Running in Tatton Park

I really do like training in the Northwich area, there is so much variety and it has everything I need, except a tartan track. So I do the majority of my training around here. However, because I’ve built up my portfolio of clients in the Knutsford area, I’ve started to do more of my training in Tatton Park. In short: Tatton Park is a big area of parkland, owned by the National Trust but leased to Cheshire East Council, and they charge you for taking some vehicles into it. It also houses National Trust buildings and a garden, some nice lakes. Plus it hosts a number of events during the year. If you want to find out more about Tatton Park go to www.tattonpark.org.uk/ But I like going there for a ramble at the weekend, and, as I’ve already written, it’s a great place to do my training, particularly since I started to increase the length of my long runs.

At this time of the year it is probably at it’s best for an endurance athlete as the softer conditions underfoot, if you run on the grass, like I do, make the running that little bit harder and the sapping effect on your legs feels like you’ve done a hard run, even if you’ve only been a for a plod. I personally think that running on soft ground is a great way to build up leg strength, but of course it’s not the only way.

I’m not sure how to describe what I mean by soft ground. Too soft, i.e. waterlogged, and it becomes more of a pain than a pleasure. If your feet are constantly wet then it’s not doing you any good and if it’s too soft you’ll just be slipping around all the time. The grass needs to be firm enough to run on without fear of slipping but have just enough give to make each step a bit of hard work. The woodlands in Northwich are great for running around, it covers a vast area and changes from trail to forest to canal path and to road, but, although it’s softer than the road it drains well and doesn’t have the same give as parkland, so not the same sapping feeling. Having said that I know places where you can train that’ll sap the energy from your legs.

Tatton Park also has road, path and absolutely soggy patches but the bulk of it is good undulating parkland, with just the right level of firmness that I like. The uneven surfaces and undulations make you work your core and ankles as well as all the leg muscles. For any of my London friends, or people who run in South West London, who might read this, it’s very similar to Richmond Park, which is still one of my favourite training venues. So runners of Knutsford, get off those treadmills and go try some fantastic undulating parkland, and while you’re at it, look out for me and say hello.

The other thing about this time of year that reminds me of my training runs in Richmond Park, are the rutting deer. They’re very noisy and, a little, scary with their enormous horns. I’m always keeping my eyes open for them as I run around, taking the occasional avoidance route around a group of potentially testosterone fuelled males. A couple of times, in Richmond Park, I had stags charging at me, but I had the good fortune to be with a slower running partner, plus I was a lot younger and did have a decent kick. These days I’m generally on my own, am a lot slower and have the kick of a 3 legged race participant, hence I give the deer a wide berth.

I’m not sure if it’s the running around Tatton Park, the readiness to outkick a deer or the fact that I feel so much a part of the Salford Harriers setup that is making me feel like I’m running well. I’m certainly a lot happier knowing that I have more purpose to my training and it’s great to feel part of a team again. That’s not to say I wasn’t part of a team at Herne Hill, they’re a great bunch of guys, but being some 200 miles away meant I rarely saw them and that was what I was missing. I absolutely love running in relays and that’s just not been that possible for the last few years, while I’ve been the only Herne Hiller in the village.

This weekend I got another opportunity to feed my love for relays with my 3^rd relay race in 4 weeks for Salford. This one was a little more low key, the Manchester University Relays, and a number of our top guys gave it a miss, which meant I was elevated to the A team. There’s something special, for an ambitious runner like myself, about making the A team and it does add a little bit of pressure to not let the team down, but I love that pressure, just like I love the pressure of being handed over to in first place in a National relay event. I feel that it gives me that extra bit of drive to run that little bit harder.

Coming up to the weekend I was still recovering from my cold, by Wednesday I felt ok to push myself a bit in training and did so, but I didn’t feel 100%. There were no more hard training sessions planned after that, before the race, so come race day I was a tad nervous about how my cold would affect my performance. Having gained promotion to the A team I didn’t want to appear an A team flop.

Travelling to the venue was an experience in itself, I didn’t know the way so used sat nav. Now I’m not saying I’ve got the thickest sat nav in the country but it took me to the Trafford watersports centre. Then it tried to tell me I was at my destination in the middle lane of the M60, finally I arrived at Wythenshawe hospital. By now I was a little frustrated and rang up Sean the Man. If I hadn’t got hold of Sean I think I would have gone home, but, as luck would have it, Sean actually answered his phone. He gave me some hints and I set off again. After another circuitous journey and some help from Sale Harriers, I didn’t tell them I was with Salford, I arrived at the venue and promptly found myself on first leg, handing over to Tom Cornthwaite. For those who don’t know, he’s pretty good, was 21^st in the World Mountain running championships in 2011. So understandably I didn’t want to hand Tom over in a rubbish position, though I did think it was appropriate to give him something to chase.

As the race started I was swamped by a mass of teenagers, someone must’ve shouted ‘free beer’. But after a short while I started to move through the field as youthful exuberance and the realisation that the free beer was about 2 miles away started to take it’s toll. Clearly some of these youngsters were actually good runners and not just here for the beer, so I wasn’t going to get to the front, but I pushed through the pain barrier to ensure I was within sight of the front runners at the finish. As I finished I glanced down at my watch, which said 9:55 (actual time 9:54). Beforehand I’d read up about the race and it was apparently 2.1 miles with a course record, held by our own Andi Jones, of 10:18. Had I finished in first place I’d have thought I was running pretty well, but the fact that there were 13 runners ahead of me made me think that the course had changed (indeed it had, for some reason they’d cut out a couple of fields). So I’m not exactly sure how far the run was but I ran hard and was quite happy with the time, when I finally got a chance to compare it against the other runners. Tom did manage to tear through the field and the rest of the team ran really well to get us an end position of 11^th. I’m happy with that.

The next race I’m planning to do is a full length cross country race, i.e somewhere between 5 miles and 10k. That’ll be a real challenge for me, after all the short races I’ve run recently.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

My Gym Is A Very, Very, Very Nice Gym

I know people who have bits and pieces of fitness equipment around their house, I’ve also come across people who have their own multi-gym or even a bigger full sized one. But having a gym of your own is not always possible, firstly there is the cost and then there’s the issue of having a room available to use as a gym. If the truth be known, for most of my life, I never had any inclination to have a gym myself. I’ll admit to having bought a pair of 1.5kg dumb bells when I was a teenager (yep I was even more slight in those days and that was about the extent to what I could lift), in fact I still have them and yes I do use them, though only on some of my more genteel clients. However, when I’d had a couple of years suffering running related injuries I bought some cardio machines to help me stay fit with less impact. My first cardio machine sat in my lounge when I lived in a one bed flat, yes I was single at the time. Eventually, when I started making some good money I progressed to a bigger house and was able to use the loft space as a cardio room – still not a full gym, my weights were in my parents garage and at that stage of my life I had no desire to use weights anyway. In fact it wasn’t until about two years ago that I started doing anything with weights or even core exercises. You could take that statement and ask who needs core exercises if I can run as well as I did without them, to which my answer would be that I wish I had done them earlier as it may well have made a difference and may have saved me from some of the injuries I suffered. Oh well no point in crying over lost opportunities, just get out there and seek some more.

Now that I’m much more aware of exercising I have an array of equipment, to which I keep adding. This is equipment I use for myself and also with my clients. For the past two years we’ve been living in rented accommodation, whilst we tried to sell Carole’s place in Gorebridge. This restricted both how much equipment I could store and where I could workout. But now we’ve finally settled in Northwich, in our own place, and it opens up the opportunity for me to consider my gym situation. The beauty of this house is that there is a separate room that I can use to store my equipment but also carry out effective workouts. At the moment I only use it for abs/core, weights and kettlebell workouts but my intention is to bring my cardio equipment down from Edinburgh to make it a more effective gym for overall fitness. This will be good for me and also good for any clients who want to visit me to carry out their training sessions. 

So what do I have in my gym:

Interchangeable weights

Light dumbbells

Kettlebells

Ankle weights

Boxing pads and gloves

Wobble board

Skipping rope

Trampete

Football

Swiss ball

Small core ball

Exercise mat

Weight gloves

All the equipment one needs to create effective workout sessions. Soon, hopefully, I’ll have my cardio equipment and I’m considering getting a trx system, but we’ll see, and no doubt I’ll be adding to my kettlebell collection (I’m already adapting to the 12kg one so next I’ll be looking to get a 16kg one).

Of course the gym needs to be painted and needs a certain amount of personalisation. Lee Riley sent me a copy of a newspaper with a write up on his World Record breaking run and he’s added a little thank you note and his autograph, which nicely personalises it and stands as a reminder of the small part I played in his success, so I’m going to get that framed and put up – once I can find it in all the piles we’ve been moving from room to room.

Whilst I’m thinking about the gym it’s now time for me to get going and do a session, if I’m able, while we were moving furniture at the weekend I dropped a unit and pulled a small muscle in my back as I tried to catch it. It doesn’t stop me running, as I proved yesterday, when I did a big session but I don’t know how it will work lifting and twisting, I could feel it this morning when I was demonstrating exercises to clients so we’ll see how things go.

I should point out that Carole is pleased that she is no longer finding bits of equipment strewn throughout the house and that visitors no longer have to walk into a room to find me contorted and sweaty.

I’ve also been writing an article for a local magazine, which will hopefully be published. The magazine wanted some pictures of me, unfortunately, as many people will know, I don’t take a good action photo as my face gets awfully contorted due to the level of exertion I put into stuff. I’ve sent along a few recent pictures of me running for Herne Hill, even the one of me leading the first leg of the Southern Masters Road Relay, which Julian Critchlow likes so much. But the magazine have selected one of me running the East District Cross Country Relays for Edinburgh AC, that they found on the internet. I also had some photos taken of me in the gym and doing some kettlebell stuff but I wasn’t smiling so it’s back to the photographer to get some more. But I might as well include a couple. 

Rog in his Gym

Now you can see for yourself how weedy I am

Why I like Northwich, from a fitness perspective and other reasons

From the age of 7 until I flew the nest at 18 I lived in a village called Holmes Chapel.

You may not have heard of this village, until the X Factor put it on the map as it’s the same village that Harry Styles, of One Direction, lived in at the time. He even worked in Mandeville’s, which I recall used to make a good pork pie. Holmes Chapel is situated about 8-9 miles away from Northwich but, because I went to school in Crewe, my friends and social life were very much in Crewe and Nantwich. It wasn’t until the Sixth form, when I became good friends with Simon Foster, that he introduced me to the drinking dens of Northwich.

Of course Northwich was much smaller in those days and, other than the Bee Hive pub, I don’t actually remember a great deal about it. Since I left school I’ve been living in London and Edinburgh, so Northwich became a bit of a forgotten place to me. Two years ago my partner was relocated to Cheshire, with her job, and, as I’d had enough of 12 hour shifts, I made sure I was in a position to be given redundancy to enable me to move with her. This meant we would come to Cheshire together to start another new life. Unfortunately the terms of my contract, and, as those in the know will know, I don’t break contracts, meant I wouldn’t finish up in Edinburgh until December but Carole would be down in August. What this meant was that Carole bypassed Northwich, in her search for accommodation, and we ended up in Hassall Green. Now I have nothing against Hassall Green, it is a nice little village (a little too close to the M6) and has some great running along the canal, plus it’s near to Sandbach which is a really nice small town and the scene of my first ‘Run with Rog’ sessions, however, it’s too rural for me, after 23 years living in capital cities.

When our contract, on that house, ended I was able to persuade Carole to take a look at Northwich. This would give us a chance to get to know another part of Cheshire, to help us to decide where to buy a place of our own. So last July we moved into a house in the Kingsmead area of Northwich (this area was just fields in my Bee Hive days but is now a nicely laid out area of Northwich). As is the case whenever I move somewhere knew, I quickly get out on a run and try to discover as much of the place as I can. I was pleasantly surprised, what a truly attractive place Northwich has become.

So lets start off with Northwich from a runners perspective, though you can count cycling in this as many of the running routes are also suitable for cycling. There are countless runs that can be done. You can run along the river Weaver, almost into town, and out as far as Winsford (I say as far as Winsford as I’m still on a max distance of 7 miles running and my bike’s still in Edinburgh, it may be that you can run further and no doubt one of my VRAC friends could point that out). You can also run along the A556 for some distance in either way, this is often a route I use when doing my repetitions and running with clients, though I’m finding more places each week (more about a challenging run I’ve just found later). There are a few small parks near town, which you could aim for but another of my favourite running places is the conglomeration of parks at the top end of town (Carey Park, Neumann’s Flash, Ashton Flash, Marbury Country Park, Anderton Wildlife Park, etc) which run for miles and offers some great terrain for training in, there is also a canal that runs through it as well as the river Weaver on the edge of it. It was here that I organised Lee Riley’s killer session on his way to breaking the Marathon World record. This is a great area of open parkland and I often use it for taking a nice casual walk after a hard training session. Parts of the park are also used for horse riding. Of course there are many more places to run, which I’ve still to discover but this is a good starting point. I’m sure my friends at VRAC know many more, I know they train at Gadbrooke Park for part of the year because I trained there with them for a while. And there is another point, if you are an athlete, like myself, Vale Royal AC are a really friendly club to be associated with. Of course my allegiance is still with Herne Hill Harriers, but I’m friendly with a number of the VRAC athletes – though work has meant I haven’t seen them in weeks.

Of course not everybody likes running but, as I’ve mentioned, a lot of the above is also suitable for cycling, walking or horse riding. You could also use in-line skates on the tarmac’d paths. Northwich also boast it’s own rowing club, why wouldn’t you when you have a great river running through the town, plus the Sir John Deane’s College appears to have it’s own club for pupils there. Rowing is something I’ve never tried for real, I’ve used a concept II as part of my training regime to great effect, though I’m currently waiting for a convenient time to bring that down from Edinburgh, but I wonder how good I might be. Maybe it’s something I’ll look into if I suffer from injury again, or, perish the thought, get board of running. Anglers also use the river, often my only company on my early morning runs.  

Tennis is another sport where there is a club in Hartford, is Hartford a separate place to Northwich or is it a bit like Leith in Edinburgh? I’ll leave the established locals to fight that one out, all I know is that you pay a lot more for a house in Hartford but you get a lot less for such a large amount.

There are gyms in Northwich, there’s LA Fitness, for those who like to be associated with a big gym, also Dave’s gym, which charges from £1 a session, and a ladies only gym (which I can never remember the name of seeing as I’m no lady). There’s Moss Farm Leisure complex, which hosts a number of leisure interests, Winnington Park Recreation Club, which hosts cricket, hockey, bowls, archery, football, and table tennis amongst other things, and Sir John Deane’s College which has football and badminton as well. There is also an outdoor fitness suite in Vickers Way Park, which is suitable for inexperienced people to try some light exercise. Having my own gym (more about that in a later blog) I have not yet tried out the Northwich gyms.

I read in the news last week that a new boxing club has been set up in Queen Street. It doesn’t just cater for boxing but will have martial arts classes too. I go past it on some of my runs so maybe I’ll check it out sometime.

There appears to be a good following for motorbikes, perhaps due to the proximity to Oulton Park, and every year there is a motorbike Thundersprint competition, which takes place in the town centre. I went along this year and it was quite fun, but if you’re really interested in motorbikes you would really enjoy it. You may ask where this fits in with fitness but it’s still sport, isn’t it! Plus I like to promote local things, as I’m now a local.  

Northwich also has football teams; Northwich Victoria and Witton Albion (don’t ask me which league, quite a way down from the Premiership) plus a Rugby Union club, there may also be other minor league teams, and of course you are not far from the heartland of Rugby League or the great football teams that grace Manchester and Liverpool, not forgetting Crewe Alex (or my nephews will be mad with me).

Northwich is where I base my Personal Training business, whilst I cover the whole of Cheshire, I’m looking to concentrate more of my business within the Northwich area, there is so much to take advantage of here and with my capacity for creating varied sessions in different locations I look forward to receiving more clients from the area.

Of course there may well be numerous other fitness / sports related things to do in Northwich, but I’ve only been here a few months and I don’t know everything yet.

But, getting back to the point of why I like Northwich. I think it is a great place to get fit, by whatever means you choose, and there are many different walks for pleasure along the river or in the parks. It’s also only a few miles away from Delamere Forest and Tatton Park. Communications with Manchester and airport, Liverpool and airport and Chester are really good and you are close to the M6, making travel up and down the country easy. The people appear to be friendly and the town centre does have it’s own charm to it, though it’s in need of a bit of a refresh. We could do with a cinema and some restaurants in town but then it would need the local people to support them. Now that we’ve bought our place, and I have my own gym, I really feel at home here and hope that the, promised, regeneration of Northwich goes ahead, as I believe, with the right planning, Northwich can become somewhere desirable for people to, both live and visit. 

Enough about Northwich, what about me. I’ve just started my build up to winter training. I know that sounds a bit daft with Summer just beginning, but because I was lacking fitness at the start of the year I’ve been gradually building this up. I’m now at the point where I can really put the effort in and build up on that 7 mile max I’m on currently. My quality efforts are scheduled to gradually increase in length each session, up to the 30 min marker (then maybe I’ll push out to 40), plus I’ve found a really good circuit of uphill grassland which I’m hoping will not only get me cross country fit but will help me knock Jeff Whittington off the top spot at Pennington Flash. Jeff ran a fantastic race last Saturday, setting a new pb and moving to the top of the age graded results, by a big margin. I think if I’m to knock him off that spot I’ll have to break the course record, that’s a pb by 40 seconds. Can I do it, you bettcha, well I’ll give it a go anyway. SMART or THICK goal, you decide.

Moving Home

Anyone who has been reading my blogs over the last few weeks will know that I have been moving home, with some degree of difficulty. I’ve managed to continue with my weekly blog, though due to moving around between computers it appears to have caused some formatting issues. Also there have been a few typos creeping in. So apologies if you’ve considered moving onto someone else’s blog, but I hope I can get back on track and write blogs that keep you both informed and entertained. On that note, it would be nice to get some feedback on what you think of the blogs, any subjects you’d be interested in me covering. There is a place for entering public comments, I know that doesn’t always suit everybody so feel free to email me at rogalsop@googlemail.com.

I’d always known that moving home was supposed to be stressful, but if you search the internet you’ll find lists that vary it’s position from top 5 to top 10 to out of the top 10 completely. One has going to jail as higher, which I suppose it would be if you went to jail. Clearly the stats can be weighted any way you like, I’m sure more people move homes than go to jail, but how stressful is moving from jail to another jail. Anyway to cut a long discussion short, yes I agree, moving home can be stressful.

I don’t do it that often, at least I try not to, but this time, like the previous time the move was instigated through a change in job. I thought this time would be different, I’m self employed so I thought it would be easy to juggle my work commitments around house purchase activities, as long as I made sure I kept a clear space each day when I could be close to my solicitors. We left it a few weeks, from making the offer, to handing in our two months notice on the rental property, which gave us 10 weeks in a supposed chain freeish situation. Plenty of time, with a good amount of contingency, which could be put to good use decorating, etc, if we got the chance.

But as it turned out, the original expected completion date was missed, in fact it was only then that we realised how far we were away as many things had not been carried out by the vendors, on the plus side we’d done everything the solicitors asked, ahead of time – planning never too far away from my heart. Despite missing the first expected completion date we still had the contingency and the vendors were now pushing to get their end sorted, but as it turned out this didn’t work out either. An extension of a few days in rented and then the short move from Northwich to Northwich became a move from Northwich to Holmes Chapel to Northwich. Half our stuff went into storage and the other half went into my parents house, along with us, and my sister’s house. Thank goodness for families, though they may not be feeling the same way. Of course mum and dad wouldn’t take any money so I gave my mum a free kettlebell session instead, boy was I impressed as she swung the kettle around like a sprightly teenager, managing two sets of 5 exercises, not bad for a 76 year old. She would have done more but ‘Loose Women’ got in the way.

Naturally my training had to suffer as I was packing and shifting, but I was still able to continue training on a daily basis. Runs were kept short, to 6 miles, and abs/core and Kettles were kept to 15 minute segments. Completion took place on 3 June and, as I was due to race the following day, it coincided with a rest day. Some rest day, spent directing, and helping, the removal men, moving carloads of stuff from Holmes Chapel to Northwich and spending the afternoon cleaning the kitchen, which I have to say was in a pretty poor state. Once again my mum showed she’s not ready for the retirement home yet as she joined me on scrubbing duty.

Saturday, race day. The Peter Lowe Memorial 5k at Hollins Green. I ran this race last year, finishing 5^th in 16:03, and really enjoyed the friendly atmosphere. Spectrum Striders organise the event and they’re a really nice bunch too. Bill, who organises the Pennington Flash Parkruns was also there and it was nice to see him get a run for a change, though he was the official last man so I’m sure it was an easy one for him. After all the cleaning and shifting, I wasn’t exactly in the mood for a race, but with it being a nice sunny and warm day, and seeing an opportunity for a break from unpacking and cleaning I decided to give it a go, albeit I decided on taking it steady and having a social run instead of trying to achieve anything. (Social runs don’t feature in my vocabulary very often, I usually use the term cross country). I did run steady, though I ran a faster steady than I expected, I really enjoyed myself, though the last km was uphill and into the wind and seemed to go on forever. Surprised with 12^th position and first M45 in 16:39. Ray, who’s been training really well with me, knocked over 30 seconds off his pb with a 22:17 clocking and Carole, who doesn’t get out much, found it really enjoyable too, but obviously didn’t run hard enough as she had a kick left at the end. Once again the organisation was faultless and the fun run went smoothly too. The only down side for me was the attitude of a runner from Styal AC. I’m always very grateful for all the support I get at races so as soon as I finish I jog back along the course, thanking the marshals and encouraging the runners still coming in. This particular idiot, not happy with my support, told me to F Off. I had the last laugh though as I jogged back I saw him lying on the grass totally breathless, that’s the kind of attitude we don’t need in athletics, particularly at an event where there are so many children around.

It’s now Wednesday, a little later than usual for my blog, but I’ve had a busy time with clients, shopping and unpacking. Today we’ve had a washing machine and dishwasher fitted and we’re thinking about a new cooker and decorators and doing stuff with the garden. Last night I had my first client to use my new gym, it also needs decorating and I need to organise my equipment and also bring some stuff down from Edinburgh, but it was nice to use it.