Time On Your Feet: January

I don't know what to say about January training, other than that I don't like it. It's cold, it rains (or even snows, if you're lucky), it's icy, everywhere is muddy, and it's dark all the time. And it's cold. Oh, I already said that.

I had a conversation with a physio once, because as well as all the above I was also injured in January (while training for one of my first marathons), which of course made everything a million times worse. I was seeing the physio because I had a problem with my sciatic nerve getting trapped, because I wasn't doing any core strengthening exercises at all, so all my posture was all out of kilter, resulting in my nerve getting trapped somewhere. Anyway, I'm not sure why that's relevant. Oh yes, it's because she was doing loads of massaging on the area, which I can confidently say was the most painful thing that has ever happened to me in my life (and I was actually paying for it), and so I felt justified in moaning about things.

Me: I hate winter training. Why is the London Marathon in the spring? Can't they have it in the autumn, so we could train over the summer instead?

Gill (physio): But if you didn't have a marathon to train for in the spring, then you wouldn't do any training at all over the winter, would you.

Me: No

pause

Gill: Sooooo.... that's great then that it's in the spring, because it gets you out training when otherwise your wouldn't, and you maintain your fitness all over the winter. Imagine starting again in the spring after not keeping it up over the winter.

Me: I suppose so.

Pause

Me: But it's so cold outside.

Slight pause

Me: AAARRRGGGHHHHH (as Gill jabs deep into somewhere in my back that I didn't even know was there)

I've never forgotten that conversation, never. Most likely as it was so painful. But I think about it every winter, every time I lace up my trainers on a cold dark evening, and I know she was right.

So, fast-forward a few years to this January. I have almost gone the other way now, and I want there to be races to do during winter. And there are. A lot. It's just I seemed to have real trouble this year finding ones that I could make it to, and finding ones with spaces available. Things seem to be really booked up this year, which is good I suppose that the sport is getting more popular. So anyway, the end of the matter was that there weren't any proper events that I could do in January.

So I made up a few myself, and with Andrew in January I did 3 marathons and 2 ultras (36 miles each). Towards the end of the month, I had a little bit of a set back mentally and physically, but then I thought about things and noticed that I hadn't ever actually run that many long runs all so close together before, so I stepped back a bit. And there were a few other things going on too, which was all getting a bit overwhelming and I was finding it difficult to manage my mood, so I remembered my SMART goals from last year, and remembered the need to break things down into little pieces and take one thing at once. It's funny, writing it down, how simple that seems, but actually it makes such a big difference for me. So I'm feeling much better now, like I'm in control of things again. And as well as running, I've started walking a lot more too, day-to-day (lie the 3 miles to work) and a couple of longer walks too, which seems to be helping with my stamina, and I'm really enjoying too. And I've started yoga again (after I got better from the sciatic nerve thing, I vowed to myself never to neglect my core and end up in that pickle again).

So, here are a few snaps from the January runs:

07.01.17: from home along the river to Putney - along the river to Richmond - around Richmond Park - back along the river to Putney (36 miles)