And then there were two

Unfortunately for the past few weeks there has only been myself and Gerrard turning up regularly for the track training on Thu nights with an occasional visit from others.

For these sessions to have maximum effect it requires as many people as possible to attend. Besides the training benefits it is a chance for athletes to meet, socialise have a laugh and organise racing etc.

I know its difficult for some people to get there made even more difficult by mid week races and track training isn't for everyone, but I believe it is an essential part of increasing speed and endurance for road racing.

As I see it there is little point committing myself to keep attending every Thursday and organise training sessions if nobody else is interested.

Please let me know your thoughts and if anybody wants to do anything different on a Thursday I am open to suggestions.

This is probably just a knock on effect of the gradual drop in the number of adult runners at Spen that have declined over the last few years. Shame that the club has done nothing to address this problem even though the committee has been made well aware of the situation.

Can't blame anybody in particular as there is little appetite from either officials or athletes to tackle this issue.

A sad day for myself really as starting as a young boy at Spen in the early 70's a with no real senior men's squad to speak of and seeing that team build from the likes of Richard Lee, Alan Whittaker and many others to become a force to be reckoned with in the north of England throughout the 80's and early 90's to arrive back where I started from is a difficult pill to swallow.

Thinking back now we haven't had a senior middle distance coach since my dad gave up in the late 80's. (Yep that 20 years!) maybe this is a reason too.

Spen over the years has prided itself as a club that 'caters for all' which may have been true at one time but unfortunately isn't anymore.

A lot of the issues have occurred due to lack of volunteers and a lot of the roles being carried out by a very small number of people.

Unfortunately, wether they like it or not, it becomes the responsiblity of the committee to find those helpers (or replacements) - however difficult.

Rant of the Day

I'm not a prolific contributor but, as I mentioned in an e-mail to Chris Jones - at Spenborough it's always been a case of "If I don't get my own way, I'll spit my dummy out and take all my toys with me," which is the main reason we are short of so many good athletes now when, in 1992 when I joined, we were among the top ranked 3 clubs in Yorkshire (with Leeds City and Sheffield) in pretty much all departments.

Unfortunately egos seem to dictate that many folk who carry stop watches and encourage track athletes (and credit to the time they give up if not always to the manner they perform this task) can't bear to think that they don't know it all and that there might just be some aspects they could step back and think about and maybe tweak their approach. ie: listen and learn.

I recommended to Gareth that maybe we just ditch the rest of the website and go back to making it a Vets only thing (with room for ANY other opinions of course)...no-one else seems to update it or add anything!

The website as it remains is just a skeleton and certainly not one which would entice any outsider into coming along and joining the club.

Where's the credit we ought to be giving to Josh Cayenne or Steve McNamara (among the few class athletes we have left)... at the club presentation last year, there would have been no mention at all of them had it not been for me 'adding them into the script'?

Just my rant of the day...

See you at Esholt tonight

Keith

Running and weight loss

As an experiment today I weighed myself before and after I went for my long run. It was an 11 mile run and the temperature was probably in the low 20s. I lost 5 lbs and 10 ozs. My first thought was that this was all due to sweating in which case it equates to 4.5 pints of water if my maths is correct.

I then thought that this might be a too simplistic way to look at this. I seem to remember reading somewhere that, on average, about 100 calories are burnt for every mile covered so I should have burnt about 1100 calories. Presumably most of this was glycogen. How much does 1100 calories of glycogen weigh? I lost some salt as well but surely this will only have been a few grams? Anything else?

If I did lose something like 4.5 pints of water I then wondered what was the maximum amount of water that I could feasibly or safely lose? I remember when I ran the London Marathon in 1981 I tried taking water on early on and ended up spilling most of it so didn't bother after that (bottled water hadn't been invented then, it all came in cups). It was a hot day so I ran 26 miles without taking any water on. But I was much younger (and dafter) in those days. I also wondered how much others lose. For example how much did Federer lose this afternoon (but he did continually drink between points)? What about Chris on his monster bike ride last week?

Its funny how advice on water intake changes over time. In 1981 I don't remember ever hearing about water even being mentioned. About 10 years ago the vogue seemed to be that you need to drink as much water as possible. A few years ago I think there was some tragedy at the Great North run that may have been caused by taking too much water on and now the advice seems to be not to drink too much?

Why can't I run faster?

Last night at the track, 4 of us did 8 x 300m reps, and I was at the back on each one. I wouldn't care about that if it wasn't for the fact that I was running pretty much flat out, and that made me question why I can't generate the same amount of speed (or even close) as some others.

I don't believe it's strength or fitness, but rather I'm convinced there is something inherently inefficient with my running technique. I've suspected this for ages, and when I first joined the club I did ask about running technique, but no-one seemed to have given it much thought, they just did what came naturally. I suppose that's all well-and-good when "what comes naturally" is a pretty good technique, but in my own case it seems I'm not that lucky.

Here are some of the things I suspect that I do wrong (speed-wise)

1. planting my foot too far in front of my body, and thereby causing a "braking" effect rather than forward propulsion
2. too long a stride length
   
3. too low cadence
4. "swinging" my leg forward in a kind of neutral manner rather than powering forward to create forward motion.

The first 3 are all directly related to each other.

The question is, whether it's possible for an old dog to learn new tricks, or whether I'm doomed to life in the slow-lane. I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of others on this subject.

Credit Crunch training tips

Here are some of my top tips for improving your results whilst avoiding the credit crunch..

1. Cancel the running magazine subscription(s)
Pure toilet paper!

The only thing they are any good for are drying out wet trainers, and you can always get a free copy of the Metro which is better for that, and more interesting to read too!

2. Don't buy that GPS/HRM/other stress inducing device
Relax, run faster and live longer!

If you already own one, get it on ebay quick before everyone else realises what a waste of money they are and beats you to it.

3. Energy gels/drinks
Who needs 'em. Those energy gels are just molten Jelly Babies, buy the real thing and save your cash.

And as for energy drinks, if Robinsons Lemon Barley Water was good enough for Pete Sampras, it's good enough for me. If you really must insist though, get yourself down the pound shop and pick up a 4-pack of Lucozade sport for a quid.

So there you have it, just some of the things that have made me the athlete I am today. Anyone else got any pointers to help me towards my next PB?

Talented 11 year olds

Just a couple of points before I start:
1) I'm all for youngsters getting involved in the sport I love. It teaches them about the joys of winning and the hurt of losing, about the benefits of hard work and dedication, the good feeling you get from being healthy and taking part in exercise etc. etc..
2) One of the things that attracts me to road racing is the fact that you can race but you are not racing against the other athletes. Not many of us are actually ever going to win a race so all we are trying to do is run as fast as we can. So in effect you are racing against yourself. Whatever time you post there is only you knows how well you have done.

So why is it that something stirs in me when I get beaten by an 11 year old? In the Esholt 5k last week I was doing my usual sprint finish and this 11 year old lad went flying past me and beat me by 30m. If this would have been anybody else I would just have thought "that guy/girl obviously hasn't worked hard enough for the other 4.8 km if he/she can run so fast at the end of this race".

I'm not even sure what it is that rankles. Of course there must be lots of talented kids out there who train very hard. And all sorts of people beat me - fat/thin, male/female, old/young - and this never bothers me. So what is it when children beat me? Am I alone with these feelings? He did actually beat 67% of the field.

I suppose I could stick to 10 km races and never race against children again.

And they always come from Bingley. Its always Bingley.

P.S. Well done Sam from Bingley who beat me on Wednesday, just congratulations and well done. Honest.

Should competing athletes be expected to take on roles of responsibility within the club?

Most of the blog entries so far have been race reports, so here is one to break with tradition.

Should competing athletes be expected to take on roles of responsibilty within the club?

An accusation often leveled at athletes is that they are not prepared to take on roles of responsibility within the club. But is it fair to expect this from a competing athlete?

It's a tricky one, and I'm sure views will be divided. But there are 2 key words for me here, competing and expected. I've given this some thought, and my personal opinion is that it is something that should not be expected of a competing athlete, and here are my reasons for saying that...

• Our club motto is "train to compete", and in order to compete to the best of one's ability, it's necessary to put a lot of time into training, and that doesn't leave much time for anything else.

• We need to attract new members, and that means marketing the club. What better way of marketing the club is there, than week after week, pulling on a club vest, getting out there and competing?

• The club needs successful athletes to get articles in local papers, and to show up in the results in athletics periodicals, again promoting the club.

• In addition to the time needed for training, there is the travel to events, and in the case of those who are also the parents of competing junior athletes, taking them to and from events and providing support for them and their fellow team-mates.

• Contrary to popular opinion, training isn't all about having "fun" (although it can be at times) in fact sometimes it's a real drudge, getting out in the cold & wet and putting in the miles when you're tired from a hard days work is just plain tough!
  

Taking the above points into consideration, I believe that the competing athlete plays just as important a role (no more or less) for the club as an official of the club. Naturally, if the athlete personally feels they are able to dedicate the time and resources into taking on a such a role, there should be nothing to stop them doing so.

Thoughts anyone?