THE BOTTOM LINE

Much as Sarah J. reported  a couple of weeks ago, hill sessions can be a real pain in the butt!  For her most likely because she had done hers with a higher knee left than normal, pain resulting via the stretched hamstring. For me, I could feel the effects of that return to hill reps. yesterday. A session in which I'd try to concentrate on maintaining good form much as Elliott was showing in yesterday's photo.  I'll  continue the hills programme now and build it up. The pain should be easier after next time.

Anyone training tonight has my sympathy as far as the weather goes, as I witnessed the "turn " today at lunch. I was back on the Strid 8 and in the first mile, past the cricket field heading towards the Abbey,I had a pleasant breeze pushing me along, the warm late morning sun was soothingly warming my back and I felt blessed to be not working and enjoying such a great day.  The run would be an easy pace, I could just run the trails and enjoy the exercise.  The rain came as I ran past the Cavendish on the way back and retracing my steps over the field it had a nasty cold bite to it and I know that it has persisted throughout the rest of the day. Let's hope tomorrow will be better.

I finished the Charlie Spedding book today. It's a good read and there is much to learn for runners whatever their level.  He laments the decline in standards, of course, and in line with me puts much blame for this at the
hands of London marathon and Great North run organisers who invite foreign stars leaving British runners with a lack of incentives and giving the "general public" the impression that besides the foreign stars, the rest of the field are fancy dress runners.  This false perception means that youngsters are not inspired to take part in events which perhaps their mother has run in wearing a pink tutu. It's just not cool. There's something in it.

Consequently, as can be seen in so many clubs without track/ field sections, there are few members in the 18-30 age group and there is no sign of matters improving. Certainly not before 2012.

I often talk about having a significant AIM,  planning OBJECTIVES towards that aim, planning and executing the training, running the races then evaluating the results.  In much the same way Spedding's major marathons became significant AIMS and he performed quite badly comparatively in the races in between.
He just didn't want success enough in shorter races. His mind was thinking of the main goal.  For the major races he adopted the mantra of..."What do I want?  Why do I want it?  How much do I want it?  the positive answers to these questions resulting in success.  He doesn't really say how much running he is doing nowadays. Certainly not racing as far as I know.  But if his answers to those 3 questions are all negative then I can understand it.   Not having an Olympic bronze medal I'm quite happy to still compete and try to finish in the first three in my age group.  

Personally, I think with a more positive attitude it's possible to train say for a marathon and still record good performances on the way; but of course with marathon training miles in the legs there has to be a degree of what if....?  

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