Hope Dies Last

I don't want to be too hopeful. The last two years my performances have completely tanked (after already declining for three years before that) and I have on more than one occasion thought I might have turned the corner, only to be taught yet another painful lesson at my next race. So, let's not jump to conclusions just yet.

However, there are definitely positive signs. I did a mile time trial a couple of month ago that was faster than any mile I had run for a few years, even if it was still slower than my 10k used to be. But that's progress. And now that I have committed to running the Ecotrail again, I can actually compare my training to last year and actually it's looking pretty good. 

I had been battling with the problem that my legs just could not take the training mileage any more but every time I reduced my mileage to get the legs back into recovery mode, my fitness completely tanked. I might finally have found the solution: cycling!

I have stumbled into this completely by accident. I have been cycling to work for a couple of years but cycling for about half an hour at a time just does not have much impact, at least not at my level. But when we went into lockdown back in March, I started to do far longer training rides, albeit virtually on the Zwift platform. Two months ago I actually started following a proper training plan that has three to five workouts per week and boy, some of those workouts are brutal! But I have to say I am impressed. The level seems to be just right - the workouts are challenging but (usually) doable. On more than one occasion I was convinced I would not be able to finish the workout and just kept hanging on by my fingertips but somehow managed to hang on. That's a well designed training plan - tough but just about manageable.

I had two failures: on one occasion my legs started cramping rather badly and I just could not continue. That had been after doing a 3 hour mountain run in the morning, so maybe should not have come as a complete surprise. The other occasion was just the other day when the legs just did not have any pep. Or maybe it was in my head but whatever the cause, I bailed out. All other workouts have gone okay, even if I ended up wobbling into the shower on jelly legs.

The main worry for the Ecotrail are getting those crippling calf cramps again. So far I'm doing alright during my run training but when I do a reasonably easy bike ride later that day I can feel the spasms starting (and getting off the bike can be a real trigger - ouch!). I never used to cramp in training, so that's a new experience but my hopes that working up right to my cramping point might improve my resilience have so far proved futile. I still have close to two months, plenty of time to work on increasing endurance. We'll see how it goes. I'm reasonably hopeful.