Back To The Track

I used to love training and racing on the track. In my heyday I ignored the lure of cash prizes in road races, preferring to make myself stand out as a successful track athlete. At my best I used to sit in with the front group, try to hang on and pull off a victory with a well timed sprint. Of course it didn’t always work but I won my fair share of races and I set some pretty good times by getting involved at the sharp end. During the period 1992-1997 I improved year on year and my track training felt easy, I used to float around mile reps in the low to mid 4:40s and 1k reps would be under 2:50, sometimes well under.

But then in 1998 it all started to become a lot harder. I had a back problem in the summer, which led to a five month lay-off. Understandably, when I did make my comeback, I wasn’t floating on anything. I did get fit again but training on the track always seemed harder, mind you I was doing most of my training on my own and it’s so much easier when you’re with a group of athletes of similar ability.

By the end of 1999 I went over to Germany to work at the Adidas headquarters, in Herzogenaurach. There is a track in Herzogenaurach but I was in my winter training mode so I did all my training in the forest. Come the spring of 2000 I did try to do some reps on the track but I struggled, on my own, to match the pace I used to run in the early 90’s, despite having recently run my second fastest 10k, ever. So I went back to the forest, and was doing pretty well, until I tore my calf during the Surrey 5000m championship.

Back in England, the following year, I returned to the Dave Lucas training group, which were now training at Wimbledon Park, a stone’s throw from where I was now living. I had clearly lost some of my previous track craft but I persevered with the training, and enjoyed the evenings, due to the great atmosphere we had in the group.

It was on this track that I tore my hamstring in 2005, having just turned 40 I’d treated myself to a trip to Australia. On my return I decided it was time to tackle the 1500m again, but my body wasn’t used to the shorter, faster reps, and my hamstring gave in. On it’s repair I returned to the track, but lacked fitness for the summer. Then I moved to Edinburgh.

In Edinburgh I was working shifts, which made regular training difficult. I managed to do enough to retain a good level of fitness but I wasn’t able to gel with a group. A brief phase of day shift work allowed me to join up with Alex McEwen’s group at Edinburgh Athletic Club, but it was all too brief and I returned to shift work and lonely training. A couple of years later I was back for another try, inspired by some superb training from Craig McBurney, who I couldn’t keep up with, and a great bunch of EAC’s finest future medallists. I enjoyed being part of a group again, but, as I approached 45, it was becoming hard to keep the youngsters behind me.

Back to England, with a new career, I didn’t have time to find another group to train with so dedicated myself to more lonely training, which kept me away from a track. It seemed to work, for a while, I produced my fastest times for six years and picked up a European bronze medal. But then more injury problems and another enforced break meant I lost pace, if not enthusiasm.

Last year, now settled into Northwich, I did some training with a group of Vale Royal athletes and went down to the track with them. Unfortunately, after one session, I became busy with clients in the evening – though financially this was obviously fortunate. So it was back to training alone, though the training I was doing with Ray was a lot of fun, and didn’t do me any harm in my pursuit of more excellence.

This year I decided I was going to try the track again, to try to get more pace into my legs, something I feel I’ve neglected, to my cost. I was about to head to the Vale Royal track again, but this time to try to hang onto their youngsters. I felt I needed to train with faster people if I was going to have nay chance to regain my form of two years ago, just like my clients benefit from hanging onto me. However, just as I was about to start I put my back out, then, as my back recovered, I picked up more evening work.

So it looked like I’d be training alone again, but then I got a call for help. A client wanted to train for a short track race and wanted me to train them. Initially I could only direct him, because of my back, but last week I was able to join him down at the track to help as best I could. Lack of fitness and my inability to run fast meant I found it hard work to match his out and out pace, so I had to give myself head starts on the first session. The following day I did a hill session with Katy, it felt great, I was back in my comfort zone. Knowing I needed some more pace in my legs, in order to better help this client, I decided to hit the treadmill, at Cottons, the following day. Two years ago, when I was in good form, I was regularly running reps on the treadmill at 20kph pace, with recoveries at 14kph, so that was my aim. Shouldn’t be that hard, I thought, after all 20kph is only 3 minute ks and I was only going to run reps for a fraction of that time. The session was going to be 1 minute at 20kph, 1 minute at 14kph, 30 seconds at 20kph, 30 seconds at 14kph x 10. When I started I struggled to get up to pace, considering I’d run 16kph for 28 minutes a few weeks previously, but holidays and injury have taken some of my sharpness away. Still I managed to get up to 14kph for my traditional 6 minutes warm up, then it was off to the races. I got the machine up to 18kph but it felt too fast, I was struggling to keep pace with it so didn’t try to go any faster. Annoyed I switched my recovery to 15kph, much more comfortable. In the end I did all the reps with recoveries at 15kph and the 1 minutes at 18kph, managing to get the 30 seconds to 18.5. Very frustrating and to make matters worse my legs were sore and stiff for the next two days. Luckily we were away in Wales, so I could take a break without feeling guilty.

Back on the treadmill on the Tuesday I decided to do 8 x 400m with 400m recovery. I was determined to do better than the previous Thursday, and did. All the 400m reps were at 20kph (72 second laps) with the recoveries at 15kph, progress at last. Then off to the track to coach my client, luckily I wasn’t running this time. The following day, client and I, did a session of short fast reps on the road and grass, by now I was feeling much more comfortable with the pace and even managed to hang onto him for a while. Could I be on the way back, only time will tell, I need to marry my new found speed to my endurance.

Funnily enough it’s my endurance that has suffered recently, the break due to my back injury didn’t help but I’ve got so busy with clients that I’ve had to stop training twice a day. Hopefully I’ll get myself organised next week and resume the sort of training I’m used to. The speed work is having a very positive effect on my mindset and I’m keen to do a race, just need to find the right race, at the right time.

   

Before I go just a quick word about an app that somebody sent me. One of the developers asked me for some input to their design so I threw some pointers their way. They’ve developed the app and it can be found at http://www.slimkicker.com/ I’ve had a quick look and signed up to try it out, but I’ve just been so busy I haven’t had time. No doubt I’m bottom of the table. So I can’t pass comment on it at the moment, but if you want to take a look.

Oh and I should just mention I'm starting a beginners running group in Northwich, next week, so if you're interested get in touch. 

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Marathon The Final Tune-up

Many Marathon conversations have been going on lately, many of my running friends have voiced their own opinions over facebook. Most significantly, for British people anyway, is the decision of the IAAF to remove Paula Radcliffe’s World Record of 2:15.25, set at the London Marathon in 2003, because she was paced by male runners. Of course she’ll still be the World Record holder with her time achieved, in an all female race, of 2:17.42, her London time being stated as a World Best. Paula is keen to run the marathon at the 2012 London Olympics, but she has struggled with injury over the last two years. In a bid to show she deserves a place she entered this year’s Berlin Marathon and finished 3^rd in 2:23.46, well inside the 2:31 qualifying time. So it looks like Paula is on the way back and what a fitting finale it would be, to a great career, if she could win the gold at London, should she decide that it was then time to concentrate on other business interests.

At the same Berlin Marathon the world record was again broken, as Patrick Makau reduced it to 2:03.38. Getting ever closer to the 2 hour barrier that Michael Crawford attempted in the 70’s, in the film The Games – worth a watch on a wet afternoon with no real sport on.

At the end of this week the Chester Marathon takes place, this is now my local marathon, but more significantly, for me, it marks the marathon debut of my client, Ray Tran. You’ll have heard about Ray before, I’ve mentioned him in a few of my blogs, he’s also my Pennington Flash Parkrun buddy. Throughout the time that Ray has been training with me he has had a number of goals and one of these has been to run this marathon. Ray has been training hard for the marathon and is being realistic in his time goal (sub 3:30). You’ll recall I’ve previously mentioned the Yasso session we did, which indicated he was in 3:23 shape. Well this week it’s wind down time, which started on Sunday (after a final burn up session).

When I did my own marathon, in 2003, in fact the same one that Paula broke the World Record in, I had lots of knowledge about training for the marathon, gained from the many people I knew who had taken part in numerous marathons, I also had a great marathon coach in David Lucas, who had a reputation of coaching ladies to sub 3 hour marathons and also coached Junior Galley and Jim Estell to AAA Marathon Championship honours. However I also carried out some separate research and discussed my ideas with Dave, which Dave didn’t disagree with. One of the things I found out was that many top runners considered a 10k race, a week before the marathon, to be ideal preparation for the marathon. It also appeared that this fitted in nicely with the various regional 12 stage relays, held in Britain, which tended to be about a week before the marathon and had legs of 3 and 6 miles (approx). Of course, when I came to do the marathon, the Southern 12 Stage relay was being held in Milton Keynes and the long leg was nearer 5 miles. This didn’t phase me and, as I’ve always been a team man, I decided to do the relay rather than try to find a 10k. I requested a long leg from team manager, Alan Mead, which I got. Alan, being the sensitive type, gave me leg 1 so I could do some extra miles after the run. It was a typical long leg around the lake from the Open University grounds, typical being windy, I don’t think I’ve ever run there when there hasn’t been a strong wind out by the lake, those doing short legs have it so much easier. I hadn’t been doing any short distance speed work all winter, just lots of long hills and 1 mile reps so I settled into a steady pace around mid pack. However, as we hit the wind everyone around me seemed to slow down, well I felt strong so I pushed through and soon I found myself in the top 10. Once we joined the short stage path to home there was no stopping me, I just pushed all the way to the finish, coming in 7^th and running 24:50 for the close on 5 mile leg, I even got the better of local rival and now team mate, Dave Robinson, who I hadn’t beaten for some years, always a nice feather in your cap.    

But returning to Ray’s marathon, based on my own approach and the fact that Ray doesn’t have a lot of running years in his background, I decided to do my final pre-marathon session with Ray this Sunday and I decided I was going to pace him to an 8k at his predictor 8k pace, this turned out to be 4:45min/k pace. Session time was set for 16:00 and I’d worked out a fairly safe and flatish (or so I’d thought) run along the bypass towards Gadbrook Park, turning down towards town and back via the cemetery to the bypass, I was going to then turn back towards Leftwich but as it turned out the traffic junction at London Road was clear so we crossed it and carried on up the bypass. The finish was just before Hartford Hall, meaning that the last k would contain the steep hill, but it was the end of a race and I’d make Ray fight for it up that hill.

We started off with a 1k warm-up in 5:18 and then kicked off. As has often been the case in my racing career the first k was too fast, 4:25, but not so fast that we couldn’t correct and also I’m a great believer in going how you feel – of course on some occasions this has lead to me suffering mid-race, but on others I’ve smashed pbs. We edged back the pace but still only to 4:31 for the next k, but hey, Ray was still chatting away so I wasn’t panicking. Two further ks, each in 4:39, and this was looking good, we were half way and well within schedule. The next 2k had a long drag of a hill in it, I could sense Ray was struggling a bit, conversation was more one-way and it felt like we’d slackened the pace. I urged Ray on but we went over the 4:45 goal with 2 4:48s, but that was only a 6 second deficit and we only had 2k to go. We were reaching territory we regularly did reps on and Ray lifted his pace a touch with a 4:45 penultimate k and then it was the hill at Hartford towards the end of the final k. It is a tough hill to run up at the best of times but at 7.5k into an 8k hard run it’s a bit irritating, still I wasn’t about to let a hill ruin Ray’s run, I’ve already embraced this hill and made it my friend and at this point it was time for Ray to shake it’s hand, and he did so climbing to a crescendo finish with a final k of 4:43. All this gave us a final 8k time of 37:26, averaging 4:39, which, as Ray reminded me, would have been a pb at 10k if we’d carried on (particularly as the next 2k would have been flat), but there’s time for that in the future, now it’s time for Ray to ease back and smash that Chester marathon. We discussed the final week’s training and went home.

With the marathon in his legs it’ll be a few weeks before Ray and I train together but on the plus side I’ve just started running with the 38 minute 10k man, who shall be forever known as Rich (Ray, Rich, Rog, make sure you don’t get confused, I need a Julian or Henry for a bit of variety), we had our first run last Thursday and it was fast and furious. Rich is young and strong so over the next four weeks I’ll be expecting him to take me to pieces, but within that time he’ll gain an appreciation of my style of training (which has been proven to get you pbs and even world records) and I’ll also be passing on many tips for his marathon, he’s entered Edinburgh 2012.    

It was a Sunday session for Ray, that’s quite unusual for me, I decided a long time ago that it’s important to have a separation between work and play and that meant not working for the two days at the weekend, or even the extended weekend. I know this means that there are some lucrative opportunities I’m going to miss out on but life’s not all about making money. Anyway this weekend I found myself alone and I also wanted to do this final session with Ray, to ensure I gave him the best service I could prior to his marathon. Of course I’ll not always turn down weekend work, but it would need to be something of great interest to me, to tempt me away from spending it with Carole. I wasn’t supposed to be alone this weekend, it’s Carole’s birthday and we were planning to go somewhere exciting, such as Blackpool, but then Carole was given the opportunity to go to a conference in San Francisco and those who know Carole well know how driven she is when it comes to work. So Carole jetted off early on Saturday to the States. Poor Carole had to wake up on Sunday to take part in an organised wine tasting tour of the Napa Valley wineries. Over the next week she’ll be in networking mode for the benefit of her company and she’ll even have to take in a concert one night, featuring some singers from the past, Sting and Tom Petty. I feel for her, she could have been here being taken through her paces by me.

With Carole away it gives me the opportunity to do some things I wouldn’t normally do, like stay up a little later, watch non weepy movies and switch off the TV when Coronation Street and Emmerdale are on. It also gave me the opportunity to pay a brief visit to Edinburgh over the weekend. It was time to pick up the remnants of my previous life and move it to Northwich. Unfortunately I’d forgotten how many remnants I’d left in my garage and now they’ve filled up our house, a box of medals alone weighs about 6kg, I’d forgotten how successful I used to be, considering I haven’t won anything this year, mind you I haven’t entered much. The best thing is I now have my rowing machine installed in my gym and I believe it will help me add an edge to my training, it did before.

Whilst in Edinburgh it also gave me a chance to catch up with some people, I was only there a few hours so I didn’t make an effort to contact everybody but I had been invited to the engagement party of Richard Meade and Gail. Richard was in the group I helped to coach with Alex McEwen so I was keen to catch up with him and many other members of that group and other runners I’d met in my time in Edinburgh. Unfortunately I had to leave early as I was making an early start back to Northwich the next day. Before the party I had a bite to eat with fellow PT, Jim Buick, who’s working on his new website www.jimsgym.org

Finally while I was shopping in Chester, during the week, I came across the 2012 version of the Guinness book of World Records. I couldn’t resist having a quick peek and there in the Marathon records was a picture of Lee Riley. Incidentally Lee tells me that he’s managed to get Ann Packer along to support his mile world record attempt, for those too young to know she was Olympic champion over 800m at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Gaining Selection and What That Means – a Personal View

We all like to back our teams and when it comes to major international events we get behind our national team. With the Rugby World Cup currently ongoing I’m expecting to see lots of banter on Facebook, as my friends cover pretty much all the countries taking part. It’s great having a team or even a person to support, living the highs and lows with them, but what’s it like to be part of that team? Well this week’s blog I’m going to give you my own personal reflection of what it feels like to be selected.

My first memories of selection/rejection come from my schooldays, being one of the crowd up for selection for one of two football teams. Of course in the playground, as long as you want to play, you’re always going to get selected, but it’s a matter of when you get selected. No one wants to be the last one to be selected but it can be a cruel old world and if you can’t improve it’s important to find a different skill. I know guy’s who were pretty rubbish at football but once they accepted that and concentrated on being the goalkeeper they upped their chances of an early selection, after all better to have a half decent goalkeeper than a half decent winger if you already have three good players.

I started running because I couldn’t make the grade in football or hockey and I really wanted to be part of a team sport. Funny that, you might consider running is an individual sport but actually it’s both and one of the things I enjoy most about running is being part of a team, win or lose the team spirit is worth it every time, though I admit it’s better if you win.

When I started running I joined my local club, Belgrave. I started my racing on the track, running non scoring events in the Rosenheim and Southern League, and watching the scoring races. Seeing guys in Belgrave singlets running much faster than me I knew I had a way to go before I could make the team and for this reason I refused to purchase a Belgrave singlet until I felt good enough to wear it, after all anybody can wear the singlet, I wanted to earn it.

When the cross country season started I felt like I should get the singlet, I had improved and felt like I was representing Belgrave, even if I was still not counting in a scoring team. But it didn’t take long, in less than a month I was Belgrave’s 10^th man in my 2^nd Surrey League event, thus making the scoring 10 and counting towards the team score. I was so happy to have succeeded where I’d failed in other sports and I was proud to call myself a Belgrave Harrier. That got me recognised and although I was still some way off the best of Belgrave, my willingness to participate and my improving form made me a regular in future Belgrave teams.

In my first year at Belgrave I went along to watch the South of England 12 stage relay, which in those days took part on the roads around Wimbledon Common. It was a spectacular sight and though many of the athletes were unknown to me I knew I wanted to take part in this race. But this race wasn’t for anyone, you had to be selected.

For the next few years I tried hard to make the team but I was never quite good enough. I was asked to be reserve in 1992, the last year the race was held in Wimbledon but I never got a chance to race over the roads I trained on. The following year the race was moved to Thurrock, such was my improvement in form over the previous winter that I wasn’t just selected for the 12 man team but I was asked to do a long leg. It was a great feeling to be part of the team, just a year too late. After this I was a regular 1^st team member in National, Southern and Surrey teams for Belgrave and won many medals over the years.

I’d achieved my goal but what next, I’d never really thought about representing my county or anything even higher but when I won the Surrey 10000m championship in 1993 I started to believe I was good enough. I was disappointed not to be selected for the Inter-counties that year, until I realised that selection had taken place before the County champs and you also needed to be known by the selectors. After that I’ve tried to make sure I get known by the selectors, though I still want selection on merit. Also in that year I was selected to represent Merton, the London Borough I lived in, in the London Champs. I’ll never forget the race (3000m) I was always up with the leaders and felt good coming into the final 100m, I launched my sprint and saw a gap on the inside, as I started to pass the Wandsworth athlete his arm came out and he executed a perfect Michael Schumacher manoeuvre, pushing me off the track and onto the grass, it broke my stride and one of my spikes as my foot hit a lump of concrete, but it just made me more determined to beat him, I surged again and left him trailing in my wake by a clear second. Even though I’d beaten him I was still pretty annoyed with him and we exchanged a few words. I got my own back the following year when, having moved in with my girlfriend, I took his place in the Wandsworth team. Of course Geoff Jerwood and I are now mates and team colleagues and it pains me more that Geoff is no longer able to compete, after all I owe him a shove.

In 1994 I made my debut for Surrey, not on the track but in the Inter-Counties Cross Country champs, having had a good run in the Surrey County Cross Country champs. Once again it was a great feeling to be handed a Surrey singlet and a badge.

1995 was my next move up the ladder, I’d entered the South of England 3000m champs. I’d run some good races in 1993 and 1994 and truly believed I had a chance in this race. I always respected my opponents but never had any fear of them, after all I’d made huge improvements and I didn’t see any reason why this couldn’t continue. As I declared myself I was told there was an inter-area match and would I consider running for the South-East of England, well that was a step up on Surrey so naturally I said yes. I was then told that there were some other faster runners yet to declare so I may not get selected. I said ok but also that I didn’t mind if I ran or not for the South-East but I was here to win and I was going into preparation mode so would appreciate early notice, to which the chap got a bit tetchy. I went away to put my numbers onto my Belgrave singlet and relax. About 5 minutes before the start the, clearly deaf, chap came up to me and handed me a South-East singlet and told me I was running for them. He caught me off guard otherwise I’d have told him where to stick his singlet. I quickly changed over my numbers and put on the singlet, only to find out it was designed for a shot putter and was half hanging off my shoulders. It was a really windy day and this was the last thing I needed. Thankfully, before I could lose my concentration we were called to the start. It was a fantastic race, the early pace was slow, due to the wind, and then, after 3 laps it really picked up. I had no idea how fast we were going but was involved in a 5 man tussle for 1^st place. As we reached 400m to go Neil Caddy and Jason Humm shot off, I was strategically badly placed and missed the initial burst but went after them anyway. Neil won in 8:24.43, Jason was 2^nd in 8:25.67 and I remained 3^rd in 8:27.02. It was, and remains a personal best for me. I was a bit annoyed with myself, missing the break, but I doubt I’d have beaten Neil in any case. The bonus was that I was given the silver medal as Neil had not been declared in the Championship, this also handed bronze to my old NatWest and RBS colleague and future AAA champion Nick Wetheridge who’d come 4^th in 8:30.66. I was pretty happy with my result and almost allowed myself to forget about the idiot who’d given me a tent to wear.

That would have appeared to have been the pinnacle of my representation, I often thought I should have been selected for the South of England in some of the road races, but as I tended not to race on the road as much as track and cross country I imagine I wasn’t so well know to the selector. However, at age 37, in 2002 I received an unexpected call to run for them in the National 10k Champs. I was running the Surrey Road Relays the day before and normally would have said no, as I don’t generally do back to back races, but once again I saw this as another pinnacle so said yes. It turned out well for me, I ran a good leg on the Saturday, helping Belgrave to silver medals and then ran 31:55 in the next day’s 10k, my fastest time for a fair while and fully justifying my selection as I was 2^nd in the team. I ran for the South again in 2003 but only 3 weeks after the marathon I struggled for pace and could only finish 5^th Southerner (out of 6) in 33:39. I travelled up with my pal, and best man at my, so far, only wedding, Al Stewart (not the singer, definitely not the singer) and it was great to see him have one of his best runs, finishing 2nd in the race and first Brit.  

We were now 10 years on from when I’d made my initial impact on the running scene and I’d accepted that I was wasn’t going to get a senior International call up, but, at 38, I was only two years away from reaching Veteran status (it was 40, for men, in those days, nowadays it’s 35 and we’re called Masters). My training partner of many years, Charlie Dickinson, had represented England, on many occasions, in the International Cross Country race and this now became one of my main focuses.

When I hit 40 I was running well, either winning or being 1^st over 40 in all my races, but then I tore my hamstring. I tried hard to get fit again but ran out of time and, rightly, wasn’t selected for the England team. Towards the end of the year I moved to Edinburgh to take on a new job that required working nightshifts. I continued to train hard but knew I could not run to my full potential whilst working nights (you have to work them to fully understand how it impacts your body). I accepted that my best chance of running for my country had passed. But then Alex McEwen, who’s group I trained with occasionally, suggested I tried Scotland on the basis of residency. I did and was selected for the team in the 2006 International at Falkirk. It was a dream come true for me but I did have reservations, I wasn’t born Scottish and felt guilty about taking the place away from a born and bred Scotsman, however, my Scottish running pals set me right, supporting my inclusion. I ran well, finishing 3^rd Scot.

I represented Scotland for the next three years and during that period I even represented British Masters on the track against Belgium and France. Then in 2009 I moved back to England and I was told this would rule me ineligible to represent Scotland. Even marrying my Scottish girlfriend wouldn’t have swayed the selectors, so I didn’t. But as it turned out when I turned 45 I was running better than when I’d turned 40. This led to me gaining selection for England so I made my 5^th consecutive International Cross Country appearance, this time in an England singlet. This was a real high for me as it is so competitive to get into the England squad and there are only 6 places available. Unfortunately I was struggling with an injured knee and didn’t have a good run, finishing 6^th Englishman, though I would have been 2^nd Scot and did beat an England M35.

So that’s my personal story of how I went from wanting to represent my club to actually representing my country.

Well what of now? When I wrote last week’s blog I alluded to the fact that I had done something to my back. One of my coaches once told me that one of the easiest ways to get a back problem is to bend over to pick up a piece of paper from the floor. Well David, you can add to pick up a pair of shorts from the floor to that. That’s exactly what I did, I was all ready to get out and run a hard run and suddenly I was bent over in agony. My back had spasmed and locked me into position. Over the next two days it got worse and to stand up from a sitting position I first had to get down on my knees. Don’t even ask about getting out of bed, it was bad enough in the morning but needing the loo in the middle of the night was an experience I really don’t want to repeat. I did appropriate back exercises and gradually mobility returned, but it meant I lost a week’s training. I started running again on Saturday, just an easy 30 minutes with Carole, but I’m starting to build up again. However I think it is unlikely I’m going to be able to show any form before selection for this year’s International Cross Country so have accepted this won’t be my 6^th consecutive year at the champs, though I’m not ruling it out. But the good news is, despite the lack of exercise, I’ve actually maintained my weight, you see I’ve been following my nutritional meal planning programme (you can too www.rogeralsop.co.uk/nutrition).

Running With Clients

I am a runner. I’m a fully qualified Personal Trainer with lots of fitness and nutritional knowledge and experience. But the truth is my route into Personal Training was through running. Because I’m a runner that doesn’t mean that all I do with my clients is run – I had a hell of a job convincing people of that when I first started in the gym, I guess it didn’t help that I wasn’t built like Mr. Muscles, unlike some of the other trainers – no I have all the capability of training clients, in any way, without them having to run a step, whatever their goals.

That’s not to say that I don’t get my clients to run, sometimes with me and sometimes without, but I don’t go into a new client/trainer relationship with the intention of including running, unless they specifically request it. For starters some clients aren’t able to run, others just don’t want to run (though I am able to talk most of them round, if I think it will be beneficial), but the real reason I limit the running is because my body just wouldn’t cope with running with all my clients plus doing my own training (which often includes running for more than an hour at a time and some of it is quite intense). So I may well run in short bursts with some clients, as part of an overall session but I restrict the number of clients that I do running only sessions with. So far it’s worked well, particularly with Ray who is now running at a level that I can call a good run for me, so I need to cut back on my own running on those days. I’m starting with a new running client soon, a Chef (no not Gordon Ramsay) so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve had to adjust my own regime to cater for him, as I have three clients I run with in succession on a day I would normally do my quality run, but don’t worry I’ll still aim to win races, and one of my strong points is to maximise impact on minimum effort, when required.

Before I started Personal Training I trained to be an athletics coach. In fact it was that experience that threw me into Personal Training, I realised how much fun helping people to achieve their goals was. I cut my teeth with the athletes at Edinburgh AC, being mentored by that Edinburgh stalwart, Alex McEwen. They were good days, I built up a rapport with the group and, I believe, they respected me for what I did. I didn’t run with them at the time as it was a large group of mixed ability and I wanted to maximise the coaching experience for me, in order to do well in my exams. Sometimes I came up with the sessions, which Alex approved, but my main role was keeping time, particularly on recoveries, and to learn from the expert, that was Alex by the way. And yes, I was stringent with those recoveries, if it was a minute, 60 seconds was all they got, and I know the group appreciated that, after all they were athletes and I, as an athlete, wouldn’t want 63 seconds when I was expecting 60. But guys and gals, you’ll be interested to note I’m not so stringent with some of my clients, they’re not trained athletes, like you, and sometimes need that extra time to recover. Oh I’m still no softie, I know when they’re ready but I’m a little more flexible, until they become more Ray like.

Before I qualified as a Personal Trainer I first qualified as a Run Leader, which meant I could coach groups of endurance athletes, or beginners wanting to learn to jog/run. So I organised running groups from Sandbach, Crewe, even a treadmill group in the gym, and Northwich. At most of these I didn’t participate but when the mix was right I was able to take part too, which was great fun for me, particularly when I had members of the paras and ex-marines. It was at these sessions that I met Lee Riley, who I later helped to achieve his marathon world record (but you can read about that in an earlier blog). They were fun sessions and it was nice to have a group to lead, but I decided to stop working weekends to spend more time with the family. Ok so the family is just Carole and myself, but we both work hard so deserve some time to ourselves.

When I’m running with clients I tend not to just run with them, I like to introduce intervals, I feel that it is the best way to get fitter and lose weight. Obviously, as I know from my own painful experience during my early running days, intervals need to be introduced gradually and with relevant recovery, but I do feel it is more beneficial than just steady running, though this has it’s place but the client doesn’t generally need me to be there in order to do that. I use this method with Ray and his fitness has improved no end over the past six months.

When she’s not working, and it fits in around my own training and that of my clients, I run with Carole. Now Carole’s training goes a little differently, we’re both keen to tell each other about how our day has been and I’ve found the perfect way to ensure Iget to tell my story first. I use the first 6 minutes to warm up gently, this allows her to tell me some stuff and gives her the feeling that I’m interested, I then make her hit the first rep hard and bingo, she’s out of breath for the rest of the session and up to 10 minutes after it’s over, by which time I’ve told her all about my day and moved onto making dinner. Harmony in action.

At this point I’d just like to post a picture of an old friend of mine, Paul Coughlan. Paul used to be a great athlete, or so he keeps telling us. Over the past few years he’s had injury issues, that have kept him from competing at the level to which he would like to. Two weekends ago he was in action in a race, back in his beloved New Zealand, and it was interesting to see which running singlet this former Belgrave Harrier was wearing. (For those not used to singlet spotting, it’s a Herne Hill Harriers singlet and it looks good on him, even if he doesn’t look good in it!).

the latest Belgrave Harrier to start wearing a Herne Hill singlet

A little update on what I’ve been up to. As you’ll know, if you’ve been reading these blogs regularly, I’d been upping my training intensity and mileage, laying down some foundations for the winter. Well a couple of weeks ago I started to get aggressive achilles pain and also a little niggle around the left knee again. I thought that if I were to carry on with the same training I’d end up with an injury, so I took a couple of days off, not just running but any activity on the legs, other than standing and walking, and it seems to have done the trick, I’m still a little niggly in the legs but I’m starting to run more freely and with less pain. I’ve also reduced all my quality sessions to 3/5 of the number of reps, which allows me to maintain intensity. It’s a ticking over exercise and hopefully, in a few weeks I’ll be able to pick it up again.

Yesterday I ran the Birchwood 10k, only the 3^rd road race and 2^nd 10k of the year for me. Last year I ran in pain, my left knee, and only managed 33:59 – though still first M45. This year I felt pretty good, I didn’t really know where I was with my fitness but I felt I was coming into form. I set off aiming for 33:20, thinking that if I struggled I should still get a faster time than last year. And I was going pretty well until the last 2k when I started to struggle a little, though I still managed to pull away from some runners who’d been with me for the past 5 miles. I finished, a little disappointed with my 34:14, 13^th overall, 2^nd M45, 1st M45 ran 34:01. But I’d had a great battle with Warrington’s Andy Green, many of you may recall he was a 2:12 marathon man in his day, we chatted afterwards and he’s aiming for the Chester Marathon, so a bit of a feather in the cap, he finished 1 place and 2 seconds behind me. I think times were a little slower than last year, all round, though my mate Louise Blizzard ran around 4 minutes quicker with 37:47. It was also good to catch up with so many friends from the past; as well as Louise I was chatting on the start line with other ex Belgrave colleagues Paul Freary and Mark Miles (Paul took the 1^st M40 prize 23 seconds ahead of me, unfortunately Mark pulled out at around 8k, having been involved with the front runners). I also had a good chat with Herne Hiller John Kettle, who was always just a few paces ahead of me, apart from a stint when the group caught him, he finished in 10^th place, 7 seconds ahead of me. Then there was my old British League rival from the 90’s Paul Simons (who holds the world record for completing a marathon wearing a Santa costume), he was in the same group as me for most of the way but I just managed to gain some ground on him towards the end, he finished 16^th, 8 seconds behind me. I had a good chat with Bill Bradley, who organises the Pennington Flash Parkrun, he informed me that my prediction that Jeff Whittington would raise the bar had come true as he ran another pb to win Saturday’s Parkrun. After the event I had a good chat with a guy introducing Scott running shoes to the market. They looked vaguely similar to the MBT shoes and felt really nice to wear. They also retail at a reasonable rate for running shoes. I was interested and may well invest in some at a later time but if you’d like to find out more visit http://www.scott-sports.com/.

And finally, some news about a new development in my business. I’ve purchased some licences in a meal planning programme that will help my clients with their weight goals, whether that be to lose, gain or maintain weight. I believe it will allow me to offer more to my clients at a very reasonable price. I’ll focus on this more in a future blog, I’m planning to launch it in early September. Alongside this I’ve decide it’s time to get myself a logo and have employed the services of my Australian friends Zoe Gell, she of ‘the girl that runs’ blog. She’s come up with some really good designs and we’re just in the process of refining them before I announce it.

Over the next few weeks I need to select some more races to get some improvement to my times. I think my chances of the England vest, this year, are pretty slim. This will make Carole happy as I was aiming to run in Exmoor, in the BMAF 10k Champs but that falls on her birthday weekend, so now she can be pampered instead of standing around in the cold watching an old man attempt to run fast. But I’m not giving up just yet, until I’m announced as not being in the team I’ll keep training hard and looking for opportunities to race.

Six Men Make Edinburgh’s Day

I sometimes get quite nostalgic, of course my regular clients will know this as I use Alsop’s Fables to illustrate a point. It was whilst in reminiscent mode that I decided upon this week’s blog. I was taken back to a great day when I was unexpectedly thrown into the thick of it and emerged a National Champion. I am of course referring to my debut run for Edinburgh AC, though in those days they were named City of Edinburgh (and there was another name they were referred to by our friendly rivals the Hunters Bog Trotters).

But before I go into any details about the great day in question, let me start by explaining a little how I ended up a member of Edinburgh AC. Since starting to run, at the age of 24, and turning 40, I’d only ever had one club. It was my local club, Belgrave Harriers, and such was my attachment to them, I served my time as Road and Cross Country Captain and also held the position of Honorary Club Secretary. I had no intention of leaving them but around the time I turned 40 there were a few circumstances that came together, the result of which was that I switched allegiance to local rivals, Herne Hill Harriers. Soon after this switch my marriage broke down, which was taking the Belgrave/Herne Hill rivalry a little far (my ex-wife being a member of the Belles). With the marriage over I had nothing to tie me to London, and, having worked abroad as a contractor before, I started thinking about all the exotic locations I might go to work.

Having mentioned my good fortune to my boss and in my usual honest way, commenting that I didn’t anticipate staying in London much longer, I found myself being offered a promotion and relocation to the Edinburgh office. A move which would cement my future in the Bank, I so enjoyed working for. To cut a long paragraph short, I found myself living in Edinburgh by November 2005. As I was still making regular trips back to my home in London I didn’t really do anything about getting to know the running scene in Edinburgh, in fact it wasn’t until Boxing day (I had worked Xmas day so needed to get out and do something) that I ran my first race in Scotland. The race in question was a 14k multi terrain handicap race at Beecraigs. It’s not the sort of thing I’d normally have done on Boxing Day but faced with a miserable lonely day in a small flat it was a mighty relief. Thanks to my friend, Jim Buick, who provided the transport but also gave them information on my best 10k time, achieved 12 years earlier, I found myself going off scratch. Needless to say I had a lonely run, went off course and managed to punch myself in the face on a descent of the Cockleroy. I did however finish 2^nd fastest so it wasn’t a complete failure.

My second race in Edinburgh was on New Year’s day 2006, in the Portobello 4 mile Road Race. It was nice to get out on New Year’s day, for some company, I’d spent a lonely New Year’s Eve and retired to bed early, having received my only New Year’s Eve greeting from a prostitute hanging out of a window on my walk home. Mind you going to bed early on New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh guarantees nothing other than being woken up at midnight by exploding fireworks. At the race I ran well and finished 4^th but first man over 40, so not a bad start to the year. It was around this time that Jim Buick emailed me, asking if I’d joined a Scottish club yet. My cheeky response being that nobody had asked me resulted in Jim forwarding my reply to Alex McEwen and thus contact was made with City of Edinburgh. I’ll admit to being a bit hesitant at first, after all I was in a club already, and we were successful, but I knew I would be getting down to London a lot less once I’d settled in Edinburgh and the UK Athletics rules allowed me to run for both Herne Hill and Edinburgh.

So I joined City of Edinburgh and, due to other commitments, lined up my first race at the Scottish National Road Relays on 1 April. Of course being an oldie, and knowing that Edinburgh had more than 6 men better than me I expected to play a part in their Master's team. The week before the race I had spent in London, on a course, and as I flew back on the Friday night I figured that Edinburgh’s Masters were so strong it wouldn’t matter if I wasn’t on full cylinders so decided to have a couple of glasses of wine to assist in enjoying the short flight. When I arrived back at my flat it was like walking into the Sahara Desert, without the sand. I’d moved in only the week before and my central heating hadn’t been working. I’d left keys with the workmen whilst I was in London and they’d fixed it but then left the heating on full output for four days. Despite turning it off, and opening windows, it was still the height of summer in my flat when I awoke from a restless night. So I hadn’t had the best preparation for my debut for Edinburgh. Still I was keen to run, get to know some of the local lads and set down a marker.

Still not knowing many people I drove to the race on my own, taking the long way round by getting lost twice. When I finally found the Edinburgh guys it was apparent Alex wasn’t around, he was on race marshal duty and had left the team in the hands of Mark Johnston. It was then that I was told I wasn’t going to make a difference to the Master’s team, I was actually last man into the A team for the Seniors. I looked at the team names, recognising nobody except Darren Gauson and Mark Johnston. I then noticed Martin Ferguson’s name in the Master’s team. ‘Surely’ I said ‘Martin is running better than me’, I’d seen some of his results and he was going well, I was beginning to regret having drunk two glasses of wine and sleeping in the oven. It was then I was introduced to Martin Ferguson, who had been standing next to me whilst I was singing his praises. Clearly happy to have someone say something nice about him Martin declined the place and was sure Alex knew what he was doing. I was beginning to wonder if Jim Buick had mentioned my times from previous decades and this had bumped me up the entry list. Oh well in for a penny.

I wasn’t nervous as the race started, I was on leg 5 and knew nothing of the team chances or the opposition. I had a lot of experience running and winning relays for Belgrave and Herne Hill so I was prepared for anything that came my way. Before the start I’d been introduced to the other 5 team members, but I knew very little about them and they knew even less about me. In the following few paragraphs I’ll describe the race as I saw it, with thanks to Mark Johnston who sent me a link with the full results. For any statos out there here is that link http://www.salroadrunningandcrosscountrymedalists.co.uk/Archive/Road%20Running/Road%20Relays/Results/2000s/2006%20ALL.pdf

It was Mark Mitchell who set us off on leg one. Still only 17, Mark was highly ranked in the UK in his age group for the 800m. But it was a big challenge to pit him against some of the strong runners on leg 1. Mark ran a fantastic short leg 16:17 to bring us in 3rd, just 11 seconds off 1st.

Grant Stewart, more of a hill runner than a road runner, took over from Mark on the first long leg. His time of 30:18 was 5th fastest on the leg but good enough to gain us 2nd place. In front a 29:21 from Irvine's David Millar had moved them from 8th to the lead.

Then it was the turn of Darren Gauson. Darren had been running well and was on his way to an American college, but before that he was to take us into the lead in this relay with a superb leg of 15:41. Great as it was this was only the 2nd fastest on the leg as Kilbarchan's Ross Toole ran the day's fastest short stage at 15:39, which brought them into 2nd place. 

Half way through and we were leading, things were looking promising. Relays can fluctuate from leg to leg so being in the lead didn’t necessarily mean we had it sown up, still it does you no harm. I was one leg away and beginning to psyche myself up.

Mark Johnston was on 4^th leg and although he had an 89 second lead he had some strong opposition on his long leg. Mark did a great job, running the 6th fastest time on his leg but couldn't hold of Irvine's Lee Richardson who brought them back into 1st position from almost 2 minutes back. I should point out here that Mark was at the Beecraigs run and was fastest man, running a minute quicker than me, that’s probably why he got the long leg and me the short – but I wasn’t complaining.

Not knowing for sure how long the long legs were I was at the start line early. I was enjoying not having to small talk with people, then an old gent came up to me and said ‘are you going to win this for Edinburgh, we’ve never won before’. Well history is one of my favourite subjects but my knowledge of City of Edinburgh’s lack of success was sadly lacking so all I could say was ‘I’ll give it a go’. At last the leader came in sight, and it wasn’t Mark. Irvine had taken the lead and they seemed to be a long way ahead, though it was actually only 16 seconds. Irvine’s 5^th leg man set off and seemed to be pulling well away before Mark showed handed over in 2^nd place.

Well I’ve done some pretty good relay legs in my time and I wasn’t about to let an old Edinburgh gent’s dreams get shattered. I set off after Irvine’s man, with a vengeance. Just before the 1 mile point I was metres down. It was at that precise point that I caught a quick sight of the Edinburgh lads, with mournful faces. It was only later that I realised they weren’t too happy with me because they’d seen Mark, on the previous leg, a long way ahead and, because they didn’t know me, they’d assumed I’d just lost the lead, it wasn’t until after the race that they realised I’d run ok. I pushed into the lead and, though I tired towards the end, the cheering Edinburgh lasses helped me on my way and I brought the team in 1^st. My time of 16:26 was 2nd fastest on the leg, only 2 seconds down from one of Scotland's greatest athletes, Bobby Quinn, who'd brought Kilbarchan up to 3rd. 

Matt Bell had the task of holding onto the 44 second lead I'd given him. As usual, I went for my cool down back along the course to cheer Matt on. I had no idea if he was going to hold the position and it was a long wait before he turned up, but he was and remained in the lead running the 3rd fastest time of the last leggers with 30:35. We’d won in a time of 2 hrs 20 min 50 secs and made an old gent happy, actually make that two old gents as I was pretty chuffed too, my first race for Edinburgh and I was a Scottish National Champ at the age of 41. 22 seconds behind us William Richardson had brought Irvine back up to 2nd and a further minute and 7 seconds behind were Ron Hill Cambuslang.

A couple of interesting post notes. The Irvine man I passed on my leg turned out to be Colin Miller. He was 48 years old at the time, so he’d had a tough task to try to hold first place, even if I was only a few years younger than him. We subsequently met up when we both represented Scotland, later in the year, and have become good friends. And here’s one for my Cambuslang friends, a lot of people made remarks about how it was a slow winning time. But do I care, no, the results speak volumes, it’s City of Edinburgh who were Scottish National Road Relay Champions in 2006, beating all those great teams who ran even slower and my medal states National Champion, not National Champion from a slow race.  

Now 5 years on it’s interesting to see what has happened to Edinburgh’s team. They’re all Facebook friends of mine but we all live different lives in 4 different countries.

Mark Mitchell, still a young man at 23, he left Edinburgh at the end of the 2010 track season and is now putting in some good performances with Birchfield Harriers. I saw him on the TV yesterday, running in the UK Champs 1500m, along with another ex colleague Kris Gauson (brother to Darren). Mark ran a pb 3:44.44 to come in 8th with Kris two place back in 3:46.76.

Darren Gauson is still in America, he’s now coaching at Butler University, where he’s been joined by brother Kris. He’s still running and not bad too, having got close to 4 minutes for the mile this year. Interestingly both Darren and Kris also represent my old club, Belgrave.

Grant Stewart, born on the same date as me but 11 years later, just in time to enjoy one of the UK’s hottest summers, he’s also now a Master. He’s had some success with Mountain running but it appears he’s given up the running now to concentrate on being a Doctor.

Matt Bell was always a reliable runner, he also seemed to prefer running hill races. He’s now moved to Melbourne, Australia. Another one who has reached the age of Master, I hope he manages to find some good races in Australia.

Mark Johnston was the first to leave the club, moving to Bellahouston Road Runners within two years of this victory. Mark trained with the Bellahouston guys and felt a growing affinity with the club. He’s still running, and not badly too as he gets close to his 40^th birthday.

And of the others;

Alex McEwen is still coaching at Edinburgh and I have him to thank for helping me when I was in training to become a Level 1 coach. As well as all the other athletically minded things he did for me whilst I was up in Edinburgh. A true club man, dedicated to seeing the success of athletics in Edinburgh and the sort of club man who should be given a leg of the Olympic torch relay. But don’t give him whisky, he doesn’t drink it. Incidentally he’s marked down on the Power of 10 as 40, which is quite interesting as I’d have said he saw his 50^th birthday some time ago.

Jim Buick is now training to become a Personal Trainer and is already qualified as a Fitness Instructor and Run Leader. Jim has helped many people to pace their marathons, being a bit of a marathon expert. We still keep in touch and Jim pops down here sometimes to try out English races, I’ll have to get him along to Pennington Flash one weekend.

Five and a bit years on, what have I been up to. If you’ve read last week’s blog you’ll know that I was feeling a bit tired and decided it was time I took a little break from the intensity of my training. The desire to train easy was there, but, as I said last week, it was fitting it in around other circumstances, so my planned easy week ended up an easy 3 days. I hadn’t intended running the Pennington Flash Parkrun but after chatting to Ray, during our training session on the Tuesday, I decided to give it a go. It’d been a hard week for sleep as the removal of all the old curtains and poles, so that the sills and walls could be painted, meant we had the constant glare of street lamps and early morning rises. So I wasn’t feeling great as I drove up to Pennington Flash. We had a car full as Ray and his wife Sharon and my Carole were all aiming to run. We got a bit of a shock when we arrived as the car park was full of tri-athletes, preparing for the following days triathlon, but we managed to park ok and headed for the start. The usual suspects were there, plus a few new faces. In particular I’d noticed one guy who looked like he might be a serious contender to win. You’re never sure, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to win my 4^th Parkrun. As we set off I was surprised I was on my own again, but about 50 metres into the race I had company, yes he was a serious contender. I decided to set a good pace to see how he ran, up the first hill he was breathing harder than me. At that point I thought I might be able to break him so kept the pressure on, at the top of the 2^nd hill he spoke to me and told me he’d only come along for a tempo run. Never the quickest witted person I was fighting for something to put him down with but failing that I thought the best possible putdown would be to finish in front of him. The pace was still pretty quick but I seemed to be ok with it. Halfway round the 2^nd lap he decided it was time to push me and he succeeded, I couldn’t match him. But I wasn’t going to give in without a fight. The two times I’ve been beaten at Pennington Flash I was beaten by about 50 seconds, this time I was keeping him in my sights. It was just after the start of the 3^rd loop I decided to check my watch, it said 11:57. I’d figured it was about 5 minutes to the finish from here but as I saw my time I thought I’d either miscalculated or I was having a good run. It didn’t feel like a good run as I was starting to hurt, but I stuck to the task as best I could. As I crossed the line I was slow to stop my watch, but was amazed to see 16:57. The winner, who wasn’t registered so I don’t know who he was, though I think I’ve seen him before, ran 16:46, and my official time was 16:56. That’s another course pb by 18 seconds and meant I was only the 4^th person to run sub 17 minutes for the course. Some achievement on this tough course. It also gave me a better age graded score though I’m still lying 3^rd. I realise that to knock Jeff Whittington from top spot I’ll need to aim for a new course record, something I thought was impossible for me a few weeks ago, but now I’ve dipped under 17 minutes I’m not so sure. What’s the betting Jeff runs a 19:10 to raise the bar again. Now I’m sure many of you are reading this and wondering what the fuss is about over a 16:56 5k, well you see this is a tough course. When I ran a road 5k in Hollins Green I finished in 16:39, at that point my best around Pennington Flash was 17:33, but buoyed on by the Hollins Green run I ran a 17:14 PF the following week. So you could look at this and say that, were I to run a road 5k now I should run something between 16:02 and 16:21, which is about the time I ran last year at Hollins Green. The difference now is that I had reached my peak by Hollins Green, whereas this year I feel like I’m on the way up. Interesting for me, of course running isn’t an exact science and I know I now have to get out there and compete against my peers in some road and cross country races if I’m to make the England team. Which is what I intend to do, so it’s goodbye to Pennington Flash for a while, hello to road races.    

Coaching

It’s unlikely that anybody in life becomes successful without a little help along the way, even the most self centred must have to admit that somebody was there to help them at some stage of their life. This is where coaching comes in, and yet there are many people running without a coach. I’m not sure what the reason might be, it could be that they don’t know how to get a coach or it could be that they don’t think they are good enough for a coach or it might even be that they think they are good enough without a coach.

Whatever the reason, I disagree, and I should know, as I owe my success to the coaching I’ve received over the years. Also as a coach and personal trainer I know that my own coaching has helped others to achieve success. Having said that, not every coaching experience is good and you should be prepared to change your coach if you are not satisfied.

When I first started running, in 1989, I was completely clueless. On my first run, with members of Belgrave Harriers, I was taken on a long run, and left for dead when I couldn’t keep up. Thankfully, despite not knowing the area, I managed to find my way back to the club house. I’m amazed, but grateful, that this first experience didn’t put me off and I returned the following week for more. Luckily, this time, a couple of 800m runners took me under their wing and had me doing a far more appropriate session for a beginner.

At some point during that summer, having decided I was going to be an 800m runner, someone suggested I went down to the local track to get some coaching. I turned up, on my own, not knowing anyone, and found a coach. It was daunting seeing so many people running around the track with such speed, grace and confidence. The coach asked me to run a lap of the track at 80% but as I wasn’t entirely sure what that was I just ran flat out. When I got back to the coach I was exhausted and couldn’t do any more running that night. The coach in question seemed more interested in his more established athletes and didn’t have any time to talk through my experience or offer encouragement so I went home and this time didn’t return. I did however go back to the club house the next week to continue training with the 800m runners.

This arrangement suited me and after some months I started training twice a week, then in the winter I found cross country and raced regularly. Naturally I became fitter and stronger by this arrangement but I was still lacking any kind of direction. For the next year I just trained at whatever anybody else was doing and racing all distances from 100m to the half marathon. I was enjoying myself but I wasn’t actually achieving a great deal. In the autumn of 1990 I decided it was time to try coaching again.

I was introduced to another club coach and this time I met everyone before the session started and the other lads in the group were all of a similar standard and similar to myself too. The coach ran with us and was not significantly better, such that this made it worthwhile for him to do so. However it was noticeable that his coaching was directed solely at himself and there was no real guidance for anyone else, he also had a tendency to try to prove he was the best in the group by always ensuring he was first in any repetition. Still this wasn’t a problem for me as I was improving, enjoying myself and became good friends with Adam Armstrong (who used to be in Grange Hill) and Junior Galley (who was to become a National Champion over the marathon distance). Where it did become a problem was the following June when we both entered the same race. At some point, coach, decided to drop out whereas I came third. When the race was over the coach was gone, he’d left without saying a word and we didn’t see him again. I’m sure it can’t have been because I was ahead of him before he dropped out!

So once again I was coachless, the group drifted apart and I was left to make up my own training. During the following winter I injured my anterior cruciate ligament and took a five week break. While I was out of action I decided I was going to join up with another coach and asked Arthur Bruce if it was ok to join his group. I didn’t know Arthur but he was well spoken of around Belgrave. Arthur was in his 60s and had been a good athlete during the 1950s, from which period he was able to tell us numerous stories about his contemporaries. The other good thing about Arthur’s group was that there was a good mix of individuals but also included Charlie Dickinson, who was, and remains a very talented Masters athlete. I also brought along two of my contemporaries, James Ryle and Mark Anderson. After I regained fitness Charlie, James, Mark and myself were all of a similar general ability, although Mark was a specialist middle distance runner, James was a strong cross country runner and Charlie was a good longer distance runner, I was yet to find my area of expertise and in the end became reasonably good at all three.

Arthur didn’t attend all our sessions, but he was there regularly enough and between the members of the group we drove each other on. Arthur introduced me to fartlek, which I really enjoyed, and to train at above race pace. He also taught me to be selective in my races and to ease down and rest appropriately. We also incorporated hills and regular time trials into our training. Within a year and a half with Arthur I reduced my 10000m time by two minutes when winning the 1993 Surrey 10000m in 30:33.7. This ranked me in the top 50 in the UK and gave me a huge amount of self belief that has never left me.

After winning many more championship medals and setting some good times over multiple distances I left Arthur in 1998. Over the summer I had a problem with my back that caused a great deal of pain in my calf muscles when I ran. After unsuccessful attempts at resting and comebacks I decided to see a specialist and ended up taking a 5 month break. When I decided to come back I thought the only way I could regain my motivation would be to try something different. So I started working with David Lucas. I’d known David for a few years as he was coach to one of my great rivals, Jim Estell. With David I trained over longer distances with shorter recoveries. I also did a lot more training on my own which helped me build up my mental capacity to push myself. As a consequence I also started to enter road races, Arthur had restricted my road racing to concentrate on the track. David got me back to winning ways and I again started to produce good times. Some of the coaching was now becoming remote as I spent time working in Germany and Slovakia but it worked as I was good at interpreting David’s requirements and he knew me well enough to know how far to push me. David was also there to help me in my first, and so far only, marathon, in 2003.

Throughout my years training under Arthur and David I had always retained some level of autonomy and made some training decisions by myself, this was more evident in my later years as I tended to be away from home a lot and had built up quite a good knowledge of training. So when I moved to Edinburgh in 2005 I decided I would become self coached. I still employed some of the methods of Arthur and David but also started looking around for inspiration from others and even picked up a good session from an article I read about Andy Badderley (though I adapted it significantly to cater for my requirements the original idea was good). I also took advice from local coach Alex McEwen.

Since turning 40 I’d started to think about qualifying as a coach, I’d been running for 16 years and had a good knowledge of how to produce the best in someone. It was also evident that I was no longer able to perform to the same level as my earlier days and I wanted to give something back. Unfortunately my move to Edinburgh also meant a move into shift work, and whilst I was still able to train myself at odd hours, including sessions in the wee hours of the morning, I could not make any commitment to other athletes. So I put my qualifications on hold until moved off shift. Even then it was not easy, as I waited almost a year to get onto a UKA course. I qualified as a level 1 assistant coach and spent many Tuesdays assisting at Meadowbank with the youngsters. But my heart was in coaching middle distance and with more mature athletes so once I was qualified I switched to assisting Alex McEwen’s group, which was great fun. I did get a reputation for inflexibility on recoveries but it was in their own interest and actually, I did occasionally give them an extra couple of seconds recovery. It was great grounding for me but it looked like I may have to wait an unknown number of months before I could move onto my level 2 coaching as UKA were reorganising their courses. This was unacceptable to me, as I’d made a commitment to coaching, so I made the decision to train to become a Personal Trainer.

This was a great decision as, although I knew lots about running and different energy systems, I’d never used weights, I’d rarely done any core workouts and never did any abs workouts. I learnt so much in a short time and also qualified as a run leader, which allows me to lead a group of endurance athletes (effectively coach them but you have to be careful with wording where UKA are concerned).

I’ve now been a qualified Personal Trainer for about 16 months and it’s great to be in a position to guide others through exercise plans, ensuring they use correct form, and ensuring they do appropriate training in order to achieve their goals. Whilst I have a number of non running clients I do still attract some who want me to help them with their running and I do this in three ways;

1. Organise the training and stand in one position with a stop watch to keep them appraised of repetition times and ensure they stick to recoveries, I can still be pretty tight on these but it all depends on how the client reacts to the recovery.
2. Run alongside the client to encourage them to keep a particular pace going. I find this is really effective as it’s within my comfort zone and I’m able to adjust the effort slightly, if necessary, and encourage them all the time. The problem here is that there is a limit to how much running I can do without my body giving up and also I need to be careful it doesn’t impact my own racing, so I restrict the number of clients I will do this for.
3. Remote coaching, whereby I find out a client’s goal, what they are currently doing, what their lifestyle is like and I produce a bespoke training plan. We then have regular e-mail contact to revise as necessary. This enables me to train anywhere and at times that fit in around my other requirements. I currently have a client in Australia who uses this service, which means I can get updates as soon as I wake up and can offer advice back before she wakes up.  

To summarise, coaching is good for you, though not all coaches are good or some may be good but just not good for you. Coaching is not just about the exercise it’s also about planning appropriate sessions and events and it’s also about ensuring appropriate rest. Other things I add to this are advice about nutrition, stretching and motivation. So, if you haven’t got a coach think about it, it may just be the thing that propels you from being the person you currently are to being a much better one.

As usual, I always end my blogs by giving updates on previous blogs. In my last blog I wrote about Lee Riley, one of my clients, who was making an attempt on the official world record for the half marathon, carrying a 40lb pack, at the Shakespeare Half Marathon in Stratford-Upon-Avon last Saturday. Well I’m pleased to say that Lee achieved his goal, running a time of 1 hr 36 min 56 sec, knocking almost 7 minutes off the current record. It’s now full steam ahead for Lee in his marathon attempt. Well done Lee.

On Saturday I also raced, though mine was a more modest effort as I continued my come back. I ran at the Heaton Park Run over the park run distance of 5k. It was nice to get back into racing fastish again and although I was some way short of my best times I was happy with 8^th position in a 17 min 26 sec clocking. What made the day even better was that Ray, one of my clients that I’ve been running with for the last 8 weeks and who gave me a lift, improved his pb for the second week running.

This Saturday I will be in Birmingham taking part in the BMAF Cross Country championships. Once again I’m not expecting to achieve anything significant, other than to get a hard run out and meet up with old (literally) friends. At least it shouldn’t be as muddy as Alton Towers.