It's mental

Hello and welcome back to Tobias Talks

Continuing on from last week's blog, I went for a run on Tuesday as planned, including the warm up, I was moving for 30 minutes at an average pace of 07:44/km. Not including the warm up and cool down, that was an average pace of just under 07:00/km which I'm taking as a huge success. Frankly, I hadn't really taken notice of that run until I came to write today's blog almost a week later. But that was one of my most successful runs to date. I just wish I knew what I did right! Next time I will take advantage of the "Notes" section in the Garmin Connect app to give myself some more insight. I think it was just a case of running calm and easy. I was being gentle on my body after an indulgent weekend and easing myself into it and maybe that's the secret.

For the rest of the week, I also ran on the 3rd, 5th and today, the 7th. My run on the 3rd felt like an absolute failure at the time, I had attempted to set a new PB for a 5k and started off way too fast and ended up too tired to finish, having covered 3.37km in 23:42. That's an average pace of 07:00/km which isn't too shabby. I was particularly happy with my Saturday long run, the plan was a 5 minute warm-up, a 50 minute run followed with a 5 minute cool down. So after an hours effort I had covered 7.5km. Not a great pace for an experienced runner but I have only been running for about a month now so I'm happy with that.

I have to learn to be kinder to myself, both during and after a run. Immediately after a run I always feel like a failure, but on reflection I'm normally pretty happy with what I've accomplished.

It seems so contradictory, today I woke up early, got straight out of bed, got in my running gear and went out running, following the plan set out by my Garmin watch and yet I still felt like a failure. I know i'm not the first to say it, but running is such a mental battle. Maybe I could have ran harder, maybe I had another 5 minutes in me, or maybe even just an extra 30 seconds. That's why this stings. I know it's mental, I know the difference in my results rests on my ability to maintain my emotional state, to keep optimistic and hopeful.

It worries me for the future as it's going to be ten times harder when I'm running the half-marathon I have planned. But all I can do is trust the process, be aware of my progress and keep pushing. It's all progress.

The plan is still the plan, that is, I will follow the Garmin training plan for the rest of the week. I have another "easy run" tomorrow morning, my plan is to just run easy for the designated time, without consideration for the pace. A nice and easy run. Wish me luck!

Your friend, Tobias