What do you do in the start/middle of a hard workout when and realize your going to have a bad day?
Maybe you went a long run and your legs just arent there or maybe you are getting over a cold.. but what is the best solution for this? Should you just work through it or stop and rework your schedule for the week or...?
I usually try to shake myself out of it a bit before giving up. If it's a long run, try to settle in for another mile or two. Or if it's repeats, stop and try to do one more. Sometimes you just don't have it, though, like you said, and on days like that, I just stop the workout and reschedule.
Thing is, we don't always wake up and feel great on race day. I'm not talking about being sick, but just that some days are really "a" days, and others aren't.
If I'm feeling off, I usually just work through it and run according to effort. I do think there's benefit to just running the workout to your abilities that day -- having an "off day" is just like having a bad weather day, and it's good practice to do workouts in all the conditions in which you would race.
My rule of thumb is that if I'm feeling so off that I'd skip a race, then I'll skip the workout. It's similar for weather -- I don't skip a workout due to heat or cold or rain or pollen unless I'd DNS a race in the same conditions. It's good to practice coping with non-optimal situations.
(Exception: if I'm getting over a cold, I may skip the workout just to make sure I don't get a relapse, while I'd still race in the same situation).
yesterday i wanted to run 10 miles, and after 8 i just got winded and my shins hurt. i sat in the sand awhile (i live near the ocean) and it was a nice day, so tons of people were out, most of them pale obese landwhales. it resembled a mass-stranding. i told myself if i don't get up and do it i will end up like these sorry messes. it motivated me enough to start from zero, and i ended up going another 12 miles.
i guess my point is when i don't have it i just look around at the average person around me, and it helps me get it back.
comberdoggy wrote:
yesterday i wanted to run 10 miles, and after 8 i just got winded and my shins hurt. i sat in the sand awhile (i live near the ocean) and it was a nice day, so tons of people were out, most of them pale obese landwhales. it resembled a mass-stranding. i told myself if i don't get up and do it i will end up like these sorry messes. it motivated me enough to start from zero, and i ended up going another 12 miles.
i guess my point is when i don't have it i just look around at the average person around me, and it helps me get it back.
are you running to get faster, running to lose weight, or do you have some sort of insecurity? Seriously, I can't tell.
If you were training to get faster, I might think that you would would be worried about what your competitors or professionals were doing instead of what these "obese landwhales" were doing.
If you are wanting to lose weight, why would you run 20 miles? Just save yourself some money and time and reduce your caloric intake. Replace some of those miles with stretching, yoga, weight lifting, swimmer, a mate, friends, something else.
If you ran 20 miles because you're insecure, well then I dunno. If you can run ONE mile then you're probably not an obese landwhale or an undedicated person, and you're doing TWENTY?!
Don't force it is. If you're tired, you're tired because you're tired not because you are weak or need to toughen up. Even El G took days off and cut workouts early and look where it got him.