Procrastination, Chasing Olympians and Pat
Benatar
It was great to participate in a running race again this
past Wednesday. Whilst night races are popular in South Africa, particularly
over the 10km distance, I wish there more in the Southern Peninsula. Having
been an evening runner by nature for most of my life, the past couple of years have
seen me shift to a more morning inclination, something to which I’ve always
aspired to but had difficulty in actually implementing. While I used to feel so
dead trying to run in the morning, 2013 has seen a marked shift in both feeling
and attitude, although I’m not sure why. Maybe it is a late-thirties evolution
or something.
Morning inclinations aside, I must admit that I really do prefer racing in the afternoon or evening. That is perhaps one of the reasons that I enjoy our winter cross-country league so much given the 3:15pm start time. I can remember reading an interview with a sports psychologist who was working with a top ultra-marathoner in the latter’s quest to win the Comrades Marathon. Positive mindset and visualization aside, one of the key factors that were ascertained was the time of the day that the athlete in question was at his peak, both physically and mentally. This particular case study favoured the period around 5pm, where he felt that he would perform to his maximum potential, hence is preference for scheduling his track sessions around that time. The psychologist explained that his function was to get his athlete in the same mindset at around 6am, which was the starting time for Comrades and most other road races.
Having not participated in any races since the Cape TownMarathon in mid-September, I have been getting a little itchy of late to “clean the pipes”, but unsure of when or where. Jack Foster once said that an athlete needs one easy day for every mile raced and I have really taken this to heart over the past year. By my calculation, running a marathon would therefore translate into 26.2 easy days and that would roughly work out to Saturday 19 October before I could race again. That particular day was spent travelling to the Cape Pioneer Trek but I had great intentions of participating in a 10km event in George the following Saturday. As the week wore on, it became increasingly unlikely that that was going to happen given the circumstances. When I drove past the event en route to Oudtshoorn, I thought that there was no ways that I could have competed given the accumulated fatigue of that working week. November came and went with no other viable competitive opportunities on the horizon and come this past Wednesday, it was almost three months since I had run or cycled at any intensity above talking pace.
Perhaps this extended period of low-intensity exercise was just what I needed in order to recover properly. Athletic longevity is something that I strive to achieve in my chosen sports and beating oneself into a pulp does not really gel with that sort of mindset. With work and other sideline projects keeping my mind stimulated, it is important to achieve proper balance athletically and I can totally relate to this brilliant piece by Gordo Byrn. As I’ve alluded to in the past, many amateurs try to train like professionals, effectively wearing themselves out in the name of accumulated miles and sub-par race performances. For the working athlete, there are other ways of achieving athletic success without wrapping oneself in the safety blanket that is overtraining. It is just finding out what works for you. In my case it is a lot of very easy peppered with a sprinkling of very, very hard.
Wednesday evening was one of those very, very hard instances; it was a race after all. Warming up around the field pre-race, an exceptionally athletic looking lady passed me running in the other direction with the poise and grace reserved only for elite athletes. It was KZN’s Tanith Maxwell, who represented South Africa at London 2012. This meant that most of the fast men would need to watch out if they didn’t want to get “chicked.” Not that I had to worry about that; my goal was at least keep her within sight by the finish.
Standing on the start line, I was unsure of exactly why I was feeling nervous; what did I really have to be nervous about? I wasn’t scared of suffering or the sensations of that. Perhaps it was my perceived rustiness and lack of racing, two things that could be directly related to ego.
With my insecurities and subsequent rationalizations complete, the gun went off with Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” in my head for some reason. As we rounded the first bend and settled into the first kilometer, I was surprised at how good I was feeling. Maybe those three months of jogging pace were just what I needed after all. Whilst there were a couple of tiring sections in the race (like trying sprint through final 500m), it was exhilarating to be able to push myself that hard and dig that deep it pursuit of a peak performance relative to my current fitness level. A true case of “runner’s high” and now that I’ve had a taste of race pace, I want more. It is just a case of tempering that impulsiveness, which can take a little bit of discipline.
Jogging home from work the following evening, I exited the local forest onto one of the roads used for the previous night’s event. Moving along at a speed that must have been almost half of my race pace less than 24 hours earlier, I couldn’t even imagine running that fast for an extended period. Yet I was totally secure with merely jogging along and taking in my leafy surroundings.
There is another 10km event in Gugulethu this coming Monday, a public holiday here in South Africa. Should I or shouldn’t? Maybe that little voice inside my head will have a clear answer by then.
