Or, a post-running-event retrospective and follow up

As mentioned in my previous post about running for beginners, I was (past tense) training for a specific event – the Brno půlmaraton.
(No, not a spelling error – that’s just me trying to be clever and use the Czech name. It’s the half marathon in the city of Brno, OK?)

I’m happy to say that, in spite of the sun and 20ish degrees C temperature, I completed the event in 2 hours and 8 minutes – not my best time ever, but not my worst.

I stuck with the training plan I selected for myself (a programme build into the Garmin Connect app for their sports tracking watches), did all my practice runs, adjusted my diet/lifestyle in the months leading up, and even learnt about the ‘Cadence’ metric for how many steps a running takes in a minute.

…and at the end I still felt like crap.

A disappointment

It might seem a strange thing to say, but even with my modest goals of ‘just get the thing finished’ I still felt disappointed with my own performance overall. Especially the fact that I needed to take several walking breaks round the course instead of managing to run or at least jog for the entire time.

I’m writing this several months later, but wanted to do something of a retrospective and get down my thoughts since the finish line, and then look at my lessons learnt and plan ahead to the future.

In my previous post I mentioned that I don’t really like the ‘run-walk-run’ method of taking short walking breaks during a run. It feels, to me, a lot harder to get yourself going again – mentally- and means a drop in pace without any overall benefit. But for this half-marathon it was a lot hotter than previous months when i’d been training, and I just couldn’t keep myself going in the heat. This is part of why I feel let down, in a sense, that I did have to take several such ‘breaks’. I even thought I might drop out after the third lap of the course, which marked 15km.

On the plus side, I’m glad I didn’t, and pushed through, but it was a lot harder than it ‘should’ have been given I’ve done the same distance before.

Climate

I’m also now convinced that running in hot, sunny conditions is really not for me.

I have a friend who is something of an ‘exercise maniac’ and he speaks to the value of acclimatising to your race conditions – so this is possibly an important factor, however I’ve stopped doing any consistent running during the summer months here.
The continental climate of the Czech Republic means that from May to August, and often beyond that, the sun is out consistently and the temperature is 25C to 35C (this year’s top temperature).

Personally, I think this is a case of ‘lessons learnt’ and I much prefer to do my exercise on a bike (more on that another time, maybe) when it’s like this.

In fact, I’ve REALLY gotten to love my bike rides in the last year – so switching these 2 cardio methods out is a pleasure.

As such, I’ve hardly done any running since finishing the event. Only a handful of shorter routes in May, June and July.

On a more positive note

…and in keeping with the overall spirit of my writing here, I don’t find myself comparing my times and performance to other people. I’m only setting my own goals and expectations – which I believe is a good thing.
To that end, at time of writing I am gradually starting to train consistently again for another event which will take place in October. This will be the Annual ‘Saucony Vokolo priglu‘ – a 14km course looping around the local Reservoir, with some steeper sections.

I have a point to prove to myself, as running the same event last year also made me feel in terrible condition at the end – with total exhaustion, walking spells and giant blisters on one foot.

If I wanted to try and make excuses to myself for last year (which I frequently do) I can cite the lack of proper training and my poor choice of footwear.

I signed up for the race 2 weeks beforehand to fill someone’s spot who had already paid and couldn’t participate, and had also not been running during the summer. I also opted to wear new trainers which, while comfortable now, had not been broken in yet.
But this is why I am determined to do a better job this year and just adds to the ‘lessons learnt’.

All of this being said, I can recognise that it is worth celebrating one’s own victories.

In conclusion

I finished the event, got my little finisher’s medal and T-shirt for my modest collection, and have some thoughts on what to do and not do in the future. If I had to give myself three bullet-points to take away from this it would be;

• Practice makes perfect – if you want to commit to do an event, commit to doing the sensible amount of training as well. Even if it doesn’t mean you smash a personal best every time, your body will be in a lot better shape at the end of it all.
• Your only competition is yourself – setting your own goals based on your own abilities, and recognising the value of sensible expectations will leave you in a better place, mentally, than chasing the achievements of other people.
• Celebrate the personal victories – take some pride in what you DO achieve, rather than dwelling on what you don’t manage. Pushing yourself to be better is all well and good for personal growth and development, but punishing yourself endlessly is poor motivation to continue to get better.

Onwards and upwards to the next event, and here’s to feeling ‘average’ in future!