Time to get serious!

It’s time to get serious, Monday saw us return to Arthur’s seat for the first of the runleader’s extra training session in a concerted bid to practice the choreography. It’s all very well going out on the hill and learning your routes, it’s a completely different ball game leading runners through a session packed with choreography. For a runner Speed of light is about distance and time but not in the usual sense – we have got to be in the right place at the right time to nail the choreography. The variables are runner’s ability and the terrain, so instead of losing yourself in your running you find you have to concentrate for the full session and be very aware of your surroundings.

The underfoot conditions were tricky to say the least with some of the descents hair-raising. As always with the best intentions in the world it takes a lot longer to run through a section when you have several run leaders involved, debates about what this or that means. Thankfully we are getting closer to ‘all singing from the same Hymn Sheet’.  There is definitely a togetherness building up between the run leaders that has evolved over the last six months.

With August just around the corner our training has gone up a notch, our mileage in July has already surpassed June’s total mileage. This is partly due to my return from injury but also the focus switching to the Speed of Light. The injury nightmare gave me time to think and assess what’s gone wrong after a couple of years relatively injury free. Being like all runners, I have thirst for knowledge and was tempted by the barefoot running fad on the back of reading the ‘Born to Run’ book by Christopher MacDougall. I could definitely buy into the thinking behind barefoot running but feel it’s something I need to introduce gradually.  However, I am now convinced that my ankle problems are a result of the weak right hip that I developed several years back and that if I strengthen the hip and work on my running gait I will avoid the more serious injuries in the future. So for the last two weeks I have been trying to concentrate on my form. My first port of call was Chi running, Thank goodness for Amazon.  I am currently reading Danny Dreyer’s book on the Chi Running. Together with the various You Tube guides I have adopted the four main principles into my running. It is very difficult trying to alter your running style and it requires constant concentration but you have to bear in mind it is a long term goal rather than a short-term fix.

On Friday after a 7 mile lunchtime run we returned once again to Arthur’s seat for another run leader’s session, this time it was one of Moira’s routes we were running. This session went very well and teamwork got the job done. However, late home on Friday night meant we had to grab a pizza and get organised for parkrun the following morning.

Moira was Race Director for Strathclyde parkrun and I got the chance to run the course for the first time in a wee while. Equally important was that Moira picked up her 50^th T-shirt, a new record for parkrun – dispatched within a week. My tactics for the run were just to go out and run and concentrate on the form, I was more than delighted with my 21:24, my best 5K time post-injury.

With next week’s Clyde Stride Ultra relay in mind, Sunday’s long run was to be a leisurely 10 miler. Must have forgot to mention that to Moira because as we headed into mile 6, she upped the pace and for the next three miles we were close to race pace – still it’s all good training.