Looking to the Future

1 Corinthians 9:26 “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air”

I have been doing some thinking about what the purpose of my blog is for. It is approaching a year since I made my first blog post about running. I still remember the Joseph Campbell quote that I ended with and I still believe in that quote. In some ways my thoughts about blogging and running have not changed since that article, but I am starting to get a better understanding of why I want to write about running. At a basic level it is to do with sharing and documenting what I enjoy about running as well as the challenges that I face; at a deeper level it is more about trying to find my best potential in running and realising at the same time that the very act of running takes me beyond myself. It may sound idealistic, but it is truly what I feel, and as in my last post I want to aim for something ambitious so that I can look back on my life beyond the world of work and money. Therefore I thought the quote from Corinthians was appropriate, as I see it as just as much a challenge as a statement about why I run and blog about it.

More practical issues have also helped me bring into focus what I want my blog to look like, for instance I have had an issue with the soles of the Brooks Ghost 7 shoes that has been quite irritating. Therefore I will try to share my views on buying and returning shoes. These are the key areas I think would be helpful to other runners:

•    Race reviews, with a particular emphasis on marathons. This would be similar to Runners World reviews with a points system for each aspect of the race.

• What sort of equipment I use and what I have found works/ doesn’t work.

• Preparing for certain types of running. So how to prepare for regularly running to and from work.

•   Book reviews on running books that I have read as well as books that I think other runners might find interesting.

The biggest step I have decided to take in relation my blog is to reveal more about myself. Even though I blog, but I have never been the biggest fan of social interaction across the internet; maybe I have taken too much notice of internet trolls or warnings about putting too much information about yourself on the internet. There are obviously risks, but I think a compromise can be found, so initially I will start by naming myself, possibly a picture, what club I run for and my exact place in races that I have taken part in. Also I will update my Power of 10 profile, so that it links in with my blog. Hopefully I can connect with more people in the running world in a more authentic way. Another quite significant step I am going to take is trying to write a blog post once every 1-2 weeks. It comes after listening to a podcast from the One You Feed show who interviewed James Clear on how to work towards a goal; by sticking to the schedule, but reducing the scope. To break that down even further- as I was not exactly sure what it meant when I first heard it- was that you still keep to the plan you made, but maybe you don’t produce that particular with the perfect quality you wanted or with all the content that you thought necessary. I’ve put one to two weeks down per post because I am still finding my feet with how much content I want to put in each blog. Also I think it would be more positive to start off at a slower rate of publishing posts and fulfil that goal, rather than keep falling short of trying to post one every week. I think, eventually, I will have to reduce my word count per post to between 500 – 800 words to be able to write every week. Whatever happens, it will be part of the fun of the journey of experimenting with this blog.

Leadership in Running Fitness

 There is potentially another page that I would like to put on my blog about training new runners as well as my experience of being mentored/ coached by various people (not in any specific way, but more about how you take people’s advice and guidance along your running journey). This will all depend on whether I attend the ‘Leadership in Running Fitness’ course that I have titled this paragraph above with, as well as hyperlinked. The aim of it would be to give something back to running as well as the Club that I run for. My running Club pays for the course, but in return I will help at one of their annual events and provide cover for their Thursday running sessions. The basic aim of the course is to allow you to lead a group of runners, with a range of abilities, in a safe and fun way. I thought this tied in quite nicely with my blogging and would be a good way to share with people who may potentially want to get into running.

Preparing for Bournemouth

At the moment my running seems to be progressing well. I had a slight scare after I applied for Bournemouth Marathon, as I mentioned in the previous post, because the course was quite hilly in parts. It turns out there are a couple of hills before the half way mark and then two around the 18 mile mark. I still think getting less than three hours is achievable at this marathon. I have adapted some of my tempo running to a slightly hilly area- Finsbury Park to be exact- so that I get a flavour for how to attack the rolling parts of Bournemouth.

My speed training seems to be going well in terms of intensity and the increases in my mileage, whilst tiring, hasn’t seem to be too damaging yet. Cross-training has definitely helped in that respect. Even though it won’t be the biggest spike in my mileage- that will come on the week commencing 7^th September- I am to do the National Three Peaks Challenge. This should provide a great practice in terms of the mental endurance with little sleep and the steep mountains that will hopefully get my legs adjusted to Bournemouth.  I think my review of the National Three Peaks Challenge will probably be next week’s blog post.

With less than eight weeks until Bournemouth, the one thing I know I need to improve is getting quality sleep. After looking round James Clear’s website I found this article on getting a good night’s sleep. It’s something that I will try to follow, but I won’t guarantee it, as getting proper rest and recover seems to be my weakness in terms of training.