QT: Disappointing Training Runs Still Move Your Fitness Forward

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How nice would it be if every training run went perfectly according to plan?

The legs always felt good.

Your mental game was always dialed in.

And the miles just ticked by one after the other.

Sadly, here in the real world, that just isn’t the reality.

An Inconvenient Truth

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have too many runs that are more or less perfect.

Thankfully, I don’t have too many disappointing training runs either.

Most of my runs are somewhere in the middle, more or less fine but that’s about it.

If I’m honest, however?

I’d say I have more disappointing training runs than amazing training runs.

Especially when it comes to my long runs.

The good news?

Those disappointing training runs still count.

Case in Point…

When I was checking in with the athletes I coach this week, I got to one particular runner who has been working through a bit of a rough patch lately.

I’ll spare you all of her pertinent details, in large part because they are none of your business, but she’s been struggling with feeling good about her long runs over the past month or so.

But last week?

She absolutely hit it out of the park with her long run.

A big part of her great run came down to setting herself up for success before she started.

She also caught a bit of a break with the weather, which was a bit less oppressively hot/humid than it had been previously.

But one thing I pointed out, that I think is easy to miss, is that her disappointing long runs of the previous few weeks still moved her fitness forward.

Time On Feet Matters

At the end of the day, disappointing training runs are going to happen to all of us on occasion.

Maybe it’s a long run that goes sideways. A speed workout where you just can’t find that extra gear. An easy run that you can’t keep easy, no matter how much you try to slow down.

When it comes to building our fitness, one of the best things we can do is accumulate time on feet.

Ultra runners seem to be ahead of road runners on this front, but it’s true no matter what type of running/racing you do.

A run that is disappointing, for any number of possible reasons, is still going to move your fitness forward.

Does knowing that make it easier to shrug off disappointing training runs as simply part of the process?

Probably not.

But the next time you have a rough day at the running office, hopefully you’ll remember that progress was made even if it wasn’t as amazing of a run as you hoped it would be.

Disappointing training runs are a bummer, but they still move the needle on your fitness. #runchat Share on X

How Do You Do You React to the Inevitable Disappointing Run?

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