Things I have learned... #267

[Nigel]

Hi Andy

Very good to see you back. Running has taken a back seat here also. After Stratford, I took a week off before starting to explore the local lanes and footpaths from my new office near Gatwick. There are some good routes, particularly if you are interested in observing commercial aviation - no, actually some pleasant runs towards Charlwood once you get out of the Gregory's Girl filmsets of the Crawley housing estates.

Nevertheless, I felt more than a bit sore and a good deal more jaded for a solid six weeks. With Chicago last Autumn and Stratford this Spring, I had been in almost continuous marathon training for 11 months, so it shouldn't have surprised me. It was only really when work got hectic for a couple of weeks just recently that it forced me to back right off enough to make it comfortable and enjoyable again now.

I see you're on the Intermediate I this time round, so good luck. Sadly, I never did satisfactorily crack the back-to-back weekend runs. Hal says that if you can run a 20 miler when tired, the race itself will be easy. He's obviously right, but I just wasn't up to it, so instead I ran one of my mid-week runs as a tempo run. That worked brilliantly, for getting half marathon PBs at least, and to get me into the form for giving the marathon a good crack.

Along the way, I learned a couple of lessons. Firstly, to minimise racing whilst training, because whilst enormous fun and great for confidence, each time it cost me 2-3 weeks of mental and physical recovery. And to get more rest and have more fun when I run. It is great to be in shape, (some of the time) and I probably run faster than I would have done if I could have been bothered to do so 20 years ago, but there is so much more going on now and I need to refresh more mentally and physically. That's me, anyway.

It is very hard to train below marathon pace, and very easy to train all the time at marathon pace or faster, and get knackered in the process. It is easy to rack up the mileage just for the masochistic pleasure of it. I was proud of my 51 mile week, but why, when I was running more slowly? I'd have done better to ensure two rest days after each of the 12+ milers late in the programme, and to leave the watch at home when training. To run SLOW, and save the mental energy and excitement for race day. Actually, if you read Hal's stuff, you find all of this is in there. These are just the bits I always selectively chose to ignore.

So, no more marathons for the forseeable. I will keep running, if only to shift this stubborn half stone which has reappeared since Stratford. I'm looking forward to the Great North Run, which will be another of life's experiences. Looking back on this adventure, I see the locals clapping politely with their Pimms around the maypole in Welford, whooping crowds and skyline views in Downtown Chicago, and a green Macmillan board with my name on it waving wildly outside the Tower of London. And that's not to mention over 100 London traffic lights all run on red in the same day. It's been fantastic, and I'm not going to give it up now.

Kind regards

Nigel

[El Gordo]

Nigel

Hurrah! And a big welcome back to you too.

Great message, and some really interesting points. I'd better not write more as my wife has been celebrating my birthday, and I thought I'd better have a few drinks just to keep her happy. If I start being earnest now I'll regret it.

More tomorrow.

Andy

[Liz]

Originally posted by Nigel
To run SLOW, and save the mental energy and excitement for race day.

Some days I find that easy, but that might be the 99 degree weather we had last week! Very interesting points actually, Nigel. Thanks

and

Happy Birthday Andy.

Such a drag that you need to drink to keep your wife happy, but I guess you have no choice. These things just have to be done.

[El Gordo]

Liz - thanks for being so understanding. Not everyone would have seen it like that.

Nigel - my wife's family is from Crawley. I don't think it's so bad really, and close to some good countryside and village pubs. But I've got to get pubs out of my mind for a while after a couple of lost evenings.

Anyway, good to see you back. I'd wondered where you'd gone, though I decided that the trauma of relegation might have played some part in your subduedness.

I'm giving the Intermediate schedule a go, yes. I won't mince words: I'm just as crap a runner now as I was a year or so ago. There are plenty of obvious reasons for this though top of the list is that I just do not do enough miles. I'm much less unfit than I used to be, but I still don't feel in shape, and I still don't have enough stamina and endurance. I don't think I'm in danger of becoming a mileage junkie, but I do need to ramp it up a bit, and I need to pay more attention to the type of runs I do. I've had the odd attempt to do speed sessions and fartleks, but never taken them too seriously. Decided that following a new training programme might just give me some fresh impetus.

The two weekend runs are a bit of a surprise though I'm sort of glad they're there because previously, on the Novice schedule, with rest days on Friday and Monday and a cross-training day on Saturday (=walking to the pub), I found that each week there was a 4 day period with just 1 run in it - albeit a long one. I'll see how I go, though I admit that the thought of doing two long runs in two days, which is how it seems to quickly develop, is daunting. I'll play it by ear but like you, I suspect I might have to make an adjustment somewhere.

Interesting what you say about racing and training. The normal advice is that racing is good for preparation but you make a good point about mental recovery. The more I learn about running the more I feel that the mental side of things is underestimated. I can't believe how emotional an experience a marathon is. Not just the few hundred yards before the finish, and the post-race hugs (though they are certainly the epicentre), but for the days leading up to the race and, particularly, the week or two that follow. Perhaps it's longer than that. Half marathons are much less so, but yes, they still use up a lot of emotional energy, and this energy and appetite has to be rediscovered somehow.

I hadn't considered doing without the races in training, but I may do next time round. I'm already committed to doing the GNR, GSR and Bristol Half not long before the big day in Dublin, but you've given me food for thought. I will still definitely do them (injuries permitting) but I'll take note of whether they seem to help or hinder, and perhaps next time I'll do things differently.

As for having "fun" while running, I must admit to having trouble here. I keep reading advice to runners and lists of dos and don'ts which always end up with an earnest: "And remember to have fun!!"

And I always think, OK, that sounds great but tell me - HOW do I have fun?! OK, I'm being a bit difficult here. I think I know what people mean, but I also think that I need to be better at it and improve my endurance before I can really enjoy it fully. But I'm working on that one.

The point about marathon pace was also interesting as it suggests that your marathon pace is faster than your training pace. I'm the opposite. Race pace for 10Ks is definitely faster than training, but the two marathons I've done have both been horribly slow just because the sheer length of the things reduced the overall average by the time I got over the finish line.

But I agree totally with the point about the importance of rest. Sometimes on the RW forums and elsewhere you see people proudly mentioning that they've run every day for two weeks or whatever, and I just think they're bonkers. As Hal constantly says: overtraining is far worse than undertraining.

Leaving the watch at home always sounds like a great idea, and it's the sort of thing I can hear myself saying if a complete novice asks for some advice, but I find it a difficult thing to do. Damn it all, I think I'm going to try it. Why should it be so difficult? Sometimes we tell ourselves that we can't do things - even simple things like not wearing a watch. If running a marathon teaches someone like me anything at all, it's that preconceptions can be not just challenged but overcome if they're confronted in the right way. OK, I'll go with that one.

You're right to decide on a break from marathons. While I sometimes enter this kind of smug reverie where I see myself completing a succession of marathons on something like a Pathé news clip --- y'know, where the film is overlaid with a calendar with the pages being ripped off month by month --- the reality is that a marathon is too big a thing to become a monthly or even a three-times-yearly experience. Even two marathons a year means you're in semi-permanent marathon training mode. It's too much really, though yes, of course I've thought about doing FLM next year....

All things considered, I think one marathon a year is probably about right for me. Chicago is now far enough for me to feel enthusiastic about training again. It's also long enough for me to have forgotten the pain of it.

If you fancy a marathon of a different sort, try reading Lore of Running by Noakes sometime. It's 900-odd pages of detailed physiological and psychological analysis. Covers pretty much everything to do with running, and despite being a 'scientific' tome is quite good humoured and very accessible.

Must get back to work.

Hope you stick around, Nigel, marathons or not. I'll mail you about a run sometime.