9th-16th of March

Training Report:


My whole cross country season has been focused on this Saturday. I'm now confident I can make the county team so I knew I'd be able to look upon this race as the pinnacle of almost half a years work. But these last few months have been easily the most frustrating of my running career so far. Nothing has gone smoothly. I've rolled seamlessly from one problem to the next. My body's basic fitness and the speed in my legs has improved dramatically over the winter, which makes all these interruptions so annoying. Each time I start back after a set back I know I'm running well straight away, my base fitness is really good, it's just these last few months when I've wanted to really make some strides in terms of my abilities to compete well, especially at this, the last and biggest race of the season, I've not been able to move on.

As I wanted to compete at the inter counties I treated this week as I would have if I'd been in top shape. Every session was easy, and shorter than normal. Normally this would allow the body to recover from the fatigue of intense training, but for me it was more about letting my body recover from all its niggles. Tuesday was my last semi hard session, a final bit of speed work, the last piece in the puzzle, that was supposed to leave me feeling confident. Sadly I knew I was struggling. I copped well with the session as it was only half the normal amount. It wasn't as easy and flowing as I would have liked, but the main problem was my back again. The pain began to flare up towards the end, and with triple the distance covered in this session to come on Saturday I was anything but confident. During this last month my back pain has been getting progressively worse down the right hand side, especially when running at full stretch, in races or during speed sessions. I knew at the end of that run that I now needed to see a specialist about it. I just hoped I could get to Saturday in one piece and deal with getting it 'fixed' next week.

The rest of my week involved slow runs and lots of stretching. I hoped that along with a sports massage on Wednesday it would see me able to complete the 12k cross country race, and do myself some sort of justice as to how far I've improved upon this time last year. Mentally I was focused and confident that I would do ok, whether this was a sign of me becoming mentally stronger, a mind over matter thing, or weather it was some sort of blind, dissolutional insanity I'm not sure!
I was really excited come race day. The inter counties are a big event, 3000 of the best cross country runners from across the UK, and from all age groups. With loud Tannoy speakers blaring out commentary of every one of the ten races, and the cameras from Sky Sports, broadcasting each race out live, you knew you were at a big important event. The chance to represent Great Britain at the World Cross country Championships was at stake for the front runners, and the chance of a team medal was on the cards for everyone.

With the senior men's race on last I had a while to wait for my go. I got myself focused, motivated and warm by running from one side of the course to the other to encourage members of both my own running club and county. And with a number of excellent performances by friends from my club, including an inspirational individual bronze in the under 17 women from Izzy Brinsden, and I was excited and eager to get going and determined to do well.
The start is like the 'Charge of the Light brigade' as nearly 500 athletes literally sprint from the starting pens up the immediate and steep incline to get a good position. For the first lap I'd felt in control. I was placed just outside the top 50and was reasonably comfortable with it. But with three laps to go I could already feel that my body was starting to buckle. The dodgy right hand side of my back was not happy and the knock on effects on my legs would soon surface. The first thing to go was my calf. It tightened up but I was able to cope with this, but towards the end of the lap the back really stiffened up. I continued on for half a lap, but as the tightness increased my stride length decreased and I was quickly going backwards through the field. After running for an extra half lap I decided to stop. I stood watching the field pass me as I stretched and massaged my back, I half thought about joining in again, but that would have done me no good. I would definitely have been last and of no use to the team, and running was only going to have a negative impact on my back.
I stood and watched the race from the side lines. Watching runners I'd raced against do really well, and pictured where I could have come, had I been fit. I was not exactly ecstatic to have gone all the way to Nottingham, to race in the highlight race of the cross country season, just to pull out of a race for the first time ever. Something I really don't want to repeat. As I drove home talking about running with a couple of close friends and club mates we came to the conclusion that my mind and body needed a little break from running. In nearly two years since I have had a holiday from this job. And with this injury problem that only flares up whilst running, now seems like the perfect time. So for the next few weeks I'll be riding and swimming to keep up the fitness levels, but my trainers will stay in the cupboard. An emergency appointment with an osteopath has been booked for Tuesday to hopefully identify the problem in my back. I'm sure this break will give my body and mind new vigour when I tie my shoes up again, revitalising what I know I can do with my body.