Global Sport Stories

T minus three weeks until Gateshead marathon… and this week wasn’t my best week of training, with just 27 kilometres ran.

Knowing I had a busy week ahead, last week actually ended with a 5k jostle late on Sunday night. With at least two full days at work guaranteed, from 8:30am to midnight, it was quite obvious I was not getting any training done on those days. This however, does not excuse the fact that on some opportunities I had to train, I chose to surf instead. 

I just can’t help myself. The thing with surfing is it is unpredictable, meaning you can’t take it for granted. Quite simply, no waves means no surf. Therefore, when some swell eventually rolls around it would be rude not to get my wetsuit on. PLUS this was the first opportunity I had to use my new board, so as you can see, I had to grasp the opportunity.

I’m getting ahead of myself though, as surfing came more towards the end of the week. I did in fact find another way to skip training earlier on in the week also. Tuesday’s excuse was climbing. I wasn’t sacrificing a good training period simply for an indoor boulder session though. The sun was out and my girlfriend and I, along with a friend of ours, headed for Northumberland for some bouldering on rock in the great outdoors. And I’ve got to say it was definitely worth it. 

This was a first for me, and as someone who still considers themselves a novice climber, it was an amazing experience to feel how different bouldering on rock compares to in a gym. Firstly, the rock is so grippy! Of course I still have to chalk up with my sweaty hands, but I was shocked by how well you can grip the rock with both your feet and hands. Secondly, the stakes are a lot higher. We were armed with two boulder mats, along with two able spotters should we have desired, but even still the risk of falling seemed to feel a lot more threatening. Nevertheless, we all returned unscathed, however, I do feel as though I would have benefitted from a couple of sessions in a gym before heading out to the cragg. Having not climbed in a long time, I had lost both a lot of strength and skill.

As I reflect on the totally new experience though, I was left not only with awfully achy forearms for longer than I’d care to admit to, but a great sense of enjoyment and peace. We had gloriously still conditions as afternoon turned to dusk, symbolising a change to the norm by being active in such peaceful moments. Ten out of ten would do it again.

And now, back to the surfing. And yes, by this point it was Thursday afternoon and I still hadn’t run. But Surfline’s conditions were green, I had a new board and quite frankly, I just wanted to surf more than I wanted to run. Little did I know that I had accidentally arrived at Nazare instead of Tynemouth though; the waves were a little overwhelming should we say. This called for a whitewash session. It honestly did not take long to surmise that the energy utilised and beatings taken to get out back behind the waves would not have been worth it. I was okay with that. It’s good to know when you may be in over your head…

Alas, the surf was still fun and the new board felt good. So much so that we were back in the North Sea again the next morning. Despite the occasional monster, this time the waves were a little less Nazare-like. One could get out back and actually have a little rest time before setting out endeavouring to catch what the North Sea had to offer. I surfed well enough, giving reasons to be positive, but giving even more desire to continue to improve my surfing – not ideal when needing to commit my time to running though sadly.

Friday morning marked the end of my procrastination period I’m relieved to say. I knew I had to run but having surfed and worked a seven hour shift that day, let’s just say reluctance levels were high. Just over 11km and an hour six minutes later, I had completed my first run of the week. I knew upon setting out it was going to be a slow one. I put it down to a combination of things throughout the week and simply being on my feet a lot of the time despite not having ran.

Although tough, I rather enjoyed the struggle. The first half of the run I completed without earphones in, which is unusual for me. I found I just needed some natural noise, as I put it, as opposed to artificial. I also ran amongst some furry friends not long having set out, so I definitely wanted my wits about me just in case. On a side note, this did make me think in how many cities can you be running through a field of cows before running through the city centre ten minutes later? It can’t be many, and this proved useful to occupy my mind for a small portion of the run at least.

Darkness set in on the final half of the run, which is where the real mental battle began. However, as said previously, I rather enjoyed it. It truly made me feel as though I was training for a marathon, as I certainly wouldn’t be doing this for any other reason. It felt like a moment I would reflect upon when crossing the finish line and feel glad that I had done – and that was how I turned struggle into enjoyment.

The week concluded with a final long run – 10 miles along the Tyne. This was made more enjoyable by the unplanned breaks at convenient vintage clothes markets. I didn’t know they existed and what was I meant to do, just run past them? No chance. I purchased a pair of joggers for a quid and picked them up upon my return from my out and back run. The 10 miles felt significantly better than my 11k two days prior, providing me with fresh optimism for the next week’s training ahead.

Speaking of next week, I feel this is the crunch time to really bank some miles before starting to reduce my miles in preparation for the race. As ever I am learning as I go, however, I am hopeful that a week back in Worcestershire will provide fresh impetus and motivation for some more country side runs to get that mile counter high again. Let’s see how it goes.