The break finally arrived and I couldn’t have been more happier, this year for my uni our mid semester break was 1-2 weeks later than usual due to the line of Easter being later this year. Even though the break was here, that didn’t mean the work didn’t stop. With all my recent mid term exams I was in need to catching up on lecture notes in all areas, while most uni students went home straight away I stayed back a while longer allowing me to be able to completely catch up on my work without any distractions and for when I did go home to not be so overwhelmed with the pressure too.
When it comes to me I enjoy have a planned out schedule just like I do for my training. For my work so I can visualise what I need to do, and work around it which is what I did, I set myself out a consistent amount of work for each day as well as with my training schedule and was able to keep up to date with it, without any stress of lectures to attend or other commitments.
Over the past few weeks post-Christchurch 10km my body seems to have not caught up in recovery and every training had been feeling like I’m not able to give more than bare minimum. It’s hard to go between feeling my best to feeling like I can’t run at all, especially in such a short span of time.
Because of my PB and race in Christchurch Ray has increased and adjusted my training zones to match my current level of performance, theoretically it’s the perfect time to do so in the holidays as I can have less going on, but either way it’s going to be tough. After a few months in the same zones my body gains a comfort to them especially Level II with most of my work being at that level, and when that gets adjusted there’s always a settling period where that pace most certainly doesn’t feel like Level II or comfortable at al.
Going from able to zone out to focusing the whole time with the hopes that every run slightly gets easier at the new pace to the point where I can zone out and not be completely focused the whole time of hitting the pace. When going into my long run, this is always the dreaded training to do for the first time as there’s a lot of room for error, even with the extra warming up I did, and extra fuel I took with me the run just wasn’t perfect.
While Ray commented on it saying it’s still a good training with the percent in zone, but being a perfectionist it was tough to do, especially with the way it played out. Starting the run I knew it was flat the whole way so I didn’t have to worry about hills, the only possible error being the wind which is highly exposed to where I run.
On the way out the weather played along with me and wind wasn’t noticeable, but as the legs got heavier the pace began to feel less possible and trying to fight the metal battle knowing there’s still over an hour left is hard to break through.
Reaching the half way point I was hoping I would find a second wind of energy knowing I was just running home now, but that didn’t come and the only wind that came was wind from the harbour coming directly at me, now added the physical mental struggle it was tough to keep going, once I reached the 30 minutes to go and 20km mark, I experienced the first proper ‘hit the wall’ mark and just wanted the run over with.
I was no longer worried about the zone and just worried about keeping running and not stopping. As running will get me back faster than walking, as well as I would be more disappointed in myself if I didn’t complete the run.
Finishing the run now I reflect and I have to realise that it was still my fastest pace average with the ending even, and my body just hasn’t been completely itself, weather I needed to increase my glycogen stores or take in more water prior. I’m still proud of getting the run done as I know not every run is going to be perfect and I just have to get through the tough ones to get stronger overall.
Recovery the next day was much needed but I also headed home for the weekend and my sisters 21st, having some time away from uni was nice and to catch back up with family and friends, going into this second half of the semester there’s a lot ahead of me but keeping on top of my workload and schedule will be key to achieving as well as possible.
– Jessica Bray