Alan Murchison’s blog Alan Murchison

Hello all. Mixed emotions this week. The good news is that I won my age category at the British Masters Half Marathon Championships! Normally I would be fairly pleased with myself however....... I just was not happy with my time (75.23) and I felt tired pretty much from the start. Aerobically it was fine, but heavy legs were very much the order of the day. I have been training really hard now for 9 weeks and one easier week was just not enough to rest and be at my best over 13 miles. Lesson learnt.

Looking back at my training diary post race, I had racked up nearly 85 miles over a 5 day block the previous weekend and I then did a good quality track session 4 days before... anyway excuses, excuses. I had an average run and was the least worst M35 on the day! I would have been happier to have run a quick time and come last. Mind you saying that, I do enjoy being at these British Masters races. There are some amazing athletes in their respective age categories. They are all still hugely competitive and as opposed to running with under 23s, these guys are all clever and wily racers. You rarely get masters going off too quick and dying like the youngsters do.

Before the race I had done my homework on who I needed to beat in my age group, looking at who has registered to race and studied the form, I wrote the race numbers down on my wrist and was determined that nobody in the M35 race would pass me. Despite underperforming on the day, there were some great runs from some of the masters, (not me). Two of the highlights for me were Sarah Gee from Reading who is in the W45 category who ran 76.21. That is the 2nd fastest UK all time half marathon for a W45! And in the M65 category Martin Ford from Cheltenham ran 85.58, fairly impressive running and even more so on a very hard course.

Burnham Beeches was an absolutely stunning area and would be a great place to train. However as a hilly race route I did not enjoy it at all. The break in tempo killed me which, for someone who likes hills generally is strange. But I have to remind myself that I have heavy mileage in my legs and the Berlin Marathon is my aim. I did find out a few useful things though. Firstly, I cannot recover fully from lots of heavy miles in 5 days and secondly I cannot drink out of plastic cups of water whilst trying to run quickly down hills! Tapering you miles before a long race and allowing the body to recover, is a key element to racing well. I think I need to have a coffee with coach Mik the Merciless asap, as I just did not get it right this time. Nowhere close.

On a happier note, I attended the Dukes of Bedford’s summer party this week, It was held in a marquee in the grounds of Woburn Abbey. The Duke is a charming gentleman who has caught me running about his estate on many occasions, normally lost, quite often getting a very polite telling off for being in the wrong part of the estate, (Woburn). From my restaurant, Paris House, there are literally 100's of different routes to run off road in absolutely stunning scenery. I had the family with me at the party and had a first class barbecue, the kids were happy as there was dodgems and a carousel. I mean doesn't everyone have a fairground at their barbecue ??!

The summer holidays are now officially over and it's back to rainy old England for me. The great thing about a couple of weeks in the sun and fairly hard training is that now I have returned home, I feel that I've found an extra gear. Training in the sun has been hard going despite the fact I like running when it’s warm. I’m guessing the heat and humidity must add 10-15 seconds per mile to your training times. So I’m going to take an easy week this week as I really want to give myself a good rest before racing over 13.1 miles on Sunday.

It will be my first real easy week in 10 weeks, which has been a great, consistent training base. In fact I couldn’t have hoped for better. So I’m not planning to run too many miles this week, although I did have a very good 2 hour run at good pace on Sunday and managed 20 miles at sub 6 minute miles. I was quite happy with that, although I did have some pretty good quality company to drag the old man along. There was Louise my speedy regular training partner and John Beattie, who has just returned from the States and has run the qualifying time for the 10km at the Commonwealth Games. John has a PB of 28.32 over 10km and 13.42 for 5km! So doing your long run with two GB internationals is the way to guarantee an honest pace, a good run to have in the bank that's for sure. My only hard run this week will be a session of 20 x400m on the track, maybe 2 rest days and then the British Masters Championships on Sunday. The outcome of this race will influence the next stage of training, so fingers crossed.

On my first rest day this week I went out for a couple of hours on the mountain bike. I had an amazing ride above Chichester, up and over the downs with some brilliant descents. Honestly cycling on a warm sunny day is so hard to beat. I'm not wanting to work too hard this week as the race on Sunday is in the back of my mind, but I have a fair bit of office work to catch up with at the restaurants and hopefully 3 or 4 services in the kitchen, to remind the boys who's boss!!! This is the time of year I get together with my head chefs and start thinking about the autumn menu change soon.

The glorious 12th is the famous start of the grouse season and in September we will start to see the venison and other game coming through. All of my chefs get really excited when the first of the local game birds turn up, early in the season the taste is milder and the birds tend to be smaller and more delicate. Game is also great from a health and well being point of view, low in fat, natural, sustainable and a good source of protein. Basically it’s ideal food for athletes. I really like pheasant with smoked bacon, wild mushrooms and pearl barley risotto, a lovely meal which also works well with a small glass of a light red wine. Let's see how the race goes on Sunday and I might upgrade my small glass of red wine to a glass of fizz! See you next week!