Today I was watching some cooking show about making scrambled eggs and I tried to repeat that on my own - delicious (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUP7U5vTMM0 - I think that guy is way too hyperactive). Ok - thats nonsense.
This time in english. Why? One simple reason - practice. Actually theres been a while since I spoke to someone in english. Yes - I'm watching movies and serials all the time, but thats not talking (and I also use english subtitles cause reading is much more easy than listening). So - sorry for my pretty bad english cause i'm too lazy to search in grammars book (spelling should be alright cause of Google spellchecking).
Ok - back to running. Theres been a while from my last post here and there is reason for that. After Latvian Olympiad, I was pretty tired for couple of weeks. I think I could be pushed too hard. Most of July I straggled with fatigue and hot weather. I have big history with warm weather issues cause my body just can't take any warmer weather than 18-20 degrees per celsius but thats another story. I tried to start normal regular training at end of the July but I failed.
In August I read Jack Daniel's book (Daniel's Running formula) and I was pretty excited to start a new page in my running career - the training plan was interesting but not so devastated like my own - hard sessions had more recovery time and hard running time was much more shorter at time. The main idea is to add so much stress to body so that wouldn't be too much or too easy. The body will recover faster but also will develop step by step. There is no need to kill yourself every time in every hard session.
It was too late to hope that I would be ready for the Latvian championship at the end of the August but I choose another event - 1st October - Tartu Half marathon where I planed to run 10k. There was solid 7-8 weeks of training and could do 2 half phases and I also would have another 2 weeks.
I started with second phase what concentrated on running economy. I run 3 weeks in this phase and every week main session was repetition training with 200m - 400m meters fast running and full recovery. Actually I started to feel more and more stronger and I also run one marathon specific session with 9 miles at marathon pace. Felt pretty normal but not so good to be happy about it.
The straggle started in phase III what is most devastated cause there is two quality sessions in 2 days. First hard session was "four times 1200m at VO2max pace" - yeah it has been a while from my last VO2max practice. I just couldn't take that pace - my legs was off. I canceled session and was so depressed (in a spring I run 10x800m at VO2max+ pace) cause of my shape, that I took 2 days off. I run that session in Saturday and next hard session in Sunday but result was "dead" legs for 3 days and I also missed hard sessions at Wednesday and Thursday this week. Today I tried to run 5k at threshold pace but I felt weak and I knew - this season is over. I tried and I failed. The most important part is knowing when to stop and I think - this is it. I already lost a lot of motivation and I don't want to lose more - I don't want quit competition running at all.
I always like to calculate all reasons to be able to learn from my mistakes. The main reason is overtraining - I run too many VO2max trainings, all of my Tempo runs was very long at very fast pace without any breaks - I run out myself every time. In July my body didn't recover from that - I felt weak, I couldn't run, and I felt sleepy all the time.
Second issue came at August - mood problems. Yeah I am pretty life joyful - I smile all the time, laugh at bad jokes, I liked to help people but I'm very nervous also. That leads me to sleepless nights and later it leads me to depressing mood. It is very hard to concentred on hard running when you feel down physically and mentally. Yeah - at the end I started to using sleeping pills with recipe. Thats the next level you know and not in the good way.
Third issue - and I think this is kinda consequences of my other two issues - is lack of eating and sleeping routine. I put some weight (you will maybe telling me that Im too thin or what, but there is standards for long distance runners and every athlete know that) cause of bad eating habits and used too much alcohol.
Conclusion is that I need vocation from hard running (not for running at all cause i don't have any injury). I need to get back to my routine. I will start with visiting psychologists. Also lately I have big stress at work and that is bad for me at a long term - i already have health problems - so i need to take care of that. I like my work very much but too much is too much.
This is the first season where I will not be able to complete my season targets (10k under 35minutes) but thats ok - I needed that also. The last competition will be at Tuesday, 13 September, where I will be representing Saulkrasti at local government cross - need to pay back for Latvian Olympiad :) .
So see ya next year and take away just one thing from this long bullshit - don't push yourself too hard in anything in your life and have fun as much as possible cause there is no other legit reason for living.
So see ya next year and take away just one thing from this long bullshit - don't push yourself too hard in anything in your life and have fun as much as possible cause there is no other legit reason for living.
