Again, we were out last Tuesday for a hard one. On the plan were 8x 800m on the 400m track. It was again quite cold and still after the 3km warm up my motivation wasn’t really high. No way back.
First round was feeling good. The second a bit better. We were running somewhere at around 3 minutes 45 seconds round. First crisis came up on the third. That’s the one just before the fourth and the half of the training unit 😉 after the fifth my legs where a bit sour and hard but knowing that there are only 3 to go. When the lactate came up in waves on the second last and last round I was considering stepping out of the track and placing it out in the green …
Focus. Always trying to run more relaxed, using the upper body to produce forward movement and the arms to produce the right cadence of the legs. As soon as you concentrate on that it’s going easier. Not thinking about how hard the rounds are getting – the smell of iron inside your lungs and feeling the cold inside of your body. Putting these thoughts away the 2 minute breaks between the runs are getting shorter and shorter. “10 seconds to go …”. Again and again. Following the faster guys, going with their pace. Hanging in and pressing out what’s in your body while your lungs are becoming smaller and producing less energy round by round …
Some people say that we’re crazy to do such hard stuff in a time when others still are in the basics. Almost all of my time I am training in the basics too. But this unit is about other things:
– realising, that your limits are fare away
– feeling at what speed you can run at your limits
– memorizing the pictures round by round to bring them back in a competition
– training the race hardness and running through situations coming up soon
– staying relaxed even when it gets really hard
– working on physical movement
– beating your inner weak just to make clear who the boss is
And, the most important one: having fun and running as fast or clearly faster than the guys who where outspeeding me last year 😉 What’s nicer than the compliment of a person you’re looking up to, saying: “You were very strong today. I wasn’t able to hold up on the last one.”
Energy and motivation for more.
@fight inner weak 