The London marathon is 4 weeks away. I have just been pondering on what this means, stopped to take a moment to appreciate what I am going to do (in terms of training, rest, food, etc.) and wondered how often I let these milestones go by without embracing them or considering what will happen.
Too often I will get this close to a race and be so absorbed with what I have to do, I fail to move out and look at each individual element as part of the whole and really consider what it means and enjoy it as part of the process. It almost becomes worry about whether I can do a session, get to sleep, eat properly, plan stuff in and then it’s all gone and I’m happy / relieved / frustrated / disappointed / tired. It’s like getting so caught up in the micro granular nature of each thing I fail to look at what it all leads to and how just doing that one thing is rewarding in itself.
I’m curious how much this affects all runners when they get to this stage of marathon training. So close to the race itself, so much pent up energy and worry. Surely this must be counter productive. I’m going to try something new and rather than be worried / scared by the running, tiredness and the rest enjoy each day. Without the hard stop of the marathon in 4 weeks I wouldn’t be in this position – and so rather than be hyper focused on October 3rd. I’m looking forward to:
- Needing to run a hard marathon session tomorrow – 5k @ MP, with 1k @ 20sec steady recovery x 5. Being able to do this, is in itself great. Hard, long and so, so satisfying if it comes off. It gives me the chance to sit with myself at pace, be at the edge of Can you do this? For so much longer than anything else I get to do
- Speed – what to run, how to run and when?
- Lovely recovery runs, on the flat, up to the Heath.
- How much will breathing help? Can I find a new protocol / adapt something to help the recovery and use with someone else?
- Each week building slowly, each day having a run that has a purpose that is bigger than itself and also for itself.
- Will I hit flow? Those moments on a run where everything feels perfect. Rare and beautiful.
Having suffered a niggle for the last week – it was great to shake it this morning and be ready for some harder work tomorrow.
Afternoon tea booked for the day.
Roll on tomorrow and a great marathon session.
I also finished a fascinating (and for me a very challenging book) called Born To Walk by James Earls.
It is all about the myofascia that covers our body and assists with movement. It cross references nicely with Gary Ward’s Anatomy in Motion ideas (everything in movement is connected) and helped remind me / picture how my shoulder / ribs / calf problems have all been linked. I got really excited when reading about the deep fascial slings and something I will come back to. I’m going to have to go back and re-read, as I need to with all books as this was my first read. James Earls was the man who opened Shane Benzie to the potential of harnessing the free energy of elastic recoil from fascia as you run – Shane’s belief in that cadence needs to be in tune with the frequency of loading and foot strike to maximise all the free energy return. It is a great read and there is certainly a lot of sense in this. Breathing was briefly mentioned and I was puzzling about how you could alter the loading of fascia through nasal vs mouth breathing patterns and wondering about this from both a chronic point of view (day to day) and also in terms of training. Especially with the diaphragm being so key within the central part of the body. Using that piston through effective breathing must have a far more efficient mechanism to load the fascia and facilitate better movement. I need to investigate further.
