Marathon training tips for winter.

Bloggo, Bloggo, Bloggo,

Thursday night in Yorkshire with the rain belting down. Was I wet or was I wet?? It was like trying to trudge in wellies, wellies about three sizes too big! Not that I often go trudging in wellies, mind you. While I was trudging I got to thinking about how I would plod along if I lived up in this part of Yorkshire again; limited street lighting, poor lighting where they exist - so Blog, there endeth the first problem I'd have! With also having poor uneven pavements I'd fall a*** over t**. So the fall would break my coller bone. Also, I'd probably slip off the pavement edge in the poor light and break my ankle.

Next problem living up here would be the hills. On the hill tops, I'd get a nose bleed from the altitude.

At night there is only one piece of flat useable road where you can see where you are going, either toward Skipton one way or towards Bingley in the other. So I would probably bump into a concrete street light post and render myself unconscious....

The snow is always a problem around this part of Yorkshire. The council concentrates on salting the main highways relying on local footfall to clear suburban roads and pavements. It would inevitably cause me to slip and damage my back.

But the final decider of not returning to this neck of the northern woods would be the sheer amount of time I'd miss trudging because I would have to spend an inordinate amount of time explaining the reasons for my broken collar bone, my broken ankle, the bleeding nose and the bad back every time someone asked me how I was ..... assuming a bout of consciousness would last long enough for me to hold a conversation.

The snow was one of the obstacles to my success when I was doing the occasional sum or two at the Pink Panther University. With the added difficulty of limited cleared streets, poor road lighting and frozen surfaces, I found a neat and simple solution to ease training along in the dark winter months. I must have mentioned to you before, dear Blog, that the main arterial road to the northeast of England and Scotland from the south of the country passed not a mile away from my digs. The dual carriageway of the A1road skirted the outskirts of the city where I studied; well lighted and well salted. IDEAL. There was no motorway traffic in those days because there was no motorways; not up north, lad. The traffic may have thundered along the A1 road to the north and south during the day, mainly lorries, but after 6pm the road returned to a bygone era. Traffic free. I kid you not, Blog. In the early 60s the proles did not have cars, transport for that class of person was by foot or bus, perhaps bike; and all the proles knocked off work at 6pm. EVERYONE. Entertainment was within walking distance of the prole's house at the pub or the Workingmen's Clubs. So my solution in the snow, or at other times on winter nights, was to use my very own deserted dual carriageway complete with a well trimmed grass central reservation and two snow clear paths, one either side of the roadway. Steady runs could be done on the pathways, intervals or fartlek in spikes on the grass on the central reservation - would I lie to you Blog? On the central reservation, no less!!!! There was no such thing as a crash barrier in those times, and if a car did venture along the road, it kept to the nearside lane of the deserted road, avoiding the sweating, straining, puffing future star. So no problem there, Blog. The salt spray from the day time traffic cleared the middle and both paths very quickly because keeping the commercial traffic on the A1 road moving was a priority; the local authority over dosing on excessive salt and grit. And of course I was visable. very visable. You see Blog, back in those days, high viz this or high viz that did not exist. So what did I do you ask, to avoid causing damage in a collision with a motor vehicle?. I must have been the first ever athlete to wear reflective material when training!!! Beat that staement Blog!!!!! The secret????? At that time the police force were just starting to investigate the reflective properties of materials which could be incorporated into their standard uniform. A friend in the local constabulary was able to give me on permanent load, several reflective strips which they were trialling; they were bright orange measuring about 12" by 2" (30cm by 5cm to you Blog), the reflective property being achieved by finely ground glass particles glued to the orange surface. Blog, I do not lie. And if you were not too careful you could get a nasty graze if you happened to rub against the material. I stitched, or rather my mother stitched, the strips in the form of the Croix de Lorraine on my Bingley Harrier running vest. Why that particular design, I hear you ask Blog. PERSONAL matey boy. PERSONAL. Just think Blog, if I'd have had the forsight to have patented the idea all those years ago, I would now be able to lend Bill Gates a few quids!!!!! I would certainly have been able to have helped the two charities for disabled children, NEWLIFE and TINY TIMS CHILDREN'S CENTRE.

Colin