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

Personal Training

I’ve started watching a show on Channel 4 called ‘The Fat Busters’. I missed the first one, when I saw the write up I thought it would be just another gimmicky weight lose programme featuring people that just aren’t real, so I didn’t bother watching it. However one of my clients made a reference to it so I thought I ought to watch it, if only to explain reasons for not doing some of the things they do, i.e. wearing high heels in the gym. Since then I’ve watched every episode and some of it is a bit gimmicky and some of it is different to the things I do, but, most of the stuff being stated and the training the personal trainers are doing is pretty good stuff and there are a number of things shown that I either do or I would do if I had more space and equipment. So actually it’s not a bad watch and the characters do seem to come across as fairly good Personal Trainers who care about their clients (though editing has clearlytaken place so I can’t be absolutely sure of that), unlike some of the Personal Trainers I’ve come across.

One of the things I found of particular interest, last week, was that Matt (Miller the Pillar), the bodybuilder, used another trainer to help him to achieve his own goals. This is how I got to be a reasonable runner, by the use of expert coaches Arthur Bruce and Dave Lucas, and, although I’m now self coached, I will still, occasionally, try another coach’s session, to try something fresh for me and take the thought process out of the equation. It’s also how I have built up a reputation for training other Personal Trainers, so far I’ve helped four other Personal Trainers to achieve some specific goals.

Why does anyone need a Personal Trainer? We’re all a bit more gym savvy these days and of course there are loads of books, magazines and internet pages available to tell you how to train, so why does anyone need a Personal Trainer?

• A Personal Trainer can review your goals and will know exactly what is required to achieve them and can be quite frank in telling you that.
• A Personal Trainer can devise a specific programme of workouts for you that will help you to achieve your goals.
• He/she can add variety and challenges to your workouts and ensure you are pushed harder as you develop.
• A Personal Trainer will motivate you when times get tough and can ensure you don’t slacken off when the desire takes you.
• A Personal Trainer will ensure you use correct technique and appropriate weight, and work out at an appropriate pace.
• A Personal trainer will advise you on nutrition and other types of exercise you could try.
• A Personal Trainer will introduce you to activities you would never consider yourself.
• A Personal Trainer will cater for any illness or injury you are suffering from.
• A Personal Trainer will always have safety in mind.

When would you use a mobile Personal Trainer instead of a gym based Personal Trainer? Not everybody feels comfortable working out in a gym or in the public eye. That’s when a mobile Personal Trainer comes into play. A mobile Personal Trainer will visit you at a place of your convenience and choice, so that you will already be comfortable before you start. He/she will bring their own equipment with them appropriate to the type of session you will have discussed.

• No need to feel embarrassed to enter a gym.
• No need to pay gym bills.
• No need to queue up to use a particular piece of equipment.
• Use of the Personal Trainer’s equipment will help you to understand what to purchase should you choose to get your own equipment.
• The Personal Trainer may use some different equipment that you won’t have seen at a gym.
• You’re in your own environment and comfort zone.
• No need to travel to a gym.
• You can get fit or lose weight without anyone knowing, until they start to see the transformation.
• You won’t end up watching people with poor form, think it’s normal and copy them.

As you’ll have gathered by now, I am a Personal Trainer, and although I have my own small gym I work as a mobile Personal Trainer. Whilst I have non portable equipment in the gym, which I do use with clients who come to me, I also have a large array of portable equipment that I can take along to client sessions away from the home. I have a mixture of client types, some visit me at my gym base, others will meet me at a convenient location and others will invite me into their home to provide their workout.

But what is it I have to offer that might set me apart from other Personal Trainers?

• I’m qualified to REPS Level 3, and I’m always looking to update my skills and knowledge. I’m also a Run Leader and trained in the use of First Aid and Defib. (if you wish to see the full list of my qualifications in the fitness industry visit www.rogeralsop.co.uk/about-us/roger-s-qualifications).
• I have full liability insurance.
• Although I workout hard myself and work in the fitness industry it is not all consuming in my life and whilst I’m training my clients I’m able to hold a sensible conversation with them about things that are important to them.
• I’m able to understand their lifestyle and adjust the session to fit around any stresses they have been going through.
• I don’t try to sell extras as part of the session, I’ll happily pass on my thoughts on particular products but I won’t plug something just to make money for myself, I only endorse things I truly believe in.
• I’m mature in years and have a wise head that goes with that maturity.
• Whilst I come from an endurance background and do base a lot of my training around endurance principles, I’m well versed in all areas of fitness.
• I’ve trained some of the best; Paratroopers, Royal Marines, Personal Trainers, National Champions, World Record Holders.
• But I’ve also trained relative newcomers, people recovering from injury and retired people.
• Finally, I’m a nice guy, sometimes we do win.

To find out what some of my clients really think of me visit www.rogeralsop.co.uk/home/testimonials

How did I get into personal training? Good question, it was never high on my list of ideal careers, in fact I hated going to gyms, but, as an athlete of many years, who had benefited from some good coaching, I wanted to pass on my experiences and knowledge, to help others to achieve their own success. I held off from becoming a coach for a few years because I was training really hard and also working abroad a lot, so I didn’t feel I could give the commitment I felt was required. Then I became a shift worker, which meant working awkward hours on different days each week, so again I couldn’t make a formal commitment. But at 42, and slowing down in my own running, I decided enough was enough and now was the time to start training to become a coach, even if it meant taking holidays to attend courses. I had to wait a further 9 months before I could get on a course, but qualified at Level 1 fairly quickly. During my training and qualification I helped out with the athletes at Edinburgh AC but found it frustrating that I wasn’t officially allowed to use my own initiative. To get my Level 2, which would give me more freedom, I realised I would have to wait some months with no guarantee of getting on a course that year. I loved working with the athletes, encouraging them and making sure they didn’t get too much recovery between reps, it was this that prompted me to look at an alternative career choice and train to become a Personal Trainer. After all my employers, Royal Bank of Scotland were starting a difficult period, having over exposed themselves, and it was clear that the employees, not Fred, would be the ones to suffer. Knowing that redundancy was a very real possibility I put all my efforts into qualifying as a Personal Trainer, which I achieved in 2009. Since then I’ve worked in a few gyms but found I enjoy the role of mobile Personal Trainer suits me better and I now cover the majority of Cheshire and South Manchester.

Enough about Personal Training, what about my personal training? For the last week I’ve been increasing the intensity of my sessions, both running and the gym work. Not increasing the weights, just working the evening cardio sessions harder. I’m managing to push myself almost to exhaustion in each 5 minute segment but by the time I’ve fixed myself onto the next machine I’m ready to do the same again. I’ve been managing just shy of 1400m in 5 mins on the rower, which is getting closer to where I was in my mid 30s. All this intense cardio is showing benefits in my running, I feel more comfortable when I’m running, even at pace. Today I managed my longest run for ages, 1 hour 30 mins. As I’ve stated before, my knee starts playing up if I run further than the hour but I’ve been working on strengthening the muscles around it. I chose today, for this long run, to empathise with Ray, who was running in the 4 villages half marathon at Helsby, also because Carole is working in India this week so I don’t have to compromise my training. I found it windy as anything on my run, so I’m sure that will impact Ray’s time. Yesterday I was planning to make the trip to Pennington Flash, for the parkrun, but with Ray resting and Carole not feeling too great in the morning I decided against going on my own and did 3 x 10 minute reps with 2 min recoveries (yes Richard Meade I was very generous to myself, but I needed it as the first 18 minutes were into a strong headwind). This coming week I’ve got my old pal and best man, first time round, Al Stewart, visiting. It’s been ages since we last got together so it will be good to catch up. But that’s not going to get in the way of hard work, I’m piling it on now as I’ll be taking a three week period of specific light training and speed work. It’s all part of the grand plan, success doesn’t come by accident.


Written by Roger Alsop
http://www.rogeralsop.co.uk/

Marathon Mode 2012

I’m in marathon mode at the moment. Nope I haven’t entered one, I stand by my decision to sit on those particular laurels and let the many runners I know get ready for their own particular marathons, while I concentrate on shorter races. I’m in marathon mode because I’m helping out three clients to run various marathons. Two, Ray and Katy, are doing specific sessions with me in preparation for their Manchester marathon. Rich, who trained with me, last year, in order to kick off his running experience, is taking bespoke training schedules from me and we plan to get together nearer the time to do some specific training together, before he tackles the Edinburgh marathon.

So I’m doing a lot of thinking about how I can best prepare all three for their respective marathons, because they are all individuals with different commitments so it’s not a one plan fits all. Of course I’ve got lots of knowledge to draw on, having been coached by a very successful marathon coach, Dave Lucas, for a few years. During my time with Dave I ran my marathon, but I was always very aware of his marathon training as most of the group were training for marathons. Dave managed to train a number of women to sub 3 hour marathons and national medals and two guys to become national champions. So thanks Dave for giving me a start to my marathon education and long may you remain a successful coach. I’ve now adapted my training approach to what I’ve learnt since then, everything moves on. 

So far I’ve been pretty successful, having helped Lee Riley to break the world record for running a marathon with a 40lb pack and I’ve also helped Ray to numerous pbs over the last year. Not forgetting that I’ve also coached myself to a fair bit of success since I moved away from London and decided to coach myself.

I’ve taken a decision that, if I’m to run and set sessions with marathon clients I need to remind myself of what they feel like. Therefore I need to do a certain amount of marathon type training myself. This could potentially be a problem, as my knee generally starts to cause me an issue if I run for longer than an hour, so to tackle this problem head on I’m also working hard in the gym to strengthen the muscles in my knee. Last week I started pushing myself with a session that is hard both mentally and physically, and it was tough. But that’s what you’ve got to do to tackle the marathon.

I have one specific session, I call the killer session. I’m not going to go into detail of what the session is about, when I told Katy she was both horrified and excited so lets just leave it at that, but once you’ve done the killer session you’re ready for the marathon. The killer session was something I have to give credit to Dave for, he used it year in year out with his groups, but when it was my turn to do the marathon I was working in Slovakia so I took Dave’s idea and adapted it to my own circumstances. It worked for me, yes it was hard, probably the hardest training session I’ve ever done (and I’ve done a few) but I was totally exhilarated afterwards. Of course I need to adapt the session to each client as everybody is different, but the trick is to reach a certain level of exhaustion by the end of it. I used it with Lee and made it particularly tough by using a soft surface and including a difficult hill that had to be repeated, and he was carrying his pack, but it worked, weeks later he broke the half marathon world record for carrying a 40lb pack, and then went on to smash the marathon world record. So that’s something for Ray, Katy and Rich to look forward to, oh and me as I’ve agreed to run it with Katy, just have to hope that knee holds out.

Of course I’m hoping to gain some benefit from all this additional training. When I was training for the marathon I was producing some pretty good results, consistent 31/32 minute 10ks, I was a member of Belgrave’s Southern 6 and 12 stage winning teams, I went over to Portugal to represent Belgrave in the European Champions Clubs Cup at the half marathon and finished, only, 4 minutes behind regular London marathon winner, Pinto, I produced my best ever Surrey League cross country result, a half marathon pb, my highest position in the national cross country champs and the week before the marathon ran sub 25 minutes on the 8k+ long stage at Milton Keynes. So I’m hoping I might get some good results this year, particularly as I’ve been training fairly consistently since my comeback from injury, early last year.  

  

It has taken it’s toll though, at the end of last week I was feeling pretty tired, as I’ve also been working harder in the gym, virtually to exhaustion on each of my cardio pieces (it’s amazing how you can burn out on one piece and then by the time you’ve unravelled yourself from that to get onto the next one you’re ready to burn yourself out some more), I do 5 minutes on each piece (I have 3 pieces) and then a further 5 minutes on the piece I started on, then I follow that with an abs, kettlebell or weight session. By the weekend my knee was beginning to ache, but I’ve realised that I’ve not actually had a day off training since the start of January, and most of that has been two sessions a day. I’ll take a break soon, I have plans.

All this tough training helps me to feel young, mind you that’s getting harder each year that passes. Today is my 47^th birthday, yes incredible 47, I’m almost 50. I suppose that’s one thing about being the youngest sibling, my brother and sister will be well past 50 when it hits me, in fact my sister already is. I’m not doing too bad for an oldie, in fact, I feel a hell of a lot healthier than when I was working shift at RBS. Not only that but I’m a lot happier too.

For my birthday treat we revisited another part of my past, spending the weekend in Lytham St. Annes. I used to live there, when I was very young, about 40 years ago, obviously I don’t remember a great deal about the place but I enjoyed my brief life there. In fact it’s probably more than 20 years since I was last at Blackpool so it was a good opportunity to see what the area had to offer. On the way up we visited the Sweatshop in Ribby Village, I’ve had a voucher since coming in as first M45 at the Hollins Green 5k, just haven’t been able to get to a Sweatshop since then. I was looking for a pair of racing flats, it’s been some time since I bought a pair, I actually can’t remember when that was but I believe it was some 15 years ago. Since then I’ve had a couple of pairs of adidas, specifically made for me by a friend in the company, and a New Balance pair I won in the Wimbledon 10k. They’ve lasted well but are showing signs of wear so I figured it was time to invest in some new ones, particularly as I intend to race more big races this year. I was lucky there was a pair going in the shop, a Brooks ST 5. Now I’ve had Brooks before and I wasn’t impressed but then I’ve also had unimpressive New Balance as well as good ones. So I tried them on and they felt pretty good. So that was the voucher used up. It was also good to catch up with Dave Norman, who happened to be working there on Saturday. Dave is a very good athlete who runs for Altrincham & District and is also involved in the organisation of the Partington 10k, which is a great course that produces fast times.

Then onwards to St. Annes. We parked up at the hotel and walked along the beach to Blackpool. It was a lovely sunny, but cold, day and there were lots of people out walking, but it was more like a ghost town in Blackpool as most of it was shut, perhaps everybody was at Ipswich watching the Tangerines. Back to St. Annes and a scout around for somewhere to eat dinner. It was almost another Derby Dining Disaster as everybody seemed to be fully booked, but we managed to get into a Greek restaurant, albeit earlier than we’d have liked. Cocktail in preference to pudding ended the evening and away to the hotel for some good kip. The next morning we were up nice an early for a run, not a long one as we had plans but I decided to go the other way down towards Lytham. Not as nice a view over the estuary but the views across the green towards the big houses was pretty good. After breakfast we drove down and had a walk along the green and into the town, which is really quaint. Back home and then out for another walk along the river Weaver, during which we bumped into Ray, who was out for a run, wearing a rather smart Ronhill jacket.

But my birthday really starts today, it was nice to get up early for a client, even if it did mean scraping my windscreen. We had a good workout, or rather he did and then it was back home for my own workout. I chose to do one of my hardest session, such is my mindset, and for some reason it actually felt really easy. I’m hoping that’s because I’m getting so fit I’m coping with the training better, but perhaps it was just that now I’m so old I can no longer run hard enough to get out of breath. Oh well the proof of the low fat pudding is in the eating and we’ll soon see how things are progressing, when I do my next major race.

And speaking of Ray, he is now producing apps for the I-phone so if anybody has any ideas for an app that would make their life easier, let me know and I’ll pass them onto Ray.

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.

The Marathon

Next Sunday will be the 31st London Marathon and I’ll be watching the TV, in the hope that I can spot a few of the many people I know are running it. So in honour of the Virgin London Marathon this week’s blog is about my relationship with the marathon.

As I’ve mentioned, in one of my earlier blogs, my first experience of the marathon was watching the finish of the Sandbach marathon, back in the 80’s. I was seeing a girl in Sandbach at the time, and this gave us something different to do. I don’t remember much about the experience other than seeing a number of runners flash by to the finish. I’ve since found out that Sandbach was regularly used as the English National Championships.

When the London marathon started appearing on the TV I’d watch bits of it and I recall my brother telling me that one day he was going to run it. Of course I was going to make no such predictions, it seemed to me to be a rather tedious thing to do and of course I didn’t even run in those days.

When I moved to London, I was in an ideal place to watch the marathon, though I wasn’t too keen to join the crowds. I went to watch in 1986, only because a friend wanted to go so that she could watch a chap, she fancied, run in it. When we arrived at Westminster tube it took us ages to get onto the street, due to the large number of spectators getting off there. When we got to the street we could hardly see anybody, so I just decided, as it wasn’t me that fancied Tim, I might as well go back home and do something useful.

Once I’d joined Belgrave I started to get to know and understand, a little, runners who were taking part in the marathon. I still didn’t go to watch but started to watch it again on the TV. It was 1993 when I made the effort to head into London to watch again. My new partner had run the marathon previously and was friendly with a group of runners who regularly ran it, they always watched the marathon from various points on the course, then met up in a pub on the Southbank before heading into Covent Garden to eat, drink, get merry and watch the marathon again on video, at the home of Pam and John Davies. It was fun watching the race on TV, with a critical audience of marathon runners, and there was always a cheer when one of the group, who had completed that year’s race, came through the door.

After that I was hooked, every year I would do the same thing, get up early for an 11 mile run in Richmond Park, shower, have a big cooked breakfast (the only time in the year I allowed myself this feast), watch the start on the TV then after about an hour head off into town. My partner and I always watched from just before the 800m to go point, there was usually space to get to the front and you got a great view of the athletes. I have to say, getting up so close to watch international athletes is so much better than watching them on the TV and, actually it’s so very different to racing against or training with them. We’d hang around at this point until the athletes running under 3 hours had passed, it’s amazing how quickly the time goes, between the front runners and the 3 hour runners, when you know so many of them. We’d then drift along to the embankment to give a cheer to the slower runners. After the 4 hour 30 minute runners had gone by we’d drift up to Covent Garden, the meeting place had moved to this side of the river, before converging on Pam and John.

There was one year I got quite embarrassed. We were at our 800m to go point, as usual, giving encouraging shouts to all the runners we knew, when along came Jim Estell. He must have been on for something around the 2 hour 30 minute mark but when we shouted him, he came over to us and started stretching and talking, I couldn’t believe it ‘get going you idiot’, I thought. But he just kept on stretching and telling us he wasn’t having a good race. All the other people around us were looking at us strangely but eventually Jim went on his way. Then a few minutes later along came James Jackson, we gave him a shout and he did exactly the same thing as Jim. What was going on? The people around us were now giving us some very strange looks. James moved on and we stopped shouting at people until we left that spot, which was a bit sooner than we normally would have.

There were some good years, in 1996 Belgrave Harriers won the Men’s Championship with Paul Evans, Gary Staines, Jim Estell (this time not stopping for a chat) and Junior Galley.

In 2000 my fiance, was running. It was quite emotive when she came past me at the 800m point, as I could tell she was going to run sub 3 hours, a time which she coveted and had trained so hard for. She ran 2:56 and her Belgrave team mates, Rachel Weston and Nikki Haines also ran sub 3 hours to bring Belgrave home in 3^rd place. It was this experience that made me change my mind about doing the marathon and I decided I would one day, before I became too slow, run one.

In 2003 it was my turn. Work had dried up in the summer of 2002 so I decided to use my time effectively to start my build up to the following year’s London marathon. As it turned out it was probably a little early as I was starting to get a little stale in the final few weeks. I remember going out for my first prep run, 2 hours on a very hot Sunday morning in June. I was used to running for 2 hours as part of my winter training but in the summer I never normally went beyond an hour and a quarter. I got very dehydrated and remember shuffling the final 3 miles from Wimbledon Common to my home in Southfields. In fact there were a few shuffling runs as I gradually increased my runs to beyond 2 hr 40 min. I was training under David Lucas, who was responsible for coaching Jim Estell, Junior Galley, and the girls from 2000, as well as many others. David had quite a large group of aspiring marathon runners, though most of them were girls so I still spent a good deal of my running time on my own. It was, however, a very encouraging group.

Then in January I got a two month contract in Slovakia. It snowed the night I arrived so when it came to my hill session, on the Tuesday, it was still too icy to run fast up and down hills. I had to improvise and ended up running up and down the steps to the Parliament building, 50 times. After a couple of weeks using the hotel treadmill I was able to get back outside. I would run for 8 miles at lunch time. Then in the evening I’d do a further 6 miles. At weekends I’d tend to do about 12 miles on Saturday with my long, 2 hr 40 min run on Sunday. I’d stay in Bratislava two weekends and travel back to the UK on the 3^rd weekend. It did mean some challenging running, avoiding open manholes and metal posts sticking up a couple of inches from the concrete. I also recall shuffling off to Tesco to get my week’s food after the 2 hr 40 min run. One of the hardest sessions I’ve ever done was a 15 x 5 min with 1 min recovery session running to the Austrian border and back on a raised concrete platform, with a strong wind coming off the Danube and sleet coming down. The sleet was so intense I was wearing sunglasses to stop it stinging my eyes and I ended the session tired and with a bleeding nose from the intense wind, but I was still able to manage my 2hr 40 min run and Tesco shuffle the next day.         

In preparation for London, I’d tried running with the Lucozade drinks, that would be available on the day, but they didn’t react well with my stomach so I accepted that I’d run with just water, afterall my wife had done so. David had taught me how to take on water on the move and I had tried out all my kit to make sure it was comfortable.

My races leading up to London had been good, I’d set a pb 70 min 28 sec at the Wokingham Half Marathon and the week before the marathon I’d run a good leg at the Southern 12 stage, now it was time to ease down and make my final preparations for the race.

On race day I was so pleased it was dry, in fact not only was it dry but the sun was shining and it was actually quite warm as I arrived at Greenwich. It was great to have a place on the championship start as I was well looked after, plenty to eat and drink (though I ate nothing and just sipped water, no point in changing the pre-race preparation plan). It was nice to have our own toilet block, which meant no queues, I paid a visit every 10 minutes as I made sure I started the race with an empty bladder. I had a fear that I might have to keep stopping to pee in the race and this would destroy both my time and my rhythm, and it worked as I ran the whole distance without one stop, actually it took me a further four hours after the race before I could pee again. Having said that I was amazed to see 4 runners peeing up the side of the road within the first 4 mins, clearly they were talented runners to have been ahead of me at that point but what sort of talented runner is so unprepared as to require a pee within 4 minutes of starting a race?

What was also good about being on the championship start was that there were lots of other runners I knew, though I had few conversations as I didn’t want to waste energy talking too much. We had a prime viewing position as the Ladies race set off 45 minutes ahead of us, it was already getting quite hot and I was desperate to start as I didn’t really want it to get much hotter.

Finally it was our time to go, I must’ve been about 12 rows back at the start, an unusual situation for me as I was usually on the front row of a road race start, but I didn’t mind as I wanted to start steady. I’d planned 5 min 40 sec mile pace and everybody told me the first mile would be quicker so I set off very relaxed, maybe too relaxed as I went through the first mile in 5:48. But I didn’t panic and soon got onto target pace. David had advised me to take a drink at each mile point until about mile 20, I thought he was mad as I’d run half marathons without taking water but I gave him the respect he deserved and agreed to take on water every 2^nd mile. As it turned out I was almost desperate for water at mile one and changed my plan to take it every mile (nice one David, coach knows best). I’d also decided to avoid the showers that are provided on the course but when I reached them I ran under them with relief as the temperature was still rising.

I reached Tower Bridge and I was starting to feel it but still I was on target to go sub 2:30, I surprisingly passed Mike Simpson on the Bridge, a very good runner, who dropped out soon after. When we got into the Canary Wharf area I was really starting to feel the pain and completely ignored the shouts of encouragement from my friend Alaster Stewart as he kept popping up at different places on the course. I felt like I was crawling now, it was such a mental task to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Actually I should point out that one of the great things about being a London athlete in the London marathon is that you know a lot of watching athletes and this is one race where it doesn’t matter which club you belong to, it’s man against the distance and every runner from whichever club will encourage you, even if they don’t know you to talk to.

I reached 17 miles and I’d had enough, I’d already passed Dave Mitchinson, another very good runner, who was standing on the roadside clearly having had enough himself, but I kept on going. My brain was telling me that there was no point in stopping now as I wasn’t sure what I’d do if I did, I knew there were friends up the road who would be disappointed if I didn’t go past them and if I gave up now it meant I’d have to do it all again. A few miles further up the road I reached the area I worked and trained in, the familiarity of the roads, and the fact that I was starting to catch and pass some of the ladies who set off 45 min before me, gave me a much needed boost and I relaxed back into pace. As I emerged from the Blackfriars underpass I received a big cheer from a group of Belgrave friends and this gave me the urge to push on. There was not much more distance to go now but I knew I was going to be outside 2:30. Still, knowing my friend Paul Coughlan had run 2:35 inspired me to work hard to try to beat his time. I started to pass a few struggling men and this seemed to be picked up by the crowd who urged me on further , it helped having ‘Belgrave’ across my chest as it encouraged them to shout ‘come on Belgrave’ and this gave me a lift.

800m to go and there was the cheer from my wife, she was on the other side of the road to normal and I nearly missed her, but I recognised the voice amongst all the others, no stopping for me to chat to spectators I was going to beat Paul Coughlan. As I approached Buckingham Palace my mind was focusing on one thing only, to keep to the blue line showing the shortest route. Unfortunately that must’ve also been on the mind of the chap I’d jut caught up and we clashed elbows a few times, causing one spectator to shout ‘no need to fight’, before I pulled away to finish in 2:34:10. I’d done it, I’d finished the marathon, and whilst I hadn’t gone sub 2:30 I’d beaten Paul Coughlan’s time.

Did I enjoy it? Not one bit whilst I was running it, but over the next week I kept having flashbacks and in hindsight yes I did.

Will I do it again? Not a chance, I would actually love to but I’ve not had a strong enough desire and, at 46, I can’t see me topping 2:34.

Would I recommend it to anyone? Most definitely, London is a great event and the training is character building.

So to finish off this rather long winded blog I’d like to wish everybody, running on Sunday, the best of luck. Particularly the many athletes I know who will be aiming for good times and especially to the man I’ve been training for his world record attempt in carting a 40lb rucksack along the course, Lee Riley. May you all succeed in your goal and if you don’t may you be satisfied with what you achieve. 

If you’re not totally bored and would like to read further about the marathon, a friend of mine, Will Cockerell, has written a book, ‘The 50 Greatest Marathon Races of All Time’  http://www.belgraveharriers.com/general/book_review.htm

Another friend of mine, Gaby Collison is writing a book at the moment, featuring interviews with many top marathon runners, I look forward to seeing that in print. And finally, for a shorter but interesting blog about the marathon visit another friends blog page http://www.thegirlthatruns.com/

As for what I’ve been up to, I’ve been having some knee problems this last week and pulled out of the National 12 Stage on Saturday. However I felt I was ok to try the Air Products 10k in Crewe on Sunday. Last week I’d predicted I was in 36 min shape but in reality I thought I should actually be closer to 35. As it turns out I’m still waiting for the official results but I clocked myself in at 34:58. Not an especially good time but my knee survived and, if I can clear the problem, I hope I can get closer to what I was running last year.  

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.