Training is on!

I’ve trained a few weeks now with marathon in my mind. That has meant a couple of marathon pace runs, track intervals, and a few longer runs. Long runs haven’t been that long yet, but I’m trying to increase the mileage gradually. Right now every kilometer feels like a milestone.

Anyway, after a few weeks of training I wanted to run a half marathon. More or less like a training run, just to get half of the distance covered at my target pace. I’m not too thrilled about doing long pace runs on my own, so entering to an organised event seemed like an easier option. Initially I wanted to do Birmingham half but after checking the price of the flights I chose to stay in Sweden.

Lucky enough I managed to find a half marathon on the west coast and hopped on an early morning train (6:50am) to get there in time to an afternoon start. From Göteborg I took to a local train to get to Varberg and from the station I walked to the event centre. Plan was to follow a stream of runners from the train but I saw none. After 20min walk towards the start I still hadn’t seen any fellow runners and got slightly worried whether I had looked the date wrong. But eventually I found some signs and got to the club hut. It was a local orienteering club who arranged the event and their club hut was a natural gathering place.

It was a small event with less than 300 participants but with a beautiful undulating course running through the parks and forests of a nice little town named Varberg. Route was only partly on tarmac, partly on gravel, which meant less impact but slower times. Fine with me. My favorite part of it was a path running along the coastline with views over the sea. It was beautiful.

My plan was to run at gentle 4:15 pace. However, first 5k was very easy and went effortlessly in 19:57. Then tarmac changed to a coastal path. View was great but maintaining the pace was getting harder. After 7k came a bigger climb and the pace dropped. 10k in 41:15. Still in schedule. After 11k came a few more climbs and I also got problems with my stomach. Was it the ryebread? Or the third cup of coffee at Espresso House? Whatever the reason I was afraid to take my gels or sport drinks. I had to go on paniagua, or merely just aqua. I also had to slow down a bit. After slowing down I wasn’t able to pick up the pace anymore and lost about 4 minutes on the second half. Gentle pace oh yeah… To my excuse the undulating course on soft trails was certainly not the fastest. I wasn’t too happy with my run but at least I got a good workout done and some prize money for the effort. Although staying there for the prize giving meant a quick warm down back to the station in order to catch a train home (had about 15min to cover 3km). That was tough.

At this stage I’m definitively quite far away from my goals and where I’m hoping to be in a month. I mean if I can’t run a half marathon at my marathon pace, how an earth could I run the whole distance at that pace? Luckily I’ve got a few more weeks to train. Although I think I may need to adjust my paces a little. But the good news is that my legs are doing much better and getting used to the increased mileage. After only a few weeks of training I’m recovering much quicker and barely felt that half marathon in my legs afterwards. It’s a huge improvement from where I was after Lidingöloppet!

Start of the race (FK Friskus)   

2nd woman (FK Friskus)

Minimum input, maximum output

Sounds like a lazy athlete’s approach to training or just lazy person’s way of coping life in general but there might be something in it. In business world it is a way to maximise productivity. Why to do more than necessary and strain yourself? If there’s a certain amount of training needed for improvement, why to train more? It just increases the risk for injuries. Or if you can achieve something by doing the minimum, why to bother to do more? Of course if the doing itself is more important than the outcome and it makes you happy, then go ahead, keep on hammering. As long as you can cope with the load mentally and physically and don’t get burnout or injured.

This year I’ve certainly followed the concept above, at least the minimum input part of it. I’ve trained absolutely minimum due to my long-standing injury but still raced reasonably well considering my non-existing input. Looking back the season with some perspective, my coming-back-from-injury-run at Venla was indeed quite alright at that point, I just compared it to my normal level and wasn’t satisfied. And the long WOC selection race in Kainuu, which was my most important race of the year in order to get to run WOC, was probably my best run of the year. I wasn’t in top shape but got the maximum output when it mattered. I was 5^th in that race (if not counting Svetlana Mironova) – way better than in any other individual races in Finland this year.

Coming to Swedish Champs I was balancing with my input and output. I had just started to train again and maybe going to races a little too tired. I wasn’t able to reach my maximum of the day there, except in the middle qualification and in the relay. Well, I’m very happy that I got the best out in the relay. It paid off.

Only a week after Swedish Champs it was time for another kind of endurance challenge: Lidingöloppet. A 30km trail run. I had just survived Swedish Champs but felt that I was walking on a thin line. Running 2-3 races in three consecutive weekends was just about what my legs could take. My longest training run had been about 15km (the longest my injured calf could take). So going to LL I was very doubtful whether I could run the whole thing. How could I with so little training and practically no real long runs? Last year I had aimed for 2:15 but finished in 2:20. This time I didn’t have a time goal. I would just go easy and see how much my calf could take. After 15km my legs were all empty and I was sure to quit the race by 20km. Sami was cheering me there and shouting that I was ahead of my last years’ time and that I should continue. Nice try, I thought but then I realized that he wasn’t bluffing. I was indeed within that schedule. Oh crap, I guess I have to try... My legs were absolutely killing me on that last loop and I could barely jog the hills up but somehow I took myself around the whole thing with a very slow last 10km but still with a new PB 2:20:43. Time is no way brilliant but definitively a maximum output with my training background. I’m still amazed how I did it!

After seeing how much you can gain with very little training I've decided to try this same approach for a marathon. For a marathon?!? Have I lost my mind?!? Nope, I just try to get the best out again with minimum input. I mean I intend to train but I have to keep the mileage as low as possible to spare my legs (which I still think are injury prone). Running a good time on marathon without training is not possible, but after my race experiences from this year I’m hoping to find a way to reach my goal with minimum effort. Well, most probably I won’t reach it but stay tuned and I’ll let you know how it goes. Purpose is to blog about it even if it doesn’t go. Just getting around may be a challenge itself...