The Rebound

That’s what this week has been all about. Getting myself back on top of things. Mentally I took a pretty major blow at Kintyre as if I’d been in a boxing match for a full 12 rounds and the referee wasn’t stopping it. But as always, best thing to do is just get straight back up – look back – learn – move on. Thanks to Santababy for the comment on my last blog talking about her DNF and saying how its not always about finishing. It's so true in the world of ultras and you've just got to pick yourself up and look to the next challenge.

So that is what I've done; I’ve got back into my training this week and I have been building up my mental strength again . Due to the experience I felt the need to make some changes; the first one being pulling out of LAMM. This was obviously a decision I did not take lightly as I knew I would be letting my partner Stephen down. The reason for pulling out was because of the lows I have hit on the last 2 times I have been away, combined with the remoteness of LAMM and how we would be spending all weekend in each other’s pockets. It would be selfish of me to go as I just don’t know if I’ll hit another low. So I let Stephen know and who was really supportive and understanding and we pulled out. The other being Hardmoors 60 as well as I just don’t want to travel too far just now to a race and to do it justice I would need to go down to do recky runs too. I’m thinking River Ayr at the moment but I’ll leave it for a bit before making a final decision. 

So for the moment Kilpatricks hill race will probably be next. But my overall focus will be on Clyde Stride and hope to get under 7 hours 30 minutes or even closer to 7 hours and have the bronze goal of 9 hours. But have the approach which worked for me last year with all races up to half marathon and just take every ounce of pressure off myself and just see what I can do on the day. I'm also thinking of mixing up my training a bit by doing some cross training. Also getting back to the club for speed work which I definitely neglected in the run up to Kintyre as I was focusing on the longer runs at the weekend. Going to draw up a plan and try and get some balance.

It’s always good to read things too about people deal with the mental side of ultras. Like this from Geoff Roes’s current blog (well worth a read):

“For me I think I end up a little burnt out (mentally) before I even start a race when I focus on one specific event for too long. I operate a lot better when my most important run is my next run and not some run several months in the future.”

I'm going to go on a similar approach too. So for the rest of the year, although I have loads of ideas on what I want to do, I'm just going to focus on the next few races at the moment and decide on the rest later.

It's always nice to get a 'Win' which is what I got today at park run. I was the timer and out of 400 people running I didn't miss a click :-)