Days 214 & 217: Back to progressive runs! YAY!

I admit it, I had a couple of days of a breakdown where I couldn’t make my time or my mind for running. Or yoga. Or anything, really. But yesterday was a breakthrough, I went for yoga and I had a great run, and my mood got lifted a lot. So glad I am back to my old running joy.

It took a change of the mindset.

Day 214: Monday Planning Fail

On Monday, I had very little time, but I was determined to get my run nevertheless.
I planned that, if I come home and cook directly afterwards, I would have about 1.5 hours before going to run, showering and heading out. This plan got shifted because I had to do some overtime and arrived home 45 minutes later than expected. I set off to cook nevertheless, ate my dinner, changed to running clothes, and started to buzz around in the flat while waiting for my stomach to settle.

Of course, 45 minutes later – at my pre-planned running time – I still felt pretty full and not running-ready. I gave myself another 15 minutes, but things didn’t go any better. Faced with a difficult decision: wait longer, run, and be late for the appointment in the evening, or skip the run completely, or go regardless of anything, I went with the last option.
It wasn’t the smartest.

The run was horrid and difficult, and my stomach was bugging me all the time. It was supposed to be a progressive run, but speeding up was not an option, and I had to walk sometimes. Seeing how slow and generally meh-ish it was going, I decided to stop after a 5k and went home kind of disheartened. At least I took it back by some dancing later that evening.

Day 217: Thursday’s 7k

Now, this run was a completely other story! If I am to be honest, I didn’t feel like going for a run, and I already took an extra day break. Things were looking generally bleak. Fortunately, I went for a yoga class with the goal of running afterwards. It meant that I didn’t have to go for a run, but go for a yoga; and that was the first change of my mindset required to get me back on my track.

Yoga went great. There weren’t many people at the studio, and the poses went smoothly for me that day. After that, I put on my Fribourg running cap, which was completely unnecessary by this point in the evening, and set off to attempt another progressive run.

I don’t know if I had negative splits and how progressive it really was. But it didn’t matter.
I started off very slow, and I was thinking of how to time the pace throughout the run. And then, the second mindset change happened. I decided it doesn’t matter, really. Or maybe it does, probably it does from the training perspective, but… I have no Garmin. I use the simple asics app for android, which provides no information on splits. I decided to just go with my gut feeling, and it felt really good. The last km I was huffing and puffing like a steam engine, but I was able to uphold a very fast pace.

I am back in my groove now and I can’t wait for today’s progressive run!