I shall now probably paraphrase Douglas Adams horribly in an attempt to remember one of my favourite quotes; "I may not have gone where I intended to go but I think I have ended up where I needed to be". It's funny how life can often appear conspiratorial in giving us not perhaps want we want, but very definitely exactly what we need. Following my (possibly inevitable) injury and subsequent London Marathon disappointment, I have been trying to apply the same levels of 'get back on your feet and do what you need to do' determination to my training generally as I was eventually able to find during that race. Since managing to get round the 2015 Manchester 10k, my main focus has been in ensuring I am fit and able to fulfil the commitment I made some months back when I was less injured, to be a 4:45 pacer at the Liverpool Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in a fortnight. Regardless of my injury status, this would anyway have required me to get used to running at a very different pace; 10 minute and 52 second miles by my calculation... as opposed to the 7 and a half or eight minute miles that I have been quite comfortable running at before. |
Now, you might think it's easy enough to 'just slow down' but given that you're using your muscles in a different way, and trying to run in a fashion that probably means changing your natural cadence, stride or even gait, it's not a challenge to be taken lightly and it can be as hard (in different ways) to slow down, as it is to speed up. In addition to this, I have another very good reason for training to run slow. The week after Liverpool, I shall be making my first attempt at running an ultra marathon (TrailBlaster 12), and whilst it might have been a slightly daft idea to agree to these events back to back, I figured when I realised it was technically possible to do both, that a slow paced marathon might actually be pretty good training. I'll have 12 hours to run (or jog, or maybe even walk!) as many laps of a 5km trail as I can, so it's not likely that I'd have been able to sustain my 'usual' pace anyway! Much better to go slower and stay on my feet for the whole twelve hours than bang out 8 minute miles for three hours and then collapse in a heap for the remaining nine. Of course, the two will have very different focuses as at Liverpool it won't just be about me, my legs and my ego, but I shall have to be confident that I can support those runners for whom a 4:45 marathon is a goal for which they have spent months training and agonising for. It was certainly no coincidence then that I felt inspired to jump in and volunteer when my local ParkRun sent round an email looking for a tail runner this week! Perhaps not much in the way of physical training but certainly good to remind me what my purpose should be in that instance. Funnily enough, I got home to discover my number for Liverpool had arrived in the post... What are the chances? |
Of course, underlying all this training intention has been my ongoing recovery from the dreaded ITB prang. I am notoriously rubbish at allowing myself the time and slack in what I perceive my training levels should look like in order to really recover from injury or general wear and tear, so having a reason to run slower than I might usually like to, in that others will be relying on me to run at a pace that suits them is probably exactly what I needed to force myself in to a more sensible approach to ultra training.
Let's face it, what ever the ego may like to believe, I am not about to be discovered as the next character out of Born to Run, nor is Scott Jurek about to pop up with some tasty chia seed confection half way round a wood in Burnley to boost my failing legs and speed me on my way... So I had better take a slightly more sensible approach to preparing for that challenge. And it's funny how your intention can change your perceptions of success. So far, my most 'successful' training run has been ten miles at 10:28 pace. A couple of months ago that might have seemed like a bit of a disaster but in context, that's pretty good going really. And probably exactly what my body needs to really fix the (steadily improving by the way) ITB. Now all I need to do is find another 24 seconds to tack onto those miles and I'll be good to pop out another 16 of them... and then some! |