2 weeks to go, 7 training runs and a unplanned but effective method for pain diversion

I was happy this week with my efforts for each run and the pace I managed to sustain for most of the week.

There wasn’t any real battles like previous weeks to get through any of the sessions and the “little and often” approach I took this week payed off.

I started the week with 2 loops of 5.4 miles on Monday, one before and one after work. These were at a steady but brisk pace and set the tone for the rest of the week.

My Wednesday run was 10.8 miles and I had to make sure it was at the same pace as my running from Monday as I had a supermarket delivery coming and only arrived back from work with enough time to fit in my run before. There is something contradictory about making my running fit into such a small timeframe. I am not as relaxed when I get back and don’t seem to enjoy going round as much as when I don’t have to think about the clock.

I had another mild issue to deal with on this run. There are times when I feel I should be on the recieving end of the support part of my role and none better illustrate this than what happened during my shift earlier that day. I had cut my right middle finger on a tin can lid and even though it had mostly stopped bleeding. I did occasionally have to suck the blood off it. Even though this wasn’t a challenging run. This did work as a bit of a diversion.

In 2013 I ran a race called Beauty and the Beast marathon in which I had forgotten to apply Vaseline under my shirt beforehand. Despite my top looking like something out of a budget horror film post race, I had a brilliant conversation with someone who’d made the same mistake where we agreed it made for effective pain diversion. It’s not often running allows you to feel like a tough bastard but this was one of those times.

Whilst I would never intentionally cause somewhere to bleed, there is a element of comfort in knowing the pain is one you can control. Tyler Hamilton refers to this in The Secret Race about the teeth grinding during the Tour of Italy. He essentially summarised that the pain this caused was an effective distraction from his broken collarbone!

On Thursday I ran 6.4 miles with my friend in the morning at a faster pace than I’ve gone in recent weeks. The unusual part of this was that my HR plummeted for about 12mins of it to between 65 and 100bpm without my pace dropping. I’m not overly concerned by this but going from 170-180bpm for the first bit then back to that afterwards for the rest of the run is not normal.

In the afternoon I did another lap of the 5.4 mile loop which was a good continuation of my morning run. The pace was quite reasonable and there wasn’t any of the usual tightness in my legs that follows a more exertive training run.

I finished the week with a final 2 loops of the 5.4 mile route on Friday evening. The weather was miserable but not the monsoon type rain like earlier in the day. I’ve always liked blasting a quick 5k or 10k in the rain but find much more than that draining as you have to settle into a pace at some stage and everything chafes a lot quicker when your clothes are drenched. Luckily the rain was only intermittent and I could settle into the run without having to worry about running’s c-word.

The most satisfying take-away from this week’s running is the adamantine nature of how I stuck to what I had planned for each day. Regardless of if I woke up because of how badly my legs cramped up in the middle of the night or how tired I felt when setting off, the distance I would cover each day was never in doubt.

I’ve followed MMA for around the last 6 years and always admired the unwavering confidence of its champions. There is a good quote I remembered this week from the women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey who anyone that follows the sport seriously can tell from the walk to the ring how much she trusts her ability

There have been several circumstances over the last few months that are far from ideal in terms of preparation. I’m about a stone heavier than I planned on being at this point and my weekly mileage totals aren’t as high as I was hoping for but there is a underlying confidence that I am certain will make up for the shortfalls on both counts.

If anything this probably wouldn’t be there if I was a bit lighter and doing closer to 70 miles a week. Given the choice I’d rather have the extra mental toughness training this way has forced me to have and believe it’ll stand me in better stead than if everything had gone to plan.

Either way we’ll find out in a fortnight if my preparation has been sufficient!