Sunday, January 23, 2011

Racing???

Ok. I am going to say it out loud, I do not like racing (that much).

I love training but I am definitely not made to race every month. I love training hard for couple months and then race hard. Then I am excited and motivated to race, plus I am confident because I know I did everything I could and I trained hard.

I have trained hard and was focused since August for a race at the end of October. I was ready and was looking forward to the race. Afterwards it all went downhill and it peaked yesterday.
I raced 3000m indoors. I was dreading it. I did first 1.5k right as plannned, and it also felt very good, legs and lungs no problem. And then I started to fade and my arms started to hurt a lot, it was horrible.
Although arms were a huge limitation (you can't imagine how they hurt), I did not have enough fire and willingness in me to respond to other runners. I finished in 11:10. I was ready for hurt, but when it came to that point I gave up (but arms hurt anyway, but I mean different hurt).

Therefore I don't think I will race again until April. I will train hard and then try to have 1-2 good races in spring/summer. And then train again and do few races in fall. I think that would be ideal for me.

I had the same problem with arms before and I said I need to do some exercises I used to do when I was younger but then I completely forgot about that resolution. Now I MUST do them.

I also think that I should do longer intervals if I want to race longer distances. My body responds well to them and they give me confidence.

I am still not sure whether I will do that cross country ski race next week. I was in the resort where it should take place today and the conditions are not ideal. I went downhill skiing with my dad for about 4,5 hours and then I did few miles xc skiing. I was/am tired.
I don't like snow therefore I can't believe that I am saying this but I wish it snowed in next few days. I need at least 2/3 feet to have better xc ski conditions.

3 comments:

  1. This is interesting about not liking to race as much. Truth be told, I am a 'trainer' at heart as well- meaning I would prefer to train over race, BUT I have also found that when I only race a couple times/year I get super nervous and then end up not doing as well as I would if I just relaxed and allowed myself to race. My solution has been to race more often but come to terms with the fact that it's just for the experience- that way the pressure is reduced. Long live the 'c' races, if you will. :)

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  2. I like to train way more than I like to race. I get nervous and worry too much about what others will think about my time, even though I know that a race does not make or break me.

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  3. AM, that is exactly what I feel!
    Interesting, I always thought from your hard-core attitude that you loved racing:)

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