Running & Sticking with It By Verity Wright @
www.runverity.com
Running can sometimes be a difficult journey and one of the things that we must accept as runners, regardless of where you are on your journey, is that at times running can be hard, there will be ups and downs in your training, you can’t feel fantastic with every run that you do and you can’t always achieve a PB in every race that you run. You will experience a “plateau” where it just seems impossible to improve on your times and you may experience such negativity that you simply can’t summon up the energy to get out of the front door and what can make this worse is watching everyone else’s success displayed all over social media. How do you stick with it when it becomes hard?
Ups and downs are all natural and part of the journey to progression so try not to be too down about it, lapses are normal so the trick is to make sure they don’t become anything more serious, you don’t want to end up giving up completely.
In my experience, one of the main reasons that people drop out of running is because they don’t think/feel that they are good enough and this can be because they don’t get the results that they hoped for.
The amazing
transformation that people experience when they first learn to run, (do you remember going from 1 minute to running a full 10 minutes within just a few weeks?) can have a profound effect on how they feel when the results don’t come as quickly or as often.
This could be for several reasons, maybe the results that were expected were unrealistic; we are surrounded by running forums where people share their successes and achievements, the medals, the t-shirts, the glory - they make it look easy. This can lead to comparison with others as it makes us question ‘what am I doing wrong’? when the usual 3-mile route hurts like hell.
Top Tips •
Sort your running clothes out - donate or throw away kit that you haven’t worn for 3 months and wear the kit that makes you feel good.
• Do a base line assessment of where you are right now, this may be a parkrun; don’t kill yourself getting around, but run comfortably, finish and record it. What would you like to achieve now and how do you get there?
• How stressed are you? The body can only cope with a certain amount of stress, so don’t expect it to perform if you are experiencing stress at home and work. Don’t underestimate how much stress can affect your running. Make sure you are getting enough sleep and rest; rest days are all part of the training plan
• Are you eating enough? We can be obsessed with how we look and how much food we eat but really ask yourself, are you getting enough calories in to fuel your body?
• Do you have low iron levels? Female runners are particularly at risk, so go and get checked out.
• Are you dehydrated. We can get caught up with not drinking enough during the day but being dehydrated can make you feel tired and sluggish - aim for your urine to be a pale straw colour.
• No Pace Variety. We tend to do most of our training at the same pace. Sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone, use your next run to do a bit of fartlek training, this will help you feel a faster pace in a non-race situation. You can walk, run and then sprint between trees, lampposts, benches, you decide the distance and you will experience a different pace over a short period of time and it will make your run more interesting as well as it being good fun.
Please mention thewire when responding to adverts
65
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
