Since Robin Hood 100 last year I have been somewhat confused about where to go with my running, I struggled with sore shins for several months afterwards and in that time revisited the Maffetone Method which I had had a brief dalliance with early last year. I decided to give it a proper go and along with low carb high fat eating(most of the time) my shins have settled and I am enjoying my running, it is very slow running, although some days I will ditch the heart rate monitor and run faster but mainly I keep it slow.
What I have discovered, or maybe accepted, over the past months is that I don't particularly like running fast, I don't feel the need, at the moment, to keep striving for that sub 25 parkrun, I don't see the point. It doesn't mean I no longer have goals and aspirations for my running, it's just that they are different. I still more than anything want to finish a 100 miler! I don't on the other hand feel I need to fill as many weekends as possible with races. What I do want to do is go on adventures, I want to explore locally and further afield, there are long distance footpaths I want to explore, but in my own time, on my own terms. One event I am looking forward to is Escape from Meriden, a 24 hour race from the centre of England. All you have to do is run as far away from it as you can in 24 hours, no set route, no cut offs, just me, a map and the trails!!
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| This just about sums up how I feel! |
I am also using my running as an escape from everyday stresses of which there are lots at the moment, it's time for me even if I can only get out for a mile that's my twelve or fifteen minutes. That is my time to switch off, forget, think or whatever else I need to do! One thing I am doing this year is a run streak,I don't know how long that streak will be... a month, six months, a year who knows, but while I am enjoying it I will keep going.
Maybe contradictory to all I have said so far, but I am massively looking forward to Ronnie Staton's Train like a Champion workshop in April, hopefully I will be inspired to decide which 100 miler I am going to enter and find what it is I need to get it finished!!
I am also running St Peters Way Ultra at the end of February, it will be my fourth time and is up there as one of my favourites, and it's a date on the calendar that I am excited about, a day for me, sometimes you need to have that day to look forward to...
So that's it for now, it will be a different year of running but I know it will be enjoyable and as usual I expect I will have some friends along on some of the adventures to join the fun, so if you want a slow bimble out on the trails that is where I hope you will find me!
Happy running xx
