Worst run ever! (Read 964 times)

Probably just one of those days... You have made some significant jumps in mileage in the past couple weeks, but I doubt you're overtraining. See how tomorrow goes, and if you're still feeling terrible cut the run short.

It looks like you've had alot of great runs lately. Don't sweat the bad one. Even Tiger Woods has an off day sometimes.

I looked at your training and saw two obvious things: first, you've run a lot of "long" runs in a short period. If you're really burned out, move this week's 15 miler to next weekend. More importantly, there isn't much variation in your pace. Your recent easy runs have been run at almost (and in one case exactly) the same pace as your "tempo" runs, and your longer runs have been run at the same pace, too (or even faster). It's the oldest advice in the book, but you need more variation in pace. Your easy days should be truly easy; your quality days should be hard. If I were you, I'd be running the easy days at least a full minute slower than you currently are. If you want to rock the hard days, fine - but there shouldn't be more than a couple of them a week. As for the long run pace, people debate that. I run mine slow. And I mean slow. Some people suggest running them pretty hard. One good compromise there is to make them progression runs: run the first few miles easy, get progressively faster, run the last several miles at close to race pace. Bottom line: in my opinion, its not exactly surprising you had a bad run. If you run frequently and always at the same effort, you get that feeling. It's no different than lifting weights with the same effort and intensity day after day. It doesn't make you stronger, it makes you weaker. Just my couple of rubles.

You may want to try what I do on my recovery days...I don't wear my watch. I know, this is blasphemous for us OCD runners . I run slowly by feel and there is no temptation to try to beat my times from previous days. Next time you feel like that during the run, just turn your watch off and take it easy the rest of the way. You want to save the intensity for your workout days anyways. I also agree with the previous advice on varying your pace. Your easy runs should not be at the same pace as your tempo and long runs.

Ok, so slow down on the easy days huh? I will try. I think I've been trying to get faster by race that I have been pushing myself every day so I can get my pace down by May 4th.

It may seem counterintuitive, but running slow helps. Running slow allows you to recover. Recovery allows you to run more. Running more makes you faster. For most people, more miles will lead to greater improvement than more speed. Also, slow on your easy days allows you to get more out of your hard days.

A run in which you complete your milage and don't injure yourself can be all bad!

You finished. That's not a bad run. A bad run is quitting after a mile or two--knowing before hand that you weren't into it and should have just called it a rest day or biked or x-trained. Everyone has crappy runs. TC