Runs: Gone Bad

We’ve all had them.  You know those runs that are just so goddamn awful.

You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones that are like the following:

• I have no energy
• I’m so tired
• My legs feel like legs
• I have a stitch
• I have a muscle cramp
• omg I’ve only done xx amount of km/mi
• omg I’ve only run for xx amount of time
• I should have bought my water bottle
• I’m so hungry
• I need to pee
• I need to poo
• My head hurts
• My iPod is flat
• NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hills!
• Speedwork you suck!

And so on.

Some of us have them quite often, others not so much.

I have had my fair share of interesting runs.

1. Falling over and hurting my knee (then running my fastest km on that track).
2. Getting a muscle cramp in my calf 10 days before a half marathon.
3. Falling into a sinkhole. Just to name a few.

But this particular run was all kinds of bad.

It was 28c | 82f at 9 am, and it was still hot, but also humid. I hate humidity (just saying).

I set out on this run with no expectations.  After the first kilometre I knew that this run was going to be just horrible. I felt so blah.  I was tired (from it being so hot during the night), and my legs felt really heavy.

I knew my running performance would decrease on whole30, but wow, not like this.

When I got to my first hill, I had it, I wanted to quit. Sure I walked it.  I did not have the energy physically or mentally. Yep, I walked (if you are about sure this trail you’d walk too).  After that, I told myself, who cares if you go slow, or have to walk, just do it.  And I did.

When I got to the next hill, I decided ok, just aim for that tree.  Once I passed that “ok now that rock”, and so on. Sure these landmarks may have only been 4-5 meters in front of me, but they helped me stay focused.

At the end of my trail (the next 2 km were then footpath) I ended up bumping into two running friends who I haven’t seen in a good 6 months, we chatted for about 5 mins (yes I paused the garmin).  I’m grateful I bumped into them.  I got told by Runner T that I’m looking fit and healthy.  Which of course was great to hear.  Talking to them really lifted my spirits and helped me get home.

At the end of the day yes the run was bad. A 6:38 km pace for me is unheard of. I don’t think I have run that slow since I started up running (back in 2011).  But I ran.

Sure I’ve run 10km in under 50 mins on a very good day, and in 55 mins on an average day.  But 67mins! Yikes, that’s a new record for sure.

Either way, don’t get over hilt over your bad run.  They happen.  Bad runs don’t make you a bad runner. Each run whether bad or good will tell you exactly what you need to know.

When it’s hot and humid, combined with feeling fatigue I know my performance is going to decrease dramatically.

 

Footnotes

1 – See the picture in this blog post.

2 -You can read more about that one here.

3 – I know I did a blog post about this, but I can’t find it, so here is the tweet instead.

Today’s #running adventure pic.twitter.com/r7geuAiD0x

— Matilda Iglesias (@MatildaIglesias) September 25, 2013

 

Have a bad run story you want to share?