A Training Lull

I am always very amused when I sit down after a big race or event to write a blog. When I’m relaxing on the sofa in my slippers with a cup of something (chocolatey and) warm and a (large) plate of something (chocolatey and very) naughty I struggle to even remember the myriad of emotions I’ve been through.

Almost every event I have done includes the same components: a bit where you still feel fresh and positive, a bit where you wonder “why on earth am I doing this?!”, some sort of food/clothing/directional mishap, a section where suddenly everything is going well and you feel brilliant, some kind of overtaking/being overtaken that either spurs you on or fills you with a mini race rage, at least one bit of unfavourable weather and of course the inevitable combination of delirium and euphoria when you finally finish.

Having had something of a motivational lull and a fairly lacklustre couple of weeks of training, this got me thinking. Training for a big event is just like an enormous extended version of those components. One week, training is going fantastically and then suddenly the next day your legs won’t work and you’re ready to throw in the towel.

During these times when things just aren’t feeling great or going your way, you just need to do what you do in a race: keep ticking over, have a little, ranty mutter to yourself and get ready to push hard as soon as you’re feeling good again. Sometimes there’s no explanation for a lag in enthusiasm or energy levels, it’s merely part of being human and you just have to ride it out.

So my moments last week of “training is s$8t, I don’t want to race Wimbleball I just want to get drunk, lay in bed the next day out of the rain and eat millions of jaffa cakes”, was not a mental breakdown, just a tiny blip in a long journey!