The Nightmare On Boggarts Hole Clough

It was an, almost, unique weekend for me, on the rare occasions where I’ve raced on both days the shorter Saturday race has helped me to a good race on Sunday. However, just because it’s happened on those rare occasions, I don’t go out of my way to seek double race weekends. There has to be a compromise somewhere and I do try to put family first, sometimes. Having said that, my relationship with Carole has blossomed to the point that she no longer gets frustrated when I focus my whole day on a race. And it’s a change I’ve taken complete advantage of by choosing to race just about every weekend this winter. She has developed an understanding of my desire to race and is starting to incorporate herself into my race weekends rather than be opposed to them. She’s even starting to enjoy standing around in mud for 40 minutes whilst I slog my way around a cross country course, now that’s true love. Or is it? I receive a post from one of my Pennington Flash pals, Shelle Bradley, who stated that her husband had run a race alongside another lady but, instead of going through the finish line with the other lady, he had turned round and gone back for Shelle and shared her finishing time. Now if that isn’t true love I don’t know what is, but no matter how much I love Carole, there is no way I’m ever going to share her finishing time.

I hadn’t originally planned to race both days, I had thought the cross country race was on Saturday, luckily one of my Salford team mates reminded me the race was on Sunday. So this prompted the idea to go to the Congleton parkrun, on Saturday, after all it was time Carole ran it. I’d also persuaded one of my clients, Katy, to go along. I’ve always thought that Katy and Ray were about the same standard, now was a chance that I would be proven correct as Ray and Sharon were also planning to go along.

The week prior had been pretty dismal, weather wise, this, combined with the fact I had a busy gym week with clients, led me to do my quality sessions on the treadmill. It was great for getting my legs turning over faster as, despite warm ups, warm downs and recoveries between reps, I was comfortably running 10k in 35 minutes. But the down side is that treadmills make my calf muscles tighten and no matter how much I stretched or rolled them they were still a little tight on the Saturday morning, still it was only a parkrun, not that important, until Malcolm Fowler turned up!

I hadn’t wanted a hard run but there was no way I was going to let Malcolm get the better of me again. But it wasn’t Malcolm I had to worry about today as he damaged his hamstring somewhere around the course, I wasn’t aware at the time I just kept pushing to the finish as I knew Malcolm would pounce if I slowed and offered any sign of weakness. But the run was won by Tom Bush, another local rival. He and his wife, Olivia, just seemed to have a bit more pace than me, on the day, as I finished in 3^rd place.

Carole and Sharon both had good runs but as I jogged around after the finish I saw Ray and Katy coming towards the finish, neck and neck. My theory proved I was intrigued as to who would come in first, and then Katy kicked. With only 2 seconds between them I’m looking forward to lots more inter-client showdowns.

So Sunday and Boggarts Hole Clough was the setting for the Manchester Area Cross Country League. I’ve never been there before but I guessed it would be a tough course. Still it’s all good strengthening work for me. On arrival I started checking out the course but when it got a bit muddy I decided it could wait until the first lap. As I walked back to where all the athletes congregated I bumped into James Jackson, James and I competed against each other on many occasions in the Surrey League, back when we were youngsters, when James moved up North he joined Salford Harrriers, but he hasn’t run for them for some time. Looks like he’s rekindling his competitive spirit and thinking about getting back into the Masters running scene. It’ll be some team with my old rivals from London, James and Paul Simons, plus the current crop of talented oldies and the addition of my mate Rob Tudor. So look out for Salford.

Just before the start of the race I went for a short jog and ended up getting my left leg entangled in a bramble, as the bramble untangled itself it ripped some interesting patterns into my skin, brilliant 4 minutes to the start and I’ve got blood oozing out of my lower leg. This reminded me of my comeback race, three years ago, I was just heading to the start line of the National Cross Country Champs when some idiot ran his spikes down the back of my leg.

Then we were off and I was immediately swamped by a horde of faster starting runners. The first part of the course was winding through boggy grassland and I was caught in a big huddle of runners, having my pace dictated to me. I could see Graham MacNeil up ahead and about to pull a big gap on me, but I figured that three laps would pull me through the field. The 2^nd part of the course was through wooded trails, and this is where I got caught out. The trail was so narrow and twisty and yet covered in thick sticky mud, with tree trunks running through it. I was in danger of having my shoes sucked. This was real hell for me, I really struggled through this patch and it even stopped me dead at one point. Back to the first part of the course and I managed to get into my stride, the field having elongated. I was passing people all the way round here but dreading the muddy patch I now knew was coming. Second time around, although bad, I managed to navigate the tricky muddy part by adapting my style to that more akin to a ballerina (I don’t have the most attractive running style at the best of times but I was grateful Sid Sacks wasn’t here taking photos of me. Then it was onto the 3^rd lap and, although my legs were no feeling tired from all the races, training and ballet practice, I was still picking people off. As I navigated the mud this time round I remember thinking how horrible this was, I may not be a star cross country runner but I do enjoy it, however, frankly, this is one course I could never grow to love. I pushed hard towards the finish but had nothing left to sprint with at the end.

Despite what I thought was a bad run, I finished in my highest position in the league, 27^th and 2^nd M45. This is probably because loads of people didn’t turn up, having raced Boggarts Hole Clough before. I’m currently lying 2^nd overall in the M45 section. No chance of winning that as Rob Downs has won all the fixtures, but I do have a chance to slip down, the scoring is based on your best 3 races so I’m sure the likes of Ian Wetherall, Malcolm Fowler and Dave Lockett will have a say in that, they haven’t finished 3 races yet so the last race is crucial. With Dave missing out today it also gave me maximum points in the Salford Harriers cross country Masters champs. So I do have a chance to win that competition after all, but I’ll have to beat Dave to do so. Although I genuinely hated the course at the time, and probably for a couple of days after that’s actually the sort of thing that will make me turn up again, I can’t have a cross country course be the master of me, I have to master the cross country course. I’m not saying I’m in a hurry to return and I’m not promising I will be back, but don’t rule me out.

This week’s been quite interesting. On Monday I was interviewed by a journalist who is writing an article on older runners, for Runners World. I don’t know when it’s coming out, nor how much of what I said will make the final article. But it was an interesting chat. The other big event of this week is my birthday, today. And what treat did I line myself up with….a double fartlek, Katy in the morning and Ray in the evening. Thanks to everybody who has wished me a happy birthday and don’t let the cold snap get you down.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Goodbye to Herne Hill Harriers

In many aspects of our lives there comes a time when you need to change something, be it a job, house, relationship, habit or whatever. Some decisions may be made on a whim, whilst others take a little more thought and discussion. I’ve had such a decision to make recently. The decision of should I stay or should I leave Herne Hill Harriers.

You might think it would be an easy decision to make, but it’s not for me. When I join an athletics club that club becomes a part of me and hopefully I become a significant part of that club. Despite the fact that I’ve moved houses, jobs and locations on numerous occasions, my athletics club has always been important to me. I stayed at my first club, Belgrave Harriers, for 16 years, and only left because I felt there was no longer a place for me to compete in the team. It was a tough decision to make and took me well over a year before I decided it was time to move on.

Moving to Herne Hill Harriers, local rivals to Belgrave Harriers, was possibly not the best thing for Belgrave, but it was the best thing for me, a local club that was competing in areas I could be competitive and I was already friendly with a number of the team. I was made welcome at Herne Hill and our Masters section has been very successful during my stay. But now it’s time to move on from them.

When I left London for Edinburgh, Herne Hill were no longer my local team but I was able to continue with them, whilst running, in Scotland, for Edinburgh AC. But when I left Scotland for Cheshire, the rules, in England, were different and so I’ve been running a mostly lone race for Herne Hill Harriers, in local races. I haven’t been down to London for three years so my opportunities to run for the team have been limited and being a team man at heart this just isn’t working for me.

I’ve spent a good deal of time thinking through what I should do, I’ve held off because I was never absolutely sure I wouldn’t go back to Edinburgh or London, but my life has started to settle down in Cheshire and it looks like we’re here to stay. So now’s the time to move to a more local team, who I can compete with locally, particularly in the cross country events that I’ve missed so much. So last week, after 7 happy years, I handed in my resignation to Herne Hill. It’s a good time to move on, the club’s ladies have just won promotion in their UK Women’s League and the men are on target to reach the top in their League. So everything is positive at the club and I’m sure I won’t be missed.

Now to find a local team. My requirements are simple, it has to be local, running teams in cross country leagues. They should have a history, with great runners, past and present, to inspire me. Lastly they should have an active Masters section. I pulled together my wish list and looked at all the local clubs and one club stood out, head and shoulders above the rest. It’s an obvious place to go as I’m already friendly with a number of their members. So at the end of last week I sent in my application to join Salford Harriers and AC. Hopefully I’ll be accepted into the club at tonight’s committee meeting.

So I’d like to say goodbye to all my friends at Herne Hill Harriers, and I hope we can all remain friends, even if we’re now on opposing teams. Thank you for letting me be part of such a great club and I wish you lots of future success, unless of course you’re competing against me. And now it’s hello to Salford Harriers and AC, I look forward to running with you and hopefully playing a part in your future success.

This weekend it was exactly a year since I set my Pennington Flash parkrun pb. I’m running much better this year and after last week’s BMAF 5000m I’ve been training hard and with confidence all week. So on Saturday Carole, myself and Carole’s mum set off for Pennington Flash. It was my full intention to have a crack at Jeff Whittington’s age graded record, after all a few week’s ago I ran my 2^nd fastest time around the flash. Incidentally Carole’s mum wasn’t running, she was staying with us for the weekend and I didn’t trust her being left alone in the house as she’d start cleaning everything and putting things away in places I’d never find them again. So we volunteered her to marshal.

Come the race, and after the usual chat from Bill, I set off with intent. I knew instantly nobody had come with me and I focussed solely on the job at hand. I ran hard and I felt good, the rain shower on the first lap dampened my enthusiasm a little but I managed to ignore the stiff breeze. It was a little more slippery than I’d anticipated and I did have to navigate around the worst bits, but I really thought I was running a fast time. Starting on the 3^rd, and final, lap I felt a slight twinge in my hamstring but it didn’t stop me pushing. I took a look at my watch as I came into the final minute area, it had passed 16 minutes, well I must’ve got my checkpoint wrong, I was flying! But obviously I wasn’t, I crossed the line in 17:19, a full minute slower than my run, on the track, the previous week.

The fact that I was so far off the 16:40 I was aiming for could have had a negative effect on me, but I just reflected on how hard it is to run well around Pennington Flash. It was also a time trial, the next person in was over 2 minutes behind, and I’ve always run better in races than in time trials, though I do have quite a good reputation for relay events. So funnily enough it’s made me feel even more confident about my next race.

Also this weekend the Olympics started. I did enjoy most of the opening ceremony, I’ve never watched one before. But I have to say the BBC have really talked the Olympics to death and I do believe there is far too much coverage on BBC1. They should try to cover as much as possible on BBC Two, Three and Four, plus all the digital channels they seem to possess, and then round up all the highlights on BBC One at about 8pm. That would allow other, less sport minded people to get something out of their licence fee. Even I, who loves sport, can’t keep up with all the channel hopping.

And finally for the bad news, I thought the hamstring twinge was just a one off, but this morning, during a hard rep, it pulled painfully. Of course this just happened to occur at the furthest point away from home. Sensibly I stopped running hard straight away and jogged home. It’s tender and I don’t think it’s a significant pull so I’m hopeful a little rest will do it some good. Unfortunately I’m due to run with a number of clients this week, or not as may now be the case.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Jubilee 5k

The UK has experienced one of those weekends you only expect to experience once in your lifetime, a royal jubilee. But I’m old enough to remember the first one in the current series, back in 1977, at least I remember losing the game where you had to run across a patch of grass and put a football into a bucket, with your feet. Sadly my football skills did not match my talents as a runner and I approached the bucket first but ended up last. Oh well it’s all just a bad recurring nightmare now so time to move on. This jubilee I took the safe route by just running, keeping well away from footballs and buckets.

We’d originally considered visiting Scotland for the weekend, but that would have meant missing out on the Hollins Green 5k, one of my favourite races, which is organised by those awfully nice people at Spectrum Striders. In the end I persuaded Carole that, rather than endure hours stuck in traffic we should stick around Cheshire and do day trip stuff instead. The down side of this is that it’s been too long since we were last in Scotland and Carole’s becoming more English with every day, I’ve already spotted her trying on an England bikini and even she’s beginning to forget who Ken is. Of course the up side is that we got to do The Hollins Green 5k. The race is otherwise known as the Peter Lowe Memorial 5k, named after a Spectrum Striders club member who was killed whilst out training on the roads nearby.

I first ran Hollins Green two years ago, ideally placed in the calendar, two weeks before the BMAF 5k championship, I chose to run it to find out how I was going. This was the year I was running pretty well and I managed to come 5^th in the race in 16:03, taking the 1^st M45 prize. It worked a treat as two weeks later I took Silver in the BMAF champs, missing gold by 1 second, and ducking under 16 minutes, with 15:59, for the first time since I was 41. Last year I was still regaining my fitness after my long lay-off and I’d moved house the day before, but I couldn’t resist running again. A lot slower this time, 16:39, for 12^th place, but I still picked up the 1^st M45 prize, much to my surprise as this race attracts some good old age pensioners.

This year I feel like I’m on an upturn in my running form plus I’ve been working on my speed endurance a bit more, so I was keen to see how my time would compared with the previous years. I was also keen to try out my new racing flats I got in January.

Paulo Nutini would be proud

The last two years the race has been held on very hot days, but this time it was a British long holiday weekend, so the weather was cool and damp, thankfully not as bad as it was on the Sunday when it absolutely tipped down and ruined a number of street parties. I arrived with Carole and we met Ray there, both were also running, plus Ray had brought the family along for the fun run.

One of the nice things about this race is that it attracts a lot of the local runners I’ve become friends with, from clubs such as South Cheshire Harriers, Vale Royal and Wilmslow, as well as a few of the people who turn up at the Pennington Flash parkrun. It’s a friendly atmosphere and I enjoy having the chance to chat to my fellow competitors. It’s also quite competitive at the sharp end, which suits me too, just in case I re-discover my form of years gone by. The course is good too, pretty flat and not much traffic. Just before the start I bumped into Martin Swensson, whom I had beaten at Princes parkrun, we had a brief chat then it was off to the start point.

Ray asked me how I thought I’d do and I told him, I didn’t think I was yet in 2010 shape but I felt better than last year, so I was expecting somewhere between the two. However that morning I’d woken up with an irritated throat so was a bit worried that might affect me, I’d already been for a jog and come back coughing up.

As usual there was a mass charge for the first corner and once again I found myself back a bit on where I expected to finish, but it wasn’t long before I got into my stride and was overtaking runners. Recent training has given me confidence to run at a quicker pace and I felt comfortable going through the first 1k marker in 3:11 (ok it may not be the quick I used to do, or aspire to do again, but it’s still quicker than I’ve been doing for too long). By 2k I’d pretty much found my position in the race as there was only one person who came past me from here to the finish and I didn’t overtake anyone. It was here that Martin came up to me. I thought this was great because we could work together to maintain a strong pace, which we did for a bit, but then Martin seemed to find another gear that I couldn’t quite match. I’m not sure if it was the reluctance to push myself because of the cold or a slight lack of confidence but I let him go just enough to create a gap. Before long we’d reached the 3k marker, this race was going quickly but I had slowed a bit so needed to work a bit harder to get back up to pace. I worked hard and suddenly we were at the 4k marker. This was the point I’d jogged out to before the race and I seemed to remember that the 400m marker comes up pretty quick, in fact 600m later. I pushed hard, aiming at the guys just ahead of me, but we were all going at roughly the same pace so I didn’t catch any of them, still it stopped people from catching me, Graham McNeil was running well so I was sure he would be ready to capitalise on any weakness from me, then there was Mike Hatton in first M50 position, I wasn’t going to let an oldie but goldie beat me. I pushed all the way and finished 11^th in 16:28, an improvement on last year and for the third time in a row I was 1st M45. I was happy with that, but I’ll be a lot happier when I can get back below 16 minutes.

Carole was having her first run for weeks so it was good that she was able to take part. It was great that she managed to run the whole course without stopping and, although slower than last year, she at least now has something to aim at. Ray has come back into form, we’ve been concentrating more on 5k sharpness and it showed as he went under 21 minutes for the first time, with 20:53  It was also good to catch up with an old friend and occasional training partner, from my Belgrave days, Louise Blizzard, who had a fantastic run, coming in first lady in a personal best of 18:06.

Following a cool down and a drink Carole and I went off to watch Ray and the rest of his family taking part in the fun run and then to the presentation. With a 16:30 start to the race it makes a long day of it, but I really enjoy it so I hope to be back for more.

So how did the shoes perform? There was a little slipping on the wet roads, not enough to worry me and I’m sure that’ll stop once they’ve run a couple more races. I was wearing my ultra lite, thin Hilly socks, which left the shoes feeling a little roomy. This didn’t affect me but I’ll perhaps try slightly thicker socks next time.

We now had three more days to enjoy ourselves over the weekend. Unfortunately, as I already stated, Sunday was a washout, so Carole and I went to the pictures. I’d read about Snow White and the Huntsman and thought it might be worth seeing, but I was wrong, I didn’t actually think it was that well made, script was a bit obvious and the acting wasn’t at it’s best. On Monday, my cold started to come out a bit more, I was still able to train hard, though I wasn’t able to get to a treadmill to do my planned session. After breakfast we headed over to Wildboarclough to do a 7 mile walk, incorporating the highest peak in Cheshire, and have a picnic. Tuesday my cold was worse so it was easy running. It got a bit better as the day wore on so we went on a two hour bike ride, so nice to, finally, have our bikes in working order.

Also this weekend it was interesting to read about Anthony Whiteman becoming the first man, aged over 40, to run a sub 4 minute mile, achieving 3:58.79 in Nashville, Tennessee. I remember years ago when there was a lot of talk about who would be first to break this barrier. A number of International runners, big names of the past such as; Dave Moorcroft, John Walker and Steve Scott, were, apparently, chasing the mark, but it was Eamonn Coghlan who got there first in an indoor mile event in 1993. Nobody else has gone under 4 minutes, until this weekend.    

Finally an old friend of mine, former runner and a prodigious photographer and video recorder of many running feats has been putting a number of his photos onto facebook. So I thought I’d share a couple that feature me from days gone by. With thanks to Ray O’Donoghue.

The start of my stag weekend and the start of the Surrey Road Relays 2000, Robbie James (9) came 1st, Ed Prickett (7) came 2nd and I (1) came 3rd. I handed over to Kevin Quinn, Yacin Yusuf, Graham Adams, Jim Estall and Al Stewart but we still only took silver behind a very strong South London Harriers team, with Herne Hill Harriers in bronze.

The start of the Veterans AC Championships on Wimbledon Common. My first race as a Master and a victory, only my 2nd cross country victory. That's me on the left with 2nd place Richard Holland to my right and 3rd place Bill Gristwood to his right. 

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

The Whittington Legacy

If you run races, whether they are track, road, parkruns or whatever, once you’ve raced a few over the same distance you tend to get some rivals. These are people who finish around the same place as you, either in front or behind. You recognise them before, during and after the race and because they’re there, and around the same ability as you, you want to beat them. That’s what rivalry is all about, and it’s generally friendly, but more importantly it’s one of the things that helps you to improve.

Since I started running, some 23 years ago, I’ve had many of these rivalries, some of which are still going strong. The nice thing for me is that, even though I’ve been determined to beat these guys, whether I beat them or not, many of them have become great friends. To my knowledge none of them have become enemies, at least I don’t harbour any ill feelings.

The first rivalry I can remember was with one of my own Belgrave colleagues, it’s often said that your greatest rivals are your own team mates. This was Don Anderson and I wanted to beat him because he was the man who occupied 10^th place in the Belgrave scoring Surrey League team. When I did beat him it meant so much to me because it meant I’d achieve a scoring position with Belgrave and also I must’ve run well to beat someone I had great respect for.

As I progressed I remember many such rivalries with the likes of Victor Maughn, Mike Boyle, Graham Adams, Martin Lewington, Dave Robinson, Paul Simons, Gary Bishop, Andy Weir and many many more local and national athletes. In Scotland I also had some great racing rivals, the likes of Andy Little, Ian Johnston, Jeff Farquhar, Ian Stewart, Craig McBurney and many of my EAC team mates. Now back in Cheshire there are some local guys I come across regularly and I’m sure they want to beat me as much as I want to beat them.

All these rivalries have been with athletes finishing around the same time as me, but I have one other rival that gives me some purpose every time I turn up at Pennington Flash. This is a man named Jeff Whittington. Jeff is in his 60’s and has four outright wins over the course, so he’s no slouch, but we’re not that close, physically, in races. However when you take into account age grading, we are often as close as a few inches. Jeff holds the current record at 85.65%, with a time of 19:24. My own best time of 16:56 is only good enough for 84.62%. So you see I have some way to go before I can claim the scalp of Jeff Whittington. Obviously we don’t run those times every time we run so there is always a possibility that I might beat Jeff’s age grading for any particular parkrun that we are both doing, that’s what keeps me pushing hard if I’m at the front with a big lead, at that point I’m not bothered about the guy behind me, I’m more concerned about how fast Jeff is running and therefore push for every second. It’s a good motivator and helps me to keep from slipping below the 18 minute mark. Naturally this rivalry with Jeff is of the nicest possible nature and it will be even nicer when I finally get the beating of him…..

I produced my 16:56 around this time last year, the closest I’ve got to it since then has been 17:13 and with times this year of 17:48 and 17:36 I’d pretty much given up on being able to catch Jeff, at least until I turn 50 and my age grading changes, mind you by then so will his. However, consistent hard training has shown a sudden rise in form and with that rise in form it’s given me some added confidence. A win at Princes parkrun in 16:45 had me believing Jeff’s age grading could be beaten. Admittedly that time is only 11 seconds better than my Pennington Flash time, on a much easier course, but confidence is a wonderful thing. And this made me start plotting for an assault on the Jeff record.

I was training with Ray on Wednesday and told him I was planning an assault on Saturday and that I was going to aim for 16:40. Ray was due to race a triathlon in Nantwich on Sunday so he wouldn’t run but he was keen to marshal. So come Saturday morning we drove up to Pennington Flash, I even considered wearing my racing flats but decided not to bother. The forecast was hot, suits me, but windy, um not very good, oh well all you can do is try and I was in the mood whatever the weather.

Normally I treat these parkruns as an indicator of my form, I don’t deliberately ease off and I’m pretty chilled before the race. This time I was a little bit more serious, ok I didn’t ease off on my training and I was wearing training shoes but I was more focussed, I’d thought through what I was going to do and I was psyching myself up a little. We actually arrived a little early, and boy was it hot. There weren’t many people around when we got to the start, but parkruns are notorious for people turning up at the last minute. Being so sunny and hot I kept under the trees and did a bit of shade bathing, checking out people as they started to appear, wondering if there was going to be a sub 17 minute runner I could latch onto, but nobody looked like they were in that shape. Then Jeff’s son, Harvey turned up, and he had in tow his brother Russell. Russell had been once before and won, so he knew the course, he’s also a Scottish international and shares, with Jeff, a world record for running the fastest father and son marathon. So Jeff wasn’t here to give me a race but Russell was, I couldn’t remember what time he’d won it in previously but I believed it wasn’t that much slower than mine so I was expecting a stiff fight. We had a chat, more friendly rivalry about to commence and then it was time to get ready for the off. I was so focussed at the start I wasn’t even listening to what Bill was saying in his pre-event chat, but I’m sure it was interesting, as always.

Then we were off and I’d decided the best way to achieve my goal was to go hard from the start, which I did. Last time I ran at Pennington Flash I won in 17:36 but I felt like I was out of breath from the top of the first hill, not this time, I felt good and pushed on. A quick look at the top of the 2^nd hill to confirm Russell was my nearest rival. He didn’t look too far back so I was thinking that if I’d got the pacing wrong I was going to get beaten. Oh well if he’s going to beat me he’s going to have to work for it. I pushed on and at the top of the hill on the 2^nd lap Russell looked like he was the same distance back as on the previous lap. He was obviously running well so I’d better smash it some more. With one more lap to go, which would take just under 5 minutes and then the finish I was confident I could push harder, so I did, pushing all the way to the finish.

No I didn’t break Jeff’s age grading record, I was a bit off in my time goal, but I did win in my second fastest time around the course, 17:01. I wasn’t unhappy, I still have something to aim at. Then my customary jog back around the course, cheering on the other 99 competitors and thanking the marshals, and off to the hut for a cup of tea and a chat with fellow competitors.

Ray ran his triathlon on Sunday, with a 1:23 finish. That probably doesn’t mean much to you but he finished the final 3 mile run in sub 24 minutes, not bad considering what had gone on before and the weather.

Rich ran in Edinburgh, the marathon, along with a number of my Edinburgh Athletic Club friends. He found it hard in the heat of the day, he was aiming at sub 3 hours, I thought we were close based on his training and half marathon time, which put us between 2:58 and 3:05, on my calculations. He ended up with 3:03, we were close and still a good time.

I should also point out that two week’s ago Lee finally got his official time for 400m, carrying 40lb on his back, down to 59.44. There’s a video of it on Youtube.

Great news for the Crewe fans in my family, in Crewe and loyal supporters around the world. Crewe were playing at Wembley on Sunday, in the Division 2 play-offs, and won. They’ll start next season in Division 1. Good advert for visiting Crewe, even if you’re not a train spotter, Terry Lawton.

Unlike other members of my family, I wasn’t down at Wembley, instead I was in Delamere Forest for an off-road and endurance training day. Now you might wonder what somebody of my experience and knowledge was doing on such a course, but you never stop learning so I was prepared to see what else I could pick up, and I did pick up some good tips, but I also got some great training and met a large number of Cheshire athletes, perhaps I won’t feel so lonely at races in future. Having made my comeback from injury, last year, in the National Cross Country Championships, it was good to chat to and pick up some tips from the winner of that event, Steve Vernon. I also got to try out orienteering, which was much more fun than I’d anticipated. We finished off with a ‘7’ mile run incorporating the forest and the sandstone trail, after which I was completely toasted, it was hot and the hill session with Steve Vernon had taken a bit out of me. Then it was back home to watch the Monaco GP, which after all the excitement of the weekend was a bit of a let down.

This week the torch relay comes through Cheshire, it’s been to Chester today, on Thursday it’s visiting the places I have a number of clients, Crewe, Congleton and Knutsford, but I think I might get away without any disruption to my travel plans.

Knowing that I’m running well and having gained some confidence in my running I’ve taken the plunge and entered my next big competition. I realise that if I’m going to achieve my goal I need to get my legs turning over more quickly, which means going back to doing dreaded track work. But no, my nearest track is at Winsford and, last time I went there it was full of ruts, so I’ve devised a plan using the treadmills at Cottons. I was there this morning doing the first of these sessions. I’m not going to go into details, just yet, don’t want my rivals to get any insight into my very specific training but I was running very hard for long periods of time. I was actually quite nervous, still suffering doms from Sunday, but once I’d done the first rep I felt much better. So I’m on target with my training, just need to fit it all in around my clients and, avoid injury. I’ve a few races lined up before the ‘big’ one, hopefully they’ll bring me on just a little bit more.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk  

What a Weekend of Sport

This was supposed to be a special weekend for me. I’m coming into some decent form and due to both; circumstances and specification, I’ve been fine tuning my training for the last month. The reason for this fine tuning was the British Masters Road Relays, which took place on Saturday. For a while, with my niggling knee and my back injury, I didn’t think I’d be able to run let alone be fit enough to make the strong Herne Hill team. I think the team had even written me off. But once my back was sorted and my knee niggle began to recede I knew I had a chance, but I’d have to be very focused in my training, not always easy when you have clients who want you to run with them at their pace.

A few week’s to go and I heard the news that we were aiming for the M45-54 6 stage race, rather than the M35-44 8 stage race that we had always run before, and been twice champions and twice runners up in the past 5 years. There were 7 good men chasing the 6 places and I knew, with no apparent form, I must be 7^th man. I needed to do some racing to get noticed and force my way into the team. And that’s exactly what I did, I ran the parkrun at Pennington, coming first in 17:36 and followed this up with the Mow Cop Killer Mile, where I managed a 7:55. Now these are times that wouldn’t make most people stand up with any sense of awe, but knowing the profile of these courses I knew what good results they were and that’s step one in the comeback, they gave me the confidence that training was right and I was on my way to something good in the future. Of course it’s not down to me and I had to convince Geoff I was in good form, but Geoff know’s me well and I wouldn’t want to be in the team unless I could justify it.

Then with a week to go we were down to 6 men, no problem, all 6 were good, we had a chance. Sadly, a few days before the championship we lost another guy, and that was it, with no other man to call on we couldn’t even make a team. A disaster for the team and a personal disappointment for me, I represent a club from London and I’m not able to get down there much at all, so I don’t get many opportunities to run for them, hence why these National Championships are so important to me.

I even did some specific training during for the week and front loaded it, for the event, and told a client I couldn’t do Friday night. Then Ray suggested we tried Princes parkrun, in Liverpool. I agreed so at least had something to focus on for the weekend. I looked up the stats and the M45 course record was held by Bernie Murphy at 16:46. I thought on a good day that would be in my grasp, but what day was Saturday to be? I told Ray I was aiming for 16:45 but that I wasn’t sure of my pacing so was hoping I could just latch onto someone, though that might compromise the time.

It was easy enough to find the venue and we got to the start with about 20 minutes to spare. It was a sunny day, a bit breezy but nothing compared to the wind you sometimes get at Pennington Flash. I spoke to a couple of the, many, marshals to find out about the course, I’d looked at the map but it always looks different on a flat map. Then it was time to go. Other than Ray, and a couple of his friends he’d introduced me to, I knew nobody, but as we got ready for the off there was a sense of recognition that passed between myself and another guy, difficult to explain but I sensed something passing between our eyes. We didn’t know each other but it was the sort of recognition that we both knew that we would be opponents today. We were off and true to my eyes the other guy went into the lead, he could have been a 15 minute man for all I knew but I seized my opportunity and sat on him. I’d worked out I needed to aim for about 3:20ks if I was to get the M45 record and, unlike Pennington, there were 1k markers to assist me. Me and the other guy, Martin Swensson, reached 1k in 3:18, great I was on target and I felt pretty good. I’d taken a quick peek at my watch but Martin seemed to be looking at his a bit longer and fiddling with it. This could have meant anything but I selected ‘this pace is too fast for me’ as the likely explanation, and put my foot down. It wasn’t a big acceleration but I created a gap and I found myself in the lead. The next k was reached in another 3:18, I wasn’t looking back but I sensed the gap was still there, not growing but enough to make Martin work hard to catch me. The next k was slower and I was starting to tire a little, I could sense the course record was going to be beyond me and would have to work hard for a sub 17 clocking. At 4k I was still in the lead and it was 13:28, I knew if I could do a 3:30k it would mean the all important sub 17 clocking so I picked up my pace and pushed. I reached the finish straight and gave it everything, it was a long straight and after a glance at my watch I sensed I was definitely not going to beat the M45 record but I kept pushing all the way and crossed the line in 16:45. Wow I didn’t expect that, I’d have been happy with 16:59 but I had indeed broken the record, not only that but I’d gone top of the age graded league, something I have yet to do at Pennington, sitting a frustrating 4th on that list. With Ray and his friends also having good runs it was a good day trip for us and made up a little for not being in action at Sutton Park, where Highgate took the M35 championship with Leicester, once again, taking the M45 one.

After that my participation in sport was just down to training, I took Carole out for a run on Sunday. But I did do a little watching. I’m a big fan of Formula 1 and find this year it’s been pretty entertaining. On Saturday I watched the qualification and was glad to see Lewis Hamilton grab pole, but the warning signs were there when he pulled up during his return to the pits. I feel his penalty, disqualification from qualification and starting from the back of the field, was a step too harsh, at worst he should have been demoted to 10^th but I’m not a steward so, like Lewis, have to accept that the decision was not motivated by anything other than fairness for all, in the same way that it was fair to allow Michael Schumacher get away with pulling out in front of Lewis during one of the runs. On Sunday I already thought my viewing of the race was compromised as Lewis had very little chance of winning the race, but I watched it nevertheless, and it was entertaining with another good share of the points.

This weekend Northwich was playing host to the Thundersprint, a series of races against the clock by motorcyclists of all ages on all types of machines. It does attract some very good professional motorcyclists. I watched it last year when Cal Crutchlow was taking part. This year we had other plans but I did have a wander around the display area on the Saturday and ended up next to Steve Parrish for a while, he didn’t say anything to me though, perhaps he’s as shy as me.

Football was the other big sport this weekend, with champions and relegations to be sorted out in the Premier League but more importantly the first leg of the Division 2 playoffs were taking place. Now I’m not a big football fan, when I was young I used to go to matches at Manchester United and Manchester City but I don’t support either team, which made them really interesting games for me on Sunday. As a teenager, going to school in Crewe, I started to go along to watch Crewe Alexandra, I was there the day Bruce Grobbelaar scored for them, in his last match before moving up to Liverpool. I even went down to Exeter to watch them once! But I’m not a big Crewe fan either, though I would like to see them do well, they’re in the playoffs and won the first leg, against Southend United 1-0. The second leg is tomorrow. Carole is a bit of a footy fan, she’s big into Motherwell, she even managed to drag me along to a couple of games while I was up in Scotland. She continues to try to drag me to games down here, I’ve been to the Alex twice in the last couple of years. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, it’s just there are other things I’d enjoy more. But on Sunday, Carole managed to persuade me to go to a pub to watch the football, Manchester United vs Sunderland and QPR vs Manchester City. It was going to be interesting to try to find a pub that had both games on simultaneously and also find somewhere to sit, but we managed it. Carole, for some reason that I’m yet to understand, seems to like Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra, I prefer to stay neutral, wanting to enjoy the games for the games sake. It was an interesting time, watching the fans as much as the football, but what a fantastic climax to the season, certainly from a neutral’s point of view.  

The only other sporting event I had any interest in this weekend was the Chester Half Marathon. Katy was running it, her first race since the Manchester marathon, she ran well with another solid 1:39 time. Ray’s wife, Sharon, was also running and ran a very good 2:06

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Why Do I Run?

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

Why did I start running in the first place –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why do I blog?

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

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

The Mile

The Marathon

Why I Like Northwich From a Fitness Perspective, etc

Marathon the Final Tune Up

Illnesses and Injuries – to Train or Not to Train

Supplements

While I was Away

Memories of the Surrey 10000m Championship

Inspirational Athlete – Paul Evans

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

Supplements

As a Personal Trainer, and probably like a number of other people in the self employed sector of the fitness industry, I receive an awful lot of calls for people trying to get me to sign up for various things. Many of these calls are related to the use of supplements. Now I have no specific problem with supplements, I’ve even used them on occasion but I don’t use them as a matter of course. I think that people should make their own informed view on whether supplements are for them or not, I’m not there to promote any particular brand but I’m happy to give general advice. I’m don’t get paid to sell supplements and, in fact, generally people want me to purchase the supplements and sell them onto my clients. But I’m not a selfish seller at all costs kind of guy, I will purchase things on behalf of my clients but only when I feel that I can get them a better deal, on something they want, by getting it via me. In fact it’s one of the things my clients tell me they like about the way I operate, i.e. I don’t try to sell extras to them all the time.

Now I’ll openly admit that I do have my own nutritional planning programme, that I will sell onto clients and anyone else, but I don’t push it onto clients, there are other dietary planners out there, but I believe the product works and I do use it myself. I also do a certain amount of work for Ronhill and Hilly, for which they provide me with kit, they don’t expect me to push there products onto my clients either, but I do wear the products in public places and will happily endorse them to anybody who’s interested as I really do think the products are great and innovative, I just wish they made trainers too.

Well I’ve digressed a little but only to make the point that I’m not paid by anybody to sell supplements and I have no bias towards any particular products out there, the following blog will summarise my feelings about supplements. I’m not currently taking any supplements, and haven’t for some years but I know plenty of people who do. Whether they need to take them I’m not sure, we all have our own knowledge of what our body is up to and can make those decisions ourselves.

I first came across supplements as a child, though in those days they were called vitamin pills. All of a sudden my mum started bringing home sanatogen vitamins, horrible hard round sweet tasting things, and we would all have one each day. My dad, being bigger and older than us three kids, got to eat the horrible bitter tasting red ones which were big enough to make them hard to swallow. I didn’t envy him. As a child I didn’t really know why I was taking the vitamins, I just did what I was told, perhaps our diet in the 70s wasn’t as good as it is now, I didn’t even have my first Indian meal until I was 17.

When I left home I was still a student and, naturally, I didn’t really care much about healthy things, I didn’t take vitamins, did very little exercise, ate badly and drank too much too often. I did have a good time mind you. Luckily I survived any abuse I gave to my body. As a young man starting out a work, I continued to drink too much too often, I ate better, still not great, and I started to get involved in sport, occasionally.

It was only when I started to train properly that the question of whether to take supplements came up. I actually remember one of my training partners Adam Armstrong (incidentally Adam was an actor who appeared in Grange Hill, Crimewatch and various other things – in fact I must relay the story about Crimewatch latter in this blog, see if I can write it as funny as it was) telling me that one of the 800m runners we knew had been taking creatine and was complaining that it was making his legs heavy. In actual fact it was probably the fact that he was training harder due to taking the supplement that made his legs tired. Around 1992 one of my training partners, Nutritionist Alex Luce, asked me if I’d take part in a study he was working on. I said yes as long as it didn’t include taking any banned substances and didn’t impact my training. Alex didn’t tell us what the study was at the time but it was a study on the effects on vitamin c on the athlete.

I thought this was a great opportunity to help one of my training partners while gaining the benefits of taking extra vitamins, I even didn’t mind trying to swallow these gigantic pills every day, until I found out I had been taking the placebos. I’m not sure what the results of the study were but I was progressing better than everybody else, even with the placebo effect. As a thank you Alex did give me a proper consultation and, because I was having a few bowel problems, he gave me a detox and suggested a course of vitamins and minerals. This seemed to resolve the problems I was having, which I consider were stess related. I took these vitamins and minerals on and off for a while, whenever the problem returned. I also took iron supplements when I was feeling run down, as I’d previously been diagnosed with slight anaemia and extra calcium when I got a stress fracture in my foot, but I’ve not taken any supplements for years.

Due to my lack of supplementation I can’t really give you much information or recommendation on particular types. I don’t take supplements because I believe I can get the nutrients I need from fresh ingredients, though not everything you buy in the shops is fresh and therefore it may not be as nutritious as it could be. Food can be stored too long and lose some of it’s nutritional value and it can be overcooked with nutrients being lost in the process (I generally steam or stir fry my veg as I believe it is better nutritionally). I’m lucky in that my lifestyle is such that I am in a position to take care with what I eat but others may not be so fortunate. It’s worth considering supplements if you feel you’re not able to maintain a healthy diet because of your lifestyle or you are feeling run down, however, ideally, supplements should not be taken in place of normal nutrients they should be taken to supplement them and the bulk of your nutrients should still be gained from natural ingredients. 

If you are going to use supplements, make sure you understand what benefits you will get and if there are any side effects. Also be sure to check out what is in the product, particularly being sure of any hidden ingredients (this is particularly important for athletes who may undergo drug testing). Of course there is the worry that supplements can become contaminated during production but if they are made by a reputable company that is unlikely and of course natural food can also be contaminated.

I’m currently in a phase of hard training, in fact I’m training harder than I’ve trained for a long time and I’m feeling tired. Therefore I’m using a lot of the nutrients I’m putting into my body, do I need to take supplements? Well it’s a good question, I’ve been carrying a bit of a cold for weeks and it is affecting my breathing a little but taking supplements doesn’t necessarily protect you from colds and I do eat well. I feel like I’m replenishing all the nutrients I need but maybe I’m missing something, perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad decision to take some. If I did take them the one thing I would ensure I did would be to check the register of banned substances, yes I know I’m not going to be selected for London 2012 but I do still compete at a reasonably high level and don’t see the point of getting banned because of carelessness. Plus I like to know what I’m putting into my body. But in truth, I think I just need to eat a bit more, I’m burning calories at a pretty high rate (over 300 for 10 minutes workout) so I’m stocking up with more food and ensuring I take breaks in my day to eat.

This weekend I went to the Heaton Park parkrun. Heaton Park was the scene of my first parkrun, back in March, when I finished 8^th in 17:25. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve raced so I was thinking about going to Pennington Flash but then Ray got in touch and suggested Heaton Park, as it was going to be the last run on the course, before they changed it to another one in the same area. I was happy to try it, I figured I might get a chance to run faster on the, mostly, pathed course rather than the multi-terrain test that Pennington is. As it has been some time since I ran there I went to the website to remind myself of the course and found that it had actually been won, on a number of occasions by people running slower than 17 minutes. So there was a possibility that I could win, but then again there were a considerable number of winners who had run significantly under 17 minutes and a number of sub 16 minute winners with a course record of 14:49, so there was a good chance I wouldn’t win. But it wasn’t the win I was interested in, I was keen to get another sub 16 minute run under my belt and having run 16:56 at Pennington I thought I should have a chance, particularly when I saw my old mate and Santa Claus world record holder, Paul Simons, had a 16:58 timing. Paul and I go back a long way, we used to compete against each other in the British League when he was Shaftesbury Barnet and I was Belgrave, and that has continued over the years in road relays. Now us two ‘Londoners’ are both based in the North West we see each other at various races and are still finishing within seconds of each other. So I was confident of a sub 17 minute run, although I did notice that Tommy Prenders had only run 16:50 and he had a 16:40 clocking at Pennington Flash.

We were a little late setting off and only arrived at the car park about 10 minutes before 9:00. Not the sort of preparation I normally like for a race but this was a parkrun and I’m pretty chilled out about them, I treat them as time-trials rather than races, so as long as I get a chance to warm up my muscles I’m ok. Mind you there was no need to panic anyway as the presentation of t-shirts before the race meant a very late start. Before the off I, almost literally, bumped into Ron Hill. Although I do some work for Ronhill and Hilly I’ve never actually spoken to Ron before so I introduced myself.

It was a nice morning, sunny with a bit of a chill in the air. It was warm enough standing in the sun, so I wasn’t too bothered by the delayed start. As we walked to the start line I looked ahead and wasn’t really sure where we were going to head, as the path appeared to fork. I asked the chap next to me and he pointed out the route and then said ‘but you won’t need to worry unless you’re in the lead’. I didn’t say anything at the time but I was thinking to myself that it was a possibility. As we set off I did indeed find myself in the lead. The course was well marked with arrows, unfortunately, with age, my eyesight is starting to fade at a greater proportion than my leg speed and I was approaching the signs quicker than my brain could register the direction to take. Thankfully there were plenty of marshals and they were a big help on the three occasions I had to check the route.

After the initial small loop it was nice to pass the start line again in a clear lead, to generous support from the spectators. As I came close to the start of the hill for the second time I noticed a bunch of runners on the corner. I recognised Andi Jones and his wife, it looked like a group of Salford Harriers ready for a training session. Needless to say they let me pass then started their rep session, running in the same direction as me. It brought back memories of my old fartlek training in Richmond Park, where we had a 5 minute rep on part of Ranelagh Harriers cross country course, occasionally there would be a race on as we were kicking off our rep. It was good fun as it gave you a load of runners to chase but I remember one occasion when a guy worked really hard up the minute long hill to try to hold onto me, only for me to stop at the top. I wasn’t going to fall into that trap today I let them go past without upping my pace and then I was on the hill.

The last bit around the lake seemed to take an age but I’d checked my watch and was confident of running sub 17. I relaxed, perhaps a bit too much, and then the finish which seemed to stretch on forever. I crossed the line in first place in a time of 17:04 and it was hard to hide my disappointment. I know some people can’t see why I would be disappointed with winning but my focus wasn’t on winning, it wasn’t a championship race, I wanted to run sub 17 to give me a booster for the next race. But, as always, the disappointment was short lived and I started my jog back around the course to thank the marshals and cheer on the other competitors.

Ray came through, running yet another pb, he seems to be setting them every week now. Next was Carole, leading home Ron Hill. She’s quite proud of the part she played in pacing Lee Riley in his training for the marathon world record, now she’s outpaced another multi-world record breaker, albeit a septuagenarian. And then Sharon came home in a course pb. So all 4 of us had set course pbs, with Ray setting an absolute 5k pb. Not a bad day on reflection. The disappointment of not breaking 17 minutes was soon forgotten as I thought of the fact that I have 7 parkrun wins under my belt this year, not bad for a man approaching his 47^th birthday rather more rapidly than he would like.

All in all, though it’s not been my best year, the two months out through injury have definitely had an impact on my fitness levels and this is the first year since 1993 that I haven’t won a championship medal of any kind. But on the bright side I’ve helped others to achieve great things; Ray only has to wake up to set a pb, Lee has set 3 world records, and I have a number of other clients who are on their way to something great in the near future. And, more importantly, I am enjoying my running, even if it is a lot slower than my memories tell me I used to run. I know that I have the capability of running a good time in a race, it’s just a matter of when, so onto the next challenge, the next race is a 10k.

This weekend coming is the British and Irish Masters International Cross Country Championships. I’ve run it for the last 5 years, 4 times for Scotland and once for England. This year I didn’t make the team, but I know most of the runners who did, so I’d like to wish them a good run and enjoy the Scottish hospitality.            

Now for the tale about Crimewatch. In our little training group we had a guy named Vic. Vic had a certain amount of talent when he was younger but family responsibilities took him away from running. I’m not entirely sure what brought Vic back to running but he was a good man to have in the group as he was a good judge of pace and would lead out one of the sub groups perfectly, he was also full of interesting stories and had a great way of telling them. Vic also like a drink and would often go home after training, collapse into an armchair with a few tinnies and fall asleep in front of the TV. On one such occasion he woke up while crimewatch was on and it just so happened that Adam was acting out the role of one of the criminals in a particular scene. Vic opened his eyes, saw Adam, heard the request for anyone who knew anything to contact the police and promptly phoned up the police. 

While I Was Away

Those who know me quite well, or have been reading my blogs on a regular basis, will know that I have a couple of warm weather training bases that I visit on occasion. Well that’s where I was last week, at the Spanish one. On my return there were a few surprises for me, mostly good ones but one not so good. So as I’ve got a lot to catch up on I’m going to delay my intended blog about supplements and instead I thought I’d just present a blog on what’s happened over the period, events and happenings that have had an impact on me, and probably for some of you.

Firstly let me tell you about Spain. Carole and I regularly visit the village of Ciudad Quesada. It has lots to offer, many restaurants, a golf course, English beer and is close to many good beach resorts, towns and walks. It’s also easy to get to by airport. For me, it also has a fantastic double figure of 8 training area, roads that have been laid out for housing, currently on hold. This is where I do the bulk of my speed endurance work and it works well for me, and it would be a great place to do group training.

When I was a mere youngster of 31 I was never interested in warm weather training, I figured it didn’t matter what the temperature was, if you were of a mind to train hard, you would, whatever the weather. Now I’m a little older I appreciate the difference of getting up at 07:00 in November and heading out for a training run in singlet and shorts, I was positively toasting in Spain but think I would have returned home a little cold in Northwich. I used hot weather training, to great effect, prior to the 2010 European Masters Championships, but this time it was just nice to get back into summer clothing to train in warm temperatures, and then enjoy an al fresco breakfast.

I had originally booked the trip as a tune up for the Masters International, but as I haven’t been selected, completely justifiable by the way, I just treated it as a treat and just enjoyed myself, whilst still training fast. We did also do quite a bit of walking during the afternoons. Being on holiday I was eating and drinking a little more than usual, but thanks to the training I got away with only adding 4lbs to my weight. Now I’m back home I can get back to twice a day training and my nutritional menu plan (see www.rogeralsop.co.uk/nutrition if you’re interested in finding out more about this), which will see me back to my normal weight pretty quickly). So the weather was great, between 22 and 27 degrees C, I was really relaxed and so was Carole. I also managed to get through The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I enjoyed and have the other two books to follow, but they’ll have to wait until my next holiday I’m too busy to read novels at the moment.

Whilst in Spain I did catch the local paper which had an article about a Father and Son world record for a combined time at the London Marathon. Of course that featured my Pennington Flash buddy Jeff Whittington and his son, Russell, with a picture of Jeff holding the certificate. Nice one Jeff, not only a star in Wigan but Internationally too.

I’m usually ready to come home but on this occasion we were having such a good time and I was completely relaxed, no internet or phone for me on holidays, I believe in focusing my resources on having a good time. And of course once I arrived home that was the switch for me to get straight back into training hard, unfortunately it didn’t quite have the same effect on Carole who thought I’d be better placed putting curtains up, making more furniture and working on the garden, thank goodness she’s back at work today so I can prioritise my training over all that tedious stuff, I should remind her I’m not the handy man, just the cook, cleaner, butler and of course personal trainer.

Upon landing at Manchester Airport I received some good news. I’d been thinking about it all morning, it was the day Lee Riley was attempting to break the Mile World Record, carrying a 40lb pack (current record, which Lee had equalled a few weeks earlier, was 5:35). After having trained with Lee for the previous two weeks I was aware how he had improved since that attempt and I was a bit miffed not to be pacing Lee on the day, but the training trip was booked before Lee told me about the world record attempt and there was no changing it, unless I wanted to become a single man again. When I switched on my phone, Lee had texted me to say he had run 5:16.9. He’d absolutely smashed the record, which didn’t surprise me as when I finished training with him he was on target for 5:18-5:20 and he still had a taper to come. What a fantastic effort though, I’m really proud of him and chuffed to have played a part in it. Lee rang me later and it was nice of him to say that the training I’d done with him made all the difference. It made me wonder how many more people I could help to achieve their best. When I got home there was footage of Lee’s race on the BBC local news and the following day there was a shorter version of it on the ITV local news. I look forward to hearing what Lee’s next World Record attempt will be. He’s a superstar and just knowing him keeps me driven to train harder myself, I’ll have to if I’m going to be quick enough to keep training with him. Incidentally there should be a video of the attempt, uploaded shortly onto youtube, currently there are just the ones about Lee’s marathon record. Maybe I should add TV celebrity to my list of clients! Send him to the Jungle I say, he’d be more interesting than most of the mob they’ve currently got in Australia.

On my arrival home I switched on my email and had a couple of interesting emails. The first was from Rich, who I’d spent 4 weeks running training with. He thanked me for setting him off on the right track and told me how well he was progressing on his way to next year’s Edinburgh marathon. Hopefully we’ll be catching up for some additional training in the new year. The second was from my long term client, Ray. Ray had told me he’d set another pb at Pennington Flash on 5 November, just missing out on a sub 22 min setting. I don’t remember it but I’d told him some months back that he would break 22 min at Pennington Flash at some point this year, he hadn’t believed me at the time. Then I logged onto the Pennington Flash results page to find that on 12 Nov he’d run 21:55. Well done Ray, but there’s plenty more to come, sub 21 before the end of May next year.

The next bit of great news was that my club, Herne Hill Harriers, had won the Surrey League cross country that afternoon, again by a considerable margin, I don’t think they need me anymore. Finally the sad news, I learnt of the passing of one of my Belgrave colleagues. John Davies, a star of the 1950s and 60s, who had bests of 1:52.8 for 880yards and 4:10.8 for the mile (both achieved on cinder tracks). John was one of the old regulars at Belgrave Hall on a Saturday afternoon and we often chatted as he came around with his collection box for the shower fee, I also spent many a London Marathon afternoon at his and Pam’s flat in Covent Garden, celebrating the achievements of various Belgravians taking part in that day’s event. I was a regular from 1993 until the early noughties, and it was there that we celebrated my Wife’s 2:56 and my own marathon debut in 2003. John was a character and he always had something positive to say to me, in fact it was John’s encouragement that kept me seeking that International vest long after I’d given up believing I had the potential and so it’s thanks to John that I have run for Britain, England, and Scotland, albeit as a geriatric. RIP John, another Belgravian who will be missed by many.

With that I must conclude. I’ve got some ideas what I want to do for the next 6 months, but need to start planning my life around them. I also need to hit my gym for my third session of today, no I’m not obsessed, just committed and it stops me from having to put up more curtains. It’s getting cold in my gym, but I’ve trained in my Edinburgh garage during mid winter and that’s no contest, plus It’ll be pretty warm after 5 minutes on the healthrider.