Running Just For the Love of Running

Late last night I purchased three CDs of AudioFuel's running music - interval training with Tom Yelling coaching. Although I suspect I should have heard of Tom Yelling before, this is the first time I've come across his name.

As a rule, I'm not a big follower of things "sporty". It reminds me of boring Sunday afternoons spent at grandparents with nothing on the old black and white television except racing or some other sport, with the droning voice of the commentator in the background and the smell of my grandpa's pipe filling the room. Stuck inside with no friends to play with when all I wanted to do was be outside running around involved in some adventure of our making.

It took me the best part of the following morning to download all the music and link it up to my shuffle, which is extremely slow, so by the time I got kitted up for a wet day and out into the "running fields" it was well into the afternoon and I was raring to go.

Starting at 150 bpm and gradually moving to 160 bpm,  it was feeling a bit slow for my enthusiastic mind set. Obediently, I kept the pace in the knowledge that there were 35 minutes to go. Gradually, the interval pace crept up, conveniently occurring at the same time as the route took a gradient.

Hitting 170 bpm I started to feel quite energised and sploshed my way through muddy puddles where the ice had melted, the dog eagerly picking up the pace just ahead of me.

My mind was on the run, my posture, the pace, the focus.

Moving into the final interval at 175 bpm I was reminded to keep my mindset and focus just as I was about to drift into a lesser performance. As with training a set in kung fu it is important not to drift or let the mind wander because you know you've nearly finished but being there in the moment right until the very end.

And although I hadn't heard of Tom Yelling before, I enjoyed running to his coaching and I think he would have enjoyed the 45 minutes running in the wet fields as much as I did.