My body has ached nearly the entire week. For seven days I've had to roll myself out of bed and into my trainers, my legs have felt like they'd buckle under my weight at any moment, and I worry that if I close my eyes for any longer than a the merest blink of an eye I'll fall into a deep sleep. It's been great! You get a perverse pleasure from the fact your body's tired. It reminds you that training must be going well, that you're working hard and making gains. It helps test your motivation and dedication. It would have been so easy to miss a run here and there, or to miss out of few repetitions on the track. But I fought through it, and as long as I come through this period of tiredness and get the bounce back into my legs soon, without my body breaking down, be it illness or injury, it will all have been worth-while and extremely encouraging.
I actually feel stronger than ever before, which is strange given how tired I've felt. But from my training this week I know I'm in good shape. On Tuesday, even though I didn't fancy lapping the track one bit, I got it done. (2 x 1K, 5 x 400 metres, and another 2 x 1K.) I was still able to lap faster than I did just three short months ago. My legs wouldn't let me do the lap times I know I can do, but my fitness shone through as I finished the session feeling that I had more to give, my breathing was under control and I wasn't doubled up, as I often am.
On Saturday my club were participating in the county road relays. I obviously didn't wanted to run badly, but in the grand scheme of things the race would count for very little. With this in mind my coach dropped my Thursday tempo run and replaced it with an easy run, but the rest of my schedule was kept as normal. With just Thursday to ease back, my legs were still very weary by Saturday.
The race was run from Wimbledon Park, running up Wimbledon Hill, past the tennis, down the other side and back into the park. I flew off at the start like a mad man, hoping to blow the cobwebs well and truly away. I love hill running so that was easy, but I was a little over exuberant coming down the other side. My legs were going round ten to the dozen, I doubt Usain Bolt could have kept pace! But as soon as I hit the Park at the bottom of the hill, with a mile still to go I knew I had over cooked it. My legs went dead, my bounce was well and truly deflated, everything was burning and I could feel the pack eating into my lead. I managed to maintain some sort of rhythm to the finish and was fairly pleased with my time given that I'm in a hard phase of my training. I was a little disappointed to be only three seconds quicker than last year as I know I'm in much better shape, but you cant have it all. I have to expect to be slightly slower in races when I train into them. I just can't wait till next month and some bigger races when I can really show my form and actually have a bit of a rest pre-race.
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