by Jack Hughes » 01 Jun 2013 09:12
31. Phew! Crossed the line. Felt pretty optimistic and good. And not _that_ sore. Decided to run as hard as I could, for a sprint finish. Managed 24 mins for the 5k. Certainly not the fastest, ran it faster with far less effort just a few days before. Just goes to show what fatigue does.
Will asked for a bit of a report, so, here goes:
Background:
Back in 2006, I realised I was getting both older and fatter. Time for a change and stop kidding myself. I've had a bike for years, even flirted with entering some running races some years previously, but in 2006 the Missus had a major operation, which meant that we stopped doing stuff like tennis and squash and walking so much. The weight went up during this period. So 2007 was spent slowly losing the weight and increasing exercise until I got down to a weight that I was comfortable with running with. Not for any specific health/performance reasons, but simply because I could remember running when I was a kid, and with a few bags of jelly strapped to the front, it just didn't feel so good.
Managed to do a few races through 2008, but was always being plagued by calf problems. Then over the winter of 2008/9, the knee blew up. Switched focus to multi-sport and learned to swim. Had surgery. Did a triathlon, a duathlon, a sportive a off road duathlon and a few other things. Then I hatched the idea of a five year plan - so that when I hit the V50 aged group I would be lean, fit and skilled. I like a long term strategy.
2010 was about skills building - first open water triathlon, stepping up to OD. Did a few TTs etc. All went reasonably well, but it was always a struggle, feeling just on the point of injury.
2011 I pushed on. Entered lots of the raises that I wanted to do. Things like Helvellyn and Wensleydale. Stepped up the volume as these are middle distance events. But by March the body just failed completely, although, without specific run training, I had got to about the same performance level that I had reached at the end of 2008. Managed to avoid surgery on the other knee. No more races for me. A quite a few hundred quid down the drain with non-returnable entry fees (as I had pre-booked everything in a fit of extreme forward thinking back in the November).
Ended up just doing the Etape Du Dales. But this was rather painful from mile 50 onwards. I would have stopped if I had had the choice. But with no support, and the furthest away from the car as possible, I didn't have much choice. The knees were knacked from running. I did a time trial, and followed it up the day after with a tandem hill climb competition, which knackered the hamstring/knee/not sure back in the March.
I decided a different approach was needed. Joined a fancy gym and started stuff like yoga. And not really doing much running or cycling. The only tri I did was the National Relays - but only because I couldn't let the team down. Was sore and grumpy for it. And couldn't walk for three days after. By this time it was the achilles that was causing the problem.
Roll into 2012. Flirt with things like Maffetone. Still ended up injured. Then in June I picked up an ear infection from swimming, ended up being deaf for a while, which kind of impacted on work a bit. So not good. So 2012 ended up being pretty much a dismal failure, with only really Strava saving the day in any way. Managed the Ride with Brad in August, on the back of very little training, it was good to do, but I can't say I really enjoyed it. Tried to get back to swimming over the winter with the Winter swim challenge, but found I was 2 mins slower over a 400m than when I stopped. Which was a bit demoralising, then the ear started playing up with that.
Anyway, I was still on the quest for some kind of equilibrium, and searching for CONSISTENCY above anything else. Not really anything else. Against the tide of the economy, work has been really busy. I normally have a quiet winter, which gives time for training (most of my training has been done in January - March in the past years). I realised that there was no way I would be in any kind of shape for a competitive programme - or, if I did, I would end up back in the race/break cycle.
I came across Every Day in May when it was run last year. Sponsored someone too. Mainly because I thought - I would like to be able to do that. To a certain extent I started preparing for this back in October, although not without real focus, using Andy's HM challenge as a bit of an anchor. This was really a bit too extreme though, and by December I felt I was back to the race/break situation - do the HM then spend the rest of the time trying to recover before the next one. So I knocked that one on the head.
EDIM became more of a focus in the first month of the year - realising I would have no time to do real training (working away five nights a week, you can't go to your gym, go on the trainer etc). About the best thing you can do is take some running kit with you. Work is also quite demanding (one of the reasons I wanted to be fit in the first place), and I found I was getting home late on Friday, spending Saturday washed out, then getting ready and setting off again on the Sunday. A bit of a problem, and not much time to do anything.
Then the Winter kicked in. I had vaguely thought of doing a 10K, if I could get fit enough. But this was cancelled because of the snow. My plan to build gradually, and fit in some regular park runs, was stymied. I had hoped to have built up to doing 5 runs per week for April. But ended up peaking at one run per week.
Yoga, and associated exercises have helped a lot. The main thing it's given me is a toolkit for "listening to the body"; sounds horribly cliched, but spending time with inner focus, thinking about how it is moving, hurting, where soreness/stiffness/tension is, is a very useful skill.
So, come the first of May, I was in for a big challenge. This was primarily going to be about consistency. I've never been able to do anything in a consistent way. I was also keen to set a performance edge to it, I didn't want just junk. My Parkrun times have fallen through the floor this year - a lot of that is a bit of weight gain, but through 2012 I seemed to managed to hold on to some of the fitness I had in 2011. Not so in 2012. So I got to the point where I was running a good 2 minutes slower than the times I had hit in the couple I did in 2010 and 2011. This is a bit depressing too. So my EDIM plan was based around getting my times back to something like they had been in 2011. Not necessarily all in one go... but to reverse the trajectory.
So, as the log above relates, I did it.
It wasn't particularly easy. And I have learned a lot.
This is the main thing - which seems quite obvious - but awareness is different from knowing.
We tend to think of things in isolation. I.e. when considering our performance from one session to a next, we think in terms of what we have done in the previous session. For example, if we run slower than expected, we think about it in terms of how hard the previous session was, and, perhaps, how much recovery we needed from that previous session.
What I found was that the previous session didn't actually have that much to do with performance off the next session. What really mattered was what else I had been doing in the other 23.5 hours when I wasn't running. Seems obvious when you look at the numbers. But, no, the stress of work, the amount of sleep (most important), quality of sleep etc. are the biggest factors in my performance. I'm still not sure if I was ill in week three, or just exhausted. Probably the latter, and then the immune system was a bit suppressed. I need to think long and hard about work life balance.
At the end of the month, I have had my biggest monthly volume ever, by far. Over 100 miles compared to the 10-20 that I have managed previously. Lots of graphs on Facebook and Endomondo to show this. The fastest 5k I managed was in Week 2, 21:41, from then on fatigue kicked in - I missed the park run in week 3, and managed 22:32 in week 4 (although I set off a bit quicker).
I picked up a copy of Jack Daniels' Running Formula back in 2008, before everything fell apart. I've not been able to even start a plan in that since. So, I am hoping that after a week or so of recovery, I'll start on that. The plans demand 30+ miles per _week_ for 5k-15k preparation, so, despite the achievement of May, I still have a long way to go. I don't have enough time for that kind of volume, while continuing to cycle.
I'm hoping that in June I make a return to the pool (the hotel next week has a little one!), and have a crack a cycling.
I'm contemplating entering a TT for the end of June, but I've not really done the training necessary, so am still a bit undecided. What I think I will try to do is chase some Strava PRs on the local hills at the weekends. Nothing too long and time consuming. I've no plans for any century sportives this year!
Big thanks to all who have donated. It is appreciated, and unexpected. I did this very much as a personal challenge, rather than a vehicle for raising money. But one of the requirements was to raise money for charity. And a very worthwhile one too. It keeps you honest and is an unexpected and most welcome bonus. Thank you.
p.s. Bit disappointed to have only lost 3lbs and 1% body fat over the month. Will have to try a bit harder in June.
Omnia Vanitas
Immortal (for a limited tme).
