Then something awesome happens! One day you are out, chugging along, and when you least expect it, you realize that you've gotten further than you ever have, without feeling the screaming or protesting from your body (not so much anyway), and you just feel great! It doesn't matter if it's a race, or just a run out someplace, you just feel like this:
Trust me, I have made that exact face before, and my legs are about that length! :)
However, I let that feeling get the best of me once... don't let that awesome feeling give you an excuse (though totally legitimate in your mind!) to relax on your training! Here's why:
After a really great time for our first 5k, we slacked off a little when preparing for a race just a few weeks ago, and the Hare's work schedule was long and grueling night shifts the week before (I'm blaming that-- that's my story and I'm sticking to it!). We ran a little, but not nearly as much as we needed to get used to the heat (our first race was a crisp early spring morning, the second was a late May evening race), so on race night we were hot, tired, unprepared, and we arrived to the race later than we planned.
We were determined to run, but from start to finish we (ok, mostly me) were struggling and miserable. We ended up walking (slowly) for most of the course...the powerwalker beat us by 2 whole minutes, and we weren't even in the same category (though he did have some serious determination)! I dumped more water over myself than I drank at water stations, I felt light headed and had to grab ice from a cooler after we finished to rapidly cool off so I didn't lose my lunch or pass out (both of which I really had to focus on not doing for a while). Basically this is what I did afterward:
I was angry at myself, mostly for not preparing myself better. I had done this distance before, so why had I done so badly this time? I know that answer now-- we hadn't prepared well, we hadn't slept well in a week (so our bodies weren't rested or ready for all the activity we demanded of them), we rushed ourselves getting there and were frazzled and stressed (ie, not having fun!), and we were dehydrated and unaccustomed to the heat. We realized our mistakes, and promised ourselves not to do that again-- for our health and safety's sake!
From that moment on, we knew that keeping up the training (and to add more cross training activities too-- we had not focused on that until that point) consistently, keep our schedules around our races a little less hectic and sleep as best we can, eating as well as we could, and most importantly, we knew we had to LEARN from the experience. If running was to be a long term commitment (and it is!), we had to keep those things in mind, and remember that there are going to be bad days sometimes, and moving on was the only way to overcome them-- just like running itself, you have to keep moving forward, one foot at a time!
Gimli's advice on running-- especially after a "bad" run!
For us, taking a slow, easy pace run, and going by effort, (not by time or gps) helped us get out of the "funk". Knowing that your body is still just the same, in the same shape, and able to do whatever you set yourself to, without freaking out over the data, is key to breaking the cycle in your own mind.
At some point, everyone has a "bad" run, or even a bad race. It happens to even the elites, so if you take nothing away from this post, please remember not to beat yourself up over it! I will type that as many times as you need-- and I know this from experience, it is hard not to be upset or discouraged after it happens. Hopefully sharing my story, and giving you the advice that worked for me will help you guys too!
Have you had a bad run? What did you do to help you get over the "blues" about it? Let us know!
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