THE GOOD BUCK

I missed one day’s training this week, it was just a recovery 6 mile run and I was busy renting a van and collecting a sofa for Lisa so I let it slide. But it was a tough week. Up at 06.20 to run 14 miles before work on one day, 21 miles long run (in the 7.30 -8.10 range, did it at 7.58). Hard. That’s the longest run of the plan and there are no more long runs with X miles at race pace, so it’s downhill to the marathon from here.

The positives are;

I’ve not really been bothered with the groin strain since seeing the doctor. Hopefully when I get my scan they’ll say I just pulled something and I’m fine. It wasn’t cancer and running isn’t triggering it, so that’s great. If I get the all clear I’ll slowly and gently incorporate rowing back into my training.

I’ve stuck to my training this week. Last week I only did 18 miles the whole week, this week I’ve done 52. I missed one day, but that was before I refocused my mojo. Since then I’ve done 5 days straight. Including the run after work. When I did that one I knew I was back on track. Today I had the Advanced Marathoning plan long run. This week it was 16 miles, 12 of them at race pace. I thought I might as well see where I stood so I did it as 1.5 mile warm up, 13.1 (half marathon) flat out, then just over a mile home. I started off with a 6.42, 6.49, 6.52, 6.57, 6.47, 6.57 but then I lost it. 7.00, 7.02, 7.00, 7.03, 7.03, 7.08, 7.02. It was astoundingly hard. I was desperate to quit for virtually all of it, so I’m really pleased I kept going. I was so close to quitting loads of times. I finished with a 1.31:08, which is nearly 2 minutes slower than my PB. Overall it’s still my 4th fastest ever Half, and I didn’t leave a single second in reserve, so I am satisfied with it. If you start half-arseing your training, as I have been over the last few weeks, it’s inevitable you are going to lose speed and endurance.

In other good news, my appointment to see a “clinician” on Sunday was with a real doctor. So they’ve not completely destroyed the GP service yet. The doctor examined me and gave me lots of prods. He said it was most likely either a muscle strain or a sports hernia. He said I should stop exercising. It’s 6 weeks until Blackpool marathon, he clearly meant after that. He’s referred me to the hospital for an ultrasound. That will be in a few weeks. Excellent. No prostate cancer, and it’s not testicular cancer. A good week.

The only other thing is I keep going back and forth on whether to get the Sainsbury’s job. Tons of money, but no life and no time to train. And always exhausted. I did apply for it, but it was with the agency I’m working for at the Royal Mail. They just ignored my application. I could apply with a different agency. We have enough money at the moment, I have good start times, and plenty of time to train. It’s mainly fear that’s making me think about changing to worst possible start time nights. We are fine now, but what about the future?

I’m slipping into bad habits again. Missing runs, making excuses… back to half-arseing my training. This is exactly what that article warned against. I read a tweet the other day from someone described as a world champion “I don’t do crazy workouts or crazy mileage. I just don’t miss days. consistency is my biggest weapon. I’ll break any athlete down with just how consistent I’m going to be training wise and just getting the work done.”

I was also talking to someone on twitter, a younger runner who just took 11 minutes of his half marathon time since last year to get a 1.24. I asked him what plan he was using, it’s the Advanced Marathoning one. I tried that for about a year solid, and after great initial gains only improved by a minute over 10 months. He said he regularly runs 60- 70 miles a week, even when not on the plan, and has clocked a 1.21 half (the first time he went sub 3).

OK, he’s younger,and presumably doesn’t do long shifts, but the secret is to just keep turning up. While I’m in this quiet period at work I must commit to training.

Today was my challenging long run. I’ve been stressing about it. I missed my run yesterday because of it. I was thinking should I do my long run yesterday, and then thinking I was going to have to suffer so much only to fail. In the end I ended up doing a hard rowing session for an hour instead. After I’d burnt off some of the stress and frantic anxiety on the rower I got my head together. 11 miles at 7.45, I can do that. Then dig in for 6 fast miles. Then it’s just an 8 m/m trot home. I worked out a good route and a good strategy (to drink as much of my energy drinks as possible before the hard miles to minimise carried weight and maximise energy/ water uptake) and went for it.

I managed the 11 miles fairly comfortably, despite the wind, and was going strong. The fast miles should have been 7.00, 6.55, 6.50, 6.50, 6.45, 6.45, then 8.00 to finish.

I managed the 7.00 and the 6.55 but the wind was too much for me. I did the fast miles on a mile loop, but half of it was into a strong wind, so I had to work harder but I was going slower, then run a lot faster on the other half to make up the lost time, then try and push and hold on into the wind again. It was all hard, with no time to catch my breath or just maintain. I did a 6.56, 6.58 then I quit as I was getting nowhere. Started to jog home, then regrouped and carried on. It cost me a 7.14, but the main thing is I didn’t quit. I did a 6.56 then jogged home for an 8.02.

I read an article not long back on Long Covid, and the thing I took from it was it was hard exertion that triggered it. Running is something to which my body is accustomed. I take an easy pace run, of whatever length, in my stride, as it were. It’s when I beast myself up hills, or when I’m sprinting, that I risk the incurring the plague weakness from runs. When I’m in a susceptible period, that is. I had months and months where I could do what I wanted and nothing triggered it.

Anyway, I thought I had got over it in January then I did two sessions on the bike turbo and wasted myself for weeks. I got over it again and got back to running. Then I got the rower… you can see where this is going. I did that one session as soon as I got it home, I started slow, set myself a huge catch-up target, then went flat out. That was after doing a hard run session earlier in the day.

I was in denial about feeling weak the next day, telling myself it was just hunger from doing too much, but it was there the next day as well. Yesterday I was tempted to row, but today was my long run day and I didn’t want to risk anything. Today I got up and felt alright. I set off, planning to do my 18 miles then a gentle 30 minutes on the rower. The first two miles I got slammed by weakness. It was getting worse and worse. By the end of the second mile I was making deals with myself, ‘just get to 3 miles and then turn back, that’s a third of the distance at least’. I dropped off the pace and it felt like I was just shuffling it out. By the end of the third mile the weakness had gone and I’d only actually dropped a few seconds off the pace. I kept going. Then there was a strong wind, then tachycardia which stopped my for 2 minutes, but I got it done.