Winter Training

I have had a couple of emails about the training some guys have been doing over Christmas and it is very encouraging to hear of club runners still getting the miles in. There's no real substitute for regular training and it is all too easy to miss a session because you don't like the weather (too cold - don't want to breathe in all that cold damp air, too icy - might slip and fall or injure myself, too foggy or misty - can't be good for you, or the worst of all is your girl friend, wife or partner saying "You're not going out in THAT!!!" I had an email at the weekend from a veteran marathon runner with 40 (yes, FORTY) marathons sub 2:30 of which nine were sub 2:20 to his credit. He had gone out for 8.5 miles and it had taken him 75 minutes because of rutted snow. The point is that he did it.

I have been looking recently at training programmes for runners like John Graham, Allister Hutton, Don McGregor and company and they were all at one time or another doing 100+ miles per week. Even guys like Cliff Brown and myself were up at 3000 miles per year at one point. You need to get the base work done. You don't get it done by not going out when it gets tough.

Some of the best fun was had in snow - there was the year when I went for a run over the very snowy Kilpatricks with a very young Bobby Shields and Ian Logie and after getting as far as the Stockiemuir Road we turned back and Ian decided to run across a frozen lochan. Even before health and safety I decided it wasn't a good idea and hurried things along - no way was he getting the kiss of life!!! Then we used to have an inter club with Vicky Park and Garscube at Milngavie the Saturday before the National - there were no races the week before the National or on the weekend of the National - in February. I used to run over from Faifley where we lived, do the run and get a lift home from David Bowman. One year there was serious snow but didn't realise how deep it had drifted in places on the Moors. On the run down to Craigton Schoolhouse there was a well concealed snowdrift and I went right in up to my hips: the legs stopped running but the body kept going! Face first into the snow. The inter club was a bit of an ordeal that year! I have a video clip that I got from Johnny B MacLachlan of the Christmas Handicap in snow - it started in Killers' Lane, went up and the down Barnes Street, left up Mill Road and on to the canal bank and back along the canal bank to the start at the Killers' Lane. (It as called the Killers Lane because there was a slaughterhouse near the Kilbowie Road end). There were about 20 participants that year - all men and youths (Under 17). One or two sank to their knees after the race - I'm not sure whether it was fatigue or a prayer of relief that it was over. I also had - maybe still have - some pictures of Derek's boys throwing snowballs at each other before a race just north of the Boulevard.

Despite all the fun that we all had, there have been several race cancellations this year already - the Nigel Barge!!!! - including the relay at Strathclyde Park this weekend. I was hoping to get along if the thaw helped me get the car out - it hasn't been out since 22nd December and neither have I. I believe the Jack Crawford is still on ....