Up and down the ´Candela´

Something good happened on my training run yesterday. I went up the ´Candela´, the rather large hill next to my house which is a lovely little trail run and which commands great views of both Alicante city and the sea. The ascent went well because I warmed-up properly and managed, more or less, to keep within my target HR. Then, on the descent, I saw what looked like the fittest runner in Alicante sprinting up the ascent on the other side. As he passed me he gave me a big thumbs-up and a smile. Now I believe that this is the norm in the UK, or at least fairly common for runners to acknowledge each other, but in Spain it´s rare. This made me realise two things. First, I´m doing the right thing by running and not sitting on my backside and second, I´m not going to win my mountain HM.

These two things may seem obvious to anyone with a shred of common sense. However, at the age of 40 I´m supposed to be able to work all these things out for myself, so any help from outside sources is very welcome. The problem are fantasies. We all dream of glory so I don´t see anything absurd in imagining myself running faster than anyone else over longer distances, then lifting a trophy with a coy smile and an inner sense of supreme smugness. However, it does mean that I get disappointed with myself when I realise, or believe, that I´m running slowly. It doesn´t matter whether I´ve trained to run well or not, I still get disappointed. In the past this has demotivated me to the extent I´ve gone back to unhealthy habits. But then I realise that we´ll all a community and one that I´m very happy to be a member of.

In total I ran about 7.5k yesterday but in 5 weeks I have to run 20k. So I´m a bit behind my target and the training programme is going to be tight, as long as I keep myself healthy and injury-free. I know I´ve banged on about Maffetone in previous posts, but I´m  now also advocating the 15-minute warm-up and cool-down. If I´d ran yesterday´s session without them in the past, and subsequently not stretched, I´d be a mess this morning. But now, I hardly feel tight at all. Maffetone doesn´t endorse any stretching because he believes the warm-up and cool-down does the job and stretching can be damaging to the muscles. I reckon he´s on to something.

I´m also continuing to eat well. Yesterday was beef stew with veg (9 of them in all) which made for a great recovery meal. My kids also ate it, which made me happy. Then this morning, eggs and asparagus on rye bread and green tea for breakfast. Most people think they can´t do without their crap breakfasts but I have to say, you do get used to, and dare I say it, start to enjoy eating good stuff. It´s just a case of getting into the routine.