This Sunday I had a disastrous 6 mile training run. Actually, it didn’t end up being 6 miles like I had planned that’s how bad it was. I ended up going back to my apartment at 4.5 miles. While I won’t get into the details, it just didn’t seem right from the start. My breathing was off (stupid asthma), ice was all over the ground from Nemo, and everything just felt uncomfortable from my feet to my shoulders.
A bad training run hasn’t happened to me in a while so of course when I got back home, I was all sorts of upset. I didn’t get in the distance I needed to according to my Nike Women’s Half Marathon training plan, my foot was bothering me due to a blister, and just felt generally awful afterwards. I’ve been having issues with motivation to run lately to begin with so this 4.5 miler was just salt on the fire. Or so I thought.
When I got home I tweeted about my bad run and immediately got INSANE amounts of support from so many of my amazing followers. I cannot be more grateful for what blogging has brought me, and this was just a reminder of how many amazing people are out there. People who really want to see you succeed and will give you the motivation to do so.
TooOldToRun was one follower who sent me an amazing tweet telling me that we all need bad runs to appreciate the good ones. You can’t have one without the other. And I got to thinking about this and could not agree more. When I’ve had what I’d call a “good run”, I felt great and got in the distance I wanted to. But I also knew it they were good because I was able to compare it to those times when running was a struggle.
Thinking in these terms made me feel 100 times better and I decided to use this run as motivation to fuel my running fire. Today I went out and had a good 4 mile treadmill run, remembering all the support I had from so many great friends. The miles flew by for the first time in a while and I really had fun. Although Sunday’s run was emotional and upsetting, it was because of that run that I enjoyed today’s so much.
So… using this run and remembering the struggle I went through this weekend, I will have an amazing long run next weekend. Remember that you can and will overcome your struggles in running and in life and that every single thing happens for a reason.
I also wanted to share some great posts from fellow bloggers that I found this week. They all sort of relate to the things I was talking about today. Check them out:
“People who run races are insane” via Healthy Next
“Why I love running” via Emily Runs
“Renew your passion for running” via Will Run for Glitter
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There’s still time to enter my Stride Box Giveaway! Especially if you are a runner, this is one you don’t want to miss!
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Have you had any bad runs lately? How did you handle it?
What gets you through the tough times?
