Friday 13th September 2013
Sometimes the mornings are hard. With the clock reading 5:xx (or sometimes even 4:xx) I shuffle downstairs into the kitchen under a dull fog of tiredness and it feels like gravity is not only keeping me connected to the earth but actually trying to crush me into it. At that point, pre caffeine, I find it hard to convince myself that I could go out for a walk, let alone a run. But that first cup of tea does seem to have magical qualities and once I'm halfway through that my brain and leg function always seems to have improved enough that I can realistically contemplate doing some training.
Despite the challenge of physically getting out of bed, I do like getting my training done early nowadays. Being at my desk (or the dining room table if I'm working from home), showered, another workout ticked off, all before 9am is a good feeling. The height of smug perhaps. Plus, I feel it lessens the impact of my running on my home life, which is important to me now that I'm a dad. Since having Finn, each run has felt like a more valuable opportunity, mainly afforded to me by virtue of having a very understanding Wife. As such, it feels like it makes sense not to take the piss with when I choose to fit it in. It's really as simple as that.
The other thing with training early is, as much as I love my running, it's always nice not to have that anticipation of a run that still needs to be completed casting a slight shadow over your day. That's perhaps more relevant when it's a tough session though and today's is one of those. 5x 400m is one of two short reps sessions that I now do every two weeks (although I’ve progressed it to 6x 400 today). I run these as hard as I can; or at least as hard as I can whilst trying to achieve even splits with a 2 minute rest period. That’s not long enough for full recovery, but long enough to hit them pretty hard. 2000m of quality running probably doesn’t sound like a lot for a session, but the idea is that it really is as high quality as I can manage. I actually lifted the sessions from a mile training plan! The short reps sessions within this schedule (whether the 200m reps or the 400s) are really designed to challenge and improve my absolute top speed as I'm convinced thats one of the key things holding me back from improvement at longer distances. As such, it doesn't feel wholly inappropriate that the sessions I'm using are more designed to develop 1500 or 1 mile speed. If I can improve that, I feel absolutely convinced that the improved leg speed and run efficiency it brings will disseminate down through my other training and racing paces. Once I'm happy that I probably can't improve my 400 metre speed any further, when the times from these sessions permanently plateau (and they will, now I'm 32 and not getting any younger), then I will tweak this session to become a more traditional distance runner's 400m rep session with a shorter recovery and rep speeds closer to actual race pace (so a bit slower).
Today I ran these on the grass recreational ground opposite my house, in my cross country spikes no less (for grip, and to make me feel fast even if I ended up not moving very fast). It went pretty well and being out there early, absolutely smashing myself with only the dog walkers for company, felt suitably arbitrary and quite satisfying. The short reps session is the one I feel most apprehensive about each week, probably because it is the one most likely to unavoidably show me my shortcomings as a runner. All the more reason to make myself feel a bit sick on the final rep...
Fri 13/9 - 6 x 400 av. 71.1 secs (2 min rests)
