Just over a year ago when having a clear out, I was faced with a decision. My guitar was sitting in the corner, unplayed, unloved and out of tune. I had bought it aged 14 but not played for the best part of a decade. I didn’t want to get rid of it but it felt foolish to leave it gathering dust if I wasn’t going to play. So I did. Badly.
For the last four months I have been playing every day and am now at around the same level I was in my late teens. I am improving with regular practice. I rarely go on a four-hour guitar bender like I did when I was 16 but nor do I go a day without playing. It turns out that if you really want to get good at something you just need to be disciplined; all the stuff I tell my students about practice and hard work might actually be true!
I have no problem getting out for runs but have more trouble forcing myself to carry out the other elements of training that are beneficial like stretching, strength and conditioning exercises, sleep. Last week I did two core sessions and a weights session but nowhere near enough stretching. I am going to take the approach I have tried to take with playing guitar; little and often. Setting myself achievable but regular goals is the way forward.
My Week
Monday: AM 10km easy / PM 12km easy (22)
Tuesday: AM 9km easy / PM road session – 4 sets of 1300,800,500 off 75s (27)
Wednesday: 15km easy (15)
Thursday: AM 10km easy / PM 16km progression run 57:33, weights (28)
Friday: rest (0)
Saturday: AM parkrun in 15:39, 6*45s grass hill reps / PM 9km easy (25)
Yesterday I competed for Warwickshire at the inter counties. Although my relatively poor performance on the mud meant that I did not catch up with many people in the literal sense of the phrase, it was great chance to catch up with friends. Tim and I used to run together several times a week when he lived in Birmingham but see each other infrequently these days. As we were both racing we agreed to meet up afterwards, and in the warmth and comfort of a pizza restaurant in Loughborough, caught up, reminisced and talked about mutual friends. Running a race is a good excuse to get together. In fact, the last three times I have met up with Tim have been in running-related circumstances. Some time soon we should meet up without needing to run or watch athletics before hand, just like normal people do.
Less expected, though, was bumping into a runner I knew at university who I had not seen for ten years. Running together at various stages of the race, we exchanged some knowing glances but did not say anything until we crossed the finish line two seconds and two places apart (he won). “I know you” was the best I could come up with. John replied with “you’re Ed Smith.” He got my first name correct. We chatted, moaned about the course, talked about racing plans and exchanged email addresses. Later that evening I looked at my phone to see an email from John, presumably sent from a coach somewhere between Loughborough and Edinburgh, asking how I was and telling me about his plans.
I don’t just run because it is a good outlet for my spare energy or because of the sense of purpose and achievement it gives me; I like the friendships that are forged on the track, the mud and the road. Runners are just about the only people who understand other runners and I have formed some good friendships through this great sport.
My Week
Monday: rest, unwell (0)
Tuesday: rest, unwell (0)
Wednesday: 15km easy (15)
Thursday: AM 10km easy / PM 10km with 2 miles hard (20)
Friday: 7km easy (7)
Saturday: Inter Counties XC, Loughborough – 115th (16)
I have done 51 parkruns now and yesterday was the quickest of the lot. I hadn’t planned a Saturday morning blast but felt good at the start and decided to test myself. Although 15:36 on its own is not a particularly spectacular 5k time and nowhere near my best, I was pleased to run a relatively quick time on tired legs in the middle of a 90 mile week before I had really woken up. My fitness is good at the moment and I am excited for the next couple of races.
My Week
Monday: AM 10km easy / PM 12km easy (22)
Tuesday: AM 10km easy / PM 16km tempo run 56:31 (28)
Wednesday: 17km easy, drills and hurdles (17)
Thursday: AM 9km easy / PM 17km moderate (26)
Friday: rest (0)
Saturday: AM parkrun in 15:36, strides / PM 9km easy (26)
Athletes have a strange tendency to ask ‘what if…’ at the end of a race or competition.
The process of analysing your performance and thinking about everything that you could have done differently doesn’t start the day after the race or even an hour after the race; it starts the moment you cross the finish line. Yesterday my club finished 3rd in the Birmingham League, winning the team race on the day, and I achieved my highest ever Birmingham League position. Or at least, this is how most rationally minded people would look at yesterday’s race. My take on it was slightly different; as I saw it I could have finished much higher on the day if I had judged the course better and not thought we were at the start of the final lap when we were in fact on the charge towards the finish. I could have pushed on much earlier than I did and would have caught the two runners just ahead of me. Not only would this have given me a better result but the team would have scored well enough to make up the measly two point deficit to the club who beat us into 2nd place overall. My competitors were probably creating their own monologues in their heads at the same time.
This way of thinking isn’t just limited to one race though; I do this kind of thing all the time. Last summer I ran a personal best for 5000m and within minutes of crossing the line was considering everything I could have done to break 15 minutes in that race: ‘if only I had pushed on in that 4th kilometre I’d have been on track at the bell’ It amazes me how quickly you forget the pain and discomfort after a race and assume that you could have just pushed a little bit harder, when in reality you were giving everything you could.
This eagerness to analyse performance and adapt accordingly is undoubtedly a trait that enables athletes to improve; it is also the exact same trait that means we are never entirely satisfied with a performace.
My Week
Monday: AM 10km easy / PM 12km easy (22)
Tuesday: AM 10km easy / PM road session – 5 sets of 90s/2:00, strides (27)
Wednesday: 15km easy, drills and hurdles (15)
Thursday: AM 9km easy / PM 10km with 2 miles hard (19)
Friday: rest (0)
Saturday: Birmingham League, Wolverhampton – 12th (15)
I like cross country season. I enjoy the challenge of racing man-to-man over difficult terrain and being unconcerned by the time on the clock. Cross country is endurance racing at its purest and the thing I look forward to most when winter is on its way. But on reflection, it is actually the only thing I look forward to about winter. Now February is here I have well and truly had enough of winter and am looking ahead to track season. I am looking forward to packing the gloves, hats, long sleeved tops, tights and jackets away and not having to dress for an Arctic expedition every time I lace up my trainers. I am looking forward to daylight runs before and after work, to training on grass without having to wear spikes, to lung-busting track sessions that leave me gasping for air, to open meets on warm evenings when everyone is there to run fast, to striding down the canal topwath in a vest and shorts with the sun on my back, to steeplechase, to live athletics on TV, to long days and short nights and to looking forward to every run.
I’ve had enough of winter and can’t wait for summer.
My Week
Monday: 17km easy (17)
Tuesday: AM 10km easy / PM 16km tempo run 56:23, weights (27)
Wednesday: 16km easy, drills and hurdles (16)
Thursday: AM 8km easy / PM hill session – 10*2:30 (29)
Friday: rest (0)
Saturday: 30 min fartlek – 60s on/off, 5*15s hill sprints (17)
