Marathon training tip number 7 ... or is it 8?

Photograph Quiz:

Photo no. 66: [Someone has just made me aware of this photo from some bit of the internet] Which race is it? When? How many athletes can you name? Which one is me … not the one indicated on the internet!!!! Where did I finish in the race?

Dear Blog,

   The above photo and the comments about it are most interesting …. How can so many people make so many mistakes? Unbelievable! It is easy to see how misinformation can become a factual reference. Someone states a ‘fact’ about this photo say, no one contradicts the error. So, the ‘fact’ becomes a fact! I had never seen the photo before and had to look up the result. I was quite impressed with the field I had left in my wake; especially as I was camping with my family and had been kept awake for most of the previous night by the noise made by a truck load of British squaddies who unfortunately for me, had chosen to stay on the same camp site. At the finish of the race I was greeted by a somewhat tearful wife with the news that she had left the keys to our minivan locked inside!!! The Dutch police (a photo clue) were very adept at breaking into the van without causing a scratch to the paintwork!! They were most kind.

So Blog, what have I been up to you ask? On Friday and Saturday, I managed to trudge in four different types of weather ... four sessions …. forty hours:-   .… clear fine relatively warm …. three inches of snow and black ice .… winds strong enough to blow you over .… heavy rain that would make Noah envious. But that is the Yorkshire Dales!!! Now here is a tip brought to mind by my four trudges ….. Sudden deep snow and ice means caution in training; go through the motions only, because tomorrow you can think and plan a session carefully without tempting injury. Anyway, a slow steady session avoiding slipping will do nothing but good. Think of it as a recovery session. But do do something; don’t break the training habit just because of inclement weather conditions. And if tomorrow is still snowy and icy, don a pair of spikes, find a suitable surface and get cracking!!! Don’t be put off. The same applies to the gale force wind. Use it to your advantage; it does give you a chance of experiencing the feeling of sprinting really fast; the session has the wind behind you of course. And the drenching rain? At some time in the future dear Blog, you might have to race in crap weather when you do not really feel like it. So get out in the rain, stick on a wet suit top and get stuck in. In your next race, you will probably stood next to an athlete who has the good fortune to train at a more convenient time than you or has had more conducive conditions in which to train while you have had dark nights or you have been up to your fetlocks in snow. Use the disparity to fire you up! Go for it Blog!!

But if you have had a rough deal Blog, think of the poor internationals. Some athletes can afford to have a home at altitude to improve their red blood count quite legally. Probably they can afford £5,000 to own a simulation tent in which they sleep and which reduces oxygen availability, thereby increasing their red blood count quite legally. That OK then, no problem there Blog. But. Spend £100 for a month’s EPO, or transfuse a litre of your own blood and you are banned, morally castigated because the establishment regard improving your red blood count in that way as naughty. What’s the difference Blog? You still have to do the bloody hard work to achieve results. I’ve said before to you that a blond white girl who can afford the former training aids is the darling of the athletic establishment and a big black bloke who used chemical assistance and served his punishment, is still kicked in the goolies by the media. I wonder why???

On one trudge on Saturday, past a slope called White Hill, I had reason to be thankful in some small way to be interested in athletics rather than cycling. I have just mentioned a way in which some athletes might just be a bit naughty.  The same moral stance does not seem to be taken in cycling. It seems more acceptable?? Although the sport does now give the impression that it is now trying to tidy up it’s act. A pity the grassroots of cycling does follow athletics at a more mundane level. As you know Blog, I have organised numerous races and like other race organisers, a sense of pride is taken in leaving any venue used neat and tidy after all the racing is finished. Some runners are litter bugs but their mess is cleaned away after the race is over. On occasions, I watch cyclo-cross races. On Boxing Day a race is always held at Kenilworth Common, in Kenilworth (!). After that race the Common is left in a clean state, with no cause for complaint. An excellent job is done for riders and spectators. Another race I attend is just the opposite, leaving a state of affairs to be deplored after everyone has departed. It was the same at White Hill on my trudge. A hill climb had been organised, and the finish line was just a tip, a disgrace. But the venue was miles from anywhere, so few people will have noticed the aftermath of the event, so why bother tidying up? Terrible attitude, Blog.

   You must now excuse me Blog, as I have to go out to find what I have done with all my other moans; I seem to have misplaced them.

                        Colin