I've had all summer to come to terms with the fact that my international career is almost certainly over. It's a bit painful and I'll miss it but of course it is inevitable. When I started running I would not have dreamt that I would ever run in a European or World championship. I thought the dream of running a sub-3 marathon was a ridiculous one, and the idea of ever being in the national team wasn't something I even contemplated, not even theoretically. So basically I've massively overachieved and I know I can look back at my running career with immense satisfaction.
The fact that my legs seem to have completely gone the last few months seems like not such a big deal. I've had my time in the sun, everything else is just a bonus. I can run for the sheer love of running alone, and I guess that's exactly what I'm going to do.
After Berlin I straight away decided that I won't be running Dublin. I'm already having second thoughts about that one as well. I'll see. It probably would be better for my legs if I didn't, but that doesn't necessarily stop me from running it anyway. If my deterioration continues as it has done recently I won't even break 4 hours, which would be hard to swallow even with my readjusted mindset, so I guess I'll just wait and see.
For the first time in years I don't have any next big race to look forward to. I don't know how I'll handle that.
- 22 Sep
- 4+ miles, 34:05, 8:24 pace, HR 146
- 23 Sep
- 4+ miles, 34:05, 8:22 pace, HR 148
- 24 Sep
- 4+ miles, 35:43, 8:46 pace, HR 142
- 25 Sep
- 5+ miles, 44:47, 8:31 pace, HR 145
Welcome to the club. For some reasons the legs just went from me in the last 9 months. Cant explain it. That said I am just back running and racing (slowly) for fun. I think such a approach by you will pay dividends and I still think there is plenty of sub 3 marathons in you yet,You just simply knackered the body doing ultras and dealing with some upheaval the last 12 months can't have helped. A new training stimulus might help- joining a running club or doing shorter races (5k to 15k) might help. Patience.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cathal. Even on this training cycle back in February and after, I felt like I was never going to regain any fitness. But perseverance, and maybe not expecting too much from yourself, might be a good strategy as we head into winter. Maybe less miles per week at a faster pace would be a nice change to mix it up? Anyway, see you at Duublin :)
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