ROSEDALE MARATHONERS
OAKVILLE CLINIC - SUNDAY LONG WALK

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."

Steve Prefontaine

It has been a difficult weekend - back to back long workouts - 16k with the Rosedale clinic yesterday and 17.5 today with the Oakville Clinic - both in extreme hear and humidity.

There are several obvious problems with clinics but those problems are exacerbated when the clinics are quite large. The obvious problem is that you have to forgo your own training pace particularly on the long ones like the last couple of days. You can make up a bit when you do things like hills and intervals during your weekly sessions with the clinics but that still only leaves you tow days to do intense cross training and cardio workouts - I knew this going in and structure my personal workouts to try and get into race shape.

What bothers me is the unrealistic expectations that some folks have - with large groups, on long walks, the groups often get spread out over several kms due to varying levels of ability. If you spend too much time at the front , the ones behind complain, too much time at the back the lead pack complains - in the middle everyone complains -- caught between a rock and a hard place.. You get the odd one who complains that the route isn't scenic enough, group leaders who have to realize they have a responsibility but it is not their clinic -- The goal of these long distance clinics is to get you ready to be able to cross that line upright and smiling and if you want quick to have the endurance tools to do that too - whether it is a half or a full marathon you need endurance and the psychological strength and determination to do so -- so scenic is not critical, nice but not critical - functional is critical. Scenic you can do on ones own training sessions away from the group or in a bus tour.

Ok - I have vented, had some cheese with my whine and I feel better now.

This doesn't occur often on my blog but "due to the shortage of robots, human beings live here" and I feel it too sometimes....................I want to be there for everyone - can I?-- realistically no, I just have to come to terms with that and deal with the inevitable issues.

"As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit."

Emmanuel Teney