Training Monday 14th July - Sunday 20th July

My training continues to go from strength to strength. I've only had a few problems arise in the last two month's, and I've managed to over come those much quicker than I used to. This week was more of the same good quality workouts.
My Tuesday sessions are really testing and worth their weight in gold. O.K., technically they don't weigh anything but you get what I mean.

This weeks training involved 3 x 1000 metres with 200 metre recovery jogs, followed by 5 x 600 metres. Breaking the session up into two separate parts is a new format I'm coming to terms with since joining my new track group. I'm used to completing the same distance for the entire duration of a session, or a continual increase or decrease in distances. It's challenging to set yourself a pace goal for half a session, which your body and mind quickly becomes accustomed to, then you have to change that body and mind set for the second half of a session, usually upping the tempo for shorter repetition distances. I'm very consistent with my pacing. I can set myself a target and will hit the correct lap times again and again. So to change the pace goal posts has been a bit of a shock to my metronomic style, but a shock that will ultimately help my racing, enabling me to cope with a mid race change of pace, be it of my own making or in response to an opponent.
A clear indicator for me that I'm running into great shape is not the speed sessions, where I finish flat on my back gasping for air, but in my steady run's. I'm consistently completing routes that I've used for years faster than ever. I often look at my watch and do a double take. I worry that I'm pushing the pace of my easier runs too much, but when I'm running I'm not in any difficulty. I'm running relaxed and my breathing is controlled and by no means laboured. I'm just getting fitter and faster and more economical in my running, so I'm covering the ground faster.
All that's left is to prove it in a race. It's here that I feel very undecided. Half of me wants to keep my powder dry. To continue to make progress in training and to wait for a big race to come along where I can smash out a massive P.B. When I was racing nearly every weekend I started to become frustrated with easing back a day or two before and event, when I could have been putting more miles under my belt, increasing my fitness. I also feel that long term I gain more from doing a hard session on a Saturday morning than I do from racing. I just want to stay on the conveyer belt of training and only jump off when I reach the end. But then there's the other half of me that wants to get out and race. I love racing, it's why I train, it's why I run! I start to get itchy feet when I've been more than a couple of weeks without a race. I read results every week, and see how people I know, and people I know of, are doing. I always wonder where I would have finished, and what time I could have run. I'm also wary that if I put all my eggs in one basket I might not get the result I want. If I wait for one big race, a million and one things could happen that prevent me from producing my best. By racing more often and coming out of a training cycle I'll lower the risk of not producing what I'm capable of. It might not be in some prestigious race, but a time is a time whether it's in the Olympic 10k or in some local mid week one man and his dog 10k!
For now I'm happy to continue my training. I'm enjoying my running more than ever. Running faster than ever plays a big part in that. I've also found that by freshening up my training, by changing groups, it's given me a new impetus. Things as simple as training in new surroundings and with new people have spiced up my running. I've never really struggled to find the motivation to put my trainers on and hit the streets, it's just now it all feels new and exciting again. It's like getting a new bike for Christmas. Ultimately a bikes a bike, but the new ones special, you feel more proud of yourself and your bike when you ride the same streets, you take it up new pathways to explore it's potential. The paint works perfect, the wheels are shiny, and you just feel that bit more special when you turn the pedals. I just hope I don't fall off!