Football fever has descended on the country and for two weeks when most will be out enjoying some beer and hopefully some England victories, runners like myself will face a dilemma. There is a fine balance to be made between training hard and watching those matches which are simply too good to miss.
This is because no matter how much enjoyment running brings me, nothing can compare to those precious moments such as England thrasing the Germans or my beloved Ipswich winning the Playoffs.
This dilemma comes to fore on Saturday when I am due to race 5000m at Watford at the same time when England play their first group game against the US.
For some strange reason FIFA have allowed this fixture clash to stand and it looks certain that I will miss some, maybe all, of the match.
I am used to going to extreme lengths to watch England play, back in 2006 I persuaded the owner of an island off Fiji to get a satellite so we could stay up till 4am to watch the Paraguay game.
Similarly, I rushed through customs in the US to make it to the nearest bar to watch the game against Trinidad even though I had two uninterested girls with me and had to listen to some dodgy yank commentary (they called us the England soccer team!).
And it looks likely that I will have to run a massive PB on Saturday, ideally sub 14:35, in order to get to the nearest pub as quick as possible.
Some might say that athletics should be my main priority but I was born and raised with football in my blood and it will always be my first love (just dont tell the missus).
I know others out there in the running community feel the same way and hopefully Rooney and the boys can do us proud and not make this dilemma a painful one.
I have decided that I will try and update this blog more often, with more in depth views into my day to day thoughts and training.
Monday 7th June
17:52 PM: 11:00 w/u (1.54mi, 7:09/mi)
18:11 PM: 27:40 (5.0mi, 5:32/mi)
18:42 PM: 10:49 c/d (1.48mi, 7:17/mi), 8.02mi total.
I missed the morning run today as I had to drive to work from South Witham which is about an hour and that would have meant getting up really early for my run.
I say really early because basically I need enough time to get back have a shower and perfect my appearence (hair!) which is time consuming to say the least.
Anyway I met up with Tom and Shane tonight after work to do a controlled tempo around Skellingthorpe. The route is two laps around a cycle track, farm track and quiet country roads.
It felt very comfortable tonight, last time we did it I managed nearer 28 mins and was definitely working harder, and the whole point of the run is to stay controlled.
What makes the workout tough is that you are running fairly quick but you always know you could move up a gear if necessary.
All in all it was a decent run and I am looking forward to easing things down after tomorrow nights session.
Splits were 5:24, 5:30, 5:38, 5:39, 5:27.
Aaron
Good little session that- in the build up to the marathon was throwing in long tempos (up to 90 mins but that turns it into a session...) at that pace (5:36mm). Is pretty good- gets the heart rate going and I really think it's that sustained time at a high aerobic intensity that gets you into great shape for 5k+ - at faster paces it isn't sustainable continuously or for as long and takes a much greater effect on the body.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work. If you get much quicker they won't be able to call you tractor boy anymore ;)