Friday 15 August 2008

Monday 4th August - Sunday 10th August

I went through a strange period in my training this week - slightly inconsistent would be a generous way to describe it. All my key, hard sessions went well and without a hitch, but the rest of the time I was lacklustre.
I almost couldn't face putting on my trainers to get the mileage into my legs. Psychologically I couldn't enthuse myself unless it was a hard session. Mentally I felt a little drained, and the long lonely miles I need to put in didn't fill me with any joy. I struggled mainly with just the thought of running them. Once I was out there with my trainers on it wasn't too bad, but I wasn't setting the world alight, more going through the motions. Perhaps having had four days of running with friends whilst in Cornwall pampered me too much. Your thoughts and concentration aren't a problem when you while away the time chatting. Pushing myself during sessions, my concentration levels weren't a problem, which was a big relief for me, and I took comfort from the fact that my fitness and speed weren't a problem. Perhaps it's just a dip or perhaps it’s because things are winding down a little towards the end of the summer season. Maybe it's too much to expect myself to be 100% focused 100% of the time. At least I've got plenty to talk about during my next sport psychology session!

I'll keep to the good part of my training, as I've already learnt that psychologically negative thoughts have a much larger impact on your mind than positive thoughts. You need to put in positive blockers to stop the negatives taking over, so I've forgotten all about the dodgy runs!
Tuesday's track session was again a great work out. I'm pushing myself much harder than when I was circulating the track whilst training on my own. I'm at least a couple of seconds faster per rep than I was before I switched groups. We completed a session that I had previously enjoyed during one of my first times out with the new group. Two sets of 1200 metres and 3 x 400 metres, with another 1200 to finish. We ran the session differently this time round, slowing the longer 1200 reps down, concentrating instead on running the 400's at a quicker pace. Getting the legs used to a faster pace, so that come race day when your lapping at a slightly slower more sustainable pace it feels a little easier, at least to start with anyway.
Thursdays run was a bit of a monster solo effort. A fifteen-minute warm up, twelve minutes tempo run, 8 x 30 second fast strides, another 12-minute tempo run and a fifteen-minute warm down. It was a hard and very long session, but I haven't felt as satisfied on completion of a workout for a while. I think a lot of the satisfaction came from producing a quality session on my own. I kept the pace high throughout and worked as hard as I would have in a group run.
I take a lot of heart and encouragement from the fact that I'm still running good sessions. I would be a lot more worried if I was running my hard runs poorly but my easy/steady runs well. It's just a little frustrating as I've been running so well for two months, and I just want to keep that going. Possibly I could do with an easy week to recharge the batteries. I guess I can't be take, take, take with my body and have no give.

Friday 8 August 2008

Training Monday 30th July - Sunday 6th August

This week's training was spiced up by a long weekend away in Cornwall, to train and try and learn to surf!
Before we headed South West on Friday I completed another solid block of training. Again my track session was successful and just about enjoyable. My coach, Robin, cut back the distance of each rep so we could concentrate on upping our leg speed. The group all felt the session didn't seem that tough but we were wrong. 600, 400, 300, and 200 metre's four times. We all felt that as the reps were short we'd zoom through the session no problem. But slowly it caught up on you. The lactate would suddenly start to hit, as a result of the increased speed and only a short jog recovery between reps. I was on my knees by the end. One more rep and I think it may well have been curtains for me. I guess that shows the coach got the session spot on, it took us to the limit, but didn't tip us over the edge.
The rest of my week, whilst still at home, went well, some solid runs, and good mileage in the bank.

I travelled down to Cornwall on Friday and the surf was up dude!! I'm often a little worried when I go on holiday mid-season. It's often quite hard to motivate yourself to go out training, especially as there are so many more distractions than at home, engrossed in your normal routine. But I wasn't worried this time as two of my fellow surf dudes were runners and were keen to keep up on their own training. For the first two days, a mixture of steady runs and surfing worked well. As I quickly found out, surfing is an excellent core and upper-body work- out. Just carrying the dam board from the surf hut to the designated surf area, around half a mile, had me completely knackered. Beginners boards are big, heavy, ungainly things, I made many kids weep as I trampled on their sand castles, to walk round with the blooming board was not at option, I was taking the shortest point from a to b come hell or high water, pun definitely intended!

As it turns out I'm rubbish at surfing and extremely competent at falling off in a spectacular manner. Hauling my battered body back onto my board was a great core work out, especially after my three hundredth and forty second dunking!

Sunday was dune-running day. We found a steep hill in the sand and decided to run up it twelve times, holiday makers looked at us like we were the most stupid people on the planet. I guess we were as it was one of the hardest sessions I've ever done. The sand had sapped my strength and my lungs were burning after only the first run to the summit, just eleven to go then! With each assent we churned up the sand a bit more, thus making it harder to find grip, as well as making the path so uneven you spent as much energy falling from side to side as you did moving forwards, but we made it to twelve. My legs were burning like never before, I had a massive headache and standing between me and a nice cup of tea was an even longer and steeper run back to the campsite - brilliant!
Surfing felt like a breeze after that run, and the freezing temperatures out at sea quickly brought my legs back to life. It was definitely an early night for me that night and to my surprise my legs were just about in working order for my morning run.
It was great to have a change of scene for a couple of days. It's strange how such a simple thing can really rejuvenate you and I've definitely felt the benefits of hill running in the dunes. I'll just have to find ones a bit closer to home as a six hundred mile round trip is a little far to go, even for the hardest session in the land.