I often hear runners talk about having bad training runs.  In my mind there is no such thing as a bad run.

In most cases, when people talk about bad runs, they are referencing runs that didn’t meet their preconceived expectations.  Therein lies the problem.  Where do these preconceived expectations come from?  When you start a run, you have no idea how your body will react.  If your body is tired or fatigued, then you need to accept that, and let go of your expectations.

This morning, my run was one of those runs, where my legs just felt ‘dead’ for the whole run.  I had a 50 minute run, with the final thirty minutes including a 10 second sprint, every minute.  When it came to doing those sprints, it was almost painful to get my legs going at a high turnover.  I can’t say that I ever really ‘sprinted”; I just ran a little faster.

When I finished the run, I was actually quite pleased.  Instead of beating myself up for having a ‘bad run’, I was telling myself that I had actually had a huge mental win.  It would have been so easy to quit doing those sprints, but I did them all and today, that in itself, was a win.

My legs were dead because I think I am just fatigued from the stress of work these past few days.  Add in the fact that the temperature was below freezing, with some snow on the ground, and I am not at all surprised with how my run went.  

What I had today was a tough run, not a “bad run”.  We all have them and it is how you react to them that matters.  Don’t beat yourself up; take what you did as a ‘win’ and move on.