How weird to read your post. I had a 5 mile run yesterday and it was horrible. 5 miles is usually nothing, but I felt every step yesterday. Breathing was off, knee hurt, music was irritating... just a bad run. They happen - just like awesome runs happen.

Well, I had the flu for the last couple of days. What I would have given to be well enough to run 5 miles.

It's all in how you look at it.

Better days are sure to come!

~Shell

Take a day off.

I know..it's hard to figure out sometimes. Last Sunday on my long run I felt absolutly horrible...worse run of the year I think. I was well rested and hydrated and all that good stuff.

Last night I ran a 12 mile tempo run and I felt like I was running on air...one of my better runs. I was tired from work, didn't eat well during the day and so on????

It's just sooo hard to predict how a run is going to be sometimes. When I do have a bad run, I feel kinda depressed till I knock out a good one and get my confidence back.

Everyone has runs like that form time to time. I find the days activities, stress levels at work and other factors can effect my runs. I changed jobs in July and went from a high stress one to a much lower stress and no more 10, 12, 14 hour days. All of a sudden, my times are way down. I've been running for 4 years and my very first race back then ran a 24:03 5K and I said cool, but the past two years, I only matched that with a 24:09 and a 24:01. Ran the same race this year and shattered it with a 21:48 and also shattered my 5M PR by over 4 minutes. I'm very convinced that the reduction in the stress level is the reason for my major jump.

So don't get alarmed by a poor run, but look back on it and see what other factors may have contributed to it and maybe in the future, you can avoid them




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LPH