Welcome to the new Inside > Out blog by the Pyllon Coaching Team. This is our way of inviting you to have a look under the hood of our thriving coaching team. We are humans first, athletes second, and sometimes that means we have to deal with the same kind of challenges, setbacks, worries, and doubts as everyone else.
In this blog we will share some of our own personal journeys as we to strive for success in both our running and coaching pursuits.
First up is James Stewart (JS) who will journal his way to the Toronto Marathon in October 2023. So please follow along.
Dealing with Disappointment
The last 6 months have been the most disheartening of my running since I started taking it a bit more serious in 2014. Well, that’s if I look at it through the lens of race outcomes. Let me set the scene.
My A race for the first half of the year was the Centurion Track 100. I felt in incredible shape for it and was excited to back to the track and aim for under 13 hours. My training had been nigh-on perfect and I hadn’t missed a beat. I’d had a couple of decent runs at the 105 Track Series and had navigated some work travel well.
Then, the Tuesday before the race Caelan was downed with Appendicitis. That meant a long stay in hospital, and emergency op and me following the race via YouTube in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. And that is exactly where I needed to be.
A dreaded but necessary DNS. At least it wasn’t injury and Caelan recovered superbly thanks to our awesome NHS staff.
The West Highland Way for me in June was just to be a fun day out after the Track 100. I hadn’t been on trails at all and my legs had done almost no elevation. I flipped my training to the WHW focus and actually felt great, with 5-6 weeks of great training and lots of climb.
On race day I was running 5-10 mins so off the leaders. I didn’t want to be in the lead pack early on and had backed off when I was. Then, on the way to Inversnaid I twisted my knee a couple of times and frankly didn’t have the confidence I could run a 100k more on that knee. It was almost the exact same as Glenmore 2014 when I had to withdraw with a twisted knee whilst leading after 18 hours.
My decision that day was a future focused one. I find joy in running every day. Trinkets, medals and trophies don’t really mean that much to me. I don’t actually have any of my winner’s stuff at home. I gave my WHW goblet from 2016 away (to my dad) and any buckles I have are in the hands people who matter to me. The point is, if you offered me a win and 4 months of no running versus a smart decision and protecting my longevity, there is no choice. Others will see it differently.
And, my absolute A race for 2023 is Toronto Marathon. I trained with a marathon focus once in my life. That was London 2015. I ran 2:50 and change. I have broken 2:40 a few times in random races as part of 24 hour and 100k training blocks. I want to see what a proper 16 week training block gives me in terms of performance.
I have agreed with Paul to share that journey here on the Pyllon Ultra pages. An old school blog!
The last week has been good. I did zero running for 9 days after WHW. Louise and I had an amazing weekend in London, bopping and bouncing to ABBA and then P1nk. That time on feet counts for Training Peaks right?
I am super pleased to have been able to do some gentle runs the last few days. The knee has passed the fitness test and it is ok to start the ramp. Focus is on going for a PB in Toronto. That means I am already in S&C, mobility and diet mindset. I have a holiday in July and will have a lot of work and life stuff to navigate. I will share that with you, dear reader, here. Warts and all.
I have half marathons booked, some 10ks too and I will do a few Parkruns to boot. Pacing and race craft really comes to the fore in training for the shorter races like the marathon. The margins are much tighter. I expect I may be sick after some of the sessions. At least I hope so!
My story will of course be laced with positivity. Optimism is a super-power (in the right doses) and I hope to share some of the thinking and acting I do. I am up for questions, suggestions and all that jazz.
Wish me luck! The next 6 months will be much better. Sometimes we need troughs to give us peaks to climb towards. And I am looking upwards.
(Written by James Stewart)
