My Knee and Other Body Parts

For anybody who has been reading my regular blogs you’ll know that I’ve been having problems with my knee. This isn’t a new thing for me my knee problems have been with me almost as long as my knee has. In fact, probably the only thing that keeps me running through the pain is the knowledge that my knee would still cause me problems even if I didn’t run.

I first encountered the problem when I was at school, we were doing the high jump and I found that the knee was causing me pain every time I took off. It wasn’t any better when I was jumping hurdles, so I refused to do any further exercises that involved running jumps. I seemed to be ok with standing jumps, but that wouldn’t win many races or get me very high in the high jump.

I didn’t have any problems over the following years and played plenty of hockey, football and badminton.

The first time I encountered a problem, with my knee, through running, was following my half marathon debut, in 1990. I’d damaged my ligament, I can’t remember which one but, judging by where it hurt, I’d imagine it was my medial collateral ligament. Treatment and rest followed and I was back running a few weeks later.

Over the following years I never really needed to stop running, because of the knee, but it did occasionally flare up so I used to take an additional rest day or ease back on the training. I even managed to successfully negotiate a steeplechase race in Plymouth one year, but I believe I spent more time climbing the hurdles than jumping them. That was definitely a one off experience, nothing has ever tempted me to consider another of them. 

Last August my knee started giving me considerable pain and I took some time off. I couldn’t afford much time off as I was hoping to gain selection for England in the Masters International Cross Country match, I tried some alternative treatment and the pain seemed to go away for a while. This allowed me to get back into training but I’d clearly lost more form than I’d hoped to as I had a poor race in Dublin. Two weeks after Dublin I ran a 10k race in Cheddleton and was in such pain after the race I decided to take a break until xmas.

The pain went during my break and I started again in January, only to tear a calf muscle within a week. Obviously, if you’ve been following my blogs you’ll know all about my comeback and fight to regain fitness, so I won’t waffle on.

I’ve been making gradual progress in training and have been aiming for the Masters Road Relays in May. Unfortunately a few weeks ago my knee has started to ache again. I’m managing it in my training and trying different exercises to try to help things. It’s not too bad, I can cope with the pain but it can be disruptive in my training. I’ve figured out that it hurts most when I start approaching 20 minutes of running, or I’m running fast for longer than 2 minutes at a time, or I’m running downhill – not exactly a good prognosis for a successful racing career.

So I adapt my training to get the best out of the time I’m running, this morning, for example, I did a session of 20 x 1 minute with 10 seconds recovery. I did get a couple of painful moments but all in all it was a good session, having such a short recovery meant I wasn’t going flat out but it was almost like a paced run, however mentally, knowing you only have to run for 1 minute before a break keeps you working hard. It’s a good session, when I was really fit, back in the day….I used to do 30 x 1 minute (a lot faster than today) with 10 seconds recovery.

So how do I see things going? Well I’ve decided to miss the World Masters this year as I really don’t think I’m going to be fit enough. I’m still aiming for the Masters relays, though with all that downhill it could be a problem, that’s assuming I’ll make the Herne Hill team, one of the drawbacks of belong to a strong club is that you’re never guaranteed to make the team. Other than that I’ll be concentrating on 5k races. Of course I could always start running uphill only races, over short distances, as I don’t get any pain going uphill, a shame I’ll miss the Killer Mile on 28 April.

Of course it doesn’t help that I’ve also now got plantar fasciitis, which makes getting out of bed interesting as I hobble from left knee pain to right heel pain. I tell myself it’s good preparation for when I get older, but I don’t have many more years before that excuse wears thin. I’ve been trying out various exercises for that and it seems to be helping, though it was really painful today. The one good thing about the plantar fasciitis is that it doesn’t seem to hurt when I’m running, probably because the knee hurts more.

Off to Train in Spain

I’m heading off for a little fun in the sun. I’ll be visiting my warm weather training venue in Spain, it’s a small town called Cuidad Quesada that sits about half way between Alicante and Murcia. It’s a nice little town that’s sprouted out into a large estate, but since the recession parts of it remain unfinished. This leaves me with smooth roads that few cars use. It’s a good resort, though not very authentically Spanish, just as well as my English is good but my Spanish isn’t. It’s ideal for me as there are lots of restaurants within walking distance plus numerous places of interest to visit in the car.

This time I’m actually just going for a holiday, with my lack of fitness, and the continuing knee problems, I’ve accepted this isn’t my year to shine. So for once I don’t have sessions lined up for my holiday. However, this is Roger Alsop holidaying, and, as Carole will contest, lazing by the pool has to be earned first. So I will be doing some training.

So how does my holiday training differ to my everyday training back in the UK. Firstly, I have to be less selfish, I don’t have holiday to waste, or rather I don’t have Carole’s holiday to waste, so I’m out running straight out of bed.

Secondly, I don’t have weights or kettlebells in Spain, but I do take a resistance band and there are numerous body weight exercises I could do, but I don’t stick to a rigid plan, afterall your body needs a holiday too sometimes.

Thirdly, I have the use of two outdoor swimming pools, though to be honest, I leave the swim training to the younger generation of Alsops, who swim competitively. I prefer to play in the pool, before partaking of a little shade bathing.

So with me off to Spain I’m cramming as many clients into the days I have available. Two days after we return from Spain we’re heading up to Scotland to visit some relies and enjoy some Lorne sausage. The week after that we should be completing our purchase of a house in Northwich, with it’s own (or rather my own) gym, can’t wait. So there may not be a blog next week.

Talking of Scotland, Carole’s a big Motherwell fan and she was chuffed to bits (or some Scottish variation of the term) to see they have reached the final of the Scottish Cup, for the first time in 20 years. She was there 20 years ago, which begs the question……alas I believe the final falls on the same weekend as the BMAF Road Relays and I know where my loyalties lie, and now she’s an honorary Englishwoman, whether she likes it or not, so does she.

The London Marathon

I couldn’t finish without following up on last week’s blog. Today’s race was fantastic to watch, though, as I understand, it was tough to run. Many of the athletes I know struggled to achieve their target times. Lee Riley, who, you’ll recall, I’ve been helping in his quest to break the world record for running a marathon carrying a 40lb pack, told me it was the hardest thing he’s ever done. He was down on his target time by 31 minutes but then he set a tough target. When we originally started his goal was sub 4 hours, but he’s been training so well he revised it to 3:30. Well he ran 4:01.17 and is now the official world record holder. Hard work does yield results. 

Lately I’ve been doing some training with Vale Royal AC, I was introduced to the club by Colin Rathbone, who, those from my own era of racing will know, is the father of Dan, who was a very good athlete for Brighton. Colin ran 3:12 to finish first over 65, fantastic running.

The Marathon

Next Sunday will be the 31st London Marathon and I’ll be watching the TV, in the hope that I can spot a few of the many people I know are running it. So in honour of the Virgin London Marathon this week’s blog is about my relationship with the marathon.

As I’ve mentioned, in one of my earlier blogs, my first experience of the marathon was watching the finish of the Sandbach marathon, back in the 80’s. I was seeing a girl in Sandbach at the time, and this gave us something different to do. I don’t remember much about the experience other than seeing a number of runners flash by to the finish. I’ve since found out that Sandbach was regularly used as the English National Championships.

When the London marathon started appearing on the TV I’d watch bits of it and I recall my brother telling me that one day he was going to run it. Of course I was going to make no such predictions, it seemed to me to be a rather tedious thing to do and of course I didn’t even run in those days.

When I moved to London, I was in an ideal place to watch the marathon, though I wasn’t too keen to join the crowds. I went to watch in 1986, only because a friend wanted to go so that she could watch a chap, she fancied, run in it. When we arrived at Westminster tube it took us ages to get onto the street, due to the large number of spectators getting off there. When we got to the street we could hardly see anybody, so I just decided, as it wasn’t me that fancied Tim, I might as well go back home and do something useful.

Once I’d joined Belgrave I started to get to know and understand, a little, runners who were taking part in the marathon. I still didn’t go to watch but started to watch it again on the TV. It was 1993 when I made the effort to head into London to watch again. My new partner had run the marathon previously and was friendly with a group of runners who regularly ran it, they always watched the marathon from various points on the course, then met up in a pub on the Southbank before heading into Covent Garden to eat, drink, get merry and watch the marathon again on video, at the home of Pam and John Davies. It was fun watching the race on TV, with a critical audience of marathon runners, and there was always a cheer when one of the group, who had completed that year’s race, came through the door.

After that I was hooked, every year I would do the same thing, get up early for an 11 mile run in Richmond Park, shower, have a big cooked breakfast (the only time in the year I allowed myself this feast), watch the start on the TV then after about an hour head off into town. My partner and I always watched from just before the 800m to go point, there was usually space to get to the front and you got a great view of the athletes. I have to say, getting up so close to watch international athletes is so much better than watching them on the TV and, actually it’s so very different to racing against or training with them. We’d hang around at this point until the athletes running under 3 hours had passed, it’s amazing how quickly the time goes, between the front runners and the 3 hour runners, when you know so many of them. We’d then drift along to the embankment to give a cheer to the slower runners. After the 4 hour 30 minute runners had gone by we’d drift up to Covent Garden, the meeting place had moved to this side of the river, before converging on Pam and John.

There was one year I got quite embarrassed. We were at our 800m to go point, as usual, giving encouraging shouts to all the runners we knew, when along came Jim Estell. He must have been on for something around the 2 hour 30 minute mark but when we shouted him, he came over to us and started stretching and talking, I couldn’t believe it ‘get going you idiot’, I thought. But he just kept on stretching and telling us he wasn’t having a good race. All the other people around us were looking at us strangely but eventually Jim went on his way. Then a few minutes later along came James Jackson, we gave him a shout and he did exactly the same thing as Jim. What was going on? The people around us were now giving us some very strange looks. James moved on and we stopped shouting at people until we left that spot, which was a bit sooner than we normally would have.

There were some good years, in 1996 Belgrave Harriers won the Men’s Championship with Paul Evans, Gary Staines, Jim Estell (this time not stopping for a chat) and Junior Galley.

In 2000 my fiance, was running. It was quite emotive when she came past me at the 800m point, as I could tell she was going to run sub 3 hours, a time which she coveted and had trained so hard for. She ran 2:56 and her Belgrave team mates, Rachel Weston and Nikki Haines also ran sub 3 hours to bring Belgrave home in 3^rd place. It was this experience that made me change my mind about doing the marathon and I decided I would one day, before I became too slow, run one.

In 2003 it was my turn. Work had dried up in the summer of 2002 so I decided to use my time effectively to start my build up to the following year’s London marathon. As it turned out it was probably a little early as I was starting to get a little stale in the final few weeks. I remember going out for my first prep run, 2 hours on a very hot Sunday morning in June. I was used to running for 2 hours as part of my winter training but in the summer I never normally went beyond an hour and a quarter. I got very dehydrated and remember shuffling the final 3 miles from Wimbledon Common to my home in Southfields. In fact there were a few shuffling runs as I gradually increased my runs to beyond 2 hr 40 min. I was training under David Lucas, who was responsible for coaching Jim Estell, Junior Galley, and the girls from 2000, as well as many others. David had quite a large group of aspiring marathon runners, though most of them were girls so I still spent a good deal of my running time on my own. It was, however, a very encouraging group.

Then in January I got a two month contract in Slovakia. It snowed the night I arrived so when it came to my hill session, on the Tuesday, it was still too icy to run fast up and down hills. I had to improvise and ended up running up and down the steps to the Parliament building, 50 times. After a couple of weeks using the hotel treadmill I was able to get back outside. I would run for 8 miles at lunch time. Then in the evening I’d do a further 6 miles. At weekends I’d tend to do about 12 miles on Saturday with my long, 2 hr 40 min run on Sunday. I’d stay in Bratislava two weekends and travel back to the UK on the 3^rd weekend. It did mean some challenging running, avoiding open manholes and metal posts sticking up a couple of inches from the concrete. I also recall shuffling off to Tesco to get my week’s food after the 2 hr 40 min run. One of the hardest sessions I’ve ever done was a 15 x 5 min with 1 min recovery session running to the Austrian border and back on a raised concrete platform, with a strong wind coming off the Danube and sleet coming down. The sleet was so intense I was wearing sunglasses to stop it stinging my eyes and I ended the session tired and with a bleeding nose from the intense wind, but I was still able to manage my 2hr 40 min run and Tesco shuffle the next day.         

In preparation for London, I’d tried running with the Lucozade drinks, that would be available on the day, but they didn’t react well with my stomach so I accepted that I’d run with just water, afterall my wife had done so. David had taught me how to take on water on the move and I had tried out all my kit to make sure it was comfortable.

My races leading up to London had been good, I’d set a pb 70 min 28 sec at the Wokingham Half Marathon and the week before the marathon I’d run a good leg at the Southern 12 stage, now it was time to ease down and make my final preparations for the race.

On race day I was so pleased it was dry, in fact not only was it dry but the sun was shining and it was actually quite warm as I arrived at Greenwich. It was great to have a place on the championship start as I was well looked after, plenty to eat and drink (though I ate nothing and just sipped water, no point in changing the pre-race preparation plan). It was nice to have our own toilet block, which meant no queues, I paid a visit every 10 minutes as I made sure I started the race with an empty bladder. I had a fear that I might have to keep stopping to pee in the race and this would destroy both my time and my rhythm, and it worked as I ran the whole distance without one stop, actually it took me a further four hours after the race before I could pee again. Having said that I was amazed to see 4 runners peeing up the side of the road within the first 4 mins, clearly they were talented runners to have been ahead of me at that point but what sort of talented runner is so unprepared as to require a pee within 4 minutes of starting a race?

What was also good about being on the championship start was that there were lots of other runners I knew, though I had few conversations as I didn’t want to waste energy talking too much. We had a prime viewing position as the Ladies race set off 45 minutes ahead of us, it was already getting quite hot and I was desperate to start as I didn’t really want it to get much hotter.

Finally it was our time to go, I must’ve been about 12 rows back at the start, an unusual situation for me as I was usually on the front row of a road race start, but I didn’t mind as I wanted to start steady. I’d planned 5 min 40 sec mile pace and everybody told me the first mile would be quicker so I set off very relaxed, maybe too relaxed as I went through the first mile in 5:48. But I didn’t panic and soon got onto target pace. David had advised me to take a drink at each mile point until about mile 20, I thought he was mad as I’d run half marathons without taking water but I gave him the respect he deserved and agreed to take on water every 2^nd mile. As it turned out I was almost desperate for water at mile one and changed my plan to take it every mile (nice one David, coach knows best). I’d also decided to avoid the showers that are provided on the course but when I reached them I ran under them with relief as the temperature was still rising.

I reached Tower Bridge and I was starting to feel it but still I was on target to go sub 2:30, I surprisingly passed Mike Simpson on the Bridge, a very good runner, who dropped out soon after. When we got into the Canary Wharf area I was really starting to feel the pain and completely ignored the shouts of encouragement from my friend Alaster Stewart as he kept popping up at different places on the course. I felt like I was crawling now, it was such a mental task to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Actually I should point out that one of the great things about being a London athlete in the London marathon is that you know a lot of watching athletes and this is one race where it doesn’t matter which club you belong to, it’s man against the distance and every runner from whichever club will encourage you, even if they don’t know you to talk to.

I reached 17 miles and I’d had enough, I’d already passed Dave Mitchinson, another very good runner, who was standing on the roadside clearly having had enough himself, but I kept on going. My brain was telling me that there was no point in stopping now as I wasn’t sure what I’d do if I did, I knew there were friends up the road who would be disappointed if I didn’t go past them and if I gave up now it meant I’d have to do it all again. A few miles further up the road I reached the area I worked and trained in, the familiarity of the roads, and the fact that I was starting to catch and pass some of the ladies who set off 45 min before me, gave me a much needed boost and I relaxed back into pace. As I emerged from the Blackfriars underpass I received a big cheer from a group of Belgrave friends and this gave me the urge to push on. There was not much more distance to go now but I knew I was going to be outside 2:30. Still, knowing my friend Paul Coughlan had run 2:35 inspired me to work hard to try to beat his time. I started to pass a few struggling men and this seemed to be picked up by the crowd who urged me on further , it helped having ‘Belgrave’ across my chest as it encouraged them to shout ‘come on Belgrave’ and this gave me a lift.

800m to go and there was the cheer from my wife, she was on the other side of the road to normal and I nearly missed her, but I recognised the voice amongst all the others, no stopping for me to chat to spectators I was going to beat Paul Coughlan. As I approached Buckingham Palace my mind was focusing on one thing only, to keep to the blue line showing the shortest route. Unfortunately that must’ve also been on the mind of the chap I’d jut caught up and we clashed elbows a few times, causing one spectator to shout ‘no need to fight’, before I pulled away to finish in 2:34:10. I’d done it, I’d finished the marathon, and whilst I hadn’t gone sub 2:30 I’d beaten Paul Coughlan’s time.

Did I enjoy it? Not one bit whilst I was running it, but over the next week I kept having flashbacks and in hindsight yes I did.

Will I do it again? Not a chance, I would actually love to but I’ve not had a strong enough desire and, at 46, I can’t see me topping 2:34.

Would I recommend it to anyone? Most definitely, London is a great event and the training is character building.

So to finish off this rather long winded blog I’d like to wish everybody, running on Sunday, the best of luck. Particularly the many athletes I know who will be aiming for good times and especially to the man I’ve been training for his world record attempt in carting a 40lb rucksack along the course, Lee Riley. May you all succeed in your goal and if you don’t may you be satisfied with what you achieve. 

If you’re not totally bored and would like to read further about the marathon, a friend of mine, Will Cockerell, has written a book, ‘The 50 Greatest Marathon Races of All Time’  http://www.belgraveharriers.com/general/book_review.htm

Another friend of mine, Gaby Collison is writing a book at the moment, featuring interviews with many top marathon runners, I look forward to seeing that in print. And finally, for a shorter but interesting blog about the marathon visit another friends blog page http://www.thegirlthatruns.com/

As for what I’ve been up to, I’ve been having some knee problems this last week and pulled out of the National 12 Stage on Saturday. However I felt I was ok to try the Air Products 10k in Crewe on Sunday. Last week I’d predicted I was in 36 min shape but in reality I thought I should actually be closer to 35. As it turns out I’m still waiting for the official results but I clocked myself in at 34:58. Not an especially good time but my knee survived and, if I can clear the problem, I hope I can get closer to what I was running last year.  

Kettlebells

I’m a big fan of kettlebells and use them regularly as part of my training regime. Sometimes when I talk to friends and clients about them they’re not sure what I’m talking about until I explain in greater detail. So I thought I’d give a little insight into them.

A kettlebell is, quite simply, a bulbous lump, like a canon ball, with a handle at the top and a flat bottom. This lump can be as light as 2kg or as heavy as 44kg, perhaps there are heavier ones but I’ve not come across them and I certainly wouldn’t want to be lifting them. Kettlebells have been used in Russia for over 300 years and fit into that nostalgic area of pre-WWII exercises that you often see in black and white films, featuring large groups of fit youngsters performing exercises in unison. However, despite many more modern pieces of fitness equipment, they are gaining popularity with fitness fans in Britain, particularly with ladies.

I first came across kettlebells last year, when I was based at Fitness First in Crewe. One of the other PT’s used them with his clients and I watched him in action. I was impressed with what he was doing and clearly the client was enjoying training with the kettlebells, so I decided to find out more. I did some background reading and bought a small kettlebell, to try out some moves. Since then I’ve expanded my repertoire and my collection of kettlebells.

Kettlebell training is very effective and versatile, they are great for burning fat, increasing muscle mass, improving muscle endurance, increase your core strength and stability, as well as giving you a bit of a cardio workout. It’s the swinging of the kettlebell that gets you using those lower body muscles, as you bring the swing higher you start putting more emphasis on the back and core muscles and once you start bringing the kettlebell to chest height your arms start working harder. By using all the muscles in a series of different exercises you can package up a good workout into about 20 minutes, the same workout using conventional weights would probably take about 40 minutes longer. That’s not to say that there isn’t a place for conventional weights, but if you’re short on time and you want an effective training session, you can’t go far wrong with kettlebells.

You can also use kettlebells to do some of the moves that you would normally do with dumb bells. I sometimes throw in a move, such as a renegade row, to my kettlebell session. At the same time you can use dumbbells, weight plates and medicine balls to carry out some of the kettlebell moves. 

I’ve read recommendations that ladies should start with a 6kg kettlebell and gents with a 10-16kg kettlebell, but I’d advise you to start as small as you feel comfortable. I myself, with my weedy arms, started with a 4kg kettlebell as I wanted to master the moves first, I’m now using a 7.5kg kettlebell, which I find effective for what I want. Of course, rather than going up in weight you can use two of the same weight to make one armed exercises more complicated.

When I’m working with my clients I usually select four different exercises and will either do one or two sets. All my clients seem to enjoy the kettlebells, some have even purchased their own. When I’m doing my own workouts I select four or five exercises, alternating between two handed and one handed exercises, and will do up to five sets. I’ll take a one minute break or one minute thirty doing a plank on the swiss ball between sets. I usually do kettlebells just twice a week, fitting it around my other training sessions.

This weekend I ran another park run at Pennington Flash. I’ll admit to finding it difficult to motivate myself for these races in the same way I do for other races, perhaps it’s the 09:00am start! However once I get there I manage to get that competitive switch turned on about 10 minutes before the start. I find them an effective training session in a very friendly environment. Pennington Flash is a particularly tough 5k, as it is three laps of a hilly, rough trail. This week it was a little damp, causing a few muddy patches and there were midges galore on one section. For some reason I seemed to have been found particularly attractive by the midges as I accumulated them in my eyes, mouth, hair and neck wrinkles. Once again I was second in the race, I felt I ran well but was 4 seconds slower than two weeks ago. I put this down to the conditions, did I say it was also a bit windy, and this can be borne out by my two partners in crime, Ray and Carole, who were 11 and 22 seconds down on their times of two weeks ago. I’ve now done three park runs and it’s interesting to note that if I’d turned up a week earlier, or later, at any of them, and run the same times, I would have been first each time. As it is I have an 8^th, 2^nd and 2^nd to my name. Oh well I’ll just have to run faster next time. This week was also the first week the course record hasn’t gone at a park run I attended, though the winner was only 7 seconds short of that, and with that wind and midges, on the George Stacey conversion tables (ask Arthur Bruce) it could be considered that he did break it.

This week I’m taking it easyish, my legs are tired from weeks of hard training and racing so it’ll be easy runs for me, or as Arthur would say I’m going out to pick a few daisies. I’ve entered the Air Products 10k, next Sunday, I think I’m in sub 36 minute form, and it’s possible I’ll be running a leg on Saturday, for Herne Hill at the National 12 Stage Road Relay.