The week started in the glow of the London marathon, checking the results for familiar names, even if there was a running commentary on Facebook as each Huncote Harrier came home on Sunday afternoon… And though it may sound like a cliché, they truly were all great, some completing their first marathon, most posting a PB and in some cases smashing their previous times by 10′ or more! I wish I could mention them all with the superlatives each and every one deserves, but with 35 runners from the club running, you will understand it would far exceed the scope of this humble blog!
I will mention two names though, Andy Wilford who proved exactly how much he has improved in the past year or so by making it round in a brilliant 3h 15′ 24” and Julie West who also brought her PB down by over 10′ finishing in an impressive 3h 37′ 10”!
For someone who is at the start of the road to his next marathon (my marathon-specific training is not due to start till July), such results can at the same time be an incredibly motivational force (proof of what hard training and dedication can do) and fill you with dispair as you see your training partners get ever faster with every race and leave you with all to do just to keep up! And a 16 – 20 week training programme is a long time to try keep up!
Which of the two (motivation or dispair) affects you more at any one time has to do, I suppose, with your particular frame of mind, how your training is progressing etc: And I’m in a grumpy mood today, and the road to Athens seems long and arduous and the whole idea a bit of a fool’s errand…
I’ve spent the week trying to keep on top of my running, while doing some research on different training programmes to see which one suits me best and what a realistic target time would be… and I’m tired just thinking about it! It’s been one of those weeks I suppose, workouts I can normally see through and feel strong leave me hurting and out of breath; as for the idea of running a marathon, never mind at the pace most online calculators tell me I should be aiming for… no thanks!
That’s the downside about experience… you don’t have to imagine how hard training for and running a marathon is, you know it!
So what’s a runner to do? Rest I suppose… Concentrate on the key workouts for the rest of this week and next and cross-train as much as possible to give those legs a chance to recover. And mentally? Nothing: Such ebbs and flows in mood are as much a part of marathon training as the rythmic sound of footsteps on tarmac. Training will improve, I’ll be pleased with a race I do between now and then and my moods should pick up in no time!
Running the Marathon. Again. 