Many new runners totally underestimate the impact that running may have on their lives but equally, many do not take into account the extent to which their everyday lives can affect their performance as a runner.
Nearly everybody who posts their C25k progress on this forum, at some point or another, declares that they have just had a terrible run and they feel disheartened, only to be lifted up by their virtual run buddies in the community reassuring them that it happens to everyone, for no obvious reason and that the next run will be better.
Being an adherent to the chaos theory approach to the universe, I beg to differ as I believe that there is a cause behind every effect and that if we analyse our “bad” runs, in most cases we can identify many of the factors that contribute to them and therefore either reduce their frequency or even eradicate them completely.
The variables that can affect our running are not all under our control, however three of the most crucial are very much in our hands and by optimising them we can vastly reduce the likelihood of a "bad" run.
Restedness (both physical and mental). If you have had a poor night's sleep, just finished a long hard shift at work or did a twenty mile cross country walk on your rest day, then your performance is likely to be compromised. Feeling relaxed, refreshed and raring to go is more likely to happen if we avoid any of the above and rested muscles are going to respond to the demands better than tired ones.
Hydration. We are in total control of what goes into our bodies in the form and volume of fluids and food. Getting this optimised is probably the easiest and most effective way of making sure that our bodies are in the best possible condition to enable us to enjoy our running and to perform up to expectations. The absolutely crucial nature of hydration, which is often overlooked by new runners, is laid out in this post, healthunlocked.com/couchto5... including recommended volumes for fluid intake. If you cannot control any of the other variables, then make sure you get your fluid levels correct.
Nutrition. The old adage "we are what we eat" is, in my view, so completely true, so a good broad based diet will pay dividends and make sure that not only do you get all the necessary nutrients, but you also have a healthy gut flora, which growing evidence indicates is crucial to both mental and physical health. If you binge on poor quality foods, then you will suffer the consequences. Make sure you are fuelled up but not full up.
There are of course an infinite number of other variables outside of our control, both environmental and personal: weather, temperature, humidity, air pressure, pollen and pollution, ground conditions, mood, illness, mental and physical stress, etc. etc. Also, medication of any sort changes our body chemistry, so will affect how we run. These variables can all be taken into account when planning a run, even if they cannot be avoided..
For instance, if you know we are in the midst of a heatwave, then expect your run to be tougher if you do it in the middle of the day than if you do it in the cool of the morning, so lower your demands of your body…...slow down…...and reduce your expectations and of course pay special attention to fluid intake in the preceding 24 hours.
While you are following C25k you are not really in charge of the duration of your run, but after you graduate, make sure that you plan your runs, so that you know what you are hoping to achieve from each and every run and the likely route, before you set off. Of course, if on the night before a planned attempt at breaking a pb, you have a disturbed night’s sleep, it makes sense to forget about that target and just head out on a nice slow, stamina building run.
The time of day, the time of the week, the time of the month, the year and life also have significant effects. Though I would never attempt to explain a woman’s performance or mood relating to her menstrual cycle, I watched a fascinating BBC video chat last year between two of the England football Lionesses, discussing how much their periods impacted their performance and moods………….that was a carefully considered sentence, in which I intended to point out that an awareness of, and concessions to, our bodies and their cycles improves our understanding of performance.
Elite athletes in training for competition attempt to control every aspect of their diet, sleep, relaxation and exercise regimes in an effort to maximise performance, sometimes by tiny margins. While that degree of control is not realistic for us recreational runners, an awareness of how our daily lives can impact both positively and negatively on our running, does mean that the “bad” run can become a rare occurrence.
Run preparation is not just laying your gear out the night before a run and being warmed up, but developing an holistic awareness of all those variables that negatively impact our running, and living our lives to minimise them and maximise our enjoyment and performance. You cannot expect to add on hard physical exercise to your weekly regime without making concessions and preparations in the rest of your life. The aim of all this is to enable ourselves to be mentally and physically in the best shape we can be, relaxed and stress free.
Six years ago I wrote this post healthunlocked.com/couchto5.... pondering on exactly why runs vary and stating that I was a slow learner. Well, over the intervening period I have slowly constructed my thesis that there is an explanation behind every “bad” run, if we can be bothered to look for it.
There are more FAQ posts giving general information here healthunlocked.com/couchto5...
