Crap!
Sums up my morning.
Great to see all the runners out there today. Officially 15 weeks to Gold Coast. Tess brought along my magic drink as well as a disc of MP3s to run with - thanks mate for going out of your way to do that. Cheered me up on the way to the car after my run this morning.
Did a speed session with Pat. Hills today, my favourite. Well it was before today.
Did a nice warmup with the 'First Wave' and got out to the Gardens to find Pat had signs up "RUNNERS AHEAD", a radio going with music and his wife Sue taking photos. With the size of the crowd it really felt like we were about to do a race.
Did the first few hills and was amazed at the difference of making us run a further 200m in the loop. Normally we run around a big tree and then sprint up the hill with a jog back down. Today we kept running, turning at some markers Pat had laid down, then sprinted up the hill from the marker (3 diff markers for 3 diff times to start a sprint depending on capability). I did less hills - about 10/11 where normally I do up to 16 I think - so the longer course was less hilly but I found it tough.
Kept up with Tess for the first 4. On the 4th one I felt her start to kick in and pull away. I stayed with her but couldn't keep it up for too many laps. Maintained a distance of 5m, then 10m, then 20m and finally closed it to 10m on the last lap.
Running up the hill with Pat was really good and so was lapping some of the runners towards the end of the session. But I still felt it was a tough day at the office and really diminished my hopes of what I could acheive at Canberra.
I appreciate that to expect to take 2min of my PB that I got only a few weeks ago is asking a lot. I will still do my best, but after today I won't have any time predictions. I can't afford to get too distressed during the next few speed sessions if I don't feel 100%. I need to focus on each session and give everything I have and then see where it gets me.
3 comments:
Read the last 2 weeks or so - congratulations on the on the half PB the other weekend and she says it was a cruisy training run. What will happen in 18 more sleeps - I suspect another PB in the 10 as well.
Again flaterred to see my name mentioned - but pleased to see you put in a hard section in the run - toughens you up both physically and mentally and you are one tough girl.
My experience is in the last few weeks before an important race and where you have been training hard and long the mind starts to play all types of games. You imagine things that are not true - that is I am getting slow and losing my speed but in fact what you have forgotten is how much you have improved since the start of your training.
A bit like not seeing the trees for the forest - that is have confidence that your training sessions have been done hard and with dedication - if that is true then you must have improved but you just can't make the comparision and so the negative thoughts. Does that make sense??
Can't stop you havingthe negative thoughts but move through them and try to focus of the positives. In the time left there is not much more physically that you can do but there is a lot of mental trianingthat you can and must do so that you arrive at the start in a very positive frame of mind.
Ray
A very tough session this morning. Adding that little bit into the lap seemed to make the reps twice as hard as usual.
But enough of this 'crap' talk! I thought you had a good sess. See what you said about that last rep - you gained 10 meters on me. One more and you would've been back alongside or in front! Betcha the time I was 20 meters in front was the one I had Pat beside me talking about 35k mark of the marathon. Silly me, I thought if I tried really really hard I could get away from him.
I agree with Ray, gotta focus on the positive. You have improved so much from when you joined Pat's. You have done a stack of PBs this year, and its only March! Plenty more to come that's for sure.
Coming from a fairly basic point of view here, Clairie, but you've got to have the down time sometime, better it be this week than the week of your run. I think your preparation has been brilliant, and don't be so hard on yourself.
Post a Comment