Fat and Flabby
Elite athletes have a concept known as periodisation - they organise their training around key events; there's the four year cycle of the Olympics, the Worlds, the Diamond League and so and so forth... They will plan their lives, marriages, children around these cycles.
I'm not an elite athlete, I'm not genetically predisposed to that, nor do I have the single minded determination to make that.
What I am is someone who can train hard for a focused period of time, push myself in that time slot and then get distracted afterwards and do other stuff...
So, after the Dublin Rock and Roll Half, and if I'm honest with myself since the Liverpool Rock and Roll Marathon I've been closer to competing in an eating competition than bothering any of my PBs, the desire to get out there and run has been minimal and the weight has come back - I'm back to my pre-marathon training weight and feel it (uncomfortably in some trousers).
But I've not been inactive - I cycled the Leeds-Liverpool Canal... Well, I cycled half in one day (65 miles) and then 9 miles into day two I had the choice between landing on my knee, going into the canal or squashing a dog...
The knee lost... Which may sound like a daft option, but it wasn't the dogs fault...
However, I had done 65 miles in one day on a bike that folds in the middle:-)
The Great North Run was its usual packed insanity, 13.1 miles of festival... Just for once it would be nice if it was a cool run. The objective, on the back for 5 training runs was to run it faster than Dublin... Which I did, by 8 minutes so I was happy.
The Reaper was beaten, a 10k... 1:13 is slow, but it was a course best - last year I'd been 48s slower...
And that's what gives me heart - last year I ran the Reaper Race in 1:13... and through that focused dedication ended up smashing my 5k & 10k PBs. Yes I could wallow in the fact I ran a 10k 16min faster in May - but that was on the back of near miraculous training - destroying training PBs at every distance up to 18 miles and a race in perfect conditions (wet, cold and a little breeze). Marathon's are tough, and in the heat of the late MAY Bank Holiday its no surprise that it took a lot out of me, and that was psychological as well as physical. Any normal person would've stopped running a long time before me on that day...
So where am I - I'm where I was this time last year. But with more confidence of what my body can take, and how to push it.
I'm also on new adventures - my pedalling jiminy cricket also covers one of my long standing issues - why can't I swim. So to the pool I have been, a nice 95cm deep training pool. This is not my natural environment, but the drills have started, the glides, the breathing exercises... And drills I understanding, they're the equivalent of one foot in front of the other.
It's not going to be a simple or easy process, I have an uncanny ability to head in the wrong direction, normally down and will be trying to swim before I can float...
And as normal when I'm not running a lot I'm not good at keeping this blog up to date... I have no idea why there is a connection between the two - so, the other bits and bobs - I have the BA to go with the BSc (Hons) and I'll be working up to the BA (Hons) this year. It does give me a ridiculous set of letters after my name:
Mr P M Willgoss MBE BSc (Hons) BA Open (Open) PGDip
I might limit myself to three of them there letters...
I also appeared on stage with Marcus du Sautoy, well he was on stage I was a lemming, playing musical lemmings... When the video is up I'll share (that was the day job!), enjoyed another trip to the Fringe, saw the history of England on a rainy hill in Northumberland, walked the 100 steps in Whitby, and started that last course for the Hons bit of my BA - Languages and Culture... I don't think it'll teach me why I can't learn languages, but I'm happy to learn new stuff...
Behind the scenes the dicky-ticker work continues, pushing the NHS to make the service we get to be world class wherever in the UK we are - I'm not in the business of being popular, I'm in the business of making sure people do what they said.
So, where do I go from here??
January 8th - a half marathon along the Wirral Way... I don't know if my head and my body are ready for a heavy training plan, but if I'm going to do it, without it hurting too much I need to do something...
So reader, I promise there will be more blogs, and I promise that there will be more miles. There should also be less food of the unhealthy kind... That I can't promise!
TTFN
Paul
I'm not an elite athlete, I'm not genetically predisposed to that, nor do I have the single minded determination to make that.
What I am is someone who can train hard for a focused period of time, push myself in that time slot and then get distracted afterwards and do other stuff...
So, after the Dublin Rock and Roll Half, and if I'm honest with myself since the Liverpool Rock and Roll Marathon I've been closer to competing in an eating competition than bothering any of my PBs, the desire to get out there and run has been minimal and the weight has come back - I'm back to my pre-marathon training weight and feel it (uncomfortably in some trousers).
But I've not been inactive - I cycled the Leeds-Liverpool Canal... Well, I cycled half in one day (65 miles) and then 9 miles into day two I had the choice between landing on my knee, going into the canal or squashing a dog...
The knee lost... Which may sound like a daft option, but it wasn't the dogs fault...
However, I had done 65 miles in one day on a bike that folds in the middle:-)
The Great North Run was its usual packed insanity, 13.1 miles of festival... Just for once it would be nice if it was a cool run. The objective, on the back for 5 training runs was to run it faster than Dublin... Which I did, by 8 minutes so I was happy.
The Reaper was beaten, a 10k... 1:13 is slow, but it was a course best - last year I'd been 48s slower...
And that's what gives me heart - last year I ran the Reaper Race in 1:13... and through that focused dedication ended up smashing my 5k & 10k PBs. Yes I could wallow in the fact I ran a 10k 16min faster in May - but that was on the back of near miraculous training - destroying training PBs at every distance up to 18 miles and a race in perfect conditions (wet, cold and a little breeze). Marathon's are tough, and in the heat of the late MAY Bank Holiday its no surprise that it took a lot out of me, and that was psychological as well as physical. Any normal person would've stopped running a long time before me on that day...
So where am I - I'm where I was this time last year. But with more confidence of what my body can take, and how to push it.
I'm also on new adventures - my pedalling jiminy cricket also covers one of my long standing issues - why can't I swim. So to the pool I have been, a nice 95cm deep training pool. This is not my natural environment, but the drills have started, the glides, the breathing exercises... And drills I understanding, they're the equivalent of one foot in front of the other.
It's not going to be a simple or easy process, I have an uncanny ability to head in the wrong direction, normally down and will be trying to swim before I can float...
And as normal when I'm not running a lot I'm not good at keeping this blog up to date... I have no idea why there is a connection between the two - so, the other bits and bobs - I have the BA to go with the BSc (Hons) and I'll be working up to the BA (Hons) this year. It does give me a ridiculous set of letters after my name:
Mr P M Willgoss MBE BSc (Hons) BA Open (Open) PGDip
I might limit myself to three of them there letters...
Behind the scenes the dicky-ticker work continues, pushing the NHS to make the service we get to be world class wherever in the UK we are - I'm not in the business of being popular, I'm in the business of making sure people do what they said.
So, where do I go from here??
January 8th - a half marathon along the Wirral Way... I don't know if my head and my body are ready for a heavy training plan, but if I'm going to do it, without it hurting too much I need to do something...
So reader, I promise there will be more blogs, and I promise that there will be more miles. There should also be less food of the unhealthy kind... That I can't promise!
TTFN
Paul
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