I have not posted for a month for the simple reason that I have not run for a month. Partly this was illness - a marathon is no cure for infection and for two weeks after the race I felt really rough with coughing, snuffling and general weariness. Since then I have felt the need for a fallow period - as if my body said that it wanted some comfort and cosseting, rest and refuelling. I therefore decided to treat November as off-season. Whether this is a good or a bad thing I do not know - I will probably find out when I start running again and find out how much I need to build back up.
I hope however the rest will help this ageing body rebuild and repair niggles and strains. I am very conscious that my body lacks the recovery it used to have. Injuries go on for longer and anything to do with ligaments or tendons take forever. So a month out might sort that groin twinge and an ache in the right buttock - who knows. Both of them were/are nothing serious, just a minor discomforts, but a clean sheet would be nice.
The other reason for a break is the idea of periodisation - having some sort of seasonal rhythm of build and release - so that things are not always at the same level of intensity. However it means more than just having the occasional break. I will have to sit down and work out a plan with different patterns of activity.
I am convinced that for the past couple of years I have not been varying things enough. It is too comfortable to run at a an easy pace. Although this is good and gives the bulk of the physical and imaginative nourishment of running it is one dimensional and does not help with elasticity, agility, balance or upper-body muscle tone. So it is time for a rethink.
At the moment I haven't quite thunk those thoughts. The plan at the moment is a bit vague. December will be an easing back in month - gentle steady, much as before. The new year will be when the experimentation starts. Certainly it will involve more cycling, some weights and an attempt to make "speed" sessions mean more than just a little bit faster than normal. But at the moment I know no more.
I need to do some reading to see if I an pick up any ideas and rediscover the attitude of just trying things. When George Sheehan said that 'you are an experiment of one' the important word was experiment. I think that recently I may have lost sight of that.
