After Berlin Marathon didn’t go the way I wanted, last year, I had the option of jumping into Frankfurt Marathon 6 weeks later. I declined. My body and mind would need a rest, I thought. How was I to keep up the intensity/ motivation for another 6 weeks?
I tried to think like Eliud Kipchoge, I would be all zen like him. Bide my time, stick to the plan. Wait, patiently, until my next scheduled marathon.
That approach lasted a week. After 6 days of no running, I jumped straight into a half marathon. Two weeks later, I ran a race on Saturday AND a marathon on the Sunday. The week after that, I raced another half, and then, 2 weeks after that, another marathon. Plan. Out. Window.
Not very Eliud Kipchoge then.
I realised more fully, the power of the mind. My body WAS tired, probably could have done with a rest. But my mind was hungry, furious, insatiable. It was easier just to do what it said. I couldn’t rest until my mind found peace. It drove me nuts. I could have easily bridged the gap to Frankfurt Marathon.
You are the most complex thing on the planet, and you can’t even set the clock on your microwave. Don’t over-estimate your self-knowledge – Jordan Peterson
You are too complex to understand yourself. Everything you value is a product of unimaginably lengthy developmental processes, personal, cultural and biological. You don’t understand how what you want, is conditioned by the immense, abysmal, profound past. You simply don’t understand how every neural circuit through which you peer at the world has been shaped (painfully) by the ethical aims of millions of years of human ancestors and all of the life that was lived for the billions of years before that. You don’t understand anything.
(the above paragraph, also Peterson)
So I don’t understand anything. But what I am realising is this. You can change and improve so much, but you also have to accept who you are. Work with that, rather than pretend to be someone else.
My mind is not very good at offering up specifics of what is good enough. But it gets very vociferous in telling me what isn’t. When something isn’t good enough then woe betide me. Brighton Marathon was not good enough (read post here). So this time, rather than do the sensible thing, I will do the me thing. And go headlong for London Marathon, all guns blazing.
I am driven and motivated and inspired and excited and hungry for another shot.
But I have pulled my calf.
I stick to easy easy running week 1. I believe easy running is better for the body than complete rest. I get good nights sleeps. I eat lots of foods rich in iron, vitamins and protein.
Saturday morning is a beautiful morning for track. I invent a session to let my calf warm up, and see where it is. 2 miles, 1 mile, 800m, 400m (lap jog rest), all at a comfortable, gradually increasing pace. The 2 mile rep goes brill. The 1 mile rep doesn’t. I pull out of the 800m rep.
I am worried. My calf has flared up again. I have set it back. Now it feels like a brick. And now I have one week.
I don’t admit to anyone, or myself, the situation. I am doing the race anyway, so might as well stay positive.
I can do this I can do this I can do this
Stay cool honey bunny
I repeat these mantras all through the week. I run on my treadmill every morning, with jogging bottoms on, to get the legs warm and sweaty and safe. By the start of the week I can run 7min miles with zero pain. By the end of the week I can run 6min miles just as safely. No testing. My calf has recovered as well as it can within the given timeframe.
Race report to follow.
Non-Running Related Highlight Of The Week
Monday night we are woken by bush fires, right outside our house. 20 of our neighbours are evacuated and we are on standby. 30+ firefighters are on our street battling the flames, when I decide this is the time to step up and show everyone my incredible superpower: I sleep soundly through the night.
Also, it’s Jim’s Birthday on Thursday, and I take him to see the new Dumbo with El. It is brilliant, highly recommend!
Best Thing On The Internet This Week
Latest drone runner video
Thing I’m Digging This Week
so funny, and reminds me of me (cos I’m funny too, not in real life)
https://youtu.be/gD-yffxKvMM
| 15/4/2019 | AM | PM |
| Monday | REST | REST |
| Tuesday | 3 | Drive to Wales |
| Wednesday | 6 | REST |
| Thursday | 6 | REST |
| Friday | REST | REST |
| Saturday | 2 miles @ 5.15 pace. 1 mile @5.00 pace. 7 miles total | REST |
| calf tightens up on mile rep. have to abort session | ||
| Sunday | 10tm @ 7min miling | REST |
| calf warms up and feels good at that pace | ||
| TOTAL: | 32 miles | tm = treadmill |
| 22/4/2019 | AM | PM |
| Monday | 4tm @7min miling | REST |
| R. hamstring tight from protecting calf. Wildfires in Blaenau | ||
| Tuesday | 4tm @ 6.50 miling | REST |
| Fires all day, roads closed | ||
| Wednesday | 4tm @ 6.50 miling | REST |
| Thursday | 4tm @ 6.30 miling | REST |
| Friday | 4tm @ 6min miling | Drive to London with dad |
| Saturday | 2 | REST |
| Sunday | London Marathon – 2.35.49. 27 miles total | REST |
| TOTAL: | 49 miles | tm = treadmill |
These are the sweatpants I was wearing to keep my legs warm and relaxed. Supremely comfortable but also move really well at 6min miling. Check out the On range here
I did my treadmill runs on the Noble Pro Elite 8.0. Powerful machines, quiet and smooth. Check em out here
When is your book coming out?