It was another rough winter
I remind myself to be grateful for being able to race and train at all. But after easy success last autumn, I had expectations that some focused training would allow me to run a strong age-adjusted time.
Instead tweaking my training seemed to lead to a steady decline.
I entered 3 more of the MxK events I did last December. Each one this year saw me start out at goal pace, before dropping off pace somewhere in the middle, and then largely giving up:
January 31 - 18:30 (stiff wind)
February 23 - 18:25
March 14 - 18:41
The 5k is a tough event for me (everyone I suppose), but still I berate myself for lack of mental tenacity, since I pride myself on gutting out a reasonable effort. In fact on the latter two events the idea of dropping out completely actually crossed my mind to avoid posting abysmal times.
The tightly seeded nature of these track races and my aspirations of hitting 17:45 mean that I suffer the ignominy of finishing in distance last place. And there is no consolation of being on an age-group podium.
These events have only served to increase my admiration for age-group runners who remain motivated year after year, decade after decade only chasing a time - particularly as they get older and times begin to slip. (As anyone who has read this blog before knows, I gave up on chasing PBs and absolute race times decades ago).
Since March I have felt too fatigued and too demotivated to even bother entering the handful of time trial type events on tap.
But as summer approaches and I revert back to my high-intensity / cross-training oriented sessions I feel stronger and hope to find opportunity to mix it up in some competitive challenge...
