way that Bradley Wiggins had for the Tour de France, then this is a great book to add to your library. People like me, who ran during the 80’s and 90’s will enjoy reading the comments made by those that were winning the races we were running in or watching. You get a great insight into how people approached marathons and training for them and find out that the carbo loading/depletion diet isn’t for everyone.

I noted an interesting comment from Steve Brace, around dehydration. He felt that many of the marathon runners of the day were permanently dehydrated as they failed to take into account their hydration during everyday living. Something I’m sure many of us still do. And I did find Sheila Catford, possibly the only person in the book I don’t really know anything about, a little intense. But that’s my interpretation. If you’d like to find out more about the book it’s on http://www.gabriellecollison.com/

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

On Your Bike

Like many of my friends I’ve been watching the Tour de France, on the TV. I’m not a big cycling fan so I don’t sit around all afternoon watching the live bit, for a non cycling fan I’d find watching them eat their food on the go and taking ‘natural breaks’ a little tedious, but I do like the action, i.e. the sprints and breakaways. Mind you, probably like any endurance athlete, it’s the mountain stages that hold the most fascination for me. It’s great to watch men trying to break each other in order to make any kind of gain they can. The past few years have been riddled with controversy due to riders being caught doping but this year seemed to be a fairly clean tour and then… Frank Schleck. Not the first rider to be caught on this tour but certainly the most high profile.

I’m sure I’m not alone in being impressed with the way that Bradley Wiggins is conducting himself, both on and off the bike. He has character and isn’t afraid to say what he thinks but he’s also a dedicated sportsman, and, as shown in Sunday’s stage, a man of fair play. The way things are looking, Bradley could become the first ever British winner of the Tour, I hope he is, but of course anything could happen this week. Fingers crossed for Bradley.

I can never lay claim to being much of a cyclist, sure I had bikes when I was a kid, I even had a Chipper (which was a junior version of the Chopper), I decided against the Chopper, preferring to go back to conventional bikes after I had an incident on my Chipper which had me going headfirst through the handlebars and scrapping my face off on a gravel road. As a teenager in Cheshire, I used to cycle around the country lanes but that was more through boredom, than desire. My brother joined a cycling club in Congleton but I had no interest in following him there.

So when I left Cheshire for London, I left my bike behind. In the back of my mind I always thought it would make it’s way down to London but a member of a Congleton cycling club started using it for spares and I never rode it again.

Then in the late 90’s I brought a new bike. I’d had a number of injuries over the preceding years and was experimenting with cross training. Living close to Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park I thought it would be a good place to use a mountain bike, so I bought one, only to find there were restrictions on where you could ride it. Still that didn’t deter me and I spent many a summer evenings cycling around the area.

In 2005 I tore my hamstring and my physio advised me to keep fit by finding a hill and going up it a number of times in a high gear. Perfect, I lived by Wimbledon Park and that had a brilliantly steep hill I could climb and then recover on a longer route around back to the start. I would do this training first thing in the morning and then head off to work, so for a while I was getting in an hour later than my normal 8:00 start. That wasn’t a problem with my boss, but it became a problem on 7^th July, when I got caught up in the fringes of the London bombings. 10 minutes earlier and my life could have been very different, as it was I was caught in the after effects, turfed off a tube with no explanation and having to walk the rest of the way, about 6 miles, into work.

Naturally I felt a bit sheepish as I turned up very late at work, but my boss seemed please to see I’d made it in. It was only then that I found out what had been going on and my mind went all hazy. It reminded me of 9/11, I was working in the same room, which for some reason had a TV. Somebody switched the TV on and we all watched pictures of one of the Twin Towers on fire, I was actually watching as the TV as the second plane crashed into the other tower. This time it was slightly different, it was my town and I was therefore involved. Nobody knew what was going on or if we were safe or not. My mate Jim Buick was down in London as it was the Corporate Challenge that night, in Battersea Park, I was going to meet up with him and watch it, but now I couldn’t get hold of him, in fact I couldn’t get hold of anyone on a mobile.

Eventually Jim and I made contact, the race was off so we met up and ate in town before catching the restarted train service back home. The next day I rode the tube into work, nervous as anything, I was a little better on the way home. But I’d made a decision that I was going to save time by cycling into work on the odd day. The first day I did this was the day the 2^nd round of bombs were planned, but thankfully didn’t go off. Chaos again, so I then decided I was going to cycle in every day.

I did but it wasn’t pleasant, it was only about 11 miles but the roads were busy, many drivers didn’t seem to care if you were in front of them or underneath them and I had one incident with a bunch of teenagers who were desperate to make me fall off my bike. I persevered  but once I was able to start running again I found it affected my training, it was too much, so I went back to the tube. I actually thought I had more chance being killed on my bike than by a bomb.

And then I moved to Edinburgh. It took me 5 months to find my own place and then I brought my bike up. Cycling around Edinburgh was a completely different experience, it was fun. There were still some idiots in cars but not as many. As I was single at the time I had more time to use the bike and I used it as a 2^nd training session in the days when I was off work. But then Carole came along and once more my bike was confined to the garage as Carolemania took over my life.

When we moved to Cheshire the bikes stayed in Edinburgh until we found the place we wanted to live. Unfortunately this took a lot longer than we had hoped and it was two years before we managed to get the bikes down. At last we got the bikes down and had them serviced and it was out and about in Northwich and beyond.

Now I’ll run in all conditions, but cycling is for leisure, that means I only cycle when it’s dry conditions. So you can imagine we haven’t done much cycling this summer. Last Sunday was such a day and we decided to head off to Delamere Forest. It’s a nice route along the Northwich cycleway, then through the villages of Sandiway, Cuddington and Norley and finally to the nice and slightly challenging hills in the forest. It was a nice little cycle and by the time we got home I was pretty tired, I reckoned on the Alsop mileage scale that was about 20.5 miles in 1 hour 30 minutes, I don’t tend to stop to admire views as I’m enjoying the cycling, though I did tend to slow down for my Domestic job of getting Carole up the hills.  

Last week I was settling myself back into the training, finishing the week off with a punishing 10 x 6 minutes hard with 1 minute recovery. At the end of the run I was wasted. I knew it was temporary and because I’d pushed my body harder, for longer, than I had for some years. It was a good session and it was great to keep pushing when my head was telling me I should think about stopping and going for a beer instead. Unfortunately the temporary was a little less temporary than I had hoped for and I felt wiped out all day Friday. Saturday morning I was still feeling a little fazed but had recovered enough to go to the Princes Parkrun with Carole, Ray and Sharon. It was being held in Sefton Park this weekend, which presented another new course for me.

I wasn’t really in the mood for it but I’d made the decision to run so I wasn’t going to back down. This time there was a man with a bike to follow so I wasn’t going to have to ask for directions. It was a sharp start but by the first turn, about 200m in, I was on my own with a man on a bike for company. The course kept switching back on itself which meant, for a change, me, Carole, Ray, Sharon and Ray and Sharon’s friends, Mike and Nicky could see each other’s progress throughout the race. It also meant I could see where my closest opponent was. On this occasion it was quite a distance, so I did what I rarely do, I eased off a little. I don’t normally do that because I’m conscious of the ranking system and how that might affect my potential selection for the England squad, but I wasn’t feeling 100% so it made sense. I still won by a considerable margin, in 17:08, but I wouldn’t class it as a spectacular run.

Mike, Nicky, Carole, Smug Guy, Sharon and Ray

Thanks to the cycling on Sunday my legs were still a bit tired on Monday, but I managed to fit in three running sessions, with clients, getting drenched on each one. I did my ‘treadmill’ session outdoors on Tuesday, in Tatton Park, got drenched again. Today, I didn’t get drenched, a run with Katy and it was great weather for running. My legs now feel back to normal too.

Incidentally Katy ran a personal best over the hilly Trentham 10 at the weekend, knocking 1 minute 30 seconds off her previous best. She’s going well, as I found out this morning….

I’ve now secured a copy of Gabby’s book about British marathon running legends of the 80’s. The book was ready as I went to Spain, an ideal opportunity for me to read it but I was waiting for a kindle version. As it was I didn’t feel there was a particular hurry as I’d just started reading Shackleton’s book, which I’m finding fascinating and very similar to the film. But then I started reading facebook comments from friends who have now read Gabby’s book and I was keen to get a copy. So, sadly, Shackleton’s on hold, because I couldn’t wait any longer and I’ve now started reading the book.

Well I got my copy yesterday and the first thing I did was look at the index. Some interesting running names, people I know of more than know, big names to look up to if you were a runner at the time. I noticed there was a chapter on Jim Dingwall, a man I never met but having run the Jim Dingwall 10k a few times, at Falkirk, the legend that is the man sticks with you. I know bits about the late Jim Dingwall so am keen to read that chapter, I’m sure some of my marathon running Scottish friends will be equally keen. But I didn’t want to jump ahead, I’ve started at the beginning and last night started the chapter on John Boyes, of Bournemouth. I didn’t get very far before I had to put the book down, bedtime and a full day ahead of me, but what I read was interesting. As my pal Tony Austin said, it’s a book that you just want to keep on reading. I remember John, he was still running when I started and his name featured often, at the front of races. What’s interesting, and again this was stated by Tony Austin, is that these are just ordinary guys like the rest of us, who started running and then found they were talented at it. The book tells you about why and how they decided upon marathon running. Haven’t got any further than that but I can’t wait until my next reading slot. Thanks Gabby for making your interviews public. There’ll be more on the book in next week’s blog, when hopefully I’ve read a lot more, but if you want to find out more yourself, visit http://www.gabriellecollison.com/

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

    

Best Made Plans……

I’m a planner, I like to think things through and look for the best path to take to get to where I‘m going. I use lists a lot and like to have a clear picture of what I’m aiming for. For some years I worked as a Planning Consultant, probably the most enjoyable working years of my IT life, though I enjoyed working in Change Management too, because I also like change, as long as it’s well planned. As an athlete I often had a plan that I worked with, particularly during my most successful years. During the more chaotic years in my career, it caused chaos in my training as I was unable to sustain a plan so tended to drift from race to race.

Having a plan doesn’t mean that plan can’t change, there always has to be flexibility and an ability to seize the opportunity. One of my biggest wins came when I had to change my plans and switch to a different race. This was in 1993, I’d had a good winter under the coaching of Arthur Bruce. He thought it would be good if I were to get an early season win under my belt and we planned for the Belgrave 10000m championship, which was usually held around early May. However, for some reason, the Belgrave committee decided to switch the 1993 event to later in the year, so Arthur suggested I went for the Surrey Championship 10000m instead. Because the Surrey’s were attended by some great athletes, including many international runners, in those days, Arthur suggested I hang onto the coat tails of other athletes and get carried to a good time, for the sake of boosting my confidence. So I turned out, with many of Surrey’s best athletes, and hung onto the back end of the leading pack. Lap by lap I hung on in there, not listening to the lap times but concentrating on matching the pace of the athletes in front. Athletes in that front pack started to drift off the back and I’d go round them so I was still at the back of the lead pack. Eventually there was only one man in front of me, International marathon runner, Mike Boyle. I was in a position I didn’t expect to be in and my competitor was an athlete whom I had a great deal of respect for, and believed he was much better than me. But with 3 laps to go I felt fresh and somehow managed to come level with Mike. Now that Mike knew who was tracking him I thought this might give him a confidence booster as I was a relatively unknown athlete to him, so I decided to make a long run for home, increasing the pace just enough to stretch away from Mike and take my first big win. So I got the win and improved my 10000m time by 2 mins, my confidence was high and a few weeks later I found myself in the UK 3000m final, where I came last.

If you’ve been following the blog lately you’ll know that I’m currently working to a 12 week plan, which I’m hoping will serve me well at the European Elderly Athlete Championships. As I sit here today, I have five more weeks of that plan to go, but it hasn’t all been smooth.

It started off well enough, week by week I’ve been getting stronger and faster, and this has been showing in my races, which included a bronze medal at the British Old Age Pensioner 5k race. Alas, two weeks ago I suffered the first blow to my plan. It was during my last treadmill session, which I mentioned in my last blog. I’d just increased the number of reps I was doing and was operating at the fastest pace I could. It was a tough session for me but I hung in there and managed to finish it, tired but in one piece. I was completely spent but that was the aim. The next morning my left calf was stiff. I’ve been there before and I knew it would ease up in time so I wasn’t unduly concerned, in fact I went for a long run in Tatton Park.

The following day it was still tight and I had a hard session planned for that evening. I was due to go to Spain the next day, for some hot weather training, and was due to use the travel day as my rest day, so I didn’t want to miss my Thursday session. And that was my downfall, the calf eased off after a bit of running but the hard work was too much and it seized up again later that evening.

You get an instinct for injuries and I knew this wasn’t a pull or a tear, just a very tired muscle. I’ll admit I was a little concerned but I went off to Spain confident that I would be able to run out there. After the day of rest my calf didn’t feel any better, so I took another day off and just did bodyweight exercises, cherry picking some of my favourite and most challenging ones. It was now two days without a run, I know that would drive some of my friends nuts but I chilled out, used the pool, did my shade bathing and read my kindle. I was so relaxed I wasn’t even bothered by the role reversal that was occurring, Carole was out running whilst I was lounging about, she even started making the dinner, which maybe I ought to have been a little bothered about.

Into day 3, and the calf was feeling a lot better, so I thought I’d try a run. I decided on a short run, that way I wouldn’t be too far from home if something wasn’t right, but within 2 minutes I could tell my calf was going to be ok so I changed direction. I had a sudden desire to do a quality session but I resisted temptation, instead heading uphill to the top of the village. It was hot but I was running within myself, I felt good and was enjoying myself, something I can’t always say when I’m running easy, on my own. The views from the top were worth the run up, though the downhills did put a bit more pressure on my calf. A good plus was that on the way home I found a newly tarmaced area that looked perfect for doing my quality sessions on. Run over, the legs felt fine, if there was no reaction tomorrow I’d be back doing the good stuff.

Day 4 and my legs felt fine, I was raring to go. I decided to do this week’s treadmill session, but obviously without the treadmill. I aimed for the new training area I’d spotted and reached it just as my 6 minute warm-up came to an end, so I started my first rep. Long reps, taken hard, with long easy recoveries. The first one started into the wind and it was hot, which is exactly what I wanted. After a couple of minutes I was out of the wind but now climbing up a long steady hill. It was hard work but I kept the pressure on, knowing I was getting a long recovery after, and boy did I need that. That was just how it felt when I was doing it in the gym, so I must be close to the correct pace. At the start of the next rep I was recovered enough and it was downhill for the bulk of it, so I felt a little better. By the end of the session I was pretty much done in, it was hot and I could feel my body temperature rising. I deliberately hadn’t taken any water out with me as I want to get my body used to working hard when in a state of minor dehydration, so now I was keen to get back to my base. The good news, my calf was ok.

So that was it I did another quality session two days later, shorter reps, shorter recoveries and more of them, after which I was again done in, no shade around either of my training courses. With two steady runs in between the quality runs I finished off on my last day with a shorter quality session, by now my legs were aching so I didn’t want to overdo it.

And then it was back home, using the travelling day as a rest day. Back to the rain and cooler temperatures of home. We’d watched the TV once during our stay in Spain, that was the European Football Cup Final. It was a good final to watch, for a non football fan, the score failing to give credit to how well the Italians played, but the Spanish were the better team and once Italy were down to 10 men it was no contest. I also tend to keep my phone turned off when abroad, giving me a little reminder of how life used to be before we all started carrying them around, how peaceful. What that meant, however, was that we were completely unaware of what was going on in the UK, whilst we trained in the sunshine and heat of Spain, my friends back in the UK were running in the rain. We were unaware of the controversy around the Olympic team selections, didn’t realise Andy Murray had made it to the Wimbledon final, though I was wondering how Bradley Wiggins was getting on in the Tour de France, I have high hopes, he’s my kind a guy, tough but scrawny and a bit ginger.

There was live music on three nights, two don’t really warrant a mention but a guy called Curtis was recreating rock music at Lo Marabou (an English style pub). He was pretty good, though he did have a propensity to follow the lead of many a 70’s guitarist and play ‘off-piste’ a bit too much. I’d recommend him, if you like rock music, http://www.ghostpromotions.com/

So back in the country and it was time to catch up and watch some sport. I’m not a tennis fan so I went off to do something else and wait for my turn to watch Moto GP and the British GP, whilst Carole watched the tennis. I did see bits, and in those Murray seemed to have some good play but he was outclassed by Federer. Bradley Wiggins had taken the yellow jersey, that was good news but it’s going to be a battle to keep it from Cadel Evans. F1 was a bit disappointing for a Brit but it was good to see Webber get past Alonso for the victory, I still have Moto GP to watch, only so many hours…..

Incidentally, yesterday I ran this week’s treadmill session on my old course and felt like I was absolutely flying. True it was hard work, it has to be, but the main thing is I had no reaction from the calf. So a minor change and we’re back on track.

Finally I thought I’d mention the book that an old friend and colleague, from my Belgrave days, has just published. I haven’t read it yet, it came out just before I went to Spain and I’m considering getting the kindle version, but I’m very interested to read it and I’m sure many of my running friends would be too. The book is called ‘British Marathon Running Legends of the 1980s’ by Gabrielle Collison (ISBN 978-0-9572186-0-4). It’s going to be on Amazon and there will be kindle and pdf versions available. I’ll be aiming to do a bit of a review when I get my copy and get a chance to read it, I’ve only just got round to reading Shackleton’s attempt to cross the Antarctic and that was written almost 100 years ago.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk