I woke up this last wednesday in an extremely positive frame of mind. I'd planned my upcoming speed session; I'd logged it into my Fetcheveryone Training plan the night before so it already felt "real". On monday I'd run an extremely "steady" steady five miler and felt I was ready for some proper speedwork again - about 15 years after my last speed session.
Of course I was wrong - 2 of my 3 miles completed; a miserable average pace of 7:45 that felt like sub 6; and worst of all I'd "tweaked" my right hamstring. Well, take the positive, at least I was running fast enough to tweak a hamstring - a "proper" injury that professional athletes and footballers get. "Self Treatment" rest - ice - anti-inflammatories followed along with my habitual internet trawl of sites showing me graphically what I might have done and what I should do about it. I ignored those that indicated 2-3 weeks rest as referring to an injury that I couldn't possibly have. The very idea of it!
Thursday then became a rest day, as I was ignorant as to whether a pulled hamstring would be affected by swimming. A pretty poor excuse for not getting out of the door at 7 am, I know. It didn't actually hurt at all, and I was pretty certain that the cause was "over-striding" on a cold morning. Subsequently I've realised how inflexible I am these days and have set my mind to increasing suppleness in my legs by much stretching. The swimming will help, won't it?
On Friday I couldn't resist the temptation of going for a run and took the dog over to Bernwood Forest for a jog (or walk) of 40 minutes. I was well stretched and wore warm long shorts to counter the frosty conditions and enjoyed a leisurely run with very little discomfort. In fact, in partial defiance of those articles I had read calling for rest, I kept going for an extra 20 minutes. You can't come home until the dog is completely exhausted anyway, can you?
I wrote saturday up as a 4 mile recovery run, with the idea to be back on schedule on sunday with 11 miles offroad.
I've spent much of the past 2 weeks debating whether or not to join one of the local running clubs and cannot really come to a decision. I was a member of a club in the eighties and I have to admit that pulling on a club vest at any sort of race changes your motivation. This is especially true when running close to home and competition between local clubs is still pretty fierce in the UK. My decision and relative angst centres around the choice out of 4, with the main factors being proximity and the suitability of the club for an aging 9 minute miler who believes he can re-capture some of his former glories. On saturday runners from all the 4 clubs concerned were involved in a Chiltern League Cross Country League "mob match" at Stockwell Park, Luton.
So a park in Luton, 30 miles away, became somewhat bizarrely selected as the site of my 4 mile recovery run, with the idea being to "suss" out some of my likely future clubmates in the series of races in the afternoon. How I expected this to help influence my decision, I am not too sure, other than a vague feeling that I might be able to pick up on the clubs' ethos by watching them race! I suppose I was looking for a good spread of abilities and some people of my own age rather than just 20 something "flyers". I must be getting back into the running obsession - as I parked the car I realised that my beloved QPR were kicking off less than 2 miles away just at the start of the senior men's race!
Unfortunately the "hammy" went again less than a mile into my run, this time with a quite easy to identify wrench that stopped me in my tracks. Unlike wednesday, I stopped running immediately, wrapped up warm and strolled across to watch the running.
For anyone who has never attended a cross-country league meeting in the UK, I will give a brief description below. They are quite bizarre anachronisms in this age of big city glitzy road races, but they embody all that I love about the sport of running and none of what I am suspicious of. No fancy kit; no costumes; no-one running for "a cause"; no celebs; and very, very little commercial involvement, the fuel for the whole day being the competitors themselves and many volunteers, most of whom are current (injured?) club runners or retired competitors "giving something back".
The juniors, some as young as 11 or 12 and usually looking frozen solid, start the day and the last two races are always senior / junior womens followed by the same for men. This usually as darkness threatens and the course is at it's most churned up. The mens race was three laps each of the two loop course - around 9 km in total. The scoring system means that most of the first 200 finishers are usually really in a race, each place being valued on merit. So beating a rival clubmate by one place is as good as one of your superstars winning the race in a sprint from a member of the same club. You never know how your club stands in a race while you're in it, so the incentive is to give it everything. Even though you are middle or back of the pack, it might be your holding off of the guy wheezing down your neck that secures promotion or staves off relegation next season.
I have to say that I enjoyed my afternoon, despite the pretty chilly weather, and the disappointment of realising I was really injured. There is something wholesome about all these grown people giving of their best for absolutely no reward other than inter-club (and of course intra club!) one-upmanship. Skimpy vests and hard man / girl attitudes were pretty much the norm, much as I had remembered from the days running in the Met League 20 years ago. I hope it won't be long before I can suffer some of the same again - there were quite a few older and even some slower than me!
What of the 4 clubs? Well all were pretty well represented, with my nearest small club, Thame Runners looking surprisingly prominent considering their low membership. I think I'll be going along there - just as soon as I can actually run that is!
In the meantime, there'll be plenty of swimming for a couple of weeks.
.....although I seem to have booked myself and 2 mates into a cross country race this sunday.
It's pouring with rain now and I have no offroad shoes. I'll have to run slowly ayway, so what the hell?
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