HM Training – Weeks 5 and 6 of 9

I attempted a handicap run with the club last night for the first time in ages. The run is supposed to work like this: 

• based on previous attempts or your own knowledge of your pace, you work out how long it will take you to run the five or seven-mile handicap routes.

• the slower runners go off first, and the aim is for everyone to reach the end at the same time.

It gives you a free semi-racing mindset, and if you do them regularly, it acts as a benchmark to compare how you progress.

According to my running app, I managed a pace of 10:17 minutes per mile. It sounds okay, and if I kept up that pace for an entire half marathon, I could hit around 2:15, which would be nice.

However, I was completed bushed by the end, so I couldn’t envisage doing six and a bit more miles without slowing down. It also showed me just what a mountain I will have to climb if I want to get anywhere close to a two-hour half marathon towards the end of the year. 

My first half of the year is in less than three weeks’ time, and as you can see by the title, I’ve been a bit slack of late, in showing my weekly progress. We seem to have been exceedingly busy which has meant that I’ve not been consistent with any of my training. In the last two weeks, the yoga has gone out of the window, I’ve only managed one swim, the weights and conditioning work have dropped down to once a week, and my running mileage has been very up and down. My mood has been on the edge of despondency, as we’ve now hit March, and I still feel like I’m wading through treacle. I was hoping to feel like I was making progress, but all I feel is tired. 

It’s good to look back at your training notes when it gets like that. I realised that in January I had managed sixty-seven miles but in February that had gone up to ninety-two. It’s not surprising that I’m tired, I guess. And, I’m getting older. There is that, but as I am surrounded by inspiring people who are my age and older, I can’t sit on that old chestnut of an excuse. 

Being busy shouldn’t mean that I jack in the work, I just need to think a little more creatively. My brain might once have been able to cram for exams at the eleventh hour (it never could), but my body isn’t built the same. I don’t have a natural born running physique, so I need to slowly and steadily strengthen my bones, tendons and ligaments over time. I must try and be patient, which I’m not particularly good at, and keep incrementally crawling forward.

It is a long game that I’m playing, of several months as opposed to a few weeks. I still hope to squeeze in under the two hours and twenty minutes for this first half, but whatever it is, I’ll use it as my benchmark from which to work.