Plans can change pretty quickly; one minute I'm building up to a nice, flat road marathon. Next, i'm standing on the start line of a cross country, contemplating how I'm going to cross a ditch that can be best described as a small river.
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| "I'm turning round...I've changed my mind!" |
Here's what happened; I started my marathon training feeling a little off. I decided to carry on regardless. I pushed myself through long marathon pace sessions and ran more miles than I ever had before. I turned a blind eye to the fact that my legs no longer seemed to work like they used to. I ignored the feeling that something wasn't right outside of training; I wasn't sleeping well and my sense of humor seemed to have been left on one of my long runs.
Most people would recognize this as over training. However, being me, I held on to the belief that over training was something that happened to other people. I just needed to push myself harder, surely? Did I tell my coach how I was feeling so he could adapt my training? Nope. Did I back off and get more rest? Nope. Did it work? Um, nope.
Unsurprisingly, I felt worse and worse. Marathon pace became impossible and most runs ended in tears. No, I'm not sure how I let it go on so long either. Eventually, I confessed to Nick how I felt and got some blood tests. This resulted in two weeks of just easy recovery running and the abandonment of my marathon plans.
So now I get a new aim for a few months...cross country. Lower volume and a change of scenery. I've completed two in the last couple of weeks. My first Hampshire League was great fun, though my body doesn't yet feel completely recovered from the beating I gave it. This weekend I ran a local league race, which I enjoyed...the first run I genuinely enjoyed in a little while (and there were four ditch crossings!). Lesson learnt - don't try to push through feeling terrible. Sometimes you just need to rest.
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| Go, WADAC girls! |
