On The Road To New Adventures
Fire Travel Between Trail and Road
Last week I told Lisa that it was time to close the "marathon chapter”. How did I know that? Well, for one thing, the last week of training was so incredibly hard that my body was already showing strange signs of wear and tear. An undefinable nerve pain in the sole of my foot and completely swollen legs from some ridiculous mosquito bites.
Most of all, I realized mentally that I was slowly reaching my limits. For the 10x 1000m on Tuesday I could still motivate myself halfway. But not for the 3x 3000m on Thursday. And on Sunday (long run with marathon pace blocks) I probably would have just stayed in bed if I hadn't had an appointment to run. Luckily I did.
My coach Karim commented:
"It was a tough week and the intention was to challenge you both physically and mentally".
Thanks. It worked.
Today is Wednesday. After 2 regeneration sessions and a change of location to beautiful Innsbruck later, the world looks different again. I will finish today's 2x 5000m with my head held high. As well as all the other sessions on the schedule this week and next. But the thought that it will be over soon motivates me more than the actual running sessions, even more than my incredible form. Maybe the best I've ever been. I feel the same way about my A-run, the main competition, day X. The Hannover Marathon is in 10 days and I know it will be good. But I'm not hungry. Not at the moment. Maybe at the starting line.
But if you think my running fire has gone out and I'll be looking for a new hobby soon, you're wrong. As I sat in front of my three monitors and seven browser windows yesterday lunchtime, trying all legal and semi-legal means to get a starting place for Sierre-Zinal (spoiler alert: it worked), it was clear: my fire is unquenched!
Even during my beautiful evening run along the Inn with the Nordkette on one side and the Patscherkofel on the other (we were secretly flirting), I realized that my problem was not a lack of enthusiasm for running. Quite the opposite. It's just time for something new. I can feel it very clearly.
I will be torn between trail and road for the rest of my life, and that's a good thing. Both touch and inspire me in very different ways. And even though I've just experienced the benefits of staying true to one type of running for a while - I've only been running on tarmac since November 2022 - I'm still looking for the new, the exciting, the unknown.
My race plans for 2024 are starting to take shape.
You'll be surprised!