Can You Feel It?

Different Coaches use different approaches to training their athletes, though each approach will, no doubt, be based upon a mix of study and experience. You can’t necessarily say that one approach is better than another, though it is sometimes easy to see that one approach might suit one individual better than another. During my time as a runner I’ve used the regular services of three coaches, all with different approaches but all who made a difference to my running. On top of that I’ve run sessions with other qualified coaches. Naturally I’ve picked up a lot of things that work for me but, as I’ve been self coached since 2000, I’ve also developed an approach of my own, that works well for me. This approach is nothing new or special but it’s just something that I use as a part of my training regime. It’s simply to run how you feel, e.g. not to a set pace or set heart rate measurement or any other measured method.

You’re probably reading this now and thinking, ‘what the heck is he talking about’ but let me explain further. I’m not suggesting there is anything wrong with running at a given pace or heart rate measurement, in fact these are handy methods of training and I fully support their use. However sometimes the body is tired and not able to keep to the prescribed pace or your body may be feeling great and is therefore capable of a faster pace. So I suggest that sometimes you should go out and do your run, whether this is a steady run or a repetition run, at the pace you feel like running. Currently my body is feeling tired so today I went out for a 9 mile run in Tatton Park, it’s my recovery run so I suggest it doesn’t matter how fast I run, so I pootled around at a comfortable pace, but it was still a challenging run, on another occasion I might well have run the same distance at a much faster pace, because I felt good. When I’m doing reps I run each one as hard as I feel I can, conditions, the state of my body, may dictate the distance I run in the time given but I’m giving the same % effort each time, and I don’t measure the distance I run each rep, therefore there is no chance of negativity creeping in. I do feel that sometimes I’m struggling in the run, but as long as I know I’ve put the same level of work in then that’s all that counts. I use this method with my clients, generally running alongside them to push them a little harder than they would have themselves. It’s so simple but often overlooked by runners who can be so time and distance obsessed. I’ve also used this in races, if I’m feeling confident I just went off with the leaders no matter what the pace, obviously it has led to a few disasters where I ran out of steam but it brought me to a number of personal bests and race victories that I wouldn’t have achieved had I run to a schedule. So simplistic as it sounds, don’t just dismiss it, it works for me and I’m not that shabby.

After last week’s cross country race I found this week’s training very hard. My legs felt like jelly all week. I still managed to do all the sessions, I had planned, but it was a grind trying to get the best out of my legs. Even on Saturday, when I turned up at Heaton Park for another 10k cross country, my legs felt a bit dull, and that’s a whole week on. That’s not an excuse for my performance in the race because once I started running the legs felt ok, but before the race they felt a little dull.

This week it was the Manchester Area Cross Country League, over roughly the same course as last week, oh boy another 3 times round that, well at least now I knew the way. I knew it would be a lot tougher than the previous week, with stronger teams available, so I was anticipating a fight to make the top 50. Being a nice day I managed to persuade Carole to come along, I thought the Bonnyrigg tones might just help get the best out of me. Last week I’d jogged around the course, before the race, with Simon Bruton, I felt afterwards that perhaps that had been a bit quick, normally I jog slowly before races, so this week I warmed up by taking a walk with Carole, down the first hill and back up again. I’d also changed my race day diet a little, as I felt last week I was lacking a little something when it mattered.   

First the Ladies were off. There were some impressive performances from the Salford Ladies, who set the standard by finishing 2^nd team and 5^th veterans team. In particular Hayley Kuter had a storming run to finish in 2^nd place, just a week before her Frankfurt marathon, good luck with that Hayley, I’m sure you’ll do well, but also Bev Jenkins showed that she’s still a force to be reckoned with, finishing 7^th and 1^st vet.

After that it was up to us guys to show we could match the girls. Getting ready for the off though, I was surprised not to see more of our top guys out, but it appears some of them were running half marathons the following day. And we were off, hurtling down the first hill, though I wasn’t hurtling quite as fast as a load of other people, at the first turn I found myself a long way back from the lead and getting squeezed off the best line. At this point I think I was outside of the top 50 and struggling round, not surprising as I had to take a route through some of the worst mud in order to pass people. It wasn’t until I finished the first lap that I settled down and started looking ahead at the procession of people to catch. Over the next two laps I seemed to find my cross country feet and progressed through the field gradually picking off a number of runners, including three Salford Harriers. It was a strong finish up the hill for me, holding off a crucial attack from a young Trafford runner. My progress had been steady, if a little unspectacular, at the end I was 39^th, some way and a considerable number of minutes behind the winner, Steve Vernon, who featured in my first blog when winning the National Cross Country title in 2010. There was solid scoring in the Salford team as we finished in 3^rd place, Paul Savage once again showing his mastery of tough conditions, must be the ironman in him, to come home as first Salford Harrier for the 2^nd week running. Somehow I’d managed to make the Salford scoring 6, but only 2^nd Salford M45, for the second week running being shown a clean pair of heels by Dave Lockett. I was actually 5^th M45 and 10^th M40, positions I’m not too familiar with as I’ve become accustomed to featuring in the top 3 of M45s in races. However I think this is more an indication of how strongly supported, by old men, this race was, rather than how poor I ran. Incidentally we were 2^nd veterans team.

Am I disappointed with my run? I’d be lying if I didn’t say I am a little. I’m positive I could do a lot better but I’m not despondent. I know there are a number of factors that play their part in these results and, with years of experience of how my body copes with those factors, I know I’ll come good again. As an example, in 1992 I placed 43^rd in the Surrey Cross Country Champs and six months later I ran 30 minutes for 10k, and whilst I don’t predict a 30 minute 10k next April, I’m confident I will be in good form next spring. Mind you I’m glad that’s my last cross country race for a few weeks, my body feels absolutely shattered.

There’s a club cross country championship going on throughout the season, the best 5 scores from 10 races. After two events I’m currently lying in 4^th place, but that is by virtue of having completed both races held so far. So I expect that to change as more people run more races. In the over 40’s category I’m currently lying 2^nd, after two 2^nd places, but if I’m to advance here I need to start beating Dave Lockett, no easy task.

These last couple of weeks I’ve been training with Lee Riley again, helping him in his bid to add two more world records to his growing list of achievements. We’re making good progress with consistent pacing in our training sessions, so I’m fairly confident the first will be achieved very soon.

I’ve been fascinated the series ‘Being Liverpool’ on Channel 5. I should point out that I am not a Liverpool fan, in fact I’m not even that interested in the game of football, but for a fly on the wall documentary I find it an interesting insight to how the club functions. Obviously there’s a lot more that goes on than what we’re being shown but the programme is worth a watch, particularly if you’re interested in football. There’s something about the pride of being involved with Liverpool and the passion shown by the supporters that bears a resemblance to being involved with Salford Harriers, we all want to play our part, no matter how small, in the success of this club.

On another point I was caught out this weekend by one of my Edinburgh friends. I’ve known Cath Ferry for some time and she’s a very talented runner, as well as a fine sports masseur. There was a time when I tried to persuade Cath that cross country would benefit her overall running, but Cath was having non of it. So I was rather surprised to see a facebook comment, from Cath, that she was thinking of running the East District League on Saturday. After having a chuckle at Cath’s wind up of her fellow Edinburgh AC athletes I posted my comment that the day she ran cross country would be the day I propose to Carole. The following day I heard that Cath had been Edinburgh AC’s 3^rd scorer. I suddenly felt quite ill, but not ill enough to deter me from going for a run. Luckily Carole doesn’t use facebook so I think I got away with that, she doesn’t read my blogs either. But, those of you with a romantic outlook on life, don’t despair, it will come, one day, I’m just building up to it. 

And finally I post a photo of last Saturday’s race, courtesy of Sidney Sacks, to once again prove that I only smile when I’m running, even when approaching an uphill finish.



Gotta do something about that hairstyle!



Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Who’s Cheating Who?

The big news this week has been focused on drug abuse within the cycling world, in particular around Lance Armstrong. With this news another star of sport, looked up to by countless people across the world, appears to have been a tyrant all along. Unfortunately, in sport, as in life, there are a number of cheats, there always has been and, no doubt, there always will be. But that doesn’t mean that good honest people need to throw in the towel and start cheating too. You can beat the cheats, whilst maintaining your own integrity.

When I was a kid I was always told that if you cheated you were only cheating yourself, but that’s not true, you’re cheating many people; out of a chance of a place at University, a job, a place in the National squad, a title of note or countless other things. In sport many people have given up, believing they cannot match other athletes who have been cheating all along.

Eventually many of these cheats get caught but it then throws the sport into disarray. Look at the Tour de France as an example. Recent years have seen the Tour being won by riders later proven to have cheated, the title is then passed down to the next guy. In the case of Lance, they have stripped him of his titles but because drug taking seems to have been pretty prevalent during that period it looks like no other rider will be named as the winner, making it a bit of a non event. It’s possible it might switch some people off watching the Tour de France, which is a real shame because it’s a great spectacle, even if it has a tainted history.

As an athlete, having competed at a reasonably high level, I’ve mixed with a lot of International athletes and some of the tales I’ve heard, over the years, have been quite sickening. Athletes that take drugs appear to be known as such, within the elite community, so why aren’t more of them caught. Perhaps the inducements and threats surrounding this practice stop people from speaking out, officially. But we should speak out, if we know people are cheating, remember they cheat us all, including the spectators.

I was a big fan of Ben Johnson and was really pleased when he won the Seoul Olympic 100m, only to have my happiness destroyed by the revelation that he had cheated his way to gold. It’s the same with Lance Armstong, I recently finished reading a book about him, being really impressed with how he achieved his goals, but now I find that it’s all a pack of lies. That’s one book destined for the bin.

But it’s not just drug cheats there are people who openly cut corners in races or deliberately cut across other runners to disturb their stride. Many footballers pretend to be fouled in order to win a penalty or free kick, they’re clearly cheating and often caught on video but not enough is done to make them stop and make football a more honest game. We should all be on the look out for cheats in our own sport and be prepared to speak out against them for the greater good. The good news is, that with more advanced testing and better video analysis, it’s becoming easier to catch the cheats.

On a more positive note this weekend saw Clumber Park hosting the English National Road Relays. Salford had two ladies teams and one mens team competing. All ran well, the ladies ‘A’ placing 9^th and ‘B’ placing 34^th and the men finishing in 14^th position. We did well to get a solid men’s team out and that gives us something to build on, one more man short and I think I was next man in the team, which would have given us an altogether less favourable result.

Having missed the cut for the National Road Relays, I lined up, with a surprisingly large contingent of other Salford Harriers, at Heaton Park. This was the first of the S.E. Lancs cross country league fixtures. A reasonably tough 10k course was ahead of us. Having competed in very few cross country races, over the last three years, I was not at all confident of a good result and because I didn’t know the standard of the league I took a guess that I would find myself in the 20s or 30s, position wise. So I was a bit shocked to find myself with the leading group from the off and even more surprised to find myself, through no fault of my own, leading the race after only half a mile. It didn’t last long, someone made a push and I drifted off the back. I had a good little battle with some runners who were almost young enough to be my grandkids and finished in 9^th position, helping the men to 1^st in the overall league and 1^st in the OAP league. Having analysed my race I’m a bit disappointed with my own run, I feel it was a bit lacklustre. Having said that I must have been trying as my legs still ache and I found today’s quality session particularly hard work. I’m expecting my next race to be a tougher field. I’ll admit I do find cross country races hard, but I love doing them for that sheer challenge and also the camaraderie is fantastic, not just amongst your club mates but also the friendly rivalry with other clubs. Once again, despite many supporters following the team at the Nationals, the Salford support was great and it really does help, even if it didn’t look like it was helping me on Saturday.     

Other news from this weekend; I’ve recently taken on another client who is taking training schedules for the London Marathon. She has found the training hard but enjoyable, well that’s what she tells me. Yesterday she ran her first sub 2 hour half marathon, so that’s a good start, and I’m expecting more improvements between now and the marathon.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Running in Tatton Park

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

A Nasty Cold Spell

If you want to be successful at anything then you should know how to plan for success. But sometimes plans get affected by unexpected events, or events you had anticipated but didn’t really want to occur. That’s why you also have to be adaptable, to ensure that these events cause the minimum disruption and that you can get back on track as quickly as possible. This week I’ve had to deal with such a disruption.

Two weeks ago Carole came down with a cold. It was so bad she was pretty much grounded for a couple of days. Naturally I was waiting for said cold to find it’s way over to me and was feeling pretty glum as I thought about the impending Northern Road Relays, that I would have to withdraw from. However, come race day the cold hadn’t come near me, Carole was recovering and we were both able to make the trip to Leigh. The race went well for me and all thoughts of illness went out of the window.

Sunday morning I felt a little groggy, and it wasn’t due to the previous night’s celebrations. I still managed a good long run but was definitely feeling a bit coldy by evening. Over the next couple of days the cold hovered around but I did all the right things, eating healthily and drinking lots of fluid. It was a mild cold and after checking my resting heart rate I knew I was ok to run. In fact I ran some pretty good sessions on Monday and Wednesday.

I had been debating whether to run the Swinton 10 mile race on the Sunday, Carole was going to be away again so the early start wouldn’t have bothered anybody and I haven’t done a 10 mile race for years. I’ve recently started to run the distance in training but there’s a big difference between training and racing, well there is for me. So it was a long shot but I was tempted.

But then the decision was taken out of my hands. I was at a charity quiz on Thursday night and started feeling a little run down. By the time we got home my nose was itching and running and I was sneezing a fair bit, causing me to struggle to get to sleep. Friday morning I felt awful. I still got out for a run but, instead of the planned quality session, it was an easy one. As the day progressed I was sinking fast. Another night’s disrupted sleep and I woke up feeling worse on Saturday. No way would I be racing on Sunday, I made that mistake in 1996. I didn’t feel like running but I forced myself out for another easy run. At first I felt awful but I settled into it and met someone on the way, making a nice change to have someone to talk to on a run.

I should point out here that if you have a bad cold, with raised resting pulse, you should do little or no exercise. However I always recommend you go out for a walk to get some fresh air, though not if the weather is as bad as we had early last week. In my case I considered an easy run to be the equivalent of a walk for someone less fit. I think I was right because as quickly as the cold had reached it’s peak it subsided again. By Saturday evening I was feeling much better and Sunday better still.

So how has this affected my plans. One reason I was considering Swinton was that I thought I was due an easy week of training and knowing a 10 mile race would leave me drained I had planned that for this week. My easy week actually consists of 5 days, that’s enough to reinvigorate me. With the cold affecting my training from Friday all that means is I’ve started my week early. Hopefully I’ll be in good enough condition to restart hard training on Wednesday. Swinton was only a thought and not that important to me so it’s not affected my racing plan. All in all it’s not affected me too much but I did do the sensible thing, had I attempted to race on Sunday it would have put my recovery back by much more, or there might have been a much worse outcome.

Even though I couldn’t race it was good to get the results through. Many of my Scottish friends were doing the Loch Ness Marathon and 10k or the Linlithgow 10k, and there were some great results. Kerry-Liam Wilson winning another Scottish Masters title, can anybody stop him, and it was good to see Bryan Mackie picking up his pace on return from injury. Many other notable performances too but those two stand out for me. There were some other good performances by my Salford colleagues in the Swinton 10, notably by Bev Jenkins and Hayley Kuter. It looks like a race I might enjoy, maybe next year, particularly if the cakes are out again.

This weekend sees Ray tackle the Chester marathon. Here’s looking for a great performance Ray, I only hope I haven’t passed the lurgy onto you.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Post Event Analysis

At the end of a race, or other such event, it’s very easy to take a snapshot feeling of how things went, sometimes this means being overly critical of your own performance. On other occasions you may be celebrating a fine personal best before you realise the winner set a new world record and the course was clearly short. That’s why it’s important to gather all relevant information before a serious analysis of your performance. As a runner the first thing I do, after I cross the finish, is stop my watch and check my time, to see how fast I was. This can leave me feeling a little disappointed if my time isn’t as good as I had hoped, or elated if I’ve run faster than I’ve expected, but then I park it until I see the full result. In my best years I didn’t wear a watch in races, I preferred to race the opposition rather than worry about the time so my initial success criteria was based more upon position than time. Now I’m an old geezer it’s more important to see how much I’m slowing down rather than if I finished 36^th or 37^th.

The analysis of a track race is often easy as it’s a regular distance, generally the same surface and flat, but you may need to take into account weather, altitude, temperature and how tactical the race was. For a road race or cross country event, you need to take into account different terrain and also different conditions to similar races. So it’s important that you get a full picture of what everybody else in the race did, before critiquing your performance.

When I’m assessing my performance I’ll look at the winner’s time and see how they did in comparison to my time. Then I’ll look at the runners who normally finish around my finishing position to see how I fared relative to them. Of course non of this is perfect as you don’t know what their personal circumstances were on the day but if there is a large enough group of peers it should give you a decent indication. If I’ve done the race previously I’ll compare my time and position against that, taking into account who else was in the race, my current fitness level and differing race conditions. Lastly I’ll run through the race in my mind to see where I thought I did particularly well or any aspects that I could improve upon.

As a Coach/Personal Trainer I help my clients to evaluate their performance in the same way. If I’ve been there to watch the race I’ll already know some of the areas that need to be worked on, but it’s important to ask the runner what they think of their own performance, before giving my opinion. On some occasions the person may be too wrapped up with what they think they did wrong that they forget to think about the things that went well. Other times it’ll be clear there were areas that need to be worked on so then it’s up to us to identify the best way to do that. If I can, I’ll always try to end on a positive, it’s a much healthier way to live your life.

And onto the latest race in my calendar:

After my run for Salford, last week, I was so inspired by the atmosphere that I pushed myself a little harder in training this week. I hadn’t realised what a difference not competing for my club regularly had on my enthusiasm, now I’m all fired up and want to improve, to play my part in making Salford the best club in the country. On Wednesday I did my usual quality session but, to me, it felt like I was shifting along that little bit quicker than I had previously. It’s a good sign but I’m still only one week into my quality work so need to be patient. On Thursday I decided it was time to push things a little more and ran for 10 miles, about 3 miles longer than anything I’d done for about 8 weeks. It felt good to be out for more than an hour, even though my hamstring was a little sore afterwards, but Friday was a rest day so I wasn’t unduly concerned.

Come Saturday it was another race day, this time the Northern Road Relay Champs, so tougher opposition and I’d been promoted into the C team. Couldn’t afford to have a bad run or it would mean a quick demotion to D. There were a couple of guys in the B team who had been just a little quicker than me at Marbury so I had them in my sights, but I knew this run was all about building up my confidence, I wasn’t going to make a difference to Salford today. My hamstring was a little sore so I was still a little nervous but I was confident enough that I’d get through it.

It came to me that Sean, the team manager, must’ve read my blog from last week, and focused on the bit about my first relay run for Belgrave, as once again I was on 2^nd leg taking over from somebody else I didn’t know. Not only that but I didn’t get a chance to meet him before the start. During the race I was out on the course trying to spot him but couldn’t find number 97 anywhere, I was beginning to think he’d dropped out so wondering if I’d get a run at all. As the runners came into changeover I still hadn’t seen 97 but I decided to get to the start just in case. Then he turned up with a number that was obscured to the point that it didn’t look like a 97, but I was away.

This course was not at all to my liking, it was confusing, a number of runners didn’t really know where they were supposed to be running (though I’d made it my business to make a proper recce of the course so I was fairly confident I knew where I was going), many of the paths were slippery, corners were very tight (one was so tight I had to stop and start again every time I went round it), runners were intermingling from different angles and it was narrow. I also saw a lot of people cutting a particular corner and whilst they might have been well down the race, so not affecting the top positions, it may well have had an affect on some honest runner’s ranking. I also think the marshals cry of ‘where are you going’ wasn’t the most helpful to those people who did go wrong. Still, irrespective of my feelings for the course I gave it a good go and managed to bring our team home 27 places higher than I set off. Nobody overtook me, though there was one guy behind me chasing me down, and I not only managed to run fastest leg for the C team I also beat all the guys in the B team.

You might think that I wasn’t happy being in the C team when hindsight’s view shows I should have been in the B team, but I know how difficult it is to the select teams, I was involved in making the choices for some of Belgrave’s 12 stage medal winning teams and it’s not easy leaving people out of that. To be fair to Sean, guys in the B team had beaten me the week before, I am still coming back from an injury and even I didn’t realise I would run that much better than last week. In fact I was pretty impressed with Sean’s management style, despite being on 1^st leg, himself, he put in a lot of time for other members of the squad, putting their enquiries before his own preparations. I’ve never met anybody so laid back that they can still be putting their racing shoes on and chatting to others after the starting gun has gone, and then he still managed to overtake some of the teams, not only a good manager but he has talent too.   

Credit too for all the Salford runners and supporters, they seemed to crop up everywhere on the course and it really is a big help to have them cheering us on. Many of them were shouting out my name, which is always nice for individual attention, so I have to apologise that I’m still not familiar with all of theirs, but that’ll come. I also had my secret weapon, Carole turned up, despite having to go to work for the night shift. I can make out her Bonnyrigg tones anywhere, unless I’m racing in Scotland, and it always spurs me on. Finally I have to thank Paul Simons for convincing me that I could catch those guys that were 200m ahead with 700m to go, in fact if you could have shouted it louder, Paul, I might have caught those that were 300m ahead.

The final result was that my team finished in 46^th position, the B team were in 34^th but our A team came away with Bronze medals, not too far away from winning the event. Plus we had 6 men’s teams finishing. The ladies had 3 teams, with their top team coming 5^th. Good effort all round and another move forwards in our bid for national glory.

Following on from the main point of this blog, what analysis did I make of my performance. My initial reaction to the time, 20:06, was a slight disappointment, being so close to breaking 19 minutes. However when I saw the results I realised I’d run well against my peers, closing the gap on some who ran faster than me the previous week and beating others. It gives me the impression that I’m about 20-30 seconds off where I was before my injury, which surprises me as I’ve not really trained anywhere near as hard as I was then. That means I’m about a further 20 seconds away from where I want to be, and I actually feel I can get there. I’m sure I could have run faster, I wasn’t quite ready at the start so didn’t really get into my stride until about 100m, I also got baulked on some of the tight corners and had to overtake a lot of people on the slippery grass and I know, although I ran hard all the way, I still wasn’t at 100%. My injury still keeps me from committing that final amount and that means I wasn’t aerobically challenged. I don’t think I’m far off but I need to allow myself the confidence to push more, it’ll come and lets not forget this part of the year is about having fun, though a win or two would be welcome. So onto the next one and lets see what comes of that.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

First Time For Everything

This Saturday I put on my Salford singlet and represented my new club for the first time, in the North West Road Relays at Marbury Country Park. It was a low key debut for me, returning from injury and placed into a mixed team with no county qualifications. Compared to some of the relays I’ve taken part in you could look at this event as a meaningless event for me, but you’d be wrong, it was actually very important for me. But more of that later, first some other first representations for me.

My first race since taking up athletics in 1989 – I’d started training around February/March time, my first run with club members being a bit of a disaster where I was run into oblivion by seasoned club runners. After that I was looked after by Alan Painter and Derek Clack, too experienced but aging 800m runners. Needless to say I worked on 800m training and looked towards the 800m as my event. I got my first opportunity to run an 800m in a Southern League match at Norbiton, on 6 May. It was a double header with two Belgrave teams in action. I was taking part in a non scoring event, with Derek. As well as Derek and myself there were three other competitors, two I don’t remember and Jay Busk, a British League sub 50 second 400m runner. When the gun went Jay shot to the front and with the benefit of total naivety I followed. Still on Jay’s shoulder I went through the lap in 59 seconds. Then Jay started to pull away while I gradually started to fade. With 250m to go I hit a wall. Soon after Derek came past me and opened up a huge gap within seconds. I continued to wade through the treacle that the track had turned into and, somehow, managed to finish 3^rd in 2:15.2. My head was spinning, my face was red and I was totally exhausted. As I walked away my head was throbbing, a most unpleasant experience. It took me two months before I felt ready to tackle another 800m, where I finished 11^th but improved to 2:14.8.

My first cross country relay for Belgrave – Still in 1989 but six months later I was taking part in the Reigate Priory Cross Country Relays. It’s a beautiful setting starting on the playing fields with a long climb into the woods, a narrow path through the back of the woods, another climb to the top of the hill and, after a flattish bit, a steep descent back to the playing fields. I was still fairly fresh at Belgrave and didn’t know too many people but was introduced to the teams before hand. I was on leg 2 of the C team, taking over from Matt Kinane. I’d briefly met Matt before he set off but amongst everybody else I couldn’t remember him. Thankfully he was wearing the Belgrave singlet so he should be easy to spot and we were the C team so he should be the 3^rd Belgrave man crossing the line! Wrong, he was running 2^nd claim and therefore ineligible, hence being in a lowly team. How was I to know if nobody told me, so while Matt came in and stood fuming with nobody to hand over to I was standing a few metres away awaiting the arrival of the 3^rd Belgrave man, until somebody kindly told me, in a non too gentle way, to get my bum in gear.

My first British title – Move forward 16 years and I find myself running for Herne Hill Harriers. I’d ruined my summer season by tearing my hamstring in the spring (sounds familiar) but I’d managed to get myself fit again by September. Things were going well I’d been in the team that won the Surrey Masters Road Relays, we’d then gone on to win the South of England Masters Road Relays and in October I’d become Surrey Masters Cross Country Champion. Then I got the offer of promotion at work, with a corresponding move to Edinburgh. Before taking up this offer I went to Newport for the British Masters Cross Country Relays. The team of Tony Harran, Mike Boyle, Vic Maughn, myself, Keith Newton and Dave Robinson were taking on the might of Bristol, already British Masters Road Relay champions, in their neighbour’s back yard. You’d think they would have the upper hand with a short drive compared to our half day long train journey. However perhaps they were too confident and underestimated us. They did take the lead on leg one but didn’t push to create a gap and at the end of leg two we’d taken it from them. They regained it on leg three and I took over on leg four in 3^rd place. I managed to pull us back up to 2^nd but Bristol had pulled out another 10 seconds. Keith Newton ran a stormer to bring back those 10 seconds but we were still a little behind Bristol when Dave Robinson set off after Nick Rose, on the last leg. It looked like a fascinating battle, you don’t pull back class like Nick Rose easily, even if he was significantly older, but Dave is a determined runner and inched nearer with every minute. Into the woods and Bristol were still in the lead, but coming out of the woods for the final sprint to the line Dave emerged ahead and held on for the win. A fantastic day and what a brilliant train ride back to London, where we celebrated our victory in Clapham Junction.

Probably my favourite first memory is my first run for Edinburgh AC where I unexpectedly became a Scottish champion, but I’ve covered that in a previous blog. So onto my next first, my first run for Salford.

I’d been looking forward to this moment since I started running again, following my hamstring injury in August, but not without trepidation. The injury is still fresh in my mind and I’m still conscious that it’s not at it’s strongest yet, plus I’ve lost a fair amount of fitness so wasn’t at all confident of running anything fast. I’m not one for getting nervous before races but this was an exception, I woke up with only this race on my mind. I was terrified of letting myself and my new club down. The race venue was the other side of Northwich so I drove part way and took Ray, one of my clients, along so that he could experience a road relay. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon with very little wind, perfect weather for a road relay. As Ray and I walked towards the race start I felt good as I spotted the Salford tent and a number of red dressed runners hanging around outside of it.

We went over and I introduced myself to a number of the guys, then got ready to race. The race, from a Salford point of view, went well as the A team finished 2^nd but winning the Greater Manchester championship in the process, and there was a C team which came 3^rd in the Lancashire championship. Other teams fared well too. My team came 34^th. I was on 2^nd leg so following my Belgrave experience I made pretty sure I remembered who my 1^st leg runner was. This time there were no cock-ups and I set off, a little tentatively, not wanting to pull anything and it was a pretty solid run by me, I never really felt that I could push it any harder as I was nervous about the leg, though I was never really pushed in the cardio department. I did slow a couple of times when I felt twinges in my leg, but I still managed to pass 12 runners during my leg. The main thing was I didn’t let the team down, it was risky putting me on leg 2 but I’m glad I was there as it gave me people to chase.

So how did this experience measure up to the success criteria I set myself last week:

1. To finish the race without injury – yes, although the hamstring was a little sore the next day.
2. To run sub 19 minutes – well under, 18:17
3. To be within 3 minutes of the fastest man – I believe fastest leg was 16:11 so I was just over 2 minutes slower.
4. To not be the slowest man in my team – I was actually the fastest in the team, this is always going to be one of my criteria but as I get faster this will no doubt get harder as I progress through the teams.
5. To be within sight of super vet Mike Hatton – Mike didn’t do it, he chose to do a race in Gateshead on Sunday, but I did compare favourably with others in my age group peer grouping.
6. To enjoy myself and meet my new club mates – I had a great time, it was nice to be back as part of a team and I love relays, hence one of my reasons for switching to Salford, I couldn’t have done this race otherwise. I met a number of my new club mates and they made me really welcome, again it took me back to the days when I would turn up at Surrey Leagues for a chinwag with my Belgrave or Herne Hill pals, before getting down to serious business. I think I selected well, I can see me slotting right into the Salford setup and hopefully I’ll be making a positive contribution before very long.

After the race I had to dash home as I was meeting friends that I used to live with, back in the 80’s, for a night out in Manchester. Unfortunately I couldn’t find Ray. I looked around, asked around and looked around again, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found (though I might have found him if I’d looked in the obvious place). So I assumed, when he was talking to me just after my leg, that he must’ve told me he’d head home, problem is after a run my head’s buzzing so don’t say anything important to me. I didn’t have my phone with me so I just headed home. When I got home I phoned Ray who was still in Marbury Country Park. Thankfully Ray forgave me, he needed a longer walk anyway, he’s in marathon training mode.  

The night out in Manchester was fantastic, though the karaoke proved the point that Carole keeps telling me, I cannot sing.

Here’s to the next run, another relay event. Distance is a little further this time, which suits me fine, but I’ll probably have to memorise another runner for handover.   

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Seefood Dieting

The old ones are the best, or so my mother-in-law keeps telling me when she returns from her self imposed jaunts to the Caribbean. Ok enough dad jokes, be thankful I’m not dad dancing. For this week’s blog I’m going to open up about one of my weaknesses, the Achilles heel of Roger Alsop, my love of food.

As a Personal Trainer, and having passed exams in Nutrition, it is my job to advise my clients what to eat, how much to eat and what not to eat. Fine, I do that, but I don’t necessarily practice what I preach because I enjoy my food. Not just the taste, and there is very little I don’t enjoy the taste of, but the whole experience of eating, the sights, the smell and the chew. I’m at my happiest when I’m eating or winning, though I can see that the two don’t necessarily go hand in hand. At home it’s not a problem because I am quite disciplined and only buy what I’m going to eat, I write out a list and if it’s not on the list it doesn’t go in the basket. This doesn’t work when Carole, thankfully rarely, does the shopping as she just adds what she likes the look of.  

However, when I’m in a situation that I’m less in control of the food, this is when my failings occur. It’s not so much what I eat, more about how much I eat. It’s well known that runners have a healthy appetite, i.e. they can eat loads of food, but I think mine’s a little extreme in it’s healthy outlook. Put me in front of a buffet of interesting food and there’s no stopping me, I have an ability to pile three plates worth of food onto one plate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I’m rude or greedy, it’s just that I can’t pass a piece of interesting food without trying it, and as I find most food interesting my plate gets more full as I move along the table. It’s not until I leave the table that I realise how much I’ve got and then it’s too late. As a person brought up in the era of having to clean your plate, you can imagine what happens next.

Thankfully I rarely get into situations where I’m faced with a buffet, though, like Jona Lewie, you’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties. This last week we’ve been away to Croatia and, unlike most of our holidays, we were staying half board. This meant a buffet breakfast and a buffet dinner, I was like a man torn between heaven and hell. So without going into details of exactly what I ate, I ate a bit of everything that was on offer, though I did make a conscious effort to avoid the chips until the last day of the holiday.

So I let myself go, I’m not proud, but now I’m back home I’m back to my more disciplined approach to eating.

I had one saving grace. When we planned the holiday it was meant to be a rest for me. After all the hard work I’d put into my training in search of summer glory and then taking part in the European Masters Champs I had planned to have a break before commencing the winter workload. However being forced to take a three week break just before the championships meant I didn’t need another one. I was keen to train, even if Carole wasn’t quite so keen for me to train. So I trained every day, even twice some days. I’m still building up the strength in my hamstrings so I didn’t attempt any real quality sessions but I did manage to get my overall pace up and felt good at it. I figure I’m in about 17:15 5k shape at the moment, which gives me something to build on when I get back into full training. I didn’t overdo the training, we still had a great holiday and I’d recommend the place to anyone, particularly if you like your food.

Now I’m home it’s time to refocus my training. I ran my first quality session on Sunday, a hill session. I was a bit tired from travelling home the previous day and frankly I ran rubbish, but it’s a start and I can now move forward. My debut for Salford approaches rapidly and I’m really looking forward to it. First race is over 5400m and I’ve set up my success criteria:

1. To finish the race without injury
2. To run sub 19 minutes
3. To be within 3 minutes of the fastest man
4. To not be the slowest man in my team
5. To be within sight of super vet Mike Hatton
6. To enjoy myself and meet my new club mates

We’ll see next week how I fared compared to that!

So what’s the big lesson you can take away from this week’s blog? If you want to beat me, forget about training harder than me, just take me out for dinner. And the minor lesson, don’t worry too much about eating the wrong things occasionally as long as you don’t eat the wrong things all the time.  

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk