It seems an eternity since I last blogged. Just recently I’ve been struggling with my running. I feel like my energy and fitness levels are dropping. Since September these levels seem to be getting worse, after I thought things were on the up. Apart from early November when I ran a comfortable half marathon things seem to be on the slide. I’d ran it in 1hour 45minutes, when I thought I could have gone much quicker. I’d planned to run this time and I did. I felt good, I felt confident, I was looking forward to my marathon training, but now I’m getting nervous. The last time I felt at full fitness was the start of October, when I took part in the ‘Chase the Train’ in Norfolk, running the 8.9 mile distance in 1 hour 04 minutes, averaging 7.17min/mile pace. That seems a long time ago now and I hope I can get that level of fitness back. I don’t think I should worry just yet, there’s still time to get it back before April.
The festive sesason is upon us. The months of preparation, Christmas music from early November, the Christmas aisles in the supermarkets seeming to arrive as soon as the barbeques and garden furniture are packed away. It is all leading up to two days, Christmas and Boxing Day. Two days of over indulgence, eating and drinking far too much, then worrying as you are unable to button those jeans you’ve receive as a present.
It’s a time of year where both the food industry and those offering gym membership rub their hands with glee, the gyms knowing that annual memberships can be sold at a discounted rate with the view that many joining with New Year resolutions will soon get bored and fed up. For most of us though this will never happen. We’ve got other things on our mind. We’re running all year long. Exercise is not a chore for use, most of the time we are actively excited about getting out and hit the road. Breaking away from the confines of the office, escaping the restrictions of the 4 walls as they feel they are getting ever so close like a 1960s Batman. The hardest part is actually leaving the house.
The festive season brings with it cold, dark, wet, windy, icy conditions, all that a ‘normal’ person would signify a good enough reason not to venture outside after they’ve got home from work. They are the ones who look at you with a sense of horror when you tell that you’ve been out running in that storm last night. They haven’t caught it. They haven’t caught that bug we have, the ‘Running Bug’ that keeps us active, keeps us going, running mile upon mile in dark nights, knowing that if we can get through the winter the summer will be a time where the benefits will be reaped. The winter is where the hard work is put in. This year is no different, in fact, winter will be a time where I will have ramp up the effort, increase the miles, follow that training plan to the letter and look towards the long term goals, the London Marathon and the Equinox24.
Now like many of my fellow runners, we run to race. We spend most of our weekends racing in cross country, 10k’s and half marathons. We all like to run somewhere different, we all want those finishers medals, we all crave those personal bests. This year will be slightly different. Unlike the past two years, I had a race in my calendar nearly every two weeks, my calendar for 2015 is looking fairly sparse. It’s just the two main ones, the Marathon and Equinox24. I may schedule some more in at some point though, maybe a 20 mile race in somewhere maybe late February or Early March, but I need to focus my energies on these. Sundays will be for the long runs rather than the races. This is where I went wrong at Milton Keynes 2013. I was not ready, I was ill-prepared, I hadn’t done the training I knew I needed. I finished, but not in a time I was particularly happy with. I now know what I need to do for 2015. I’m not going to make the same mistakes again.
myrunningstories 