Week 2 in my 6 week ‘race window’. Started the week with a double recovery run. well you’d be mad not to really. Two nice and easy 10k’s, one by myself this morning while watching another sunrise and the second with Mike and Jon at lunch. As we had all ran the 10k yesterday there was much discussion on important things like heart rate, VO2 max (Mike’s favourite subject bar none!) , threshold and how long one should spend in the pain box. Actually in Mike’s case we were all wondering if he was anywhere near the pain box for the duration of the race as his heart rate suggested otherwise. This leads me on to this afternoons post. The good old fashioned David ‘Sugar’ Cane immortalised  pain box.

This is somewhere you need to place yourself if you want to improve on your previous PB, reach a set goal or are in the heat of battle within a race. The more time you can survive in the pain box the better. To be your best this little box needs to be embraced and one needs to open the door, step inside ,  close the door behind you and curl up in the fetal position.  The longer you endure the pain box the better the final outcome. Similar to paying the piper, eventually the piper needs to get paid and when that is can determine how your race is going to pan out. If all goes well you can survive the pain box and come out the other end stronger and with a faster PB and renewed confidence, if it goes wrong , well then it doesn’t end well. Confidence takes a beating and you reassess your whole running career. On the bright side the door to the pain box will always be open and there’s always next time, but to improve unfortunately you will need to spend some serious time in there.

It’s fun this racing lark isn’t it?  Well actually it isn’t. If you’re having fun you ain’t anywhere near the pain box and you ain’t racing. It needs to be gut busting, leg smashing, heart beating pain but when it all comes together the rewards are well worth it, but it ain’t fun. On the flip side I’m a big believer in the more time you spend racing (in the pain box) the better runner you will eventually become. The ‘no pain, no gain’ adage describes racing to a tee.

So Fremantle half next weekend. One of my favourite half marathons and one where  I will ask questions of myself and my ability. There will be some quality pain box time and I’m excited just thinking about but it will not, and never will, be fun. That bit is the recovery run afterwards recounting stories of the race and then blogging about it, that’s fun…