Why the question mark? Well, it’s a funny thing, it’s great to be back running and I’m loving it. I’ve been back running for about 7 weeks now and over the last two weeks I’ve probably done about four sessions where I’ve given everything, all out as hard as I can, no holding back and my injury and operation sight has held up really well, in fact the only thing that restricts me is my current fitness. However I’m starting to realize just how much fitness I’ve lost over the last six months and the road back to where I was looks like it’ll be a long, hard and painful one and I don’t know if I can face it.
There is a massive part of me that is extremely competitive and is desperate to get back, but there is also the other side of me that thinks, “come on man!! You’re 42, you’ve had a good old crack at this, 32 years of running, training, racing and pain, enough’s enough!” I must admit, for a few years now, I’ve said to myself that my next big lay off would be the end of it.
But don’t worry, these thought’s are just my demons. The truth is my life revolves around the local running scene. I spoke to Geoff Robinson a couple of years ago, Geoff has been a really good runner, but has struggled for years with injuries. I spoke to him about quitting while I was still fit, rather than battling on through injury. He said “it’s not that easy, you think you can quit, but then you realize this is your life, all your friends are here racing and you still want to be here with them.” He’s right.
So here I sit, Iain Twaddle running addict!
The sessions started with my bench mark session. I have a couple of sessions that I always use to see where I am, the one I use the most is 4x800m with 200m jog recovery. I use this whenever I’m coming back from an injury, cold, rest or a period of good training. I won’t bore everyone with times, but my times were way off my best recorded times but certainly weren’t my worst.
I finished the session happy, but realizing how much work now lies ahead. It’s been a long time since I’ve worked that hard, it hurt, it hurt a lot!! But it felt good to be able to push my body like that again.
I got home, sat down and stayed there for the rest of the night. My lungs ached from the effort and my throat was raw from heaving and sucking in cold night air, fantastic! And what a night’s sleep.
After my stress fracture scare and a couple of easier mileage weeks, I’m back to mid fifties again. Over the next few weeks, I should be getting back to normal and start hitting my normal 70 to 80 mile a week. I usually find the more miles I do, the more hungry for training I get, I’m also carrying a bit of extra weight at the minute. Now I never weigh myself, but I know how I look and feel when I’m race fit, I think I’m about half a stone away from that. The extra miles will bring my weight back down to normal. I’m not the lightest of my rivals at the best of times, so adding that extra half a stone makes a big difference.
A week after my 4x800 session I did 6x600 again with 200m jog recovery, this time my times were better by comparison and they stayed consistent throughout the efforts (still not fast but better than last week). So things are improving, improving by the day. Everyday feels easier than the day before and my legs still feel fresh after all my rest, but I don’t expect that to last for very long.
So New Years morning, it was cold and frosty and myself and Clare had arranged to meet Rosie Smith down on the rugby pitches at Maiden Castle. The ground was hard and frosty, the air was cold and the wind was gaining strength. It was early (well for New Year’s day it was early). We paced out a 400m loop on the grass, Rosie is representing Great Britain on Saturday at the Great winter run up in Edinburgh, she wanted to get one last session in before the weekend and this was the best time to fit it in. It was also good for me to train with someone else to give me another indication where I am with my training. We both had a good session, Rosie ran well and I pushed myself harder than I have for a long while, well I am after all a male chauvinistic pig and hate getting beaten by a woman (sorry to disappoint anyone out there who thought differently of me, but I am a Geordie male).
So what’s next? Well one of the highlights of the year for me is the Durham Cathedral relays. I’ve always loved this race and after missing a lot of target races last year, I’ve been determined not to miss this one. I’m a long, long way from being race fit, but I just want to get my spikes on, catch up with some friends and have a burn up. I hope to see some of you there too.
But don’t worry, these thought’s are just my demons. The truth is my life revolves around the local running scene. I spoke to Geoff Robinson a couple of years ago, Geoff has been a really good runner, but has struggled for years with injuries. I spoke to him about quitting while I was still fit, rather than battling on through injury. He said “it’s not that easy, you think you can quit, but then you realize this is your life, all your friends are here racing and you still want to be here with them.” He’s right.
So here I sit, Iain Twaddle running addict!
The sessions started with my bench mark session. I have a couple of sessions that I always use to see where I am, the one I use the most is 4x800m with 200m jog recovery. I use this whenever I’m coming back from an injury, cold, rest or a period of good training. I won’t bore everyone with times, but my times were way off my best recorded times but certainly weren’t my worst.
I finished the session happy, but realizing how much work now lies ahead. It’s been a long time since I’ve worked that hard, it hurt, it hurt a lot!! But it felt good to be able to push my body like that again.
I got home, sat down and stayed there for the rest of the night. My lungs ached from the effort and my throat was raw from heaving and sucking in cold night air, fantastic! And what a night’s sleep.
After my stress fracture scare and a couple of easier mileage weeks, I’m back to mid fifties again. Over the next few weeks, I should be getting back to normal and start hitting my normal 70 to 80 mile a week. I usually find the more miles I do, the more hungry for training I get, I’m also carrying a bit of extra weight at the minute. Now I never weigh myself, but I know how I look and feel when I’m race fit, I think I’m about half a stone away from that. The extra miles will bring my weight back down to normal. I’m not the lightest of my rivals at the best of times, so adding that extra half a stone makes a big difference.
A week after my 4x800 session I did 6x600 again with 200m jog recovery, this time my times were better by comparison and they stayed consistent throughout the efforts (still not fast but better than last week). So things are improving, improving by the day. Everyday feels easier than the day before and my legs still feel fresh after all my rest, but I don’t expect that to last for very long.
So New Years morning, it was cold and frosty and myself and Clare had arranged to meet Rosie Smith down on the rugby pitches at Maiden Castle. The ground was hard and frosty, the air was cold and the wind was gaining strength. It was early (well for New Year’s day it was early). We paced out a 400m loop on the grass, Rosie is representing Great Britain on Saturday at the Great winter run up in Edinburgh, she wanted to get one last session in before the weekend and this was the best time to fit it in. It was also good for me to train with someone else to give me another indication where I am with my training. We both had a good session, Rosie ran well and I pushed myself harder than I have for a long while, well I am after all a male chauvinistic pig and hate getting beaten by a woman (sorry to disappoint anyone out there who thought differently of me, but I am a Geordie male).
So what’s next? Well one of the highlights of the year for me is the Durham Cathedral relays. I’ve always loved this race and after missing a lot of target races last year, I’ve been determined not to miss this one. I’m a long, long way from being race fit, but I just want to get my spikes on, catch up with some friends and have a burn up. I hope to see some of you there too.