October 9, 2023 - Bad Runs

Yesterday I had a truly bad run. A miserable run. From the first step to the last, it was nothing but challenge and difficulty and discomfort and no joy. 20 miles of bad. Dead legs. Stomach issues. Low energy. Mentally absent. A bad, bad run. Thank goodness for good company, which made the bad run so much more joyful and manageable.

Whenever I have a truly bad run, a run where nothing seems to be working properly, a run where it never gets better (most long bad runs eventually turn into okay runs or even sometimes good runs after a few miles), a run where I can't put my finger on something that caused it to be bad; I begin to doubt and wonder. Doubt that I can do the running I hope to do. Wonder what I'm doing wrong.

Then I remind myself, bad runs are a part of running. And the more you run, the more frequently bad runs seem to occur. I don't think this is actually true. I think the percentage of bad runs to total runs stays relatively constant. But if you run more, you have bad runs more. I'm sure yesterday was just one of those bad runs. A run that doesn't work for a combination of reasons. Bad sleep. Bad eating. Bad mood. Bad weather. Who knows.

I still ended up getting my total of 35 kilometers running in yesterday, even if it took a second run in the evening. A single bad run, I gotta brush it off. It happens. Only when that becomes a pattern, when the number of bad runs seems to be trending up, should it be a concern. One bad run. Whatever. A few bad runs for a couple weeks, probably time to change something up or to take an unplanned rest or back of some intensity for a while.

So yesterday was one bad run. Today will most likely be better.  

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