#FastFriday is back:
It’s time to start our weekly feature of #FastFriday, so please forgive the self-indulgent post to highlight a very important training principle. Sometimes we must run slow to run fast.
In 2017, I had 2 main goals: Comrades and New York Marathon. Neither quite worked out, however I trained well for both and was guilty of poorly executing my race plan. The biggest point here is that after both I was in a bad physical place, having truly beaten up my body, mind and legs… And then I tore my Hamstring, TWICE. The 1st time running slower than 5km a kilo, the 2nd shortly after playing Cricket. The bottom line is that I had pushed my body too far.
How do you build yourself up again? With patience, there is a lesson for everyone. Slow build up will produce the best results because you will remain injury free and CONSISTENT.
So, for 6 weeks I used my power meter and heart rate monitor to ensure I did all my runs at 70% of heart rate max, the power meter keeps me honest on the hills. SLOW is what I mean by honest. I literally didn’t run 1 step in anger, partly to repair my wounded physiology and partly to ensure my Hamstring healed completely.
Pacing on race day
On Saturday 10 February it was time to test the hamstring, the mind and fitness. I entered the Top form 10km in Cape Town and ran with a very old training partner Nick “the Cheetah” Bryant. The plan was a 40min 10km and I was nervous, would my leg hold and how far have I slid?
I convinced Nick to start slowly so we could build into the race, 1st km was 3:55 quicker than planned but it felt good. I was pleasantly surprised that we ran 3:55 for every kay to go through 5km in 19:35, AND we were talking along. The I decided to push harder and see what we could do. Initially I was disappointed as my body did not respond, felt like I was sprinting, but we were not changing pace. That’s where psychology is so important, I felt bad that I was so slow. The I saw the split: 3:44, amazing in a blink I felt like a machine in full flow, reeling off: 3:43, 3:42, 3:41, 3:41, 3:36.
I am really chuffed, but I know that I am not completely out of the woods. There will be a gradual introduction of intensity to the training mix, but its another 6 weeks of SLOW running for me with a few races to keep testing the process.
#SlowDown
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