There's no letup

Last week we had proper winter weather in Johannesburg where we usually have good summer weather in November. Average maximum temperatures were around 10°C instead of 30°C for this time of the year. With that it was really wet with rain the whole week. I’m glad to say I still did my required training because for me, there is no letup.

I remember Don Oliver using this phrase at one of his Comrades talks and also reading it in his training program. There’s no letup. This refers to the six day running per week in the buildup to Comrades. At the Comrades talk someone asked Don about the six days per week plus the increase in distance for the long runs from 32km, 42.2km, 50km and 64km for that year. His answer was: “Yes we continue with our six days per week, there’s no letup.”

I still do this, not only for Comrades training, that’s how I always run and train. Last week got me thinking about this again. The cold and wet mornings made getting out of bed more difficult, but once I’m out on the road I’m always happy to be there and enjoy the fresh air. I always try to run the six days. From time to time something will happen anyway that make running on a specific day impossible. This is usually some family or work related issue and sometimes really bad weather. When this happens I’m always glad I’ve been running six days a week as the impact of the missed run is then minimal and mostly just good rest and recovery time.

So this week, when the alarm goes off at 4 AM, I’ll get out of bed and onto the road, building up and working towards my next goal, because there’s no letup.