Aiming For Gold, Am I On Target?

I’ve just started week three of my 12 week plan, which I’m hoping will lead me to success, and I thought it was time to assess how things were going. The sessions I’m doing are not that different from the ones I’ve been doing for the last seven years, with the exception that I’ve included some specific paced work. I’d come to realise that, although I was training hard, I wasn’t pushing myself as hard as I’m pushing my running clients, so what I needed was a faster version of me to push me more. Problem is I don’t know one, sure I know plenty of runners that are faster than me but I was looking for something more than a fast runner, I needed someone to plan the sessions with my goals in mind and be there every step of the way to ensure I kept to the program, even if I didn’t feel like it, and talk to me when things were starting to hurt, to psyche me up and help me to believe I can do it. And then I found him, he was there all along, yes it is me! All I needed was a pacer, for that I’m using a treadmill, the rest of it I can do myself.

What I’ve done is look at a twelve week period, leading up to the Surrey 10000m Championship in 1993, taken the track session I was doing once a week and replicated it on the treadmill. Obviously I’m a different person to the 28 year old me so I’ve made some sensible adjustments, but it’s still aimed at stretching me. Back then I was comfortably running 2:40 1k pace and won that race in 30:33.7. My aim this time was to get comfortable at 3:00 1k pace in order to get back to the 32 minute 10k time I ran two years ago.  

The first week seemed to go well, I was nervous because running at 20k/h pace is fast on the treadmill. I tentatively started at 19.1k/h but by the end of the session I was running reps at 19.6k/h. At the end of the week I ran my fastest 5k for almost two years. Last week, because of all the stuff going on, I couldn’t get to the treadmill but still had the memory of the race pace so felt like I managed to run hard enough on the road. I’ve just finished this week’s treadmill session, I started higher than two weeks ago and by the end of the session I was running at 20k/h. Target achieved but now I need to run all the reps at that pace, and do more of them. This is particularly good news as I’ve struggled to shake off the cold I had, just over a week ago, and this week I’ve started struggling with hay fever. As you can imagine my confidence is currently running high and I can’t wait for my next race, though I know I still have a way to go, luckily I still have nine weeks left. 

The really good news for me is that, despite the odd tired muscle, I’m not getting the aches, pains and twinges that I’ve been having for years. And that means training is once again becoming a pleasure, I can almost picture myself running like I used to back in the 90’s, or was that a dream I was having last night! Actually the good thing about running in the gym is that I have a mirror in front of me, no it’s not for checking my hairstyle, it helps me to check I’m running relaxed and with good form, it also means I can talk to myself without making a noise. I’m really happy with the way my running is going, at the moment, and it’s bringing a new sparkle to my relationship with running, I’m back in love with it, long may it continue. 

I’ve been reliving the past quite a bit recently. Firstly I’ve been reading the book about the Manchester Marathons by Ron Hill and Neil Shuttleworth. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it but have been fascinated by it. It starts off in 1908, when it really was an amateur sport. 30 people set off on that day, only 15 finished. In those days it seemed to be a case of everybody setting off together and then trying to run each other into the ground, very much like my early days in club athletics, nobody seemed to really appreciate what marathon running was about, often stopping to take tea breaks along the way. It progresses through the years and we get into the 60’s and 70’s when British distance runners were amongst the best in the world. It’s interesting to read Ron’s thoughts and feelings, particularly when he was expected to run a trial for major championships, despite his achievements. Good also to read about people I have come across, such as Bill Adcocks. There was one year in the 70s I recognised Lionel Mann in a picture and then he got a write up in the text, running sub 2:30, Lionel was at Belgrave when I was, but much older than me, he was also chef to the Queen. Into the 80’s and I’m starting to recognise more names from the era I grew up in, particularly Steve Kenyon who’s name always stood out when there was a distance event on the tv. I’m up to 1984 and know that I’ll come across many more people I know in the following chapters, I already had a sneak preview and saw friends Bashir Hussain and Jackie Newton. The other thing that’s prompted my looking back with pleasure has been the constant stream of pictures coming from the Ray O’Donaghue production line. Ray has published many pictures on facebook from many generations. It’s been great to see people in action who I only knew from 20 years after these pictures were taken, plus there’s the odd one of me when I was younger and faster. I can’t wait for Ray’s video of the 1993 Surrey 10000m to appear, I know Mike Boyle’s looking forward to that too. On a more recent note Lee Riley sent me a couple of picture, more up to date, of me during his 400m world record attempt.

So to finish off some more pictures of me, I'm really not that vain, honestly.

The Start of the 2005 Surrey 5k Champsionship, at this point I was in a good position.

I had to wait until I was a Master before I could get in front of a superstar such as John Downes. Think I must've spotted the camera and put in a spurt.



Lee running under 60 seconds for 400m, with 40lb pack. That's me doing the timing.




I only smile when I'm running

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk