What do you do when you know you really need a bit of a stern talking to? When your inner monologue turns into something of a pathetic whimper, and you start trying to think of excuses to stop? I was thinking about this on my rather evil 20 miler yesterday, which included some miles at marathon pace in the middle. My answer is usually twofold: firstly, embrace the Steve Way mantra of “Don’t be shit”. Secondly, channel my inner Emil Zatopek.
For anyone who does’t know - or wants to know more about - the story of one of the greatest runners of all time, do check out Richard Askwith’s new biography. It’s kind of hard to wimp out on your 10th and final 400m rep of a session, say, when you’ve just read that Zatopek generally banged out about 100 of them a day. Puts things firmly into perspective, even if that perspective is one that many normal people would characterise as “totally insane”.
I heard at the weekend, incidentally, that the Czech Olympic kit for Rio has a small cartoon of Zatopek on it - if anyone can provide pictures of this, or better yet, links where I can buy it, let me know!
So, tell me about your weekend running? Are you also gearing up the mileage for an autumn marathon, or focussing on a decidedly more sensible goal? As always, share your weekend woes and triumphs below the line.
