Broken Paths

Sometimes life gets in the way of the path you have mapped out, it happens to all of us & its very easy wallow in self pity/doubt and indeed sometimes you need a little while to actually sit and feel sorry for yourself, its part of the process - but you also need to clear your mind & look at your options, find another path to your original destination. Hindsight is amazing & weirdly on reflection some things are meant to be !

I refer to myself as getting off the "runner injury cycle" back in 2012 - when I actually took stock of how I was running and invested time learning how to run and supporting my running with a good strength & conditioning routine - since then with almost 200 races under my belt from 10k to 100 milers, I do not suffer your common runner injuries. I do however on occasion do something stupid - like tripping and cracking my ribs in 2016 on my shortest race of that year, or going for a 18 miler in a more structured pair of five fingers which impeded the natural movement of my ankle resulting in a calf issue.

And, right now I am recovering from a slip on a night hike about 7 weeks ago - the fact that I started a 100 miler mid way through this recovery has done nothing to speed up the process - but you know sometimes you test the water, and you learn something from those decisions also, life's great beauty is in our ability to learn, adapt grow - nothing is ever a failure if it teaches you something - how could it be, even if the lesson is not to be so stupid in future or fair play for trying, frankly our only negative outcome would be to spend too long licking our wounds or allowing our ego to detract from proper analysis of our situation.

We all start running with specific goals, initially most want to get to 1 mile/5k, once you reach there some want to get faster/maintain or push distance further, where ever you are at, we all have a specific goal initially - some people get fed up allow life to get in the way, because lets face it training is hard & the couch is not, that's a choice - you will always find the time if you want something bad enough. I encourage my clients to add in specific goals along the way usually races, this breaks down training patterns and gives a clear goal with a clear time frame to that goal, races of course have added benefits of real live practice and promote the "feel good" adrenaline factor - or they might take you off path completely and teach you invaluable lessons which will save your "tofu" on another day!

Be honest, analyse - learn, take action on what you have learnt - not only analyse the things which you perceive as going wrong but pay attention also to what went right and why.

Factor everything, minor issues and the bigger overall picture - you will never cover all bases its impossible, and sometimes frankly you just need to jump in two feet first & trust your instinct - there lies the beauty of the challenge - if we all knew the outcome in advance how boring would life be.

So I've done all of the above, including the self pity of enforced rest - the rest is paying off and the hip flexor & quad damage is getting better daily, whilst not running I have maintained my fitness in the studio - and analysed my race scheduled.

The big aim this year is 185 miles mid September - I seriously need to start getting miles in my legs in July, experience, strength & conditioning will count for a lot - but I will need to get that "on feet" endurance in also, otherwise my ability to recover will simply not be good enough. I tend to work better with a scheduled race plan, so I have made some alterations -

I have binned to Beacons Way 100 - GBUltras with my experience from Chester 100 their courses are largely unmarked "map & compass" events, which is fine - but I feel I just need to actually focus on the endurance of the next 100 - making sure the hip is OK and being somewhere accessible if I have any issues.

These curve balls can sometimes knock you sideways - but I am a firm believer in whats meant to be, you need to put the effort in & its sometimes hard to keep the vision - Russ & I did a navigation course yesterday in the rain at Aspley Woods - map reading & compass skills are completely new to me & I loved it - but reflecting on that map and planning your path, it is just like life - there were many paths we could have chosen and sometimes the one which seemed the most direct, actually came with a lot of obstacles and junctions which made you doubt yourself, whilst the crisscrosses provided hidden beauty & challenges which inspired confidence.

hold the vision - trust the process

#neveraverage