Its October, and thus time for a wonderful, new XC season! All should be well, but it isnt...
Over the last year, I have managed for the first time in my running life (tm) managed to string together 9 months of consistent training together. I have realised improvements that I never thought possible, such as a 10 minute 1/2 marathon improvement in a year, from 1:23 to 1:13 & some change. My running has felt easier, more enjoyable, smoother & faster; in reps, tempo runs, easy running & races...
Yet now I am doing more XC reps, such as hill reps & rolling course fartlek, and I always feel slow doing it! I dont feel like the same runner as the improving road runner part of me. I feel slugish & weak. Is this normal during the transition or is XC just not gonna be my game? I had my first race last week, and although I performed better than last season (16th as opposed to 31st) I still feel I underperformed as I was being beaten by people with FAR slower road times than me. Plus I felt like a shower of **** (I'll let you fill it in)
Thoughts, advice & criticism all appreciated
Thanks!
Comments
I'm not sure what the answer is to your feeling and performing so much worse on the country. However, I know I'm quite a strong off road runner and often beat those who beat me on the roads, so it could well be that your strongest racing surface is the road.
I suspect on the admittedly unscientific basis of my own experience and observation that there will always be a degree of difference in your relative standard on the different surfaces, but that isn't to say that you can't narrow it and achieve a very high standard in X-C too.
It may be something to do with build - I've heard it said that cross-country is all about power to weight ratio, whereas to get a good time on the road it is probably a bit more about sheer speed.
Your 1/2M time is pretty awesome.
Re: XC, You'd think that I'd get the benifits of a power/weight ratio advantage, being 5'7" & weighing in at a grand 9st 5lb's-ish. Plus strength & endurance/ speed-endurance are normally my forte, rather than raw-speed (Im blessed with virutally none). Having said that, maybe mechanics might come into it also? I run with a slapping to rolling midfoot strike, thus I might be at a disadvantage when the course gets sloppy? I dont know if its that, Im still looking at ideas, but I'm trying not to get too hung up on it. Even if I am destined to be a more competitive road runner than XC, i'm sure improving my XC performance can only help my Road-running...