Bad run, but on reflection...

I always blog when i'm happy about a run, so i thought i'd share a bad run.

Yesterday I had a hard slog of a run, planned to go for a long run (15K ish) without music to prove that I will be alright for my HM in August, which doesn't allow headphones.

Firstly went out annoyed ( having spoken to Yodel !!), forgot to have a drink, MP3 player is broken, reason to test resolve, so no music and first half was a struggle, just couldnt get into the groove, breathing all over the place, even had a little 100M walk at 3K.

After a bit of self doubt, inner voice taunting " i'll never manage my HM without music", "why bother running if it's no fun" etc etc, I gave myself a good talking to "YOU'RE JUST HAVING A CRAP RUN! PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER"

I pulled myself together, changed plan and decided to scale back plan to 8K.

Second half more enjoyable, but now I need to do a run without music to prove it was just a blip, but not tomorrow, music tomorrow, some other day.

Enjoy your runs, even the bad ones

connect.garmin.com/activity...

[Ally-d Graduate]

Sorry you had a bad run but thanks for posting it, it helps to know that even graduates struggle at times, hope your next run is a good one x

[Hidden in reply to Ally-d]

I'm looking forward to my run tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

[Malcy Graduate]

Mrs Malcy once told me about a violinist (Kyung-Wha Chung or Tasmin Little, she's not sure which) who was on Desert Island Discs. The main thing is that she said that she didn't need to take her violin as her luxury because she could hear all her music in her head.

So Phil - there's my suggestion. You don't need no stinkin' mp3 player. You already have all the music you need in your memory. AND you can speed it up or slow it down to match your pace. Brilliant!

Worth a try?

[Hidden in reply to Malcy]

Definitely worth a try, the thing is I know I can do it, often take off headphone and have ran a few times without musc

[ju-ju- Graduate]

I love the fact that rather than give up, you scaled back..thats setting realistic and achievable goals which in itself is a good strategy to get to that HM. As for the music, I love Malcy/ Mrs Malcy's suggestion...or perhaps you could sing ( personally I love a bit of swearing).

I think we should embrace the bad runs, as same as in life, its where we learn the most

[Hidden in reply to ju-ju-]

I am quite pleased I scaled back rather than giving up. I do occasionally sing on a run, but only if no one is around as I am tone deaf and it just wouldn't be fair the wildlife just has to grin and bare it

[TJFlute]

Some interesting comments here, and I agree that you did well to just scale back the run to 8k rather than just give up completely. Running without music is an interesting one. I used to love running to music, but latterly (last 6 months) I have been going without 99% of the time. Even when I take the headphones I often take them out of my ears anyway. Reasons for this are:

1. It's seems safer to be able to hear things around me.

2. It's nicer to hear things around me (birds, cows, peace and quiet)

3. It gives me more time to sort stuff out in my mind (which might just be 'what are we having for tea', or sometimes a bit deeper than this!)

4. I don't have the time to get the ipod/headphones (I use ipod for work so it's in a different bag) and I'm often keen to just get out of the door without procrastinating.

However, I recently used audiofuel again to do a tempo run; it was quite novel and helps with that particular run.

Anyway, I think it's just something that you get used to in time and becomes the norm.

So good luck with trying the low tech run out again

[Hidden in reply to TJFlute]

Thanks, I will try again soon without music, but have just bought some new audiofuel on offer that I want to try out tomorrow.

Definitely running without music on wet days from now on, as just killed an ipod shuffle on Saturday.

[ju-ju- Graduate in reply to TJFlute]

Love the list!!

[TJFlute in reply to ju-ju-]

He, he! I thought of you as I wrote it

[ancientrunner Graduate]

Yodel can ruin anyone's day!! Just had to many negatives to mull over, I'm sure the next time will be better.

[Hidden in reply to ancientrunner]

I thought someone would understand the Yodel comment, next time will be fine, cheers

[DeliaItaly Graduate]

Phil! Please explain the Yodel reference to this ignorant woman in Italy

[Hidden in reply to DeliaItaly]

They are a parcel delivery company in the uk, they may be known for their poor customer service and I may have been on to their quality UK call centre !!

Computer Says No...

[ancientrunner Graduate]

They couldn't find my house and I couldn't go and collect the parcel from the depot as they hadn't left a delivery note - because they couldn't find my house.

[Hidden in reply to ancientrunner]

I had the card, but the system didn't know the number, so their phone system wouldn't talk to me grrrrrr.

[janda Graduate]

Hiya Phil. Long time no hear (from me that is!). It's just like that some times and you did the right thing cutting your losses and scaling it back. 8k is no slouch of a distance and I'm sure even a 'bad run' is still a bit of learning too. Isn't that what Laura said? Good luck with the prep for the August HM. James

[Hidden]

Cheers James, l've had a couple of runs since and normal service has been resumed. Just checked your profile for your HM details. Congratulations on deciding to do a marathon in 2015.