Learning from workouts that go bad.

I have tried to live my life without making excuses, but today, I really needed to step back and try to learn from a bad run.

I woke up this morning a little before 730. Pretty late start for me on Saturdays since that is my long run day and I have no business training in this south Texas heat.  I ate my typicl long run breakfast which consisys of a whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter and sugar free preserves. I then waited a couple of hours before I drove off to mark a 7 mile course that would end at a park where my nephew was playing a soccer game.  I then started my run. I started off way to fast. My long run pace is supposed to be from 10:40-11:05. At times the Garmin read 8:40. I guess the speed work has been working a little too well. I kept slowing down and finished the 1st mile at 10:05. The next 2 miles were about the same. Then things went south drastically. At mile 5 I started walking. I told myself I would treat it as if I was walking a water station. Some of the last 2 mile had been more than a 12 min pace. I felt terrible and then realized at about 53 minutes that I hadnt taken in any nutrition since my 730 breakfast. I never could get myself to start running again and I was extremely upset with myself. I watched the soccer game then went home.

After thinking for a while, I knew I had to get some good out of the bad training I had. What could I learn from this. I sat down and made the following list.

1. First and foremost, I need to hydrate better. I have not been hydrating very good at all during the week. I drank about 32 ounces of water before I left. I should have hydrated more yesterday.

2. Rest is so important. I just dont know what to do about this though. I am a football coach and our district game last night was in San Antonio 2.5 hours away. I got to bed after 230 and no tellingwhen I finally fell asleep. I know the exaustion from the game and the lack of sleep didnt help matters.

3. I really have to get a set nutrition plan down. A better breakfast and remembering to get in nutrition is new to me. I need to research more and experiment more. All suggestions will be considered from all of you old pros. I hear lots of talk about endurolytes. Help me out with those please.

4. Now there is the running in heat. This will not be avoided considering the climate I live in. I sm used to the heat for the most part. I could drfinately start my run at 630 as opposed to 930, especiallyu when these runs get longer. But once I get a solid nutrition plan in, I think I will feel better running in the heat.

These are just some of the things I think i learned more about with my bad run and things I definately need to work on. If any of you have any other suggestions or advice, please do not hesitate to give me your 2 cents worth. I know it will be invaluable knowlege for me.

Thanks and get out there and Dare Greatly!

Plus, sometimes there isn't a reason you can put your finger on and it just plain sucks.  Our bodies are what they are and we can only work with them as they will.

I also know that rest is a big thing.  When I'm tired, the body doesn't cooperate very well.  My run went fine yesterday, but I slept for 8 hours (not my norm).

Be patient with yourself and don't be upset when you have a bad run.  They happen sometimes.

Linn

I had a lesson to learn today from my long run.  I had 10 miles on the agenda today.  I woke up and it's raining.  I didn't feel like running in the rain so I switched my plan to run indoors instead.  Last weeks run was 9 miles.  And there are 5 weeks until my half marathon.

First - I learned that I really need to rest a bit more the day before.  I think I would have been fine if I hadn't had that second late workout -- I did a 7 mile bike ride in the morning for about an hour.  Then I was signed up for a 3 mile walk that night to support the leukemia society which I wasn't expecting.  It was a sllooowww walk but 3 miles and it took over an hour.  So first lesson -- don't overdo the day before as I was already sore.

Second - fuelling!  I ate fine yesterday -- if I hadn't been doing a long run today.  Yesterday I had a grilled chicken salad from McDonalds for lunch and ended up having a grilled chicken salad from Wendy's for dinner.  Good solid choices for a bandster.  But not for a bandster doing training as there were really no good carbs yesterday to help fuel me today.  I need to work on making sure I have a few more carbs on the day before my long runs.

Third -- I already know this - but it just reinforces it.  It's okay to have an off week.  Since I have 5 weeks left and I have some leeway of how high I'll get my mileage up to - I'll do 10 miles next week and treat this week as a taperoff week since I only made it 7.5 miles this week.

Here's to our lessons learned this week and having a better run next week!