How do you not get discouraged after bad workout? How to stay positive?

Metric Miler wrote:

xcguy0988 wrote:

There are no bad workouts, just ones that do not go as planned. But what could be the issue is your weekly schedule. Take a look at what you did in week 2 and try to replicate it, maybe the answer lies in the training

keep at it

I agree with this.

One thing I read about El Guerrouj that I thought was pretty crazy was that if he didnt hit his targets in a workout, then he would repeat it the next day.

Right, but El G had a little extra "help" recovering from hard efforts.

simple,

realize that getting thru the really tough days and the days when it doesn't go as well as you'd like is what makes the good days possible

there are myriad reasons for having a less-than-perfect workout... rest, food, weather, stress, a minor illness, etc....

... ... .. wrote:

Metric Miler wrote:

I agree with this.

One thing I read about El Guerrouj that I thought was pretty crazy was that if he didnt hit his targets in a workout, then he would repeat it the next day.

Could you possibly remember a spurce for this? I believe you but I'm curious how he would do this.

Would he just stop and have an easy day after 2 pr 3 repeats off target? Or run the whole workout 2 days in a row?

The first one. Stop after 2 or 3 efforts and try again next day.

Just go on living your lifeThey shouldn't always go well. It's good to have a bad one now and then to refocus and recalibrate.

throw flats in the trash? wrote:

I'm discouraged with a recent poor workout. Here's the progression:

week 1: 6x800: each 2:50, 90s rest: felt good

week 2: 6x800: each 2:46, 80s rest: felt easy

week 3: 6x800: each 2:50, 75s rest : felt a bit harder than week 2)

week 4: 10x400: each around 84s, 55s rest. felt very hard. WTF? Plan was 12x400, but ended in disgust.

There is a lot of sage advice so far!

One thing I am surprised about is how this thread made it to page two without anyone asking about the OP's current fitness / most recent race. Did I miss something? It is hard to know if it was a bad day or overtraining if we don't know if these workouts are at 3k effort or 15k effort. I'm just going to guess that the OP is not in shape to run under 18:00 in a track 5k today. Simply a guess.

Jon Orange wrote:

... ... .. wrote:

Could you possibly remember a spurce for this? I believe you but I'm curious how he would do this.

Would he just stop and have an easy day after 2 pr 3 repeats off target? Or run the whole workout 2 days in a row?

The first one. Stop after 2 or 3 efforts and try again next day.

John Walker would do this too. If he had 10x400 or whatever scheduled and he felt terrible after 3 he would jog home and try again the next day.

Man I've had years where I've had great workouts and horrible races and years where I felt like I wasn't doing enough yet I'm running PRS. One thing I've learned is at the end of the day it's not a big deal. Don't take yourself too seriously. Have goals. work hard but most importantly learn how to have fun and relax. If you are going to obsess over running its imprtant that u enjoy it. A lot of times we underperform BC we are weighed down by fear and worry. Let go a little. Be thankful for where your at but at the same time realize you can always get better. I can promise you there is not one person in this life that has maximized their potential in running or in any other facet of life. In terms of potential we have only began to scratch the surface of what the human potential is. Relax. Have fun. Don't over think things. Stay positive. It's not a big deal. Brush your shoulders off!

gdm wrote:

One solution might be to measure time or distance of each repeat, not both. Workouts aren't really meant to be an indicator of fitness. They are meant to improve your fitness.

this is perfect. make sure you do some workouts by feel, because you will never have the same situation every workout (sleep, overall stress level, eating, weather, etc). and also when you need the structure of time and distance, give yourself a wider range. if you hit the slowest part of the range on the first rep and it felt normal/ slightly hard, stay with that part of the range and work down IF you feel good. and if you have a bad workout, there was probably a reason. so use a training log and see what could've affected you and what helps you have good workouts. AND WRITE IT DOWN. this is one of my favorite things to do in my free time, and you can even use this reflection time to come up with "experiments" to try that might help you achieve your fitness goals.

That mindset/ those tips helped me tremendously during my senior year of high school because I was more consistent and wasn't cutting workouts, and I was always talking to my coach about the workouts. We came up with some pretty clever stuff this way. I went from 16:50's to 15:35 5k in one year. so in summary;

1) give yourself a wider range

2) use the first few reps as an indicator to what you should try to hit that day

3) if you have a "bad" workout, look at is as just another learning experience and delve into what you will do to have a better workout next time.

4) remember that every run is a learning experience to get where you want to be, and not a testament of your fitness.

also here's one of the best life lessons I have ever heard, from my coach: "every bad race is one step closer to your best race." Good luck man!

Look at what you are really telling your self after a bad workout that is leading to discouragement. Someone who gets discouraged likely thinks a bad workout means...

"I am not in shape"

"I must be training wrong"

"I need to do more" "I need to do less"

"I must not have bad workouts"

"If I have bad workouts I suck" or ..."I am not as good as Joe Shmo"

and of course much of what people have said in previous responses would be evidence that contradicts the logic behind the type of thoughts above. ie. one workout does not mean you are out of shape, one bad workout does not mean your training is wrong. Many people have bad workouts so why not you.

What I have learned is you can have a bad workout, even have some of these more irrational thoughts that lead to being discouraged for a day. Where athletes get into trouble if the thoughts persist over the course of days and lead to efforts to make unnecessary changes in your training, such as running your next run harder than is called for. It helps to have more flexible goals going into a workout, if I am supposed to hit 2:20 for 800, anywhere from 2:18-2:23 is likely acceptable and no need to panic if I don't hit 2:20. Developing positive self-talk that gives you something to use after a bad workout, "trust your training" "one workout doesn't make or break a season" etc.

All that being said, if you have weeks of bad workouts, then it is time to consider maybe I need to consider there is a problem I need to address.

Keep the following in mind.

No one ever won a medal in a workout.

Reflecting on this topic, when I was racing well in college, I routinely had "bad" workouts, or workouts that I couldn't complete the target number of reps or paces. I ran well when it counted, during races, and that was all that mattered.

... ... .. wrote:

Metric Miler wrote:

I agree with this.

One thing I read about El Guerrouj that I thought was pretty crazy was that if he didnt hit his targets in a workout, then he would repeat it the next day.

Could you possibly remember a spurce for this? I believe you but I'm curious how he would do this.

Would he just stop and have an easy day after 2 pr 3 repeats off target? Or run the whole workout 2 days in a row?

"When El Guerrouj can not finish a certain training session, he repeats the workout the following day, instead of seeking a different solution"

EL G was a druggy piece of $$$$$hit. Hit training should be disregarded and thrown in the trash.

Stop racing your workouts.

Training results are not straight line linear. There are ups and downs. Training itself is a long-term process so you cannot look workout to workout, week to week -- that's short term. You have been doing the same workout for 3 weeks the body gets accustomed to that specific workout. When you change up to 400s, it's not accustomed to it, so it feels harder. That's why you should do a variety of workouts even though it's harder to chart progress that way.