Tale of the Unexpected Medal

I don’t usually race in the evening, I don’t have a ‘thing’ about it it’s just that I often work into the evening so evening races don’t usually fit in. So I wasn’t originally planning to do the Sale Sizzler last Thursday night. But as things turned out I had some free time and I decided to make the most of it.

Having never done a Sale Sizzler (5k race in Wythenshawe Park) before I didn’t really know what to expect and as the conditions were expected to be wet I took four different pairs of racing shoes. That might sound a bit over the top but each pair has it’s own properties and this was a proper race after all, I usually run parkruns in ordinary trainers. Not only was this race 4, last one, in the series but it also hosted the North of England Championships.

I’m fortunate to have gained many medals from Championships from the South of England and also Scotland, but I’ve never been in a position to win one from the North, however, due to my ongoing achilles issues, I had no pre-conceptions of gaining my first Northern medal at this race. In fact I didn’t even think I’d feature amongst the old people taking part, all my sights were set on an improvement on my season’s best and trying to dip under 17 minutes. Modest targets, I know, but with almost as much time spent not running as running, this year, and still not able to do absolute speed work, there’s no point in being too ambitious, patience is a better virtue.

A few weeks ago my achilles was so painful I would definitely not have entered this race, but a Southern friend recommended I try the McDavid ankle support. I wasn’t sure at first my achilles was improving and the feedback on the support said that it wasn’t necessarily going to assist my particular injury to recover. But after going through a week of increasing pain I decided it was worth a try and promptly ordered one from Amazon. Amazon promised to deliver within a week but the support turned up within two days, very impressive, though, unfortunately, 30 minutes after I’d already run on that day.

The next day I tried it for the first time, no instructions came with the support and though it seemed obvious I could have benefited from some assistance. What happened was I strapped myself up too tight which gave me some trouble. Once I realised, more by error than judgement, that the support needed to be looser, improvement was rapid. I’m now at the point where my achilles is not painful all the time, sure it’s not perfect and it does throb on occasions, but I’m able to work quite hard, though not as hard as I’d like, with it. With the improvement coming I decided to give the race a go and entered online.

I arrived at Wythenshawe Park quite early, it’s something that has served me well in the past, and went for a recce of the course. Unfortunately I lost the course, I’d quickly glanced at the hand drawn map stuck on the wall but my memory failed somewhere along the way, still seeing as I was just making up the numbers it really didn’t seem to matter that much. I’d jogged around without my ankle support and the achilles seemed to be holding up well. I had intended to race wearing it, but I decided not to, on the basis that if I strapped it up too tight it would require me to stop and fix it, the less you have to do or think about in a race the better, so I left it in the car, along with the three pairs of racers I’d decided not to use. 

The race started on the track, I can’t recall starting a road race on a track since I ran a 10k in Battersea Park in 1990, so it was a little strange and, due to the drizzle during the day, very slippery. I slithered around that 1^st 500m and was glad to get onto the trails, now I could start making my way through the field. I didn’t get very far before I caught up with Dave Alexander from West Cheshire. I know Dave quite well and we are of a similar standard normally so I knew I was going fast enough. Somehow I missed the 1k marker but at 2k, covered in 6:50, I knew my pace was about right. It had been a while since I’d run at 17 minute pace so I was finding it tough, but using my rhythm I hung onto Dave, who appeared stronger than when I last raced him.

I also missed the 3k marker and know I slowed in that 2-4k, so when I reached 4k I figured I needed to push to get back onto target. Clearly Dave had the same idea as we both seemed to increase pace at the same time. On the way to the finish we passed a few guys and I was determined to keep my pace up, not wanting to relinquish any of my gained places. Dave was running so strong I knew I’d have to push really hard to beat him and, today, I just didn’t feel I had any more.

I finished in 44^th position, 4^th M45 (but a long way behind 3^rd) in 17:02, a season’s best but nothing to get too excited about. Dave had maintained his gap, finishing 2 seconds ahead. What I hadn’t realised was that I was in danger of being caught by a fast finishing colleague, in the guise of Dave Hudson, who was just two places behind me. This proved crucial as Salford ended up with North of England bronze, Joe Bailey, Rob Hughes and myself making up the team. Of course I was so far down the field I had no idea that was the case until I got home. But that was a great ending to my day, my first medal in a Northern Championship, that’ll be treasured with all the others. At my age I don’t expect to get amongst the medals in ordinary competition anymore so it’s quite special to me. But it’s also served to give me a kick up the backside, to make me realise I can still feature in the Salford team, especially if I can continue to improve. Realistically I’m not expecting to hit my best form until next spring, but if I remind myself of the 17:37 I ran on 23 August 2012, following my torn hamstring, and what a good winter I subsequently had, it’s not inconceivable that I may be back sooner than that. 

One of the things I enjoyed about the night was being in the company of my Salford colleagues, and meeting up with the many athletes I have become friends with over the years. Delamere parkrun is good but, as I’m shy, I don’t really chat much before I get to know people, to me racing isn’t just about racing, it’s about the social side too. Another good thing was that there were two athletes in the field who are advised by me, both set good pbs.

I’ve been watching the World Championships with interest, some fantastic performances. Obviously Mo is the talk of the town here in the UK and I’ve really enjoyed watching him dominate his races, but I was also pleased to see Chris O’Hare, from my old club Edinburgh AC, do well to make the 1500m final. Unfortunately Chris seemed to run out of steam in the final, but a useful experience which should give him good prospects for next year’s Commonwealth Games.

Just to finish off, I mentioned the McDavid ankle support I’ve been using. If you’re having Achilles problems yourself you might want to consider this option.
 

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Running Book Reviews

This week I’m turning my blog over to a couple of book reviews. I always intended on writing a review about Gabrielle’s book but delayed that when Athletics Weekly did one. Last week I was sent a pre-release copy of ‘You Know You Are A Runner’ with a request to review the book so I thought it would be a good idea to write both reviews at the same time. Both books are vastly different, ‘You Know You Are A Runner’ is a light hearted joke/cartoon type book with well drawn illustrations to emphasise those traits that only a runner, or someone who knows a runner well, would understand, whereas ‘British Marathon Running Legends of the 1980s’ is a much more serious book, based around a series of interviews with former marathon greats.

Book One – You Know You Are a Runner – Richard McChesney

This is what I would call a comic style book, consisting of 40 cartoons, each one drawn to illustrate a particular amusing trait that distinguishes runners from normal people, and yes I recognised myself in some of the illustrations. This is the first in a series of books to be published, in the ‘You Know You Are A’ series, written by Richard McChesney, himself a runner, who used to compete for the Surrey based club, Stragglers, but is now based in New Zealand where he is the event director for the Lower Hutt Parkrun. Reading through the book made me chuckle, sometimes aloud, as each cartoon revealed something that I and many of my fellow runners will recognise about our own peculiarities, or those of other runners we know. The cartoons themselves are well drawn by Brighty (Steve Bright) and Brock (Robert Brocksmith) who are both UK based professional cartoonists.

The book is available exclusively on the Amazon network in both Kindle format and as a paperback (below is a link for each), and is, in my opinion, priced very reasonably. Further information can be found at 

I enjoyed reading it and I was amused as I paged through it. This is just the sort of book I would buy as a stocking filler for a friend who was either a runner or married to a runner.

Book Two - British Marathon Running Legends of the 1980s – Gabrielle Collison

Before I review this book I have to declare an interest, Gabrielle is a friend from the days we both competed for Belgrave. That aside, my review of this book is written with the same honest approach as that of the previous book.

Gabrielle was a very successful runner at Belgrave Harriers, achieving a National Championship medal in the 3000m. During her MSc, in Sports Science, she wrote her dissertation on British Marathon runners, years later she was encouraged to convert this into a book, which is ‘British Marathon Running Legends of the 1980s’.

Some of my friends managed to get hold of a copy before me and their comments were very enthusiastic. They found it hard to put the book down as their interest was peaked. So I was really looking forward to getting stuck into the book. However, the nature of my work meant I didn’t have a lot of time to get into the book, at first. The book is a series of interview questions carried out with various runners who were well known and respected within the sport, back in the 80’s. It asks them about how they got involved with running and, in particular, the marathon, how they trained for marathons and various other ancillary questions. The interviewees have been very honest and go into some depth at times, offering up pages of interesting information. The book also has a statistics section comparing achievements of marathon runners in the 80s with those of today. I found I would start to read a chapter, each athlete forms a chapter, but having to put the book down again before I finished that chapter. This was frustrating me so I put the book aside until I went on holiday. Then it came into it’s own, lying in the sunshine relaxed I was able to give the book my full attention and found the time just passed me by, like my friends before me I found it difficult to stop reading the book. To me some chapters were more interesting/revealing than others but this may have been down to how much I knew of the individual before I read his/her chapter, but all in all I found it a fascinating read.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and in fact I have gone back to re-read an occasional chapter, which is easy when you have it on a kindle. However, I know of all of the runners, they were at the level I aspired to be when I was just beginning, somebody just into running may not enjoy the book to the extent that I did, however, if they’re really into their running, the relevance of who the person is will be less important than finding out how they achieved the times they did. 
To get the book from Amazon go to:

British Marathon Running Legends of the 1980s

To find out more about Gabrielle, or the various books she has written, visit www.gabriellecollison.com

The book I am currently reading is a book about Bradley Wiggins, it was a Xmas present from Carole. It’s not a big book but it makes for an interesting read. I’m expecting a Chris Froome book this Xmas, I know how Carole’s mind works.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Rhythm Running

When I talk about rhythm running I’m not talking about listening to an ipod during your run, or trying to keep up with the beat of the stuff they pump out down at the gym. I’m referring to a term I use to illustrate that feeling of running when everything is in synch, your legs move fluently with your arms and your breathing, and your mind is totally focused on where you are going. Others may well call it something else but this is how I describe it to my clients, because it’s how I feel when I’m running well, I run rhythmically.

I have a number of clients that I run with, in order to make them better runners I don’t just take them out for a run I talk them through how to run better and I put them through various tests to get them to practice what I tell them. I try to teach them how to move their body better, how to relax and how to pick up the pace and push without causing stress to the cardio-vascular system. What I’m aiming to do is to get them to run to a rhythm that suits them. 

It sounds like it should be simple, and it is, but lots of people don’t appear to run rhythmically. I do and I’ve been very successful with it. Naturally I never used to think about it being rhythmical until I tried to find the best way to describe it to my clients. The only time I really struggle to run with rhythm is during cross country races, with all the twists turns and thick mud it’s difficult to get into a rhythm which is probably why this still proves to be my weakest discipline. Even so, I have had successful races over the country, so there are obviously some occasions I’ve managed to use it.

I was recently trying to help a client pass the bleep test but as we rehearsed we kept falling short of the required mark. As I was running alongside her I was observing her and it was clear that she wasn’t getting the rhythm, we were running at the same pace but she wasn’t relaxed and she wasn’t moving her legs properly plus at every turnaround I was pulling away by about half a metre. I spent some time trying to coach her into using the rhythm and there was some improvement, but by the end of the last session we were still just short of the required mark. There wasn’t much more I could do so I gave her one last run through of how I wanted her to run and told her to rest over the weekend. Come the Monday morning, the day of the test, she smashed it. Sometimes it takes a while for teaching to sink in but if you persevere you get there in the end.

Last week I realised that my Achilles was flaring up, I’d been doing a lot of client running up tough hills with uneven surfaces. Probably not the best thing to do whilst I’m still in recovery mode but sometimes you don’t know until it’s too late and I don’t like to let people down. Luckily it wasn’t too late to react, I took a sight seeing week in the hope things would improve. It took a long time but eventually things did improve and I was ready to start my quality runs last Saturday, not really ready for a parkrun at Delamere, but some faster intervals. I also ordered a McDavid ankle support, suggested by one of my Surrey based running friends. I wasn’t altogether convinced that would be the answer but nothing ventured…. This arrived just after my quality run on Saturday, once again Amazon set their expectations low (delivery was actually due today) to exceed your expectations, and I’ve been wearing it ever since (obviously only for runs, I don’t sleep or shower in it. Still not sure if it’s going to help, though the Achilles is not as sore as last week and I’ve done some good running.

My quest is now on to run a 10k, I finally feel ready and realise, with the lack of speed work (or rather my inability to do speed work fast), I’m not going to make huge inroads into my 5k times this year. I’ve been working on my sustained pace, using my rhythm running method. I’ve accepted that I will never have moves like Jagger nor a sprint finish like Tudor so my best bet to beat my mate Rob is to lure him into a 10k and make my move when he’s least expecting it, mind I might have to get him drunk the night before too. Anyway Rob it’s on my ‘Too Do’ list and it’s going to happen so you might as well start accepting it now.

Here’s two pictures of me from last season’s cross country season, can you tell which one has more rhythm? And a picture of me totally concentrated on bringing Herne Hill home first in a relay.  

The chasing pack sensing a damaged man at Stockport

Well clear of 30th place at Wythenshaw

My kind of surface and a 1st leg winner in a road relay championship. Eyes totally focused on the prize and keeping some of Britain's best Masters behind me.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

The Great British Summer

As a nation we’re known for the fact that we like to queue and we talk a lot about the weather. Neither of which are strictly true, we don’t like to queue, in fact we hate it, but we do have this genuine feeling that if everybody takes their turn things will be more efficient and everyone will ultimately benefit, rather than the opposite of a free for all where the loudest, strongest or biggest suppress the quiet, weak or small and take all the goodies. We don’t talk about the weather we moan about it, how damp, cold or windy it is. We’re blasé about our summers, believing we’ve had it after one sunny day. But no one can deny that summer has finally arrived in Britain, it may have taken a few years but it’s well and truly here and what fabulous sunny warm days we’re having, could almost take me back to 1976.

Not only are we having a great summer for weather but we’re not doing too bad on the sporting front; Andy Murray wins Wimbledon, Chris Froome leads the Tour de France, The British Lions win in Australia and England currently hold the upper edge in the Ashes. Lots of other stuff too, including some great performances from British athletes, most notably for me the running of Mo Farah.

Whilst the hot weather gives us a great opportunity to get out and fill up with vitamin D it also encourages us to get out and enjoy team sport; rounders, football, Frisbee, anything that gets us out there and active. At the same time it does stop a few people from getting out there and running; yes it’s harder running in the heat, but if running’s easy it’s not sport, it’s sightseeing. To run successfully through hot weather you can do a number of things; ensure you keep hydrated, use suncream and upf clothing, I use a hat all the time, and hold back a little in your efforts, if they’re long, or make your runs shorter. You don’t need to run long runs all the year round, four weeks of shorter long runs won’t hurt anyone, unless you’re in the middle of marathon training.

I’ve had a busy time of it lately, hence the lack of a blog for a while, but I have managed a couple of parkruns, at Delamere. Last week I finished in 3^rd place and today I was 1^st, with a new pb around the course. I’m still finding it tough on the rough ground at Delamere and this afternoon my ankle is still throbbing, time for a few days of sightseeing.

Finally, for those who have read through Runner’s World and are confused as to what I look like, here’s one of the pictures taken by Tom Miles (www.tmphoto.co.uk). The shoes they promised me arrived on Thursday, they’re a little bright at the moment but a few runs will sort them out.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

I’ve Not Lost That Winning Feeling

No blog last week, it’s been a busy time and when I wasn’t working or training I was painting and cleaning. A week of virtually no leisure time which left me drained by the end of the week. I wasn’t even intending doing a parkrun on Saturday but Carole persuaded me as she enjoys getting up early on a Saturday morning and getting physical.

But before we get into the parkrun, some good news. Following my last blog, where I voiced my opinion on the team medal situation at the BMAF 5k, it appears they have now retrospectively added club team medals. This means Salford Harriers have once again won medals in all male categories; gold in the M35-44, M45-54 and M55-64 and bronze in the M65-74. Most importantly, for me, it means I have become a National Champion again, and also means I’ve been part of a National Championship winning team with all my clubs; Salford, Herne Hill and Edinburgh AC, with the exception of Belgrave, where I only picked up National silver. This one’s particularly pleasing as I’d only been back running for a few weeks, after my injury, and I was still having concerns about my achilles when I ran the race. But I’ve come through ok and it’s time to move forward. Mind you it could be a while before I receive my medal.

This Saturday, I could be found lingering around the start area for the Delamere parkrun, this time with my insect repellent covering my legs. I felt buoyant and reasonably confident that I’d get under 18 minutes on the course, despite the tiredness. As we waited for the start I chatted with a couple of Vale Royal athletes, Graham Miles and Steve Caldwell and I could tell that Steve was one to watch out for, he was also intending to break 18 minutes. When we set off I managed to make a faster than normal start but was still unable to give it everything and once again got left in the dust of those able to start faster. That initial 400m is up, down and uneven and always proves painful on my dodgy ankle. Luckily I’ve learnt to cope with the pain but it does slow me down a little. As I watched the lead runners pull away from me I was thinking that I might stay away from Delamere for a while until I build up my ankle. I reached the relative flat of the Mere path in 3^rd place but Steve had already made a determined effort at the front and was pulling away from second place. I settled into my pace and went past second and after Steve. There was nothing between us pace wise and the gap was proving difficult to close. As we got further into the race my strength started to come to the fore and I gradually reeled him in, then went past him to open up a small gap. But the race wasn’t over yet, Steve showed some reserve, he wasn’t going to just roll over and let an old man take his victory, he came back strong to catch me up again. Now it was a battle of minds! Since my comeback I’ve been running to get fit, this was the first time I’d actually been in a situation where I was competing for a win and it felt a bit alien. It would have been so easy to just give in and let Steve take the win, but that’s not what I preach, or practice. The easiest option is always to give in, but take the harder option and it’s a lot more satisfying. With that thought in my mind I focused on getting my first Delamere win. Raising my tempo a little was enough to create another gap but I sensed Steve wasn’t going to give in so I had to keep that tempo going all the way home. It was tough being back at the front and trying to set a pace that would see me stay there to the end, particularly as we went uphill, but I did it, another parkrun win at another venue. But the best thing about that run was that I now feel competitive again. Sure I’m still a little slow and I’d struggle to beat the best in my age group but I’m gradually getting fitter and I’ve got that desire to win again. I realise it’s too late to do much about getting my speed up for the summer so I’ve switched into strength training mode, ready for the cross country, oh dear that means Boggart Hole Clough!

It wasn’t just me in action this weekend, Ray and Sharon were also running, Ray pacing his son round, and Carole ran another consistent time around the course. Onto cycling, nothing to do with the Tour de France, one of my clients was taking part in a time-trial over 52 miles on Sunday. He’d been looking at 2 hours 30 minutes but ended up with 2 hours and 6 minutes. He’s been coming on well for some time but that shows we’ve been focusing on the right things in our sessions.

These past few weeks I’ve been working with a group of lads and lasses from the Round Table. They contacted me to do them a one off session and ideas for activities to help them prepare for their three peaks challenge. The session was successful and they booked me in for a regular once a week session, which recently became twice a week. They’re a great bunch, we have a good laugh and, naturally, I make them work hard. This week they’re off to do their challenge so I wish them luck. Over the weeks I’ve seen them all improve in fitness and strength but it’ll still be a tough challenge for them.

I’ve mentioned previously that I was contacted by a journalist with regards to older people running. The feature he’s written is in this month’s Runners World (UK edition - not sure if it’ll go global). I haven’t seen it yet but friends have told me it’s quite good. The one drawback being that somebody mixed up the pictures and I have the picture of a man in his 60’s attributed to me, whilst he gets to look quite good for his age, having my picture attributed to him. I’m sure it’s no big problem, people may be surprised when they meet me for the first time but mistakes happen and nobody died as a consequence. The magazine have apologised and are even sending me some new trainers to make up for it, so I’m looking forward to them arriving as my step up in mileage is wearing into my current crop of trainers.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

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