Another week down to my big race of the season – The Great North Run. With less than 2 weeks to go I’m now starting to worry a little. My worries are fuelled by an injury which I’m still overcoming as it only occurred a matter of a few weeks ago. I have an over-rotation on the right hand side of my back, with the compounding effect of pain in my right knee. As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve sought advice from a sport therapist and after a little rest I’m now back into training although not quite into the full swing of things.
Last week’s training was hampered by both the injury and a couple of issues in my personal life – to name a few; organising moving house and finding a new job being at the forefront of my mind. This meant that last week’s training session, although just over 30 road miles, did not have the intensity I would have hoped for. I’m lacking the pace I had earlier in the season, the zip is just not there. This pace which I had earlier in the season carried me to two new personal bests in 10k races which is an important aspect to achieving my target race time and without that pace my confidence is a little shaken.
The problem with last week’s training session was although I was able to reach my target speed in each session I was unable to maintain this pace for the time I would’ve expect. Each session I ended up plodding the latter miles.
There is no short cut when it comes to training for distance races (you only have to look at Paula Radcliff pulling out of the World Championship), other than hard work and old fashioned training. The objective of training is to peak at just the right point, I want to be at my fastest and freshest come race day. This is important for confidence and achieving targets.
The problem with this year’s Great North Run is it’s going to come a week or two too early. Within this in mind I will set two targets for this year’s Great North Run: my A target and my B target. My A target will be to get close to my original target time (minus a bit due to injury) and my B target will be more realistic and achievable on the day, with 5 minutes difference from the A target. Like the other 52,000 runners of this year’s Great North Run the most important aspect is enjoying the day and soaking up the incredible atmosphere, oh and the beer at the end of the 13.1miles!
