A few weeks ago my husband and I went for an 8 mile run, which was the longest run since the marathon.

The whole week before, I went on a few runs and boy were they tough. And when they are tough, they are discouraging.

How could I go from such a “runners’ high” from running 26.2 miles to feeling like 4 was too much?!

Every time I thought “Ok, now my pace is more normal” and looked at my watch, it would be slower than I have run in a year. Yet I felt like I was working super hard, my legs were tired and my breathing was struggling.

It’s been hot, but even accounting for that didn’t explain the fatigue. I know, I know…I ran a marathon a few weeks ago. But…

Negative Voices

I have this voice in my head when I have a hard (“bad”) run that says I will never get to the same level again. I will never PR. My half-marathon in September (September!!) is going to suck and I won’t reach my goal because 6 miles here in June are rough.

It is difficult for me to have a bad run, and cast it aside. It can make me crabby for the rest of the day and want to get out the next and prove something…which can be the opposite of what I should do.

One of the things that has helped me a lot with the negative thinking, is listening to podcasts from elite runners who all experience the same thing. I love listening to Tina Muir of the Running for Real podcast.

Even the introduction to the podcast talks about everyone having a bad run, and since I listen to podcasts on my run it is helpful to hear that.

Everyone has a bad run…or even a bad string of runs…once in a while. It just is. What you do with that run, how you think about yourself after that run…that is where the work comes in. Click To Tweet

Learn from the Hard Runs

I can take it and try to learn from it. Maybe I need a longer break from running than I am giving myself. Maybe I need to take in more fluids if its super hot out there. Maybe I need to forget about it, go on with my day and hop back into the saddle (or the running shoes) at another time and go from there.

The runners I listen to on podcasts help me look at my running more realistically and it is comforting to know I am not alone. It is encouraging to know that I’m not some unicorn runner that has a bad run while everyone else is out there killing it.

Will I still be down on myself…yup. But, I can “recover” from that more quickly. I have even ditched a run 75% of the way through and felt OK about it. My body needed the break, and not running the last 2 miles wasn’t going to make or break anything (honestly, if 2 miles is going to make or break a race 2 months down the road…there are other issues!)

Running Like an Animal (that’s good…right?)

The other day, Dave and I had to do some hill work as part of the training program I’m doing. It was something like 82 degrees and we were chugging up a hill as fast as we could for 30 seconds at a time with a two-minute break in between.

As we were running full bore up the hill, a biker rode by and yelled: “You guys are animals!” LOL…he happened upon us at the right time to see about 15 seconds and assumed we were just running super fast up a hill, probably thinking we were on a much longer fast run.

But, it sure felt good (which is weird that being called an animal is a good thing, haha). It goes to show that a lot of extraneous things can have an impact on your psyche for the good or bad.

I’m taking that lesson to heart, and trying to tell myself good things while on the run. Amanda Brooks has a blog post about having a running mantra. In it, she shares what one is and many examples of what you could use.

Even on a bad run, you can be kind to yourself. You are out there doing it, you are getting stronger even when you don’t feel like you are, you can take a break without having to feel bad!!

It’s tough to do, but I’m going to try and stay positive!