Hi everyone,
Well, had day booked off from work today and decided to get a long run in today rather than at the usual weekend as I work full time.
Decided that I was going to aim for 10km, I have done that distance twice before, and thought it quite do-able. Bear in mind, that the other two times I've done it, it wasn't planned, I just felt good after the first 5-6 k, and continued on, until reached the magical (magical for me anyway 10k). This morning however, felt awful! Ran for the first 20 minutes or so, and from then on had lots if walking intervals. Wind was against me quite a lot, and my legs felt like lead. I got to around 6k and wanted to give up, but carried on, and did get to 10k. I think i walked about 3k, and ended up with a time of 1hour 23 minutes, still feeling dreadful.
Did the warm down walk, back to the car, and all the way home beat myself up about how bad it had gone.
When I got in, I had a lightbulb moment, and actually thought, perhaps because my aim was for 10k, this made it harder to achieve, before when i didn't aim for any specific distance, I felt a lot happier. Putting pressure on myself to achieve a specific distance didn't work for me. I'm not running to aim to compete in a race, and just like running for myself, if that makes sense.
Then I actually thought, why am I beating myself up about this? I've just ran/walked for 6 miles, something just over 6 months ago when I started couch to 5k, and never thought would be possible! Ok, so I walked some of it! But that is still exercise, and better than sitting on the couch as we say!
So, I think in future I'm not going to aim for a certain distance, but just run for my own enjoyment, and just keep remaining myself that even if I only achieve 3k or something, it's better than nothing!
Just really annoyed how I beat myself up about it! Anyone else done this after a bad run?
mand3966