People who share their workouts on the internet get a lot of stick, often unnecessarily. Yes, there can be a lot of boasting, a lot of posing and a lot of egos. But there’s also a lot of bravery.
In any aspect of your life, if you have a goal that you want to work towards, that you know will be hard and that there’s a chance that you might not do it, but you’re willing to tell the world and have them watch you try, then I salute you.
I’ve fallen on my face several times on this blog. I tried and failed to run a Boston Qualifier twice and failed before I actually achieved it. I trained for an Ironman and failed to make it round within the cut-off. But none of these were the end of the world. In each failure I learnt things about myself, got up and tried again.
Hey October! Hey new autumn kit! Thanks Brooks!
I started writing about running nearly nine years ago when I knew nothing about it including what I was doing. Over the years, as I’ve developed as a runner and a coach, I’ve shared less about my own training and more advice that you might find useful and bit and bobs you might find entertaining.
It’s been fun, this past 10 weeks though, to go back to those early days and to show you my training for the half marathon. To show you that things often don’t go to plan, that people aren’t infallible and that reaching a goal takes hard work. On the weeks when training didn’t go to plan, it would have been easy to gloss over that or to skip a post, but where’s the point in that?
Each Monday morning my inbox has emails from my online coaching clients. Sometimes they’re brimming with excitement because their weekend long run went well, other times it has gone less well and they’re feeling pretty down about their running. Either way, I do my best to focus them on the week ahead. I don’t want them to be nervous about emailing me when they’ve had a bad week; our coaching relationship depends on complete honesty. And I feel being honest about my own training is part of that.
This will be my last training update before the half marathon. The last couple of weeks have been a bit rocky. In the past week I’ve spent more time in the physio’s couch than I have running. But I’m still planning to line up on race morning to give that 99 min half my best shot. To run hard and see what happens. If that means I drop out at half way, well I’ve done that before and bounced back.
NB: I’m not in pain with my leg but it’s not quite right. My physio has given me the green light to start the race – I’m not being reckless with my health. Please don’t be reckless with yours. There’s more important things in life than a PB.
This week…
Running: 6 miles total
Cycling: 43 miles
Indoor bike: 2x interval sessions
Catch up
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 |Week 9
Mustard pots with you all the way round xx
Fall seven times, rise eight.
I think you’ll do it. BUT if you don’t, it won’t be for the lack of trying. Thanks for your writing. It is refreshingly honest and real and inspiring. I contacted you a few months ago about coaching me to do a crazy event 70 miles (over 2 days). Your reply made me feel it wasn’t crazy. But you were honest and told me that a coach who had more experience at ultras might be better. You didn’t have to say that, you could have taken my money, coached me and I’d have been none the wiser. Your coaching philosophy is real but mostly honest. So I took your advice and I found a coach. But wanted to say thank you for your honesty and willingness to know your boundaries. I respect that. A lot. Which is why I think your body will respect you knowing your boundaries in your own pursuit for 99 mins.
I think it will happen for you, it’s just a matter of when.
Thanks for this message. I really appreciate it. Best of luck with your training and let me know how it goes.
I commend you for toeing the starting line and letting the chips fall where they may. It can be scary, but facing your fears, and having the chance at success, is a big part of the journey.
Good luck. I sincerely hope that you achieve your sub-100 half-marathon goal.
Richard C
Thanks Richard.
Best of luck at the weekend! Hope the leg holds up! I have enjoyed following your training over the last few weeks and am pretty sure you will do it.
Thank you!