Guest Post: Invincibility ...by Pat Walsh

 * Invincibility *

Yes I’m Pat and I’m indestructible. 

We are in Summer time and races are full on at the moment. Last few months you could race every weekend and at least the weekdays were a break but now we are in a race every day time. Weeknight short races mixed with longer weekend events. It is full on.

I thought I was invincible and could do it all. No major thought was given to strength work, no major variety in training, races were just tackled and finished and I was a happy man. Drive on to the next race. I did look after flexibility and thought that was sufficient for my needs. I never once considered my birth cert and adjusted my training to a more age appropriate plan.

Until it wasn’t. Hindsight is brilliant. You will always be right but maybe if I could have spotted the issues in advance it would have been far better.

One major mistake I made was equating strength with speed. Because I wasn’t really running very fast I thought I didn’t need power in the core, glutes and leg muscles to power me forward.

What I didn’t consider was I needed strength to just maintain good posture while I ran my weekly miles and therefore other things suffered. I got injured and lost 4 months.

As I got older I needed more variety in my overall training to maintain strength and aerobic fitness. This isn’t Olympic qualifying stuff I’m talking about, it is you me and all ordinary runners looking to keep ourselves in good shape, injury free and continuing in a sport we love.

We need variety in running distances and speeds. We needs hills, woods, grass and road. We need regular strength work, either a weekly class or a daily routine at home. Same goes for flexibility.

If time is tight be careful what loses out. Maybe miss a running session but do not neglect the other stuff.

So from now on, I will ask myself:

am I fit enough and strong enough;
am I looking too short term and neglecting something else;
does my weekly / monthly plan contain enough variety of training disciplines.
I can do anything, I can’t do everything.
I want to keep running, I don’t need prizes. I never won them anyway.
I’m not invincible. I now know that. 

This is written by me, for me and it is published here in case it would help anyone else.

Maybe a new career as a volunteer or a lead bike person in a race awaits me..! Joking.. 

Beidh mé ar ais aris.

Have a lovely Easter

#pwr