What a scorcher of a week! It's been all shorts and sunnies on school nights; running each evening in brilliant October sunshine. Another healthy training week has been had leading to yesterday's tentative return to racing. It was a painful day out for this Runningbear.
I've been putting it off for weeks but slowly ran out of excuses and just had to face up to the racing facts; I'm a slow and slobby Runningsnail. Yesterday was when the truth hit home at the Northern Athletics XC relays. The event was a confusing mixture of County Vets and Northern open teams - a fact only announced this week which led to a last minute kerfuffle and Bingley ladies scraping just one team in the V35 category. The boys (including M) had a fine V40 team also competing in the Yorkshire Vets Champs.
The event at Graves Park, Sheffield was my first effort at jumping back on the racing horse after a rubbish summer of injury and eating too much pie. It was also a rather long drive for the sake of a 2 mile race. Yes you read that right; a 2 mile race! I've never run such a short race as a grown up. The one lap route seemed to involve one very very long hill with a bit of downhill at the start and finish. This course really should be reserved for youngsters only... I'm still coming to terms with how slow I was. We finished second V35 ladies and won a small silver & plastic thingy. M's team mirrored our success as second V40 team, stealing Steve's prize (had he been running for a Yorkshire club!). Results here.
It's a funny thing coming back from injury. Though in my head I know I'm off my best and the racing is about getting fitness back, I still walk away from these things torturing myself about my crap time/position/pace. It's daft I know but hard to change the internal hand wringing. I'm now trying to deftly convert this said mental torture energy into Runningbear rocket fuel. I've some way to go before race fitness returns and remain a flabby, untrained Runningsnail with a soft underbelly. I've yet to build back the roughty-toughty shell that grows with the grit of some hard racing. So the adventures of Runningsnail continue for now... it's race #2 at the Ampleforth 7M next week. Wish me luck!
This week in trainers...
| DAY | AM | PM |
|---|---|---|
| MONDAY | REST | 8M @ EASY |
| TUESDAY | REST | INTERVALS: 12X400M |
| WEDNESDAY | REST | MID LONG RUN: 12M @ STEADY |
| THURSDAY | REST | 8M @ STEADY |
| FRIDAY | REST | 4M @ RECOVERY |
| SATURDAY | RACE: 2M YVXC RELAY | 5M @ EASY |
| SUNDAY | LONG RUN: 18M @ STEADY | REST |
| WEEKLY TOTAL | 70 MILES |
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4 comments:
good to hear you're getting back to 'racing', like you say it's all good training. don't be too hard on yourself :)
long way to go yet on your journey..ampleforth wil be lovely..nearly went to school there
It can be a shock returning to racing after a long period out. I don't think you can train for race fitness without doing some races. You have to sometimes see them as training events and not punish yourself too much about time and position.
Good luck for next week.
What do you mean Runningsnail? Having looked at the results I reckon you're running brilliantly again. None of the other V35 women at Graves Park ran as fast as you. Well done!
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