Are you feeling defeated in training, or are you feeling defeated in training despite small successes? Do you feel like you’ve been stuck at a certain pace, or that you’re getting slower rather than faster? Let’s say that you’ve accepted that things are new: training, an uptick in training, or how you’re training, but you’re finding it hard to stay motivated and you can’t quit negative self-talk. What can you do? It’s totally normal to feel defeated at times in your training, but you can’t let that take up the majority of your thoughts or how you consider your evolution. There are a few things you should keep in mind and some questions that you should ask yourself:

1) Prior to you feeling tired, to your run feeling “less than,” or in your pace slowing, what was your training like? Oftentimes we don’t give ourselves enough credit when it comes to the work we’ve done, and in the variance in work not involving running, expecting that we should be “healed” or “ready” or “evolving” when we think we should. To think this way aims, simply speaking, to satisfy an idea we’ve created in mind, rather than what is actual and acknowledging what our body and mind really need. Let’s say you’ve done a good amount of training leading up to the feeling of stagnancy or decline, you should be aware that training will not always operate by way of a steady climb, but in waves, and if you’ve up until now been riding a high, it only makes sense for the lull to rear its head for a bit. Let’s say prior to, you had the best run yet, the longest run yet, the most consecutive days run yet – all of this should be taken into account in reasoning why you might be feeling “less than,” or “slower” currently.

2) How recovered are you? Another reason for stagnancy might be that you’re not fully recovered from previous training. If you’re new to running, it takes an inordinate amount of time to find that good groove of how many days on, how many days off, how many workouts a week, or how many hours spent on your feet, how much time spent training in combination with your family/personal/work routine, or how much refueling is needed. All of these are viable reasons why recovery may not have been met, or a state of stagnancy might exist.

3) How easy have you taken your “easy” days? Please note that it doesn’t matter how easy you think you’ve taken your training, your body might be following a different story’s plot line. A lot of times our own athletes, before a group run, will say, “I’m taking it easy today, I don’t want to go over x:xx pace or x distance,” and will dismiss this acknowledgement, going out further or faster than planned. In doing so, they make an “easy” run into a medium-effort or harder effort run (be it from excitement in running with company, heated topics mid-run, feeling good that day, etc.). And this is the key part, where you have to train the brain – a lot of times when a runner sets out to have an “easy” day, and does not in fact take it “easy,” they’ll still consider it an “easy” day anyway. They’ll likely still mark it down as being such. This is a disservice to you. In considering it an “easy” day, despite what was actual, you’re training your brain to look at your training as easy v. hard. But in reality, there are easy, medium, hard, harder, complicated, sick, hungry days and all of them deserve recognition instead of a clean sweep of pre-planned outcomes.

4) How realistic are your expectations? Your expectations might be, “I should be able to bounce back from this,” “I should be fine,” “I should be getting faster,” when in reality, everyone responds differently to training, and these expectations might not be coming from a place of sound and individual bodily knowledge, but of comparison. Perhaps you should aim to redefine goals or the language you use about yourself in order to make more lasting goals which fuel you in the journey, and can’t be used as quick moves to undermine or second guess what you’ve done. Some examples of healthy goals might be: I want to increase my endurance. I want to have more energy. I want to be active with my kids. I want to rely less on my inhaler. I want to decrease my anxiety. I want to increase my confidence. All of these are really powerful goals, and goals which aim to build you up and keep you believing in the bigger picture, over focusing on the changes in the day to day, run to run, or feeling to feeling. Staying alert to the more immediate changes is also important, but not to the detriment of your development. We as a society have really tried to emphasize the importance of presence and living in and celebrating the moment, but if it’s creating stress in making each moment perfect or upwards and onwards, you should broaden the reach and look at the bigger picture.

Be patient with yourself and remember that while you are going through changes mentally, your body is going through changes physically. Do whatever you can to get out of your own head if you’re negative or feeling stagnant. Believe in consistency and in your progress. Give yourself a little more grace. You have to step back and look at the big picture and you can’t judge yourself on each run. One thing you might find helpful is putting up positive reminders around your home (on mirrors, in the kitchen, at your desk). These positive reminders might include commentary on who you are and what you’re doing (i.e. strong, determined, improving). If you ever have questions regarding your training or would like some advice on empowering yourself or feeling good about your training, please reach out or email us at bellinghamdistanceproject@gmail.com.