SLOW ROAD TO RECOVERY

   It's Friday now and I'm still searching on the watch for some sign of a return to a decent pace after last Sunday's half marathon.  To be honest the legs have held up pretty well. The main area to have suffered most has been the lower rib cage. I can only think that the effort of the race aligned with the low temperature we experienced forced the intercostal muscles to work overtime.  So the last mile of the race was 6.46 and the fastest mile I've managed in the week since has been 8.24. 
   That was the ninth mile of yesterday's 9 mile run which was followed by 6 today.  The "recovery" week then has been a gradual build up of miles at easy pace.  3 to 5 to 7 to 9 dropping down to 6  today with the weekend to come.

   Yesterday,  I borrowed some old copies of Athletics Weekly from the late '60s. The one to the right from May 6th 1967 features 2 Sale Harrier club mates from that time, Jack Frost and Peter Abell.  The magazines were bound togther for that year and it was significant that by far the majority of the front covers were male middle or long distance runners of quality.  Only 6 covers features women. Several being field event performers.
   Certainly not the case with Athletics Weekly today which frequently features female athletes on the cover reflecting continuing  emergence of women in the sport.  This week's issue features an interview with Jenny Meadows and she is featured on the cover.

 Runners World's covers in contrast have been blatenly sexist.  They have swung completely the other way such that it's as if only women run and they only run in warm temperatures when the sun is shining.
  I can't remember the last time they featured a male runner on the cover or a runner wearing what we all wear in the varying seasons.

  This cover from the February ....yes February...will have "hit the news stands" in January when we were all running the streets in hat and gloves ,jackets and thermal tights (weren't we?).   Yet they feel they have to feature a young lady attired as even very few women would in the highest temperatures of summer.  If you query it with them they claim that this type of cover conveys a positive image we all aspire to and are therefore encouraged to buy the magazine.   

  Of course because they always features young attactive females on the cover then the theory can never be proved one way or the other.   

  If you were starting running and saw this magazine on the stand would you be encouraged to buy it on the basis you could look like that (sorry guys!) or would you be put off ?