Training is always going to have it’s up and downs, all quite normal but when it happens I begin to question whether I’m capable to achieving my big goal for this year.
Having returned from Sweden on 17th February I took a few days off to spend time with HWMBO which was wonderful then on the Sunday I flew up to Edinburgh for three days of meetings and filming for my run in September. I managed to fit in one run around Arthurs seat a place I love, it reminds me of my father who sadly died in 2007. As a family we used to walk to the top of Arthurs Seat and roll decorated hard boiled eggs down the hill on Easter Sunday – the winner was the person whose egg didn’t break, silly but great fun!
I returned home on Wednesday evening, then off to London to give a talk on Thursday morning – I was exhausted (pathetic I know). I then had 9 days before heading back up to Scotland for a two day Conference organised by Investing Women. They had asked me to give an after dinner talk at Edinburgh Castle on the first night then a talk at the conference, which I was thrilled about. HOWEVER, during the Ice Ultra my chest had to work hard and my asthma played up big time this resulted in me getting a chest infection so running became almost impossible, to make it even worse four days before having to give the talks I lost my voice – PANIC TIME.
HWMBO and I together with our puppy drove up to Scotland for the conference. I had arranged to meet up with a friend on the Sunday for a four hour run, sadly my chest was so tight everything hurt so we cut it short to 2 hrs, although I could have quite happily gone home and chatted over coffee, but great to run with Debbie who I had met during the Jungle Ultra in 2012.
You can now see why I was going through a bit of a negative patch about my ability to complete my run in September, nothing was going right. I decided once back from Scotland to make sure I was fully recovered from my chest infection before starting my training again, I certainly didn’t want another set back.
The last few weeks have been great, my confidence and my mojo in my running has come back, I have managed to stick to my training schedule (this will please my running coach Ray Zahab) and feeling stronger each day. Due to the distance I will be covering in September I have incorporated power walking into my training, this might sound dull but just as important as the running part. My walking speed is coming along nicely and when the session is finished I feel very proud of myself but I still have a long way to go.
One more week of hard training then I can look forward to a recovery week, bring it on!
There is a long long road ahead but my confidence is back and I’m looking forward to the challenge ahead. When I’m going through moments of self doubt I think of why I’m doing my run in the first place, I realise how lucky I am, I’m free to run – Bring it on, I can do this.
Happy Training
