On Your Bike

Like many of my friends I’ve been watching the Tour de France, on the TV. I’m not a big cycling fan so I don’t sit around all afternoon watching the live bit, for a non cycling fan I’d find watching them eat their food on the go and taking ‘natural breaks’ a little tedious, but I do like the action, i.e. the sprints and breakaways. Mind you, probably like any endurance athlete, it’s the mountain stages that hold the most fascination for me. It’s great to watch men trying to break each other in order to make any kind of gain they can. The past few years have been riddled with controversy due to riders being caught doping but this year seemed to be a fairly clean tour and then… Frank Schleck. Not the first rider to be caught on this tour but certainly the most high profile.

I’m sure I’m not alone in being impressed with the way that Bradley Wiggins is conducting himself, both on and off the bike. He has character and isn’t afraid to say what he thinks but he’s also a dedicated sportsman, and, as shown in Sunday’s stage, a man of fair play. The way things are looking, Bradley could become the first ever British winner of the Tour, I hope he is, but of course anything could happen this week. Fingers crossed for Bradley.

I can never lay claim to being much of a cyclist, sure I had bikes when I was a kid, I even had a Chipper (which was a junior version of the Chopper), I decided against the Chopper, preferring to go back to conventional bikes after I had an incident on my Chipper which had me going headfirst through the handlebars and scrapping my face off on a gravel road. As a teenager in Cheshire, I used to cycle around the country lanes but that was more through boredom, than desire. My brother joined a cycling club in Congleton but I had no interest in following him there.

So when I left Cheshire for London, I left my bike behind. In the back of my mind I always thought it would make it’s way down to London but a member of a Congleton cycling club started using it for spares and I never rode it again.

Then in the late 90’s I brought a new bike. I’d had a number of injuries over the preceding years and was experimenting with cross training. Living close to Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park I thought it would be a good place to use a mountain bike, so I bought one, only to find there were restrictions on where you could ride it. Still that didn’t deter me and I spent many a summer evenings cycling around the area.

In 2005 I tore my hamstring and my physio advised me to keep fit by finding a hill and going up it a number of times in a high gear. Perfect, I lived by Wimbledon Park and that had a brilliantly steep hill I could climb and then recover on a longer route around back to the start. I would do this training first thing in the morning and then head off to work, so for a while I was getting in an hour later than my normal 8:00 start. That wasn’t a problem with my boss, but it became a problem on 7^th July, when I got caught up in the fringes of the London bombings. 10 minutes earlier and my life could have been very different, as it was I was caught in the after effects, turfed off a tube with no explanation and having to walk the rest of the way, about 6 miles, into work.

Naturally I felt a bit sheepish as I turned up very late at work, but my boss seemed please to see I’d made it in. It was only then that I found out what had been going on and my mind went all hazy. It reminded me of 9/11, I was working in the same room, which for some reason had a TV. Somebody switched the TV on and we all watched pictures of one of the Twin Towers on fire, I was actually watching as the TV as the second plane crashed into the other tower. This time it was slightly different, it was my town and I was therefore involved. Nobody knew what was going on or if we were safe or not. My mate Jim Buick was down in London as it was the Corporate Challenge that night, in Battersea Park, I was going to meet up with him and watch it, but now I couldn’t get hold of him, in fact I couldn’t get hold of anyone on a mobile.

Eventually Jim and I made contact, the race was off so we met up and ate in town before catching the restarted train service back home. The next day I rode the tube into work, nervous as anything, I was a little better on the way home. But I’d made a decision that I was going to save time by cycling into work on the odd day. The first day I did this was the day the 2^nd round of bombs were planned, but thankfully didn’t go off. Chaos again, so I then decided I was going to cycle in every day.

I did but it wasn’t pleasant, it was only about 11 miles but the roads were busy, many drivers didn’t seem to care if you were in front of them or underneath them and I had one incident with a bunch of teenagers who were desperate to make me fall off my bike. I persevered  but once I was able to start running again I found it affected my training, it was too much, so I went back to the tube. I actually thought I had more chance being killed on my bike than by a bomb.

And then I moved to Edinburgh. It took me 5 months to find my own place and then I brought my bike up. Cycling around Edinburgh was a completely different experience, it was fun. There were still some idiots in cars but not as many. As I was single at the time I had more time to use the bike and I used it as a 2^nd training session in the days when I was off work. But then Carole came along and once more my bike was confined to the garage as Carolemania took over my life.

When we moved to Cheshire the bikes stayed in Edinburgh until we found the place we wanted to live. Unfortunately this took a lot longer than we had hoped and it was two years before we managed to get the bikes down. At last we got the bikes down and had them serviced and it was out and about in Northwich and beyond.

Now I’ll run in all conditions, but cycling is for leisure, that means I only cycle when it’s dry conditions. So you can imagine we haven’t done much cycling this summer. Last Sunday was such a day and we decided to head off to Delamere Forest. It’s a nice route along the Northwich cycleway, then through the villages of Sandiway, Cuddington and Norley and finally to the nice and slightly challenging hills in the forest. It was a nice little cycle and by the time we got home I was pretty tired, I reckoned on the Alsop mileage scale that was about 20.5 miles in 1 hour 30 minutes, I don’t tend to stop to admire views as I’m enjoying the cycling, though I did tend to slow down for my Domestic job of getting Carole up the hills.  

Last week I was settling myself back into the training, finishing the week off with a punishing 10 x 6 minutes hard with 1 minute recovery. At the end of the run I was wasted. I knew it was temporary and because I’d pushed my body harder, for longer, than I had for some years. It was a good session and it was great to keep pushing when my head was telling me I should think about stopping and going for a beer instead. Unfortunately the temporary was a little less temporary than I had hoped for and I felt wiped out all day Friday. Saturday morning I was still feeling a little fazed but had recovered enough to go to the Princes Parkrun with Carole, Ray and Sharon. It was being held in Sefton Park this weekend, which presented another new course for me.

I wasn’t really in the mood for it but I’d made the decision to run so I wasn’t going to back down. This time there was a man with a bike to follow so I wasn’t going to have to ask for directions. It was a sharp start but by the first turn, about 200m in, I was on my own with a man on a bike for company. The course kept switching back on itself which meant, for a change, me, Carole, Ray, Sharon and Ray and Sharon’s friends, Mike and Nicky could see each other’s progress throughout the race. It also meant I could see where my closest opponent was. On this occasion it was quite a distance, so I did what I rarely do, I eased off a little. I don’t normally do that because I’m conscious of the ranking system and how that might affect my potential selection for the England squad, but I wasn’t feeling 100% so it made sense. I still won by a considerable margin, in 17:08, but I wouldn’t class it as a spectacular run.

Mike, Nicky, Carole, Smug Guy, Sharon and Ray

Thanks to the cycling on Sunday my legs were still a bit tired on Monday, but I managed to fit in three running sessions, with clients, getting drenched on each one. I did my ‘treadmill’ session outdoors on Tuesday, in Tatton Park, got drenched again. Today, I didn’t get drenched, a run with Katy and it was great weather for running. My legs now feel back to normal too.

Incidentally Katy ran a personal best over the hilly Trentham 10 at the weekend, knocking 1 minute 30 seconds off her previous best. She’s going well, as I found out this morning….

I’ve now secured a copy of Gabby’s book about British marathon running legends of the 80’s. The book was ready as I went to Spain, an ideal opportunity for me to read it but I was waiting for a kindle version. As it was I didn’t feel there was a particular hurry as I’d just started reading Shackleton’s book, which I’m finding fascinating and very similar to the film. But then I started reading facebook comments from friends who have now read Gabby’s book and I was keen to get a copy. So, sadly, Shackleton’s on hold, because I couldn’t wait any longer and I’ve now started reading the book.

Well I got my copy yesterday and the first thing I did was look at the index. Some interesting running names, people I know of more than know, big names to look up to if you were a runner at the time. I noticed there was a chapter on Jim Dingwall, a man I never met but having run the Jim Dingwall 10k a few times, at Falkirk, the legend that is the man sticks with you. I know bits about the late Jim Dingwall so am keen to read that chapter, I’m sure some of my marathon running Scottish friends will be equally keen. But I didn’t want to jump ahead, I’ve started at the beginning and last night started the chapter on John Boyes, of Bournemouth. I didn’t get very far before I had to put the book down, bedtime and a full day ahead of me, but what I read was interesting. As my pal Tony Austin said, it’s a book that you just want to keep on reading. I remember John, he was still running when I started and his name featured often, at the front of races. What’s interesting, and again this was stated by Tony Austin, is that these are just ordinary guys like the rest of us, who started running and then found they were talented at it. The book tells you about why and how they decided upon marathon running. Haven’t got any further than that but I can’t wait until my next reading slot. Thanks Gabby for making your interviews public. There’ll be more on the book in next week’s blog, when hopefully I’ve read a lot more, but if you want to find out more yourself, visit http://www.gabriellecollison.com/

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