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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Doubt

Doubt is a repugnant, sneaky little thing. It's like the monster lurking in your childhood cupboard - he's not always there, but the more you think about him the stronger and more threatening he gets until you have no choice but to go and sleep in the big, safe bed with your mum and dad.

Guess who's getting nervous about a little race coming up?

The doubts and the worries are creeping in, made worse by me reading things online, such as a thread on Coolrunning in which someone said there's no point in training at anything slower than race pace.

I go from being pleased that I am making progress in my interval training to thinking,' Great, so you can run intervals faster now - go and do a 42.2k interval and tell me how you feel.'

I never try to hide the fact that I get incredibly nervous before a race - any race. Some people say you should put on a confident front so you don't give competitors the advantage but in my mind I'm my biggest competitor - and I already know I'm freaking out. In the marathon I'm racing myself and the clock - I want a PB and if I get it I don't care if I've finished 10th or 1010th.

Negative thoughts are never useful and I'm trying to banish them. The truth is:

  • I have trained for this race. 
  • I have trained better than ever before for this race. 
  • Granted, I have not had a good year for marathon racing but I ran a PB for a half marathon a few weeks ago. 
  • Even if it all goes to shit I have a full day in Melbourne after the race where I can shop until I feel better. It may take a number of credit cards to achieve this. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

Hell hath frozen and pigs have wings

If you know me, and you know my running, please ensure you are sitting down before reading on. What I am about to write will no doubt induce shock and may cause you to question if the world has tilted off its axis and if the pigs have taken flight.

I like speed work.

Even as I typed those four words I expected the laptop to automatically lock itself, knowing full well its real owner would never utter such nonsense. But there it is.

First, let me take a step back and qualify my statement a little. As you know from my last post I now have a coach and I am attempting to train properly. Seeing speed sessions on my program still makes my stomach lurch a little. Adding a speed workout to my Garmin is always done with trepidation. Even after I've warmed up I talk to myself (yes, out loud - people must think I'm nuts): "Just go Joh. Just hit start. You can do this, and even if you can't you're better off than if you hadn't tried." Then I usually say a swear word and I'm off.

So how is it that I say I like speed work you ask? Well last week's training was a bit messed up because I was sick (luckily tests showed it's not a relapse of glandular fever, just a virus on my chest) and I missed my Tuesday speed session. I expected that I'd feel a bit down that I hadn't kept to my program, but secretly relieved that I'd avoided the horrible stuff. Instead, I felt a bit edgy - a bit like Homer Simpson when he realises he's missing the Annual Chili Cook Off. If you can't recall it it goes like this:
"What's that smell? Onions... chili powder... cumin... juicy ground chuck? It's chili! Oh my god, I'm missing the chili cook-off! [whining, fidgeting] I'm missing the cook-off, it's going on right now and I'm missing it."
That was me, all Tuesday and Wednesday. "I'm supposed to run fast and I'm missing out on it!" So, by Thursday I gave in and headed down to the oval (yes, friends - I go to the OVAL these days, as neglected and uneven as it is) to do at least some of the session I was scheduled to do on Tuesday.

I got through a fair bit of it before my chest felt far too tight and I thought it wise to call it quits. But geeze I felt better for having done it. By Saturday I was feeling much better and I donned my speedy Ronins and hit the oval again to run round and round and round (and round) doing 3k reps. Followed up on Sunday with a 35k run for a solid weekend of training.

You see, not only am I glad that I'm finally trying to run fast, I've actually discovered that the challenge of speed is a little addictive. Can I run faster than I did last time? Can I hold this pace a bit longer? Was it easier this time? And even though it's depressing when I bomb out, I have enough success in meeting the challenges I'm set that I have enough drive to keep coming back. Coach Sean Williams is smart - he's got the pacing right for me. Not so hard that I feel hopeless because I can't do it, but not so easy that I get it right every time.

And there it is. Get out your ice skates friends because hell has just frozen over.


Sunday, September 9, 2012

Hard work = results. Who knew?!

In my last post (the one about the horribly disappointing M7 Marathon) I mentioned that I had sent an email that would hopefully set me on the path to some achieving some good results. That was six weeks ago now and yes, I think it's safe to say things have been going well.

The email I referred to in that post was to Sean Williams, highly respected coach and owner of SWEAT .  I asked him if he'd help me prepare for Melbourne as best I could and, thankfully, he said yes. The next day my first program arrived and I committed myself to doing everything as well as I could - no quitting halfway through a session if I wasn't hitting certain times or paces, no missing a session because I was too busy.

The program, quite honestly, scared me. I saw speed work and paces that I didn't think I could ever achieve. So I simply didn't look too far ahead - I just started by looking at the sessions I had to do on any given day and I did them.

I've surprised myself at how well I've stuck to the programs. Even more surprising, is the sudden development of fast twitch muscles. After the first couple of weeks I was despairing of ever being able to run fast - I even told Sean he would have to readjust his paces for the upcoming sessions - then all of a sudden I could do it.

With Belinda Martin, winner of the NSW half champs. 
The work is already starting to pay off. I came second in the NSW Half Marathon Championships (Westies Joggers Hidden Half on 2 September) and ran a PB of 82:37. Given that this is a tough and hilly course I was really, really pleased. I felt strong and in control the whole time and looking back on it I should have trusted myself a bit more and pushed harder. A few days before the race Mizuno sent me some new racing flats - the Ronin - and after trying them out on a couple of runs and loving how fast they felt, I decided to see how they'd hold up over 21k. In short, they were brilliant. They felt magic. Part of me would like to test them over a marathon too, but I think I might need a bit more support for the full 42. 

Yesterday I ran a local 3k fun run (the Leonay Loop) and won it in 10:06. A milestone in my life - my first ever 3k race! Did a 33.6k run today and felt pretty good the whole way. I've been a little worried by the reappearance of some symptoms I had when I was diagnosed with Glandular Fever earlier in the year, so I'm going to the doc this week just to get things checked out.

Melbourne is getting closer and I am desperately hoping everything comes together for it. Having said that, if I go to Melbourne and I don't run a great time at least I will know that (for the first time) I have gone into a marathon totally prepared. I can't ask anything more of myself than that.

NSW Half Marathon Champs at Lake Gillawarna