In May this year I will be doing a 250km run in the Middle East, in Jordan. The race begins in a place known as the Valley of the moon. The race will pass through four deserts and takes place over seven days. It won’t be as hot as some of the deserts I have run in as the temperature never really gets above 40 degrees Celsius. It is a self sufficient run, so you have to carry all your food for the week, sleeping bag, cooking utensils etc and there is also a list of mandatory equipment, so it is hard to get your rucksack under 8kg. The water is handed out at each checkpoint and you can carry up to 3 litres at a time.
Up until a few weeks ago, I had just been maintaining my running, which was always around 60 miles a week (this does not include the runs I do with my clients). On the 26th December I started my specific training and steered it towards longer runs and more strength training.
I always like to build up my training gradually, as this minimalises the chances of injury and particularly since breaking my back, I have had to be very careful and really listen to my body. The biggest change to my training has been to my speed sessions. Whereas around 40 per cent of my runs in a week used to be at a moderate to hard tempo, I now only run one or two of my runs out of the seven (yes, I run seven days a week and will say more another time about why I don’t have a rest day) at a hard pace. It has taken along time (over two years) to get my pace up and there were times that I doubted I ever would.
The nerve damage I sustained meant my legs were a lot slower to react than they used to be and because the my ball of the right foot and big toe is still numb apart from the paresthesia (pins and needles), pushing off is sometimes tricky, and I have found that my left side is becoming more dominant. But the good news is, through perseverance, plyometric and balance training; I am almost up to my original pre-accident speed and know that I can get faster still. I want to emphasise this didn’t happen on its own, I put myself through a lot of crazy training, but I just want everyone who has had similar injuries to me, in fact any sort of injury, to NEVER doubt that the body is incredible at healing itself, so long as you keep working at it. It needs stimulation, leave it and it ends up like an old car, rusting away, starting slower, creaking more and getting more things wrong with it. Use it regularly and it runs smoothly, look after it and it will keep going for a long time.
Please, please support me by donating money to Shelterbox. I pay for my events out of my own pocket, all the money I raise goes to Shelterbox. Please make my crazy runs mean something!
Up until a few weeks ago, I had just been maintaining my running, which was always around 60 miles a week (this does not include the runs I do with my clients). On the 26th December I started my specific training and steered it towards longer runs and more strength training.
I always like to build up my training gradually, as this minimalises the chances of injury and particularly since breaking my back, I have had to be very careful and really listen to my body. The biggest change to my training has been to my speed sessions. Whereas around 40 per cent of my runs in a week used to be at a moderate to hard tempo, I now only run one or two of my runs out of the seven (yes, I run seven days a week and will say more another time about why I don’t have a rest day) at a hard pace. It has taken along time (over two years) to get my pace up and there were times that I doubted I ever would.
The nerve damage I sustained meant my legs were a lot slower to react than they used to be and because the my ball of the right foot and big toe is still numb apart from the paresthesia (pins and needles), pushing off is sometimes tricky, and I have found that my left side is becoming more dominant. But the good news is, through perseverance, plyometric and balance training; I am almost up to my original pre-accident speed and know that I can get faster still. I want to emphasise this didn’t happen on its own, I put myself through a lot of crazy training, but I just want everyone who has had similar injuries to me, in fact any sort of injury, to NEVER doubt that the body is incredible at healing itself, so long as you keep working at it. It needs stimulation, leave it and it ends up like an old car, rusting away, starting slower, creaking more and getting more things wrong with it. Use it regularly and it runs smoothly, look after it and it will keep going for a long time.
Please, please support me by donating money to Shelterbox. I pay for my events out of my own pocket, all the money I raise goes to Shelterbox. Please make my crazy runs mean something!
RSS Feed
