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Be still my beating heart
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FestyC: The reason I didn’t answer your questions was ‘cause sometimes one just gets a hunch! ya know
If you felt bullied you should have gone to the mods. No need to close your FC account.
Racing: For anyone who didn’t get it the first, second and subsequent times, I’m doing a race a month.
November: Clontarf
December: Stoneyford
Jan/Feb: Yes ya got me here, with xmas and family stuff this mingled into one race which was Rathcoffey in early Feb.
Race more than this? No I won’t be. Not for the moment anyways. Anyone who reads this log knows I hate racing. I hate racing short distances. I love the longer stuff (half marathon-marathon) but fear the shorter stuff. That’s why I’m focussing all my efforts on it this year – facing my fears/weaknesses if you will. I have it worked out with my coach and we have a strategy which is working for me and which will be tweaked if necessary. John actually feels that racing once a month in base training is too much but said it was ok to go out and have a little blast so long as the races didn't impinge on my training. However, even if he did want me to race more than once a month I wouldn’t do it. Not yet anyways. Anyone who has a fear of something in life might understand me on this one. If I have to line up and race more than once a month, I think I’d end up hating running. I don’t want that to happen. I love running and I want to learn to love racing eventually. Line me up to race a 5k every week and I’d be living in a constant state of fear and terror. Most of you won’t understand that as most people seem to just love racing here, but hey, that’s the way I am. We’re all unique! Once a month is all want to do, all I’ve been advised to do, and all I can handle right now.
John and I are dealing with it all just fine and I have utmost faith in him so am doing what he says to the letter. He reads my log so if he feels any of the suggestions made here by other posters should be taken on board, I’m sure he’ll do just that. As always, suggestions about my training are welcome but I won't be acting on them myself as they'll have to be implemented by 'himself' first.
Festy’s other point about high mileage? I fail to see how what I run can be considered high mileage. I think the suggestion might be that it’s high mileage for someone of myability. Wait until I’m doing marathon training. Then you might see some high mileage!
I do think I’m kind of different in that for someone at my level I run more than most but I don’t see how that can be a negative thing if I’m not getting injured and I’m improving. I’d be running a lot more if I was allowed btw!
Improvement: Almost a 3 min pb for my last 10k. I know my slant on it was that I wasn’t happy but I’m rarely happy with anything I do as I probably set standards that are too high for myself, but in hindsight, it was a decent improvement. I’m still in my base phase of training and am told that as I’m not doing specific speed work for these distances my recent gains are more than satisfactory.
Complicated sessions? Not really. I see a lot of people on other logs doing similar. When you’re doing them week in week out they’re not that complicated and I feel they only serve to keep things interesting for me. I never get bored on a session. If you want to get into the technicalities behind some of the sessions then you’ll have to talk to the boss. Me I just do what I’m told and run.
Eldiva: Your pacing question. No I don’t use the HR strap anymore. I did 100% of my running according to HR for all of 2013. I think it was good at the time as I was only in my 2nd full year of running and it helped me lay a decent base where I could build up mileage safely whilst running to a very low effort (sub 75% of max hr) so I could handle 40-55 mile weeks with no hassle for marathon training as a newbie runner and didn’t get injured. It served its purpose I think but possibly just made me into a very good long slow runner but didn’t help develop any speed. In hindsight I wish I didn’t do DCM in 2013 as I was too new to running and should have just spent the first few years just working on speed. But I did enjoy every minute of marathon day.
I was advised to ditch the HR strap in 2014 which I did. I now run all my easy and recovery runs to effort and a lot of my sessions, however on long reps I’ll often check the pace half way through a rep to ensure I’m not going to easy on myself or too hard.
Now back to my training….
btw - I'd recommend a little Boards break as a good thing for anyone. Great for the old head.0 -
I don't know if this will help but you are far from alone when it comes to getting 'the fear' before races. TBH I get the fear even before sessions, I'd be sitting there dreading it all day before
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They say that a certain amount of nerves is to be expected. All boxers get nervous before a big fight, they say if you are not nervous then you are definitely not doing it right. It's how you control and utilise the nerves/adrenaline etc that is key.
As for races, I eventually came to realise that it all came down to putting too much pressure on myself before the races giving myself one chance to hit a goal time. I'll be honest I even dropped out of a few short races in the past (injury excuses etc) due to a glance at the garmin telling me I was off pace (at times later realising I actually wasn't :rolleyes:). I have found that relying a lot less on Garmins and racing by feel, along with racing more often when in racing mode (takes the pressure off as you have 2-3-4 goes at a 5k PB), really helped me.
Good luck with it anyway.0 -
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I don't know if this will help but you are far from alone when it comes to getting 'the fear' before races.
QUOTE]
I'm the same. I have given up trying to calm my nerves. Now (a bit like Dubgal's 'accept the pain' over on her log
) I just accept them. On race day, the day before / whatever, I just say to myself 'Oh, there's that nervous feeling. That's because I have a race.' I just tell myself that's the right feeling to have before a race and it means my body is preparing to race, and then I just try to put it to the back of my mind. I do get physical symptoms like shaking etc too -- I know that sounds mad -- but again I just try to accept them and ignore them, rather than trying to calm myself / talk myself out of them.
Just in case that's any help!0 -
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Since the session on Monday I was told to have an easy week for the rest of the week as I had race practice on Sunday so no doubles and just easy running with some strides.
Bit of a catch up...
Tuesday 24 March
Another terrible sleepless night on Monday. Really bad... Took a half of a precious sleeping tablet at 3:30am (doc would only give me 6 tablets to last me a few months). Was still awake at 4:30 so took the other half. It worked eventually but I was up again at 7:30 to sing Happy Birthday to my b/f so not too many quality winks were had!
Down to 4 sleeping tablets...
... the pressure's on...
Decided not to run today. I couldn't relax. Had a very physical day in work with a lot of time spent lying on my back which got sore so not much energy left for anything else by the time I got home. Weary mind. Weary body. I was told not to take any days off during race week but I made a judgement call myself to rest today as my mind was next to destroyed with tiredness.
Wednesday 25 March
6 miles w/6x45 sec strides @ 5k
An hour of tossing and turning lead me to reach for the fast depleting stocks of sleeping tablets yet again. Had absolutely zero tolerance for lying awake all night so succumbed to temptation. The tablet gave me 5 uninterrupted hours of blissful sleep but also a sleeping tablet hangover the next morning Critically bad patch with the old Zzzzs recently. 3 sleeping tablets left...
9:53 avg pace
The run was nice. My legs felt great from the day off. Felt much better than I thought I would. Picked it up for a steady mile in the middle and did the strides then.
Thursday 26 March
6 miles w/6x 30 sec strides @ 5k
All good except for a near fatal collision with a Clon Harrier. There will be death on the paths of Santry yet I tells ya. The groups seem to be getting bigger and taking over even more space. If I was a club coach I'd tell my athletes when sending them off onto public roads and paths to not run more than 2 abreast (single file if very narrow path) and to be very aware of their surrounding with other path users. But I guess the coaches don't feel they should have to tell grown adults how to behave on a public thoroughfare.
Rant over.
9:55 avg pace
Friday 27 March
5 miles easy
Sleep abysmal again. Loads of tension in my shoulders and neck all week. I wonder why that is... Half a sleeping tablet (down to 2.5 tabs)
Wanted to do a few more miles originally but I wasn't feeling great so left it at that. Just tired from lack of sleep and sore neck and shoulders and a bit lot stressed.
10:07 avg pace
Saturday 28 March
3 miles super easy
As slowly as I could. Usual last minute concerns before race day but legs felt good. Breathing not great. Think it was due to nerves.
I found a good tip in an old running magazine about how to calm yourself when you're feeling nervous. The British army used this strategy to settle the heart rate before going into battle.
Breath in for four counts through the nose. Hold it for four counts. Breath out for 4 counts through the mouth, hold it for 4 counts. Got my RHR down to 46 during the week doing this.
10:53 avg pace
AIS done every day and some days twice and Myrtl routine done twice this week.0 -
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Ahh I hate seeing your bad sleep periods (I only get glimpses of sleep deprivation compared to you and my little bit hurts like hell).
.........
I believe there is a day (today!) missing from this log.......
My sister said her sleep was better than mine when she had her newborns.
Only way to cope this week was resort to drugs...Hate taking them but sometimes needs must.
Ha ha give us a chance! A bit of catching up to do around the place!0 -
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Sunday 29 March
Dunboyne 4 Mile
33 mins (Happy? Course not...)
First time doing this distance. Not a goal race or anything but just to gain some more race experience and try to help overcome my racing fear by putting myself on the line once a month. I liked the fact that this was a new distance to me, so hoped to feel a bit less pressure and also I liked the fact that it was on in the afternoon so I'd be able to sleep on this morning if I'd had a poor night and I'd be able to eat something really decent 4 hours prior to the race with hours and hours for digestion which might help avoid the stitch problem.
Got a really helpful email from the boss man the previous night going through each mile of the courses and a detailed strategy for dealing with the wind for almost every step of the race. Seriously, he needs to up his fee
Above and beyond... Thanks again.
I set a few goal times but the main goal today was for race experience and to aim to race relaxed, and to put in a good effort in a race setting.
I knew the wind would have an impact on my time so tried to talk myself out of stressing about it.
Got there 1.5 hours before the race so registered, went to the loo and then sat in the car for an hour. I would have gone for a walk but the rain was quite heavy.
Then the bloody nerves started to really get intense. I was so stressed I actually started crying. This is so embarrassing and I'm not sure I should be putting it in here but after a chat with AMK afterwards, I decided to be honest and log it as it is as I want my log to be a 100% honest account of my running. (Ososlo avoids Boards Beers and meeting any more Boardsies again forevermore)
I'd read lots of tips and advice on dealing with nerves and accepting them during the week and thought I was handling it fairly well up to an hour and a half before the race. Why the press and stressure, sorry, stress and pressure- I've gad a few! Ridiculous to feel that way over a stupid race that no one in the world cares about how I do except me...
Played Sudoku on my phone to try and distract myself for a bit and really got into it and bagged a PB time and got onto the Leaderboard in the advanced level so I thought that might bode well for what was ahead... ha ha ha...
Dried the tears (waterproof mascara thankfully so little damage done!) and headed off for the warmup.
2 mile warm up progressing from 10min pace to 7:45 min pace and then 4 x 30 sec strides just before the off. Trying to ignore the howling wind.. At least the rain stopped.
Was waiting in the pen for what seemed like an age before the gun went off. I never wished more that I'd had my headphones on. The chattering all around me was grating on my nerves and really bothering me. Everyone seemed to be so happy and carefree and laughing and joking. Why was I seemingly the only one near me taking it so seriously? Then I started to feel really hemmed in and claustrophobic. I was way too hot and just wanted to get out and almost just bailed...Couldn't breath... The gun couldn't come quickly enough.
Ignored the watch as I knew from the start that this wasn't gonna be pretty so didn't want to be too disheartened. Just ran the best I could by feel.
First 2 miles I felt weak. Not sure what was up with me. Was running alone for most of it so couldn't get any group shelter. There were long stretches which were very exposed on the main road. The group in front was too far ahead and didn't want to sprint to catch up and die a death. I had hoped these miles would be in the 7:45 range as it certainly felt like that effort. Not to be in actuality ...
Miles 1&2 8.05, 8.08. I usually enjoy the first mile at least of any race I've done but I didn't enjoy any of today.
Third mile I should have been able to make up some time as the wind was behind me but I still felt sick and had the beginnings of a stitch which I didn't want to develop into a full blown one so just took it fairly easy- 8.11
Nightmare last mile. 8.31. Similar to Rathcoffey regarding the stitch and thoughts of DNFing crossed my mind more than once, especially when I passed the car. Death-march to the end battling the wind, the stitch and my demons telling me to just stop running and pull out. I did somehow manage a little spurt towards the finish line at 7.11 pace for the last few mins coming into the village.
Felt perfect immediately afterwards so I'll recover quickly from this one.
No point in saying I wasn't disappointed. Worse case scenario today would have been 32 mins so a min slower than that was disappointing to say the least.
Anyways, that's another one under the belt and I'll chalk it all down to experience. Not gonna beat myself up over it as I'm still amazed I didn't drop out. It would have been so easy. When you know you're on for a cr*p time from early on in the race it's very very hard to keep any momentum up for the rest of the race. I really feel now that the stress is bringing on the stitch. It's nothing to do with food or drink or tight muscles. I think it's just nerves.
And then there was the wind of course... Times in general seem to be slower than other years so it was never gonna be great for me today.
It is what it is for today. Tomorrow will be better as Zeus is my witness..I am far better than this. As for Zephyrus, well he can just **** off...
Got a shout out from Wowzer during the race and chatted to him after. Great to meet a new Boardsie for a chat. He got me at a really bad time though as I was feeling very disheartened at the time after just crossing the finish line. I'm not normally as - 'vague' as that...
Did 2 mile warm down and met AMK doing similar and we had a good long chat about the race and recent shenanigans around this place. Thanks A you really helped me put things into perspective today. It was a pleasure to chat.
Weekly total: 36 miles
Now back to more "pointless sessions" and "high mileage"! Just the way I like it. BRING IT ON!0
This discussion has been closed.
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