Children of the Revolution

Not a great deal to talk about with regard to my training this last week. Having started the year with three solid training weeks, I decided I needed to spend a week recovering and repairing, which is exactly what I have done. Simply running three times, all around 4 miles, at a nice easy pace. I feel much refreshed and ready to start the next three week cycle of training which will be an easy week, a medium week and finally, in the half term holidays, a hard week to include the biggest test so far; running from Balmaha to Tyndrum. Last year I did this run in about 6:15 hours but will be happy with something in the region of 7:00 hours, with the number one priority of being in one piece at the finish.

I thought  would take a little time to tell you about my growing stable of athletes I am advising/coaching. The names of the innocent have been protected!

Everone has their own special needs, each a particular characteristic and each sits on a different step of the running ladder. Take S, she started running simply for the health benefits but after a while the lure of a proper race proved too great. She needed a simple plan to gradually increase her distances but also build some confidence. P is the adrenaline runner; he used to just hammer every run, which got him into good shape and made him competitive in lots of races but he really wanted to get that little bit more and focus on a few specific races. We have now got him having a purpose for each run, more variety in his training and some time to recover and regroup. He is a very experienced runner and really just needs someone to suggest what he already knows!

Now we come to the dynamic duo. These guys have ended up training together but, again, approach things from very different angles. Firstly, A is methodical planner. He has been training well, with a correctly structured week, the problem being that he did the same basic stuff, week after week. What we have done is build a plan for the year (on a spreadsheet, of course), targeting a number of races, peaking for his main target of an off-road marathon later in the year. This is the first time he has had a periodised training plan and, interestingly, he is finding that he may be getting too fit too soon, I think due to the built-in recovery periods which he has not used before. We are going to leave the plan as it is for the next month and then review things. Then finally, there is S. He is relatively new to running, like a puppy with a toy. His enthusiasm is catching but, again, he needs to be warned about hammering training too often. He is following the same basic plan as A, simply because they do most of their training together. S is at the point where he is making rapid gains in his performances, which is obviously great for his confidence, but his area for improvement is pacing, in both training and racing. I am sure that he will boss this as he gains more experience. On the plus side, this guy knows how to push himself; open the hurt box and climb inside!

I'm really enjoying giving advice to these runners and, in fact, nudge a number of others in the right direction, whether it be training, racing, kit, shoes, nutrition, etc. It probably benefits my training and racing too as it makes you spend a little more time analysing things which you may otherwise take for granted.

Finished off the week with a visit to The Revolution cycling event at Manchester Velodrome. What a fantastic evening. Three hours of non-stop entertainment, including some of the world's top ranked cyclists, like Sir Chris Hoy. They look fast on the TV, but it is a sight to behold in the actual stadium with 17,000 spectators cheering on. I have put together a short video of the races, however, you'll have to forgive the quality of the shots as it was done with my phone and they just move too bloody fast.

A good time to be snotty

For once, the winter's cold has come at the perfect time. As anyone who works in a school knows; if it's going around, you're going to get it! I usually get a cold at some point over the winter and it often arrives when I'm in full training, just got the whole rhythm sorted, weekends away planned, etc, and everything gets kiboshed as I wollow in the self pity of man-flu. This year, I seem to have done my stint early (over the last week) and will hopefully build up some immunity for the rest of the winter. I actually lost my voice completely on Thursday and Friday last week, which makes being a PE teacher a bit difficult, but we somehow got through despite my voice tone wavering like a pubescent 14 year old.

Things are moving forward again on the training front. Despite having no voice, I didn't feel particularly ill, so on Friday last week I made my most significant foray on the trails post op. Doesn't sound much, but I did 3 miles in the woods below Latrigg fell, walking for 4 minutes, jogging for 1 minute. I had running kit on and used my headtorch for the first time this winter and I can't begin to tell you how good it felt to be out there doing it again. My favorite running is at night, off-road with a headtorch. I love just being out there, total solitude, just the cone of light and the sound of my breathing and footfalls - it's about as close to a Zen thing as I get anyway. During the winter, all my mid-week training is done like this. I walk to work with my kit in a small rucksack, get changes into running kit after work, jog the mile home as a warm-up, dump the rucksack in the hallway, turn straight round without thinking about the sofa and do the training session. (Always off-road, always in the dark)

I saw the physio again this morning. She suggested that I am now at the stage where only I can tell what I should and should't be doing. Don't know whether that is a good or bad thing!? So far I have been told what to do by the experts and now she is expecting me to make rational decisions. Is she mad? Anyway, I thought I would try 3 sessions over the next week where I cover about 3 miles doing 2 mins walk, 2 mins run and see how that feels. The physio said that sounds about right but I must mix that up with some simple plyometrics (that's skipping to you) to increase the power of the calf muscle.

It has been interesting how more and more of each physio session has been about core stability. She got me to do a series of exercises whilst I held my pelvis so I could feel how much it moved about. I thought I had quite good core stability, but this illustrated some deep failings. My abdominal muscles are fine, it's what lies beneath that needs sorting. It's not called CORE stability for nothing!! I had the typical runners attitude, it was all a bit blah blah blah to me, then she said "This will make you a much more economical runner". At this point, I sat up and started listening. I'm really going to try and incorporate this into my training, even once I'm running again.

My next target has to be a proper run, something in the region of 3 miles, without any walking. Once I can do that, I think I will feel that I am then in a position of training rather than recovering. Looking at the blog title; I'll be going into the "beyond" bit! I think I'm looking at round about two weeks from now to try that, but again, there is no need to rush things.

Finally, I have been thinking about next year a lot and have decided the major races I will target. (Even entered some of them) I will reveal all in the next post.