A Different Feeling

I don't really like to gush, It’s been a bit of an amazing week so I thought I’d better blog about it before I forget. It’s been one of those weeks that make all the training worthwhile. Everything I’ve set out to do in the key sessions, I’ve nailed on target.

Tuesday – Ran in the squad session doing 5 x loops of Allerton Towers. This is an off-road loop of just under a mile with plenty of varying terrain of path, tarmac, grass and slopes. I’d never done it before and was glad when we did a warm-up lap to scope the course. We split into two groups, with group 1 going off 30 seconds before group 2 and swapping after three reps. I was in group 2. We set off on the first loop and I was in the middle of the group. I thought to myself “you know what your threshold pace is so play around with that”. I focused on that feeling and found I was passing people. Then I found myself at the front of group 2. I kept going expecting one of the fitter members to shoot past me, but no one did. Of the course of the coming reps I kept finding myself at the front and enjoying the feeling, in fact I was in danger of picking off a runner or the at the back of group 1. The penultimate rep saw two of the fast runners shoot past me, but I didn’t let it faze me, just chased the vest down as my coach has been telling me to do. The final rep was great, I could feel one or two people just behind me, and so the race was on. I clinched it at the end, and wanted to vomit up my lungs, but it was great. I was in control of myself all the way around.

Thursday – Against my better judgement (well actually to try out my trail shoes before Thunder Run), I did the Devil’s Gallop. It’s a 9-mile Run with a “race” section along the beach for about 2.5 miles. With the mud and Mersey obstacles it can be brutal, and the couple of times I’d done it previously I’d had a bit of a mare. I suppose you could sum them up as “complete loss of balls”. But you can’t change things unless you try so I gave it a go. The first half of the run is flat and goes round the outside of Liverpool Airport, I was running with a fellow squad member - It wasn’t stated explicitly but between us we took the pace up just a tad. My plan had called for 3x10mins of Threshold so this suited me to a T – I was getting the best of both worlds. As we were running along I noticed something was amiss. Then I realised I wasn’t breathing hard. In that moment I realised that all the training was working and I’m in the process of building something good. Chatting to Marty, he commented that I seem to drop off at the beach section on this run. It’s because I’m like “Bambi on Ice”. When we got to the beach, I started steadily, after a couple of hundred meters I realised I should be taking it up and so I gradually worked through the field. Before long I was on Marty’s shoulder at the front. I realised it was a good place to be as I could see here he put his foot and so I was sure to get a good footing. We carried on together until the last section, where I make some disastrous foot placing errors. Marty pulled away slightly but I kept on fighting and trying to pull him back. I came in second, looking like swamp thing, but a world away from previously Gallop performances.

The best (and probably most pretentious) way I could describe the run was that I ran with Heart. I didn’t allow anything to affect me and I kept going no matter what, something that I’d also managed to do on the Tuesday. It made such a big difference to my performance. So maybe it’s the way forward.

Sunday – Long run day. 1:45 run with the last 20 minutes at threshold. I was joined by squad mate Colin and the plan was to do 8 min miles round and drop it to about 7 for the final section. For some unknown reason I hadn’t expect it to be raining, but it was absolutely hissing it down when I left the house. I was conscious that we needed to keep the pace steady; it would be do easy to drop to 7:40s and suffer for it when trying to take the pace up. I’m pleased to say we hit it spot on, and it was good to have each other keeping a check on the pace. When we turned onto the Promenade to head to the finish and the Gale of wind hit our faces. It was annoying but I thought to myself “There’s nothing you can do about it now”. When the time came to take the pace up, it was a hard battle, but I kept at it. I didn’t look at my watch on purpose as I didn’t want adrenaline rushes at that stage. I had one little mental wobble near the Britannia, but I saw it for what it was – unhelpful and of no relevance to what I was currently doing. I kept going and finished outside Eaglet. It was a great run all round, and I liked the gradual increased in speed over the last three miles. I think this was because I got used to running in the wind and was getting better at “blocking it out”.

So it’s been a great week, it feels like I’ve justified the training to myself as this week has proved it’s obviously worked. I’m able to work harder and for longer and I’m excited to move on to the next stage of the journey.

My coach said something to me this week which has become my new Mantra when running.

“No More Drama”

I'm here to race, nothing else.