My 5km Manifesto

Friday, June 9, 2017

This is my 5km “manifesto”: preparation for my last spring race, the PEI Roadrunner’s Deltaware 5km in Charlottetown.  Preparation is important because lack of preparation sunk me at my last 5km.

I’m tempted to write that 5km is my most challenging race distance but I’m going to re-frame that thought for myself and write that it’s the race distance that I’ve waited the longest to have success in.  I’m lining myself up to have success at this race.

My 5km Manifesto:

I will enjoy this race. I did not enjoy my last 5km race, the Osprey 5km in Riverport, because I didn’t prepare for it at all and I showed up with an empty emotional gas tank.  This one is on my race calendar specifically because I want to enjoy it.  So: preparation.

I will line up thinking: “isn’t it is wonderful to have the health the live these moments.”  These words were written online by friend Ethan Michaels, comments on a photo of two teenage girls beating his butt in the homestretch of the Blue Nose 5km race. This is pretty much all I need to take care of the rest of my race. But because I was unprepared at Osprey 5km, I will add a few more lines.

I will race without pressure on myself.  In fact, I’m planning to race with my Love Training More singlet on.  Right or wrong, I feel like I put pressure on myself to perform a certain way when I put my Road Hammer singlet on.  If I could just stop it, I would.  But I do recognize it and this is a step that I can take to remove that self-applied pressure from my day.  There’s no pressure to nail a time goal or to break this cursed-19 minute barrier in this race.  I will wear my watch so that I don’t blow through the first km in 3:35 like I did in Riverport but I’m not invested in the numbers on my watch after 1km.

I will be tough and hang in with the pain. When it feels hard, I will remind myself that it feels hard because racing 5km is so goddamn hard.  It doesn’t feel hard because I have blown it. It feels hard because it is really hard.  In Osprey, when I gave up at 3km, I thought that I had already blown it.  My splits through 1-3km were this: 3:35, 3:42. 3:43.  Coach Lee: “you actually had a good one going.” I hadn’t blown it at all.  It felt hard because it was hard.  I proceeded to put myself over 19:00 because I gave up at 3km. This is ok though, there’s a larger back story.  And I can laugh at it because at the end of the road and the day, I love running.

Our Road Hammer training partner Dave A is back after a long layoff and he pulled off a great race at Osprey.  At a Road Hammer BBQ, we were talking about Dave A and this sweet performance and I say, “Yea, Dave blew by me at 3km and he did it with authority: it was awesome.”

Training partner Nick McBride chirps, “Erin, everyone blew by you at Osprey.” 

We all laugh and I nod while laughing, “That was a good one, Nicky.  You got me.”

I can and may turn it off.  This isn’t a performance race. It’s an enjoyment race. I’ll go out with a plan for my 1km split but that’s all.  I am committing to myself to be tough… for the duration in which I am on.  I won’t know how long I choose to stay on until I get into it tomorrow.  I’m in an unusual spot in my training where I’m not training. I have run one 12km run this week and a pre-comp 20 minutes + strides.  I ran 5 days the week before including a workout but only 45km for the week.  Before that, I had my two weeks of planned downtime with no running at all.  I’m about to take a full month off- more on that it a moment. Given my last 4 weeks, I can’t expect my body to perform in any certain way.  If I turn it off, I have planned to let Road Hammer training partner Charlotte catch me and I’ll run it in with her.

I will not expect my body to perform in a certain way.  This was part of my downfall at Osprey. I expected my body to run an 18:30 because my training had gone really well. My training partners ran 18:30s. I did not. The runners who I coach know that I like to listen to running podcasts because I will often pass along relevant ones to them. As a coach, I want to continue to expand my knowledge.  My life is pretty full so getting this knowledge from podcasts while walking to work is what works for me. This week, I listened to Tina Muir’s Running for Real podcast featuring sports psychologist Bhrett McCabe and his message on expectations hit home:  you aren’t entitled to a good race just because you had a good week/month etc at practice.  I also got the word “Manifesto” from this podcast as his book is titled “The MindSide Manifesto.”  Also lots in there about focusing on your strengths: “Most of us are trying harder because we feel like we need to do more, and we don’t allow what we are actually doing to work.”

I will run this race with my biggest strength: my love of running.

Finally, why one last spring race:  Despite the irregular training in the last 4 weeks, this one last spring race is important to me because I want/need/wish to have one last race that I enjoy and love.  After cooldown, I’m going to take one month complete rest to try to finally get on top of my injury and give whatever healing that is possible a real chance to take place.  Though I enjoyed my morning in Riverport with the Road Hammers, I pretty much hated the Osprey 5km and I can’t go out on that note.

This one month off is as result of a “meeting” with Coach Lee about the running future now that my big goal spring race is over and my injury is consistently causing issues.  I went into this conversation expecting that the plan might be to dial it down for awhile: less mileage, less intensity.  That was not Lee’s plan.  His plan was complete rest.  It’s the right decision right now.  If there is still injury pain after a month, there will be another month off.  I’m ok.

Saturday, June 10

I ran a 19:41 at the Deltaware 5km.  I loved the sunshine. I enjoyed warm-up with Charlotte and easy chatter and camaraderie with my PEI running friends- both new and old. I lined up happily.  I ran relaxed and enjoyed it. I hung in with the pain and I never gave up, not once.  I ran with the fitness that I had given a total of 6 runs over 4 weeks and I’ll take the 19:41. This was the send-off run (thanks Charlotte, good title for today!) that I wanted and now I can get into the “penalty box” the way I want to.

Isn’t it wonderful that I have the health to live these moments.

So running friends, I hope to see you in a month. Coached athletes, expect more podcasts in your inboxes while I have this extra time.

So far the penalty box is pretty swell, on PEI with my new lawn chair.