Being in race shape is a great feeling.
On form; in the zone - call it what you like but being in state of peak physical and mental fitness for competition is truly wonderful, not to mention intoxicating. Everything feels easy and just seems to fall into place, true synchronicity on a personal scale if you like where flow predominates over any type of ebb.
Whenever I think back to my own periods of peak running fitness I'm initially left with a feeling of happiness and sheer exhilaration. The deeper reflection that often follows my "head in the clouds" nostalgia tends to bring me a little closer to earth, with memories of the little niggles, morning tightness and the sheer intensity of race pace flooding back into my conscious. Those fast 10km times or freakishly fast cross-country races look great on paper, but there is always a price to pay leading up to or immediately after such super-efforts.
More importantly though, it is the extended periods of less-than good form and the ensuing down periods that remind me of one thing and it is this:
Race shape is finite
As simple as that.
It's just that it is so difficult to let go once that period of magic subsides. A true case of living in denial really until injury, illness or simple lack of drive rears its head. But it doesn't necessarily have to be like that.
Sheer love of the sport and, more importantly, the activity means that I can now work through these periods of downtime with the benefit of hindsight.But it wasn't always that way. I like to think that I'm getting better at managing the ebbs and flows of sport and life as I get older but the desire to perform to best of ability stills runs deep. It's just that I can't expect to do it all the time. Work in progress I guess.
A former pro cyclist once told me that he was giving marathon running a break because he wants to still be running when he is eighty. I can remember thinking that was ridiculous at the time although deep down I knew he was right.He still runs in his home forests outside Munich almost daily, hasn't competed on foot for a while and is truly happy.
I'm currently in one of these periods of ebb but it is OK. My previous peak competitive exploits are about two years in the past and I have nothing but fond memories, including what it took stay there. Those weekly long runs are now in the guise of barefoot hikes in the mountains complementing daily half-hour jogs around the neighbourhood, forests or beach. It's been a while since if ran a foot in anger but that is fine - the time will come again.
Peak fitness does not necessarily translate to peak health. As Gordo Byrn says that "the chemical signature from being underweight and overreached is a powerful one. Race fitness is a
powerful drug!"
Yes - there is a time and place for everything.
Even race pace.
