So it was the club 20 mile race this weekend. 8 laps of a course in Victoria Park. I'd made the vow already that I was only going to run 15 of it as part of my training schedule for the marathon. As I'd done 13.1 in the half marathon the weekend before, going to 15 (up by about 10%) was a sensible idea. Some of the more regular runners who are also doing the marathon were going to do the full 20, but despite their attempts to try and convince me, I was stressed after the week and only wanted to stick to feeling comfortable. That, and having done a 9 hour shift in the Marathon shop the day before, my feet were aching.... and the 3 pints I'd had the night before as well had disrupted my sleep. Perfect preparation Stu!
Given the good work of the week in all my other running, I only added to my own tension of having to up the mileage of training via doing this race. Still, I felt good as we set off and I was happy in my mind to have a race plan of 'just making it round'. The first lap or so were ok, and I was joined by a guy alongside me who I hadn't seen for a while, and he wasn't racing either (he'd been on the guinness the night before too!). It was nice to have the presence of someone alongside to push you on but I could definitely feel myself flagging at the end of lap 4. He opted to push on whilst I carried on at a slower pace. By this point I wasn't on it in my head.
The legs felt tired, I didn't want to be there, and I was wishing away the last full lap so that I could focus on doing the half lap to get the miles in and finish. The negative self talk was creeping in. This can be a killer if you're running on your own and you don't have that much motivation.
Though I'm a pretty positive person, when I get negative self talk, it subsumes me. I can get in negative spirals and if I'm not enjoying it, the running can seem too hard and I'm really not enjoying it.
I was down on myself, my fitness, how I need to do more running and other exercise to get myself to a good state for April 26th. In hindsight now, having rested and a few days after the event, I can see how ridiculous this is. Sure, I could do with some more core work and I could have done a few more sessions that for life reasons, I've missed. But hell, think about where I was this time last year. The highs my running and the amount of miles I've done.
Anyhow, I finished. I felt relief but not happiness. I did a short warm down and the legs and all of me felt heavy. In these situations, I just rationalise it that every 9 or 10 runs, you're going to have a bad one. This was just such a case. Having had 2 really good ones (the half marathon being done when I was recovering from food poisoning it turns out), I came crashing back to Earth with a bump. No bad thing. But I've learnt a new technique the last week in Sport Psychology.
In the States a few years ago, after each game a basketball team covered in a season, their coach would do a post match debrief. He called it 'putting the game to bed'. He got all the team to discuss the game. The good points, the bad points, what they could do better next time. Whatever the result.
After everyone had had their say, no more would be discussed on the game and it would be 'put to bed'. This let the team clearly focus on the next game. This week, I re-thought this race. I've rationalised it, written about it. And now, I'm putting it to bed. On to the next run.
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