It seems it's all the rage to turn up to races massively undertrained, unfit and unprepared, and rely on adrenaline, heart and determination to get you across the line. I don't think like that. I've done some races where I've been woefully undertrained, and I've done some where I've trained well, and unsurprisingly I greatly prefer the latter. You have to respect the distance in a race, especially if it's more than in your normal capacity. I haven't got enough base fitness and training in me to be able to just rock up to a race and cross the line in a respectable time regardless - and, for me, the voices inside my head will be on a negative from the outset, and it becomes a period of miserable self-recriminations and frustration. I resolved this year to try and not do that any more. And as such - with a small pathetic fanfare to herald this news - I made the decision a couple of days ago to back out of my place in the Clyde Stride relay team. :-(
The 4 mile hill run I did in Perth last week was promising, but slow (walked a lot of it) and I was exhausted when I finished, and I'd only managed 4km the day before - my leg of the CS40 relay in 3 weeks' time would have been 10 miles, on trail, with hills, on a route I've not had chance to recce yet, and the prospect of knowing I have to do that has been weighing very heavily on me for weeks. My sleep has been poor, my anxiety levels have increased, and I'm fairly confident that my stress about CS40 was one of the reasons I let my poor run at Tollcross parkrun get to me so much. Since making that decision, and talking to a couple of friends about it, it feels like a weight has been lifted. I hate that I'm letting my team down, but hopefully they'll find someone to take my place quickly; they're a fantastic group of people, and I'll find a way to make it up to them.
It's solidified one thought in my mind, crystal clear and unbreakable: I'll be as ready as I possibly can be for the Southside Six race. It's 8 weeks away, and I WILL get round that 16 mile route quicker than last year's miseryfest, and with a smile on my face by the end. And that means the training is picking up now. I've not ran ANY training runs of more than 5 miles in 2014, so I need to structure my training properly, but it needs to be supplemented with improved fitness, and a bit of weightloss. I returned to the gym yesterday, after a 5+ week absence, and I was put through my paces somewhat with some great circuits, using things like kettlebells, barbell, rowing machine, TRX equipment, and Bosu, as well as some core work - and a sweaty 10+ minutes of boxing pad-work at the end. I felt pretty good as I left: I'll be making the gym more of a regular thing over the winter, and match cardio work, resistance work, and better nutrition, to the fullest effect I can. I've been looking up healthy recipes for the slow cooker, and planning out how to survive the winter dark months without comfort eating junk. Soups and stews are the way forward! x
Good decisions all round Sarah :-) I'm glad that you have taken the pressure off yourself and can now concentrate on the Southside Side Six which I'm very excited to be doing with you this year. You have achieved a lot this year my friend. Your recent challenge was very inspiring - so much so, that my sister started hers this week and is up to day four and four minutes.
ReplyDeleteAs sleep is the foundation of how our immune system works, and our immune system is what rebuilds our bodies for strength and aerobic fitness in response to training. If you are struggling to sleep you'll also be struggling to maintain fitness let alone build upon it.
ReplyDeleteIt then follows that if you aren't fit enough, and loosing sleep over it, you aren't magically going to be able to fix this and suddenly become fit enough to race. Burning the candle at both ends never ends well. So... it sounds like to me you have made a very sensible decision.
This gives you an opportunity which you have to take. Get your sleep back on track. Manage stress the best you can, either by avoiding it, or when it happens make sure you can de-stress quickly afterwards. Make sure you don't opt for cakes as a de-stressor, as you just know that it'll cause you more stress afterwards :-)
Hearty soups and stews healthy comfort foods, actually just thinking about it now makes me wonder if a strew might make a tempting ultra food... Soups and stews are the most healthy way to eat meat as all the important nutrients in the juices that would normally drip off/drain away are kept in the broth, and also the temperature is never so high as to burn the fats and proteins in a way that can render a toxic (same happens with over heated vegetable oils.)
As for maximum run length. I have a general rule that if I am able to run as many miles each week as my target race then I usually get on just fine. So for the RAW that is coming averaging 41 miles a week for the training is plenty enough. For the WHWR the closest I averaged was 60 miles weeks and still finished just fine, so even beyond under the doesn't seem that critical.
What is important is consistent mileage, so when you did your running streak of adding 1 minute of running more each day was actually a really good example of what you are capable of when you put your mind to it. You needn't add a minute every day or even run continuously, but getting out most days of the week to do half an hour of run/walking would be plenty for building the aerobic fitness and resilience to run the 16 miles. Doing longer run/walks once a week isn't critical but will help with confidence.
As you are doing support this weekend at the Glenmore 24 and have the idea of running a loop, you could challenge yourself to run/walk it twice, once on the Saturday afternoon and once on the Sunday morning. An even bigger challenge would be to do a double where you go round twice in one day, but keep the run/walks separated by time for you to recover. Most elite endurance runners use doubles so you'd be in good company, splitting the mileage actually provides a pretty similar stimulus for building fitness as doing all the mileage in one go, but it's less stressful on the body.
Best of luck.