Putting pressure on oneself didn't work!

[mand3966]

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

[RainbowC Graduate]

It's so easy to feel disheartened after a run that doesn't go to plan, for whatever reason - but you're absolutly right to turn it round and see all those positives! Six miles. For fun! That's a long way from a bad outing (six miles away, indeed...)

[Millsie-J Graduate]

10k interval run, nice one, nothing to be disappointed about there! Well done👍🏼

[melly4012 Graduate]

Yes, definitely, I am completely guilty of overanalysing my runs. It took me a while to realise that there just is sometimes no rhyme or reason to a good or bad run and still need to remind myself of this as it's all consuming at the time.

You saw the light though and put it all into perspective in the end! I graduated back mid summer and still haven't reached 10km so you're doing great. I totally agree that planning can change your mindset completely. I'm doing the My Asics 10k plan at the moment and I am finding running for distance totally different to running for time like on the C25k programme! Those amazing runs we're not expecting are definitely the best ones and you just can't plan for them.

[runswithdogs Graduate]

It's good to have these runs once in awhile. When we stop and think how far we've come and how wonderful it feels it really puts things into perspective. Often I only run 3 k, lots of times I walk lots. But then every year I build back up to an 8 mile distance for my favorite fun run. Running ebbs and flows. The most important thing is to enjoy it, as that will keep you heading out the door