Importance of Decision Making

This past week was actually a really frustrating week. I started off the week pretty good getting consistent miles in each day. I had a progression run planned for Thursday morning however when I woke up on Thursday morning the outside of my left foot was really sore when I went to get up out of bed. I pretty much knew straight away that it was an issue with my peroneal tendon as I’ve had this issue already this year and know what the symptoms feel like. I also know frustratingly that the main course of action was to rest for a couple of days. So for the last few days I’ve been sticking close to the RICE Principle (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). On Sunday I felt the issue had much improved but decided to give it another days rest. Years ago my close friend and mentor John-Joe Rogers said to me when your injured and start to feel better wait another day which is one of many nuggets of wisdom I’ve taken on board from him over the years. I tried a 4 mile run this morning and felt a lot better and will pop into Dara Clifford in DC Fitness Physio over the next few days to have a closer look. Dara has been great over the last few months dealing with the various niggles I’ve been managing. He’s also a very good marathon runner so its great to bounce ideas off him.

The last 2 months I’ve actually found incredibly frustrating as I haven’t been able to train to full capacity and has probably made for uninteresting blogs as there is not as much training to report on. However this shows how frustrating and challenging long distance running sometimes can be and how making the right decisions are really important. This got me thinking how decision making in running is incredibly important. As said I had a progression run planned last Thursday and really wanted to complete it and bring my fitness onwards however this would have been the wrong decision as it would of inevitably led to a longer term injury and increased frustration. I made the sensible decision of resting for 4 days and hopefully this will allow me to proceed forward with my training. Making the right choices and calls is not just important in your training but also in your racing. I wanted to discuss 2 races which I feel highlight the importance of this if you don’t mind indulging me.

The first race is last years Dublin Marathon where I ran 2.29. I had an ok build up into the race. The start of the summer saw me managing a chronic Achilles issue but towards the end of summer I was able to start stringing some sort of decent training together and had a pretty decent 10 week build up into Dublin on relatively low mileage but got some key sessions and long runs in which gave me some confidence that I could get somewhere near 2.30. The race started off and just after 4 miles there was a group starting to build a gap ahead of me, now I looked at the runners in that group and felt I could beat or at least compete with all of them however I felt they were pushing too hard too early and I made the difficult decision to let them go. I latched onto another group and we clicked of consistent miles around 5.40 mile pace. We went through the halfway mark in 1.14.33 and kept the pace consistent the whole way eventually passing the runners from the group that went out ahead of us one by one and despite cramping up badly the last 2 miles managed to come home in 2.29.02 running the second half in 1.14.29 almost identical splits. Had I gone with the faster group maybe I still could of ran that same time or faster but my instinct told me it was too fast and I still feel I made the right call when I had maybe less than 30 seconds to make that decision.

The second race I want to use to illustrate the importance of decision making is actually the only race I have raced since Covid-19 entered our world which was the Day of the 5k PBs in Leixlip organised by Pop up Races at the end of July. My 5k pb has stood at 15.12 since 2010 and I felt I had an outside shot of getting close to it. I also felt having looked at the entry list in advance that I had a reasonable chance of winning the race. I decided before hand that due to the strength of the field I would wait till the last lap to make a decisive move. As the race progressed, we formed a nice group of 3 at the front with me sitting at the back of the group clicking of consistent 400ms of 73 – 74 seconds which was very close to PB pace. However with just over 3 laps to go I noticed the pace was starting to slow and we were falling away from PB pace for me so I had a decision to make. Do I go to the front and try and pick up the pace and act as the sacrificial lamb or let the pace drop further and just sit in? I made the decision to go to the front and tried to inject some pace and with a lap to go were down to just me and Evan Fitzgerald from Clonmel. I tried to pick up the pace further in the last lap but was fairly spent and coming into the home straight Evan had just passed me now I made one more attack down the home straight but Evan was strong enough to hold me off with both of us running 15.12 equalling my personal best running a 64 second last 400m. Afterwards when I got my breath back I didn’t know whether to be happy or disappointed as by taking on the pace with over a km to go I probably sacrificed my chance of winning of the race but in hindsight you could also say if I had taken on the pace earlier maybe I might of ran a personal best. It just shows that these little decisions can make a huge difference but I really feel you need to go with your gut but also not let your heart rule your head in these decisions.

Although this may have been a frustrating week for me its been a real tonic to see the progression of all the runners I coach all completing some key sessions this week and putting together really strong consistent training blocks.

Have a great weeks training all 😊

Noel