it was about 6 pm when i received a call on my cell, deep in sleep, I just didn’t want to answer it..i let it rang..after 30 secs it started to ringing again, and I knew who exactly who it was. ‘I better answer..’, said to myself. As expected it was my friend ‘P’ on the other side. ‘Hey man, get ready I am coming over..let’s do the trail we did near your house, let’s just relax our legs for 40 mins or so for the big run tomorrow..’. But, today I had not plans to run, and after all i had all the excuses; I did a gruelling 30 k mountain loop yesterday on my bike after work..well, in reality, it was more to calm myself before a big presentation than actually to train - ‘sweating out’ was just the by-product , and I just had a long presentation today at work although a very good one. So, today I had planned just to relax and mentally prepare for a 18 k trail run tomorrow. I grudgingly agreed to P’s suggestion. It was more due to not to “pussy-out”, than to go out and actually enjoy the training..
I have been hearing some nasty things about the first part of this tenacious mountain cut we will be doing tomorrow. Apparently, even the runners in the best of condition have to scale down to power hike for the first few clicks - i guess I will have to wait until morning to find out how I will perform. The trail forms a chunk of this year’s ‘Half Knacker’ - the first major event for this year’s ‘Mountain Madness Series’. Last year was my first introduction to running on mountain trails. It involves a very different set of training and focus then to plainly train for a marathon. On top, the series has a total of 18 runs: four major and fourteen on each thursday of the week. Last year for me was a torture. Even though, I participated in more than half of the races, but my physical fitness was just not up to the par where you just blow through these races.
This year we all as a group have been pretty consistent with training. But, there are some days you are just not feeling up to the challenge. We went and did a power hike day before yesterday. During that hike, you go up at a grade of 45 degrees for about 2 miles, and even though i did it my best time for the season, but I was gasping for air once i got to the top. It wasn’t fun. It’s fun when you sail through the entire hike / run. It’ ain’t fun if you suffer while trying to maintain your best timing. I just couldn’t resist asking myself, why am I feeling like this..? I am eating well, resting well between workouts, and I have very consistent with training; is it just a bad day or what..It could have been stress or I just don’t know. The feeling sure wasn’t like the other day, when we did a trail called ‘Mosquito Creek’ - a tough 8 k uphill climb along a mountain creek. That day I came mentally prepared. My attitude was that I am here not just to train, but I will smoke everyone in the group and there’s just ain’t a mountain runner as good as me. That was my game face, and I set the tempo from the very beginning and set a new record time for the trail amongst our group, on that day. Actually, it was only two days before the power hike..Now, I am learning that competitiveness sometimes is nothing more than just being mentally prepared, relaxed, and just being in the righ frame of mind… Even if you are very well conditioned, mental distraction or stress definitely works against you in many ways you can imagine..
