Stressed And Running….Not A Good Combination!
Dealing with stress is something we all go through in life and we all handle it in our own ways. In my particular case I tend to go for a run, it helps clear the mind and replenish my energy supplies (ironically) in order for me to deal with things in a more calm and composed manner. What happens though when the stress levels get too much for running to be able to help deal with it….thats what I am experiencing now… or I should say “was” experiencing over the last week or so.
I use my videos to deliver content in a shorter snappier way, although for those of you who watch them will understand I tend to fail on that and ramble on far too much! However I wanted to delve in a bit deeper and share a bit more as to how I got into this situation and what I did to get myself out the other side!
Being self employed puts a huge pressure on a work life balance, especially when you have a family as well. It’s something my wife and I have dealt with for a few years now and 9/10 we get it right….but on the odd occasion we don’t. Work is going really well at the moment and I can’t complain, it pays the bills and allows us to be flexible….what it doesn’t do though is provide time off!
Over the past 2 weeks I have been eating uncontrollably and have put on half a stone….the first few days I just thought it was my training causing me to eat in excess but as the days progressed I realised it was way over normal, even when I am in the height of marathon training. I brushed it under the carpet but other little signs were creeping into the picture, low patience levels, limited attention span, the mind flitting from one thing to another.
Last Friday it all came to a head when my wife and I took some time off to go to a music concert, we had an amazing time, loosened up and enjoyed child free time. We got home in the early hours of Saturday morning and I managed to muddle my way through the day feeling really tired, however I still managed to get up at 5.30am Sunday morning to get my 20 mile run done.
Once home, that’s when it hit me. I felt like I had been hit by a bus….it seemed that Friday night was my bodies chance to finally let go of all the stress and tension I had been carrying around and Sunday’s long run emptied my body of all its remaining energy.
Due to this, my weeks training has been thrown out due to me having severe energy level issues. Monday I couldn’t even contemplate a run, Tuesday I had a gym induction, which is positive but that sucked my time and energy to get a run done and so Wednesday was my only day to get some running squeezed in. I approached Wednesdays run with caution, wanting to do a session or some kind of workout but with the understanding in my mind that I couldn’t even contemplate running at any sort of intense pace.
It was at that moment when I pushed the reset button and just ran. The camera was playing up so I stuffed that in my pocked…dialled into my running form and zoned into enjoying running. I can safely say it was the best run of the year so far! Completely revitalising and re energising, not having to worry about hitting splits, running certain distances and what time I had to be done by.
That run opened my eyes as to what I need to do in the future when I am encountering such issues again…throw away the plan and embrace the enjoyment of running again. I am so lucky to be able to run on the trails where I live and sometimes we forget about our surroundings and focus too much on goals and targets.
Now I feel ready to tackle the upcoming marathon challenge that faces me on the 5th May 2018.
If you ever feel like it gets too much for you…just remember why you started running and go back to basics. Its great to dial into that feeling of enjoyment again.
The Lliswerry 8 Road Race Report
11 weeks into an advanced half marathon training program and I was ready for a race….yes there is still 5 weeks to go but when you dedicate all your running time to training, either solo or with a friend there comes a point when you need a bit of competition….and that ladies and gentlemen was the reason the Lliswerry 8 road race was booked!
I knew that I would be going stir crazy by this point in the training plan so I solved that problem by booking a race. This race was recommended by my local club and for good reason! A supposed “local race” turned out to be a field of 796 strong runners, bringing in the best from across the south west and Wales.
Having been a bit “chesty” the week before I was a bit dubious about how I would get on, but had decided on Thursday that I wouldn’t care about time and that the purpose of this race was to get my competitive juices flowing. I also wanted to be “put in my place” and to sit back and absorb all of the great runners around me, i’m a bit like a sponge when it comes to absorbing knowledge and when i’m surrounding by great runners that lights my spark so to speak!!
Thankfully, the morning of the race arrived and I was feeling slightly better….so alongside by training and recent “efforts” i’d been putting in, I thought that a goal of 48 minutes would be good to keep in the back of my mind. However I also decided that today was the day that I wouldn’t be a slave to my watch and that considering most of my training has been done on “feel”, the race would be no different.
The gun went and I positioned myself about 5/6 rows back from the front, the idea of this was to a) stop me from going out to fast and b) give me a chance to see how I felt…the last thing I wanted was to bomb off, my tight chest to kick in and then having to pull out.
Luckily, this was a smart move and I slowly started to feel my way into the race, gradually moving up past people, listening to their breathing and realising I was working nowhere near as hard as they were. This “breathed” confidence in me (excuse the pun) and I pushed on. Hearing my watch beep for the first mile was the first time I got in tune with “technology” and for a split second I glanced to see what i’d done. Determined not to react like I normally would if I saw a “too quick” or “too slow” split, I mentally prepared myself and to my surprise I went through at 5.54.
From there I didn’t look back, the next time I thought about my watch was when I heard a beep but after conquering that mental battle at mile one of “not caring” what it said….the rest of the mile splits didn’t worry me and mile two was a similar time…5.55. Mental toughness is something I think runners learn after time and cannot be taught straight away….we are stubborn creatures of habit and modern day marketing teaches us to “showboat” and “show off”, so to break this mould was oddly satisfying! Especially seeming as every runner I passed must of checked their watch at least twice as I got closer and past them. At that stage I thought to myself “what are you checking it that much for?” and then I realised that was me not so long ago!
The mental toughness continued when we hit the turn around and headed back into the wind, clocking a third mile of 6.14. Determined not to “stress” and “react” to my 20 second loss on time in that mile and more so think logically, I simply told myself “you ran into the wind and you worked hard but am still in control, trust yourself”. This mentality paid dividends as the 4th mile clocked back under 6 minutes and at that stage I was beginning to over take around 5/6 runners a mile. They had clearly worked hard running into the wind and it had taken it out of them somewhat.
Miles 5,6 & 7 passed and still I felt strong. At the 10k mark I had hit a new PB of 37.13 and at that stage we hit the head wind again, but I was feeling so “in control” that I put the hammer down and put the effort in for the last 1.8 miles. Passing more and more runners I got to the final mile with breathing space in front and behind, allowing me to enjoy the race and conclude that this had been my most successful race to date.
Finishing with a chip time of 47.20, averaging 5.55 minute mile pace, I concluded that the success of the day wasn’t the time or the 25th place, but the feeling that I have conquered the “addiction” of checking the watch. Running by feel is the way forward for me and I hope to encourage other runners to get more “in tune” with their running and not be sucked into all this marketing that tells us we need x,y&z to make us the best. Besides, who wants to be the person with all the gear and no idea?
You can check out my race vlog and lowdown on the performance on my YouTube channel here.
Thanks so much for reading and I hope to keep this blog more up to date this year!
2017 Update – Better Late Than Never!
Greetings and a very belated Happy New Year!
First of all I want to start off by apologising for the lack of content on the blog….I made a new years resolution to get regular content on my YouTube channel and so although that has worked…the blog has dropped off! I shall however endeavor to keep it up to date more regularly!
So Let’s just recap on where we finished training wise in 2016 and where we have kicked off from in 2017…..
2016 was a great finish to the year….solid blocks of training documented in the blog section meant that some PB times were set in the shorter races. A great 8 days were had off over Christmas and things kick started back in the first week of January.
2017 has seen me embark on a 10 week training plan courtesy of Dan Page, a very talented running coach and quick runner himself! I sought Dan’s advise at the beginning of the year because my first race in March would be a 20 mile race. For those of you who have followed my running journey on YouTube, you will know that my only race over half marathon distance was the Gloucester Marathon and that didn’t end well. I had been chatting to Dan towards the end of 2016 and with this race in mind the majority of my long runs in November & December were at least 15 miles. I felt this would give me a good base to build from come January….
Fast forward to today (March 7th 2017) and the race is only 4 days away… training has been great…9 solid weeks of hard work (bar one bout of illness that took me out for two sessions) has seen me clock around 40 miles a week straight and multiple long run workouts that nearly broke me are now in the past!
The 2017 racing journey begins this Saturday morning at 9:00am and I can’t wait to attempt to run a solid 20 mile race without fading too much at the end….a week later we get back to half marathon distance with the Forest of Dean Spring half marathon.
We then embark on another training block for our May races….
I can’t wait to get back out there this Saturday and get racing again, make sure you keep up to date over on YouTube as a race vlog will be coming!
Running Training 19/12/2016 – 25/12/2016
Training is finished!! This week is just a fun and casual week, winding down to a nice week off.
Monday
Easy 7 miles (last mile hard) – Went out for a nice easy 7 mile run, felt great so just pushed for a last hard mile. This is just the philosophy I have taken over the second half of the year due to other peoples feedback of finishing stronger on runs. I don’t do it on every run but just when I feel like it.
Tuesday
Went out for another nice easy run, this time with James for 10 miles. Again, kept the HR low and just plodded around clocking up the easy miles working on the base fitness.
Wednesday
Rest
Thursday
Typical me….went for a final easy run before stopping for a week, got to mile 5 and wanted to up the tempo so did a harder final 2 miles, rounding up my total for 25 miles on the final week.
Friday
Rest
Saturday
Rest
Sunday
Rest
Summary
Lovely and easy week, absolutely over the moon with the second half of the year and delighted to finish strong and can’t wait to kickstart 2017!
Running Training 12/12/2016 – 18/12/2016
So this is the last “training” week, next week there will be some casual easy running but this week is about finishing strongly and getting some good volume in. To be honest, I am still buzzing from last weeks race so I was more than up for some intense workouts this week!
Monday
Tempo Run – A better week this week, not the best but certainly consistent and steady. I never hit the heights of what I can achieve on these morning sessions but that’s because I never eat properly so I go into it under fuelled, but I prefer this because it gets me used to running quicker on less fuel.
Tuesday
8 x 800m reps – Today I really wasn’t feeling the workout, I knew from rep 2 that this was going to have to become a “grinding” session. What didn’t help is that James had just come back from a weeks break so he was fresh, ready to go and leaving me in his dust! However I was delighted to record 8 of them as I really didn’t think I would manage it.
Wednesday
Rest
Thursday
Workout Day – 3 x 2 mile repeats were on the cards and wow did we improve from last time. Our first attempt at these 6 weeks ago were in the range of 12.50 for two miles, however this time we clocked 12.30, 12.29 & 12.24.
From the off, James and I decided we needed to up the pace from last time to get ourselves into the right zone but again, this completely exceeded my expectations. These reps were done at an average of 6.12 / 6.15 min mile pace.
A great last and quality workout to finish the year on.
Friday
Rest
Saturday
Finished the week off with a nice 17 mile long run. Unintentionally ate a very “protein” heavy day on the Friday, finished with an omlette & vegetarian sausages for dinner so I was feeling very depleted of energy by this morning. Again, like Tuesday, I decided I needed to grind this out as it was going to be the last long run of 2016 so I pushed for 17 miles.
Sunday
Rest
Summary
Delighted with this weeks training, couldn’t of asked for more. A couple of occasions I had to push hard to grind out what needed to be done but a very satisfying feeling completing a 40 mile week.
Running Training 05/12/2016 – 11/12/2016
So we are into the last couple of weeks “intense” training before a well earned week off over Christmas and this week, we booked a last minute night race entry for Wednesday evening. Therefore due to this I decided to have an easier week so I could really push myself to the limits of what I am capable of over a shorter distance.
Monday
Rest
Tuesday
Today I just went out of an easy 6 mile run, just to get the legs moving but not wanting to put any more stress through them than I needed too. All in preparation for tomorrow night.
Wednesday
Severn Bridge 5 Mile Night Race – As mentioned above, I was really looking forward to testing my legs over a shorter distance and see how this years training has helped my shorter distance speed. After last months “Newent 9 Race”, I had high hopes this for this race.
The race was at 7.15pm and it was a short and sweet 5 mile race over and back across the Severn Bridge. Luckily, the weather was perfect, it was cold but not too windy or raining….the gun went off and the 2 leaders ran off into the night, there was then a pack of 5 (which included myself) which broke away within the first quarter of a mile. Slowly over the first mile I managed to get myself up to 4th place and tag along with 3rd….we ended up exchanging places over the next 3 miles but neither of us could shake each other.
The final mile proved that he had stronger legs than I did and on the final climb he pulled away and finished 9 seconds in front of me. Chatting after the race he was a great chap and we ended up pushing eachother to a new PB, which is what is so exciting about racing!
The final result was a 4th place finish in 30.11 (6.11 min mile pace) over 5 miles!
I am absolutely delighted with this result, I could never of dreamed to of run a 6.11 min mile pace over 5 miles at the beginning of the year, training in this second half has really paid off.
Thursday
Rest
Friday
Rest
Saturday
Rest
Sunday
Long run – I ended up resting for most of the week after the race and work has been crazy so I thought I would just save my legs for the final day of the week and get in a super quality long run of 15.5 miles and a nice easy pace.
Summary
A quieter week on the running volume but that was made up for by having a last minute….and awesome race! Final “intense” week next week before and easy week then finish up for a nice week off!
Running Training 28/11/2016 – 04/12/2016
Week 9….where are the weeks going! I had so much I wanted to get done before Christmas and time is slipping away. This week the routine was disrupted a bit but not as much as last week, we got all the key sessions in we needed to and finished strong with an awesome 18 mile long run.
Monday
Tempo run….I went back to and older hilly route that I haven’t done for a few months… for me its a leg strength builder as you are pushing super hard up hills and flying down them. To my delight I managed to clock a PB on the route of over 30 seconds!
Tuesday
13.1 easy spin on the bike
Wednesday
12 x 400m reps! Did a great warm up, rep session and cool down….the pleasing thing was that thanks to James, we worked out the difference in pace & HR compared to our last 400 session 6 weeks ago and the averages have dropped. His dropped moreso than mine but I managed to get my average pace down from 1.22 to 1.18. It must be said though that the session started slowly with the cold night, clocking the first few at 1.22 & 1.21…as we hit the 5th rep I managed to get a consistent run of 4 x 1.18 done and peaked at a 1.16, which is awesome!
Thursday
Workout day! I do not normally do a workout straight after a rep session and I had no intention of doing that either….I stepped out of my front door ready for a nice easy run and thought it was too cold to run slow… so thought I would aim for a threshold pace….after 3 miles I realised I got quicker….6.41, 6.33, 6.27 so just thought I would blast the last mile in 5.59 and finish on a small but effective 4 mile progressive run.
Friday
Rest
Saturday
Rest
Sunday
Long run! Today I just went out fully fueled and ready for anything. I decided before I left I just wanted to see how far I could run comfortably and although the last mile was a bit of a struggle home, I managed to clock a solid 18 miles, the highest so far of this winter training block. The key thing about today was the ave pace was 7.48 and the ave HR was 148, which is insanely low compared to what it has been. This all goes to show that training is working very well!
Summary
Delighted with this week, especially the long run. The long run showed me on the stats that i’m really improving my running efficiency and that these rep & workout sessions are paying off hugely. Two more weeks to go until we have a week off for Christmas!
Running Training 21/11/2016 – 27/11/2016
Week 8 was upon me and I was getting back into the swing of things quite quickly…. after the easy week we recently had, the workouts were feeling fresher, the heart rate was dropping and the pace was getting quicker! Having said that we had to substitute 2 runs this week for spins on the exercise bike due to an overload of work and childcare…. so the “easy runs” were done on the bike.
Monday
Evening spin on the exercise bike, another 13.1 miles were racked up!
Tuesday
Same as Monday, we had two easy days next to each other this week, both clocking up 13.1 miles!
Wednesday
AM: 3 mile tempo run….not the best tempo run we’ve done but consistency is key and once again we were within 4 seconds per mile of our best time….so mustn’t grumble!
PM: 7 mile easy run, just went for a nice jog around town, nothing hard at all and kept the HR down.
Thursday
Rest
Friday
Rest
Saturday
Long run! Today we ventured out for 16 miles and due to the “lack of running” this week and missing a workout session I decided to mix up the long run and do 10 miles easy, 6 miles threshold. It is a gruelling type of run that you have to grind out but im finding these types of runs are doing me the world of good in terms of being able to finish strong.
Sunday
Rest
Summary
It’s always a bit frustrating when you can’t get out as much as you would like to but at the end of the day we made it count this week. Life throws things at you like work & childcare and those become the priority…we just have to make up the time when we can, hence the double session on Wednesday!
Running Training 14/11/2016 – 20/11/2016
After a really nice and relaxing easy week last week…. we ramped it up again in this 7th week with one eye on the final race of the season on Sunday…the Newent 9k. Getting back into the swing of the speedier work was the aim of the game but I also decided at the beginning of the week to swap Thursdays workout with an easy run to ensure I was fresh ready for Sunday.
Monday
Monday morning has become tempo run morning….it seems to fit in well as I get up early and get it done on only an apple for breakfast before I need to get back and get the kids ready for school. This weeks tempo run was the best yet, which seems to prove that consistency is paying off…. a new 5k pb was set at 18:45!
Tuesday
Wasn’t able to get out on our normal Tuesday night rep session so ended up doing 13.1 miles on the exercise bike at a very easy pace.
Wednesday
Normally rest night….this Tuesday was workout night! James and I mixed it up tonight and did a new workout….someone tweeted out an ironman hill workout which consisted of 3 x 10 minutes at threshold pace up and down hills with a 3 minute rest after each rep. After the 3rd rep it was then a 2 mile tempo on flat terrain at the same intensity…so this workout was done moreso on heart rate rather than pace. We gave it a go…it was challenging to say the least and you really felt it through the quads pounding the downhills but overall it was a super solid workout!
Thursday
After the workout the night before, my legs were really feeling it so we stuck to a nice easy run…albeit on a new route! Armed with headtorches…James and I ventured up some nice hills in the dark at an easy pace….I had in the back of my mind that I wanted to go at half marathon pace for the last mile or two just to keep the legs ticking over but actually by 5 miles they were so tired that I decided against that!
Friday
Rest
Saturday
Rest
Sunday
Newent 9 race! So this was the last race of the calendar year that we have booked up….i’d been looking forward to this race for a while as I don’t race too many shorter distances throughout the year and I really enjoyed the course last year. The long and short of it is….its a 9.5k race that climbs up for about 4.5k then comes back down for the last 5k….
Going into it this year…I had in the back of my mind that I finished 15th last year in 40:41 and this year they had an extra 100 people entered, so I simply had two goals:
- Beat last years time
- Finish 15th or higher
The race starts on a local school playing field and heads out to the end where there is a small track leading out onto the road….as expected and as what happened last year…there is a manic burst of people off the start line to try and get through the gate first so when I finally got out onto the road I worked out I was in 15th place.
As the race progressed I felt super strong and whilst holding back a bit going up the hills, I felt like I really could give it my all in the second half. Slowly but surely, one by one I overtook people in front and managed to finish the race in 5th place. Not only was I over the moon by getting a time of 37.31, but I was delighted about my race strategy and how I was patient in the build up.
Finishing the racing year like that really made all the training worth while and although not a big race…. coming 5th out of 260 people really made me feel like the progression I had made over the past year has been worth all the training!
And of course….I managed to get the race on film, I hope you enjoy my Newent 9 video blog!
Running Training 07/11/2016 – 13/11/2016
Week 6 has been and gone…well… it finishes today but I rested so for me its gone! It dawned on me earlier this week that in the 5 hard weeks we had been “base building” we hadn’t run many straight forward easy runs….I have been spinning out on the exercise bike for my “easy miles” but sometimes that’s not enough and my body was screaming at me to slow down. When you are training for a specific race you tend to put in 3 hard weeks then on the 4th week you slightly ease off to give your body a break but I have been so keen to speed up over winter that the “easier week” passed me by…. so after the Monday tempo run, the whole week was taken easy!
Monday
20 minute tempo run was on the cards for today….I wasn’t feeling too chipper first thing I must admit and all the hard sessions of late had been taking its toll but I ended up running a solid tempo run that was much better than last weeks….with two of the miles under 6 min mile pace.
Tuesday
After Monday’s session I spoke to James, who I train regularly with and we decided our bodies had enough of the hard weeks so the rest of the week would be completely easy…. we ended up doing a really nice 6 mile run around town at 8.23 ave pace at just 133bpm heart rate!! Somethings beginning to work….
Wednesday
Nothing exciting really except for spinning out some more easy miles on the exercise bike….just went for a 30 minute session and got 7.4 miles in.
Thursday
Another easy run was on the cards, this time is was 8 miles on an old route from last years winter training….again a lovely gentle run at 8.11 ave pace at just 134bpm…. by this point I realised this training was paying off. Heart rate has never been that low at that pace before.
Friday
Rest
Saturday
Long run day!! Loving the long runs at the moment and I was joined by James…my normal training partner and James Yemm, another local runner who will be joining us more and more over the coming weeks. We were up and out by 7.30am and did a nice easy 11 miler on much flatter terrain, compared to the normal 15 hilly miles we have been doing of late.
Sunday
Rest
Summary
Our attempts to lower our HR is working!! After 5 intense weeks training this week was a definite easy week and much needed. Sometimes you have to listen to your body and my body was saying “no more reps”!
All in all another quality week of training and now I am ready to tackle the next block of intense work!