Recovering from rest.

Adapting to rest seems hard for me. The festive period of long lie ins, large breakfasts and lack of endurance work doesn't suit me and is noticeable as I hit the pavements once again. On the way home from work on my regular 7 mile run I was having to slow down to jogging pace in places due to aching legs. The obsessive runner doesn't take to rest and the thought of other rival runners out there training is torture.

Looking forward into 2011 I will continue the successful regime of late 2010; which I would describe as 'batch training' and 'batch racing'. This consists of a full season of hard training(about 13 weeks of 60-70 miles/ week with 1 long run, 1 speed session per week), then reducing the training and doing about four to six races of 10k, 10 miles or half marathon, with a weeks rest between 10k's and two weeks between 10 miles and half marathon. I prefer to train for a season(or part to part) ie spring, summer, autumn and winter. I feel this idea will compartmentalise the training and make it appear to have a definite start and end, where a peak should be reached at the end of the season. The same idea would be to have a key race to aim for and therefore a date to aim for a peak. I personally find this difficult when doing so many races in a short time. It can reduce other options available and also be a massive disappointment if it doesn't pay off and you have no plan B. Last year I misjudged where the peak would be and managed to hold a reasonable fitness level in the 5 races of Horsforth 10k(34-40), Brid Half(1-17-17), Guy Fawkes 10 mile(59-54) Barnsley 10k(34-40) and Leeds Abbey Dash 10k(33-49). The only disappointment was the Brid Half, where I needed a rest and it it didn't feel like it(I felt good on the day), but it was still useful training for the other races.