Indecision

It was a struggle to get out the house this morning. Not because I didn’t want to run. It was dry, there were streaks of blue sky, the branches of the trees appeared sedately calm. A very inviting day. No, the reason for the problem was my state of indecision, and it weighed down on me as I passed the ex Brackenwood golf course and the entry to Storeton Woods.

On Saturday, I’d taken part in the UKA Cross Challenge in Sefton Park. It was a race that elites like Innes Fitzgerald ran in, but it was also open to other runners who fancied having a go. And as we’re pretty local to Liverpool, our club kindly pays our entry fees. The course, compared to our Sunday cross country outings, is pretty flat, but it was seriously gloopy in some spots thanks to the recent rains and the fact that most of the races had occurred by the time we got out. It’s an all-day affair with the younger runners going at it from about half ten in the morning. We ‘senior’ women kicked off at just before one o’clock in the afternoon, and the men set off at just around two. In the end I was 525^th out of 545 women, and despite the flatness I found it one of the hardest cross-country runs I’d done in a while. 

My dilemma this morning was whether I should put on trail shoes and just get running on the grass for an hour, in order to get my legs stronger for this season. I had had to dig deep on Saturday, after suddenly realising that I had very little juice left in the tank – this was after three kilometres of an eight-kilometre race. Evidently, I needed to get more off-road training, but my legs hadn’t quite recovered. So, I ended up doing a slow zone-2 8K on the roads instead. Then my head went into another tizz. Which way should I proceed after today? Should I go back to trying to decrease my 5K time with more interval running? Should I get my act into gear and do more long runs for the Helsby Half in January that is now only eight weeks away? Or should I put more time on the trails for the current Cross-Country season? 

I knew that there were some upsides to having a coach.

I think I always get a bit unfocused at this time of year. It is good that there are so many club races in the calendar in winter because otherwise I’m not sure I’d get out much at all. It’s cold, it’s dark, more often than not my main races have happened, and I’m a little bit rudderless. 

What I decided on my run, or towards the end of it when the many opposing voices had quietened down, was that I would dust off my trail shoes on at least one day each week. After all, staying on the roads hadn’t stopped my road shoes from getting wet today given the huge puddle I needed to cross. It was cold and squelchy for a little bit, and then the water cleared out. The grassy fields will get me a little stronger, and I’ve got tons of newspapers at the minute to ball up and stuff down my shoes to dry them. Then, once a week, I think I’m going to keep up the hill repeats on my local Red Hill Road. They absolutely kill me but it’s a perfect session for when you’ve only got a little bit of time. And finally, I will chug along on a zone-2 run for about ninety minutes to two hours. If you think that all sounds like I still haven’t decided about which to focus on, then you’d. be right.