Gamut is a great word, isn’t it? Look at it. It even reads oddly. Like it doesn’t care. Sorta like the people who wave their arms in the air during the song ‘Word Up’.

But it is not describing a good thing here. It was a gamut of emotions I went through at the Autumn 100. A race where I had big expectations only to be hit with a big deflation. What happened I hear you cry? No. Shout louder please!

The simple story is I twisted my ankle early on. Early as in within the first five minutes. The first kilometre. I hadn’t even gotten my shoes dirty. It was not quite that cut and dry. I ran on, but I could feel it.

Then after I twisted it again at around 20 miles, I believe I did the damage that was to result in me making the decision to drop out at just after 40 miles.

By the time I got to 37 miles and the third checkpoint I had gone over it again, and what was happening is that classic situation when you are trying hard not to do something that much you end up doing it.

I liken it to the feeling you get when you hold something over a balcony or a drop of some sort. You know that way you grip so hard that you end up losing grip!

I was doing that in a running sense and the Grime’s Ditch section of the race undulates and twists and turns. It’s not technical but it involves a lot of ankle movement and everytime I stepped on uneven ground I was in pain. It was getting worse.

Coming back down the hill on the return I couldn’t pick up the pace. Well, actually I was choosing not too as I was scared of twisting it again and also the pain was getting troublesome.

Dropping out and reflection

I could have pushed it and I could have continued, but I decided to drop out. At the time, I had opened up a seven minute lead on second by 37 miles, but I knew I’d be putting myself at danger of long-term damage if I tried to push on.

Photo: Debbie Martin-Consani

In the age of social media, you get worried about how others might judge you. Was I being a wimp? Should I have toughed it out for some muscle emojis on Instagram?

I could have used hashtags like #warrior #toughman #lookatmeIamstupid – No. Not really. James Elson, Race Director for Centurion, summed it up best when he sent me this: “Sometimes a physical problem is insurmountable.”

I hadn’t thought of it quite as plainly as that. It’s 100% true. Instead of creating bad role modelling by running into injury, I actually realised what I had done was positive role modelling. And that is important. Sometimes the decisions you least want to make are the most difficult.

I had James and Des waiting to pace me. Travelling for hours, giving up their weekend, only to be told to stand down as I started the race with the grace of a new born deer. I let them down. Or so I felt. They were amazing. As were my wingmen Alan and Andy.

The Autumn 100 is a great event. I was seeking retribution after a horrible race the year before. Instead, I got a kicking. That is ultrarunning for you. Third time is a charm eh?

In spite of this, I had a great time. It was fantastic to see my buddy at Sky, James Williams, take his maiden 100-mile win. A big scalp and the first of many I am sure. It’ll be him giving me advice next.

I got to chat with GB team-mate Craig Holgate for 25 miles, that’s not something those 200m runners get to do. I had pre-race pizza with two of Scotland’s greatest ever in Sharon Law and Debbie Martin-Consani. There were more than enough highlights to outweigh the bad.

However… the race is in the past. I have an itch that needs scratching and 2019’s plans are clearing up. I am excited about them. I am glad I will be training hard again soon.

The troughs I have gone through, you know waking up at 4am thinking I should have made a different shoe choice, or that I should have carried on or that I should have tripped up all the leaders as they passed out of pure spite, have started to dissipate. They’re not gone yet. They never will go fully. But they will be fuel to the fire. You can be sure of it.

RELATED: In 24-hour racing the team always comes first

James Stewart features in the ‘Fast 10: class of 2018’ and over the course of the year will share his running journey. You can read James’ previous posts here and further information about the ‘class of 2018’ can be found here.

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The post Reflecting when a race doesn’t go to plan appeared first on Fast Running.

We’ve all been there, seemingly effortless in the first half and then struck down by lightening or some other mythical power in the important part of your A race. Be it 5000m or 100 miles, what can you do?

Is it salvageable?

If you’re running a 5000m then you need to think fast. Have you missed a move, taken a fall or just had a bad lap? Even in a race this short runners have come back from last place to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat.

Can you latch onto a nearby target? Be it a runner flailing ahead, the next lap or just the end ahead. Can you cruise out this rough spot and only lose a few seconds? Try to run easy and maybe everything isn’t as bad as it seems?

At this point there is nothing to lose from pushing hard to try and get back on track. If it’s all gone wrong then maybe it’s worth ignoring your splits, heart rate, screaming legs or that little nagging voice in your head.

Just push hard and see what happens. Close a gap and your whole outlook might change.

Things not going to plan for Daniel Wanjiru early in the 2017 London Marathon Photo: Rick Ashton.

Marathoning Triage

If this is a marathon or an ultra then you have some more options. You can try to figure out what is causing your problems or you can try and fix everything that might possible be going wrong.

In general it’s a handful of things. You’ve either run out of energy, dehydrated yourself or gone off too fast. It can be a mixture of all three, linked to each other. In a marathon or ultra you can afford to slow down a little. Hell, in a marathon you can sit on a rock and regroup.

Eat some jelly babies or a gel, get some water in and slow down for a mile or two. If you can get through this rough patch without too much damage then all of a sudden you might find that second wind. Keep digging that hole and you could end up on the curb of a Gold Coast roadside.

Another possibility is overheating so if that is a possibility it can also be worth running or even stopping in the shade. Downing ice cold water can actually upset your stomach and your body will work to bring it up to body temperature.

Cool down the wrists or your neck as the blood flow is close to the surface and it’s the most effective way to lower that internal thermometer. Sitting in a river is also an option, but more for trail ultras than the London Marathon.

Speaking from experience

At the recent Marathon du Mont Blanc, which could be described as a marathon (it’s 42km long) and an ultra (it has 3200m of technical climbing and descending and the winner takes about 4 hours), my race went to shit.

The plan had been to start steady on the fast runnable first 12 miles then go up and over the main mountain of Aiguillette des Posettes. The descent had been practiced several times and then the time for action was the long, gradual ascent to the finish over the last 8 miles.

A little behind schedule we hit the bottom of the final section. Then nothing happened. There was no dream finish of reeling in those ahead, I was the target of others.

More and more runners came past, yet still I passed others sat on the side of the trail. I kept eating and drinking, hoping to restart the engine. Then the next step was to sit in a stream, pouring water on my head and just hoping to cool down. People stopped overtaking.

The longer the journey

At the next checkpoint, the final one before the finish, time was taken. To carry on regardless would have been folly. Staggering forward on empty doesn’t help.

Five minutes to cool down, fill water bottles and take on 500ml of coca cola. The magic potion for any bonking runner. Then back onto the trail.

It was like a new runner had emerged. Fluid and carbohydrates kicked everything into action and overtaking began again.

Although it was too late to resurrect early dream finishes, there was still a chance to run under 5 hours. To save a little face and find some positives from a tough day. The longer the race the more important it becomes to look for positives.

Lessons learned

After all is said and done, every “failure” is an opportunity. Too many spend their whole lives avoiding failure when we should be chasing it. Embrace it when a race goes to shit.

We’ve written about self reflection before but no race is more important for reflection. Talk to yourself honestly about what possibly could have gone wrong, even if it means you made an embarrassing mistake.

Then ask others and be patient with responses. Sometimes they will be wrong, other times they will be right and cut deep.

With aims of getting into the top 20 and dreams of a top 10 finish I would love to say it was dehydration or poor eating that had held me back. Even better if it were the shoes I wore and how the sole split open to allow a pointy rock (and many others) through to blister my foot.

Yet if I’m being truly honest it might have been all of those things and more. Ambition may once again have outweighed my ability. The desire to do well was greater than the current fitness.

How honest can you be?

If you can’t be honest with yourself, either in the race or after, then there will be more shit races to come. Take your time and really, really ask yourself what happened. If you have a friend good enough, then listen.

A shit race can be a blessing, if you use it to take the next step in your journey.

The post What to do when your race goes to s**t appeared first on Fast Running.

One of the key elements to improving as a runner or athlete in any sport is self-reflection. Let’s take ‘Gilbert’ as an example; he eats cheese & onion crisps before all his 108 marathons, but always hits the wall at 24 miles, and yet still runs under 2:30:00. All the fast marathons doesn’t mean Gilbert is an experienced runner, it just means he has run a lot of miles and not taken the time to reflect on the problems that arise.

There are several techniques and pointers that will help get the most out of the time you spend reflecting and we’ll go into some details below but firstly, why bother?

Unfortunately, there isn’t a “one size fits all” training formula for becoming a better runner and there certainly isn’t one to cover all the other aspects that might affect your performance, be it sleep, work, stress or nutrition.

Each and every one of us is different, reacts to different training stimuli, and apart from the 2,000 inhabitants of Iten, Kenya, don’t live that perfect professional endurance athlete lifestyle. Search as we may for all the answers on Facebook, Twitter and Google, but some of them need to come from within. “Reflect and a runner better you shall be” as Yoda said.

If you’re not taking the time to reflect after a season, training block or big race has concluded, then really you’re letting yourself down. Reflection is a simple process and you don’t even need to move from where you are right now.

99 Problems
The first part of reflecting on your running is locating a problem. Even, Eliud Kipchoge has problems, no matter how small they may be, or he would have broken the 2-hour mark in Nike’s infamous Breaking2 attempt.

There is always something to improve, maybe Nike’s Vaporfly shoe wasn’t quite perfect, or as Breaking2’s lead physiologist Brett Kirby said when commenting on the drafting and pacing strategy around the Monza formula one track in Italy, “If I could modify anything, I might consider adding the entire pool of pacers into the race for the final lap.”

So, now that a ‘problem’ has been identified and highlighted, it’s time to get the ball rolling.

If you’re struggling, then ask a friend or coach (or a rival, they’re usually quite forthcoming with your faults) and be thankful for honesty. Sometimes it can hurt to hear what others think are your faults, but ultimately it’s a blessing. Like the time my friends all informed me I was the liability on a night out (which only happens during my off-season of course), at first it was earth-shattering but in the long run quite helpful to know.

Strategy Generation
Next, figure out what you can do to fix the problem. The best place to start is in your own “bag of tricks”. Over your years as a runner/social media addict you’ve probably heard and read a lot of good information (and bad), and built up a substantial base of knowledge. Get creative and think of ways to solve your particular problem and you might surprise yourself.

Next, speak to your peers in the running world. The easy option might be to post it on a Facebook group of some 10,000 people and get 1000 terrible ideas back, with one decent bit of feedback hidden somewhere amongst the noise. Alternatively ask people that you know who are a bit sensible, like successful runners at your club, your coach or work colleagues, or sometimes a great idea comes from someone outside of the closed ideas of your sport. One of the ‘gurus’ with Sky’s cycling team is former swimming coach Tim Kerrison.

Or maybe look to someone who might seem a bit unorthodox at first, but can bring something different to your running and athletics. Stuart McMillan, the coach of sprinters CJ Ujah and Andre De Grasse, to name a few, was a radio DJ for over 10 years, before deciding to focus on training sprinters full-time.

It’s this experience as a DJ that has influenced his style of coaching sprinters, speaking in an interview about McMillan’s coaching style Ujah said: “He relates sprinting more to rhythm and music.” and how does that influence the world gold medalist? “that tune, ‘Big Shapes’ helps me think about opening up my stride length.”

A study of one
Back to you. Generally, as runners, we then need to take things to a N=1 level and test things out on ourselves, either by playing it out in your head or practically trying it in training or a low-key race. 

If you’re a track runner or sprinter, you will most likely race more often than an endurance runner, and thus have more opportunities to test different strategies for success, be it for food, drink, pre-race training, tapering or kit.

If you’re a marathon or ultra runner then race day experiments may be sporadic, but that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with different ways to solve a problem during your long runs, even going to the length of simulating a whole race weekend, doing everything as you might on race day and just doing your long run instead of your goal race. The time you get up, the shoes you wear, the food you eat and the way you do your hair (very important) could all be practised in advance.

Evaluation Stations
The last step is looking back and assessing if your strategy worked, so more self-reflection. This doesn’t have to just be a yes/no “did it work” test, you could also record the changes you made, maybe it was the volume of fluid that was the issue, not the brand of drink and vice versa. So, keep a training and race diary, this doesn’t have to be a methodically detailed log, but if you have enough detail it can be a valuable resource for yourself.

You can then systematically rule out different strategies, ticking a checklist to see what helped and what wasn’t a success and go back to your peer group and discuss. Get the opinion of others as to how they felt that went, as always, there are lessons to be learnt.

Cycle of Reflection
The final key to reflection is to start the process all over again. We never stop learning and this is one of the reasons running, regardless of level, is a sport enjoyed by so many. The scope for personal growth is immense and even as we get older and physiologically we might be slowing down there is still room for improvement.

If you doubt that, then do a quick search of the age group rankings above your own and most of us can find someone faster.

You don’t have to be a longtime runner to be experienced, any idiot can run, but chasing PBs and self-improvement is an intelligent game. After all didn’t Einstein say “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing every season and expecting a 5k PB” (except in the case of consistency, that’s key too).

Feel free to comment to share your experiences; what do you do to self-reflect? What’s been the most valuable thing you’ve learnt as a runner and who do you turn to when you need good advice?

About the author:
Robbie Britton is a running coach and professional ultra runner, who won bronze at the 2015 IAU 24-hour World Championships.

The post 10 Years of Running Without Reflection, Is Just 1 Year of Running Repeated 10 Times appeared first on Fast Running.