I had a little down-time over the past few days, and one of the things I did was catch up on the WHW race podcasts, that John Kynaston produces. I tend to sort of forget about them for a few months, then listen to loads in a row, so I'd missed quite a few, and it was entertaining catching up. Amanda, who I'm crewing for this year, is one of the small group of WHW Race First Timers that John is interviewing on the run-up (sorry) to the event, so I caught up with her latest interview. All was going well, then John brought up the subject of crew, gear, etc. Amanda mentioned having a good crew you can trust (eeep) and then said something along the lines of "...so I hope their training is going well..." - .....ah.
Right. Yeah. Training. See, currently, I can't really much run the length of m'self. :-) Plans are afoot, and indeed, mindsets are well are truly being put in the right place, but it's early days, and I'd kind of put the WHW Race to the back of my mind. I don't know if Amanda will want me to run any of it with her, she's picked a group of very good runners as part of her support crew, but it all comes down to what she wants. Realistically within reason, of course, because if she asks me to run 20 miles with her, well that just ain't happenening!!! lol! But anyway, regardless of whatever plans get put in place, anything could happen on the day itself, you just don't know, and I want to be as fit and ready as I possibly can be, for her.
So that changes my plans a tiny bit - not much, but just enough to make sure I take my own preparation for this race with the seriousness it deserves! It's just under 12 weeks until the Edinburgh half marathon, so I'm following a 12 week training plan that started today (based, in the main, around a Hal Higdon plan), and once the HM is done, all I need to do is stay on top of whatever fitness I've built, and do some trail runs. In fact, I'll have to do some trail runs before the HM, but that's fine, I'll factor it in.
I'm at a proper 'starting position' today, regardless of the last few blog posts I've made; I've decided to stop beating myself up about losing whatever fitness I had, as well as losing the plot completely mentally at the end of 2013 into the beginning of 2014, because really, what's to be gained by looking backwards?! nothing. Time to look forwards. I ran at parkrun on Saturday, a really hilly 5km, and finished last in 41:30 - a dismal time by almost anyone's standards, but pretty similar to all of my times in 2014 so far. No real improvement there - except for one thing. NO beating myself up during the run. No negativity, just get on with it. I told myself: "If you have to walk, walk briskly, but don't worry, because we're going to crack this 'having to walk' nonsense this year." And, yes, I did walk - quite a few times (it's a really hilly course, lol) - but it felt different to the last few runs. I was just out there, in the sunshine, getting started with my running goals for 2014. It was the 1st of March, and I was finally starting 2014 the way I wanted..! :-) I had a swim yesterday, surprised to find my calves and quads complaining about Saturday's run (I forget how little I've done recently), and later a slow walk around a local park in the afternoon drizzle. This morning I got up early and had a short run before work. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't good, but I did it. The morning's are starting to get lighter, my frame of mind is shifting, I have a great 12 week plan (running, strength work, swimming), and I have an incredible year about to unfold in front of me. x
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