Running in Limbo

It has been a strange month or so since my last post. Things have been moving in a very positive direction for my running. In general my calf seems to be holding up well with a weekly mileage of between 20 – 29 miles, including tempo sessions and intervals. However I have felt that I haven’t had a real sense of structure to my running recently. This is mainly down to tearing my calf (back in February) and also having to sit out of the London marathon this year. Though it has also been about being patient and letting my calf heal, especially with the occasional twinges that seem to haunt my running at the moment. Indeed it has been pretty difficult to determine whether my calf has just been put through a tough run or whether I have exhausted the muscle. This feeling usually occurs after the end of my longest run (currently 10 miles) or after a hard session. 

The result of this inability to understand whether I have pushed my calf too much- either because of my past experience from pushing myself too hard during my marathon training  or that I am just experiencing phantom pains in my calf- has led me to feel in a sort of limbo. I am reluctant to enter the short, sharp and hard races that the summer running season brings. At the moment it feels like I am on the running equivalent of being on a desert island; you hope that you will be rescued soon, but you do not know when. I know that my calf is healing and that I am being able to do more with it, but I really don’t know when I can start pushing as hard as I did for London. Until you really push yourself beyond your current limits do you really ever know how far you can go? It is from this reasoning that I am going to run the North Downs Race on Sunday 26^th June. This race is over an undulating 18 mile course and should hopefully instil a sense of confidence when approaching my marathon training again. If this goes according to plan then I will try to enter the 5km and 10km Sri Chinmony London races in July. These speed races should then prepare me for my two half-marathons (in August and September), which combined with my overall marathon training should help me towards a personal best at Abingdon.

There have also been two other significant things that have happened over April and May in relation to my marathon training. The first is the Leadership in Running Fitness Course (LiRF), which I had attended in October 2015 and have now been using in April/ May. The second is finding a trainee physiotherapist who is an excellent amateur marathon runner. 

The LiRF course that I went to was very interesting, as it enabled me to look at running from the perspective of someone who was not familiar with fitness or running at all. What I found most interesting about it was the emphasis on showing people the right technique when running; this involved thinking about keeping your head held high ( like a helium balloon), using your driving arms to pull your forward and having your hips facing forward. These may all sound like obvious things to explain to a good runner, but this is not something that everyone gets immediately when running; and that can be the difference between someone carrying on persevering with running or giving up.  So I am incredibly grateful that my club agreed to pay for the course and that I have been given the opportunity to help people train. Just to be clear I do NOT consider myself to be some sort of running guru with some huge amount of knowledge on running (far from it!); instead I would like to think that by doing this so I can pass on my enthusiasm and some of the experiences that I have found to work for me as well as other runners. So in relation to marathon running what has the LiRF course done for me?:

• It has given me a new perspective on running. I always assumed that people should just turn up ready to train, but the course has shown me the importance of showing people why they are doing something.

• From assisting other runners on training for a 10km race I have found that people push too hard and too early in their training. I have come to realise that I am also guilty of this problem too and by watching other people I have started to learn (very slowly if I am being honest with you) about how to hold back from pushing my calf too soon.

•  Looking at how I train has also made me realise that I need to work on certain weaknesses if I am going to improve. The LiRF course has definitely made me more self-critical of my running and training. I don’t think it will be an easy process to recognise my faults, but it is certainly something that I can start doing now to be better for the future.

• On a more philosophical note I have found doing the course has provided a fascinating insight into how someone breaks down the art of running. No runner is the same and not all runners have the same goal. So trying to provide a session that caters for everyone is definitely going to be a continuous learning process.

This learning has been significantly supplemented by the physio who has been helping me for free. It is highly likely that I will not be able to run his marathon time, but what I can do is learn from him about the various things such as training techniques and injury prevention. The latter has been something that he has proved immensely helpful in, as he has injured his calves and Achilles tendon, so is aware of the challenges that I face with trying to get back into training for a marathon. 

My post has probably sounded more apprehensive than I actually feel about running, but at the moment I currently feel like I am on some sort of balancing act of trying to get back to marathon training without injuring myself again. I also wonder if that is why I am attracted to marathon running in the first place- attempting to find that perfect balance.