Consistency, Distance and having a plan

Consistency, Distance and having a plan

I started tracking my run data in May 2017 and I will be honest it was a poor start. I had done a few 5ks fun runs for work and charity back in my early 30's with little or no training or effort, but now in my late 30's I was out of breath after 4km and fighting hard not to stop before I hit 5km so I knew I was in bad shape.

To add insult to injury, as I started back into senior football around the same time, I bought the cheapest football boots and the most basic running shoes I found online and within weaks I was struggling with a flare up of plantar fasciitis. 

Advice:

Invest in your running shoes, if its the one piece of equipment you are going to buy, don't buy cheap. If you have to buy cheap, find good running shoes on sale at the lowest price you can afford. Research the shoe before you buy. Plantar fasciitis, shin splints, injury, all can set back your training by months and stop you in your tracks

Eventually rolling out of plantar fasciitis with some therapy and effort I got back on track, I just wanted to be able to run a fast 5k once a week, and had this small 2km loop near home that I ran a night or two a week as well, and it fitted in with my football training regime as well. 

Into 2018 I started to get more serious, more than doubling my runs and distance, I was playing competitive football weekly, running regular fun runs and charity runs and went through a slight body metamorphosis, the soft round middled Dad-bod was gone and a much stronger physique had taken its place

Mind over matter

Into 2019 as I dropped football and focused on running and aimed for The Warriors Run event in Sligo I had to push my distance up, something I had not really aimed at before, it was almost a mental struggle for me. I used to run every 5k at the limit, burning up over the line, and for someone who now felt myself to be at my fittest in decades, why was I struggling to get my head around longer runs? 

Of course the answer was obvious and just took an adjustment of mindset, to run further, run slower. Obvious yes, easy no. I had a few new Strava followers and local runners I thought I was competing with and this stupid voice in my head liked the fact I hit really good 5ks now in my 40s, and what would people think if I was plodding along slowly over 10k? Stupid right. 

But I eventually put that to rest and also started to go to the local running track once a week and meet other older runners. A combination of speed work, longer distances and consistency meant that in my opinion, 2019 was probably my best year as a runner. 

In the same year I ran my fastest 5k, 19 minutes, my fastest 10k 46minutes, and also completed the 15k adventure race, The Warriors Run in 1hr 31mins, which runs from sea level, includes a 750foot climb up a mountain and a difficult descent back to the start line again. 

The Decline

2020 and 2021, the lockdown years, saw a steady decline again, between changes at work and home and the impact and decimation of races and reasons to run at all. At best during the lockdown I began using kettle bells and running the same 5k loop within my restricted area, but with no races, no team connection, things drifted. 2021, while still my worst year since 2017 when I started, was still a more active year than that, so I take some solace in that. 

Renewal

However, as we started into January of 2022, with the pandemic officially being called off by government the world started to reset, races returned, targets were set and we begin again.

I relocated to Longwood, Co.Meath, started reviewing the local strava heatmaps for inspiration and was told about the local running group. I gave myself a month of private running to get back to a level of fitness I felt was adequate and sent the text to the admins asking to join. 

Having run a grand total of 211km in 2021, in comparison, by March 2022 I had already clocked over 300km. 

At this point I have no idea how the year will turn out. I have to believe that the renewed consistency, the renewed determination, and the framework of training provided should give me results I've never seen before, but at the same time there's almost a chemical change in my body right now. In the past I had been so keenly focused on 5k sub 20, in the last month alone I've been running 10k+ long runs weekly and have the Warriors Run 2022 back in my sights again. Can I do the double, and achieve a fast sub 20 5k in the same year as a fast 10k and sub 1h 31min warriors run? Can I achieve with support at 44, the things I could do at 41?