22 February 2013

The Hobby Jogger


A belated update….. after a couple of months without a post !

Training has not been going as good as I wanted. After finishing Osaka last November, I had one eye on doing Seoul in March. But due to a myriad of factors, I wasn’t capable to train to a level that I aspired to.

My shin/post-tib issues are still giving me a grief. Started chiropractic treatment in order to align the body and hip, but the pain never entirely goes away. Every time I try to up the ante, it always comes back and produces sequels of pain.

I also have lost my way a bit in terms of focus/motivation. Another (newer) passion of mine is playing Fantasy Football and I consider myself to be very good at it (ranked top 10 nationally and in top 200 globally, won a trip to Spain two years ago from winning the game etc). Between August and May are EPL football season and with the games being telecast late night or early morning local time, I am struggling to get up early to run, hence cutting short my sessions and long runs. The competition also requires lots of brain work. If you have watched/read the movie/book called ‘Moneyball’, you will know what I mean…

In addition, I found my body took more time to recover nowadays (life after 40 haha). On some days, I could not be bothered to get up to run and prefer to sleep in.

At the moment, I am quite happy to run as a hobby, doing about 60km per week. I am keeping an eye on doing Gold Coast Marathon in July, since it is a few months away and hopefully, my injury will heal and passion for running will come back by then. Football session will end in May, so it could help to resurrect my motivation to train.

Any tips to regain passion/motivation to train hard? Maybe I should start registering for races again lol

3 comments:

trailblazer777 said...

Goal races always works for me.
So going after Gold Coast, Osaka, Seoul etc is a good move. Finding a new race in an exciting location often a good way to go. Cross-training by doing other sports can be good. Running with a group, or ***interacting with other runners*** though blogs, forums (http://coolrunning.com.au), or online training tools like http://strava.com or http://movescount.com can be a good way to get motivated. I got pretty motivated by the mileage challenge thread for 6 foot, or mileage challenge on strava.com (Clown, Biscuitman, Sugar, sometimes Epi and I are on there.) Get the injury healed/fixed/treated better and/or learn to adjust your training to manage it better. Often my injuries improve if I switch to trail running instead of road running, or cycle/swim/hike instead... I can relate to the getting interested in other things, or sleeping in in the morning, its hard trying to juggle everything, especially with young children. I think maybe you have to have say 2-3 core sessions (one of them a long run or long ride/swim hike etc as long as its 2-3 hours+ of exercise) per week or at least per fortnight, that you aim to get done with another runner/athlete if possible each fortnight or each week, which leaves you free to do fantasy football or sleep in other days if you want as long as you go hard on the 2-3 core sessions, and as you get progresssion and the race gets closer your motivation will build and your sessions increase. Having a specific program targeted at peaking for a race works for me. That 10 weeks before Melbourne Marathon has been my best training time of the year for the last 5 years now, and despite disappointment at underachieving still my Marathon Season Best for the last 4 years. One of my best mileage months ever (280km) was in January this year due to the online challenge where every day I was checking to see where I ranked in Australia, Globally, and in my local running club. Even got my Wife to sign up to it, and she ran a few times, and she was checking for a week or two if she was in front of some woman in another state running at a similiar level... Maybe run on a treadmill while doing fantasy football stuff if thats possible... Trail running keeps me motivated as I don't care about the time as much, I am out there to explore the interesting locations, its more an adventure hike but its still putting the same strength into my legs as a long run on bitumen, and running up steep hills has a similiar effect on the body as intervals...be innovative and creative and you'll stay motivated, compete against other runners, and go after a goal race... Might see you in Gold Coast, I hope to go back again there this year too its a good one....

Ewen said...

Moneyball was a good movie! You should get yourself a job as a major league recruiter!

I'd say 'don't train hard' - did you see the interview with Pete Magill? http://youtu.be/_5_tK2yvIW8 Run easy 90% of the time and enjoy it. Be careful with the harder sessions and do them controlled, not all-out. Yes, agree with Jonathon re more regular races - do them as controlled tempo runs initially - always more fun and motivating running with others. See you at the GC!

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