Back in the Game

It’s been a little while since my last blog and my training trip to Spain. Before I went I had started to up my training but it was Spain where I feel the start of my current progress began. On my return it was obvious the training had been tough as both my achilles were aching. Of course mentioning this to fellow athletes and physios that I work with brings out all the advice one could wish for, but I knew it was just from tired legs and so I treated myself by taking an easy week. With the North West Road relays the following Saturday and not having run any decent times this year I thought this would be an opportunity for me to show where I’m at, in terms of form.

It wasn’t that easy a week in the end, I trained just once a day but because I was in the Salford F team there wasn’t really anything to save myself for so I agreed to take a client out for a run on the Friday, normally this would’ve been a rest day. As it turned out I had a decent run in the relay; 12:18 for 3.6k. Ok, nothing spectacular, it still only equates to 17:08 for 5k, had I been able to maintain pace, but it was more about how much closer or ahead of my peers I was than I had been all year.

Once again Salford showed their strength in depth with 9 teams (not including the juniors), both the Men’s and Women’s A teams finished 3^rd overall, with the Men taking 2^nd Greater Manchester. Sadly no teams for Cheshire or Lancashire and I think the Women’s was a mixed county team so no county medals there either. My F team, featuring Trevor Rayner, Rob Tudor and John Lloyd finished in 23^rd place, not bad considering we averaged close to 50 years of age, though with baby face John in the team it kept it nearer mid 40s.

Two of Salford's teams in action, I must be running fast, both feet off the ground at the same time.

The following week it was the North of England Relays. With 6 Men in each team and not being county dependent I found myself promoted to the D team, but still nothing to prove and as my achilles was no longer sore, as I suspected it wouldn’t be, I bunged in a hard week of training. Faster, longer, harder and back to two sessions a day, plus another client wanting a run on Friday morning.

This was a bit longer, at 6k, and I knew I’d suffer more than the previous week but I was still determined to have a crack. Unfortunately our A leg runner wasn’t feeling well and had a nightmare leg, these things happen, I should know, but at least it gave me something to chase and someone to chase me as the leading Women’s team was just behind us. I went hard, perhaps too hard, but I held myself together and managed to pass more than 20 runners and nobody came past me, though I was caught by the leading Lady (never know if I should call them Women, Ladies or Girls), unfortunately for her I was just at the point of telling myself to do what I tell my clients to do, relax and push, and I pulled away again – though she ran 2 seconds faster than me in the end, nice one. I was pleased with my effort, it shows consistency and placed me close enough to my peers to give me some confidence that my training is going in the right direction.

Salford again had great strength in depth; 8 teams, not including the juniors, with our ladies finishing in 6^th place and the men in 4^th (men’s B team in 7^th), my team finishing in 73^rd – not bad for a D team.

Coming towards the finish, wish I could learn to keep my mouth shut

So now I’m back training hard, I have a little gap before I’m due to race again so it’s more miles, more pace and more effort before I ease down for an important race. Of course with increased intensity comes the risk of injury, my knee was sore on Monday after the 2nd session and now my IT band is a little sore, at least the knee has survived the week. I’ll be keeping a close eye on how my body reacts to my training and I will ease off if necessary, but I’m really enjoying being able to push myself towards my limits and I’ve lost that couple of pounds that have been hanging around for the last couple of years. And I do feel like I’m back in the game.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

pictures courtesy of Sid Sacks and Jerry Watson

In the Heat of the Moment

Those who know me well will know that I’ve enjoyed competing in the World and European Masters Champs, since I turned 41. I can’t say that I’ve been overly successful, though I’m proud of the two bronze medals I’ve achieved, both of which I felt were good performances. However competing abroad can be costly; both financially and in terms of time that could otherwise be spent with loved ones. Two years ago I was due to compete in Poland, though the European championships were split between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, however, as with all the outdoor t&f championships I’ve competed in, with the exception of Ljubljana, the distance runners compete some distance away from the main event. On that occasion I was injured just before the championship and was unable to take part in one of my events and could only run the other one at 70% effort, it was a costly way to run below par, so since then I’ve kept my money in my pocket, my form hasn’t justified my attendance, much as I’ve had the desire to go.

This year the European Championships were held in Turkey, a country I’ve been to many times and used as a hot weather training base before I competed in Hungary, four years ago. But I didn’t enter, I’m not running well enough this year and I’m not one to make up numbers, I want to be competing for the medals, and I genuinely believe that if I can get some solid training behind me I could do that again, in the future.

However, August being the height of holiday season meant many of my clients have been away enjoying themselves, giving me some free time. A perfect time to take Carole away on holiday. Of course, as you can imagine, she might but I don’t, I use it as an opportunity to be more focused in my training. So two weeks ago we hopped onto a flight to Spain, the scene of much of my warmer weather training. The place we go to, the Costa Colida, has some great beaches, but more importantly, for me, the venue I stay at suits my training – large open road areas and one or two steep hills.

After training it's nice to walk up a long steep hill to find the castle is closed.

I’ve never had a problem with heat, I’ve competed in high temperatures and high humidity and enjoy the challenge. The only time I encountered difficulty was after the European Masters 10000m in Hungary, I was fine during the race, though a little unsure of how many laps I’d done which accounts for the 10400m I ran that day, but after I’d sat down I was unable to get up again for about 20 minutes and it was a good few minutes before I could actually swallow any water. Generally I just need a day or so to acclimatise and I’m able to train hard, once I went to Spain and the first days training consisted of 10 x 30 sec reps, because that was all I could manage, yet two days later I was back to normal training.

On this occasion it was hot but didn’t feel too hot so I had set myself tougher than usual targets, in my long term plan to get myself fit in time for turning 50. Having got up at 3am on the Saturday to travel and enjoying some of the local produce that evening, it was understandable that we overslept on the Sunday, but I was up and out running within 30 minutes. It was hot but not too bad so I decided to get straight into my hard reps, 1, 2 and 3 minute reps totalling up to 24 minutes of hard running in a 46 minute session. I felt good as I set off on my first 1 minute effort, the 2 minutes was a little tougher but the 3 minutes got a little extreme towards the end, still one set down and I had two more reps to do before facing that 3 minute one again. By the time I’d done 3 sets I was knackered, but I didn’t want to cut my session short, I was sure I could manage the fourth set, I did but that last 3 minute effort was so hard and when I stopped there was this huge surge of heat that passed through my body. I felt exhausted and shuffled the 8 minutes back to base, I must’ve looked like an old man I was going so slow. Once back home I drank a homemade isotonic pint and I was fine again. For the rest of the stay I was able to get up an hour earlier and, although still hot, I never felt as drained as that first session. I sweated a lot, particularly on the long runs around the golf course, which required a steady climb to the top of the village with a steady climb down to the golf course with a steeper hill back to the top of the village before a steady descent to base, but I drank a lot of fluids during the day so I never felt dehydrated.

I'm a great fan of David Bedford's training method.

My goal was achieved, I trained hard and even did some back to back training, though I hadn’t planned it this time. I’m back home now and I have to reacclimatise, my first session back, yesterday, wasn’t vintage Rog but I’m hoping I can now start to show some decent form in races, only time will tell.

It's something Mo Farah and myself share, tourists like to have their picture taken with us. Here I am promoting the 1998 Hillingdon 5 whilst visiting Guadalest. Incidentally in 1998 Belgrave won the team race; Kassa Tadesse, Alex Hutchinson, Kevin Nash and myself - we're still awaiting the prize.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk