Well as we enter the last week of 2020, it’s been an interesting one … A year that has taught me the value of flexibility and adaptability.
I was training for the Adelaide Half Marathon and then Covid happened and whilst it threw a lot of the travel plans and other life/work things around – I kept on to the training routine. Afterall – we could continue training without breaking any rules – so why not.
On the day of the Half Marathon, whilst Ray couldn’t be in Adelaide in person because of travel restrictions – he ran the distance in Melbourne at race pace and I did it in Adelaide. We didn’t really talk about how fast we would go – just decided to go on our typical route that each of us knows well and see what we can achieve, since we already trained for it anyway.
Here is my pre-race set up with the nutrition and drinks – electrolytes and chlorophyll laced drink to keep my muscles agile and replenished throughout.
What was then the most amazing thing is that we both achieved an amazing result and I got a PB of 1.40.44 and Ray finished at 1.40.45 – we didn’t consult on the race pace – and finished so close to each other for the distance of 21.1kms.
There were barely any people around as most of them were hiding away from the big bad virus – the weather was nice and cool and the run was easy. And at the completion of the run – I didn’t get a medal – but that didn’t matter as much – what I got was much more meaningful and satisfying!
The main takeaway from the run was that I trained properly for it and slowly elevated to the race pace of 4.46 per minute – for the future need a similar routine and the other lesson was that when the race itself got postponed a couple of times – I tried to just restart the training routine at week 5 – should not do that in the future!
I didn’t let the body rest up properly and the left hamstring started bothering me quite a lot after the long runs – so I decided to let the body heal up and do the run properly in the new year.
So when I test out the hamstring in the new year – it should be in week 1 or 2 – not in week 5 out of the 16-week training program!