British Masters 5k Champs 2013

On Sunday I was in Horwich for the British Masters 5k championships. It was a race that up until a few weeks ago I had no intention of entering, I’d said to myself I wasn’t going to enter a proper race until I could run a sub 18 minute parkrun, without any pain in the ankle area. And then I got the call from Salford’s masters section organiser, Dave Lockett, we had two M45s entered and could I consider it as it takes three to tango in this game. Naturally I was wary, at that point I’d run one parkrun, a 19:25 in Edinburgh, in some pain, plus I could hardly move for the following two days. But rather than say an outright no I said I’d let him know after the next parkrun, which was scheduled for Delamere the next day. An 18:39 there wasn’t any great shakes but it was a big improvement on Edinburgh and I was in slightly less pain on the run, more significantly I was able to run the next day. So I got in touch with Dave, I told him I wouldn’t be in any shape to make much of a difference but if I was needed I was available.

A week went by and training was going well, I even managed some reps with Ray, which culminated in another progression at the Delamere parkrun, this time18:12, less pain on the run and, again, I was able to resume training the next day. With a week to go before the BMAF race I decided to try some shock tactics in my training, to try to get the ankle to move more freely, I was still limping away at the start of my runs and had been told by a client that my running looked a bit suspect, when he saw me running towards Tatton Park. So last week I began my shock tactics, this being, to do reps as fast as I could, fewer than I would normally do but doing some each day. I started on Monday with 12 minutes of quality, repeated that on Tuesday but decided to step it up to 18 minutes on Wednesday. Perhaps that Wednesday one was too much as my ankle was stiff on Thursday, so back to easy running and then running with a client on Friday. The ankle hadn’t eased up by Saturday so I took the day off running and did something I would never do the day before a race, under normal circumstances, painted the ceiling. I’m no Michelangelo, but I’m quite proud of my work, it shows my ‘White’ period perfectly.

Come the day of my race I was up early, once again heading to a race with Rob Tudor and Graham MacNeil. We arrived nice and early, which meant I could pick up my number without having to queue for an hour. At this point I was informed, unlike every other year, there were no club prizes. WHAT! Rob and I were both on the recovery trail from serious injuries and wouldn’t have bothered entering this race if it wasn’t because we wanted to help Salford achieve the best result they could, now we’d committed ourselves for nothing. Both of us have good reputations at the event, last year I was 3^rd M45, the year before that Rob won the M45 title, the year before that I was 2^nd M45 and back in 2006 I was part of the Herne Hill team which won the M40 title, only to have that taken away from us, a week later, on a recount. So it was understandable that we both wanted to be in better shape before we tackled the cream of Britain’s master athletes.

I had been confident I would break just break 18 minutes, but less confident it would help Salford to medals. Now it didn’t matter and I found it hard to motivate myself before the start. It was odd, I’m the sort of person who thrives on championship events and have a record that shows I’m capable of bringing out the best of me for them, even when the chips are down, but now this race felt like any ordinary event. Knowing that I wasn’t capable of pushing myself beyond my level of fitness, due to the achilles problems I couldn’t see anything positive in doing the race. But I was there so at least I’d try, and if I could sneak under 18 minutes at least it was a further improvement.   

Arriving at the start line I found out the walkers were due to set off 3 minutes before the runners. This happened last year and, without any disrespect to either the runners or the walkers, it created a first lap bottleneck. It wasn’t enough time for the walkers to thin out and the runners were all still bunched when they caught up with the walkers, with the difference in speed it was a pile up waiting to happen. Last year I was being elbowed towards a walking crowd and had to check my stride to avoid an accident. I did mention this to a NVAC representative and suggested the walkers set off 3 minutes after the runners but nothing’s changed. This year my start was more subdued and I found myself hemmed in by a crowd of much faster starting ladies, once I’d extricated myself from that I settled down to a pace that I found fairly pain free but also hard enough to feel like I was actually doing some work.

Over the three laps I passed a number of runners, and had a good last lap battle with Dave Jackson of Horwich RMI, but I was most surprised to see Rob Tudor and Graham MacNeil, not that far ahead. This made me think I was either going faster than I had anticipated or Rob and Graham were having bad races. A solid run from me, I think there’s more to give but not sure how much at the moment, saw me finish in 17:21, about a minute slower than the previous year, which placed me in 10^th position for M45s. Rob was 7^th in 17:00 with Graham getting the better of his younger car mates with 16:54 and 4^th place in the M50 age group. I was pretty pleased with the result, it was at least 30 seconds quicker than I’d anticipated and closer to a number of other Salford Harriers than I could have expected. Now it’s time to settle down into my training. I was also able to catch up with my old Belgrave mate, Paul Freary, another great athlete who’s suffered his fair share of injuries lately. It was good to catch up with him and good to see him claim the silver medal, now he’s joined me in the M45s.

We didn’t hang around, it being father’s day, Rob was being taken out for pizza by his daughter and I had some work to get on with. Once again a good race over a great circuit, though I think the road surface could do with a little attention before next year. Hopefully someone will also decide to set the walkers off after the runners for next year.

This week I started my training regime for real, I’m still having to fit it around my growing client list so it can be pretty tiring, but I’m not complaining. Naturally nothing’s ever simple when it comes to running and I’m now having to put up with hay fever, which is very annoying, but I don’t suffer it when I’m running so maybe I should do a few marathon training runs!

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

The Times They Are A Creeping Down

My return to running is well and truly back on track. I’m still a fair way off where I was before the achilles issue but at least I’m moving in the right direction. I’ve now done three parkruns and consistently improved from the  first one, 19:25, to 18:39, my first at Delamere and finally on Saturday to 18:12 on my return to Delamere. The significance of that 18:12 is not lost on me as it is exactly the same time I ran for my first ever 5k on 12 June 1989. Back then it was almost a year before my next 5k, where I improved to 16:39. It won’t be that long before I run my next 5k and I’m hopeful that I’ll be running quicker than 16:39 a lot sooner than a year’s time. It will take a while though, small steps.

This week I managed to run a more consistent pace, which gave my heart and lungs the best workout they’ve had in about 16 weeks. But I don’t know how much quicker I can get at Delamere whilst I’m still stiff, and in pain, around the achilles. It’s the start area that is hard for me, I’m slow to get going as my ankle joint is stiff, this causes me to run awkwardly and sends pains up my legs and lower back. The surface is also at it’s most uneven here so every time I twist the ankle I get painful reminders that I’m not 100% yet. Once I arrive at the relatively flat and more even mere path I can up the pace and shoot away but it’ll probably be a while before I can get the initial charge faster.

Mind you I’ve started working on that this week. Last week I began training with my faster clients and had a good workout with Ray, up until then I’d really been running at a steady pace and some times at a very slow pace, just to build up the mileage and put some strain on the achilles area. After successfully getting through a tough hour with Ray I’m starting to add some of my own quality workouts to my training. It’s not going to be a huge amount but I’m using a short sharp shock therapy to try to bring me on quicker. We’ll see what the result is very soon.   

One of the things I’ve missed most is racing alongside my Salford colleagues but I’m hopeful that the day I wear my red and white singlet is not far away. Particularly as my mate Rob Tudor is making a name for himself in his own red and white singlet. I look forward to the day we can be racing in the same Salford team and making a difference.

The club were in action last weekend at the Welsh Castles relay, where they finished in 2^nd place, taking the King of the Mountains award, there were some great runs by the team, most notably Joe Bailey and Tom Cornthwaite setting course records over their legs. This is an event I’ve never had the opportunity to take part in, it looks like fun, maybe next year.

Another busy week for me, a number of new clients have come along lately and I’m doing a lot of work with Lee Riley. Last week’s photo opportunity took a bit longer than usual, I was expecting to have a couple of snaps taken and was a bit taken aback when the photographer started unloading his gear. Two hours later and he’d taken numerous portrait and action shots, some of which should be consigned straight to delete. The article in Runners World, for which these pictures were required, should be out in August. Now it’s coming about it’s a bit scary to think that comments will be attributed to me, but I have no control over their context. Oh well, you can always get the true story here. All this busyness (see how I can play on words) has meant I’ve had to be creative with my training, thankfully, recovering from an injury, I’m not able to be as intensive as I used to be so I’m not climbing any walls, but soon, hopefully, I will need to take a look at my training regime and make it more regimented. For now I’m having fun running further and faster.

Speaking of Lee, he ran his first 1500m on the track last week. Typical of Lee, he asked me what time I ran for my 1500m. Now I had to go back some time, my first 1500m was run in 1990, I was at an open meeting at Ealing. I didn’t really know what to expect from a 1500m so put down a time of 4:30. This seemed to cause some consternation from a local rival who had also put down that time, he accused me of stealing his time. This accusation took me a bit by surprise, I was completely taken aback, I’d never heard of stealing people’s times but had I been into that I’d have thought it was more likely I might have picked a time under 4 minutes. Long story short, I ran a 100m as a warm up, finishing 3^rd in 13.3 seconds, won my 1500m, easily, in 4:29.9 (pretty good guess in the first place, even if it was stolen) and finished off my night with 7^th in the 3000m, 9:22.3. Needless to say, this Saturday, Lee ran 4:28, but at least he didn’t steal my time!

Other news I heard this week was that Donna Hartley has died. I remember her well from my childhood, had one of those childhood crushes on her, before I moved onto Debbie Harry. Such a shame at 58, still young. 

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Just Like Starting Over

When I first started running I had no concept of how fast I could go, so I always started too fast. Luckily my original focus was the 800m, so when I started to struggle that horrible feeling of pain didn’t last too long, though I do have recollections of my first 800m race and that pounding in my head that just wouldn’t stop. When I started running longer distances I’d learnt my lesson and so I would start the races more cautiously. As I had no ambitions to win these longer races I never felt like I was missing out by not being involved in the tussles at the front, but the benefit I received was that as the race progressed so did I, passing numerous people as they started to suffer. It was a great feeling and very encouraging too, for me not those I passed.

As I became a better runner I could no longer afford to take the cautious approach, if I wanted to win I had to get in the mix from the off, even so I’ve been continuously surprised by a number of people who’s ambitions far exceeded their ability, particularly the man in full tracksuit who led the Derby 10k for 200m and then finished about 20 minutes behind me, perhaps the photographers stationed at 180m had something to do with that.

Getting older has meant I’m no longer in that position where I’m fighting for out and out race wins, even if I sometimes surprise myself, so my starts have been a bit more sedate, often I’m well back in the field before over exuberance takes effect and I leave a trail of youngsters in my wake as the race progresses. But, having just started back with two parkruns since my achilles injury, I find myself back where I was 24 years ago. Starting slowly and coming through the field.

It’s not that my heart and lungs can’t go any quicker, nor any lack of ambition on my behalf, it’s just that the ankle area is particularly stiff at the start of a race, perhaps a rolling start behind a safety car or bike might help. It takes me a few minutes before the joint eases up and I start to run normally, rather than limping along, and by the time I’ve got into my stride the head of the field is well away.

This situation won’t last forever, every day I’m able to run faster for longer, the pain in my ankle area gets less and less and my fitness levels increase. But while I’m in this situation I’m enjoying passing people in races, perhaps if I was running 10ks rather than 5ks I might pass more people. One day I hope to be back challenging at the front of the field, particularly against my age group peers, but until that day watch out for a barely out of breath Rog coming past you, just when you thought you’d banished him to the archives.

Last weekend it was the Hollins Green 5k, one of my favourite races, where I’ve always featured highly in the results, since I first ran it in 2010. It was too soon in my racing recovery to put myself on the start line for that, but I notice the Green brothers, from Warrington, had good runs, particularly Andy who finished 1^st M50 in a sub 16 clocking. Instead I chose to try out the Delamere parkrun, where I finished 5^th in 18:39. Still a long way off my best but a 46 second advance on the much easier Edinburgh parkrun I ran the previous week, admittedly I wasn’t encumbered with any kind of costume or carrying a wand this time. The better news was that my ankle survived an uneven course and I was able to train at sub 7 minute mile pace the following day.

Speaking of costumes, my old New Zealand pal, Paul Coughlan, ran a half marathon last week, dressed as a giraffe. I always thought it possible Paul had issues with his height, perhaps that’s why he’s so loud, but this might be taking things a bit far.

Recently I’ve been advising other runners by phone, email, text and by providing training schedules. I have allowed myself to run with some of my slower clients and jogged with Lee on his recoveries, but tonight I’m ready to throw my hat into the ring and venture out on my first training session, for months, with Ray. At last I feel I will be able to keep up with him and justify my place alongside him. Shortly I’ll be running my first proper race, don’t expect any miracles but I’m looking forward to wearing the Salford red & white with pride.    

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk