Professional running is not all beer and skittles

Just as I'm starting out on my professional running career, an unexpected speed-bump appears on the smooth Mondo road to success. Yes, an injury — embarrassingly self-inflicted, but now, a week after the fact, feeling like it's almost not worth writing about. However, I will.

I visited my old home town of Wagga Wagga on the 14th of August to race the 'Trail Marathon 10k' the following day. The race went better than expected — I felt strong and reasonably speedy, finishing 17th (from 71 finishers) in 48:01. For a trail race, it was a fast course (the marathon on the other hand, is tough!), perhaps only a minute slower than a fast 10k road course. I was happy with my time. The following day I rode my mountain bike in the 'Mountain Bike Marathon', getting beaten up a bit by the hills, finishing 41st in 2:35:42. It was good fun though! Beautiful trails and river-side single tracks.

I recovered well and enjoyed some good training in Wagga over the next few days. On Thursday I took my scooter (Xootr) out for some x-training. I was rolling down the footpath having a great time — until I moved to the left to give an oncoming old pedestrian elbow room. My front wheel sunk in the grass and I fell heavily (and embarrassingly) on my left side. Ouch! Only a little skin off one finger, but I'd wrenched my lower back. The following day I jogged 10k with the shortest stride ever, 6:10 per km pace, the right hamstring also feeling tight and uncomfortable. Since then I've been easing back into training — short runs of 3 to 4k and long bike rides. The injury, today, feels like it's about 90% right. I hope to resume 'normal' training this weekend, with the Blackmores Sydney Harbour Bridge 9k on September 20 my next major race. No scooter cross-training has been penciled in to the training schedule.

Very cool 'rusty crow' trophies (Wagga Wagga means place of many crows)

 

Lovely trail beside the Murrumbidgee River used for the Marathon, Half and MTB Marathon races

My first two weeks as a professional runner

Had a fantastic sleep last night — 10 hours, solid. The lifestyle of a professional runner is tiring! My body is telling me something: "Listen here stupid! Waking up to an alarm at 5 A.M. every morning is not healthy. You need more rest!"

As Canute mentioned in a comment on my last post, 'increased time for recovery will probably be at least as valuable as the increased time for training'. So true. Nevertheless, I have modestly increased the volume of training over the past two weeks. Running is up to 40k per week from a recent average of 25k per week and cycling is up to 266k per week (from 197k).

On Sunday I ran my 31st Sydney City to Surf and had a surprisingly good result. Surprising because I'd decided to 'train through' the race, not wanting to do a one-week taper as I've only just started increasing my training. My 'taper' was a rest day on the Saturday. I knew I wasn't going to break 70 minutes (5-minute km pace) as I'd raced a hard 5k on Friday for 24:11 (4:50 pace) on a fairly flat course. The City to Surf is anything but flat. Sunday dawned cool, sunny and breezy — great conditions for racing. I was very relaxed about the whole show, starting near the back of the 'Red' group and settling into a steady pace down William Street. I only saw a couple of runners I knew during the run: Bridget from the YMCA Running Club, Elle and Kathy Sims (who finished 4th in the W60 age-group). I ran by feel, trying to keep stress levels low on the hills. At 10k I took a quick look at the Garmin, saw 51:16 and thought I might finish close to 70 minutes after all. After that I ran faster, confident that I'd make the daunting 14k distance and actually sprinted the final 300 metres. 70:17! Very happy with that. I placed 7,900th out of 65,477 official finishers and 480th in the rather tough 50-59 age-group. Simon Claringbold from Canberra, probably our fastest M55 runner, placed 7th in 52:31.

Well, it's finally stopped snowing, so I should get out for my run — or ride, or indoor row, or gym session, or treadmill run. So many difficult decisions for the professional runner.

Crossing the City to Surf finish line on a sunny Sydney day 

Happy Speedy goose stops Garmin after a Sunday long run