Eat more cake

In one of the weekend supplements recently I read an interview with the universally popular Michael Johnson - why can't all sports tv commentators say what they really think rather than what they feel viewers want to hear? - about his daily routine. In a move that may lose him a few admirers, he stated that both when he was an elite athlete and now that he's a relative couch potato, he eats a lot of burgers. Shock, horror! Today's 'new' runners will be amazed that an elite athlete did such a thing. Steve Cram was the same, loved his burgers. One of the great US marathoners of the 70's (either Frank Shorter or Bill Rodgers) came out with the great phrase when interviewed that he was on a seafood diet: no, he wasn't a Rick Stein fanatic, but such was his hunger that when he could see food he would eat it! The point being that to sustain big mileage and hard training he had to put fuel back into the engine, thus lots of protein, carbohydrates and calories, nothing scientific. You cannot be an Olympic marathon champion on carrot sticks alone.

I was in the local garden centre recently on a midweek day off and stopped off with Claudie for a coffee. On the counter were cakes and pastries perfect for a runner (so not for me!), but I couldn't resist and got stuck in to both mine and half of Claudie's. Brought back memories of lunchtime training runs in London followed by a couple of pints and a big salt beef sandwich in the pub, before dropping in to the deli on way back to the office for a couple of buns. Happy days.

My 'running' went back on hold in early August when my left 'good' Achilles popped and I had to abort a three mile run halfway through and walk back. Six weeks off completely and I'm now back with some gentle jogging. For the first time I tried Kinesio taping, as seen on a lot of athletes these days (Lisa Dobriskey was covered in the stuff at the World Champs), and although a bit of a cynic I have to state that the pain eased a lot quicker than I expected and certainly quicker than ever before. Time will tell if there's real improvement.

Finally, I read a very sad story in the paper this weekend and one that all we runners should take note of. Bill Smith, a 75 year old veteran member of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers (Ron Hill's club) and a well known figure in fell running circles (he'd written a book on the subject), was found dead in a peat bog on Saddle Fell in the Trough of Bowland. The area was so remote that his body wasn't discovered for three weeks - he'd apparently fallen whilst on a training run. Two things: when going out running alone, particularly if off road, tell someone your planned route (the fell may have been particularly remote but I can think of plenty of places within five miles of my home where I've run and never seen a soul); secondly have some form of identification on you. You just never know ...