A couple of weeks ago I turned 40. Yuck. 30 was quite exciting, heralding the true start of proper ‘adulting’ (home ownership, marriage, kids etc). At 40 I’ve now deduced that adulting isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It's rewarding, sure, but bugger me is it stressful, relentless and knackering! Furthermore, my best sporting years could well be behind me and this could potentially be life’s halfway point, given the as yet unknown length of innings I may have. I mean, age is but a number etc etc and I am far from “past it”, but I have noticed that recovery takes longer these days than when I took up running just over a decade ago; niggles are harder to ignore and run through as they are want to turn into full blown injuries; and generally I fatigue more easily and so cannot cope with the same volume or intensity of training that I once could. It’s hard to know whether much of this just is down to age or the fact that I am a busy Mum to a 4 year old and a 2 year old, the latter not being a terrific sleeper, and so a full night’s sleep has not featured in my recovery plan since pre-children in early 2019! I also no longer get the luxury of putting my feet up on the sofa after a race or hard session: it’s a case of jump in the shower and resume parenting as quickly as possible as the Mum-guilt is already kicking in at having abandoned them for an hour!
Then let’s talk about health issues and doctors visits: the older you get, the more of them there are! A particular recent health scare arose following a bout of covid in March. I felt fine with it at the time but about a week later, following a 13 mile trail run across Woodbury Common, I started experiencing ventricular ectopics (palpitations, essentially). Everyone gets these, many have a couple a day that go unnoticed, but having a high ectopic burden (too damn many of them!) can weaken the heart muscle and its pump function over time. 12 weeks on and I have been having continuous ectopics every 2, 3 or 5 beats that aren’t abating, so I am currently undergoing cardiology investigations to determine if something needs to be done about them (an ablation). I also suffered from an extremely high heart rate for the first 6 weeks following covid. My usual resting h/r is around 42bpm, a walk pace would be 80-90bpm, easy run 130bpm, all out 5k race pace 180bpm. In the 6 weeks post-covid I was at 55bpm resting, 130bpm just pottering around the house, 165bpm walking and over 200bpm at an easy run…. Needless to say, I didn’t attempt to race on this to find out the dizzy heights I might have reached! Anyway, the cardiologist suspects this is a form of post-covid dysautonomia and not actually a cardiac issue. A cardiac echo confirmed that my heart remains structurally sound. The solution? Most likely, time. Like many post-covid issues, you just have to let it run its course and hope that that course isn’t too damn long. The important thing is, if it wasn’t for my Garmin or being wired up to ECGs, I wouldn’t be aware of this high heart rate. I feel the same and it doesn’t feel like it is beating any faster. Jolly good as it means I have resumed racing and don’t feel too different or perform any differently (having had a month off all exercise and the ensuing drop in fitness accounted for), so the ectopics are clearly not too much of an immediate problem to my heart function. Not going to lie though, it was a worrying few months and it did make me question what would be my "me thing" if I could no longer run / cycle / perform to the level I have grown accustomed to. I mean, I could take up golf I suppose, but I doubt it would give the same endorphin release and, moreover, it’s too bloody time consuming!
Anyway, enough of the negativity. There are plus points to being 40: bottom end of a new 5 year age block for competing at age-group events; potential to win age group prizes in local races as well as top 3 overall; having the knowledge and conviction to do what works best for you and not be swayed by others: this applies both in sport and in life in general. A prime sporting example is that I now know that my legs do not handle speed work, so I simply don’t do it. I do the occasional hills session and a weekly parkrun at tempo pace to get into the anaerobic training zone. I also don’t do high volume sessions or high mileage as I simply don’t have the time. I do a daily set of specific strength exercises prescribed by my amazing physio, Nigel Wilman of Honiton Physio, to target my weak areas and make me more robust. This compensates for any lack of endurance training to ensure I can hold my form even when fatiguing towards the end of a race.
And so, to some recent race results. Up until May I hadn’t raced since the Templer 10 mile in November 2022. I was meant to do the Tough Runner Exeter Epic Trail at Escot in March, but it got cancelled with less than 48 hours notice. Over 4 months on and still absolutely no updates sent out on a rescheduled date, despite my three emails to the organiser to be told three times: “an update will be sent out in the next couple of weeks”. Still waiting. Seriously, a money-grabbing commercial outfit that doesn’t give a buggers about the runners. The thieving sods have pocketed my £28 and are away laughing. I digress…. Recent races. I’ve done three:
The Uplowman 10k in May. An undulating road race near Tiverton. A fabulously organised, cheap to enter event by Tiverton Harriers (Tough Runner could learn a few things here). I finished as 1st lady in 41:10. Not bad considering this was following my full month off any training with the post-covid heart issues. My legs felt zippy and rested and full of running. It was a pleasing result.
Shiver Me Timbers 10 mile trail race in June. A coastal path race from Goodrington Sands to Brixham and back. Again, superbly organised and a beautiful trail route. The combination of distance (I don’t run over 6 miles in training) plus hills made this a challenge. The hot, humid weather didn’t help either! So I set off conservatively with another lady and we ran together for the first 3 miles. We then took a wrong turn as an arrow had been moved and added on an extra ¼ or so of a mile. The lady then pulled ahead and I was happy to settle in for a comfortable 2nd place, finished 10 minutes ahead of the 3rd lady. Finish time of 1h29, averaging 8:50m/m pace for 10 miles with 1500ft elevation.
Charnmouth Challenge fell race in July: my first race in the new vet 40 category. A coastal path challenge from Charmouth taking in 3 major climbs, including an ascent of Golden Cap – the highest point on the south-west coast path. 8 miles with 1700ft of ascent. I led the lady’s race up the first climb but as we topped out at Stonebarrow another lady pulled up on side and then put major time into me as we started to descend. I love a hill…. but I am pretty shit at running down them! She was then away and gone and I dug in for 2nd place and comfortably first vet 40 (gotta take these old person wins now!). An average pace of 8:40m/m was an improvement on the Shiver Me Timbers race, given the increased elevation. I was pretty knackered by the end; it was another hot day and I don’t have the endurance to cope in the latter stages of these long races, so a fair bit of walking occurred on the final climb!
And of course, Saturdays wouldn't be Saturdays without a parkrun fix. Today's, celebrating the NHS@75 (which my husband proudly works for) was at Longrun Meadow in Taunton where I finished as 1st lady in 19:59. I've now done 314 parkruns at 74 different venues. It's the official start to the Dominey family weekend. The choice of location now gets swayed more by the quality of play park near the finish line than the quality of the post-run coffee, but hey ho, a Mum can't have everything!
Thanks as always to Nigel at Honiton Phsyio for helping me keep on top of my niggles. Some pregnancy induced weaknesses crept back in in the enforced month I had off with the post-covid heart issues, so I have been paying him many visits and the combo of a well-placed knuckle in a strategic place plus strength, flexibility and activation exercises have enabled me to keep on top of the problems.
