Monday 15th September - Sunday 21st September

Having been so tired last week it was a great relief to me that as each day passed since then I've felt fresher and more like the bouncy Will of old, and to have felt better without reducing my training load fills me with confidence. As the week drew to a close I was able to get back to the high levels of intensity in my key sessions I've now become accustomed to.

I won't deny I wasn't concerned last week. Was the training load becoming too much, had I reached the maximum level my body could take before breaking down, had I picked up a virus that was taking the edge off my performance, thus needing to back off or take a break? Questions that it's hard to know the answer to before it's too late.

Even though I've been running since I was eleven, with the bank of knowledge and experience I've gained over the years, it is all very much a gamble as to the limits my body can take. I'm breaking into new territory every day. Never before have I trained so hard, never before have I had such a long spell of unbroken training. So I really didn't know what the signals of tiredness, that my body was sending me, actually indicated. Every runner must have a limit as to what levels their body can endure, even the greatest runners in the world, or else we would be training every hour of the day, every day of the week. It's a balancing act, and at the moment I've the biggest weights I've ever experienced at either end of the scales, making that balancing point, between staying fit and breaking down, much harder to maintain.

Mondays two runs of forty and thirty minutes left me still concerned. I was tired and struggled a little. Tuesday's track session was the key sign that I was turning the corner, completing ten six-hundred metre reps. My legs still felt a little flat, and I lacked any real zip. This meant I was off the back of the group. However, my lap times were unbelievably consistent, and I finished the session with some gas left in the tank. I was no longer physically exhausted from my exertions and my legs just wouldn't go round any faster! Two steady runs on Wednesday totalling an hour and a half went by with little fuss, and by Thursday I was able to turn my legs over at a much faster rate during a fifteen-minute tempo run. A rest on Friday was followed by the confirmation that I had come through my rough patch unscathed.
Saturdays session of a ten minute tempo run, five two minute hill reps and a final ten minutes of thirty second sprints followed by thirty second jog recovery was great. I had speed for the sprints, strength for the hill reps and endurance for the tempo run. I gained great confidence as well from how I performed against my training group. I always try hard not to race during training, it's important to concentrate on what your doing, not what your mates are up to. I always make sure I have a little bit left in reserve. But if you weren't supposed to use those you train with to push you on to faster times I guess you'd just train alone. I didn't manage to finish first in a single element of the entire session. I was second throughout, which was a little frustrating, but I took great heart that the guy finishing ahead of me was a different member of the group each time. I guess I was “jack of all trades” but master of none, though I was delighted to be. It proved to me that I was right to keep plugging away with my training and that stopping wasn't the right choice to make this time. I just hope that I continue to make the right choices and keep my momentum going.