Personal Bests:
800m – 1:56.00
1500m – 3:53.01
3000m – 8:39.95
5000m – 14:22.86
10,000m – 30:30.67
5k Road – 14.20
10k Road – 30.14
Half Marathon – 66.32
XC – 7th Northern XC Championships
Blog 1 – The gift of time. How should you unwrap it?
We’re more than two months on since the PM announced that the UK would be going into a state of lockdown. The pros and cons list is extensive. I’ll not deep-dive into this in case I lose your engagement (or my brain consumes too much oxygen!) So instead I’ll cover a small but important element. The gift of time.
Time really is an invaluable possession. During these past months, most of us have had time presented back to us. A gift. And unfortunately, a small proportion have tragically had time taken away from them. The biggest benefit as a runner – MORE TIME TO TRAIN, right?! Maybe. All of a sudden we have time, so we suddenly run more.
I tried to focus on building my training slowly. I didn’t just want to fill this extra time with training. I wanted to spend time recovering. It’s like you’ve just received a financial investment. To secure that investment, you need a sound proposal. “I’ll use £10k for marketing, £5k on software, and £10k for new equipment. That’ll drive more business, and improve operations, resulting in X increase in turnover” etc etc. Same with training. Only, that cash investment is time investment. And, rather than the unit of money, you have the unit of time. So, you might receive an extra 40 units of time per week. But, how can that be distributed? And, what’s the distribution ratio of these units. For example, “I’ll use 20 units on running, 10 units on strength training, and 10 units on recovery”. If, to you, that unit is an hour, well, that should be a fairly simple outcome – you increase training by 30 hours a week and you break! With running, it’s probably best to be a little more sensitive. “I’ll put in 1 unit of running, 2 units of strength training, and 37 units of recovery.” That’s more like it!
What about breaking those areas down? Training at high, low and anything-between intensities. Will you do it running or cross training? The most important area; recovery – my favourite! This is where the adaptation to training takes place. So, what can the gift of time provide here? Extra sleep at night-time or power naps. You’re likely sitting more and walking more – both can be beneficial and detrimental. And of course, the ‘can of worms’: contextual recovery – yoga, stretching, self-massage, super-duper-hydro-cryo-compress-splints that promise you the world and cost you the earth (I’m not a fan of these ones, can you tell?)
Now, the time gift seems more like a time bomb! Sorry. I have a habit of turning something simple into something complex. Blame my brain, don’t hold me accountable! But, I’ve used this explosion to build a fantastic fitness base – likely the best aerobic base I’ve had without training hard. It took the pressure off hitting tough sessions and training well. It provided me with a fantastic distraction from that pesky overthinking brain of mine. And, I was able to save mental energy better used to adapt my business income and survive solitary in lockdown. That has become VERY useful!
And, guess what? After 6-and-a-half weeks of sustaining and adapting to higher volume I still managed to get that balance wrong somewhere. I’m writing this having not run for five days. Some form of glute/piriformis/sacroiliac joint issue. Most-likely multidimensional – more sitting, less strength work, no osteopathy or massage treatments, increased volume, reduced intensity, increased time with my brain! I’ll carefully consider this cocktail of variables and figure out, to what extent, each one may have individually contributed or amalgamated to influence this current pain.
But, I’ve got the gift of time to do that, right?! So, I’m lucky, really. More time has given me the gift of patience. Ah, maybe I should have titled this ‘Time: The gift that keeps on giving!’ Sorry, I digress. Being patient when you’re injured can be extremely valuable. It helps to keep those typical anxieties at bay. You know the ones: “I’m going to lose fitness”, “I was on for a PB mileage week”, “Keith has just sold me a new pair of carbon plated shoes!”
Of course, this is my individual outlook. We all differ. But, this whole situation has given us plenty of time to prepare for our next running event. Now is the time to get injured, if you had to choose a time. So to summarise here, time has given me patience. Patience will reduce performance stress and anxiety. And, therefore I wont do my own head in! (But, I can still complain to my mates – can’t let them off the hook!)
I think what I’m trying to convey here is that time is a gift to me (you got that bit, I’m sure!) But, we will all value time differently. Pre-pandemic a lot of us powered through our high-speed lives like an undesirable floundering out of a stolen Subaru Station Wagon after a hot pursuit. Then early lockdown our ears pricked at the prospect of time, like a Lion spotting it’s prey. Some people then went charging at that prey too quickly. This causes a disturbance, and in this metaphor, the prey gets away. What does the prey represent again? Oh yeah, time!
I chose, and still choose, not to act as though time has sped up. If anything, I’m acting as though time has slowed down (if does, then I’ll be in my 20s longer!) Everything we have ever done, and will do, with our time helps to define our existence. As a runner I’ve embraced the time gifted to me throughout lockdown. I’ve used my time spent running to benefit me in a multitude of ways. I’ve spent my time not running to recover and adapt. I’ve spent my time in harmful movement patterns likely contributing to injury. Now I’ll be spending some time repairing, and learning how to spend my time better in the future and reduce the risk of reinjury. Then I’ll be spending time encouraging my brain and body to get back to running pain free. And, who knows how quick this process will be? But, this is all time well spent.