Why Do I Run?

While I was assisting Lee with his recent world record preparation he asked me the question ‘why do I still run’. He didn’t mean anything derogatory by this, i.e. ‘you’re so old why are you still running’ or ‘you’re so slow why do you still run competitively’, he was genuinely interested in what made me tick. I gave Lee a couple of honest answers to his question but went away pondering on the question, because although I believed the answers were genuinely honest perhaps they weren’t altogether correct. So I’ve broken the question down a little to see if I can come up with the answer/s.

Why did I start running in the first place –

I’ve always loved playing sport, but I’m not actually that good at it. At primary school I was so slow at running (we only ran sprints) that every year, on sports day, I was demoted to the sack race. It didn’t get any better at grammar school, although I improved I was no footballer and couldn’t make the house team, let alone the school team. I did make the cricket house team, but more by lack of interest from others than by any talent on my part, which was apparent when I was out for two golden ducks in the only match I played. The one area that I did display any talent was in long distance running, I appeared to be one of the better runners in the year, despite only running on sports day and on maybe two or three other occasions.

In adult life I was again unspectacular at any team sports, better than average but no star in the making. I tried hockey and football but when it was clear I lacked any real talent it was time to revert to the only thing in which I had any potential. I’d been thinking about running for a few weeks and then I caught sight of an old school friend, Andrew Geddes, winning the AAAs indoor 1500m title. Well that was it, I was kicked into action and went along to join my local club, Hercules Wimbledon. Unfortunately they were shut, which is why I ended up around the corner at Belgrave Harriers.

My first training run with Belgrave Harriers was an absolute disaster as seasoned distance runners did to me what was all too common in clubs in those days, ran the new boy into the ground. Why did I go back to run again after such an experience? Something made me go back, I’d enjoyed the run, while I could keep up, and I felt I had something to prove. Besides I thought they’d been a bit rude to do that to me so I vowed to myself I’d do the same thing to them, which I did within a couple of years.

In my first year at Belgrave I tried many different running events and was pretty useless at all of them, but perseverance paid off and I became less useless over time. It didn’t matter how useless I was, there were always others more useless, or not quite as useless as me so I had company and someone to compete against. As I improved I started to beat the ‘not useless but not that good either’ crowd and with further improvement I started to beat people ‘who used to be good’. In time I improved further until I found myself able to compete reasonably well with some of the top athletes in the country but there would always be someone better than me, I never scaled the top of the peak. But it was this constant drive to climb up the ladder a few more rungs at a time that kept me going.

There were things I hadn’t even dreamed of achieving when I started running but as I improved so my goals became bigger. I didn’t achieve them all, but as my form declined so my years advanced and suddenly I was presented with a new lease of life as I entered masters athletics. So I hadn’t been the best in Britain, at my best, but I could be the best in my age group. I got close but still I haven’t achieved that one, however, with every year you get another chance and then at every 5^th year you’re at the start of a new age group. So ultimately there’s no telling how long I will continue.

Injury may eventually force me to stop, I really thought my time had come in 1998, when I couldn’t run for over 5 months, but somehow I managed to come back, and achieved much more since then. In 2005 I left Belgrave because I knew it was only a matter of time before I would struggle to make the A team, whereas Herne Hill had a number of other runners in my age group. I knew running with Herne Hill would keep me motivated and training hard to make their masters team, whereas I would only train hard to fail to make Belgrave’s team, so, just like the change from football to running it was time to move on from Belgrave to Herne Hill. I was proven right, being part of a successful squad has kept me motivated to train hard and we’ve achieved a lot together.

But what now, I’m miles away from London, so rarely run for Herne Hill, I have no team in Cheshire to compete with, how do I maintain that motivation. Well it’s all down to self believe, I still believe I have more to give, I don’t believe I have run my best, ok I ran my best times and some great races when I was younger but I still feel I have more to prove against my peers. Of course, every time I win a race outright, rather than just an age group win, it helps me to stay motivated. I find it hard to believe that, at almost 47 years old, I’m still able to give youngsters a good run for their money and the age grading of results helps to compare against those that finish significantly ahead of me but are around 20 years my junior. 

I now coach people to run and the people I’ve coached have had their own success. I don’t have anyone going to the Olympics but there are many people who can say they have benefited from the advice and training I have given them. Then there is Lee Riley, who has set three world records under my guidance. It’s a great feeling to be able to help others to achieve their goals, and even better to help them achieve beyond their goals. But, although I know I’ve helped, I can’t be absolutely confident that it was down to me, someone else could have guided them to their achievements and after all, it was them that ran to that achievement, not me. So this keeps me running still, everything I achieve in running, I know is down to me.

In life and work I’ve been reasonably successful, above average I’d say, but it’s running that has been the stand out success in my life. It’s also the cornerstone to my latest career choice, the more I run, the more I can use those experiences to help and inspire others to run or get fit, the more experiences I gain the more I have to talk about or blog about. And the more times I come back from defeat to attain success, the more I can motivate others to do the same, whether that be in running or other aspects of their life. But most of all I run because it keeps me alive, having something to aim for inspires me to work hard towards it, and that leads to all the other fringe benefits.

Why do I blog?

I started blogging back in February at the suggestion of a friend of a friend, who was into marketing, he was confident it was a way of getting people to know about what I had to offer. Whilst I’m not sure it has brought me any potential clients I know that some of my existing clients read the blogs and they have acted as inspiration for them. There are people who have picked them up via google searches, but that doesn’t mean they’ve read them and been inspired by them. The bulk of my readership comes from Facebook and I’m pretty sure most of those are my running friends. Thank you for reading, I know some of you are far better runners than I ever was so it’s nice that you take the time to read my tales of how it was for me. One of the things that keeps me writing about my life in running is that nobody knows the whole story about me, even my best man got some of his stories wrong at my wedding, so I’m putting the stories out from my point of view. Since February I’ve written 40 blogs and had 2500 viewings of them. The more popular ones seem to be about running with the top 10 viewings going to, in descending order;

2011 British Masters Road Relay Championships, a Personal View – probably thanks to my Cambuslang friends

The Mile

The Marathon

Why I Like Northwich From a Fitness Perspective, etc

Marathon the Final Tune Up

Illnesses and Injuries – to Train or Not to Train

Supplements

While I was Away

Memories of the Surrey 10000m Championship

Inspirational Athlete – Paul Evans

I’ve mentioned, over the last few blogs, that I’ve been fighting off a cold, it’s not really manifested itself properly, up to now. I was feeling a little run down at the end of last week but I felt ok to train. Ray and I had planned to go to Pennington Flash on the Saturday taking our respective ladies, it’s been a while since I made it up there. When I woke up on Saturday morning my throat was feeling quite sore and I thought I might be better off not running, however, after breakfast I was feeling well enough to give it a go. The weather was looking pretty miserable, it’d rained on and off for the whole week and I was sure it would be muddy at Pennington. But mud doesn’t deter me, I just thought it would affect the times. We arrived in the car park just as the heavens opened and chucked a lake full of water onto us, thankfully it didn’t last too long. When we got to the start, there was Bill and very few others, what a shame, xmas parties, xmas shopping and the weather must’ve had an effect. But as we waited, and tried to keep warm, runners came streaming round the corner to the start area, including an old friend of mine, Alex Rowe, who was down for a meeting of the Northern Masters. It was good to see Alex, but it also meant he would be aiming to beat me. I also noticed a young guy who looked like he might be talented but I lost sight of him as I talked to Alex, it was only when Bill set us off I realised he must’ve been standing next to me. As we set off I was joined by Alex, as expected, and this other chap. It was a solid start, the cold was playing no part in slowing me down and, in fact, didn’t affect me at all in the run, though the mud and strong wind did slow me down a bit (I had thought that conditions were so bad that this might be the first time I ran the course slower than 18 minutes). As we got to the gate, which signifies the start of the lap, the young chap upped the pace and soon pulled away, he seemed to have a graceful style that is somewhat lacking from my own running, he was long striding and confident and I confidently predicted it would be an end to my 5 race winning streak. Tom Doe was the young chap and he just pulled away from that moment on. Despite drifting further and further back I never gave up on the chase, after all I still had to beat Alex and while I was expecting to run post 18 minutes I still have a reasonable average time around Pennington. At the finish I was clearly 2^nd, nearly a minute and a half behind Tom, who smashed the course record (a fantastic achievement in those conditions), and almost a minute ahead of Alex. Not only did I run under 18 minutes, with 17:47, but it wasn’t even my slowest run around the course. I’d never heard of Tom before, I don’t follow general athletics, so I did a bit of research, which helped me to understand why he’d run so well, he was 5^th in the UK Steeplechase Final this year and has a 10k pb of 30:06, better than my pb, set 18 years ago, and 4 minutes faster than I have done this year, (though I took that from Power of 10 which isn’t always accurate, certainly they don’t hold my best times). Perhaps we’ll see more of Tom at Pennington, or maybe on the TV.

Nutrition and How I Deal With It

This week I wanted to write about something other than running, though obviously there will be an element of running within the blog because, after all, I am a runner, and of course I’ll end with an update of what I’ve been up to and any other follow up tales. So I decided to write something about nutrition. It is not intentional to blind you with science, or tell you everything there is, but rather to give you a few generalised facts and then to tell you how I interpret that to help me in my fitness. Remember that everyone is different and what works for one person does not necessarily work the same for everyone, in the same way that I use the same basic training principles for all my clients but manipulate them to get the best results from each, your own nutrition should be treated likewise.

I’m not going to go into great detail about what GI certain carbohydrates have or what foods contain different vitamins, etc. I’m going to generalise, otherwise the blog would just go on and on. There is plenty of material available for anybody to do follow up research or, of course, have more in-depth nutritional advice from myself.

There is some really simple advice for people wanting to lose weight, just ensure you eat fewer calories than you burn off. For the non-active reducing carbohydrates and increasing protein intake can be beneficial as it increases the metabolic rate, but don’t even consider cutting out carbohydrates altogether, even if your diet states so, it’s just not healthy to do such a thing. If you are active I wouldn’t cut back on carbs unless you eat a mountain a day, you just need to look at what exercise you are doing, you need to exercise for more than 20 minutes at an intensity of at least 60% max (however you measure this, heart rate, perceived exertion, etc). I strongly believe in a higher intensity workout, carried out over short bursts, with recoveries, coupled, on alternative days, with the 60% workout. Strengthening your muscles also helps to increase the metabolic rate, burning off more calories. That’s not to suggest you should consider becoming a body builder, for many of my clients, particularly the females, I use light weights with endurance which, tones and strengthens the muscles whilst using aerobic exercise to help burn calories at the same time.

If you’re doing quite intense sessions, i.e. for sport, you need more carbohydrate, before, during (if the session goes beyond the hour) and after (particularly within the first hour post exercise as that’s when glycogen replenishment is most successful). Think about glycaemic index (GI), low before exercise, though for more anaerobic exercise some high GI carbs can be beneficial just before exercise. After exercise, depending on intensity, you’ll benefit from a little high GI carb, for quick absorption, but low GI carbs are still good for long term glycogen replenishment. During exercise you shouldn’t need any carbs if your exercise period is less than an hour and you may actually be ok for longer as training your body for glycogen depletion is similar to training your muscles for lifting heavier weights, as an example when I ran the London Marathon in 2003 I ran for 2 hrs 34 min, I didn’t hit the wall, in fact I finished pretty strongly, but all I took on board during the duration of the race was water. I’d been regularly training for 2 hrs 40 min taking only water, so my body was used to it. This is not what I would particularly recommend to clients, it’s just that I didn’t get on with any of the carbohydrate based drinks I’d tried, so I took the risk, the risk being reduced by the training I was doing. My recommendation is to try out these products in training to see how your body reacts to them, it may take some sessions before your body is prepared to accept them.

       

After exercise you need replenishment, which should consist of carbs and protein. Carbs, as I’ve already mentioned, are to help replenish the glycogen, the protein will help repair damage you will have done to your muscles. For those thinking of building bigger muscles, i.e. for show rather than sport, a higher protein intake will help. There is an optimum amount, based upon your activity level and weight, above which you’ll gain no further benefit, any further intake of protein above this amount will just be turned into glycogen or fat, though you’d need to be eating a lot of protein for it to be turned into fat.

Speaking of fat, don’t neglect it, fat is required for the absorption of certain vitamins, there being both water and fat soluble vitamins. Fat is also required for tissue structure and hormonal function. It’s important to remember that very low body fat can cause problems, the minimum recommended percentage of body fat is 5% in men and 10% in women.  Obviously unsaturated fats are better than saturated and trans fats, and omega 3 is very good for oxygen delivery to cells which means improved athletic performance (for those doing aerobic exercise).

Water must not be neglected, you should aim to remain hydrated at all times but it’s particularly important to ensure you are properly hydrated before your event. So excessive alcohol intake the night before a race is not recommended as it acts as a diuretic. The best way to remain hydrated is to sip fluid throughout the day, drinking a large amount of water in one go will just go straight through you whereas sipping enables good absorption. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t consume a good amount after intensive exercise but don’t go overboard or you may dilute your blood, such that the sodium level falls and you end up with hyponatraemia. That’s why sports drinks are useful after exercise, as they will contain sodium and carbs. You could of course make your own sports drink; 1 part fruit juice to 4 parts water and a pinch of salt.

That’s a brief on some aspects of nutrition, there is so much information available and I haven’t gone too specific, if I had you’d have a book rather than a blog. Now the interesting bit, how do I, as an athlete interpret all the above?

For starters, you might consider that a man who trains as often as myself is very particular about how much and when I eat. Well I can tell you that one thing I don’t do is weigh my food or measure my portion sizes. I’ve got a pretty good idea of how much my body needs to eat. At the moment I’m about 5kg heavier than my ideal racing weight, due to reduced exercise whilst injured. I know I will burn that off, with an increased calorific intake, over the next few months, as I intensify my exercise.

Because I train pretty much every day, and usually my running takes place in the morning, I tend to eat the same breakfast. A bowl of porridge, with a banana and honey, made with a drop of milk and water. It’s a big bowl mind you, I’m a daddy bear portion man. I have a small fruit juice before, not diluted with water as I put a lot of water into the porridge, and a large cup of coffee to follow. That’s it, then I wait an hour and a half to 2 hours before I exercise. This gives plenty of time for the stomach to work on it and, even in a hard session, I rarely have any issues. I usually give myself a little longer if I’m racing, if the race is in the afternoon and I’m travelling a fair way, I have two bowls of porridge.

I don’t take anything on board during training, it’s unusual for me to be training for more than an hour in one go and I cope pretty well without water, even in hot climates. After training I’ll have a cup of milk (if I’m away from home I’ll take a milk shake carton). I usually try to follow my run with some other form of exercise, either abs, with or without weights, or kettle bells, during which I’ll eat a handful of peanuts, in the rest between sets. Then off for a shower, swiftly followed by lunch. 

Lunch will usually be sandwiches on wholemeal bread, I’ll either have cheese and tomato, tuna or a spread (houmous or taramasalata). Because I’m still burning calories from my session, I’ll have six sandwiches, followed by a piece of fruit and a coffee, which will keep me going until dinner, although if I do get hungry I snack on peanuts. Occasional cups of tea in the afternoon to keep me hydrated, I will drink water outside of the home but prefer tea at home.

Actually my hydration plan is the one thing that I could do better, I actually don’t like drinking too much and will sometimes not drink much water before a race or training session, as I don’t like the feeling of it sloshing about. Whilst that isn’t something I would recommend for others, it works for me and my body has adapted to it. This further reiterates my initial point about us all being different and how we need to find what works for every individual.

My dinner is something that usually consists of a mix of vegetables, fruit and meat and pretty much depends upon what is in the house at the time. I usually have potatoes, pasta or rice, chicken, various vegetables and tinned tomatoes. I’ll drink water with the meal and have a coffee after the meal. Occasionally I’ll replace the water with wine, sometimes more occasionally than I should, but I’m only human.

So you see my gastronomic life is a little dull. Unfortunately I do enjoy pretty much every type of food and drink, and know that if I wasn’t so regimented I could eat all day and eat four courses regularly, easily. In fact the one thing I really hate is having to eat out at both lunch and dinner time, as I’ll invariably end up eating too much. The same is true about staying in hotels before a race, though in this situation I try to go with fish instead of a cooked breakfast. To add to my bread and water style existence I try to not have crisps, biscuits or beer in the house – because it’s too easy to just eat or drink it! Lord help anyone who shacks up with me.

British Masters Cross Country Championships – Perry Park, Birmingham

For those who’ve been following my blogs, you’ll know that I made a last minute decision to enter these championships. A year ago I was flying high, topping the UK M45 rankings for 5 miles and 10k, and went to Belfast full of confidence. With the course very much to my liking, I ran one of my best cross country races to take Silver, just 15 seconds behind the winner, Brian Rushworth. This year, with very little training behind me and the memory of a very muddy Alton Towers still deeply entrenched in my memory, I was also confident, confident I’d get nowhere near the medals.

And I was right. Despite the course again being to my liking my lack of fitness was telling, though I would say I actually ran a good race for my current fitness level. I came 53^rd in the race, 17^th M45, taking 29:36 for the 8k course. Clearly the fitness is improving as I finished 46 seconds ahead of Alex Rowe, whom you may recall was passed by me just before the finish at Alton Towers. Still a long way to go on the fitness front but I’m now running 24 minutes of quality, on my hard days, instead of the 18 minutes I’ve been doing previously. A few more weeks and I’ll be back up to 30.

I was a good decision to run as I came away with lots of confidence for the future. I feel like I’m on the way back and believe I can be in a position to make a difference to Herne Hill’s chances of gaining further road relay medals. It’s now just down to fitness and confidence to run at a stronger pace. It was also nice to meet up with so

many of my peers and the friends that I’ve made over the 22 years I’ve been running. In particular it was great to catch up with Phil Carstairs and Charlie Dickinson, old training partners from my Belgrave Harriers days, both of whom have suffered long lay-offs due to injury. I was also pretty amazed to hear so many people giving me vocal support around the course, proving what a friendly atmosphere comes with Masters Athletics.

After the race I went for a warm down with Mike Deegan, who works for Ronhill, the company who supply me with some of my kit. Well I should say Mike went for a warm down, I was still running at race pace to keep up. Not bad for a man about to turn 55. An interesting fact I learned about Mike, which ties in nicely with the previous section of this blog, is that he also eats porridge before a race, though I forgot to ask him the size of his bowl.

I haven’t thought about my next race yet, I’m aiming at the masters road relays in May so I may do a few more park runs and then there is the Killer Mile at Mow Cop.

Riley’s at it Again

Lee Riley was back in action this Sunday, this time carrying his 40lb pack around the Stafford 20 miles. Lee ran another fantastic race on his way to the London Marathon, finishing in a time of 2 hrs 40 min 06 sec. That’s exactly 8 min mile pace, if Lee can keep that going for a further 6 miles he can squeeze inside 3 hrs 30 min. It’s the Derby Kilomathon this weekend, Lee’s final pre-London race with his pack. After that he’ll be into his final training phase.

Herne Hill Southern Silvers

I couldn’t finish off without saying well done to my club, Herne Hill Harriers, who took part in the South of England Cross Country Relay Championships, finishing in runner up position. A great achievement, and one that should build further enthusiasm for more of the same.