Running is Back in My Life

Well it’s been almost three months since I last posted. The last blog was about how I was trying some unorthodox training to try to regain racing fitness. I was aware there was a risk involved but I was trying to manage it carefully. Unfortunately there is a fine line when you’re an elite athlete, and that fine line is still there for us less elite athletes who want to bring the best out of ourselves. I tipped myself too far over that fine line and ended up with a torn calf. Annoyingly it went when I was specifically having an easy run as I was intending to do an event at the weekend.

To say I was frustrated was probably an understatement but, as usual when things don’t go to plan, I picked myself up, brushed myself off and got on with things. I accept that my body is a bit delicate and that it can no longer take the level of training required to race at the top level, as such I feel it is unlikely that I will bother racing again, I just don’t enjoy racing if I can’t give 100%. But not racing doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy running, or keeping fit doing other exercise.

At first I was restricted in what I could do, because I couldn’t use the calf, but I could still do most exercises, including carefully thought out cardio. It kept me sane and enabled me to carry on working with clients.

It hadn’t felt like much of a tear when it happened but it must’ve been fairly deep as it took three and a half weeks before I could begin running again. Annoyingly, a week after the tear I was in Spain, supposedly to do some specific fine tuning before the BMAF Road Relays. I couldn’t run in Spain and neither could I represent Salford in the relays. But I did train in Spain, I PTed myself every morning, by the pool with a variety of exercises from my repertoire.

Eventually I was able to start back on the running and used the tried and tested method 1 min walk / 1 minute run x 10 increasing this every day by 1 minute for the runs but sticking to 1 minute for the walk and reducing the number of runs by 1 each day. That is until I get to the point where it’s not progressing in time on my feet and then I start freelancing the running. Eleven days later I was on my first run, without any walking, and I’ve built up from there. One week of just running and then I started introducing speed work into my running. I started with alternate speed days and steady days but after a week I got back to two days of speed followed by one day of steady. At the end of my first week of this 2 to 1 regime I spent the weekend in London, the aim being to meet up with numerous old running rivals and friends at the Lauriston Garden Party. I was staying with my mate, Rob Tudor, who had promised to take me out running in the mornings, quite a daunting task as Rob is both fitter and faster than I was at that point. Still a nice change from training alone.

The garden party was great fun. It was fantastic to chat to old friends, old rivals, new people I had met through facebook and all the former running greats that I was introduced to. The whole evening was one filled with good chat, fun banter plus a whole load of food and drink. Rob even found a picture of me running on the ‘wall of fame’. But all good things must come to an end and too soon we were heading back to our beds.

Running with Rob was also a great fillip, it added pace that had been lacking from my solo runs and gave me some self belief in my ability to run fast again. The following week I started picking up the pace a little more. Then I was back to Spain for a couple of weeks, this time I could run. I kept to my regime of two hard days to one easy and I was enjoying it, though finding it hard due to the heat. All the little niggles were still there, but to a lesser extent. However by the middle of the second week my achilles was beginning to hurt. I eased back a little and went back to a more traditional 1 day hard, 1 day easy, running through the issue. Gradually, over the weeks the pain in my achilles has started to recede, it is manageable.

I’m still running and this week I started to feel like the confident runner of my past. I know I’m not fast so I’m still not too bothered about racing but one of these days I may grace a parkrun again.

The bootcamps in Sandbach have been going well. Now that the warmer weather has arrived it doesn’t matter so much if it’s raining, in fact it’s quite refreshing. Not that the cold wet and muddy winter weather put off the hardy Sandbach crowd, who kept me company during a miserable winter. They even tell me they don’t mind the weather when it’s bad, they feel good for getting through it. I can’t say I enjoy the cold, wet and windy weather, but then I suppose I’m out in it every day, sometimes twice a day, after a while you just want a dry day. But with the warmer weather comes new recruits and we’ve had quite a few lately. You never know, with newbies, particularly those who haven’t exercised for a while, whether they will enjoy the experience or not, for some it sounds like a good idea but then it’s harder than they anticipated, particularly because all the regulars seem to be so much fitter, but if they stick it out the progression is usually pretty quick. We’ve had a good influx of newbies this year and I’m pleased to say that they’ve all stuck it out. Not only that, the transformation in their fitness levels has been noticeable.

Thanks to the success of Sandbach, and the prompting of a friend, I decided to start another bootcamp in Northwich. Finding a suitable venue wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be but in the end I managed to secure some space at Sir John Deane’s college and my latest ‘bodyweight’ bootcamp is now being held on Wednesday evenings at 18:30. Of course nothing runs perfectly and it turns out that my first SJD bootcamp coincided with Andy Murray playing tennis and the Wales football team playing Portugal, but, despite these distractions, I was still able to attract a few attendees. And it was a success, based on my success criteria; did they learn anything new, did they find it a challenge, did they have fun, did I have fun and was I out of pocket. The answer to all of these, apart from the last one, should be ‘yes’. Of course the other success criteria is, will they be back, well I’ll find out the answer to that next Wednesday.

As for me, I’m taking a day’s rest today. I’ve run for the last 15 days and over the past 4 days I’ve done a kettlebell session and 3 bootcamps (yes I take part too). I woke up this morning and I could feel my muscles were tired, a day off will do me the world of good and set me up for another week of solid exercise.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Unorthodox Rog

I’ve been a bit quiet lately, I’ve been working on a few things, investigating a few future opportunities and catching up on admin. Mind you I’ve not exactly had much to shout about, the latest injury in December, a reoccurrence of the one I had at the end of summer, stopped me in my tracks. It had me thinking that it could be the end of my competitive running life. I still don’t know if it is or not, at the moment I’ll keep trying to come back but there has to be a point where I’ll say no more, and, whilst not totally convinced I’m close to that point, I’m ready to accept it and move on if it happens.

However, whether I competed again wasn’t going to stop me running. I had to find a balance and that’s what I’ve been trying to do since December.

I started running again at Xmas, spending Xmas and New Year in Spain was always going to be an easier kicking off point than in the UK, warm air and sunshine makes such a difference. Starting gradually with the run/walk that I tried last time I was injured, I built my time and distance up on a daily basis until I was up to a reasonable 40 minute run by the end of the trip.

Continuing the build up on my return to the UK I was soon over the hour. I also started a bit of basic speed work. But, before the end of January I was starting to get worrying aches around the knee again.

I was convinced the problem was caused by my longer runs rather than my speed work, though I couldn’t be absolutely sure. So I decided to reduce the time of my runs, to ensure I didn’t go over the hour. At the time I was still thinking I might not race again, I certainly didn’t have a particular appetite for getting on a race start line any time soon, so I wasn’t too concerned about the fact that this was unlikely to keep me as fit as my opposition. However, with a holiday in Malaysia coming shortly, I knew I was going to have to spice things up a bit because steady running in hot countries can be mind numbing when I’m running alone.

So I set myself the following ‘unstructured’ plan. I would aim to run for between 35 minutes and one hour. I would do speed work on consecutive days, for as many days as my body and my mind could take it. I would not run if my body was telling me not to, though I might do some other form of exercise instead and, finally, if I wanted to take a rest day I would, irrespective of the day of the week and irrespective that the previous day or days, or subsequent day or days, were also rest days. There - I was in control of my own destiny and nobody else was going to advise me differently. It may not work, I could get injured again, but what did I have to lose, I was already thinking of taking up gardening instead of running. It seemed like a last throw of the dice to me. If it worked it might just give me a few more races each year.

I was also going to maintain my cross training, and I would also do this to the level I felt my body could cope with.

I started my new regime on 1^st February and on the second day I was taking a rest from running. It wasn’t totally required but as I was running with a talented marathon runner on the third day I thought it best to be sensible, so as to not let them down. I pushed through from that with two more quality days before two days enforced rest days, due to travel and the difference in time zones for our trip to Malaysia.

WC 1 Feb 2016

M – am 52 minute run, pm abdominal workout

T – am 40 minutes on the cardio machines

W – am 1 hour run, reps with running client, eve 20 mins PT

T – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 37 min run  inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 22

S – Rest – travel to Kuala Lumper

S – Rest – still travelling and settling in

Not bad for a first week, three consecutive quality days, but plenty of rest. Now in Kuala Lumper I was conscious running would be tough in the heat and humidity. My first day of running was very much a plod, still feeling a bit jet lagged and it was hot, hot, hot. I also took another rest day when we transferred to Langkawi, but then I was back on it and as you can see, by the following training plan, over doing it and suffering from a bit of heat exhaustion.  

WC 8 Feb 2016

M – am 36 min run

T – am 36 min run inc. (1 min/15 sec rec) x 21

W – Rest – travel to Langkawi

T – am 37 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x3

F – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6

S – am 41 min run inc. (1 min/15 sec rec) x 21, pm squash. Unfortunately this was the day I got hit with heat exhaustion.

S – am 36 min run.

The easy run on Sunday didn’t ease the heat exhaustion so the next day I decided to go to the air conditioned gym. Having such a lovely beach to run on, I just couldn’t bring myself to hit one of the two treadmills so I designed a 30 minute PT session instead. By the Tuesday I was ready to go again, but decided to pare back the running a bit as it was the last few minutes I had begun to suffer on the previous week. And another rest day as we travelled back home.

WC 15 Feb 2016

M – am 30 min PT session

T – am 33 min run inc. 1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec/2 min/1 min rec/1 min/30 sec rec/1 min/30 sec rec/2 min

W – am 34 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 5, pm squash

T – am 35 min run

F – am 36 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec) x 15, pm squash

S – am 35 min run inc. (3 min/1 min rec) x2 (2 min/1 min rec) x 3 (1 min /30 sec rec) x 4

S – Rest – Travel home

Back home I was able to put some solid training behind me. I was starting to feel fit again and my speed was creeping up. Even so I’d only been using this regime for three weeks and that had been disrupted somewhat by the holiday. There was no way I was ready to race yet, nor was I intending to. Though, as you can see, I did a parkrun on the Saturday. Carole really wanted to do one and so I agreed to go along with her to my local one, at Delamere Forest. It’s a great place but I really don’t like the course. Nothing personal, it’s just that the surface is really uneven and with my history of achilles and knee problems not the best surface for me to run fast on. Still, it was a parkrun, not a race, and I went into it feeling about as racy as Garfield the cat. My aim, get around uninjured and use it to see how my sustained pace was coming along. And as you can see by the time I ran, not particularly pacy. But you have to start somewhere and, if I were to be honest, I really didn’t expect to break 19 minutes.

WC 22 Feb 2016

M – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x3, pm 30 minutes on cardio machines

T – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 37 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 22, pm 20 minutes kettlebells

T – am 53 min run with client, would have been reps at her pace, but it doesn’t state what they were, pm 1 hour bootcamp

F – am 50 min run

S – am Delamere parkrun, 18:48. Didn’t feel I was ready yet to test out my race pace, but Carole wanted to do a parkrun, so I thought I might as well get out there and see where I was. Despite always being in the top 10 and finishing 6^th I never really got into any kind of race feeling, but at least I did a solid paced 5k run and survived the uneven surfaces intact.

S – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x3   

WC 29 Feb 2016

M – am 38 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 6

T – am 40 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 23, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 48 min run, pm 30 min on cardio machines

T – am 59 min run with client, no details again but would have been reps of some sort, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 41 min run inc. (3 min/1 min rec) x 7 plus 1 min

S – am 38 min run inc. (3 min/1 min rec/2 min/1 min rec/1 min/30 sec rec) x 3  plus 1 min

S – am 51 min run

WC 7 Mar 2016

M – am 44 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 7 plus 1 min, pm 30 min on cardio machines

T – am 44 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 24, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 50 min hill session with client, pm 20 minute core workout

T – am 35 min run inc. (3 min/30 sec rec/3 min/1 min rec/3 min/90 sec rec) x 2, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 30 min static bike

S – am 30 min static bike

S – 36 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3

Six weeks in now and things were going well. I’d started upping the reps a little and the pace was definitely getting quicker. But, at the end of the previous week my knee was starting to suffer so I had to take a couple of days off running and get on the static bike. It worked a treat, I was soon back in action.

WC 14 Mar 2016

M – am 43 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 25, pm 20 min of kettlebells

T – am 38 min run inc. (5 min/2 min rec) x 4, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 59 min run with client, doesn’t state what we did, pm 20 mins on static bike

T – am 39 min run, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 45 min run inc. 1 min/2 min/3 min/4 min/5 min/4 min/3 min/2 min/1 min – all with 1 min rec

S – am 39 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

S – am 47 min run

At Easter we had planned to visit the Scottish relatives. Usually when we’re in Scotland we do the Edinburgh parkrun, so this was going to be my next opportunity to see how my training was progressing. I purposefully took the Friday off running, which meant we could get an early start and enjoy the afternoon in Scotland. The forecast wasn’t great, strong winds, cold and wet, so I decided that we should try the Portobello parkrun instead. Result, still windy but not as strong as I would’ve encountered at Silverknowes and, despite the wind, I was 50 seconds quicker than four weeks ago at Delamere. You could put some of that down to the smoother terrain, but I was definitely more racy this time. I followed that up with a sports massage from Cath Ferry, good friend and EAC athlete. Cath pointed out that my achilles were thickened. Well they weren’t giving me any trouble so I suspected it was down to the achilles injuries I suffered in 2012.

WC 21 Mar 2016

M - am 20 min cardio machine, pm 30 min cardio machine

T – am 49 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 8, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 47 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 4, pm 20 min static bike  

T – am 33 min run, 8.1k on treadmill, pm 1 hour bootcamp

F – rest, travel to Scotland

S – am Portobello parkrun 17:58, pm massage

S – am 40 min run

Funny really, no issues with my achilles for a long while, until now. Nothing big but I was conscious that my right one was slightly tender this week. Now I’m not a psychosomatic sort of person so I was sure it was nothing to do with what Cath had said. Maybe I’d pushed a bit too hard too soon after the massage or, more likely, because I ran five consecutive days of quality and my quality was getting faster. By the end of this next week I was feeling it again and needed to take a day off running.

WC 28 Mar 2016

M – am 39 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

T – am 42 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 8, pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 47 min fartlek run, pm 30 mins on cardio machines

T – am 45 min run inc. (3min/1 min rec) x 3 (2 min/1 min rec) x 4 ( 1 min/30 sec rec) x 5, pm 1 hour bootcamp

F – am 42 min run inc. (1 min/10 sec rec) x 25

S – am 30 min static bike

S – am 38 min am run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

The rest did me some good but the achilles were still hurting during the next week so I had to back off and made some of my reps longer, hence slower.

WC 4 Apr 2016

M – am 38 min run inc. 5 mins x 4 with rec of 2 min/1:30 min/1 min, pm 20 minutes of kettlebells

T – pm 1 hour boot camp

W – am 49 min run, pm 20 min weight session (all body, endurance)

T – am 47 min run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2min/1min rec) x 8, pm 1 hour boot camp

F – am 42 min run inc. reps of 10 min/8 min/6 min all with 2 min rec

S - am – 45 min run

S – am – 38 mn run inc. (1 min/30 sec rec/2 min/1 min rec/3 min/1 min rec) x 3 plus 1 min

So that’s where I am now. Slowing down the reps seems to have worked for now but I’m going to have to be vigilant around my knee and now my achilles. Running this way I’m under no illusions that I will once again be able to grace a podium, but if I can enjoy it, and I do enjoy speed work much more than steady running, you may well see me entering proper races again, before the summer is done. Though you may just as easy see me weeding the garden.

Whilst I haven’t been competing, others have, and it was great to see my club, Salford Harriers, win the Northern 12 Stage road relay, they and the B team both qualified for the National 12 stage. I had been asked if I wanted to be considered for the B team, but at the time I didn’t feel my leg was ready to race, and it was good to see I wasn’t missed. The National 12 Stage takes place this coming weekend. It will be good to see how the Northern Champions fare in this iconic championship.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

The Malaysian Runs

For the fourth year running Carole’s treated me to a fantastic holiday in a country I’ve never visited before. In Kerala my achilles was completely screwed and I could barely walk, let alone run, but I’ve managed to experience running in Vietnam, Cambodia and, now, Malaysia. All offer different opportunities to test my own boundaries of physical ability and creativity. All have been hot and humid places to run in, which does make physical activity more challenging than back home.

This particular holiday was split into two, starting in Kuala Lumpur with 3 nights and then onto Langkawi for 10 nights. It always seems a bit of a drag travelling to these far flung holidays, and so it was again, though not as much a drag as the coming home. We took the Manchester to Dubai, Dubai to Kuala Lumpur route, flying with Emirates. We left early on the Saturday morning, arriving in Kuala Lumpur around the same time on Sunday morning, with the time difference. Bonus: the hotel we were staying at had our room ready, which meant we could have a quick shower, get changed and have a look around. With not much sleep during the journey we decided not to venture far, rather to look at the immediate area and get a feel for the place, and, naturally, suss out any potential running opportunities.

Petronas Towers, look good day or night

The hotel had a small gym and I was quite prepared to use the one treadmill for my daily run. I was also, because my attitude has been changed due to my latest injury problems, prepared to just do an intensive PT session, should somebody else be on the treadmill. However, it turned out we were close to the City Centre park. It still required crossing a few roads, but it looked like a distinct possibility.

The next day we were up and out, we’d decided to give the park option a go. Arriving at the park we found it busy, lots of people were out walking or running, 90% of them going anti-clockwise around the marked running circuit, handily marked out as a 1300m circuit, which enabled me to notice how slow I was going. It wasn’t intentional, but the flight had taken it’s toll, plus it was pretty hot and humid in KL. I shuffled around a few laps and then went back to the hotel for breakfast.

After breakfast we were treated to a Lion Dance, this being Chinese New Year, to wish us on our way with good luck. We spent the bulk of the day walking around KL, following a tour in the guide book. Not the easiest place to get around, thanks to a very busy road system, but we saw everything we had hoped to and returned late afternoon for a dip in the pool, before dinner.

Lots of luck, but no tangerine

The next morning we decided the park was the best option again. I was feeling a lot more awake so decided to try some speedwork, a loosely based term for a session of repetitions that would be slightly faster than the previous days steady run. Having knowledge of how difficult it is to train in the heat and humidity of places, such as KL, I decided to keep the reps short but, as time was a constraint, also keep the recoveries short. So a session of 21 x 1 minute with 15 seconds recovery. This is a tough session any time, if done properly, but it was very tough in this weather. Thankfully the crowd mentality of mostly going in an anti-clockwise direction helped me enormously, giving me loads of people to overtake, even on my recovery jogs. It could’ve been a nightmare if 50% of the people were travelling against the flow.

After breakfast another day’s walking around KL and another dip before dinner.

The next day we were due to leave for Langkawi and we were leaving fairly early, getting up early for a run was certainly achievable, in fact a few years earlier it would have been a given, but I weighed up the bigger picture, including my current fitness levels and current ambition, and decided, for once I’d just chill and enjoy the holiday. So I did and a few hours later we were disembarking in Langkawi.

A friend of mine from Edinburgh, and fellow runner, Stephen Maniam, is travelling round the world, cycling as much of it as he can. It just so happens he’s on a break from travel and currently teaching just South of KL. Naturally, when he heard I was heading to KL he headed to Langkawi, as we disembarked, he was on the other side of a glass partition, waiting to get on the plane we had just vacated. We exchanged waves, he was due back in Langkawi at the weekend so we’d be able to catch up proper then.  

Too much cycling makes you sit funny

We settled in our new accommodation and went for a walk to see what the area looked like, and more specifically where we could run. The gym was pleasant, 3 treadmills looking over the beach, so assuming they were free that was one option. The town was a busy through road and the pavements were both clogged and in a bad state of disrepair, completely unsuitable. The road out of town was an option, but I try to avoid running on the road in most foreign places but, in particular, here I wasn’t that impressed with the local driving skills. The site we were on had some pathways, very likely to be busy but an option. That left the beach. I don’t like running on the beach if it’s soft sand, unless I’m just starting back from injury, even then I can’t take it for longer than 20 minutes, though Carole loves it, so she was sorted. We had a quick inspection, soft sand, and yet, as we got closer to the sea there was a band of firm sand, the likes I’d not come across since training in Whitianga, New Zealand. Yes this could be possible. The beach was reputedly 2k end to end, so it was a pretty good option if the sand was firm all the way. I’d find out the next morning.

Fully bedded in now, having been in Malaysia for 5 days, despite the late night closing at the beach bar, with wailing karaoke style singer, and the heat of the night being very similar to the day, requiring the fan to be on permanently, causing all sorts of weird dreams connected with engines and chainsaws, I decided I’d go for it on the beach and try my trusted 1,2,3 x3 session. The beach was great, surprisingly busy at 8:00am but respectful, i.e. they got out of my way when I was running towards them. The first few reps were good, but then I started to feel the heat on the 3 minute rep, after that it was hard work, but I did just over 4 complete lengths of the beach, that was enough. The rest of the day was spent relaxing by the pool, we were too knackered to be bothered with anything else, plus it was a nice pool, great for shade bathing. 

Back on the speed the next morning, this time it was a 1,2 x 6 (I know it seems a little unorthodox to rep day after day, but I’ll explain at the end of the blog, why I’m training this way). A little easier not having to do any 3 minute reps, but I was still starting to struggle towards the end. And the following day I repeated my 21 x a minute with 15 seconds recovery. Now that really was hard, I was slightly later getting up, it was definitely warmer and I was really struggling from about rep 10, it was so difficult to breathe, the 15 seconds was definitely not enough recovery in this heat.

By now we’d found the squash courts. Carole’s been saying for years that she’d like to thrash me at squash, now I’m no squash player, think I’ve played 3 or 4 times in my life and the last time was about 29 years ago, but I figured I’m much fitter than I was then and it must be easy to pick it up again so I’d always argued that she was talking a load of racquets. Today was the day we were going to find out the truth. Some breakfast and pool lounging first but before lunch we hit the court. Turns out Carole wasn’t talking racquets at all, she had me running around all over the place. Clearly fitness is no match for skill and I had no squash skill. Still I was getting better as I taught myself how to hit the ball back and I never had a 9-0 against me. We finished after 53 minutes, I was tempted to carry on but Carole was bored.

Turned out it was a good idea to stop at that point as the heat had now started to hit me, the hard training of the last three days and constant lapping of a squash court had left me exhausted so whilst Carole went off to eat lunch I went back to the room to have a lie down. I felt a bit rough and lost my appetite for the next two days, really, at my age, I ought to start taking things a bit easier!  

The next morning I was still feeling the effects of those exertions so decided to play safe and just run on the beach, nice and easy, no reps. But, in this heat, it was still hard work and I found it a bit tedious going back and forth four times.

Not wanting another run on the beach the following day I decided to do half a PT session instead. I didn’t feel as energised as I do at home but I managed to string together a good mix of stuff. A welcome break from running, and a timely reminder that you should only run because you love running and not because you feel you ought to. Thankfully, by the end of that day, I was starting to feel like my old self and my appetite had come back.

Back in the groove, the next morning I was keen to get back into my running. I decided that I needed to shorten my session a bit, to ensure I didn’t overdo it, so instead of my 1,2,3 x 3 I did 1,2,3 x 2 and a 1,2. 15 minutes of quality rather than 18. Still hard but that little bit of breathing space gave me both the energy and the willpower to see it through.

I followed this up the next day with 1,2, x 5, plus I took another thrashing in the squash court, though I was improving, just a little.

Having done two days of reps and the squash, I decided to do a steady run again and went for the 8k run along the beach. I managed to catch up with a Dutch guy, who was going just a little slower than me, halfway along the first length. It was nice to have some company for a change, last time I had company on my run was when I went training with Rob Tudor, and that was only for about 100m before Rob zoomed off into the distance, on this occasion it lasted a little longer, about 250m before my new friend decided he needed to stop and stretch before facing the next 2k of beach, so I was back on my Jack Jones. Still it was good to talk.

With two days to go until the end of the holiday I had two more beach runs left. On the penultimate day it was the time of 1 minute reps. Again I reduced this so I was only doing 15 and, conscious of how difficult it had been the last time, with 15 seconds recovery, I decided to give myself 30 seconds, generous soul. It worked, it was much easier and enabled me to have enough energy for a further squash thrashing, though on this occasion I got almost close to taking a game.

Final run, it was mind games, which run should I do. If I’m being honest I really didn’t want to do it, I was feeling tired and couldn’t muster any enthusiasm, particularly as we’d be setting off for home at 7pm and travelling for 22 hours with short hops and long breaks. But, it was the last opportunity I was going to get to run on this beach so I gave myself a kick up the backside and decided the best way to get through it was to do the long reps first, whilst still fresh, and increase the number of reps as they got shorter. I did 2 x 3 mins, 3 x 2mins and 4 x 1 min. It felt pretty good.

After a grueling journey home, in which I felt I was coming down with a cold (nose constantly running, regular sneezing) we finally got into our own home early Sunday afternoon. We were both shattered, each leg of the journey home had been too short to get any proper sleep, with 3 hour gaps between flights also unsuitable for sleeping, plus we were 8 hours behind Malaysia so it was nearing bedtime. Some tidying up, washing kept us going but we both fell asleep in front of the TV by 8pm. It was nice to have a rest day, even though I didn’t feel rested.

The next day was the start of the next block of training. Carrying on with the theme I was back doing quality, but it was a real struggle, I really felt rough. Got through it, the next day I felt a bit better and so it continued, day by day, able to go a bit faster, feeling a lot better about my runs and now it’s down to managing my training so I don’t get injured and get the most out of myself. And then, maybe even a race.

My training ground in Langkawi

Not a bad place to see sunset

I mentioned earlier that I would explain my unorthodox approach to training, well here it is: Since last summer I’ve been getting problems with my knees, it comes and goes but on two occasions it’s caused one or other of my knees to seize up completely, meaning that walking is painful, bending the knee is even more painful and running is out of the question for a significant period of time. I’ve seen a physio and constantly do exercises to stop this happening, but at the end of the day I have to face the fact that I’m 51 years old, have been running for 27 years, and it’s now starting to take it’s toll.

The first thing I decided was that I needed to stop racing, for the present. This would allow me to train as and when I feel without the added pressure of trying to get fit for a specific event. That was fine but, obviously, as you start to get a bit fitter you want to push the training more. Ooops problem, I found that as I pushed harder and longer I started getting problems. So I decided to restrict my runs to about 37 mins, if doing quality, and 45 minutes if doing a steady, with the odd exception. This seemed to be working and I was making some progress. However, ever the optimist, if I was to decide I was ready to race again I’d want to be able to compete against my peers and this wasn’t going to get to that position if I was to continue training to a traditional pattern of three hard sessions interspersed with easy runs.

So I decided to follow the method I used to do on holidays, i.e. 2 days hard 1 day easy, only I wasn’t going to restrict it to 2 days. I would run reps every day I felt up to it and only have an easy day or a rest day if I wanted to. It’s a risky strategy but sometimes you have to take risks to achieve your goals. I’m now four weeks into this regime and, despite the setback I suffered on holiday, it seems to be working for me. I’ve currently got no problems with my knees, though every time I say that to anybody the next day my knee starts to ache….

I imagine there will be some of my running pals who will read that and think I’m setting myself up for failure, or injury, but I feel it’s the only way to keep me going, at this moment in time. I’ll adapt if I need to and maybe I’ll even put in an appearance at a road relay or parkrun before the end of March.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

A New Hope, The Return of the Injury, Rog Strikes Back

Well what a year 2015 has been, after the last few injury riddled years you’d think I was due to have a decent year, even if it wasn’t a very impressive year at least I’d be able to run as I liked. Sadly it was not to be as I suffered major blow injuries in July and August. Following my August lay-off I was gradually working my way back to fitness, indeed, whilst hardly setting the athletic world alight I just about managed to scrape my way into another National medal winning Salford team. Following that silver at the Masters Cross Country Relays I seemed to be running pain free and training was getting better. In fact training was going so well I set myself some winter targets; to win the South East Lancs cross country league M50 championship and to be 1^st M50 at the Cheshire Cross Country Championships. It started well, I finished an overall 10^th in the first of four SEL races, taking, for the first time in this league, my first age group victory. I was looking forward to my next SEL race, in a much more favourable location for me, Heaton Park……but, just seven days before the race, my knee started to ache in a bog standard 9 mile training run. Later that day it stiffened up, such that I could hardly walk. I took the week off all exercise, hoping that I’d still be capable of a good run on the Saturday, but I was still unable to run on race day. My title chance had gone, but more concerning, was this to be the career ending injury, my knees were in a lot of pain and I could hardly bend my right one.  

Happier Times National Masters Road Relay Silver, celebrating with my pal Rob Tudor, who's had his own fair share of injuries this year

Race out of the way and the rest of the winter season written off there was no rush to get my fitness back but I didn’t want to do nothing so I devised a training plan that would enable me to keep strong and at least keep the cardiovascular situation on it’s toes. I spent the next couple of weeks doing my own PT sessions, avoiding anything that could affect the problem (basically it was clear that it was the hamstring which was the culprit). It was a minimal response, I didn’t do much as I thought I’d take the opportunity to give my whole body a bit of a rest, but I couldn’t do nothing.

21^st December was day one of, what I hoped would be, my return to running. My body was feeling good, though I still had an underlying ache in my knee. However, using the easiest of easy running sessions I figured I’d soon know if it was going to be successful or back to the drawing board. (1 minute walk / 1 minute run) x 10, of little acorns… Being an optimist, the next day I was back out (1 minute walk / 2 minutes run) x 9. I was sure I was going down the right track but my knee was feeling a little tired so on day three I just cycled. Xmas eve was a scheduled rest day, we were heading to Spain for what, originally, was intended to be a focused warm weather training period in preparation for the Cheshire Cross Country Champs, but now was going to be a chance to rehabilitate in the sun and warmth of the Costa Calida.

Xmas day, whilst Carole was out enjoying one of her best and longest runs of the year, I was back on the rehabilitation wagon, (1 minute walk / 3 minutes run) x 8, and I threw in a few press ups by the pool for good measure. Boxing day was (1 minute walk / 4 minutes run) x 7 and the following day the pattern continued with 5 minutes running x 6.

Now I get bored with the obvious so the next day I spiced things up with (1 minute walk / 7 minutes run) x 5 and then decided it was time for a rest day. Rest day over and keen to get on with it, enjoying my plods in the sunshine, it was a big advance to 10 minutes of running x 4, with the following day being 15 minutes of running x 3. It was all going so well so the next day was 20 minutes of running x 3 and, on the day we were going to head home to England, 1 minute walking followed by 39 minutes of running. Yes, if I could run for 39 minutes, non stop, now I could dispense with the walking.

Back home I decided I would just run for 45 minutes each day for the first week and then review the situation.

It’s now 8 January, I’m taking a rest day. After yesterday’s run I could feel the muscles around my knees start to tighten. I had a good boot camp last night but I’m ready for a rest. Tomorrow I’ll see how I feel, not sure I’m ready to go beyond 45 minutes but I’m hoping I’ll be able to run an hour, non stop, next week. No plans yet for any speed work, I’m just keeping fit and enjoying being able to run. I’ll be keeping a close eye on things, better to run once a week than not to run at all. Racing is right at the back of my mind at the moment, I’m not even sure if I have the desire any more, but I’m sure that’ll come back once I can run fast.   

Here’s hoping you, and I, have a happy and successful 2016.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

The Speedway Reunion

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog, afraid work has kept me busy. I’ve been planning this one for a little while, about a passion I’ve rekindled for a sport I used to watch when I was young. It has nothing to do with fitness, so apologies to anyone wanting to find out the latest gimmick on the fitness front, or what’s been going on in my running world, rather it’s an opportunity to introduce you to a sport that is relatively cheap to watch live, you get to see every inch of the circuit without having to move and it is full of drama. The sport I am referring to is Speedway, have you heard of it? Well it would appear that most of my friends haven’t, as they draw a blank when I say I’m going to a speedway meeting. I find this a real shame because I feel it is an exciting sport to watch and the fans, generally, create a friendly atmosphere. Plus it’s a sport whereby you can actually get to meet the competitors on a regular basis.

For the benefit of those who do not know anything about speedway here’s a quick synopsis:

Speedway is a sport where four riders race against each other on motorbikes that have a fixed gear and no brakes. They race over four laps of a shale/dirt covered circuit, oval in shape, each circuit varying in size but not much different to that of a running track (one circuit). That is a slight generalisation, if you want a more in-depth explanation here’s an extract from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_speedway

For me speedway was something I was into during the 70s and 80s but when I got caught by the running bug, 1989, that, and the fact that speedway started to disappear in London, it spelt the death knell for my speedway spectating. It’s only this year that I’ve got back into it, prompted by seeing a facebook friend was a member of the ‘Speedway Friends’ group, set up by former rider, Karl Fiala. I thought I’d join and, like a running group I’m in, it features many pictures from the past, and has many ex and current riders on it’s membership. This prompted me to start going along to my nearest track and the rest will become apparent towards the end of this blog.

I don’t have much recollection of my earliest involvement with speedway, my dad would take us along to Belle Vue and I have occasional flashbacks of some of the more stylish leathers that were on show, but as for actual memories of races I don’t have any until the mid 70s. In fact one of the things that sticks in my mind from those early days was a brawl between the Belle Vue and Leicester riders, and fans, hardly endorsing my earlier comments about friendliness. But then it’s a tough sport, riding a motorbike at high speed around a short course surrounded by a fence and riders can, and do, crash frequently. Thankfully, I’ve never seen a fatality, though I have seen some serious crashes. Of course, over the years there have been many fatalities and riders leaving the sport disabled, even recently, despite all the safety measures. But it’s such an exciting sport to watch, and must be even more exciting to ride, that the danger doesn’t seem to put off new riders coming through, just as in the early days of the aeroplane people sought excitement, despite the risks.

Whilst Belle Vue was my first experience of speedway, it was at Ellesmere Port, home of the Gunners, where I grew to love the sport. We started going to watch Ellesmere Port in 1976 and I became an avid fan. I have many memories of watching The Gunners in action at Thornton Road, and on the few times that we travelled to watch The Gunners away. Ellesmere Port were in the 2^nd tier, whereas Belle Vue were a top tier team, but that didn’t matter to me, what we may have lacked in household names we never lacked any enthusiasm or commitment. Another major difference in this division was that you felt you could get closer to the riders, who, at Thornton Road, had to walk through the crowd to get to the showers.

My Ellesmere Port Gunners Scarf

Initially Ellesmere Port were quite successful, finishing 2^nd in the league, to Newcastle. It was Newcastle who knocked us out of the knock out cup, in the semi-finals. John Jackson, our top rider, was 2^nd to Newcastle’s Joe Owen in the National League riders championship, but came out on top, with Chris Turner, in the National League pairs, against Newcastle’s Joe and Tom Owen. Plus we were 3^rd in the final of the National League four team tournament. It was also the year that Belle Vue’s Peter Collins won the World Speedway Championship, the first Britain since Peter Craven (another Belle Vue rider) in 1963.

With out and out National League star, Joe Owen, due to move up to the top division in 1977, it was looking like Ellesmere Port could challenge for the top spot, especially as we still had the services of John Jackson, alongside a youthful, but talented team. It was not to be, Eastbourne emerged as the successors to Newcastle, with a very solid squad as the Gunners dropped to 3^rd place. Perhaps too much youth was the problem but it was the policy to try to bring riders through the Saturday morning training school, and it did produce some great future speedway riders. Again we were defeated in the Semi-final of the knock out cup, to Eastbourne. Not getting past the first round of the pairs and only to the semi final stage of the fours, and with Jacko only managing 6^th in the individual event, it was a bit of a downer compared to 76, but third place was not to be sniffed at and the racing at Thornton Road was always enjoyable. 77 also saw the emergence and rapid rise of the third of the five Collins brothers, Phil. Peter was world champion in 76 and runner up in 77, Les would be runner up in 1982, Phil had tough acts to follow.

With the same solid backbone of Jacko and Steve Finch and the improving Phil Collins, 1978 looked like it could be the Gunners year, but in the league it was once again disappointment. Unbeaten at home but with only 5 away wins we could only manage 5^th in the League. We were still good entertainment and I’m sure opposition teams looked forward to our visits. Jacko was again top dog, in the best form ever for Ellesmere Port he was 3^rd in the overall National League averages (Steve Finch was 12^th and Phil Collins 20^th, both showing great improvement), 2^nd in the National League Riders Championship and together with Steve Finch he won the National League Pairs Championship, remaining unbeaten on the night, with Steve Finch only dropping a point in one race. We made the final of the National League Fours competition, finishing joint 3^rd with Canterbury. Once again we failed to make the final of the cup competition, losing to Canterbury in the quarter finals. Phil Collins really made his mark this year, improving all year, he, like his elder brothers, Peter and Les, before, won the Junior Championship of the British Isles and was promptly picked up by Cradley Heath for the following year, going for a British record transfer fee of £15,000.

Without Phil Collins for 1979, but still with Jacko and Finch what were our prospects going to be? Paul Tyrer, a star at Ellemere Port before my time, had rejoined the previous year but hadn’t shown consistent form and in 1979 he appeared to struggle, it wasn’t long before he retired. The rest of the team consisted of young up and coming riders and it was left to Louis Carr to take over the heat leader role vacated by Phil Collins. Whilst not quite matching Phil’s point scoring, he did a pretty good job. Steve Finch did a great job all season, knocking Jacko off the top of the averages for the first time since Jacko joined, finishing 6^th in the overall averages. Perhaps this is where Jacko’s gradual decline started, he was well down on the average he’d achieved the previous year, though still 9^th ranked in the overall averages across the National League. Jacko was still the king around Thornton Road, but was struggling more with his form away from home. With Jacko misfiring a little away from home, a third heat leader who wasn’t quite ready for the responsibility and more youngsters getting their first opportunities of team action, understandably Ellesmere Port didn’t have a great season, they could only manage a mid table 9^th and were knocked out in the 1^st round of the cup competition by league champions elect, Mildenhall. Jacko was once again our representative at the NLRC, but didn’t feature on the podium. On the bright side though Jacko and Finch nearly managed to hold onto their National League Pairs championship, finishing 2^nd to Milton Keynes and on a far brighter note, we won the National League Fours championship, for the first time. So not a great season but we had things to cheer and, the racing at Thornton road was always exciting. This was also the year Ivan Mauger became the most successful rider in World Championship history, winning his 6^th, and final, world individual title.

1980 – Jacko’s gradual decline continued, no longer the king of Thornton Road as both Steve Finch and Louis Carr surpassed his home average. Steve Finch produced consistently good results away from home, showing further improvement from last year and a near 10 point overall average again placed him 6^th in the National League averages, with Jacko slipping to 29^th and Louis Carr not far behind in 33^rd. Looking through the Speedway Yearbook there were lots of high scores for Jacko, but it was the end of season that saw his average go down, for what reason I do not know but from 17 Aug to the end of the season he only had one double figure score, and that was from 5 rides, plus an 8 paid 10 from 4 rides. His average ended below the 9 point mark. The second stringers and reserves were now more experienced but there were just too many meetings narrowly lost, which meant we finished even lower in the league than last year, 10^th. In the cup we were again knocked out in the first round, to a Berwick team that went all the way. In the pairs, Jacko and Finch narrowly missed out on qualifying for the semi-finals and in the fours it was 3^rd place in a narrowly contested final. Steve Finch made his debut in the NLRC, finishing a fine 3^rd, my brother was working for him at the time and I remember Steve dropping him off, very late, that night. This was also the year Mike Lee became the next British Rider to win the World Speedway Championship.

Having sold off Louis and Peter Carr to Belle Vue, in 1980, for a new record fee (surpassing that of Phil and Neil Collins), it was another case of rebuild for 1981. The sale agreement gave Peter another year in the NL with the Gunners, but would he be able to replace his older brother? Newcomer, loaned from Halifax, Australian Rob Ashton started in reserve and produced some great results from the off, quickly moving up into the team and providing solid work. Peter Carr struggled at first but by the end of the season was scoring well to improve his average. Billy Burton came in from Stoke, as Pete Ellams went the other way, another solid scorer at home. Steve Finch was once again top man, but with a reduced average on the previous year and Jacko, whilst scoring well at home, didn’t seem to travel as well and also seemed to suffer a number of uncharacteristic engine failures at home which kept his average well down on his usual and even led to him moving from his traditional no. 1 position, sometimes filling in the 2^nd string role. Phil Alderman, Paul Embley, Pete Ellams (before his Stoke move) and Eric Monaghan were solid riders and there were some big scores at home. But away form and three home losses and a draw meant we only finished 11^th, the worst league position since I started supporting. In the cup, now run over 16 heats we were pretty poor, in the first round we lost at home to Wolves, but managed to beat them away to go through but in the second round we were absolutely trounced at home, 30-64, to Mildenhall, before suffering worse at West Row, 76-20, to go out. I went up to watch the National League pairs championship, only to come away disappointed after seeing Jacko and Finch lose each of their three rides by 5-1, and we didn’t qualify for the Finals of the 4s. All in all a pretty poor season, which is why there were some changes coming in 1982.

The league races format changed for 1982, clearly the 16 heats in the cup had been deemed such a success that the league matches were increased from their traditional 13 heats to match this. Teamwise it was still nearly the same team as the previous year for Ellesmere Port, Rob Ashton had moved on and Peter Carr was now in the Belle Vue team. We started the season with Billy Burton, Steve Finch and newcomer Rob Maxfield leading the team. Eric Monaghan took on the captaincy, with Jacko down as a second stringer, due to his drop in average from the 1981 season. The experienced Phil Alderman was back in reserve position, joined by Rob Tate, until Glen Parrott broke into the team and made an exceptional start. It was probably a bit of a kick in the pants for Jacko, starting the season as the 4^th best rider in the team, based on averages, and he was soon piling up some big scores, ending the season back in the top position, it was great to see him riding so confidently. Another notable change was Mike Lohmann taking over the team manager role from long term manager Joe Shaw.  As the season went on Jacko seemed to relish being no1. Again and was scoring solidly, though he still encountered a few gremlins with his engine along the way. Ably backed by Steve Finch and Rob Maxfield and with Eric Monaghan, Phil Alderman and Glen Parrott scoring well we were generally able to cope with a mid-season misfiring Billy Burton, who found himself relegated to reserve. We suffered uncharacteristic home losses against Mildenhall and Newcastle, but it was a much better season for us, finishing 3^rd in the league. We made it to our first cup final, but lost to the mighty Newcastle. There was another cup, the Super Nat Koc, we reached the semi finals of that and rode against Mildenhall, but then my stack of programmes comes to an end so I don’t know what happened next and I have no recollection of how we fared in the pairs or fours that season.

Little did I know that this was the beginning of the end, not just for Ellesmere Port, but for my own speedway watching. Ellesmere never made it to the tapes for the 1983 season. The loyal, but dwindling crowds just didn’t make it a viable option for the promoters. So for the 1983 season we found ourselves watching our local rivals, Stoke Potters, though it felt a little like home with Jacko having joined them.

Jacko seemed to start well but, if I recall correctly, seemed to lose his spark a little and ended the season on an average around the 6 point mark. He was there again at the first meeting for the following season, was on paid 5 after two rides, came last in his next ride and didn’t take his 4^th ride. For some reason I didn’t go back again until the 6^th meeting by which time Jacko had retired. I went to Stoke a number of times that year, they had a great team with Tom Owen and Nigel Crabtree leading the way and it was good to see Paul Thorp starting to make his way in the speedway world. It’s also interesting to see that a young Tony Atkins was emerging in the junior races, I would come across Tony many years later when I got back into speedway after my break, he remains a Stoke asset and will ride for them in 2016, a the age of 50, I think (I know how that feels).

At the start of 1985 I moved to London, the beginning of a 20 year stint. By the time the speedway season started I was living in Ealing and working in Aldwych. I went a few times to watch Hackney, but of course the big news for me was that Ellesmere Port were back, had a great team and had changed their body colours to gold and blue. I couldn’t afford to go back up north to watch Ellesmere Port, I was working for the BBC and they didn’t pay me very well, so I had to keep in touch via the Speedway Star magazine. I managed to catch them at Rye House, my first and only visit to Hoddesdon, which I can’t remember much about other than one of the Rye House riders playing silly begger trying to upset Louis Carr, something to do with his tyre. Anyway that particular tactic didn’t work but I can’t remember the result. The only other thing I remember about that meeting was meeting up with a small bunch of travelling fans, who were great fun. The only other meeting I can remember was the National League Pairs, which Joe Owen and Louis Carr won in a spectacular final race, though Louis came off on the run in to the line and was unable to parade his trophy. I actually lost my voice that day, shouting for Louis and Joe, I said I was passionate about it, and it was such an exciting meeting. Ellesmere Port won the league that year, the first and only time. Unfortunately Joe Owen suffered paralysing injuries in the last match of the season and Ellesmere Port closed down for good. There was one final meeting at Thornton Road, a benefit meeting for Joe, held on Boxing Day, I was up for Xmas so went along. It was a strange atmosphere, and the track was too slick for decent racing and that was it. Ellesmere Port Gunners were no more. The track has remained but there has been no speedway racing since, this year the track was sold for housing development.

After that I lost interest in speedway a little, too busy partying with my new found friends in London. I did go to Wimbledon once, with my landlord, but then I started having proper relationships with girls and I was hard pressed to find one who was interested in speedway. I moved to Wimbledon in 1988 and went to a meeting at the Dons stadium in 1989, but, despite the great weather, it never took place because the St. John’s Ambulance man hadn’t turned up. I’d also discovered running by now and the Rosenheim League took place on Wednesday nights, same night as Wimbledon speedway, so that was the final nail in the coffin for my relationship with Speedway.

Years later, 2005, I moved to Edinburgh. I was interested to see that Edinburgh still had a speedway team, albeit operating from Armadale.  But with the shifts I was working I couldn’t muster up the interest to go along, plus I was still racing at a high level so put all my energy into my running.

Move on a few years and I found myself back in Cheshire. Living near Sandbach we were ideally situated to pay another visit to Loomer Road. I took a risk, last time I took a girlfriend to speedway she dumped me a few days later, what would happen with Carole? We’d been together two years and I’d moved down to be with her (though I tell my parents it was so I could be closer to them), surely she could cope with one meeting! Turned out she liked it, it was an exciting match Stoke vs Sheffield, but, for some reason we didn’t go back.

This year, as I already mentioned, I decided it was time to have another go. We, Carole (still with me), myself and my dad ventured to Stoke on May 9^th, to see Stoke Potters vs Buxton Hitmen. The track wasn’t in great shape and it brought back memories of 1977 when Louis Carr and John Williams both fell in a heat two and took no further part in the meeting. This time it was Stoke reserves, Ryan MacDonald and Shaun Tedham who fell, Shaun in the rerun too. Both reserves were out for the rest of the meeting, leaving Stoke with only one rider in six of the heats. They fought well, but went down 44–45 in a last heat decider. Who should be involved in that last heat decider, scoring the 2 points for Buxton that sealed their win, only Tony Atkins, who I saw riding at Stoke back in 1984, at almost 50 he’s definitely stood the test of time. That was it, not hooked, but we were going to come back for more. The meeting with Buxton was a Sunday afternoon, which suited us more than a Saturday night, so it was a few weeks before we did make it back for another Sunday afternoon meeting, against Mildenhall. It was a dry and dusty track this time, and more fallers, visibility got so bad that the meeting was abandoned after heat 14’s original run saw three riders go down. With the result at 50-27 to Stoke, there was no point continuing.

The idea of Sunday afternoon racing was becoming quite appealing so the next speedway we went to was at Buxton, the Hitmen vs Kent Kings. This was a meeting full of surprises. For starters the track, whilst not difficult to find, is in the middle of nowhere, down a long lane. Secondly, there was bangor or hot rod racing going on at an adjacent track, at the same time, which surely reduces income for both as some fans would surely watch both. Thirdly, it was the most open circuit I’ve ever visited, not much shelter from the elements at all, but the view was pretty good. Fourthly, the track is on a slope so the back straight is lower than the start/finish straight and finally only four members of the team I’d seen at Stoke were still in the Buxton team, in fact one of that original team was now riding for Kent. One of the best things about it for me, was that you can get up really close to the track, no greyhound track between you and the action. Of course this does mean that you get a bit muddy at times but you do really feel like you’re part of the action. I got talking to a few fans and introduced to former rider Ken Eyre, which was interesting but I didn’t really know what to say as he was slightly before I started watching properly. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves but it left us debating where we should watch our speedway, Stoke is nearer and less exposed, but Buxton you feel much more of a part of it.

I went to a few more matches, we couldn’t get into a pattern because we had other commitments and the British weather meant there were a number of cancellations, Stoke had at least 5 home matches postponed and Buxton 2, but as the season went on we were getting more into our speedway, not quite to the level I used to be at, and I still don’t understand all the new rules, but then I’ve not really had the inclination to research them. By October it looked like the season was over, but by now I had something else to look forward to. I’d come across an Ellesmere Port Gunners reunion in October, 30 years after the last speedway took place at Thornton Road. Well I couldn’t resist it, even though I was a little unsure about what it would be like. I didn’t really know any of the fans, I just happened to be one. Who of the riders would be there and what would I say to them anyway! But I bought a couple of tickets, I thought it might interest my dad and would give me some role reversal, taking him after all the years he’d taken me. It also turned out that a couple of local friends used to go to Thornton Road so they took a couple of tickets too.

And then, because of the postponements, there was more speedway. Initially there was Buxton vs Kings Lynn on Sunday 11 October, the day after the Ellesmere Port reunion, and then, Stoke popped in a meeting, against Rye House, on the Saturday afternoon (had it been the usual evening I would have missed it as it clashed with the reunion) and also they were due to take on Kings Lynn at home the day after, after Kings Lynn had competed at Buxton. With Buxton originally going to be the last meeting of the year, that was my original focus, but I decided I’d also go to Stoke on the Saturday. It turned out to be one of the best matches of the season, another last heat decider, which Rye house won to take the lead for the first time in the meeting. Stoke were a bit unlucky, but that’s speedway.

That evening I went off to the Ellesmere Port reunion. I felt a little out of it, not being a local and knowing any of the fans, but I settled down a little, had a look at all the memorabilia and got talking to a few of the riders, though I was disappointed more didn’t turn up, I would’ve particularly liked to talk to Steve Finch. However I had a couple of good chats with John Jackson, such an ebullient rider and yet such a quiet and modest man. A brief chat with Colin Goad, who had been and gone from Ellesmere Port before I started watching them, I left my dad to chat with him, as they were more of the same era, and went off to chat to Eric Monaghan, another quiet and unassuming guy. Finally I chatted to Chris Turner, who, along with Jacko, had won the National League Pairs in 1976.

NL Pairs Champions in 1976, still holding the trophy with pride 39 years later

The next day was a bonus, we (Carole, myself and Carole’s mum, hit Buxton for the meeting against Kings Lynn. More speedway bad luck, on both sides, and another last heat decider, in which Kings Lynn prevailed for a win. Two meetings and a reunion in one weekend, I couldn’t justify the evening meeting at Stoke. So that was the end of my season, as far as I was concerned.

However…..I got wind of what really would be the end of season meeting, a double header at Coventry against Eastbourne and Mildenhall, two weeks later. Carole and I were doing nothing so I somehow managed to persuade her that we should go. I’d never been to Brandon before, the closest I got was living in the same village as Coventry legend, and three time individual world champion, Ole Olsen. As a child I remember going round the back of his house to look at all his trophies, which were displayed in a shed of some type. So this was going to be interesting.

We arrived and managed to find a seat, there was plenty. Interestingly Coventry is one of the clubs that hosts teams from both the top division (Elite League) and the third division (National League). The crowd wasn’t big and it made me wonder how big it would be for an Elite League meeting. The first match was against Eastbourne. I hadn’t seen Eastbourne during the season, but they were clearly a top side, finishing 2^nd in the league and winning the Gold Cup, National Trophy and, the night before, the KO cup, so I was expecting a close meeting. Unfortunately, despite good performances from Bradley Wilson-Dean and Ben Hopwood, Eastbourne never really seemed to get started, struggling with a number of engine failures, and were defeated by a large margin of 57-32. The second meeting against Mildenhall was also a big win for Coventry, 55-36, where guest Danny Ayres was top scorer for Mildenhall.

Buxton’s Liam Carr had guested for Coventry, scoring well, and it was only a few weeks later I was to find out he would be a Coventry rider for 2016. The rider I was most impressed with, on the night, was Coventry captain, Martin Knuckey, he’ll also be back at Coventry next year.

So that really was the end of the season, a season which saw me rekindle my love for speedway and a season that gave us another British World Individual Speedway Champion, in Tai Woffinden, having won his first in 2013. I’m hoping to be back watching speedway next year, but I’m not yet sure where I’ll go, Stoke, Buxton, Belle Vue or even Cradley Heath (who ended up being the only team I didn’t see in 2015). With the introduction of IoW and Belle Vue to the National League it should be an interesting season, but who to support, I really don’t know, I miss not supporting a team but I quite enjoyed being a neutral, a supporter of speedway rather than a supporter of a team.

I’d recommend you try it, if you haven’t before, or even if you haven’t for some time. Compared to some nights out it’s relatively cheap at £10-12 entry for National League speedway, going up only slightly for the higher divisions. With a, usual, 15 races, that works out at less than £1 a race. 

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Hotels California

It was a long time coming but after pulling my hamstring at the Hollins Green 5k I had to get back into racing at some point. With all the other issues I was having with my body my recovery had taken a long time. Thanks to physio, Richard Mason, I had a recovery plan and, although it was slow going, it was going. Initially I didn’t make any plans for a race, somewhere in the distant future was all that I had in my sights, as I tried to just get back and enjoy my running. After a couple of weeks of introductory speedwork I decided I was close to being right, but with a holiday in California on the horizon I was keen to put some kind of marker down before I went away.

Originally I had planned to do a local parkrun on 22^nd August, but the night before I just didn’t feel that I was ready. Yes, a parkrun isn’t a race and I could easily jog round in 20 odd minutes, but I could do that anywhere, if I was going to run a parkrun I needed to at least attempt to run it hard. That way it would give me some indication of form, from which I could progress. The following weekend we were visiting Edinburgh, I had some business to attend to so we thought we’d make a weekend of it and go to some shows at the festival. Perfect opportunity to run a flat, if a usually windy, parkrun. Decision made, Saturday we would run Edinburgh Parkrun.

I always look forward to the Edinburgh Parkrun, for starters it means we’re up in Edinburgh, one of my favourite cities in the world, secondly, I take it as an opportunity to perhaps bump into old running friends from times of old. Sadly once again I was disappointed, but I suppose not surprised, that none of my old running friends were out, I imagine they have plenty of races to take part in, as I used to when I lived there, though I was surprised not to see my old training partner Jim Buick, who usually runs at these events. I did recognise one young lady, Scottish International Freya Ross, but I don’t know her personally so we just acknowledged each other as one Edinburgh AC member to another (well I’m no longer a member but I was wearing my old City of Edinburgh singlet on this occasion).

It was another breezy day, not as breezy as the last time I ran at Edinburgh, but breezy all the same. I wasn’t bothered by a bit of wind, I knew I was out of shape so was fully expecting to run over 18 minutes. After the first k I started overtaking other runners and was surprised how far up the field I was, and also surprised that Freya wasn’t much further ahead, I figured she must’ve been coming back from an injury too. I finished 7^th, a couple of seconds behind Freya, I had been catching her up, gradually, but I was fully spent by the end, though I’m sure I might’ve been able to muster a bit more if it had been a race that counted, but she probably could too and 2 seconds is actually a significant distance at a good pace. My time surprised me, 17:59, considering I ran 18:00 last time I was up, when I was actually getting quite fit, the week before the Masters National Road Relays (though it really was windy then). So quite pleased with that debut, though it will be a while before I race again, due to the holiday.

My intention, during the holiday, was to train when I felt like it, but not to extremes. We were travelling around and I knew that meant we’d be needing to get up and just go, and in all fairness, Carole had footed the bill for this one so it was only fair she got maximum return on her investment. Had I been running well I might’ve had a slightly different attitude. However, as it turned out I ended up training a little harder than I’d anticipated.

I’d not been to California before, I’d thought about it previously but not had as strong a drive or desire to go as to places like Australia and New Zealand. But Carole had been a few times and was keen to show me, so this was our opportunity.

We flew from Manchester, via Heathrow, to San Francisco and caught the train to our hotel, just off Union Square, easy enough. Long day as it was we weren’t too tired and so it was a quick change and off out to see the sights, while it was still light. Knowing her way around Carole took me the route to The Embarcadero, where all the wharfs are, as this would be the best place to get a run in, that was near to our hotel. It did mean crossing a number of roads to cross to get there but then it was traffic free, mostly. We walked up to Fishermans Wharf and had a look at the sea lions, as one does, and then it was time to head back to our hotel, across town, over the hill, finding somewhere to eat on the way. The one point that struck me more than anything else about San Francisco was how many homeless people there were on the streets. Now I’m used to seeing homeless people and I am aware that cities tend to be more of a draw than a village in the back of beyond, but there did seem to be a significant number, and of this number a high proportion seemed to be shouting out loud, whether to themselves or someone else.

Getting a spot in the sun in San Francisco almost as bad as on an Italian beach

The next morning it was up and out for my first run in the USA. I took the same route as our walk on the previous day but continued along from Fishermans Wharf until I got to the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, where there appeared to be a swimming event. No time to watch, I had breakfast to aim for. I decided to try going back through town, rather than back the way I’d come. I expected it to be a bit hilly, but I’m not afraid of a few climbs and I wanted to see Lombard street, to see what all the fuss is about. Ok, I found out, there were some steep hills, particularly going up Lombard Street to get to the crooked bit. And then more so cutting back across to our hotel. Luckily, it being a Sunday, the street weren’t too busy with traffic as I had quite a few junctions to cross. Back after 49 mins, a nice little sight seeing trip of San Francisco.    

The Streets of San Francisco, or Lombard Street to be exact

Now I knew where I was going I decided I was ready to do some speed work the next day, though this time I kept to the flat, less roads to worry about. I had started my speed work a couple of weeks earlier by doing 4 x 5 minutes with 5 minutes recovery between reps and 5 x 4 minutes with 4 minutes recovery between reps, each week I would reduce the recovery by 1 minute, so my first bit of speed work was a 4 x 5 minutes with 3 minutes in between reps. It went well, the sun was shining and I didn’t get run over. The following morning, we had a busy day so I was up early and out for a 6 mile run. During my stay in SF I had noticed that runners didn’t appear to be as polite as some other places I have run, i.e. I come from the running background of making some kind of acknowledgement to runners as you pass them, whichever way they are going, whether this be verbal or a nod of the head. I’ve got used to being ignored by people with ear phones in but in SF runners coming the other direction would just stare blankly ahead and not even take a 2^nd look to my smile and ‘morning’. Having spent a few days in SF I decided that this wasn’t blatant rudeness, it’s just a protection mechanism, based on the premise that the only person who speaks to a stranger is a madman, and there were plenty of them in SF. So By now I’d decided to be less friendly to other runners, but then I got engaged in conversation with a fellow runner, it was only brief, a young lady who I overtook but clocked that she wasn’t hanging around, she caught me up at some traffic lights, that were too busy to jaywalk, so I told her I thought she was moving well, we exchanged a few words, and the lights changed we were off. I quite expected her to come with me and was prepared to slow down to enjoy a Southern California running conversation, but she wasn’t there a few metres later so I ran on, we passed again on my return and we wished each other well, and I went home for breakfast, this was the only runner I had any kind of conversation with in California, not counting the shop in San Diego. The difference in traffic, on a working day, was pretty significant, I wouldn’t have wanted to run again in that. Thankfully, from a running perspective but not from a leaving SF one, we were picking up a car, early the next morning, to begin our trip to San Diego, so running would be off the agenda for the day. I was ready for a rest by now anyway.

When I was last in the states, Boston and the East Coast, we did some driving and I suffered from a dodgy hamstring, something that I do occasionally have problems with. So I was a little concerned about how the drive would affect me, but this time, we weren’t travelling anywhere too far, so I’m glad to report it didn’t.

Next stop down the road was Monterey. We weren’t located too far away from the place we’d booked our car hire, and that was round the corner from entry to the 101, so it was an easy exit from SF and a straight forward drive, to get used to the overtaking/undertaking mentality of drivers in the states. On the way we popped down the 35 to Santa Cruz, where a few films have been shot. It was a lot smaller than I expected, and fairly deserted, but it was at a point when lunch beckoned. After a wander through town Carole selected a place, but after 5 minutes of being ignored by the staff and thinking it looked a little dirty we left and went across the road to another joint.

Famous boardwalk in Santa Cruz

Lunch done and it was creeping towards mid-afternoon, time to set off for Monterey. We arrived late afternoon, but the sun was still shining, and as I’d allocated this as a no run day, we went for a walk along the front and up the pier. The pier was, a little fake, but interesting. As we wandered up the pier we kept getting enticed into the bars for happy hour. Carole was keen as there was sparkling wine involved, me not so much as the choice of beer was poor. We did find one, that didn’t quite match Carole’s objective, but did mine, but they had no outdoor seating. Finally the bar at the end of the pier had it all, IPA on draft, sparkling wine cocktails and seats in the sun, so we stopped there. The beer was actually a bit of a let down, the only poor IPA of the holiday, so we only stopped for two and went home to dress for dinner.

The pier at Monterey

Having walked to Cannery Row for dinner I knew where my run would go the next morning. And so it did, along a cycle path/walkway, which was quite busy with early morning walkers, fitness walkers, joggers and cyclists. Still it was good enough for me and a session of 5 x 4 minutes with 2 minutes recovery. After breakfast we visited the famous aquarium, which was so interesting it kept us occupied until mid afternoon. Whilst we were on the pier, the previous day, we’d looked at the various whale watching trips. I wasn’t too bothered, I’d been twice before, but girls just wanna have fun so we decided to go for what we thought would be a 5:00 sailing, thankfully we got there iin time for the last sailing of the day, 4:30. As usual it was a long drawn out trip to get to the sightings, but once there, whales were everywhere. We saw diving, breaching and even that move they do where they scoop up a load of fish in their mouth. Dolphins, as normal, on the way out and back, and it was a good fun trip.

The next morning we were moving again, driving down the 1 (scenic route, longest route north to south (or south to north depending on your viewpoint and direction of travel) in the states). It’s not a particularly long way to Pismo Beach but the ‘1’ is a long and winding road, with some spectacular scenery, just lending itself to stopping for photo opportunities, plus we were intending to stop at a couple of places for excursions as well. With this in mind, and still being in my ‘I’m on holiday, not a training trip’ state of mind, I skipped my pre-breakfast run so that we could get away sharpish. We avoided Carmel, which everybody tells me is another beautiful place, relying on getting down the road some before the slow pace kicked in. And then we hit the Big Sur. Many people have spoken or written about the beauty of this drive, I’ve even seen some pictures, but, it was far more stunning than I expected and brought me to the conclusion that this was the most attractive drive I had ever undertaken, and I’ve done my fair share of driving. I may be wrong, I remember some great ones, the drive from Corran Ferry to Acharacle struck me both times I drove it, the sheer peace and beauty of the setting, even more so if you’re in a convertible. We stopped on a number of occasions just to get sight of the views and to take numerous pictures, which won’t have done it justice.

First official stop was at San Simeon, to see the Elephant seals. There were lots of them, it smelt a bit fishy. They weren’t as big as I was expecting, probably the wrong time of the year, most were asleep and those that were fighting were only schoolboy fighting, again, probably wrong time of the year.

Next stop was Hearst Castle. According to the rules, and knowing the background of the Hearst family I’m sure I could be facing a lawsuit if I was to breach them, I’m not allowed to publish any pictures of the property, so I won’t bother trying to describe it, other than to say, it was worth a visit, we enjoyed it very much and I could have spent a good couple of hours more there had I been accompanied by a more patient wifey. But we still had some miles to travel before we touched down in Pismo Beach so fair enough.

So off we toddled to Pismo Beach, we found what we thought was our hotel, it seemed ok, bit near the motorway, nice views over the sea, we hadn’t gone into town yet so we weren’t sure how far that was, but it didn’t seem that near! Turned out it wasn’t our hotel, the hotel we had been booked into, some months back, had changed it’s name and was a little further up the road, further away from town. It was a very pleasant hotel, with great views from our balcony, but not for the last time would we find ourselves a long way from the action, communication obviously broke down between the wifey and the travel agents when discussing our criteria, but you’d think they’d inform you that what they had booked you had changed it’s name. Feeling a bit frustrated I decided to don my running kit and have a run down into town to see how far it really was and to see if I could find a restaurant I’d been recommended. It had been a long day, I was tired, hungry and dehydrated, so it was a bit of a shuffly run, and a bit frustrating as I went down road after road that looked like it would lead to the beach, only to find they were fenced off. Finally I made it and ran along the promenade to the end of town, it didn’t take long, it’s not a big place. I ran back along the next street, thinking this was the only other street, couldn’t see the restaurant I was looking for and decided it was a bit of a dump.

I reported my findings back to Carole, as she lounged by the pool, and went to have a shower. I couldn’t see me enjoying myself these next two days, after the great places we’d just been to. Having looked up the restaurant I realised there was another street, but decided I’d need to drive down, rather than take a long walk. Driving down into town it was the first time we’d had to use the car to go out for a meal and was the first time we encountered the parking issue (despite there being lots of parking spaces, there don’t appear to be enough for the amount of cars requiring them). We did eventually find a place and decided to have a little walk before we looked at the restaurant I’d been recommended, and it just so happened we found an Italian restaurant that looked good, it also looked busy but they surprised me by having a table available. We had a great meal and almost witnessed the Heimlich manoeuvre first hand when a woman on a table near us stood up and started panicking about not being able to breath. Heimlich not required, it was just a panic attack. A swift walk along the promenade made me realise that it wasn’t such a bad place afterall.

The next morning it was quality run, I was going to do the 1,2,3 stock training run. I decided to go away from the town as I’d seen some paths that led to a cliff walk. Sadly they didn’t go far enough and within 9 minutes I had to turn around and head towards the town, still it was a fair way towards the town so I didn’t have to cross many roads and had a pretty decent run. The rest of the day was spent visiting various places, starting with San Luis Obispo, nice place, some old buildings, low level town, nothing much there of significant interest but a pleasant enough place. We left SLO and headed to a small town that I can’t remember the name for. It was a lovely town though and we sat and had lunch there before heading back down to the beach, via Oceano and Grover beaches, where they allow you to drive your car across the beach, which in effect made it look like a giant car park with people sitting on deckchairs by their car and having a picnic, we didn’t stay long. Then onto Pismo, where we surprisingly found a parking space and went for a walk down to the beach. It was busy in town so for dinner we decided we’d try the restaurant attached to the hotel we originally thought we were staying at, the added benefit of which was that we could walk and I could have a drink. Knowing how busy it was we went to book in, but they weren’t taking anymore bookings, their policy was for people to turn up and wait for a slot. Ok, so we were getting used to that by now, so maybe we’d have to wait 30 minutes. Back home, some relaxation time.

When I’d gone out for my run in the morning, I had realised that the views further away from town were pretty good, so we decided to walk that way, before heading to the restaurant, that way we’d probably see some nice sunsets. But as we got closer we decided that it would be a better idea if we got some fish and chips and sat on the cliffs watching the sunset, so we diverted to the business end of Shell Beach. We couldn’t find a take away, but we did find a bar serving food. Still we had plans to see the sunset and eat at the place down the road. So we headed back to the cliffs and strolled around, taking pictures, then we went back past our hotel to the restaurant, to be told the wait was 2.5 hours. 2.5 hours, I could not believe it, we’d walked all that way and it was a waste of time, the girl we spoke to in the afternoon hadn’t given any indication that the wait would be that long. Well that was it, I decided we’d have to get in the car and we’d try the bar up the road, no point in going to Pismo, it would be mobbed. Back at the bar, there was a queue there too, but, as we were happy to sit at the bar we got straight in, and it turned out to be a great meal and the bar man was a nice chap, even if it did mean we had to watch some American football.

The next morning we were heading for Santa Barbara, so it was a simple 6 mile run down to the beach and back up to the cliffs, north of us, then back to the hotel. We arrived at Santa Barbara too early to book into our room, but, once again, found ourselves a long way from the town centre. We decided to drive into town and find a car park. However before we did we found a nice little space on the main road, just before the main town, and took it. Conscious we’d probably only have an hour’s parking we thought we’d explore a little and try to find the car parks, but, as it was Sunday, it turned out to be free parking all day. So we left the car where it was and walked into town.

Santa Barbara, is a bit different to the sort of cities I’m used to. There isn’t so much a centre, where everything is huddled together, it’s more of a strip where shops and restaurants stretch along one street, with some shops off on side streets but very little, other than businesses and housing in the streets that run parallel to this main strip. Plus it goes a long way with a tunnel under the 101 to get you down to the beach.  With our hotel a couple of miles away from the start of this strip I couldn’t see me doing a quality, or any other kind of run down to the beach, as you know, runners aren’t keen to stop once on the run. As we got near to the beach we came across a running shop, so I went in to ask for some advice of where we might be able to do some good quality sessions near to our hotel. Very helpful assistants but I don’t think they understood what I was after as they could only come up with runs that were completely unsuitable. Oh well, I’m good at making do and can make a session in a small area if I have to. The next morning I was out before breakfast, we were on a busy main road, but just a couple of blocks back it was almost quiet. It was time to do my 4 x 5 minutes, I was down to 2 minutes recovery. Unfortunately there wasn’t a great deal of space available before I ran out of safe ground but I made the most of it, running uphill for 5 minutes, down the same hill for 5 and repeat.

The following day was going to be our longest drive, through LA to finish up our stay in San Diego. Because of this, and the fact I couldn’t face doing a steady run up and down the same hill, we decided we’d just get off and run later in the day, it looked like our hotel in San Diego had some decent running routes nearby.  It was a long drive, but not too long, thankfully, and thanks to the car pool lane, which allowed us a slightly swifter journey through LA, so we arrived at our hotel early afternoon a bit tired and a little bit hungry. After changing our room for a slightly better one our first impressions weren’t great, the hotel was once again way out of the city, the island view was muddy and it was raining, hard. Although this was the first day we’d had rain since we’d arrived in California, it was a bit disappointing, when you’re tired and hungry it’s the little things that matter. We headed off to try to find some food, but roads that are simple to navigate when you know exactly where you are, become a nightmare when you’re unsure of yourself and Carole’s navigating, particularly when the roads are multi-lane and busy. Eventually we found somewhere and had a nice Mexican. Then onto the beach at Pacific Beach, where Carole insisted we went shopping, I ended up buying her two pairs of sketchers and in the process had my credit card cloned. Thankfully my credit card company dealt with this a lot quicker than I expected, though that meant the end of my credit card use for the rest of the holiday. And that was a big shame, no more shopping!

Back to the hotel, I thought I’d check out the area, see how good it was for running. I was a bit tired so just ran around the park area the hotel was situated in, a nice 6 miles covered and recce done for tomorrow morning’s speed work. The next three days in San Diego were fantastic, weather was back to being great, it’s a great city and we were constantly busy visiting loads of places, again a little problem with finding parking spaces and the first grumpy waitress was encountered here. On the last morning, as I was doing my final quality run in the park, before heading home, there were large groups of college runners and a marked out course on the grass. It looked like there was an inter college cross country race meeting, but I was too busy trying to run fast to ask, besides we were on holiday, Carole wasn’t going to entertain watching that.

And then it was all over and we were heading back home, to surprisingly warm temperatures. I did feel very jetlagged when I got home, many years ago I could come of a flight like that and smash an 8 mile run, not these days, it actually took me about three days before I felt fully with it again, so my training did suffer a little, but I was soon back training hard, then it was off to Lisbon, but that’s, maybe, another blog.

But to finish off, my training is now back to normal, I’m getting fitter, faster and stronger with each run. There’s still a way to go yet but I feel like I’m getting competitive, not that I know when my next race is going to be, these days you don’t seem to be able to just rock up to them on the day and I obviously didn’t enter any whilst I was in recovery mode. I could try a parkrun, I may try a parkrun, but we’ve been so busy since our return from California that I quite like the idea of a lie in on a Saturday.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk