SportsShoes Blog

Well that’s been a grotty week hasn’t it….

Last Sunday morning I had a great run for a couple of hours over Ilkley Moor - it was freezing cold with ice on the ground, no mud but plenty of grip. It was the perfect morning for a long run so I made the most of my kids’ footy matches being called off and took to the hills.

Monday I cycled to work and on the way home as cold water trickled down between my butt cheeks I thought to myself “I really should have put my mudguard back on!!!”

Since then I’ve been crocked with a cold - a gift from my wife who has been struggling with a bad dose of girl-flu for the past couple of weeks.

Anyway on the postive side, it was a great time to have a cold and be laid off running as the snow and ice meant that it would have been pretty much impossible to do much anyway. I still managed my 2 dog walks each day to keep the old joints from seizing up.

It’s Saturday now and I think I’ve beaten my cold through a bout of ‘positive thinking’ I’m just at the green custard stage now - it looks very pretty in the snow!!!

I’m all psyched up again now after just talking to a chap (Rob Thackery) about his sub 10 hour Ironman so tomorrow I’m going to try another long trot over the moors - hope the weather holds.

I’d like to do an Ironman sometime soon but the training commitment is huge because of the three different events. I used to swim a lot as kid but not anymore - to get to a point where I could do 5 miles open water would be a massive challenge (and that’s before 100 miles on the bike and a marathon).

Well I’ve got a big challenge already in the bag for 2009. Me and a group of my cycling pals are going out to France in July to ride La Marmotte - it’s a 173km road cycle route around the Alps which finishes with the famous Tour de France climb up Alpe d’Huez. It attracts around 5000 riders each year so it should be quite a day out.

We are also planning to ride the Fred Whitton in the Lakes in May which is 100 mile tour of the Lakes taking in all the big road passes. Although there are around 200 riders it is estimated that only around 15% actually manage to ride the whole course without resorting to pushing!!! Should be fun….

Before all that though is the very serious business of the Santa Cycle - this year it’s on the 20th December and if you’ve got a bike and a santa suit you’re welcome to come along. It all started about 13 years ago when a small group of Mountain Bikers from Eldwick had an idea to do a Christmas ride dressed in santa suits - it was a great laugh and so a tradition was born and now each year around 20 santas make the journey from Eldwick to Bolton Abbey tea rooms via Ilkley. I think this will be my 6th santa cycle (I’m a relative newbie) and I can tell you it is such a great day out. People always ask if we do it for charity and the answer is no - we don’t want anyone to feel obliged to give money we just want to spread some festive cheer - the looks on the kids faces as we cycle round Ilkley singing carols is just amazing and the number of honks, cheers and waves we get from passing motorists of all ages is ace. A few years ago we even managed to get on the front page  of the Ilkley Gazzette as a reporter spotted us and got us to pose for a photo down near the river. Apparently we also feature in Bolton Abbey’s brochure - they love us in the tea room and we’re usually given a free brew in return for a couple of verses of Rudolph in front of the fire (mind you that’s after we’ve spent about 300 quid on grub to fuel the fire for the return leg back over Keighley Gate).

I keep getting people saying they’ve read my blog which is great so a big hello to Romero (who, despite his name has got a stronger Yorkshire accent than me) and Tricky - one of the cycling santas who is a steel rimmed glasses and grey haired high flying bank manager by day and a Freddie Mercury impersonator by night (only ‘half’ joking - but his Freddie outfit at the 80s night we went to a few weeks ago was a sight to behold…).

I have just finished competing in the Zain Kenya Open. limited internet access so I was unable to give a match to match account of the event.

In the first round I played Austrian National Champion Aqueel Rehman. I played pretty solid not giving much away and won 11-1 11-9 11-4. I was happy with this as I still wasn’t sure if my body had recovered from food poisoning from the previous week. 

In the quarters I played spains David Vidal. I won the 1st 11-4 but lost the second 12-10 with a slip of concentration. However, I was playing at a high tempo and dominated most of the set and it took its toll on him as I won the next two sets 11-2 11-2.

Now onto the semis and I played Clinton Lleuw of South Africa. I had a freak accident before the match in hich and I tore a quad muscle. I tried playing on it for a bit as I felt I was playing well enough to win the event. I took the first set but once i sat down in betwen my leg siezed up completly. I played the next game but had to stop. I was gutted but that’s the way it goes i suppose!

I am hoping the damage isn’t too bad and that I can train hard for the next 2 weeks leading up to the Nationals in December.

The Revolution meeting last week went ok, it was great to race in front of a sell out crowd and the velodrome was packed! My best result was 4th in the points race, I was tying on points for 3rd place with an American woman coming into the last sprint but she beat me so the 3rd place went to her. 

 I’ve been doing quite a few long rides recently getting in the winter miles! The weathers been pretty bad - wind and hail over Oakworth moor on Sunday but what doesnt kill you only makes you stronger I guess! I’ve been doing a lot of roller sessions to to build up speed for the track.

I had some good news last week as I found out I’d been nominated in the Junior Girls category for the BBC Yorkshire Sport Awards.  I was really pleased that someone had actually nominated me and I’m looking forward to the event in a couple of weeks!

It’s awful isn’t it….

I think I have Seasonaly Affected Disorder (SAD) or something. Everytime I venture out it’s dark, cold, wet or all three.

Last Thursday we did a hard and fast 9 mile blast round Eldwick, Baildon and Saltaire, Friday I went to work on the bike then Saturday I did a man v bike race on my singlespeed Kona. Boy that was a toughie - I reckon I carried it more than I rode it round the 6 mile course - quite a laugh to look back on but at the time I remember thinking “what am I doing!!”

Saturday night I was at a big party for some friends of mine who were turning 40 so Sunday was an easy day - me and my son went down to Myrtle park on our bikes to watch Rob Jebb win yet another cyclo-cross race (even though he was at the same party as me!!) - he makes it all look so easy.

Monday I cycled to work again then Tuesday night did 6 x 2min 40 second laps with a 1.5 min recovery jog on the field. Very cold - I had frost on my Buff when I’d finished (& you don’t want that let me tell you).

Going out tonight for a 50 min spin while my youngest plays footie — don’t feel like at the min but once I get my iPod cranked up and get out there I’m sure I’ll be fine.

No big races to look forward to yet - probably going to be next year now before anything exciting on that front.

Talking of next year, me and the boys are planning our races and trips so once they’re sorted I’ll let you know what I intend to do…

Well I had my scan and have got the all clear as far as a stress fracture goes which is great news. This means i can now get back on the excercising and fitness work. If it had been a stress fracture al i could have done was rest really until it had healed as they can hang around for a long time unless it heals properly. I’ve now got a course of Physio to do and have lots of excercises to help strengthen the weak muscles in my lower left back. Hopefully i can keep on with the excercises and get my back sorted and pain free before proper training and nets start again in January. I am starting running as of Monday so ill be blogging on that and letting you know how it goes!!

Hey how about this for a dandy shoe and sock combo…..

Pretty ghastly huh?

Well yes I’d agree but never mind what they look like, they both work a treat.

The shoes are Nike’s new Zoom Skylon and I had second thoughts about buying them, not just because I thought everyone would take the p*** out of me because of the colour but also as they hardly have any rubber on the outsole and I thought they’d wear out in a flash. However I’ve had them a couple of months now and done quite a few road miles in them and I have to say nobody has laughed at them - in fact I’ve had some admiring glances from my running pals!! More importantly, my worry about wear appears to be unfounded. The rubber that does exist on the outsole is perfectly positioned to take all the major impact so where the spongy phylon hits the floor it’s only acting as a support rather than having to resist abrasion.

I use neutral shoes so these have no medial support. They feel very well cushioned without being at all squidgy. I reckon the best thing you can say about a shoe is that you never think about it when you wear it - they just do what they’re supposed to do.

The real reason I bought them was because they’re so light - I wanted to elliminate any excuses so when I come home last I know it’s all down to me and not my equipment!!!

So far these shoes have been perfect - perhaps the best road shoes I’ve ever had.

As for the socks - wow they’re crazy aren’t they? I think the designers at Thorlo must have been having a laugh. Either that or their purchasing people got a great deal on some hideous coloured cloth!!! These are their brand new Experia running socks designed to offer protection exactly where it’s needed and very little in between.

I’ve used them on a good few road runs now and think they’re fine. They fit very well and again you don’t notice them when you’re running. I’ve not done long distance in them (only up to 10 miles) but I’ve not had a hint of a blister or any rubbing. As you may know I’m a bit of a Thorlo fan but my summary of these is that whilst they are as good as other running socks I’ve used they’re not really any better. I’d still use Thorlo Trail for anything extreme but will continue to use these for road training and dog jogging.

JI have ust come back from a break off the bike and so I’m getting back into it again now. Went to the gym last Thursday and absoloutly died!! Apart from that I’m just doing easy riding at the moment as I don’t have any competitions for a while.  The weather’s pretty bad at the moment - typically it was lovely weather during my week off! I tried to go for a run to make the most of the weather but only managed 20 minutes and had aching joints for 4 days afterwards! I should be hearing pretty soon about whether I’ve got a place on the Olympic Academy Programme which I applied for at the end of August! Fingers crossed!

Trainings been pretty stop-start recently. I had my end of season break after the Europeans then got back on the bike, then picked up a cold, tried to train through it and it got worse etc etc! Im using Vicks first defence at the moment though and that seems to be really helpful - as soon as I feel slightly under the weather I start using it and *touch wood* seems to be doing the trick!

I found out about a month ago that I’ve been accepted on to British Cycling’s Academy Programme for U23’s! This has been my aim all year and it means that, when my A Levels are finished in July, that I can go full time as a cyclist It also means other things such as new bikes, so I have to leave my sponsor this year of BH -  they are great bikes and I would definitely recommend them. Also I will be going on the Athlete Whereabouts System…meaning that soon, testers will be knocking on my door at 6am!

I’m going up to Manchester this weekend for a few days on the track before my next competition, the Revolution meeting on 15th.  Other than that it’s going to be pretty quiet competition-wise for the next couple of months.

Better go… Need to get out training in that lovely winter weather!

I had a reasonable run today at Shepherds Skyline although I didn’t feel that great until the last couple of miles.

I came in 27th out of 360 starters so not too bad I guess although on a good day I would like to think I could have been a minute or so quicker.

Results here : http://www.todharriers.co.uk/shepherds_skyline/skylineres2008.htm