‘The Road to Torun’ is an online diary of my 14 week journey to the World Masters Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland that begin on 26th March 2023. This will be a training aide and hopefully a lasting memory of the preparations in the run up to my first World Masters Championship.
I have to give credit for the idea to Simon Jamison a colleague and coach at my running club ‘North Shields Poly’ who is doing the same thing having secured a place in next year’s London Marathon.
Whilst he will be running 26.2 miles to my 200m & 400m, I expect we will have much in common around being in the best physical shape we can be for our events. This will no doubt require a strong discipline towards our training regimes, and a strong focus on the conditioning of our bodies and minds to maintain our health and motivation.
Staying fit and healthy will be a key requirement as in order to be able to compete at the World Championships I first have to get to Torun. This means rest and recovery will be equally as important as training and a good diet will be essential, which from someone with a very sweet tooth who likes a glass or two of wine, will require a very high level of discipline. That said I’ve done it before and it’s a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.
Resisting the desire to overtrain is another key requirement, and I’ll be looking to train smarter rather than harder to get the most value out of my training sessions, whether that be running, gym work, or Pilates the most recent addition to my regime. This again will require good discipline as like many other athletes I’ve previously fallen foul of running harder at the wrong times.
And I need to listen to my coaches (promise) and be patient. There are many things I can improve and their experience and help is essential. I also like to make use of a video coach, i.e. replays of previous performances and training sessions from myself and others. A few videos from the events I competed in last year are posted on this site and from time to time I use these to remind myself what went well, what didn’t go well, where I made improvements, and importantly how the event made me feel.
So wheres the wine and quality street … only kidding
More updates to follow …
Stuart Lynn - Masters Athlete 