The Psychology of a Bad Run

It was a bad run...

My legs felt heavy - check the fuelling strategy & effort in the preceeding week; ok busy week in the office, not a brilliant diet; inc walking 26 miles in the previous 6 days... Hmmm, that's a fairly heavy loading...

It was into a strong head wind, for 10 miles - Man up, nought you can do to change that!

It was humid - you don't cope well with humidity, you know that, nought you can do about that in 4 weeks

The water bladder spring a leak - buy a new one, test camelbak's lifetime warranty

It was a bad run, deal with it.

Analyse it yes, obsess on it no. I've been out to 18 miles already, on race day 18 miles will be middle of Sefton Park, heading back towards town.

I have to plant it into context, it was one bad run in a training programme that has seen me do my first fell run, first trail run, first cross country and perform better than I expected. My fuelling the week before the 20 miler could've been better - and I know what to do (and not do) for the marathon.

So, one swallow doesn't make a summer and one bad run doesn't ruin a training plan.

Next job...

The Great North Run - 13.1 miles of fun with 50,000 friends! I've been banging out 2:45 halfs in training, so my target is to come in under that, how much will depend on the day.

Oh, and my annual check-up with my cardiologist on Tuesday... It doesn't matter how fit I feel, how well I've run, it's still a worry to go and be prodded and poked, ecg's and echo'd and inevitably end up talking about stuff other than my heart...

So wish me luck for Tuesday, and a spring in my heels for next Sunday

TTFN

Paul

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