The Lone Trainer

YTD - 455 km


Over the past 8 months I have left a state that I called home for 10 years and moved back to Victoria. With this relocation came a new job or rather a new role and a massive scenery and climate change for my family. Furthermore it has also seen my training become a very lonely and solemn affair. I have nobody that I can call a training buddy or even a club that I have found that even compares to what I had come to take for granted in Queensland or more appropriately Brisbane.

Don't get me wrong I understand that I am comparing apples and oranges in regards to what is available in the two cities but I didn't think that I would notice much difference and if I did I didn't think that I would care that much.

I do enjoy the solo training session, myself versus nature versus a stopwatch that seems to click by a little faster every year I get older, however there are always times when you need the social interaction or just some company to enjoy this great sport of ours.

I am probably being a little dramatic and really the fact that my work takes up most of my time lately that I can't even train at a respectable hour anyway makes my little whinge completely uncalled for anyway. I'll will have to suck it up wait for it to heat up, wait for the days to be a little longer and then maybe I will have more of a chance to stumble across a group. Maybe I will just wait another 3 months and begin the track season again and I will get my full dose of social interaction with people that enjoy what I enjoy.

So what has come of this loneliness I hear you ask, well my inability to pace myself. My garmin has died and with no-one to chat to and run casually I find myself running every session as a tempo or worse a full on aerobic onslaught. Trying to PB my training routes is a problem that has entered my sub conscious. Before I know it I am sitting on 4 min k pace for the bulk of my run.

'why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to run fast....'

Emil Zatopek about interval training.

Not quite in his league and I wish I could train at a high intensity all the time and achieve great results but the sad reality is that I can't and need to slow down. This phase I am going through now has stopped me from undertaking any significant distances and although I am not currently training for a long race even running beyond 70 mins has been few and far between.

Next weekend I will attempt a longer run and during the week leading up to it I will be making more of a conscious effort to stick in the high 4's - 5 min/k pace. Hopefully by writing this down it will help in getting rid of this disorder I have caught.

Fingers Crossed!