So I ran my marathon PB in November and then I rested and rested and took it easy a bit too much for a bit too long! I put on a couple of kgs that were extra on extra, I lost fitness and got a cold. A year ago I used to run my mile repeats at less than 1.50′ per lap, now I am lucky if I can do my 500m intervals at that speed, feeling as if I have been beaten up after my training. Obviously I haven’t registered for any road races at the moment, I can’t run a time that would be anywhere near what I used to do, that would be depressing. Plus I don’t want to run the same races I’ve been running for the past 5-6 years. Why not though? After all they are road races, all happening near me, easy to get to and I know what times I should be aiming for. Isn’t this what we are supposed to do? Try to stay as close to our best times for as long as we can? Sure, that’s an honest runner’s motto. But I can’t help but feel that I am ready for something different.
What has changed this year? For the last 8 years, that is most of my running life, I have thought that track training and my times there reflect my ability to run anything from a mile to the marathon. All this time I have been obsessing about my 200m-400m intervals, upsetting myself horribly with my declining times ever since I moved away from London and from my running club. I can’t run 8x400s at the same speed I was when I was being pulled by my teammates. It is awful, it is a shame and it is a fact. However, with my 400m times being 10” up I have still managed an impressive 10km and a huge marathon PB in the last year. I still did my track training and put in the hard work, trained smart (thanks coach) and incorporated lots of pleiometrics in my routine, which seem to have compensated for my slow track times.
So for now I am aiming to slowly get back to some decent shape and while doing so I feel weirdly free. I don’t have to hit my best times, I can’t anyway, but I just need to set realistic goals and slowly try to improve, while having a bit of fun. I’m going through lots of running sites trying to get inspired and set my new goals. Who knows what they might be but I feel it’s time to get my bucket list ready and start ticking things off!
At least she never walked 