From Florence to Penticton.
So what have I been doing for the last few months? Not a whole he’ll of a lot, but our trip down to Eugene and Florence may have been enough to get me off my ass and back to the grind of training. I enjoy the time I have during the day when it isn’t consumed with running twice a day, stretching, ice baths, massage and trips to the gym; I can get a lot of stuff done when I’m not training like that, but eventually I start to feel like I’m not doing all that I am supposed to do and I usually get back to training… This time it just took a bit longer for that realization.
Since moving to Walnut Grove in Langley I have made a lot of changes to my training; some good and some bad. When I look back at all the training that I have done my most rewarding and consistent training came while I was training mostly alone, in Nanaimo, following a schedule I had put together mostly myself but with some input from my coach at the time, Al Johnston, and the occasional trip to Victoria to meet up with people like Trevor Obrian, Jim Finn, Kiauka, Dave Jackson etc. For a workout and a long run. Training like this affords many advantages, I trained where I wanted as I wanted and when I wanted. I could keep to a schedule when I wanted and I could adjust as it fit with where I was or who I may be training with. Before my best marathon to date this is how I trained, and I trained very comfortably and confidently. Now somethings in my life have changed since then and some of my priorities have shifted to different rungs on the totem but one thing remains the same I still want to run faster. So this is the point I am at right now and with that I need to get out and run myself into the ground.
With these recent realizations you may ask ” hen what’s the next race, what’s the big goal,” and I could through out some times and races and I could really box myself into a certain timeframe and goal orientated result but I don’t want to do that I don’t think it would benefit me right now. Yes I want to run a faster marathon, run a faster 10km and 5 km, but I also want to enjoy running again. I want to do things in training I haven’t done before, I want to find some off the beaten trails and run without concept of time or distance but instead effort; and I want to go to bed eager to run the next morning and I want to wake up excited to train. These are my new goals and my focus for this year.
