|
RE: The Great Leveller
Good points well made, CC.
I too have noticed the leveller effect. In my early days of running (15+ years ago) I took part in quite a few 10K events. I remember eyeing up the opposition before the start, thinking "I know I'm in bad shape, but at least I'm not that bad". 40 minutes later said apparent no-hoper would be burning me off in the final few Ks. This was a lesson learned early on.
Luke and I were water-stationing today at the Windsor trail half+full - a quirky little small-field event on the Thames towpath. There seemed to be no correlation between external appearance and race position.
I too miss the trivia of how everyone's training is going. This is a community that has carried me through all sorts of struggles. Some really dark, hairy moments. (You know what I'm talking about). I think it's fair to say that at any given time, more of us are crock than used to be the case. So things are always going to be a bit quieter. I'm in a little bit of a post-marathon furlough / back to school reality check right now, but I will try and post a little weekly something, assuming I get back to running once a week. Actually the most exciting running news today is that Naomi (12), having recently come 5th last in the school cross country, is going out for a run at 6.30am tomorrow. Run free is all very well, but I've shown her how to use the Garmin. Extrinsic motivation and all that.
But back to running free. Running is largely a psychological battle. Physically, it doesn't make that much difference to your training whether you run 10 miles or 12. (Although if you're preparing for a race, it helps to measure yourself against the set distance.) There's no reason why we shouldn't just take a rough note of time on feet to check that we're moving in right direction as the weeks go by.
Keep us posted.
|
