The Road to Murcia

I would like to formally announce, to all 7 of my beloved followers, my candidature of marathon debutante in Murcia on November 3rd, 2013. It's taken a lot of soul-searching to decide to enter this race but in the end, boredom won out.

I've been running for about 2 and a half years now and like anyone I've had my ups and downs. In the end, I've decided these are no worse or better than anyone else's so I've kind of become a bit alienated from the running community. This is because I've realised that blogging about the mental aspects of running, as this blog attests, can be mind-numbingly boring. So I thought I'd just get on with it, enter the bloody race and see how it goes.

There are a couple of great things about this particular marathon that grabbed my attention. Firstly it's being organised by a club called 'Corre Birras' or 'The Running Beers'. Cool. Secondly, it's limited to 1,500 runners so there won't be big crowds to negotiate, which is something I am eternally grateful for. Third, it's Murcia's first marathon so I reckon there will be a pretty good atmosphere.

I've done four training sessions so far, using a time-training approach I've downloaded from micoach.com. It's really good. My sessions have included my first interval session (where my son came with me and played on my mobile while I ran up and down past him, high-fiving on the way), a mountain session where I fell over and gashed my knee (taking me back to my school days) and a two hour LSR that I'm still stiff as houses from. However, it was the beach session that really taught me a lesson. I won't say much about it except that no-one ever told me I had to wear underwear and not just run in my swimwear. Chinese water torture had nothing on it. I only got through it because I'm so mentally hard but there were some delicate moments for days afterwards.

The other great thing about running is I'm back in Cwmbran at the moment. Wales is a beautiful place and makes such a contrast to the grim desert heat of Alicante. You can see this by looking at the garmin routes below and changing the map to satellite mode:

Alicante

Cwmbran

The other thing about Cwmbran was the running in the rain. If I tried to do two hours in Alicante I would be stopping every 30 minutes to glug down 20 litres of water. In Cwmbran I did my 2 hour LSR without the need for any water and I got soaked into the bargain. I also got heckled by a car full of lads, who I gave the finger to, and a car full of girls, who I waved at. Oh, the mysterious vagaries of the mind.

Anyway, I'm underway. My ankle is hurting. I'm feeling positive. I'm blogging again. All 7 of you have my love if you could be bothered to get this far. Let me hear you say 'yeah!'

Knowing what you´re made of...

It was about 2k into today´s 6k race when I had a lightbulb moment. I was suffering pretty badly, more mentally than physically, after just completing the first beach leg of the race. My legs were gone, I was sucking in the air from across the other side of the Mediternean and it was clear from the other happy, energetic runners, who were becoming increasingly smaller dots in the distance in front of me, that I wasn´t taking home any medals. I wanted to give up.

Then I remembered the sig from one of my fellow forumites on the Runners Forum. It was StuRunner´s and it said:

"Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts."

Guts. That was the word. What did it feel like to dig down deep and draw on all the strength you had to get around the course? I realise this may be sounding a bit dramatic but I should put a few things into context so you understand.

First, I really was hoping for a medal today. Ok, so running should be for fun, it should be  a reward in itself etc etc and all that crap but let´s face it, if you had a chance of something to show on your mantelpiece, you´d take it wouldn´t you? In the same race last year I would have had a podium finish except that I wore my chip around my wrist and it didn´t register when I crossed the line. It was the first time, I´d worn it there and I out-sprinted some other bloke at the end after an epic race. However, he was on the podium and I wasn´t because he was dressed correctly. So, I was hoping I´d get the same small field and another crack at glory. It became obvious within about 10 minutes of the race starting that I´d been dreaming and this, for some superficial, banal and totally innapropriate reason, did my head in.

Second, half the race was on sand. Do I need to say anymore? Well, ok a bit. If you haven´t ran on sand yet, it sucks the energy from your legs quicker than Angry Birds sucks the battery from your Smartphone. Not the funniest similie but it wasn´t feeling very funny at the time.

Thirdly - it was bloody hot.

Finally, what the F**K has happened to my fitness? I was knackered from really early on. Maybe I´m getting my pacing wrong, maybe my expectations are too high or maybe I shouldn´t be doing this silly low-carb diet anymore. It could also have been to do with the 7k trail race I did the weekend before when I thought I was going to die from nipple rub:

I just don´t know. All I do know is I was really suffering from early on and I wanted to give up. But then, as I said above, good old Stu Runner´s signature popped into my head. From then on it was just logisitics - one foot in front of the other, try to catch the guy in front and try not to get overtaken. I achieved all three of these apart from the last two. 

However, what I did manage to achieve was looking like I was singing an 80´s rock ballad in my head to help me get around:

And of course, guts. So what are they?

To be honest, I´m not sure. I think they´re a determination to do your bloody best coupled with an absolute stubborn-mindedness not to give up. That´s what was going through my mind today. The other trick to using them is remembering you´ve got them. And I´ve got Stu to thank for that. He saved me just when I was feeling like a beaten, bloody, pulpy mess of jelly nothing. I owe him a beer when I see him.

Marathon plan

Ok, so I´ve decided that it has to be the marathon. I have to admit that this is down to coming across the web page of the first Murcia marathon and finding out it is being organised by a running club who like their beer. It is also limited to 1500 runners so it´s right up my street.

After last year´s failure to get to the Valencia marathon I am determined to get the preparations for this one right. Patience is the key. Last year I decided to enter a race 8 weeks before the Valencia marathon and that messed up everything. I´ve always made the same mistakes - over-training, bad eating, racing at the wrong time. This year, I´m going to take my build up seriously and with patience

Training has been slow this last couple of weeks. Sticking to my max HR of 135 hasn´t given me much progress and I have to say, I´ve been having doubts about Maffetone´s theory. If it wasn´t for the testimonials to him and my own experience of breaking his rules, I may be trying different things now. But no, I´m sticking with it. The other thing I´m sticking with is the low carb diet, although after some sessions I´ll allow myself to get some good fruit and/or rice down me.

The other key is I´ve got to get my anxiety and stress levels down. I´ve a feeling this is impacting on my running in a much greater way than I realise. However, with a full-time job, two small children and a wife also eating up all her free minutes, I´m not sure how to do this. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

So, how to approach this. The temptation is to go full-on which is why I did my first ever double session yesterday. I don´t think this is the best approach though. I´ve suffered the effects of over-training in the past so I should know better. I think what I will concentrate on is hill-running, aerobic training and barefoot beach running. Now that I´m starting in the morning I reckon I can drag myself out of bed twice a week to do 40 minutes base-training. Then, one evening session can go up to the top of the Castle and back, followed by an LSR going over the mountain to the beach to improve leg and foot strength. I´ll just gradually build up the LSR and slowly increase one of the early morning runs and I reckon that´ll be ok. The race isn´t until November so I reckon this is a sound plan.

Can 26 miles be easier than one?

I have to admit that I´ve been having trouble setting my goals for this year. To be honest it´s probably a reluctance on my part, due to failing to get to the Valencia Marathon in November. I know the reasons why I didn´t get there and I believe I´ve changed my attitude accordingly, but I still can´t quite decide where I want to take this running lark.

I´m not a runner who can just run for the sake of it. I do really enjoy it, but the best bits involve racing and running with others so my goals involve races and that´s that. It always seemed logical to just go on and on, distance wise, so the marathon seemed the next step up. As Valencia is on my doorstep I always thought that would be where I would get to eventually. However, I´m beginning to have second thoughts about what I want to achieve and reckon that on a scale of 1 to 10 laughs-wise, this would rate up there with the best of them.

It´s only a mile for gawd´s sake. Just one poxy mile. And it´s gotta be easier than 26, doesn´t it? I even had a look at the results from the last few years and I´ve just got to run a fast training pace to be up there with the leaders. I´m light as a feather as well so it should be a piece of piddle really.

I´m tempted anyway, but I still can´t make that final choice. I wish someone would just tell me what to do.

Beautiful Burgos

After a crap start to the year, running wise, I´m finally on 10 days of relaxation with the in-laws in Burgos, Northern Spain. To say it´s different to Alicante is like saying the sun is not the moon - the two are worlds apart. As I write this a blizzard is falling outside and hopes of us being stuck here forever begin to surface.

It´s in this context that I´ve started to run properly again. Not having to worry about work, or getting the kids into their routine has freed me up and I´ve been able to get out again. This time, I´ve been taking it easy as I am coming back from yet another over-training injury. I set myself a golden rule of no more than 40 minutes and that I would stop if I felt any twinges. I´ve also been religiously doing the exercises for the lower back shown to me by my physio and am starting to feel like Bruce Lee. It´s good to be back.

What has helped immensely is Burgos itself. It is truly a beautiful place to run. There is parkland galore near to my in-law´s house and coupled with the fresher weather and a spikier attitude, my running has been thoroughly enjoyable. You could do a lot worse than visit here.

It´s also got me believing in Maffetone again, which is no bad thing. I´ve always insisted when I´ve been injured that it´s only happened because I haven´t followed my own rules (or to put it another way, Maffetone´s). However, that doesn´t stop you getting down when things do go wrong and you start to doubt yourself. None of that now though, my running has gone superb and I´ve gone from a 9:58 mile at a HR of 135 two days ago to a 9:13 mile today. It´s all to do with keeping within your limits, eating properly and knowing your body. Now I just have to keep it up.

As for going Ketonic, I´m going to delete that blog and bring it on in here. I cannot stress enough how much of a difference I notice in my well-being when I eat properly. I feel great, to be quite frank. It´s been hard to keep to the diet, especially when you´re a guest in someone else´s house but I´ve managed to take charge a bit and I´m on track. My in-laws look particularly impressed with my Chicken Broth so maybe I´m managing to spread a little happiness as well. Not that I give one really.

Back to basics

I´m going back to basics this week. I´m on holiday in Northern Spain so have a new environment to run in, which is perfect for coming back after injury. I´ve already been out three times this week for sessions going no longer than 40 minutes, including my warm-up and cool down (working on Maffetone principles). This is a good habit to get into because my very busy life means I should be able to fit these into my weekly schedule without too much difficulty. I´ll also look to keeping my LSR to 1 hour max and build up very slowly from there.

Lots of rain, refreshing breezes and no twinges. Just like being a teenager in Wales again.

I bloody love/hate running!!!!!!!!!

When I think of running I think ´Arse´. Well at least, at the moment. I´m injured again and it´s no fun at all, when all my plans are being laid to waste.

I can see all the other no-hopers out there and I´m quite impressed to be honest. They´re running when I´m not after all. But even though I still can´t help thinking that they´re doing it all wrong, it´s me who´s sitting on his arse in the house.

I bloody hate running sometimes, especially when I´m not doing it.