Sunday, October 21, 2007

End of season blues

At the moment I don't have any major races planned for the next few months. I'll do some of the cross countries, and I've entered the Strathaven 10k in November, but there's nothing like a marathon or a West Highland Way on the horizon. That isn't good. I tend to run a lot better when I know I'm training for something specific - if I am not then I find it a lot more difficult to stay motivated and train as hard.

I suppose my body probably needs a bit of a rest after quite a long and hard year. So far this year I've done 2 ultras, 2 marathons and 4 half marathons. Once we reach Christmas I'll start thinking more seriously about next year's WHW (and I'll also write my review of the year and announce the winners of my running awards, so keep an eye out for that) but at the moment I feel as though I am just treading water.

Yesterday was the first East League cross country meeting at Broxburn. There were 9 of us in total from Strathearn Harriers, which was a great turn-out. I think I finished about half way up (or down) the field, around 10 seconds behind Phil M. He built up quite a lead on the first leg, and even though I closed quite a lot on the second leg (reducing the gap from about 30 seconds to 12 seconds) I just couldn't catch him. Still, I'm 3 years older, and our winter club championship is based on age adjusted times, so I'm confident I might end up just in front of him on an 'age adjusted' basis. Having said that I'm not sure I'll be ahead of some of our 'older' members (or perhaps 'less youthful' is a more tactful description), such as Gordon - we'll just need to wait and see when the results and age adjusted times are published.

Finally congratulations to Kim who finished today's Amsterdam Marathon in a time of 3 hours 9 minutes. This was only her second marathon, with her previous one being at Loch Ness in 2002 where she finished in 4.01. From looking at the results I think she finished as 28th lady. Given the quality of the field - the first lady was a Kenyan who ran 2.28 - that's an excellent performance.

4 comments:

John Kynaston said...

What do you mean - nothing to aim for? You have asked to be a guest runner at the Kilbarchan Hogmanay 11.5mile handicap!!!!

John McL, Donald, Stevie and I plus others will be waiting for you so you'd better be in good shape.

ianbeattie1 said...

I forgot all about the Hogmanay handicap. Looking forward to it already. Better get out training -looks like it will be competitive!

Tim said...

Sometimes I wonder if this urge to always be training for something or other isn't counterproductive. A bit of rest or "slack time" in your year is probably beneficial.

I know how you feel though! Thinking of doing the Glentress Duathlon series as a bit of cross training.

Anonymous said...

It would be great if you could make the Hogmanay handicap. Its a race you will really enjoy over a challenging course.