On the way to the first major goal

Written at 20th February 2010

I‘m happy. Today I did a half marathon on the treadmill within the required time of 3hours. It’s a start – still a long way to go but it’s a start. And it’s a good feeling.

Surprisingly it’s not as boring as I expected. The gym’s got new gear so it’s possible to watch TV – both cable and commercial- and to also keep yourself amused by checking heart rate etc. My interest changed a bit over the three hours. Sometimes I listened to the news on Sky Channel, at other times to triathlete podcasts or music on my i-pod. But after a while, when the going got tough I tuned out and went inside my body and my own head. Tried not to think too much, just tried to find a meditative zone. I repeated my usual mantra; one word for each footfall - ‘relaxed, smooth, every- step-counts’ and just tried to get into an unstoppable body and mind set. It didn’t work but it was interesting trying. I’m sure I’ll get better with more practice.

Towards the end of the 3 hours I again found out how the body can achieve a lot more than we realise. For a while I was thinking about stopping at 2 hours, then 2 1/2 hours. I actually found all sorts of crazy reasons to stop, including the most ridiculous- I really really really have to get to my mother-in-law’s for morning tea. Bloody hell, my mind can create some weird thoughts when it thinks it’s tired. On reflection, I probably should have re-fuelled at this stage; perhaps a carb gel would have made me feel different.

Found my second wind when I realised I was not far off 21kms. And that’s the thing –I got worried I wouldn’t get to 21ks in the regulation 3 hours so I pushed the kph up to 8kph and finished the sessions really strongly. Much stronger than 15 minutes earlier. At the 2 ½ hour mark I thought I was done, and then I found a new source of go-juice within me. Go figure!

It’s all in my mind. After thinking about quitting, my mind found a new way to frame the challenge then found a whole lot of new energy within. So once again I learnt the body can do a lot more than the mind thinks it can. (Training Principle #3) A very interesting and satisfying session.

I also think there’s some things I should learn about what I need to do to get stronger and fitter. Now that I know I can do the distance within the regulation time, I need to get more consistency to my run/walk training (a combination of short and hard, and long and slow) and also more speed (increase my total running time using fartlek concepts). After that, I’ll have to bring on hill work to increase my aerobic capacity and my ability to complete a half marathon in road conditions.

In short, my plan for improving my fitness for the half marathon needs to include –
• Short regular runs to build running aerobic fitness – eg. plan to run every day, using fartlek concepts ie some running some walking over 2.5ks then 5ks until I can run the whole distance fast.
• Regular long workouts on the treadmill again using fartlek principles to improve speed over the distance; probably one long session each week.
• Do some hill work occasionally to start preparing my body for real life road half-marathon
• Occasionally get outside and do the distance in ‘real life’
• Work out how to fuel my body properly over 3 hours.

Lots to do, and as always, lots to learn

More later, journey on
James





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