Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Bad Days

We all have them - at home, at work - even our hair has them. So why do we expect our running lives to be exempt from bad, horrible, awful days?

I don't know. I do it, too. Yesterday during my 5th of 6 half mile intervals I practically had a breakdown in the middle of a fairly busy park because my scheduled 5K-10K pace was actually turning out to be worse than my half-marathon pace. So naturally I decided that regardless of my efforts, I am in fact getting worse at running, I will never be able to run a fast half marathon again, let alone a decent 5K, and obviously I've hit my prime and everything will only go downhill from here.

I'm usually a very rational person. Seriously. But I'm also very competitive, to a fault. For the most part, this is great for my running. I set very high standards, and then push like crazy to meet or exceed them. And when I do, I feel amazing. But this makes it very tough to accept the days when I just don't have it.

I really wish I could provide some wisdom here. A list of 10 reasons why bad days are actually awesome. I tried, but nothing. So instead, here's a list of the things I tell myself...

1. Training isn't racing and shouldn't be. If you able to run your race pace every training run then you're running your races too slow!

2. There are always compounding factors to a bad run. Call them excuses, but last night's tossing and turning, this morning's horrible meeting, the traffic jam on the way home, that huge handful of jelly beans you ate as you ran out the door, the 50 mph winds that you can't seem to escape no matter what direction you run, some of these are real reasons that you shouldn't expect your body to perform at its highest level.

3. One event does not define a trend - one bad run has little to no reflection on your actual ability as a runner.

4. Tomorrow is a new day so stop mourning the loss of your running career, get out there and get it back!

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