SportsShoes Blog

Had a reasonable run Saturday at Shepherds Skyline although 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

Me and my Bingley team mates James Senior and Andy Jebb ran out to Stoodly Pike together jostling for position all the way. On the descent off the pike James came past me and I thought that would be the last I’d see of him. On the climb back up from London Road Andy Jebb blew us both away with a very strong climb over terrible conditions. I caught James at the top of the climb - he was having an even worse day than me - and pushed on past him knowing I’d have to try and get some distance between us if I was to hold him off on the descent.

As I summited the climb I actually started to feel better and really started to work hard on the long descent back to the finish. I could see Andy in the distance but I knew I’d let him get too far in front for me to have a chance of catching him.

I passed a few guys in the last mile as I threw caution to the wind over the technical sections and dug deep for a really quick sprint finish to overhaul a Calder runner with 5 yards to go.

A wash down with a garden hose in the pub car park followed by a cheeky pint of Taylor’s Landlord and some Lancashire hot-pot finished off the race in true Yorkshire/Lancashire style.

Sunday morning after my 40 minute dog walk I had a nice steady hour’s jog around St Ives and ended up at my son’s footy match – they lost 3-2 but it was good game despite the conditions – after the game me and KIMM (the dog) jogged home where we both had a well earned bath (not together!!)

Just about managed to shake off my cold - or perhaps I should say blow it out. I think I’ve been leaving a silvery trail around all my training runs this week.

Did an hour on the road bike Saturday - bit windy. Then 3 hours out with my dog Sunday. Monday rest, Tuesday I ran with both my kids at Bingley Harriers - my 8 year old did his first pack run and really enjoyed it (that’ll be both of them beating me soon then!!). Wednesday did 40 mins quite hard on the road and Thursday again ran on the road for an hour. Friday I biked to work and back. It was heaving down this morning for both my dog walk and my bike in to work so I’d been p**s wet through twice before 8.30am!!!

Tomorrow it’s the Shepherd’s Skyline Race near Todmordon - it’s a quick 6 mile fell race that goes out to Stoodly Pike and back. I’ve done this race a few times and I always feel it signals the end of the year is coming. I can’t believe it’s a year since I was there - where does time go?  

There’s quite a group of us from the Harriers going for run out so it should be a interesting day.

I am currently in Santiago spain competing. the venue is pretty cool as they have set up an all glass court in the main shopping centre, giving the game great exposure.

Won my first round against an Egyptian player Emir El Salahamy which i won quite comfortably in 3sets.

Next was against Austrailia’s Bradly Hindle, a very tough opponent. Match didn’t start too well with Bradle taking the 1st 11-3 and the 2nd 11-8 but managed to turn it around and bring it to a 5th, where I played an almost flawless game to take the set 11-1 and the match.

Next up is world no.23 Miguel Rodrigez of Columbia.

What a complete joke England were in the Stanford Twenty/20 competition. The completely bottled it and got taken to the cleaners by a well organised Stanford XI (which was pretty much a West Indies team with 2 exceptions). Pieterson said they had been distracted in their preparations and that the players mind was not focussed on the game. Personally im not having that excuse, if you can’t motivate and focus yourself in a game for your country and for $1million each then their is something seriously wrong. No matter how much of a circus it looked like and ended up, the England boys should have been able to get themselves fired up and seriously motivated, especially after all the hype in the media leading up to the event. But in true English cricketing form we bottled it when it counted most. Maybe the confidence and belief we all thought Peiterson had instilled in England isnt quite what we thought it was. They just have to bounce back strongly in India next month.

And also well played to the Stanfors team. They looked well organised, fired up and on great form. They outplayed us!!

I know they say that you can’t catch a cold by being out in bad weather but it’s spooky that after spending six and half hours in the driving wind and rain last Saturday I seem to have caught a cold!!

Anyway, this week I’ve held off hard training but using the training adage ‘if it’s in the head go ahead if it’s in the chest give it a rest’ I’ve continued to train all week.

After the OMM last weekend I had a rest Monday (although obvioulsy walked the dog twice). Tuesday I did a speed session (at slightly reduced effort) - it was so cold on the grass on Tuesday that after running through a soggy bit of the field, ice formed on the top of my spikes!!. Wednesday I did a 50 minute road run whilst my son Ben played footy and Thursday I went on a steady pack run with the Harriers (followed by a nice pint of medicinal Guinness). Friday I biked to work and back on my singlespeed and today (it feels like the peak of my cold) I’m probably going to limit my exercise to just a few hours of dog walking.

Haven’t decided on my next race yet but there’s a few coming up so it won’t be long before I’m on the start line again.

Watch this space……

training wise the last few weeks have been mainly maintenance work and keeping the body fresh. at the weekend just gone we had a national squad held at heaton tennis and squash club and a test match V selected english/south african team which went really well with ireland taking the tie 4-3! next up is santiago, spain - commencing next monday. hopefully th weather’ll be a little better!!

Well after my trip to the Physio about my back the other day i have been showed a few Pilates excercises to do to help with my core stability. The Physio said that I really need to work on my abdominal muscles as they are fairly week in places due to my bowling action. If you could draw a line on my body showing where I am strongest it would go diagonallyfrom my right shoulder to my left leg (I hope that makes sense!!), this is due to my bowling action as i have naturally built up more strength in these places because of the amount they have been used. So i have excercises which will work on strengthening up these areas, especially my lower abdominals which are a major factor in my back troubles. As well as this I have been given stretches and excercises to help my posture, unfortunately i went through a phase which some of you may have encountered where as a teenager I had awfull posture and spent alot of time looking at the floor ( i had my moody moments qite a bit, im a changed man now though!), this has just exaggerated any back problems I have had. So im on the road to recovery and getting myself in better shape for when i start my cricket training again in January, hopefuly there will be no more ‘glass back’ situations for me this year!!

I was asked today exactly what “compound exercises” are when weightlifting as i talk about their importance quite alot with fellow colleagues at work.

A Compound exercise works several muscle groups at once, and includes movements around two or more joints at the same time. For example a bench press is a compound exercise because when you are performing the exercise you are primarily using your chest but it uses secondary muscles to stabilize it, such as the triceps and shoulders.

Same theory behind deadlifts. These are ”compound exercises” because you are primarily using your lower back but also pulls in muscles from your legs and forearms.

I use compound exercises a lot as i feel i get a much better workout than doing all isolation exercises. Ultimately you build muscle depending on how much testosterone is created and doing “compound exercises” creates a lot more testosterone than performing isolation moves…hence, building muscle faster.

Also, i want to strip fat from my weight training sessions as well as put on muscle and when I am doing exercises such as deadlifts the sweat just pours off me and i feel great!  

If you are unsure a quick checklist of compound exercises are:

Bench press, Deadlift, Barbell Squat, Deadlift, Lunges, Row, Push-Up, Dips, Bench Press, Military Press, Hang Clean and Press.

The simple rule is that you use compound exercises as the core of your workout and isolation exercises to “fine tune”.

I found this video on how to perform a correct bench press … one of my favourite compound exercises!

Enjoy!

Well im going to the physio tonight to go for a session which is specifically focussed on core stability so hopefully ill learn some new excercises to help with this. Its something very important to quick bowlers due to the pressure and strain on your back and the twisting motions during cricket.

Since I first had a stress problem with my back when i was about 13-14 i have had a weak back which has caused me problems on and off for about 7 years now. I really want to build on my strength this winter to try and stop problems like this occuring. With new weights sets and a multi-gym station in my spare room at home now I will get plenty of chance to work on this once i have the all clear on my back.

MRI scan on my back is next week which is surprisingly quick, hopefully they can just tell me its muscle problems which are slightly easier to help as you can do excercises and stretches to aid recovery. If it is a stress fracture or the begginings of a stress fracture then all I can do is wait and rest it which is going to frustrate me, but it will push me into starting my cardio with some nice cold winter runs instead of my nice indoor workouts!!!

Well this is a novelty - the races I do are usually so obscure that nobody has ever heard of them let alone got any idea what actually goes on.

But this weekend fell running made a spectacular job of grabbing the headlines.

Unfortunately, the media did its usual job of blowing things out of proportion and many of the reports of lost / missing runners were grossly irresponsible. Anyway, if you’re interested in the negative side of the event you can read the papers and believe the news stories - if you want the truth here it is.

One thing the reporters got right was that the weather was a tad on the damp side, in fact they were (un)comfortably the worst conditions I have ever been out in for a sustained period of time. To me this only added to the sense of adventure and made a tough event even more challenging.

When Jamie and I struggled up to CP9 of the A class after battling for about 2 hours into a rain laden 40 mph headwind and were told the event had been cancelled I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. What I can say is that we were still going strong and I’m confident we would have finished the event.

Up to that point our nav had been pretty much bang on and our pace was reasonable over the very tough ground.

My kit performed perfectly - Walsh PB trainers - Thorlo Socks - speedos (only time I wear em - honest!!) - Nike Leggings - Hummel Base layer - Karimor base layer - North Face windproof gilet - Lowe Alpine waterproof shell - buff - hat - and for my hands, some of my kids’ gloves that cost 50p from Primark!!! Honest that’s what I used and they were fab…..

Once we were told the event was over, we made our way back through Buttermere to the barn that you probably saw on telly - it was an amazing site and the atmosphere was great - around 400 runners all brewing up, cooking and bedding down in a massive brand new cattle shed. One team even bagged the bucket of a dumper truck that was parked in there and kipped in it all night.

This morning around 7am, news came through that the roads were now clear and there was access back to and away from the start area. We (me, Jamie and my other Bingley Harriers pals Robin and Steve) made a wise decision to skip breakfast, get packed and jog the 5 miles back over Honister pass to the start so we could get the car out of the wet field and away before the other 2000 runners tried to do the same. It was a master stroke and although we need 5 pushing as I steered the car along a very swampy field we made it out of the field before the real tractor pulling fun started.

It was only when we got going back and started to listen to the news and pick up mobile signals that we realised there’d been such a media ’storm’.

Don’t let the images put you off the hills - take comfort in the fact that over 2000 people ventured into the mountains yesterday and everyone of them got back to safety with just one suffering an injury and a few other treated for hypothermia.

There’s a big debate raging about whether the event should have been cancelled before the start (mostly it has to be said fuelled by folk who weren’t there) - for what it’s worth I think the organisers were right to let it go ahead (and cancel it when they did) - everyone in the race knew the risks they were taking, had read the weather forecasts and were prepared for 36 tough hours in the mountains. Of course I have sympathy for the rescue services that were called out (but that’s why they’re there) and for the worried relatives at home but in all honesty, this was a fantastically organised and superbly controlled event that has left us all with great memories and more tales to tell of exciting hours in our amazing countryside - bring on next year I say!!

See http://www.theomm.com/pages/OMM_resultsandreporting.html for loads more….