Turning a Corner

I’ll often refer to corners when I’m speaking about progression. I use it as a way of persevering through bad times. When going through a bad time it’s so easy to just give in, but, a bit like the child asking ‘are we nearly there yet’, I’ve always got through by referring to the statement, ‘keep going as you never know what’s round the next corner’. Corny as that might sound it’s also often true, good times have always followed bad, just sometimes it’s a long road up to the next corner. Turning a corner to me often means my running has been in the doldrums for a while and suddenly, not without a lot of background work, I’m suddenly flying high again, or at least I’ve managed to take off.

Last time I turned a corner was back in 2010, when after a few years of solid but not particularly spectacular performances, I suddenly found myself around the top of the M45 rankings and twice a runner up at British Masters Championships, plus I was running times I would have been proud of in my 30s. I had a couple of decent enough years to follow that but the last three or four have been a bit rubbish, form wise. True I’ve managed some decent results and even won the odd thing, but in all that time I’ve not felt the sweet spot you feel when you’re running well.

Today I feel like I’ve turned a corner. Don’t get me wrong I’m not running spectacular times but I’m beginning to get that sweet feeling of running well. I’m probably actually taking a long sweeping corner rather than having turned one, but I feel I’m on the way back and it’s about time.

It’s two months since I last wrote a blog, that was following my 4^th place in the 10 mile BMAF champs. I certainly didn’t feel the sweet spot that day but I felt strong and it encouraged me to keep training hard. In fact it encouraged me to train harder because I thought I was still lacking something. I knew I needed to add some extra miles and some tougher quality sessions if I was to progress from that point, and that’s exactly what I did. There was no rocket science involved or a sudden seeing the light moment, it was purely that I needed to push myself harder to achieve success.

At the time my longest run for years was about 9.5 miles, I wanted to push this up and I have. I haven’t quite got as far as I wanted, my body starts asking if we’re nearly there yet as we get to 11 miles, I’m conscious that I don’t want to get injured so I’ve only managed to coax it along as far as 12.5. Not enough, I know, but I’m hopeful that if I can keep coaxing that will get longer. The main thing I’ve changed is that I’m doing more reps per session and many of these have been longer reps than I’ve been doing for years.

I’m almost loath to share my training because, although it’s hard for me, in fact I feel this is the hardest I’ve trained over a sustained period since I trained for the marathon in 2002/2003, I know there are many others who train harder than me, especially some of the best guys in my age group. So I’ll just give you a taster of what sort of training I’ve been doing. My longer runs haven’t changed much, as I said previously I’ve struggled to get them beyond 11 miles, but I am doing them more frequently in the week, instead of just the one long run. The biggest difference for me is that I’ve upped the overall distance covered in my quality sessions from a 6 mile session to something more like 9-11 miles, by doing more and longer reps. Stuff like 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 min reps all off 1 minute recovery, or 8 x 5 mins off 1 min or other sessions with reps of 8 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins or even 2 x 20 mins. All of these were designed to improve my mental strength as much as my physical strength. Up to the change I’d generally been doing short reps of 1 min, 2 min or 3 min with the occasional 5 min rep. I don’t believe they prepared me mentally enough for races in distance longer than 5k, which was fine as I wasn’t racing further than 5k for the last three years, however now I’d set my sights on longer races I needed to toughen up my mind.  

And it worked, I had no desire, over the past three years, to run a 10k having struggled with pace in them the last time I was running them, but I recently ran a 10k and although it was a slow time, albeit on a slow course, I felt I got stronger as the race went on and mentally I was totally committed to pushing to the finish, this was the old Rog in action. That served as a confidence booster and I knew I was ready for a decent time over a shorter course. I’d gone through 5k in 18:02 and pushed hard in the second half, so I knew I could go under 18 mins for a 5k, a time I hadn’t bettered for two years.

But I wasn’t planning a 5k, as my friends know I love a road relay and the BMAF road relay was coming up. I felt I had an outside chance of making the Salford team, but the team is so strong it was always an outside chance and as it turned out I didn’t make the cut. Still I could still go down and run in the B team and use it as another booster to my confidence for the longer races to come.

Obviously it wasn’t so important to ease down to run a B team leg as it would have been for an A team leg, particularly as I was the only member of that B team so nobody was relying on me. Hence I chose not to ease off and kept up the big mileage. Then the day before the relays I was offered a number swap for the Mid Cheshire 5k, taking place that night. I thought about it, why not, here was a chance to do a meaningful race and I could still go down to Birmingham on the Saturday for my solitary run, but I hadn’t really eased off, in fact I hadn’t rested for 13 days. Oh well, I should still get under 18 minutes and that would really boost my confidence. So I decided to do it.

I’m glad I did, I ended up running 17:13 for second M50, my fastest time for three years, which currently has me sitting 10^th in the UK M50 rankings and a huge boost to my confidence. The downside being that my leg muscles were feeling a bit tender afterwards. I therefore took the decision not to go to Birmingham where attempting to run a fast 3 miles could cause injury, particularly as I wasn’t letting anybody down as the only man in the team, the team wouldn’t finish anyway. So I stayed home and did a long slow run to try to ease the muscles.

I’m now looking at what races I should do before I take a rest towards the end of June.   

I should add here that as well as the changes I’ve made to my run training I’m also carrying out a consistent 30 minute strength session, generally four days a week, and I’ve also devised a warm up routine and warm down routine intended to strengthen those areas where I’ve always had a weakness. Back in December I was starting to get a few knee niggles, a recurring problem that I’ve had since 1991 and which has been the primary reason I couldn’t do longer runs, as they tended to make the knee tender. Well my good friend Jacqui Tudor has helped me out enormously here, when I was staying at the Tudors on a training weekend with Rob she showed me an exercise to help strengthen my knee. I’ve been doing that exercise daily pre and post run and I’ve had no knee pain for at least a couple of months.

It’s all good, let’s hope it gets better.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Longest Race for Twelve Years, and the Subsequent Fallout

Well almost twelve years, it was 2 July 2006 in Mansfield the BMAF Half Marathon Championship, where I came 7^th and 4^th M40. Since then I haven’t raced further than 10k on the road or track, with slightly further excursions over cross country. In fact I’ve rarely raced further than 5k in the last two years. So what was it that made me enter a 10 mile road race? For starters I’ve been conscious that I’ve been reluctant to race over the 10k distance, my one time favourite race distance, and I wanted to put an end to that. By going over distance, rather than enter a 10k, I figured it would make an eventual return to the 10k distance more enjoyable (bit of Rog psychology for you). The other reason was that this was a championship race that just happened to be fairly close to home, Rhyl, about an hour’s drive away.

During my peak racing years I would really describe myself as a track runner. I did cross country in the winter, for strength and endurance and I did road relays in spring to bring on the speed and in the autumn to use up any remaining speed from the summer but I tended to steer clear of road races throughout the year. My coach at the time wasn’t keen on me mixing up road and track and I hadn’t really developed a love for the roads at that point so I was quite happy to go along with him. In all fairness I was reasonably successful on the track so I wouldn’t say I missed out.

I did a couple of 10 milers in my early days, 1990 and 1992, but these were cross country races, my club champs, in which I ran 67 and 61 minutes respectively.

My first 10 miler on the roads was in 1999. By now I had changed coach and felt like I was no longer as fast on the track as I had been. The previous summer I had a problem with my back, that, at the time, I wasn’t sure I would come back from. The five month enforced break gave me time to think about my running future and I decided that I’d achieved everything I was going to on the track and it was time to switch to the roads, thus prompting the change of coach. My first race back was in December of 1998, after a couple of weeks return to running I tackled the 7.5 mile Surrey cross country championships. It was tough, Coulsdon always was but they’d changed the course to incorporate a steep hill, four times. With the persistent rain it was almost like an ‘It’s a Knockout’ trying to get up it. I finished 66^th, well behind runners I’d only ever seen on my post race cool downs, and, with the tricky conditions, I’d been forced to walk up that hill twice. But I wasn’t down hearted, I always believed I would get fit again, at least my back problems seemed to be at an end.

7^th March 1999 I lined up for the start of the Woking 10. I have no idea why I chose this particular race, or distance, perhaps not feeling that I was yet back to fitness I wanted to set a 10 mile marker before it was too late, just in case I only had one more year of running in me. The race was won by Dave Tune, 49:22, I was 9^th in 53:54. I’m sure I was disappointed with that, my peer group, from when I was at my best, were running around the 50 mark, but I was also realistic, I was still coming back to fitness and at least I was back racing. By the end of the year I had set my mile pb and won my third Surrey 10000m championship.

Also by the end of the year I was out working in Germany, a place called Herzogenaurach. Herzo, as we called it, was a small town, to me only really a village, but was the headquarters for both Adidas and Puma. I could’ve stayed in Nuremburg, which was an interesting city, but after commuting into London for work for 15 years I plumped for staying in Herzo and the 10 minute walk into the office. Sure I would miss out on the social life but I relished the chance to train in the forests around my work place and, because I had no distractions, other than work, I could train twice a day. It was perfect and I soon started getting into good shape.

I would travel back to the UK every fortnight and try to race when I could. By January 2000 I had achieved my highest position in a Surrey cross country champs, 7^th (later promoted to 6^th due to disqualification). My third race of the year was the Sidcup 10 miles, I took the lead at around the 1 mile point and won in 51:00. It was a huge improvement on the Woking 10, less than a year before, and a huge confidence booster. I was a little disappointed as we did seem to be going through the mile checkpoints on target for a sub 50 but I think the mile markers were set up wrong as there was no way I ran a 6 minute last mile. And that was my last 10 mile race, 18 years ago.  

Once I’d made the decision to enter Rhyl I realised I would have to train a bit harder. My longest run was about 9 miles and my longest rep was 3 minutes. So I started to stretch my training runs, got up to 11 miles before we went on holiday to Malaysia. I also upped my reps building up to 5 minute, 6 minute, 8 minute, 10 minute and finally two lots of 20 minute reps. That 20 minutes session was a tough one mentally but I knew it would help with the race.

Yes Malaysia, it really did get in the way a little bit….I love my running but I also know that it isn’t the be all and end all of my life and my fiancée will, hopefully, be part of my life long after running has abandoned me. So if she wants to go on holiday to exotic locations and take me with her, who am I to say no. My training was going great, three weeks before the race and we head off to Malaysia. Two days off training as we travelled via Doha and Kuala Lumpur to Penang. The first morning I was down to the beach to start my training. I knew it would be tough in the heat and humidity but I’d done it in Langkawi a couple of years earlier so I knew I could train hard. But the beach was unforgiving, it was very thin, very soft, and on a camber. Great strength work for anyone but I wanted to achieve flowing speed in my runs and this really wasn’t suitable. I covered about three miles, sinking, slipping and sliding all the way, it was worse than cross country at Boggart Hole Clough. The next morning I was on the treadmill and after a 39 minute 10k I was off it again, my calf muscles had reacted badly and were stiffening up. I hobbled to breakfast and for the rest of the day. The following morning I was back on the treadmill, 200m later I was off, my calf muscles couldn’t take it. I hopped onto a cross trainer, which at least gave me a workout. Cross trainer the next day and then a day off, we were heading off early on a trip and I probably needed to give the calf muscles a break. Next day I was back running, loops of the car park, each loop took about 5 minutes, I did 6. Success, I was a bit slow but my calf muscles didn’t react negatively so I would continue running on the road for the rest of my holiday. I ran every morning on the roads by the hotel, they were relatively safe, one major road junction to survive and then just the odd moped rider on the wrong side and the rest were relatively quiet. Every day, as my muscles recovered, I got a little faster. With two days of the holiday to go I was starting to move at a good pace and then out of nowhere three dogs came charging at me, barking and snarling. As the first one snapped at my toes I did the expected, checked my watch, I was only 8 minutes into my run. Then I realised this wasn’t a particularly good situation to be in, I was in a street full of houses so it was unlikely that these were wild dogs, but a bite from one of them would still require a visit to the hospital and I still had 32 minutes to run. Somehow a combination of shouting and some nifty footwork extricated me from a bad situation and I was soon on my way, agreeing with a local who pointed out that the dogs were chasing me. Luckily my persistence was stronger than theirs and a few houses on they stopped and returned to laying on the ground licking their genitals, whilst I continued on my run. The last day I couldn’t face risking crossing the junction or spending hours in hospital so I ran 7 loops of the car park and only nearly got run over once. That was it training done, we were off home the next day.

We arrived home at 5:30 in the morning on Friday, 8 days before the race. We were both completely exhausted but I decided I needed to get out there and run off the fatigue. It was so nice being back on familiar territory. The run did feel odd, but I’d done enough post night shift runs in my past to know that my body could take it and 8 miles later I felt good about my running. The following day I met up with my mate Rob Tudor and we did a session together, 8 x 5 minutes with 1 minute recovery. I still felt a bit washed out but it was a solid run and the day after I managed a nice paced 8 miler. I was going to gradually ease down for the race, on Monday I did 8 x 4 minutes with a minute recovery, 6 miles on Tuesday, 8 x 3 mins with 1 minute on Wednesday, 6 on Thursday and rest Friday. I couldn’t really gain much in that last week and I knew I wasn’t going to have a fantastic race but I would give it my best shot. I realistically expected to finish between 4^th and 6^th in my age group, though I was aiming for a medal and deep down I didn’t see why I couldn’t win my age group, if I could just pull something miraculous and surprising out of the bag (I’d done it before so never say never).

This was the start of what was to become a nasty cold spell. On a positive it does seem to be a dry cold spell here in the North West, normally it’s cold and damp which goes right through you, but the dry cold is much more pleasant. I set off for Rhyl in 0C conditions, but no ice on the roads. I arrived in Rhyl, no warmer but there was a bit of a breeze and that made it feel even colder. I’d brought with me a variety of kit to wear, depending on temperature, and decided on a merino long sleeve tee under my club vest, good decision, I was never cold.

Despite the cold it wasn’t that unpleasant waiting for the start, at least the sun was out. As we set off I tried to keep the leaders in sight for as long as I could, reaching the first mile marker in 5:41. I felt ok and I was starting to think I should be able to beat the 60 minute mark. Somewhere during the 2^nd mile I lost sight of the leaders, I also lost some pace as I did a 6:11 mile, ‘oh dear’ I thought ‘maybe that sub 60 isn’t going to be so easy’. It was definitely breezy heading out, I consoled myself that at least the wind would be behind me on the way back. A few people came past me, I tried to latch onto them but they eventually got away from me. I managed to hook up with a couple of M45s, every time they got a little break I dug a little deeper and managed to hang onto them. I had been reading some social media comments from Eddy Lee, a great runner from the past who would tough out his races, in the back of my mind I was thinking to myself that if I let these two guys go I would let Eddy down. Mad thought I know but clutching at anything that would make me run harder (more Rog psychology). Just after 4 miles we turned off the promenade and did a little loop.

I reached 5 miles in 30:00. Not bad I thought, considering my last race, in November, was a 5 mile race just up the road in Abergele, where I’d finished in 29:54. If I could just do a negative split! Andy Peet, one of the M45s I was running with obviously shared the same thought, he’d been a few seconds ahead at 5 miles, at the end he was almost two minutes ahead of me in 58:45. I just couldn’t match his pace, but luckily I still had Peter Mallison to hang onto. We ran together for a little while, he, at a discrete distance in front getting cheered on by the South Cheshire Harrier ladies running the other way, me just gritting my teeth. Back onto the promenade for the long run back home he seemed to hit a dodgy patch and so I went past him and pushed on for home. At this point I wasn’t really thinking about beating Peter, he was an M45 what did it matter, all I was focussed on was running as fast as I could to try to break that 60 minute barrier, or at least not slip to far away from it.

Running down the promenade I felt like I kept my pace up, I was pushing it, lets not forget I’ve only recently got over 9 miles in a training run and certainly not at 6 minute mile pace. I thought I’d got a gap but with 400m to go I could hear footsteps. I didn’t care who it was, I had assumed Peter had slipped back as he did seem to slow as I passed him, I knew I was lying 4^th in the M50s but if I wasn’t going to get a medal so it wouldn’t matter too much if two M50s came past me. But another burst of competitiveness took over and I upped my pace, just a little, as if to say ‘you can beat me but you’re going to have to work for it’. A couple of little rises and a long looping corner and I was through the finish line 1 hour and 34 seconds after I’d crossed the starting line. Five seconds behind came Peter, it had been him all the time.

I felt ok, I knew I’d worked but I wasn’t exhausted, though I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for a cool down jog further than 200m. I was disappointed with my time, I really hoped I could get under 60 minutes, it is really hard to try to accept your limitations when you’ve been so much better.

I went back to the car to get changed and just as I arrived I sneezed. A rather innocuous sneeze, I thought, but for the rest of and the following day my nose wouldn’t stop streaming and I felt coldy. The next morning I went for an easy run and my hamstring went, oh no it didn’t just go it went at the furthest point from home, about 4 miles away. Clearly, despite not running a spectacular time, I had pushed my body beyond it’s current physical limit.

I’m recovering now, I thought it was a tear, but it may just be a pull. I probably won’t run for the rest of the week, but who knows. Then I’ll be getting on with some more longer runs and longer reps, I have my first half marathon for 12 years coming up.

Incidentally I finished 24^th in the race and 4^th M50, I’m currently ranked 9^th M50 in the UK, over 10 miles. I know that as the year progresses I’ll slide down the rankings but it’s nice to have a sniff at a top 10 again after so many years.

After the event, Craig Pearson, David Smith (3rd M50) and me. Don't be fooled by the smile, the medal is just for running the distance.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Wrapping Myself up in Cotton Wool and Go Pick a Few Daisies

These are two of the wise statements my first proper coach would tell me to do, just before a major championship. It’s obvious what he meant, you’ve done all the hard work now make sure you be careful on the run in to your championship so you don’t get injured, go out and run but run easy, take in the sights, enjoy yourself. It worked, during my time with Arthur Bruce I won plenty of championship medals, 32 to be exact. We worked hard for a set number of weeks and then eased down for important races. I may not have picked that many daisies but I knew how to go out and enjoy myself on an easy run through Richmond Park. That Sunday long run, the week before a big race, was never more than 70 minutes long, compared to a more normal run of 90-120 minutes, which meant I started my pre-race week fresh and maintained that freshness right up to race day, or as Arthur would put it ‘I’d be chomping at the bit come race day’.  

But it’s also what I’m going to do right now, though in the current climate I’m more likely to wrap myself in a duvet rather than cotton wool. I have made the decision, after a long tedious year with very little racing but lots of injuries, that I need to take some time away from competitive running. It wasn’t a hard decision to make, after all I’ve only managed to run two proper races all year, but the difference now is that by making the decision I no longer have to worry about trying to get race fit.

Of course I’m very much a club man so making the decision to stop racing couldn’t be done properly without leaving my club. Much as I love being a member of Salford Harriers, and enjoy racing for them, I feel that remaining in the club will only tempt me to race again too soon. So it had to be an all or nothing.

Once I’d made my decision I decided that my last outing, injury and illness permitting, would be at the BMAF Cross Country Relays, which took place this Saturday at Long Eaton. It’s an event I’ve always enjoyed and Salford always turn out in force so it would be a fitting occasion to say my goodbye to the club.

I nearly didn’t make it, training had been going well but two weeks ago I decided to use the treadmill at the gym. I was doing some reps on it but after two thirds of the session I could feel my calf muscles tighten, I stopped the session but the damage was done. I could hardly walk, let alone run, for the next 4 days. I looked and felt like I’d run a marathon rather than 5 miles on a treadmill. I finally managed a proper run a week before the race. If I was going to race though I would have to ensure I didn’t overdo it in this last week. Two light speed sessions and two easy runs and I was hoping that was enough. I knew I wouldn’t set the Masters world alight but at least I would be able to run.

On the day things still weren’t perfect, my left knee ached and both calf muscles felt a little tight, but nothing was going to stop me making the trip to Long Eaton.

It was a nice day in Long Eaton, the sun was out, it wasn’t cold, though there was an icy wind coming in. I was on second leg, taking over from the ever reliable Dave Lockett. I had a feeling Dave was going to run well so I was keen to get into my racing kit and into the changeover area as soon as possible. As the runners streamed in there were plenty of Salford vests to the fore, we had three teams in the M35 race, but where was Dave. I was starting to get worried after what seemed like an age and no Dave. But there he was with his unmistakable style, coming around the built up section. I got into position ready to go and Dave came in.

I should say here that Dave hadn’t actually had a bad run, he ran 10:48 which wasn’t bad at all, it just felt bad at the time, because seconds seemed like minutes as I waited for my turn. Dave had handed over to me in 5^th place, though I didn’t know it at the time the M45s were indistinguishable from the M35s to me, they had M45 identifying them on their numbers but it was too small for me to see it from where I was, I thought I was well down the field.

There were a whole bunch of runners just ahead of me and I pictured myself shooting past them as I started my leg. But that’s not what happened next, my running felt cumbersome and awkward, the bunch in front of me appeared to be pulling slightly away from me. As I followed them around the first field my mind started to cave in, I couldn’t live with these guys and we weren’t even in a medal winning position so what was the point of hurting myself. But as quickly as that thought crossed my mind I pushed it out the other side, only 30 minutes earlier I had been describing to a team mate how he should approach the race and that if he wasn’t hurting by the end of the second field he wasn’t running hard enough. How could I say such a thing and not follow my own advice. This seemed to kick start me and I was able to just pick up my pace a little as we entered the second field. This was a slightly longer field, leading to the only bit of mud on the course. I managed to pass about 4 of the guys who had originally pulled away from me and was in hot pursuit of a bald headed guy from Barnsley. As we hit the raised section, which was a long straight back along the two fields I knew I had to push harder if we were to stand any chance of medals. I did and finally caught the Barnsley guy, just as an M45 Dulwich runner came flying past me. I secretly consoled myself that he must’ve just turned 45 whereas I was nearing 52, but I tried to pick up my pace all the same. I kept turning on the pace, the Dulwich runner was pulling away but not significantly, it didn’t matter, what mattered was that I had to keep turning up the pace all the way to the end. I handed over to Charles Foster in 4^th place (I had thought I’d passed about 3 M45s and a few more M35s but clearly I hadn’t). Charles maintained our position, running a useful 10:56, and handed over to Trevor Rayner, who lost a couple of places, before Paul Birkett finished us off, taking one place back as we ended the day in 5^th place.

We had teams out in all age groups but, unlike previous year, we only got the one set of medals, the M35s won the whole event taking M35 gold. I was, surprisingly, fastest in our team, only 5 seconds slower than last year, with 10:41 which was enough to secure joint 10th fastest M45. Not spectacular but not bad for a man who could barely walk just over a week before.

I said my goodbyes to the team and set off for home. Glad to have played my part and looking forward to a hot shower. And that was it. My last race as a Salford Harrier.

I will still run, but I will be running because I want to, not because I need to. I’ll still do speed work, but I’ll do it when I feel able to, not sticking to a rigid regime. I may even do some parkruns, but not in race mode. I do hope I will get back to racing one day, but if I don’t I’ll be happy with my lot, I’ve lasted longer than most and I’ve achieved far more than I originally thought was possible. I know the door will always be open for me at Salford, should I decide to return, as I’m sure it would be at Herne Hill, Edinburgh and Belgrave, if I found myself back in their neck of the woods, but I’m not thinking about that at the moment. I’m keeping myself away from temptation, I’m going to chill and pay back the wifey for all the support she’s given me since she met me, eight years ago, when she thought I just ran for fun, a misconception that was soon corrected the first time we went for a run together around the Braids 5 course. As she said at the time, it’s a good job I was injured when she met me, otherwise we may not have lasted eight days.   

So it’s so long to Salford, may you continue the success for many years to come, and thank you for making me feel welcome and a valued member of the squad. Finally, thank you for the 12 championship medals you’ve helped me to achieve over the last four years.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

One Last Throw of the Dice

2016 is drawing to a close and for me, from a running perspective, it has been a year to forget. I’ve been running since 1989 and in all that time there have only been two years that I haven’t found myself placed (top 3) in a championship race. Those years being 1989 and 2011. Well this year could well prove to be the third year. It is definitely going to prove to be my least prolific race year. So far this year I’ve taken part in 2 parkruns; Delamere in February (18:48) and Portobello in March (17:58) and one proper race, the North of England Six Stage Road Relay in September.

This lack of competition has been caused by an injury ravaged year. Attempts to make it back into the big time frustrated by one thing after another; hamstring, knee or calf, rotating round month after month. It seemed that just as I was getting my fitness back and looking to test my form out at a parkrun something else would go. So it was rest and start again.

The major positive from all this is that I’ve managed to maintain a reasonable level of fitness throughout the year, as I was able to utilise all my knowledge to work out training routines that challenged me but not my injuries. Although that has helped, and given me a much stronger upper body than ever before, it isn’t the same as running. It hurt, I got out of breath, but not in the same euphoric way I feel after a hard fartlek or well won race.

So the year drifted on and all my thoughts were about giving up competitive running. I could still run and enjoy doing it without the pressure of specific training to get fit for a specific race. I got close to calling it a day and vanishing from the race scene for good, but, just as I was starting to get back to some level of fitness along came the call to represent Salford at the North of England 6 stage.

Ok, let’s not get dramatic, it wasn’t a call to represent a potential medal winning A team it was just a call to represent one of the lower teams, I forget which one but probably somewhere around the M area. It gave me renewed focus, as I love running relays and they bring out the best in me. However, after six months without a race I was understandably nervous about how I would do.

As it turned out I had an ok race, nothing spectacular, nothing mediocre, I once again managed to show how I punch above my fitness level when it comes to relays. However the best thing it did for me was to get my body back to running at a proper race pace and over the ensuing week I noticed how much quicker and more confidently my training sessions were.

Unfortunately, at the end of that week I came down with a cold. Not just any old cold like the ones I have most years which reduce my training load for a couple of days and then disappear, this one just kept on and on at me and stopped my training, almost completely for two weeks. For two weeks after that there were still remnants and although I was able to start building up my training again I was still coughing up and finding my breathing all over the place.

It’s only now, though still a bit bunged up, that I’m feeling like my training is flowing again. The speed is up on my quality runs and my steady runs are becoming effortlessly fast steady runs. I feel like a runner again and I’m ready to race.

Having said that, I have this year decided not to run in the Manchester or South East Lancs cross country leagues. I’ve done them every year since I joined Salford and every year I have ended up injured. So this year I decided to give them a miss, and I do miss them, especially Boggart Hole Clough (which would be more aptly named Boggy, Holey and Cloggy), but I think I made the right decision.

So I’m left with one more championship race to go, one more throw of the dice to ensure that my championship medal winning years becomes 16-2 and not 15-3. I’m ready for it but it’s still a little while off. Of course first I need to make selection, and that’s never a given when you’re trying to get selected for Salford Harriers, then I need every member of the team to be as committed to the cause as me, much easier as our team spirit is strong, and, finally, I have to remain injury and illness free, well I’m due some good luck. Fingers crossed I make that start line.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

   

Running is Back in My Life

Well it’s been almost three months since I last posted. The last blog was about how I was trying some unorthodox training to try to regain racing fitness. I was aware there was a risk involved but I was trying to manage it carefully. Unfortunately there is a fine line when you’re an elite athlete, and that fine line is still there for us less elite athletes who want to bring the best out of ourselves. I tipped myself too far over that fine line and ended up with a torn calf. Annoyingly it went when I was specifically having an easy run as I was intending to do an event at the weekend.

To say I was frustrated was probably an understatement but, as usual when things don’t go to plan, I picked myself up, brushed myself off and got on with things. I accept that my body is a bit delicate and that it can no longer take the level of training required to race at the top level, as such I feel it is unlikely that I will bother racing again, I just don’t enjoy racing if I can’t give 100%. But not racing doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy running, or keeping fit doing other exercise.

At first I was restricted in what I could do, because I couldn’t use the calf, but I could still do most exercises, including carefully thought out cardio. It kept me sane and enabled me to carry on working with clients.

It hadn’t felt like much of a tear when it happened but it must’ve been fairly deep as it took three and a half weeks before I could begin running again. Annoyingly, a week after the tear I was in Spain, supposedly to do some specific fine tuning before the BMAF Road Relays. I couldn’t run in Spain and neither could I represent Salford in the relays. But I did train in Spain, I PTed myself every morning, by the pool with a variety of exercises from my repertoire.

Eventually I was able to start back on the running and used the tried and tested method 1 min walk / 1 minute run x 10 increasing this every day by 1 minute for the runs but sticking to 1 minute for the walk and reducing the number of runs by 1 each day. That is until I get to the point where it’s not progressing in time on my feet and then I start freelancing the running. Eleven days later I was on my first run, without any walking, and I’ve built up from there. One week of just running and then I started introducing speed work into my running. I started with alternate speed days and steady days but after a week I got back to two days of speed followed by one day of steady. At the end of my first week of this 2 to 1 regime I spent the weekend in London, the aim being to meet up with numerous old running rivals and friends at the Lauriston Garden Party. I was staying with my mate, Rob Tudor, who had promised to take me out running in the mornings, quite a daunting task as Rob is both fitter and faster than I was at that point. Still a nice change from training alone.

The garden party was great fun. It was fantastic to chat to old friends, old rivals, new people I had met through facebook and all the former running greats that I was introduced to. The whole evening was one filled with good chat, fun banter plus a whole load of food and drink. Rob even found a picture of me running on the ‘wall of fame’. But all good things must come to an end and too soon we were heading back to our beds.

Running with Rob was also a great fillip, it added pace that had been lacking from my solo runs and gave me some self belief in my ability to run fast again. The following week I started picking up the pace a little more. Then I was back to Spain for a couple of weeks, this time I could run. I kept to my regime of two hard days to one easy and I was enjoying it, though finding it hard due to the heat. All the little niggles were still there, but to a lesser extent. However by the middle of the second week my achilles was beginning to hurt. I eased back a little and went back to a more traditional 1 day hard, 1 day easy, running through the issue. Gradually, over the weeks the pain in my achilles has started to recede, it is manageable.

I’m still running and this week I started to feel like the confident runner of my past. I know I’m not fast so I’m still not too bothered about racing but one of these days I may grace a parkrun again.

The bootcamps in Sandbach have been going well. Now that the warmer weather has arrived it doesn’t matter so much if it’s raining, in fact it’s quite refreshing. Not that the cold wet and muddy winter weather put off the hardy Sandbach crowd, who kept me company during a miserable winter. They even tell me they don’t mind the weather when it’s bad, they feel good for getting through it. I can’t say I enjoy the cold, wet and windy weather, but then I suppose I’m out in it every day, sometimes twice a day, after a while you just want a dry day. But with the warmer weather comes new recruits and we’ve had quite a few lately. You never know, with newbies, particularly those who haven’t exercised for a while, whether they will enjoy the experience or not, for some it sounds like a good idea but then it’s harder than they anticipated, particularly because all the regulars seem to be so much fitter, but if they stick it out the progression is usually pretty quick. We’ve had a good influx of newbies this year and I’m pleased to say that they’ve all stuck it out. Not only that, the transformation in their fitness levels has been noticeable.

Thanks to the success of Sandbach, and the prompting of a friend, I decided to start another bootcamp in Northwich. Finding a suitable venue wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be but in the end I managed to secure some space at Sir John Deane’s college and my latest ‘bodyweight’ bootcamp is now being held on Wednesday evenings at 18:30. Of course nothing runs perfectly and it turns out that my first SJD bootcamp coincided with Andy Murray playing tennis and the Wales football team playing Portugal, but, despite these distractions, I was still able to attract a few attendees. And it was a success, based on my success criteria; did they learn anything new, did they find it a challenge, did they have fun, did I have fun and was I out of pocket. The answer to all of these, apart from the last one, should be ‘yes’. Of course the other success criteria is, will they be back, well I’ll find out the answer to that next Wednesday.

As for me, I’m taking a day’s rest today. I’ve run for the last 15 days and over the past 4 days I’ve done a kettlebell session and 3 bootcamps (yes I take part too). I woke up this morning and I could feel my muscles were tired, a day off will do me the world of good and set me up for another week of solid exercise.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Unorthodox Rog

I’ve been a bit quiet lately, I’ve been working on a few things, investigating a few future opportunities and catching up on admin. Mind you I’ve not exactly had much to shout about, the latest injury in December, a reoccurrence of the one I had at the end of summer, stopped me in my tracks. It had me thinking that it could be the end of my competitive running life. I still don’t know if it is or not, at the moment I’ll keep trying to come back but there has to be a point where I’ll say no more, and, whilst not totally convinced I’m close to that point, I’m ready to accept it and move on if it happens.

However, whether I competed again wasn’t going to stop me running. I had to find a balance and that’s what I’ve been trying to do since December.

I started running again at Xmas, spending Xmas and New Year in Spain was always going to be an easier kicking off point than in the UK, warm air and sunshine makes such a difference. Starting gradually with the run/walk that I tried last time I was injured, I built my time and distance up on a daily basis until I was up to a reasonable 40 minute run by the end of the trip.

Continuing the build up on my return to the UK I was soon over the hour. I also started a bit of basic speed work. But, before the end of January I was starting to get worrying aches around the knee again.

I was convinced the problem was caused by my longer runs rather than my speed work, though I couldn’t be absolutely sure. So I decided to reduce the time of my runs, to ensure I didn’t go over the hour. At the time I was still thinking I might not race again, I certainly didn’t have a particular appetite for getting on a race start line any time soon, so I wasn’t too concerned about the fact that this was unlikely to keep me as fit as my opposition. However, with a holiday in Malaysia coming shortly, I knew I was going to have to spice things up a bit because steady running in hot countries can be mind numbing when I’m running alone.

So I set myself the following ‘unstructured’ plan. I would aim to run for between 35 minutes and one hour. I would do speed work on consecutive days, for as many days as my body and my mind could take it. I would not run if my body was telling me not to, though I might do some other form of exercise instead and, finally, if I wanted to take a rest day I would, irrespective of the day of the week and irrespective that the previous day or days, or subsequent day or days, were also rest days. There - I was in control of my own destiny and nobody else was going to advise me differently. It may not work, I could get injured again, but what did I have to lose, I was already thinking of taking up gardening instead of running. It seemed like a last throw of the dice to me. If it worked it might just give me a few more races each year.

I was also going to maintain my cross training, and I would also do this to the level I felt my body could cope with.

I started my new regime on 1^st February and on the second day I was taking a rest from running. It wasn’t totally required but as I was running with a talented marathon runner on the third day I thought it best to be sensible, so as to not let them down. I pushed through from that with two more quality days before two days enforced rest days, due to travel and the difference in time zones for our trip to Malaysia.

WC 1 Feb 2016

M – am 52 minute run, pm abdominal workout

T – am 40 minutes on the cardio machines

W – am 1 hour run, reps with running client, eve 20 mins PT

T – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 37 min run  inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 22

S – Rest – travel to Kuala Lumper

S – Rest – still travelling and settling in

Not bad for a first week, three consecutive quality days, but plenty of rest. Now in Kuala Lumper I was conscious running would be tough in the heat and humidity. My first day of running was very much a plod, still feeling a bit jet lagged and it was hot, hot, hot. I also took another rest day when we transferred to Langkawi, but then I was back on it and as you can see, by the following training plan, over doing it and suffering from a bit of heat exhaustion.  

WC 8 Feb 2016

M – am 36 min run

T – am 36 min run inc. (1 min/15 sec rec) x 21

W – Rest – travel to Langkawi

T – am 37 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x3

F – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6

S – am 41 min run inc. (1 min/15 sec rec) x 21, pm squash. Unfortunately this was the day I got hit with heat exhaustion.

S – am 36 min run.

The easy run on Sunday didn’t ease the heat exhaustion so the next day I decided to go to the air conditioned gym. Having such a lovely beach to run on, I just couldn’t bring myself to hit one of the two treadmills so I designed a 30 minute PT session instead. By the Tuesday I was ready to go again, but decided to pare back the running a bit as it was the last few minutes I had begun to suffer on the previous week. And another rest day as we travelled back home.

WC 15 Feb 2016

M – am 30 min PT session

T – am 33 min run inc. 1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec/2 min/1 min rec/1 min/30 sec rec/1 min/30 sec rec/2 min

W – am 34 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 5, pm squash

T – am 35 min run

F – am 36 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec) x 15, pm squash

S – am 35 min run inc. (3 min/1 min rec) x2 (2 min/1 min rec) x 3 (1 min /30 sec rec) x 4

S – Rest – Travel home

Back home I was able to put some solid training behind me. I was starting to feel fit again and my speed was creeping up. Even so I’d only been using this regime for three weeks and that had been disrupted somewhat by the holiday. There was no way I was ready to race yet, nor was I intending to. Though, as you can see, I did a parkrun on the Saturday. Carole really wanted to do one and so I agreed to go along with her to my local one, at Delamere Forest. It’s a great place but I really don’t like the course. Nothing personal, it’s just that the surface is really uneven and with my history of achilles and knee problems not the best surface for me to run fast on. Still, it was a parkrun, not a race, and I went into it feeling about as racy as Garfield the cat. My aim, get around uninjured and use it to see how my sustained pace was coming along. And as you can see by the time I ran, not particularly pacy. But you have to start somewhere and, if I were to be honest, I really didn’t expect to break 19 minutes.

WC 22 Feb 2016

M – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x3, pm 30 minutes on cardio machines

T – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 37 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 22, pm 20 minutes kettlebells

T – am 53 min run with client, would have been reps at her pace, but it doesn’t state what they were, pm 1 hour bootcamp

F – am 50 min run

S – am Delamere parkrun, 18:48. Didn’t feel I was ready yet to test out my race pace, but Carole wanted to do a parkrun, so I thought I might as well get out there and see where I was. Despite always being in the top 10 and finishing 6^th I never really got into any kind of race feeling, but at least I did a solid paced 5k run and survived the uneven surfaces intact.

S – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x3   

WC 29 Feb 2016

M – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6

T – am 40 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 23, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 48 min run, pm 30 min on cardio machines

T – am 59 min run with client, no details again but would have been reps of some sort, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 41 min run inc. (3 min/1 min rec) x 7 plus 1 min

S – am 38 min run inc. (3 min/1 min rec/2 min/1 min rec/1 min/30 sec rec) x 3  plus 1 min

S – am 51 min run

WC 7 Mar 2016

M – am 44 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 7 plus 1 min, pm 30 min on cardio machines

T – am 44 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 24, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 50 min hill session with client, pm 20 minute core workout

T – am 35 min run inc. (3 min/30 sec rec/3 min/1 min rec/3 min/90 sec rec) x 2, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 30 min static bike

S – am 30 min static bike

S – 36 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3

Six weeks in now and things were going well. I’d started upping the reps a little and the pace was definitely getting quicker. But, at the end of the previous week my knee was starting to suffer so I had to take a couple of days off running and get on the static bike. It worked a treat, I was soon back in action.

WC 14 Mar 2016

M – am 43 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 25, pm 20 min of kettlebells

T – am 38 min run inc. (5 min/2 min rec) x 4, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 59 min run with client, doesn’t state what we did, pm 20 mins on static bike

T – am 39 min run, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 45 min run inc. 1 min/2 min/3 min/4 min/5 min/4 min/3 min/2 min/1 min – all with 1 min rec

S – am 39 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

S – am 47 min run

At Easter we had planned to visit the Scottish relatives. Usually when we’re in Scotland we do the Edinburgh parkrun, so this was going to be my next opportunity to see how my training was progressing. I purposefully took the Friday off running, which meant we could get an early start and enjoy the afternoon in Scotland. The forecast wasn’t great, strong winds, cold and wet, so I decided that we should try the Portobello parkrun instead. Result, still windy but not as strong as I would’ve encountered at Silverknowes and, despite the wind, I was 50 seconds quicker than four weeks ago at Delamere. You could put some of that down to the smoother terrain, but I was definitely more racy this time. I followed that up with a sports massage from Cath Ferry, good friend and EAC athlete. Cath pointed out that my achilles were thickened. Well they weren’t giving me any trouble so I suspected it was down to the achilles injuries I suffered in 2012.

WC 21 Mar 2016

M - am 20 min cardio machine, pm 30 min cardio machine

T – am 49 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 8, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 47 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 4, pm 20 min static bike  

T – am 33 min run, 8.1k on treadmill, pm 1 hour bootcamp

F – rest, travel to Scotland

S – am Portobello parkrun 17:58, pm massage

S – am 40 min run

Funny really, no issues with my achilles for a long while, until now. Nothing big but I was conscious that my right one was slightly tender this week. Now I’m not a psychosomatic sort of person so I was sure it was nothing to do with what Cath had said. Maybe I’d pushed a bit too hard too soon after the massage or, more likely, because I ran five consecutive days of quality and my quality was getting faster. By the end of this next week I was feeling it again and needed to take a day off running.

WC 28 Mar 2016

M – am 39 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

T – am 42 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 8, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 47 min fartlek run, pm 30 mins on cardio machines

T – am 45 min run inc. (3min/1 min rec) x 3 (2 min/1 min rec) x 4 ( 1 min/30 sec rec) x 5, pm 1 hour bootcamp

F – am 42 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 25

S – am 30 min static bike

S – am 38 min am run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

The rest did me some good but the achilles were still hurting during the next week so I had to back off and made some of my reps longer, hence slower.

WC 4 Apr 2016

M – am 38 min run inc. 5 mins x 4 with rec of 2 min/1:30 min/1 min, pm 20 minutes of kettlebells

T – pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 49 min run, pm 20 min weight session (all body, endurance)

T – am 47 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 8, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 42 min run inc. reps of 10 min/8 min/6 min all with 2 min rec

S - am – 45 min run

S – am – 38 mn run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

So that’s where I am now. Slowing down the reps seems to have worked for now but I’m going to have to be vigilant around my knee and now my achilles. Running this way I’m under no illusions that I will once again be able to grace a podium, but if I can enjoy it, and I do enjoy speed work much more than steady running, you may well see me entering proper races again, before the summer is done. Though you may just as easy see me weeding the garden.

Whilst I haven’t been competing, others have, and it was great to see my club, Salford Harriers, win the Northern 12 Stage road relay, they and the B team both qualified for the National 12 stage. I had been asked if I wanted to be considered for the B team, but at the time I didn’t feel my leg was ready to race, and it was good to see I wasn’t missed. The National 12 Stage takes place this coming weekend. It will be good to see how the Northern Champions fare in this iconic championship.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

The Malaysian Runs

For the fourth year running Carole’s treated me to a fantastic holiday in a country I’ve never visited before. In Kerala my achilles was completely screwed and I could barely walk, let alone run, but I’ve managed to experience running in Vietnam, Cambodia and, now, Malaysia. All offer different opportunities to test my own boundaries of physical ability and creativity. All have been hot and humid places to run in, which does make physical activity more challenging than back home.

This particular holiday was split into two, starting in Kuala Lumpur with 3 nights and then onto Langkawi for 10 nights. It always seems a bit of a drag travelling to these far flung holidays, and so it was again, though not as much a drag as the coming home. We took the Manchester to Dubai, Dubai to Kuala Lumpur route, flying with Emirates. We left early on the Saturday morning, arriving in Kuala Lumpur around the same time on Sunday morning, with the time difference. Bonus: the hotel we were staying at had our room ready, which meant we could have a quick shower, get changed and have a look around. With not much sleep during the journey we decided not to venture far, rather to look at the immediate area and get a feel for the place, and, naturally, suss out any potential running opportunities.

Petronas Towers, look good day or night

The hotel had a small gym and I was quite prepared to use the one treadmill for my daily run. I was also, because my attitude has been changed due to my latest injury problems, prepared to just do an intensive PT session, should somebody else be on the treadmill. However, it turned out we were close to the City Centre park. It still required crossing a few roads, but it looked like a distinct possibility.

The next day we were up and out, we’d decided to give the park option a go. Arriving at the park we found it busy, lots of people were out walking or running, 90% of them going anti-clockwise around the marked running circuit, handily marked out as a 1300m circuit, which enabled me to notice how slow I was going. It wasn’t intentional, but the flight had taken it’s toll, plus it was pretty hot and humid in KL. I shuffled around a few laps and then went back to the hotel for breakfast.

After breakfast we were treated to a Lion Dance, this being Chinese New Year, to wish us on our way with good luck. We spent the bulk of the day walking around KL, following a tour in the guide book. Not the easiest place to get around, thanks to a very busy road system, but we saw everything we had hoped to and returned late afternoon for a dip in the pool, before dinner.

Lots of luck, but no tangerine

The next morning we decided the park was the best option again. I was feeling a lot more awake so decided to try some speedwork, a loosely based term for a session of repetitions that would be slightly faster than the previous days steady run. Having knowledge of how difficult it is to train in the heat and humidity of places, such as KL, I decided to keep the reps short but, as time was a constraint, also keep the recoveries short. So a session of 21 x 1 minute with 15 seconds recovery. This is a tough session any time, if done properly, but it was very tough in this weather. Thankfully the crowd mentality of mostly going in an anti-clockwise direction helped me enormously, giving me loads of people to overtake, even on my recovery jogs. It could’ve been a nightmare if 50% of the people were travelling against the flow.

After breakfast another day’s walking around KL and another dip before dinner.

The next day we were due to leave for Langkawi and we were leaving fairly early, getting up early for a run was certainly achievable, in fact a few years earlier it would have been a given, but I weighed up the bigger picture, including my current fitness levels and current ambition, and decided, for once I’d just chill and enjoy the holiday. So I did and a few hours later we were disembarking in Langkawi.

A friend of mine from Edinburgh, and fellow runner, Stephen Maniam, is travelling round the world, cycling as much of it as he can. It just so happens he’s on a break from travel and currently teaching just South of KL. Naturally, when he heard I was heading to KL he headed to Langkawi, as we disembarked, he was on the other side of a glass partition, waiting to get on the plane we had just vacated. We exchanged waves, he was due back in Langkawi at the weekend so we’d be able to catch up proper then.  

Too much cycling makes you sit funny

We settled in our new accommodation and went for a walk to see what the area looked like, and more specifically where we could run. The gym was pleasant, 3 treadmills looking over the beach, so assuming they were free that was one option. The town was a busy through road and the pavements were both clogged and in a bad state of disrepair, completely unsuitable. The road out of town was an option, but I try to avoid running on the road in most foreign places but, in particular, here I wasn’t that impressed with the local driving skills. The site we were on had some pathways, very likely to be busy but an option. That left the beach. I don’t like running on the beach if it’s soft sand, unless I’m just starting back from injury, even then I can’t take it for longer than 20 minutes, though Carole loves it, so she was sorted. We had a quick inspection, soft sand, and yet, as we got closer to the sea there was a band of firm sand, the likes I’d not come across since training in Whitianga, New Zealand. Yes this could be possible. The beach was reputedly 2k end to end, so it was a pretty good option if the sand was firm all the way. I’d find out the next morning.

Fully bedded in now, having been in Malaysia for 5 days, despite the late night closing at the beach bar, with wailing karaoke style singer, and the heat of the night being very similar to the day, requiring the fan to be on permanently, causing all sorts of weird dreams connected with engines and chainsaws, I decided I’d go for it on the beach and try my trusted 1,2,3 x3 session. The beach was great, surprisingly busy at 8:00am but respectful, i.e. they got out of my way when I was running towards them. The first few reps were good, but then I started to feel the heat on the 3 minute rep, after that it was hard work, but I did just over 4 complete lengths of the beach, that was enough. The rest of the day was spent relaxing by the pool, we were too knackered to be bothered with anything else, plus it was a nice pool, great for shade bathing. 

Back on the speed the next morning, this time it was a 1,2 x 6 (I know it seems a little unorthodox to rep day after day, but I’ll explain at the end of the blog, why I’m training this way). A little easier not having to do any 3 minute reps, but I was still starting to struggle towards the end. And the following day I repeated my 21 x a minute with 15 seconds recovery. Now that really was hard, I was slightly later getting up, it was definitely warmer and I was really struggling from about rep 10, it was so difficult to breathe, the 15 seconds was definitely not enough recovery in this heat.

By now we’d found the squash courts. Carole’s been saying for years that she’d like to thrash me at squash, now I’m no squash player, think I’ve played 3 or 4 times in my life and the last time was about 29 years ago, but I figured I’m much fitter than I was then and it must be easy to pick it up again so I’d always argued that she was talking a load of racquets. Today was the day we were going to find out the truth. Some breakfast and pool lounging first but before lunch we hit the court. Turns out Carole wasn’t talking racquets at all, she had me running around all over the place. Clearly fitness is no match for skill and I had no squash skill. Still I was getting better as I taught myself how to hit the ball back and I never had a 9-0 against me. We finished after 53 minutes, I was tempted to carry on but Carole was bored.

Turned out it was a good idea to stop at that point as the heat had now started to hit me, the hard training of the last three days and constant lapping of a squash court had left me exhausted so whilst Carole went off to eat lunch I went back to the room to have a lie down. I felt a bit rough and lost my appetite for the next two days, really, at my age, I ought to start taking things a bit easier!  

The next morning I was still feeling the effects of those exertions so decided to play safe and just run on the beach, nice and easy, no reps. But, in this heat, it was still hard work and I found it a bit tedious going back and forth four times.

Not wanting another run on the beach the following day I decided to do half a PT session instead. I didn’t feel as energised as I do at home but I managed to string together a good mix of stuff. A welcome break from running, and a timely reminder that you should only run because you love running and not because you feel you ought to. Thankfully, by the end of that day, I was starting to feel like my old self and my appetite had come back.

Back in the groove, the next morning I was keen to get back into my running. I decided that I needed to shorten my session a bit, to ensure I didn’t overdo it, so instead of my 1,2,3 x 3 I did 1,2,3 x 2 and a 1,2. 15 minutes of quality rather than 18. Still hard but that little bit of breathing space gave me both the energy and the willpower to see it through.

I followed this up the next day with 1,2, x 5, plus I took another thrashing in the squash court, though I was improving, just a little.

Having done two days of reps and the squash, I decided to do a steady run again and went for the 8k run along the beach. I managed to catch up with a Dutch guy, who was going just a little slower than me, halfway along the first length. It was nice to have some company for a change, last time I had company on my run was when I went training with Rob Tudor, and that was only for about 100m before Rob zoomed off into the distance, on this occasion it lasted a little longer, about 250m before my new friend decided he needed to stop and stretch before facing the next 2k of beach, so I was back on my Jack Jones. Still it was good to talk.

With two days to go until the end of the holiday I had two more beach runs left. On the penultimate day it was the time of 1 minute reps. Again I reduced this so I was only doing 15 and, conscious of how difficult it had been the last time, with 15 seconds recovery, I decided to give myself 30 seconds, generous soul. It worked, it was much easier and enabled me to have enough energy for a further squash thrashing, though on this occasion I got almost close to taking a game.

Final run, it was mind games, which run should I do. If I’m being honest I really didn’t want to do it, I was feeling tired and couldn’t muster any enthusiasm, particularly as we’d be setting off for home at 7pm and travelling for 22 hours with short hops and long breaks. But, it was the last opportunity I was going to get to run on this beach so I gave myself a kick up the backside and decided the best way to get through it was to do the long reps first, whilst still fresh, and increase the number of reps as they got shorter. I did 2 x 3 mins, 3 x 2mins and 4 x 1 min. It felt pretty good.

After a grueling journey home, in which I felt I was coming down with a cold (nose constantly running, regular sneezing) we finally got into our own home early Sunday afternoon. We were both shattered, each leg of the journey home had been too short to get any proper sleep, with 3 hour gaps between flights also unsuitable for sleeping, plus we were 8 hours behind Malaysia so it was nearing bedtime. Some tidying up, washing kept us going but we both fell asleep in front of the TV by 8pm. It was nice to have a rest day, even though I didn’t feel rested.

The next day was the start of the next block of training. Carrying on with the theme I was back doing quality, but it was a real struggle, I really felt rough. Got through it, the next day I felt a bit better and so it continued, day by day, able to go a bit faster, feeling a lot better about my runs and now it’s down to managing my training so I don’t get injured and get the most out of myself. And then, maybe even a race.

My training ground in Langkawi

Not a bad place to see sunset

I mentioned earlier that I would explain my unorthodox approach to training, well here it is: Since last summer I’ve been getting problems with my knees, it comes and goes but on two occasions it’s caused one or other of my knees to seize up completely, meaning that walking is painful, bending the knee is even more painful and running is out of the question for a significant period of time. I’ve seen a physio and constantly do exercises to stop this happening, but at the end of the day I have to face the fact that I’m 51 years old, have been running for 27 years, and it’s now starting to take it’s toll.

The first thing I decided was that I needed to stop racing, for the present. This would allow me to train as and when I feel without the added pressure of trying to get fit for a specific event. That was fine but, obviously, as you start to get a bit fitter you want to push the training more. Ooops problem, I found that as I pushed harder and longer I started getting problems. So I decided to restrict my runs to about 37 mins, if doing quality, and 45 minutes if doing a steady, with the odd exception. This seemed to be working and I was making some progress. However, ever the optimist, if I was to decide I was ready to race again I’d want to be able to compete against my peers and this wasn’t going to get to that position if I was to continue training to a traditional pattern of three hard sessions interspersed with easy runs.

So I decided to follow the method I used to do on holidays, i.e. 2 days hard 1 day easy, only I wasn’t going to restrict it to 2 days. I would run reps every day I felt up to it and only have an easy day or a rest day if I wanted to. It’s a risky strategy but sometimes you have to take risks to achieve your goals. I’m now four weeks into this regime and, despite the setback I suffered on holiday, it seems to be working for me. I’ve currently got no problems with my knees, though every time I say that to anybody the next day my knee starts to ache….

I imagine there will be some of my running pals who will read that and think I’m setting myself up for failure, or injury, but I feel it’s the only way to keep me going, at this moment in time. I’ll adapt if I need to and maybe I’ll even put in an appearance at a road relay or parkrun before the end of March.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk