People keep telling me I'm crazy for doing this endurance sport thing. I'm starting to realise that's actually not a very nice thing to say.
I know they mean well but when I thought about it more closely it comes across as suggesting that it's somehow wrong to be doing this, that there's no good reason for it. And that's a load of bollocks.
But I don't take offence, I just find it a bit curious. I had one person recently say to me: "I'd never have the energy to do something like that." That one made my skin crawl because it's just so wrong. It's precisely the same kind of thinking that held me back over so many years.
During my post-race down time I've been feeling a bit bored after being used to spending so much time training. To help fill in the time I've been reading some biographies. I've read two Dean Karnazes books - "50 marathons in 50 days" and "26.2 stories of blisters and bliss" which I thought were great reads. Then I picked up Marshall Ulrich's book "Running on Empty" about his run across the continental US. This one is a stratospheric must-read. It's an incredible story.
After reading these books I've been thinking a bit about inspiration and where it comes from. I'm starting to realise that external sources of inspiration are what gets you started, but once you reach a certain level you realise that there really are no limits other than those you impose on yourself. It's all in your head. All you have to do is put in the work to prepare and you can do anything. I think that's some kind of enlightenment.
In those books I saw that even those endurance legends have their inspiration and it's often not other endurance athletes - it's the poor and the sick who have no choice but to suffer greatly every day, which is why they use their adventures to promote charitable causes. This is what gets them through their own self-inflicted ordeals.
My Plans For This Year
The down-time is also giving me an opportunity to consider my plans for the next year. Well actually it's forcing me to because I'd been putting it off and now I need a target for my training.
This year I'm being guided by practicality because last years injuries hit me pretty hard. The past few years have been terrible in that respect, I've had two stress fractures and a whole load of achilles problems. So for the initial part of my year I'm going to gradually work on putting these injuries to bed and getting my running back up to scratch. I'll continue doing strength work and maybe try and work on the swimming a bit harder during winter, despite the problems I'm going to have with overcrowding in the pool.
Race-wise it's going to be largely a duplicate of last year:
- A Run to Remember (I ran it hard last year and flared up my achilles so this year I'll take it easy)
- Christchurch Half Marathon (I did the full last year and came out with a stress fracture and even worse achilles pain)
- Lake Hood Swim - maybe
- Rolf Prima Half Ironman - I had to walk most of the run last year as I wasn't up to 21km in my recovery by then
- Lake Wanaka Half
My coach may also suggest a few other events to use as part of my training.
It's tempting to have a look at a couple of overseas races, especially in Australia, but the cost and hassle of travelling with the bike are a bit off-putting. I also thought that CO2 cartridges wouldn't be allowed for flying but I've just checked and they're allowed with Air NZ in your checked baggage. Pit Stop is too big at 75mL and is "extremely flammable"... but it could possibly count as an aerosol, many of which also contain flammable propellants. It meets the requirements for an aerosol anyway.
Longer-term I still have the full Challenge Wanaka on my bucket list but if I can have a good solid injury-free year with a couple of really good 70.3 races with unrestricted running, it'll lead into a much better buildup for the full distance.
