Alan Murchison's blog by Alan_Murchison

Achtung, what a busy few days since my last blog, because work really has been getting in the way since returning from holiday. This weekend I had the honour of cooking at the annual Althoff Festival of Master Chefs in Cologne. There were 16 of Europe's best chefs with a total of 29 Michelin stars between them. We had to transport and prepare a tasting dish for nearly 700 VIP guests who were all served in 2 hours. It was a really good event to be involved in, even though it was hard work and hopefully I will get invited back next year. We were there with our friends from the St James Hotel in London and they were the perfect hosts as their hotel is owned by the Althoff group, well worth a visit if you are ever in London or Germany.

The only negative from a busy weekend was a whole 3 days of no training at all! A disgraceful performance, that's not happened for maybe 2 years! But this week for my Olympic event I will mostly be talking about 5,000m track running. Now I used to be okay over 5k and I ran 14.28 many many moons ago. My most recent foray into the 5,000m was at the Southern Counties Veterans League, on a horrible rainy night with a howling gale and 12 and a half laps of trying not to drown. Now I like the strategy of track racing, mind games play such a big part of distance racing and this was no different. At the gun no one wanted to take it on, so off I plodded at 78 sec 400m pace which is not far off what I would want to run a half marathon at. Aiming for 5 min 12 or 14 second mile pace, after a sedate 5.15 first 1,600m I decided to test the water and see who was there to race.

4 x 74-5 second laps later there was only myself and a good local athlete called Andy Morgan Lee. We spent 800m gathering ourselves before he led for lap no 11 and we then started a long sprint for home. At the bell I was in front and that meant he had the long way round. I kicked at 300m and that was it game over. I managed the last lap in a pretty respectable 63 seconds, although it was a poor time of 16.20, but it was a great race and I loved the cat and mouse. So I am unbeaten in 2011 over 5000m!

At London 2012 over 5000m we as a home nation need to look no further than Mo Farah. His form this year has been amazing and the whole race will be run faster than my dismal 63 second 400! In Beijing Mo ran, for him, a truly shocking 13.50. This year he is running a good minute faster than that and if he gets the tactics right, we have a very good chance of a medal. We should also have our fingers crossed in the women's race as Helen Clitheroe, who is now in the autumn of her career, is running well enough to make the final with a fair wind. Tactically she has the experience, so there is much to look forward to over 5,000 next year, and not just not from me! Next week the biggest challenge yet, the Olympic Road Race circuit, a mere 152 miles on a bike - yikes!